Anyway, I got the fine for shooting a doe out of season, and my brother paid my fine for me. What about that? He gave me the ticket and then paid the fine. So, anyway, praise the Lord for brothers, but, you know, Christ has paid our fine. But people don't know that. And they don't understand that their lives are hanging over the balance of an eternal separation from the Holy God. And so, Paul says, the love of Christ constrains me. Constrains me. And I think any of us who have a heart for souls and to reach people for Christ, we feel that burden on our hearts. and the desire to get the gospel out. Well, the Great Commission is a great command, is it not? And the Great Commission comes from the Great Commissioner. So, a commissioner is, in principle, a member of a commission or an individual who has been given a commission, an official charge or authority to do something. And so a commission is an instruction, a command or duty given to a person or group of people. And so God has given us that command to make disciples of all nations and to go And it's harder to get a car steered if it's not moving. You ever notice that? It's just sitting there. And especially those of us who are older and we used to drive with no power steering, try to turn the wheels and it's not rolling. It's tough. And so as believers, if we are going in our local church, if we are reaching our Jerusalem, right here, our Judea, our Samaria, then it's much easier for God to move us and direct us into the uttermost parts of the earth. And so, as Acts 1-8 would give us. So anyway, I just appreciate so much those who prayed for me. The scripture's pretty clear that the way missionaries are burdened for the lost is through prayer. pray you the Lord of the harvest that he would send forth labors and so it's interesting that Jesus Christ who gives these kind of commands is the master the Lord over his church he is is proven his divine power through many miracles and signs that he did while he was on this earth. There's no question about it. And for instance, the power over disease, to forgive sin, that only comes from God, that you forgive sin. And we have hospitals everywhere, but we see people dying right and left in them. And, you know, if Christ were here today, He could walk in and clean the whole hospital out. I'm talking about new limbs and everything. I mean, that's His power. Resurrection power. He has the power. We see the miracles in Scripture of His power over nature, where He calms the Sea of Galilee. An unbelievable demonstration of power. And so, the power over evil spirits as He healed those who were full of demons, legions. And look what power he demonstrated in his earthly ministry. And then the fact of raising Lazarus from the dead. Power over death. Who else has that kind of power but God? And so when we have a command from him, we're not talking about a social club. or something that's so easily to be a part of. When you follow Christ, it can mean suffering because there's a cross to bear. It's not gonna be easy. And so, in John 15, 16, he says, you have not chosen me, but I have chosen you. I've chosen you and ordained you that you should go. How about that? Go and bear much fruit. And so as believers, the Lord is asking us to go. Sometimes in some circles of believers, people have the idea that those who go are missionaries. And the rest of us don't have to go. We know that's not a correct viewpoint of Scripture at all, because God has called all of us to be ambassadors for Him, all of us to be obedient children who are willing to follow Christ wherever He leads us. Whether it's to the president, whether it's to the immigrants. Right now, before I left El Paso, there's a lot of Baptist people on the border trying to meet needs of thousands of these immigrants that are in Juarez, trying to get into the United States. There's over 3,000 sleeping on the streets in Juarez. And so they're trying to get food to them. They're trying to get bedding to these people to help them. And these are opportunities to share Christ with the lost. And so we get into John 20, 21, as the Father has sent me. Even so, send I you." Right? And that's me. And so as a young person, I sat there where you are, and I considered these things, and I thought, you know, I can choose my way, or I can allow God to choose for me. And, you know, when we choose our own way, it's not very good. I mean, I ended up in court. And so, you know, praise the Lord. I said, Lord, if you don't want me to hunt anymore, that's it. You know? So, the Lord's good, but we need to consider the fact that God wants us to be fishers of men. And that's the job he's given all of us. And so, in Acts 2-4 it says that the apostles were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak. Okay? They begin to speak. How about that? Well, some say, well, I'm just an introvert. I can't talk. That's what Moses said. Yeah? Moses said something like that. I can't speak, Lord. How about Aaron? Let him do all the talking. And so, as believers, the Lord, when we are full of Christ, when we're full of the Holy Spirit of God, we're going to speak. And so I remember when I was at Ben Lippin in Asheville, they hauled me down to the prison to the jail. And I got locked in jail at 14 years old with prisoners. And one of the brothers that took us down there, he says, okay, Ed, it's your turn. Give your testimony. And I had never given a testimony. at 14. And so I was challenged at a young age to open my mouth and let the Lord fill it. And He did. And so praise God for the ability that He can put the words in our hearts to share the truths of the gospel. And so, In chapter 4 verse 31 of Acts it says that they were filled with the Holy Spirit again and they spake the Word of God with boldness. They spake with boldness. Why can we speak with boldness? Because all power and all authority has been given to us in Christ. We're not just playing with something that's trivial. This is serious, and it has to do with the eternity of men's souls. And so, we speak with authority, because God has given us the authority. And so, anyway. As we talk about going with the gospel, we get to chapter 17 of Acts, and these that have turned the world upside down are coming here also. They've come here too. We've heard about them, but now they're here. As I sat there in Sayaguchi, where we flew over a few minutes ago on the plane, I sat there with Alejandro in his cave, and he says, well, how long have you known about Jesus Christ? And I said, well, I've always known. ever since I was small. Well, how long have your parents known about it? Well, they've always known. Well, why are we just hearing now for the first time? That's what he said. He didn't live much longer after that. He didn't come to Christ either. And a young boy that was about 17 or 18 killed him, took his life, knifed him to death, drank him. So these are sad stories, but praise God for those who come to Christ, who come to life. It's interesting there in Acts 5.32, if you want to turn there. Acts 5.32. And we are his witnesses of these things, and so is also the Holy Ghost, whom God has given to who? Them that what? Obey Him. Okay, just simple, obedience. God gives the Holy Spirit to those who obey Him. We don't obey perfectly, but it's our intent of our hearts to follow Christ. And if we sin, we have an advocate with the Father, we desire to be in proper communication and communion with Christ so we confess our sins. And so it's neat here that God gives the Holy Spirit to those who obey Him. And Hebrews 5, there's a similar verse there. He was 5'9". And being made perfect, he became author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him. That obey him. And so, have we bowed the knee to Christ? And being here, I'd say on Saturday night, probably most of you have. And praise the Lord that we have that kind of loving relationship with Christ. We can bow the knee to Him. And Paul says in Ephesians that he bows the knee to the Lord Jesus Christ. Now in Titus, Titus gives us a revealing verse there also. In the book of Titus, And he says, verse 2, "...in hope of eternal life, which God that cannot lie promised before the world began." And then verse 16, we'll jump over there. I'm jumping around a lot tonight. "...they profess that they know God, but in works they deny Him, being abominable, And what? Disobedient. Disobedient. So the true mark of a believer has to do with obedience. And so, you know, this commission of Jesus Christ, the Lord of heaven and earth, has given to the church. And as a result, true believers have this in their heart. A true New Testament church has missions on its heart and on its mind. And it's something that is put there by the Spirit of the living God because that's what's on God's heart. That's on God's heart. And so there are those who profess to know God but are disobedient. They don't have a world vision. They don't have a vision even in their own Jerusalem. And as far as every good work goes, it's a reprobate. It's unprofitable. And so in Romans 1, if you have the book of Romans there in front of you, it says, in verse 4, "...and declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead, by whom we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith." The book of Romans is the Bible in a nutshell. And so we see the focus here of the Apostle Paul He's focusing right off in the book of Romans about world missions and the obedience of faith amongst all nations. But what is it for? For His name. It's for His name. It's not just so we can have a program. But it's for the fact that people who are lost without Christ do not glorify God. They do not praise God. And it's, by and large, it's just His name is blasphemed amongst the heathen. And so, that's where Paul stands and he has that exhortation to the believers that they would have an obedience of their faith amongst all nations. You know, it's hard to go across the street sometimes. It might be easier to go to Mexico than across the street to Share Christ. But all of us have relatives, we all have those who don't know Christ and it's difficult to work with them and pray for them, being family. But Spurgeon said, have you no desire for others to be saved? Then you're not saved yourself. You know, that's pretty tough, but that's how he saw it. And so as believers, we have the opportunity to grow in Christ and have our vision of what Christ can do in and through us growing. And so in chapter 15 of Romans, Verse 18, For I will not dare to speak of things which Christ hath not wrought by me to make the Gentiles obedient by word and deed, through mighty signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God. So that from Jerusalem and round about Antiochonim, Eurychium, I have fully preached the gospel of Christ. Yea, so have I strived to preach the gospel, not where Christ was named. One of the greatest joys I've had as a missionary as preaching Christ in a place where there was no witness, no Christians. And that is one of the greatest joys I've had. One of the ladies in our church today from Santana on the bottom of the river down there, she said, Ed, before you came, we had no knowledge of who Christ was. We didn't know who He was. And they parade a little doll up and down the street on the first and second of February. It's about this tall, with a white skirt. And that little doll watches over the city and protects them from evil. How about that? And they have to carry this doll up and down the streets, parade this doll around. And when we see that, it causes within our hearts a burning, Lord, what ignorance. Unbelievable ignorance. They believe this. And, you know, if you grew up in that situation without the gospel, it would also be difficult to not have a Bible. And so, people down there didn't have Bibles, and we gave out Bibles. This summer we gave 200 Bibles to the children who came to VBS. Romans 16 verse 19. For your obedience has come abroad unto all men. Boy, isn't that great? Paul said, hey, your obedience has come abroad. We don't even have a need to preach here. Let's move on to a new ground. You know? And so, he ends the book of Romans with the same thought, verse 26 of chapter 16. But now is made manifest by the scriptures of the prophets according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith. So, as believers, we have the opportunity to be a part of the greatest program the universe has ever known. That's carrying the gospel. Wherever the Lord would lead us, we sing that song tonight. Wherever you lead, Lord, I'll go. Are we singing truth? Or are we deceiving ourselves? And so, I'll end with Revelations 3. I would like to look quickly at the Philadelphia church. Why should we consider being obedient to the command of God to go and make disciples? One of the motivations is Daniel 12 says, there's a time of trouble coming on the earth such as never was since there was a nation even to the same time. That's motivation. The Bible says, except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved. That's serious. John 9, verse 4, the Lord says, I must work the works of him that sent me. While it's day, the night comes when no man can work. There's coming a time when you're not going to be able to travel. And hope and pray, that's wherewith the Lord then. But there's coming a severe time on the earth. And so, Matthew 24, the Lord said it this way, For then there shall be great tribulations such as was not since the beginning of the world of this time, nor ever shall be after that. And so, the church of Philadelphia, the church of brotherly love, he says there that, verse 8, I know thy works in chapter 3. Behold, I have set before thee an open door, no man can shut it, for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name. There's an open door. People say, well, I don't want to go to Mexico. There's too much killing and shooting and Chapo Guzman and his crowd. Well, I feel just as safe south of the border as I do up here. Because I'm in the will of God. And so the will of God is the safest place to be. And so there's an open door. Are we going to go through the open door? God says He's got a plan. It's a superior plan. He has all power and authority. And He said true believers show out of their obedience to carry the gospel. Whether it's across the street, or it's across a nation, or across town. That's what we should live for. That's how we glorify Christ, by praising Him here when the doors are open and sharing the gospel when we're outside. Some churches have on over the back door back there, you're now entering your mission field when you leave church. Verse 10, Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I will keep thee from the hour of temptation. or trial, which is coming upon all the world to try to dwell on the earth. So it urges us as we look about and see the condition of our own nation, spiritually, how bankrupt we are, not just economically, but spiritually in America, and that our time could be very short. So may we be serious about carrying out the great commission that God has committed to the church. And so I would leave you with this thought, verse 12. Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go where? No more out. How about that? He don't have to go out anymore. He's now with the Lord. Isn't that wonderful? Those of us who are going all the time, you may be traveling to Africa, you may be going all over the world with the gospel. Wonderful, but the day's coming where we don't have to go out anymore. How about that? It's going to be restful. And we'll be able to enjoy not having to travel so much and wondering what's around the next curve and so forth. Because we've seen shootouts on the highway in Mexico. We're thankful we weren't involved in it, but we've seen them. So the Lord's good. Yeah? We do have a list to sign up back there, those who want to go. But seriously, thank you for praying for us, Grace Fabulous. And the Lord has preserved us. You all saw this Cessna. We had not anticipated having a second airplane. And most of you know we built a plane to fly in Mexico. And this plane, this Cessna, flies quite a bit faster and is a four-seat aircraft. And the Lord provided it for us very inexpensively, but it had a run-out engine. And so the folks in South Carolina that I've known for about 40 years, they said, well, get it out here to us and we'll rebuild the motor. And so we prayed while we were there in Mexico, and these guys rebuilt the engine for us. They went around and raised the funds to do it. How about that? All we did was pray. And it came back a week before we left Mexico to come up here. So that's how the Lord provides. You know, He can provide that way. We don't need airplanes. But if the Lord provides them, maybe he says the hour is shorter than we think. We need to get there a little bit quicker then. Because I've been down in the canyon on burrows. I've gone in and out with burros, and I could give a whole sermon about burros. It's very slow. But the Lord's good, and we just praise Him for His faithfulness. Thank you for praying. And we are seeing young people, children, a lot of these children profess faith in Christ. We trust that they understand. what repentance is, that they're sinners, that Christ wants to give them His imputed righteousness by their faith and trust in Him. And so, you know, I trusted Christ, five years old, through the knowledge that I received in this church, hearing the gospel preached, and I believe that the Lord can save those little children. Suffer the little children to come to me for such is the kingdom of heaven. Not many people want to work with children. They're a tough job. We have lots of young people in our church that don't mind working with kids. They have lots of energy and they like to do it. We just try to guide them and lead them. I don't know if you have questions, feel free to ask them to us later after the service. But believe me, I took the command of God to go seriously. As a young person, it changed the direction of my life. The fact that the Lord wanted to be my master and Lord. And he says to us tonight in Matthew 7, why call you me Lord, Lord? and do not the things that I say. So may the Lord speak to each of our hearts. Only the Holy Spirit can do the work in us and through us. So let's pray. Our Father, we thank you and praise you for your goodness and love. We're unworthy to be your ambassadors, but you have chosen us. And you have cleansed us with your blood. And we thank you and praise you, Lord, that you are the one that is overseeing the Great Commission. And you're calling out young people. to serve you and older folks and middle-aged folks and Lord we thank you for the testimony of my father-in-law who served you after retirement for many years and were such a blessing to missionaries with his gifts of carpentry and we we know that you can still use us that we're not too old and if we're too old to go we know that we can pray and touch the ends of the earth through prayer, because prayer is not restricted to any border, or even North Korea, where it's difficult to get in. We know that we're not restricted in any way, shape, or form through prayer. God can minister and work in those countries on behalf of holding these people up before you. So we thank you tonight. We pray that the fields are widened to harvest and may we lift up our eyes and look on these fields and see that God has a work to accomplish. 1040 window across the whole Middle East area to Asia. We thank you. There's billions of people that live there. They need to hear of Christ, many of whom are dying with no knowledge of Jesus Christ. And thank you for the privilege we have. We would say with Paul in Romans 1, I'm a debtor. Lord, how we owe a debt to get the gospel out because of having received so much at your hand. And we'll thank you in Jesus' name. Amen. So when we think of the Great Commission, let's think of the Great Commissioner. The Lord Jesus Christ is the one who commissions us, and that should motivate us to want to respond to that commission in obedience. Who is the Great Commissioner? He's the Lord of the harvest. He's the Lord of the church. He's the Lord of miracles. He's the Lord of the resurrection. He's the Lord of heaven and earth. And he's commanded us. He told his disciples, follow me and I will make you fishers of men. Are we following him? How far are we willing to follow him? He said, I have chosen you. You did not choose me. but I have chosen you. The rest of that verse says that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you. So he's commanded us to be fruitful. And a big part of that is bearing fruit in terms of our gospel witness. And the Lord said, even so send I you. I've chosen you and I'm sending you. Now, he may send you across the street. He may send you to your co-worker in the office. He may send you to somebody right here as you're ministering here in this church. Or he may send you to the foreign mission field. And are we all willing to go wherever he sends us? That's the question. He said, go and make disciples. And that is the commission that he's given to each one of us as his disciples. Thank you, brother, for sharing that with us tonight. And that was a really special blessing to focus on our Lord as the commissioner.