From another time, I guess there are still lifeboats, but not like there were in those days where there were rescue, what do they call them? You know, like at the, on the shore, there would be, Yeah, rescue stations. There's one down at the Outer Banks. They made a restaurant out of it, the one where the Wright brothers actually telegraphed that they had successfully completed their first flight. It was a rescue center there, whatever you would call it. I can't remember right off the top of my head now. But anyway, they made it into the restaurant and you can eat there. and be right there in that place where they made their famous announcement. But anyway, that's what that song is about, but it does remind us of our responsibility throughout the spiritual lifeline of the gospel. And that's what we're thinking about tonight, fulfilling the Great Commission as we're studying the life of Paul. And we are in the midst of Paul's first missionary journey. We're actually winding down our thoughts about Paul's first missionary journey. And I want to focus in on two verses tonight. Let's take a moment and let's, first of all, let's look at the journey. And then we'll read the text, and we'll go from there. But Paul's first missionary journey began in Syrian Antioch. and he traveled 16 miles southwest to Seleucia, where he boarded ship, and then 90 miles southwest to the island of Cyprus, landed at Salamis, preached the gospel there, then made his way across the island to Paphos, where he preached the gospel as well, and it was there that he encountered one of the Roman officials. Can anybody tell me what his name was? Sergius Paulus. And he also encountered opposition in the form of a man named, oh man, it's right there on the tip of your tongue and you just can't call it, Elimus or Simon Bargesis. We noted, maybe this will be a memory aid to you, we noted the fact just maybe in passing that his, His name is Simon Bar, means son of, so he was known as Simon, son of Jesus, but he was not Simon, he was not the son of Jesus, he was the son of Satan. He was a tool of Satan, certainly. He opposed Paul and Barnabas and their ministry and tried to dissuade Sergius Paulus from receiving Christ, but Paul pronounced a curse on him, he was blinded, and Sergius Paulus got saved. But from there he made his way. Again, it's about 90 miles from what I understand from Paphos northwest to Perga, where he landed on the mainland and then made his way up to Pisidian Antioch. And in doing that, he went up about 3,600 feet in elevation. Very dangerous and difficult journey from Perga to Pisidian Antioch. But there he preached the gospel. Some Jews got saved. Many resisted. And so Paul rebuked them for their unbelief using the words of Isaiah. And then he turned to the Gentiles and they received the word gladly. But then the Jews stirred up the devout and honorable women and the chief men of the city and raised the persecution against Paul and Barnabas and drove them out of town. And so then they went to Iconium. where again, they, a few of the, they preached in the synagogue, a few of the Jews got saved, many more Gentiles, there was opposition, they were going to stone Paul there, and Paul got wind of it, Paul and Barnabas, and so they fled and went to Lystra, again, about the same results in Lystra, although it was there that they tried to worship them, believing they were the gods that had come because Paul had healed a man that had been born lame, But at Lystra, the people from Antioch and Iconium actually made the journey to Lystra following Paul and Barnabas and caught Paul and stoned him and left him for dead. But he rose up from that, whether he was actually dead or just very unconscious, but God worked a miracle, raised him up, and the next day he went to Derby. And so, verse 21, let's just pick it up there. In Acts chapter 14, verse 21, it tells us that when they had preached the gospel to that city, that is to Derbe, and had taught many, they returned again to Lystra and to Iconium and Antioch, confirming the souls of the disciples and exhorting them to continue in the faith and that we must, through much tribulation, enter into the kingdom of God. And when they had ordained them elders in every church and had prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord on whom they believed. And after they had passed throughout Pisidia, they came to Pamphylia. And when they had preached the word in Perga, they went down into Italia and from Thentzel to Antioch from once they had been recommended to the grace of God for the work which they fulfilled. And when they were calm and had gathered the church together, they rehearsed all that God had done with them. and how he had opened the door of faith unto the Gentiles, and there they abode a long time with the disciples. I wanna focus in tonight and next Wednesday night on verses 21 and 22, and particularly a statement that is made in verse 21. And let me introduce the message tonight by asking this question. What does the Great Commission commission us to do? What are we being told in the Great Commission to do? Okay, preach the gospel to every living creature, preach. Okay. Well, let's remind ourselves. Let me just read you, we could probably quote it, but the Great Commission is included in Matthew and Mark and Luke, and in a form in John, and then again in Acts. But Matthew 28, 18 through 20 is the one that's most familiar to us, next to Acts 1A. But it says, Jesus came and spake unto them, to the disciples saying, all power, and that is all authority, is given unto me in heaven and on earth. Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. And again, in Mark 16, 15, it says, go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. So the Great Commission sends us out under the authority of Jesus Christ to all the nations of the world to proclaim to them the gospel, and then to baptize them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost, baptizing them in the name of the Trinity, and then teaching them to obey the commands of Christ. Really, the Great Commission is threefold. And many times we focus in on just that first part to preach the gospel to every creature. But that's only a part of it as it's given in Matthew 28, baptizing them and then teaching them. And literally, as someone did say, but I kind of left it off because I wanted to focus in on it here. It's when it says in Matthew 28 that we are to teach all nations, Literally, what that statement reads is, make disciples of all nations. So we are making disciples. When we fulfill the Great Commission, our task and our goal is not just to get people delivered from hell. So that is certainly an important part of it. But it is more than that. And we haven't, when we have led somebody to put their faith in Christ, or we've shared the gospel with them, and they respond by trusting Christ as their savior, we're not done. We've only begun the work. We would never think of, you know, a child being born, a baby being born, and then just leave that baby to fend for itself. It would not survive. it would literally die if nobody takes care of it and nobody nurtures it and nobody helps it, that baby would die. And if somebody is truly born again, you know, they're not going to die and they have the Holy Spirit indwelling them now who will work in their life. But God also gives the church, the people of the church, the responsibility of taking those new believers under their wing, as it were, and nurturing them and, and guiding them and discipling them. And that's all a part of it. And as I was reading again, this account of Paul's journey, and I read in verse 21, that when they had preached the gospel to that city and they had taught many, it just struck me as the fact that Paul and Barnabas were, were carrying out the great commission. They were fulfilling the great commission. The one thing that is left out here, but we know from other passages that Paul did baptize, or it's also interesting that Paul wasn't the one usually who did the baptizing. When he's writing to the church at Corinth, he said, I didn't baptize many of you, just a few of you. And he named some, his, you know, Timothy or Barnabas or Silas or others who were the for whatever reason, were the ones that primarily did the baptizing. Paul was the main preacher of the gospel, but it doesn't tell us here specifically that they baptized them, but the natural assumption would be that they did. When they preached the gospel and these people received Christ, they were also baptized. And so, but he also, they didn't just preach the gospel. And what they did at Berea, as it tells us in verse 21, they would have done in all these cities. Not only do they preach the gospel, but they also teach them. And the word taught is the word for disciple. That they led them to Christ and then they discipled them. And so they're fulfilling the great commission. And so as we look at this tonight and next Wednesday night, I want to challenge you. I have been challenged, but I want to challenge you to do your part in fulfilling the Great Commission, which again is twofold or threefold. But we'll focus in on the two statements that are made. They preach the gospel and they taught many. And tonight, I just want to think about that first aspect of the Great Commission, preaching the gospel. What is the gospel? Literally, the word gospel means good news. Paul wrote to the Corinthian church that the gospel is that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, that he was buried and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures, that the gospel was prophesied in the Old Testament and fulfilled in Christ in the New Testament. But it's good news. In Luke chapter two, we're moving on towards the Christmas season. Be here before we know it. But as the angel appeared to the shepherds, the angel said to them, fear not, for behold, I bring you the gospel. I bring you good tidings. of great joy. I bring you the gospel. That's the word. Good tidings of great joy which shall be unto all people. And what is that good tidings of great joy which is for everybody? What is it? Well, unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. Here's the good news. Here's the gospel that can bring joy to all people that a Savior is born. One who would deliver us from our sin. One who would deliver us not only from the penalty of sin, death and hell forever, but one who has been given to deliver us from sin daily in our lives and the consequences of sin that come when we are disobedient to God. And by the power of God, through the new birth that we have in Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit that indwells us, we have deliverance from sin. When the angel announced to Joseph that Jesus was going to be born, that Mary was gonna have a child, that the child had been conceived of the Holy Ghost, his name was to be called Jesus, the angel said, for he shall save his people from their sins, plural, that he was sent to deliver men from their sins. So again, the gospel is not just delivering us from hell, but then learning to live in the power of God daily with victory over the sins that had beset us before and dominated our life and were bringing ruin and consequences to us. And through the Lord Jesus Christ, we are delivered from that. And every one of us today, if God would show us our life, if you know Christ as Savior and God could show you what your life would have been without Him, it would not be pretty. where you would be today after all these years of living without Christ in sin, you would be reaping the consequences of sins that you have been delivered from by the power of God. And I understand that even as a Christian that we still are not absolutely holy, that we still do sin, and we do sometimes face the consequences of those sins. But our life is not what it would be apart from Christ. And it is good tidings of great joy that a Savior is born. And because it was a message to Jewish shepherds, it was also noted that this is the Christ, the Messiah, Jehovah of the Old Testament. That's the one who is the Savior, that the Savior is none other than God come in the flesh. And so the gospel is good news and it is through the gospel that God saves souls. Paul said, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth. To the Jew first and also to the Greek for therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith as it is written, the just shall live by faith. Paul said the gospel is the power of God unto salvation because it reveals the righteousness of God and later on, In the book of Romans, he would contrast the righteousness of man versus the righteousness of God, and particularly as he's writing about the Jewish people, how they were trying to earn their salvation through their own righteousness, their own works, which would never earn them salvation, that the salvation they needed, the righteousness they needed was the righteousness of God that was imputed to them when they believed on Jesus Christ. It's the same message we proclaim today, that you cannot be saved by your own works. You cannot ever be righteous in the sight of God through what you do. But there is a righteousness of God that comes by faith in Jesus Christ. So that when we acknowledge our sin and believe on Christ as our savior, the righteousness of Jesus Christ, his absolute sinlessness is imputed to us. It is given to us so that when God looks upon us who have believed on Christ, he sees us as absolutely holy because he sees us clothed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. And then for the rest of our earthly lives, he is working to make that righteousness a reality in our lives. And as we walk faithfully with him and submit to him, we become more and more righteous and holy, more and more like the Lord Jesus Christ. And so Peter would write that we were born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man is the flower of grass. The grass withereth, the flower thereof falleth away, but the word of the Lord endureth forever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you." The gospel is in the Bible. They said, we preached the gospel to you. We gave you the word of God and you believed the message of the gospel. You believed on Jesus Christ and you were saved. And so it is good news. It is life transforming news, but it must be proclaimed. And we are all called upon to be witnesses for Christ. The Great Commission is for every believer. We have been entrusted, if we know Christ as Savior, we have been entrusted with the gospel. We are stewards of that good news. In 1 Thessalonians 2 and verse 4, Paul wrote, as we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel, even so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God which trieth our hearts. He said, we don't concern ourselves with what men think about our preaching, our message, but we have been put in trust by God with the gospel. God, and the word trust there is the idea of faithfulness. God has given us the gospel and he expects us to be faithful. with that gospel that he's given to us. And so we proclaim it faithfully as we have received it from God, whether it's pleasing to men or not, because God is the one to whom we give account for what we have said, the message we have proclaimed. And so we see the early church preaching the gospel And not just the apostles or the church leaders, but we have this precedent in the early church of all believers spreading the gospel. Turn with me and just look at these passages. In Acts chapter eight, and I'm sure you're familiar with these, there's nothing, I'm not telling you anything new tonight, but it might be good to remind ourselves that it's been good for me to review this and to be reminded of this myself. And looking at the scriptures But in Acts chapter 8, chapter 7 is the stoning of Stephen. Chapter 8, then we're introduced to Saul. Actually, the latter part of chapter 7, where those that were stoning Stephen laid their coats at the feet of a man whose name was Saul. In chapter 8 in verse 1, Saul was consenting unto Stephen's death, and at that time there was a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem, and they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, and it is noteworthy that except the apostles. These weren't the ones who were predominantly the preachers at that point. And we read, if you drop down to verse four, we read, therefore, they that were scattered abroad, now who were they? They were everybody but the apostles. They that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word. The ones that we typically think of as the preachers stayed back in Jerusalem. It was the church members who were scattered, fleeing persecution, but everywhere they went, they preached the word. They told people the good news of the gospel. And people got saved. And we read next about Philip preaching in Samaria and people getting saved there. And we go on and we read, again, I think it's in chapter 11, we encounter some of these same people. And chapter 11, verse 19, they which were scattered abroad upon the persecution that arose about Stephen, traveled as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, preaching the word to none but Jews only. And some of them were men of Cyprus and Cyrene, which when they were come to Antioch, spake unto the Grecians, preaching the Lord Jesus. And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number believed and turned unto the Lord." And so God was using these laymen, if you will, if we can use that terminology and understand there's really no difference between a pastor and an average church member other than calling. We all have the same standing before God. We just have different callings. but we've all been called to be his witnesses, to share the gospel with the people that we encounter. And God will bless that and use it to the salvation of souls. And so when Paul wrote to the Philippian church in Philippians chapter one, beginning in verse three, he says, I thank my God upon every remembrance of you always in every prayer of mine for you all making requests with joy for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now. He said, I rejoice that you, the word fellowship means to have in common, it means to participate together in something. And he said, I'm thankful for your fellowship, for your participation in the gospel. From the very first day that I preached it and some of you got saved, you immediately joined with me in that ministry of preaching the gospel. Later on, in verse 27 of Philippians 1, he would say, let your conversation, let your lifestyle be as it becometh the gospel of Christ. Live in such a way that you commend the gospel to the people around you, the people in your community, so that they're not turned away from the gospel, but they're actually drawn to it. And Paul says, whether I come and see you or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs that you stand fast in one spirit with one mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel. He said, I wanna know that as a church, you're continuing in that fellowship of the gospel, continuing to spread the gospel and your life bears evidence and testimony to the truth of the gospel and adorns the gospel as he would write to Titus. as opposed to detracting from it. And again, he writes in chapter 4 of Philippians, I beseech Iodias and beseech Syntyche that they be of the same mind in the Lord and I entreat thee also, true yoke fellow, help those women which labored with me in the gospel. Iodias and Syntyche had been workers together with Paul in the gospel. And then he says, with Clement also and with other my fellow laborers whose names are in the book of life. So the precedent that we have and the things that we read in the New Testament is that the gospel was proclaimed by all believers. And so we all have this responsibility to preach the gospel, the good news. And what we read in Acts chapter five and verse 42 is that they preach the gospel daily in the temple and in every house. that there was a public proclamation of the gospel so that we have precedent for when we gather together as a church in our public worship services, we have a precedent of preaching the gospel there, but not only that, but taking it out into the community and giving the gospel to individuals. And let me note this as well. Just follow what I'm saying here. The gospel then needs to be the focus of your life. So what do I mean by that? Well, first of all, let me remind you what Paul said to the Corinthian church, 1 Corinthians 9, beginning of verse 16. He says, though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of. For necessity is laid upon me, yea, woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel. For if I do this thing willingly, I have a reward, but if against my will, a dispensation, a stewardship of the gospel is committed unto me. And so what then is my reward? Verily that when I preach the gospel, I may make the gospel of Christ without charge, that I abuse not my power in the gospel. He said, when I go into a new area and I preach the gospel, he said, first of all, that's what I've been called to do. I don't have a choice in this. I mean, I either do it willingly or unwillingly, but I gotta do it because that's what I've been called to do." And he said, but what is my reward? He said, I just want to preach the gospel without charge. I want to be able to preach the gospel and not charge the people that I'm preaching to. I want them to freely receive the gospel. But he goes on to say this, though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all that I might gain the more. And of the Jews, I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews. And to them that are under the law is under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law. To them that are without law is without law, being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ. That I might gain them that are without law. To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak. I made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. Everything I did was so that I could get the gospel of those who needed it. And so when I was among the Jews, I acted like a Jew. When I was among them that, that were under the law, I lived under the law. I didn't have to do that. I'm free from the law, but I lived under the law because I didn't want to offend them. I don't want to put a stumbling block in their way. I wanted them to be, I want to be able to give them the gospel. and not detract from it. So I did some things that I didn't have to do. I was free, but I did it anyway. And when I went with those that were not under the law, that were without law, the Gentiles, he said, then I didn't keep the law. But he said, and then he adds, being not without law to God, in other words, he's saying, I didn't go out and sin, but I didn't keep the ceremony of the law. I didn't observe the feasts and the holy days and those things, because I'm free from that. When I was with the Jews, I did, so as not to offend them. When I was with the Gentiles, I didn't. When I was with the weak, I made myself weak. I took on their weaknesses. Romans chapter 14 and 15, we didn't all agree on the particulars. Some said you could eat meat, some said not. But Paul said, I made myself weak because I wanted to reach those who are weak. I did all of this that I might further the gospel. Paul was willing to inconvenience himself, do things he didn't have to do, if that would open doors for preaching the gospel, or at least not close doors for preaching the gospel. But he would write again to the Philippian church, let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel. Your life is to commend the gospel. But he also wrote to them, he wrote the book of Philippians, a letter to the Philippian church. He was in jail. He was in prison for preaching the gospel. But he said, I want you to understand brethren that the things which happened to me have fallen out rather under the furtherance of the gospel. He said, even though I am in prison for preaching the gospel, the result of that is that the gospel is spreading. And what I would wanna suggest to you tonight is this, that God, as God directs your life and various things happen in your life, good and bad, that God is orchestrating the circumstances of your life, not only to grow your faith, but also to provide open doors for preaching the gospel. And that we need to be sensitive to that. that when, especially when unusual things happen in our life, you get sick or you have some unexpected, you know, the car breaks down or something tears up in the house or there's a sickness or anything, especially anything that's out of the ordinary. Pay attention, because God may have allowed that to happen in your life because he's going to bring somebody into your life because of that that needs the gospel, and he's giving you the opportunity to give them the gospel. And that may be the very reason why God has allowed it to happen. And you might ask that question, Lord, why does this keep happening to me? Or why is this going on right now? Well, maybe there's somebody you need to reach. And that's why it's happening. All right, I'm going to come back to this in just a minute, and I'm almost done this evening, but I'll come back to this message. I was listening to a message this week, and I'm going to refer to it in the conclusion tonight, but let me just share an illustration with you from it. It was by a pastor whose wife passed away, and I think it may have been cancer, I'm not sure, but anyway, she was having a double lung transplant at some point along the way as she was battling this disease that she had. And he's in the hospital, at the hospital, she's having the surgery, And he said the main waiting room was filled, so he ended up in the pediatric waiting room. And he had young children, and they were with him. But he said there was a family that came in while he was there, and their daughter was going to have tonsillectomy. But as he's there with his kids, and this family of a mom and a dad grandmother and the little girl are in that room, waiting room, it's just them. And the pastor said, as he's telling this story, he said, they had just come and told me that my wife's heart rate, heart was not not even when they had discovered the problem and set up the surgery, he said that her heart had decreased. It wasn't even a third of what it was when they had first found the problem. So he got some bad news, and he said, I did not feel like, all I want to do is be alone. But he said the spirit of God just pricked his heart, and so when that family came in, as he was talking to them, he began to share the gospel, and the focus came on the father, And he said, initially, the father gave some kind of statement that he was saved. But he said, the father and the mother and the little girl went out to get the girl ready for surgery. He said, when they went out, the grandmother said to this pastor, said, my son-in-law is fooling you. He's not saved. She said, I prayed this morning that God would bring somebody in his life today to share the gospel with him. So when that father came back by himself, the mother stayed with the little girl. She continued to get ready for surgery. The father came back by himself, and that pastor got in on him earnest. And he said before it was over with, that man knelt down right there in that waiting room and received Christ as his Savior. And I share that story with you because it illustrates what I'm saying, that there are times when God will bring adverse circumstances into our life because they are doors for preaching the gospel because that is to be a focus of our lives. We are, we have been left here by God after our salvation for among other things, sharing the gospel with those that need to be saved. And I note here, lastly, that the gospel will be resisted. It was, as we've looked at Paul's missionary journey, and everywhere he goes as he's preaching the gospel, on the one hand, there's people getting saved. On the other hand, there's people that are not getting saved and even hostile to the message he's preaching. And we should expect that. That shouldn't stop us from preaching the gospel, from being a witness. We should expect that there are those who are going to oppose it, who are not going to want to hear it, who are not going to receive it, who might even actively oppose us, but we can't quit just because of opposition. As Paul wrote to the Thessalonian church, He said, brethren, you know our entrance into you that it was not in vain, but even after that we had suffered before and were shamefully entreated, as you know, at Philippi, we were bold in our God to speak unto you the gospel of God with much contention. He said, when we came, we shared the gospel with you. We had been persecuted at Philippi, and we were opposed at Thessalonica, but nonetheless, we preached the gospel. And because of that, Paul was in prison. And yet, as he again, as he wrote to the Philippian church, even though he was imprisoned, the gospel was not imprisoned and it was going forward despite his bonds. And so when they had preached the gospel to that city, Derbe, and they had preached the gospel at Lystra, and they had preached the gospel at Iconium, and they had preached the gospel at Antioch, and on the island of Cyprus. Everywhere they went, they're preaching the gospel. That message that I referenced was a message on the parable of the sower, and there was an interesting thought the pastor brought out, and I confess I never thought about it this way, but he emphasized this pretty strongly. You know, the sower went out to sow, and you're familiar with the story, the parable, and he sows, and some of the seed falls on the good, the stony, the, some of it falls on the wayside. The path through the field that had been trod on, walked on so much, it was hard. And some of it fell on the stony ground. There were massive rocks beneath the soil. There was very little soil, and so the seed might germinate and sprout up, but it couldn't really put down deep roots, and so it withered. There was other that was sown among thorns that choked the word so that it wasn't fruitful, and then there was some that was sown on good ground. But the interesting thought that he brought out is when the sower went out to sow the seed, he didn't care where he sowed it. Because back then, they just broadcast it. And it went wherever it went. And he didn't care where it went. He's just sowing the seed. And the point was, we just need to sow the seed. We don't need to worry about where it lands. You know, the type of soil determine the fruitfulness of the seed, but the type of the soil represents the hearts of men. And some men's hearts are hard, and some men's hearts are shallow. They'll make an outward profession of faith, but it's not real, it's not genuine, and as soon as they have to pay a price for their professed faith, they turn away. And some of it is among the thorns, where the seed is there, and their heart is pricked, They get so involved in the things of this life that the seed never actually bears fruit. And some falls on the good ground, the good heart that bears fruit. But in spreading the gospel, you must sow the seed liberally, regardless of the response of the individual. It doesn't matter. I'm not, my concern is not what is the state of their heart? My concern is spread the seed of the word of God. And if it falls on a good, good ground, it'll bear fruit. But if it doesn't, that's not my responsibility. It's not my concern. He's the Lord of the harvest. That's between them and him. What I've been called to do is to spread the gospel and let the seed of the gospel fall where it may and do what God intends for it to do in each and every heart in life. So tonight I don't, I don't know where you are in this thing of preaching the gospel, but I want to ask you to consider making a commitment tonight to be faithful in liberally sowing the seed of the gospel. I'm not going to ask you to make a public commitment tonight, but I'm going to ask you to consider making a commitment in your heart to God. Lord, I need to be faithful. It may begin with Lord, I haven't been faithful. in scattering the seed of the gospel. I've got that gospel and I'm holding it close. I'm holding it tight. I'm saved. I'm thankful for that. I've got the gospel and trust, but I'm not giving it out. And they may have to begin by saying, Lord, forgive me for holding on to something that you gave me to be shared with others. But then would you go a step further and say, now, Lord, help me to be more faithful in actually spreading that gospel, giving it out to those around me that need it, not worrying about how they respond to it, but just giving them that gospel and letting you then take it and use it in their hearts according to your desire for them. Would you make that commitment to him tonight? Let's stand together for prayer. Father, again, we we ask your forgiveness for our unfaithfulness. And we would confess that many times as we have received the gospel and we've embraced it and we know Christ is our Savior. But Lord, we do often cling to that gospel. And we don't share it, we don't give it out. Lord, there are many reasons for that. But there none of them are. are right, and you've called us to be your witnesses. Help us then, Lord, to be faithful to do that, which you've called us to do. Help us to make that kind of a commitment tonight, and then to seek to go out and to live in a way that we would share the gospel and spreading that message of the gospel with those who need to hear. Lord, what wonderful news, what great joy the gospel has brought to us. And there are others who need that message as well, and who would rejoice in time as they receive Christ as Savior. And so, Father, give us that boldness and the heart of faithfulness to be your witnesses. And we pray in Jesus' name, amen.