A Call to Minister

[0:00] All right, that kind of gave you some of the themes that we'll be going over for the next three Sundays, but we're going to start in Philippians chapter one as we study this idea of life on mission, which in reality, according to what we find in the scriptures, is the ultimate walk with Jesus Christ.

[0:18] So as you're finding your place, if you're able to join us in standing, would you join us in standing as we read from Philippians chapter one.

[0:28] Philippians chapter one. We'll be covering various verses throughout Philippians one throughout the next three Sundays. But today we're going to be focusing on verses 15 through 18.

[0:44] So let's begin there and then we'll jump back a little bit in the passage. Philippians chapter one, verse 15. I'm reading from the Christian Standard Bible. To be sure, some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of goodwill.

[1:02] These preach out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel. The others proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, thinking that they will cause me trouble in my imprisonment.

[1:19] But what does it matter? Only that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is proclaimed. And in this, I rejoice.

[1:31] And then let's look back at verse four in Philippians one, verse four. Always praying with joy for all of you in my every prayer because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now.

[1:51] And we pray together. God, I pray that you would bless the reading of your word and the preaching of your word. I pray that you would convict us and show us how we can go on mission for you.

[2:04] It's so easy to wake up knowing that we are your children. We are signed, sealed and yet to be delivered into your presence. But while you still have us on this earth, you have a grand mission for us, for our families, for this church.

[2:25] Pray that you would reveal it to us, God. We'll give you all the glory in Jesus name. Amen. You may be seated. Thank you for standing. I want to talk to you this morning from Philippians chapter one about a call to minister.

[2:40] A call to minister. That is the theme for today. We're talking about ministry. When we use this term ministry, what I'm specifically referring to today is preaching and praying.

[2:54] Preaching and praying. So the ministry of preaching and the ministry of prayer. So when we say there is a call on God, from God, on your life to minister, I'm saying that he is calling you to preach the gospel and he is calling you to pray for the lost.

[3:15] That is how we minister. That is how we minister. The ministry that God has given to us all throughout the scriptures. We learn of this ministry that God has for his people on this earth.

[3:29] Sometimes it's called the ministry of reconciliation, which means reconciling almighty, wonderful, perfect, all powerful, all knowing, all seeing.

[3:39] Good God. To the complete opposite and wicked, fallen, hopeless, dark mankind. How do we reconcile these two opposites with each other?

[3:52] Well, that is the ministry that God has given us to do. So we do it through preaching and through praying. So we're going to begin with the ministry of preaching, the ministry of preaching.

[4:03] Let's look back at Philippians 1 and verse 15. To be sure, some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others preach out of goodwill. These preach out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel.

[4:17] This is a great little nugget from the apostle Paul as he's writing this letter to the church in Philippi. And he says, this is what my life and ministry is all about.

[4:28] This is my career. This is what I have endeavored to do. Paul was walking a completely different road, fighting against Christ, fighting against Christians, literally commissioned by the government to go around and stamp them out, literally put them to death.

[4:45] And God arrested him, got his attention, completely made him do a 180 on his life. And so now he says, this is what my life is now about. My life is now, I am appointed for the defense of the gospel.

[5:01] Paul was going to go just as hard, just as fast, just as all in for the gospel as he was when he opposed it. So he took his ministry seriously.

[5:16] He said, I am appointed for the defense of the gospel. So you know what Paul wasn't? He wasn't distracted.

[5:29] He was laser focused on the grand and greater purpose for his life. That's the hard part for you and for me.

[5:41] It is so easy for us to get distracted. Did you know that I'm a very good driver? Why did y'all start laughing?

[5:53] That hurts a little. I am an excellent driver. I'm purposefully not looking at my wife right now. You know when I'm not a good driver?

[6:06] When I'm... Anybody want to guess? By myself. That was good. Somebody said distracted. Yep. When I'm distracted, that's when I'm not a good driver.

[6:18] When I am focused, when I am lasered in... Man, I'm an excellent driver. You can give me snow, ice, you know, inclement weather, whatever. I will be right there, ready to go, no problems.

[6:30] When I get distracted, I turn into a really bad driver. Just so you're aware, okay? If you ever see my little white car on the road and it's doing something it shouldn't be doing, just know I'm probably distracted in that moment and pray for God to get my attention back on driving.

[6:47] Working on it, okay? Working on it. I'm training, not trying. Yeah, that was a series, a couple of you. Never mind. Thought that might land with some of you, but that's okay.

[6:59] Listen. It is so easy to get distracted in this life, okay? So easy. Number one, there's this thing called spiritual warfare, where God knows that the church has been given this mission, and if you are a part of the church, then the devil and all of his minions are fighting against the mission of our church.

[7:26] He's fighting against the mission that God has for you, and so he's going to do everything he can, not just to make you lose in your mission. It's not necessarily you're in a boxing ring and you're going head to toe with the devil.

[7:39] It's he's trying to distract you from what you're supposed to be doing for God. The devil can't win against God. We get that, right? God is far more powerful. I mean, we could have asked those kids up here the same question.

[7:50] They would know the answer to that. Can the devil win if he fights against God? No, of course he can't win. But what he does is he gets us distracted, those who have already won the victory through Jesus.

[8:01] That's you and me. All he has to do is get us to forget that we've won the victory. It's to get us to focus on all the other things except what God wants us focused on, and he is really good at it.

[8:15] Really, really good at it. And you know what we're really good at? Getting distracted. We're really good at letting him do his job. So Paul was laser focused.

[8:27] So he acknowledged that there's some people out there doing ministry maybe out of impure motives, maybe not the best way. He said, yeah, some people are preaching out of bad motives.

[8:41] But then he goes on to say, the others proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, thinking that they will cause me trouble. See, Paul understood that not everybody out there who was naming the name of Jesus, calling themselves a Christian, and even preaching the gospel was doing it the right way or for the right reasons.

[9:01] He understood that. But ultimately he came to the decision of, what does it matter? That's not usually the conclusion that you and I come to.

[9:15] Usually we get all bent out of shape. Usually we get real distracted and real upset and real pulled off sides, if you watch football, because the opponent is doing something we don't like.

[9:35] Or what's worse, is somebody calling themselves a Christian or a pastor or a preacher is doing something they shouldn't be doing. And we get so twisted up, I can't believe they would do that.

[9:48] That's terrible. And we spend our time and our energies fighting back against that when in reality we should be coming to the same conclusion that Paul did and say, what does it matter?

[10:01] Only that in every way, from false motives or true motives, Christ is proclaimed and in this I rejoice. Paul was laser focused.

[10:15] He could not do the job of the Holy Spirit in everyone else's life, but he did the job that God called him to do. And if the church would buy in to Paul's perspective, this world would be a far less dark place.

[10:34] If the church would buy in to the mission that God has given them and stay undistracted and focused on that mission, then all of a sudden light would be winning more than the dark.

[10:50] And the very things that twist us up and get us pulled off sides would start to lose. Because God will always win.

[11:03] But he chooses to use us. So if God is going to win through us, then we've got to stay laser focused on the mission that God gave to us. So, I want to share this quote with you from a great preacher, Oswald Smith.

[11:17] He said, our work is to preach the gospel and we must not be sidetracked. How many times have we gotten sidetracked in our life from preaching the gospel?

[11:30] You know who loves that? The devil. You know who loves that? The world, the flesh, the devil, all the opposition coming up against us. They love it when we get sidetracked.

[11:43] So our job is to preach the gospel. Well, that gets us to the next question. Who can preach the gospel? Say, you're up there preaching. Why are you telling us that we're supposed to be the ones preaching?

[11:55] Well, that's the question. Who can preach the gospel? Let's go over to 2 Corinthians 5 and verse 18. 2 Corinthians 5 and verse 18.

[12:05] For sake of time, I'm going to go ahead and read. Everything is from God who has reconciled us to himself through Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation.

[12:16] reconciliation. That is, in Christ, everyone... I'm sorry. In Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them.

[12:27] And then, watch this. He has committed the message of reconciliation to us. So God has given us the ministry of reconciliation.

[12:38] He has given us the message of reconciliation. And then in verse 20, it ties it all together. Therefore, we, you and I, written to the church at Corinth, but all the churches that would follow after, of which we are one of those, okay?

[12:52] Verse 20, we are ambassadors for Christ. We are ambassadors for Christ. And then a little bit later, in verse 20, it says, we plead on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God.

[13:08] That is the gospel. That is the message that we are trying to proclaim. That's the message we're trying to propagate. That's the message we're trying to spread everywhere to anybody who will listen.

[13:21] Be reconciled to God. In your sin, you are not reconciled to God. But that's why Jesus died.

[13:33] That's why Jesus rose. And that's the power in the blood of Jesus that can cleanse all of your sins. So then we can go to people and say, be reconciled to God.

[13:45] He made a way to be forgiven. He made a way to stand before God and be clean. That is the gospel. And that's the message that we are given to preach.

[13:59] The only time that we are supposed to preach is not when standing in a pulpit. If that was the only time that we were meant to preach, then God would have never given us the Great Commission.

[14:14] Matthew 28, Mark 16. Different places. Acts chapter 8 and verse 1. All except the apostles were scattered throughout the land preaching the word.

[14:31] Did you see that? Everybody. With the exception of the apostles. The ones who you would think, well, it's their job to do the preaching.

[14:42] Everybody except them were scattered all throughout the land in Acts chapter 8, preaching the word. It is your job and it's my job.

[14:54] It's not my job because I'm a pastor. It's my job to get up here on Sundays and edify the flock of God as the shepherd. But it's all of our jobs to preach the gospel.

[15:06] All of us. So if you're not preaching the gospel, then the mission is not succeeding. If I'm not preaching the gospel, I might get up here and preach on Sundays, but if I'm not out there preaching the gospel, then the mission is not succeeding with me.

[15:25] So all of us are given this mission of preaching the gospel. Every Christian is a preacher. Men, women, children, we're all preachers of the gospel.

[15:39] So let's dive a little bit deeper into this. I want to give you a quote from Greg Laurie. Every Christian is called to preach the gospel. You and I need to take the commission seriously.

[15:50] He's talking about the great commission. Matthew 28. All power is given unto me in heaven and on earth. You go, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.

[16:06] That is a commission from God that we are to be taking seriously every day because every one of us is called to preach the gospel. So what are the types of preaching?

[16:17] What are we talking about when you say preach? Because usually when you say preach, people think, what I'm doing, get up here on Sunday in a church and deliver a sermon, right? Well, there's other ways to preach, okay?

[16:27] So number one, sure, Sunday sermon. Number two, teach a class. Number three, lead a disciple group. Those are starting up on September 8th. What is a D group? That is a group that meets in a home or maybe a room in this church on a day other than Sunday morning, a time other than Sunday morning, and they do life together.

[16:46] They have church and Christian fellowship and community together. It's something that you can invite somebody to if they're not ready or willing to come to a Sunday service. Say, you know what? Come to my house on Tuesday night for a D group.

[16:57] And we just get around. We share life together. We look at what the Bible has to say about something. We pray together. And that is sometimes a less intimidating situation. So that's what we're talking about when we say lead a D group.

[17:08] That's a way you can preach the gospel. And then also you can share your testimony. How many of you would say, I testify that God has done a work in my life.

[17:19] God has made a difference in my life. Would you slip your hand up right now in testimony of that? I dare say there's hardly a hand not raised in this room. That is your testimony. It's your God story.

[17:29] It's your journey that you have had with God, maybe from the time you were a child, maybe just recently, but whatever, it's your story. It's individual to you. It's personal to you. My story is different than yours, and your story is different than mine.

[17:43] And both of us need to share our God story or our testimony with others. So that's a way that's sometimes less scary than another way because anybody can tell something personal that happened to them.

[17:57] And maybe the greatest personal thing that's ever happened to you is when Jesus saved your soul. So tell that story. That's a way you can present the gospel. That's a way you can preach is to share your testimony.

[18:11] There's plenty of other ways to preach the gospel. Last summer, going into the fall, we had on Sunday nights, we had a kind of a seminar sort of thing that lasted several weeks where we talked about all different methods of preaching the gospel to people, okay?

[18:27] I'm thinking of Carol Davis right now. She jumped onto one of them that my mom actually came up with called The Heart. And you get a piece of paper and you draw a heart. And I've shared that with some of the children in the room over the last several months.

[18:39] But, you know, you go through, these are all the bad things I've done. You put a little X. These are all the good things you've done. Put a little check mark. You say, what does your heart look like? Well, it's full of bad things and it's full of good things. Well, does that let you get into heaven if your life looks like that?

[18:52] No, it doesn't. So what do you need? Well, you need Jesus' blood. So Jesus' blood comes in and you just, with the pen, just mark all that out and fill in that heart with Jesus' blood. And then you say, now you are qualified to go to heaven.

[19:04] So you have to ask Jesus to wash you clean with his blood. And that's just a very simple gospel message that even a child can understand. So there's all different ways of presenting the gospel to someone, sharing the good news that we are sinners, God loves us anyway, and through Jesus' death and resurrection, he made a way for us to be forgiven, become the children of God, and go to heaven forever someday.

[19:32] That's the awesome truth that we call the gospel. There's all different ways to present it. So that's a way that you and I can preach and should preach. If we're not doing that, then the mission is failing.

[19:48] Say, well, I'd be willing to do it. I just don't have anybody to do it with. You know the interesting thing about that? Take that problem, that conundrum, that situation that you can't figure out a solution to, take it to God.

[19:59] Because I bet you he'll send somebody that you can share the gospel with. You know why I know that? Because he wants those people to be saved. And he uses you and me to do it.

[20:11] So if you have nobody to share the gospel with, ask God for somebody. And he'll reveal someone to you that you can share the gospel with. And then start a gospel conversation.

[20:23] That's the last one here. What do we mean by that? Start sowing the seeds for a future gospel conversation. Start the process. Normally, when you sit down with someone and you take an hour and you present the entire gospel to them and you lead them from no knowledge of God all the way to being ready to fall on their knees and cry out to God for forgiveness.

[20:48] Those situations are very few and far between. Okay? Number one, having that much time to sit down with somebody, that's hard to find, right? Usually, what actually does it is when you're checking out at Spring Market or Target or United or wherever and you just tell someone, you know what?

[21:07] Have a great day. God bless you. Or ask them, do you go to church around here anywhere? You don't? Would you come be my visitor this Sunday? Would you come be my guest this Sunday?

[21:18] I'll save a seat for you. And are they going to come? I don't know. Maybe, maybe not. But you sowed a seed of, I am a Christian, I love Jesus, and I care about you.

[21:33] And that's starting a gospel conversation that then maybe, you know what? I'm so glad you invited me. I'm glad you said that because I've been going through a really hard time right now. Let me tell you about it.

[21:44] Then all of a sudden, a door opens up for a real gospel conversation and that person has a need that you can then point them to Jesus. So, these are the types of preaching that we can do.

[21:58] That's active, all right? Active preaching. That's engaged. That's intentional. That's going out, I'm going to sow the seeds of the gospel today and then see if God brings any fruit.

[22:10] Mark 16, 15, go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. We are commanded to do this type of active preaching of the gospel. Luke 14, 23, go out into the highways and the country roads and urge people to come in so that my house will be filled.

[22:28] That doesn't sound, you know, not wanting to be confrontational, right? Urging people? Does that sound confrontational? It does.

[22:39] It sounds strong. It sounds aggressive. But that's what we're commanded to do. That doesn't mean you have to be mean about it. That doesn't mean you have to be hateful. That doesn't mean you have to walk up to somebody and say, you're going to hell.

[22:51] You better turn or burn. But it's urging them. It's in the love of God saying, look, people know they're bad, okay?

[23:06] Nine times out of ten when I talk to somebody about the gospel, they know they've done wrong. Every once in a while you'll find some arrogant, you know, whatever, who's like, I've never done anything wrong.

[23:16] Sure you haven't. Ask your wife. I don't know why I'm on that today. I apologize. But it's urging people.

[23:27] They know they have needs. They know they have struggles. They know they have problems. They know they're guilty. It's then giving them hope, pointing them to the one who cares enough, loved them enough, is willing enough to die for their sins.

[23:44] So it's urging people to come in to the family of God so his house can be filled. That's active, okay? But then there's another type of preaching. Passive.

[23:56] Maybe you've heard the quote, I really hope you haven't, but if you have, let me mess with it for a second here. Maybe you've heard the quote that says, preach the gospel, use words if necessary.

[24:09] Anybody? Anybody ever heard that? That went around for a while. Thankfully, it's died out for the most part. That's absolutely not true. We are commanded time and time and time and time again in the scriptures to preach the gospel using words, okay?

[24:27] Intentionally, actively, go out and preach the gospel. But I will also say that if you're preaching the gospel with your mouth and your life doesn't back it up, that's not going to be effective either.

[24:42] So there is a passive preaching of the gospel that needs to happen at the same time. There's different ways of passively preaching the gospel. That could be somebody maybe has a question and brings it to you.

[24:56] Maybe you're on a phone call with a family member or maybe, heaven forbid, a family member passes away and then people from out of town come in and you get to see people that you haven't in a while and you sit down and have, you know, more serious conversations about life and death and then questions come up that you actually have the answers to because you have Jesus and you have the Holy Spirit in your heart and he's giving you scriptures that you've read.

[25:18] That's why it's so important to read the Bible, isn't it? We internalize the Bible in our heart, memorize it, commit it to memory, hide it in our heart so in those moments that we need God's word to come alive and help somebody, meet somebody's need in those moments, they're in there.

[25:33] So maybe you can answer questions or maybe you can display the fruit of the Spirit in your life. That's a novel idea, isn't it? Something we all struggle with. We're actually showing the fruit of the Spirit in our life.

[25:43] Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. When we display the fruit of the Spirit in our life in ways that go against our flesh and our nature, then oftentimes that'll draw people's attention.

[26:01] Wow, that's not how I thought that guy would respond. Wow, I thought she would get really worked up about that and she just kind of let it go. That's interesting. And maybe God will give you an opportunity then to say, you know what?

[26:15] I wanted to get worked up about it, but God's been working on me and he's been teaching me self-control. He's been teaching me patience and love and reminding me of how much he's forgiven in me so I can forgive in others.

[26:27] And then you give God the glory and maybe God will give you an opportunity then to actively share the gospel with somebody. But that's something we have to do. Finally, give God the glory in good times and bad.

[26:39] That's one of the best ways to passively share what God is doing in your life. Passively preach is when you are rock solid in the middle of a storm.

[26:55] What are you talking about? Being rock solid in the middle of a storm? God can do that. That doesn't mean you don't grieve. That doesn't mean you don't cry. That doesn't mean you don't hurt. But you have peace that can't be shaken.

[27:07] You have hope that doesn't go away. In the middle of missing that person, in the middle of heartbreak, in the middle of hurt, you have peace.

[27:18] You have a rock that you're standing on so you don't crumble. You fall on Jesus. And we give God the glory.

[27:29] Just like Job said, we talked about it last week, whether God gives or God takes away, blessed be the name of the Lord. That's a way we can passively preach.

[27:42] So we need to actively preach the gospel and passively preach the gospel. Not one or the other, but both. 1 Peter 3.15 talks about passive preaching.

[27:52] Be ready at any time to give a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you. Sometimes you'll intentionally go out and start a conversation.

[28:03] Sometimes God will bring somebody to you and we need to be ready for those moments. And then in Matthew 5.16, let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.

[28:19] Even by our lives, by our good works, we can glorify God and point people to Him. So is it better to be active or passive? The answer is yes.

[28:29] Both. Both. Not one or the other. Both. Active in our evangelism, active in our sharing of the gospel, and passive in our evangelism and sharing of the gospel, we do both.

[28:41] So, that concludes ministry of preaching and then we get to ministry of prayer. Ministry of prayer. prayer. When we're talking about praying, let's look back at Philippians chapter 4.

[28:55] I'm sorry, verse 1 and, let me start that over. Philippians chapter 1 and verse 4. There we go. Philippians chapter 1 and verse 4. Always praying with joy for all of you in my every prayer.

[29:10] Why? Why was He praying for them? Because of their partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. You see, this church had bought in to the mission.

[29:22] This church was on mission for Jesus. And their prayer reflected it. So, Paul was praying for them always with joy in his heart because of how mission focused they were.

[29:40] So, we're going to talk for just a moment before we leave about prayer on mission. What does it look like to have prayer on mission? I'm not going to have you raise your hands right now.

[29:56] But if I did and say, how many of you prayed this morning? There'd probably be a lot of hands raised. Maybe not every hand. How many of you prayed last week? And then if we took a poll, what was the subject of our prayers?

[30:11] Oftentimes, we might find ourselves praying for the sick, the hurting, the physically broken more than anything else.

[30:25] It's not unusual. We are commanded to do that, to take our request to God. The prayer of faith can heal the sick. Read this in the Bible.

[30:36] But I want to share this quote from you. I heard it from Paul Washer, but I'm pretty sure he got it from Leonard Ravenhill if Wade Pierce is right. And I think he probably is. But it's an outstanding quote and there's been a few variations of it.

[30:50] We spend more time praying to keep saints out of heaven than we ever spend praying to get sinners into heaven or to keep sinners out of hell. Should we pray for our aunt when she has cancer?

[31:09] Of course. Should we pray for our son or daughter when they get hurt? Of course. We should pray that God, if it is according to his will, would heal them, extend their life so they can bring more glory to him and he can get glory from the healing.

[31:27] But usually, in churches like ours across this country, we find ourselves in the situation of this is 90% what we pray for. and we almost never find ourselves praying for the lost without God dying and going to hell every day in our neighborhood, in our town, in our county, surrounding counties, the Texoma area.

[31:58] how many thousands of people are dying without Christ every year in our home. That's not even talking about the rest of Texas and Oklahoma and across this country and around the world.

[32:11] We know there are literally millions dying without Christ every day in their sins. but we don't often find ourselves praying for them to be saved.

[32:26] What does the Bible have to say about it? Romans 10, 1. Paul shared his heart on it. He said, my heart's desire and prayer to God for them, for his country people, his nation, the Israelites, for them is that they would be what?

[32:44] What's that word? Saved. Saved. That's what God wants. He wants his people to be saved. He wants the Jews to be saved.

[32:55] He wants the Gentiles to be saved. He wants you and me to be saved. He wants your family to be saved. He wants your neighbors to be saved. He wants the people that work at your school to be saved.

[33:06] He wants the people at your job site to be saved. He wants your friend group to be saved. He wants the people down at the Senior Center to be saved. He wants the people in Wichita Falls to be saved. He wants all the people everywhere to be saved. That's his heart's desire and that became Paul's heart's desire. Is that our heart's desire? And if so, it should reflect in our prayer life. Matthew 9, 37, the harvest is abundant, but the workers are few. Talking about the harvest being all the people who are out there without God, ready to be told about God, but the workers to go out and share the gospel, those are few. Therefore, pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into his harvest. God, send out workers into your harvest. So number one, our heart's desire and prayer to God is that they would be saved. God, save the lost. Secondly, God, send workers out to the lost. And then thirdly, in Colossians 4, 3, Paul said, pray for us, that God would open a door for our message so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ. So we pray for those who are proclaiming the mystery of Christ. Say, God, open a door for them. Open a door for the message that can save this lost and dying world. Open a door for the preachers, for the missionaries, for the pastors, for the teachers, for the evangelists, for those who are going out and preaching the gospel actively and passively. Open a door for them and their message. And then finally, in Isaiah 6, 8, this is the prayer. This is the prayer that's got to hit home with you this morning. Are you ready?

[34:45] Then I hear, then I heard the voice of the Lord asking, who will I send? Who will go for us? And I said, Isaiah said, here I am. Send me. That's the final prayer. That closes the circle.

[35:00] God save the lost. God send workers out to the lost. God open the door for those who are sharing the gospel. And then finally, God send me. And if you pray that, God will send you.

[35:17] But he will go before you. And he'll prepare the way. And he will walk with you. And he'll help you in those scary moments. And he'll come after you after your mouth is closed. And he will work on the heart that received that message. God will be in it all. But God will use our prayers. God will answer our prayers. So our takeaway for this morning, am I willing to go on mission for God by preaching the gospel and praying for the lost around me? Am I willing to go on mission for God by preaching the gospel and praying for the lost around me? Would you bow your head with me? God, I pray that our church would be a church would be a church on mission. Our church is not exempt from the mission that you have given to all Christians, all churches, for all of history. You've done so many incredible things through churches. God, let this be one. Work through our people, our women, our men, our youth, our children. Work through them. Let the school system be different because of the gospel that is preached. Let our neighborhoods be transformed because of the gospel that is preached.

[36:57] Let broken relationships be healed through the power of the gospel that is preached. Do a work in our hearts, God. Let us preach the gospel every morning to ourselves when we wake up.

[37:12] You are a child of God. You are bought and paid for by the precious blood of Christ. God loves you and he's got a wonderful mission for you today. Let us preach that gospel message to ourselves and let that get us back on mission every day. God will give you all the glory for it.

[37:37] God will give you all the glory for it. We will give you all the glory for it. We will say, look what God did. We want to see your blessings. We want to see your power. We want to see your fruit.

[37:50] We will give you all the glory. Church, with our heads bowed, in this moment of prayer, quietness before we dismiss, how many of you would say, I need Jesus in my life right now. I need to give my life to Jesus.

[38:06] I need to turn from my sin and turn to Jesus. I need God to save me. Is there anybody in here that's under conviction of the Holy Spirit to say, I need God to save me? Would you slip your hand up right now? Thank you.

[38:19] I'm going to assume I'm talking to mostly Christians in this room. So how many of you would testify that God's working in my heart right now about preaching the gospel to somebody?

[38:33] Maybe there's a specific name and face in your mind. Say, God, give me an opportunity and give me the power. Give me the words to say. Give me the confidence in you to share the gospel with them.

[38:46] Would you slip your hand up right now and I'll pray for you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Put your hands down. God, empower your people, God.

[39:00] You love that person more than they ever could. You love our family members, our friends, more than we ever could. And you crave to forgive them. You crave to save them.

[39:16] And we are the instruments that you've chosen to use. So give us your power. Go before us. Prepare the way. And let our prayer call down power from heaven to save the lost around us.

[39:33] Let this be a church on mission, fully engaged in the ministry of preaching and prayer. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

[39:45] Jared's going to lead us in a song. If you're able to, would you join us in standing? If you'd like to come down front and meet with me down here, I'll be down here ready to pray with you or talk with you about whatever's on your heart.

[39:58] If you need to give your life to Jesus, you need to pray with God about something, if you'd like to join as a member of this church, meet me down front. I'd be happy to talk with you. Amen. Amen.