The Great Commission: A Command To Be Obeyed

Let’s pray together. Father, we come to you now in the name of the Lord Jesus just to take a moment to ask for your help and grace as we study your word. Lord, would you please help your people as they receive the word that they might receive it with meekness and and fear. Lord, that we might we might grow by your word for that’s the reason you’ve given it to us and so help us lord to grow. Help us to obey. Help us to to ascent to your leading and to yield to your working and operation in our lives and lord, help me as I try to help your people. Lord, fill me with the wisdom and the grace I need to say the things that your people need. Lord, we trust in you now in Jesus name, amen.

So this comes to the very end of the book of Matthew. And you’ll notice that in verse number 16, the 11 disciples went away into Galilee. Now, you probably know the reason why they went away into Galilee is because right after the resurrection of Christ, the angel told them that they would they would go that that the disciples should go to Galilee where they would meet him. If you remember that and not only that, when the lord Jesus met the the the women who went to the tomb early, he also told them that they would need the the disciples who need to go to Galilee to meet with the lord.

Not only that but in Matthew 26, before the lord died upon the cross, he told the disciples that after he has risen, they won’t they would need to meet him in Galilee. So, obviously, this is an important point. Now, if you notice as we read the the the final verses of the book of Matthew, there’s a lot that’s missing, right? There’s a lot about the resurrection. I mean, the lord had risen for forty days and appeared to his disciples many times. You read the book of Matthew and you might walk away thinking it was just a a couple times, but it actually wasn’t.

But Matthew has a has a particular purpose. Now, might come as a little bit of a surprise that Matthew has a particular purpose and he doesn’t cover the ascension of Christ. In fact, you’re left in verse number 20 with this idea that Jesus is with the disciples, and indeed He is, as they go and preach the gospel in various places and the truth is that is a fact, that’s the truth.

But also Matthew’s purpose as we get to the close of the book is actually verses 16 through 20. That’s the last chapter of Matthew is flowing in and funneling in down to these verses that we’re looking at today. And we know that because three times up to this point, the lord has said, after his resurrection, that the disciples would meet him in Galilee and that he would meet them on this mountain because we know what happens because we’re we just read it. What happens on this mountain which is the great commission.

So, Matthew’s purpose in this last chapter is to flow us down to this conversation, this final command of the Lord Jesus that we’re gonna look at today, both this morning and tonight, that he gives to his disciples as his parting command. We call it the great commission, the great command some people call it. And so, this is why this is so important and we we need to pay close attention because in this in these two or three verses 18 through 20, the lord gives the church of the living god its mission.

The reason it is here. That’s what he’s giving us. This is a major event in in scripture. In fact, if you were to if you were to take into another author did this but I’ll just mention it. If you were to take the various mountaintop experiences, we might call them the high points, kind of use a pun. You take the high points of Jesus’ ministry, almost all of them are on top of a mountain. There’s the mountain of temptation, there’s the mount of Transfiguration.

Of course, Jesus we know that He ascended from the Mount Of Ascension, which was the Mount Of Olives, but even the great commission is on a mountain, at least this account of the Great Commission is on a mountain. So, you look at these mountaintop experiences, these high points in Jesus’ life often happen on top of a mountain, this is no exception, this is no exception. Notice in verse 16, so as we come into this passage of Scripture, I want you to understand the import of this final conversation. Now, this is not chronologically the final conversation that that the Lord has with his disciples. That’s covered in Acts chapter one, where they actually, he has the conversation and tells them they will be witnesses.

And then he is he is parted from them, he ascends while they watch. We’re not that and that happens in in Jerusalem, outside of Jerusalem, this is in Galilee, so we’re not quite there yet. But as far as the book of Matthew and its purpose, this is the the most important part. This is the final parting words of Christ. Now knowing how important this passage is, it’s kind of, it’s a little bit startling that we read this in verse 16.

Verse 16 says, then the 11 disciples went away into Galilee, So, they are obeying their lord. Both pre and post resurrection. The words of Christ go into Galilee. So, they are obeying him. They are living for him. They are they are trying to adjust and to respond to the reality that their savior is risen and it takes forty day, it takes forty days. In fact, I would argue that it’s not until really Acts chapter one or two that they really finally get it and even then, there’s things they don’t quite get but but they they finally get it really at that point, but they’re they’re really learning about what what does this mean that Christ is risen and and so, but they are trying to obey.

Even though there are a lot of unanswered questions, there’s still some things they’re confused about, they are trying to obey the word of the Lord. So there is no question that in verse 16, these 11 disciples are believers, right? Would everybody agree that’s that’s we can assume that, right? They are believers, There’s no question about that and they are sold out to to Jesus, right? They with as much information as they have, they are trying to follow Jesus, okay?

Now, look at verse 16. Let’s continue. Into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them. And when they saw him, they worshiped him. Now, let’s just take a pause, take a brief moment here and say this, that that worshiping anyone or anything outside of god. Is idolatry, right? Worship any, worshiping anything or anyone outside of god whether we call it worship or we call it veneration or we call it honor or any other label we use if it is worship, it is due only to god. That’s what the first and second commandment, right? Especially the first commandment and the 10 command say. Thou shall have no other gods before me. Other gods are not allowed. Worship of other gods is strictly forbid throughout the scripture.

So either Jesus, either the Lord Jesus is very God or he is at this moment violating the first commandment. So, this is the fact that the disciples worshiped him, it should just alone settle who he is, but notice this, that so they’re obeying him, they’re they’re following the lord Jesus, they believe in the lord Jesus, and they’re coming up to this significant moment in in in their relationship to him where he’s gonna give him give them his parting commands and it says in the last three words of verse 17, but some doubted.

Some doubted. Now we don’t know which of the 11 disciples doubted, we don’t even know the specific matters about which they doubted, we just know that they doubted and it was more than one because it says some.

Think about how important of a moment this is, think about all they have seen, think about what they’re doing, they’re they’re following Jesus to Galilee to this mountain. The Lord is preparing, now does the Lord know that there are doubters among them? Absolutely. The doubting didn’t stop when the when the Lord showed his hands and his feet and his sides doubting Thomas. It it didn’t stop there. There were other doubters besides Thomas and and in such an important moment, you see doubting.

It says, they worshiped him but some doubted. So, though they’re serving Jesus, even though they’re obeying Jesus, even though they’re going to the mountain where Jesus has commanded, even though they are worshiping him, yet mixed in with that service and devotion to Jesus is doubt. And these are the disciples. These are ones who have seen things we will never see, right? They saw personally all these things that Jesus did, most importantly his resurrection.

And the thing I want you to see before we move on is this, the Lord knew their doubts and still commissioned them. Now, what does that tell us? It tells us one thing, this is a very simple truth for us, which is this, if you and I are waiting for a moment when we have finally arrived, if you and I are waiting for a moment where we’re finally we finally feel in ourselves that we have we have somehow measured up. We have put away all the vices.

We’ve gotten rid of all the doubts and we have we finally gotten to the to the the standard that we have set basically in our own mind so that we can serve God, so that we can worship God, so that we can obey the Lord, so that we can live for him with with with no holds barred, with all of our heart and all of our soul. If you’re waiting on that moment, I want to tell you that will never come.

At this most important moment here in the life of the disciples, in their relationship with the lord Jesus, they are at this moment doubting and Jesus knows it. Did you know any service or worship or devotion or or anything we do for Jesus is always mingled with problems. I’m talking about personal problems, our personal problems. If the Lord waited to commission only only saints who have it all together, we would never be, there would never be a commission, a great commission at all. And this is the way, listen, if you are gonna serve God, you’re gonna have to do so imperfectly.

What are you waiting on? What are we waiting on? We’re waiting on a a some point where where there are no more doubts or fears, there are no more no more vices, no more, you know, no more sins we’re trying to get rid of or or habits we’re trying to break. What are we waiting on?

You don’t wait to do that. You obey the lord and the lord slowly works that out of you by his grace and by his spirit because the lord knows that the only way we serve him is imperfectly. We don’t have it all together. We don’t, these disciples didn’t and yet they are commissioned. Yeah, I think one of the reasons some people don’t serve the Lord more actively like like we read in these verses is because they think in some way they don’t measure.

And maybe they don’t, but neither did these. And some doubted. And think about this as well, the fact that the doubting is mentioned at such an important moment is amazing. In fact, it’s a testimony. It’s a powerful evidence of the truth of the scripture. Imagine you’re writing a book and your heroes are these 11 disciples, right? And if you’re writing the gospel of Matthew, the heroes would be the 11 disciples, right? They’re the ones who were faithful to and in your hero, you put in your heroic tale, you put a a blot and a and the most important moment in the in the tale, you put a blot like doubt.

The only reason anybody would do that is if it was actually true and this was a written record of what was actually real. It is an argument for the authenticity of scripture. We would never put this kind of thing if we were making up, you know, a hero’s tale about these disciples and about the Christian faith. No, it would be nobody doubted. Everybody was everybody was was a super Christian and all that but let let me just let’s just be honest here.

That doesn’t exist. That is fantasy. We must serve God despite it. Right. Or we will not. Amen. We must obey the great commission despite it, or we will never obey the great commission. You’re not and I’m not ever going to have all the doubts settled.

We’re never gonna have everything fixed the way we want it, we’re never gonna measure up to the standard that we have set, we’re just not. In fact, I would argue that as you grow closer to the Lord, more and more of those faults and failures and besetting sins come out.

Now notice the Great Commission. Verse number 19 says this, 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 low I am with you all way even unto the end of the world. I do wanna read the other accounts of the great commission very quickly but but notice what it says here.

The command is go, the command is teach, also disciple, the command is baptize, the command is teach them to observe all things whatsoever I’ve commanded you. Look if you would at the book of Mark chapter 16.

Mark chapter 16 verse 15. All four of these passages that we’ll read in the great commission happen at different moments post resurrection. They’re not all the same moment just repeated, they are different events. So at least four times after the resurrection of Christ, he told them basically the same commission in different ways. Mark 16 verse 15, and he said unto them, go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.

So we have teach, we have preach, we have disciple, we have baptize, we have teach, we have go. Look if you would at Luke chapter 24. Luke 24 verse 46. Luke 24 verse 46.

Says this, and said unto them, thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations beginning at Jerusalem. So to combine with Matthew and with Mark, we add the message in addition to the gospel but the response to the gospel is calling men to repent and to and to receive forgiveness of sins in Christ’s name in all nation, among all nations.

And then lastly, we go to the book of Acts chapter one, if you’ll go there. Acts chapter one. Verse seven. Acts one verse seven, and He said unto them, now this is the final statement the Lord gives to His disciples before He ascends. And he said unto them, it is not for you to know the times or the seasons which the father hath put in his own power but you shall receive power after that the holy ghost has come upon you and you shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and in Samaria and unto the uttermost part of the earth.

So if you take all of these all four of these accounts and you kind of set the size them or you blend them into one one command set, if you will, because it’s multifaceted. We can learn something about our Lord from this command. And I’ll just give this to you before we move on. First of all, we can learn that God desires every man, every woman, every child, every person on earth without exception to be saved.

How do we know that? Because he commands in Mark that the gospel be preached to every creature. That, you know what a creature is, right? That’s anything god has created. And if god has commanded that every creature hear the gospel, that means god is concerned with the soul and salvation of of every of of every creature that we preach to. The second thing is, god desires to forgive all of sin. Amen. That’s why he commands that in Luke that repentance and remission of sins be preached in his name among all nations because the lord really does want to forgive men of sin.

He wants to pardon them. Then, we also see that god desires that every new believer grow every new believer publicly acknowledge his faith by receiving water baptism Cause that’s commanded in Matthew. That is for every believer and it is for a believer which is why it’s in the order that it is in the book of Matthew chapter 28. And then we also see that the Lord desires also following Matthew that every believer grow into maturity and to walk in all, let me let me emphasize that, all of god’s commandments. Why?

Teaching them to observe, what does it say? All things whatsoever I’ve commanded you. That’s... Did you know... Listen, did you know for you as a believer, you’ve you’ve put your faith in Christ, you’ve received forgiveness of sin, that is the great commission and you have you have received that, but the that’s not the end. The end is that you and I obey. Observe all the commandments of Christ.

You say, well, my, I might never get to that point. Yeah, welcome to the club. That’s what I was talking about a minute ago but that doesn’t mean that that’s not what we’re working toward. That’s not what we’re trying to do. Here’s the here here’s the way we disobey the great commission is we say, you know what? I’m good where I’m at. Thanks. Where I’m at is far enough.

No, if it’s not all observing all that Christ has commanded us, it’s not far enough. You might never get there but that’s why Paul said, I press toward the mark not as though I had already attained either already perfect but I pressed toward the mark of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. And then the last thing we see is this, the Lord desires that these things be accomplished not only in our generation but in every succeeding generation because he says, until the end of the world.

So this is something that is to be perpetuated. You know, there’s some of you in our church who are older, who have been here a long time, or been a believer a long time, but you’re not gonna be here forever, nor am I. And the hope is that you as in your place where you are as an individual, that you are investing in those who are coming after you that they might perpetuate the great commission.

That they might continue to do the things that Christ says in this great commission. Now, if you would go back to Matthew 28. Matthew 28 to our text verse.

Verse number 20 says this, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I’ve commanded you and lo, I’m with you all way even unto the end of the world. Amen. What are we doing right now? As we study the book of Matthew, we get to verse number... Verses eighteen, nineteen and twenty, we’re reading commands of Christ, are we not?

So in our church at this moment, on 10/04/2026, we are right now doing verse number 20 because we’re looking at a command of the Lord Jesus Christ, One of the many commands that he commanded while he was here with us. And I’m telling you as the spokesman at this moment, that we need to do and observe this command that our lord has commanded us. Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you and right now, that command that we’re looking at is this command in nineteen and twenty.

The great commission. So, the question I have for our church is this, are we as a as the church, are we as believers, as disciples? Because this applies to both. Are we in obedience to the lord’s command in verses nineteen and twenty? Because this is what he’s he’s commanded us to teach others, to teach others to observe. This command among others.

We are doing that right now in our church. Now notice in verse number 19, the Bible says, go ye therefore. Mark also says, go into all the world and preach the gospel. That’s part of the great commission. You know, one of the... And I don’t wanna throw throw stones that are too large, but one of the one of the real shortcomings or or one of the ways we miss the mark is by turning the church into an evangelistic center.

Because you know who suffers when we do that? It’s the people of God who need to be fed the word as a believer. And instead, the the preacher is feeding the gospel, which is good, but he’s feeding the gospel towards someone who doesn’t know Christ within the church. And the believers like, well, love the gospel, but we also need to move beyond that to other things that are also in the scripture because he says, teaching them to observe what? All things. That that there’s more there’s more to it than that. Amen. And if we set the church up, so it’s the church is all for the the unbeliever and for those who do not know Christ, well, the one who suffers is the is the believer. Amen. Who needs to be fed a diet of the word of God, we all do. And so the Lord says, go, that is leave where you are and go to where those people are that need to hear this message.

Two times in the great commission, but it also tells us this, that that act of going, it’s on purpose, it’s intentional. There’s another kind of missing the mark point we have which is this, that we should only share the gospel and evangelize and give the gospel to other people as a secondary matter to whatever is the primary thing that we are doing. And we ought to do that. I mean like if you go get gas, know, you ought to give out a gospel tract or whatever, know, you ought to you ought to give out the gospel gospel as you go, but go means that you do it on purpose, that you set out and say, this is what we’re going to do. We are going to go to the mission field. We are going to go to this neighborhood. We are going to go to Downtown Greenville for the primary purpose of giving the gospel out. That is what the great commission is telling us to do. It’s not saying do it incidentally, but do it as your mission.

That’s what the word go implies. That’s what the word go tells us. Now is it not true brothers and sisters that this command of our Lord to leave our place where everybody agrees with us, right?

And to go to the sinner’s place to tell them about Jesus, to tell them about repentance, to tell them about remission of sins, to tell them about the gospel. That is not a message that they welcome.

Is it? It’s not. Now you you you and I, we might create a fake Jesus that’s palatable to this world, but if we’re gonna be faithful to what God says, I’m telling you, it is it is going to be offensive. And I don’t mean personally offensive, I mean the message itself.

It is not a welcome message to this world, yet here in this what I I want us to get. Yet, the lord still tells us to go. Is is god actually telling us to do something that’s hard? Is god actually telling us to to go from where everybody agrees with us and invade the lives of people who do not want it. Yes. That’s exactly what he’s saying. You know, is it not true? Listen, is it not true in our evangelism?

And I’ll be the first one to admit with brother Ben. I wish wish brother Ben was here because I’ve been talking to him here here recently but when we were out witnessing yesterday, we were having conversations about the philosophy of of evangelizing, how to do it and what you say and all that while we were knocking doors.

And he and I both agreed. We don’t like knocking on other people’s doors. How many of you like people knocking on your door? How many of you say, oh, somebody’s knocking on my door. Great. I’m going go see who it is. That’s just not what people think these days. No.

How many of you have ever been approached by someone handing out a leaflet in Downtown Greenville in a public place? How many of you, by default, respond by kind of doing this? I mean, just be honest. I know I do. I don’t want, hey, I was in Walmart the other day and you guys, Walmart Travelers Rest, and you guys, for some reason they put Spectrum sales people there and they’re pushy sales people. I mean, no offense, but they are.

And I had to like be direct and firm that there’s no circumstance in which I would ever get Spectrum again, but anyway, how many of you have interacted with those people in Walmart? Wow, they’re doing a good job though. I mean, how many of you tried to avoid them? You know exactly what I’m talking about.

Being approached by a stranger about something you’re not really into, But this is exactly what Jesus is telling us to do, to leave where everybody agrees with us, the home office, and to go into a world that is not welcoming to our message and to tell them. You know what that means? It is hard. It is awkward. It is difficult and there is no easy way to accomplish that mission.

That’s part of it. And so, I mean, does everybody see that? It’s just reality. Okay. So now that we’ve said all, we’ve just put it all out in the open. Everybody feels weird, everybody finds it difficult to give the gospel to other people, complete strangers. Everybody’s like that, I’m like that, you’re like that, let’s just settle that, alright? We’re all out in the open now, there are no super Christians among us, everybody feels awkward. Okay, can we just admit that? Okay, it’s hard.

Okay. So now the only question we have left is, we know it’s hard, we know the Lord knows it’s hard, we know He commanded us to do it still, so the only question is this, are we going to obey?

We’re no longer expecting it to be smooth sailing that everybody’s gonna be, oh, you wanna tell me about Jesus that I’m a sinner and I’m on my way to Lake Of Fire. No, nobody’s gonna say that. Everybody thinks they’re righteous, everybody thinks they’re right with God, everybody thinks they’re good. They don’t wanna hear what we have to say. They have their own gods, they have their own religions, they have their own faith systems. They don’t wanna be told that the word of God contradicts it, they don’t want that. But we know that. So really it’s just a question of, Lord, am I going to obey you or not?

That’s really what it is. The reason that we preach the gospel first and foremost is not because people like it or because people receive it, it is because the Lord told us to, full stop. And you know what? That must be our motive because there were in... When we try to give the gospel to other people, people will reject it. There will be setbacks. There will be discouragements.

There will be difficulties and each one of those things will tear away every other motive and what we will we will be left with is this question, am I going to obey my lord’s command? Amen. Because that remains constant. Whether the nations reject that gospel message, whether the world persecutes the evangelist, or whether blinded humanity is apathetic, or whether sinners are unlovable, or whatever the case might be.

The command stays. God, our lord commands these things for the good of the hearers and it’s good for us too but he does it because he loves them. And if he wasn’t good and kind to them and if he didn’t love every creature like we read in Mark sixteen fifteen, if that was the case, he never would have commanded us to do this. He commanded us because He loves them.

Look if you would at Matthew 28 verse 20. Or verse 19 rather, go ye therefore and teach all nations, all nations. Acts chapter one verse eight says that we would be witnesses unto the uttermost part of the earth. And I know I read the four accounts of the great commission, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and Acts, and I read that and when you read it, when I read it often we think of missions and we have missionaries and we are so thankful that we can pour our money into something that has eternal benefit for the salvation of souls, for the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. We are thankful that we have that, but this commission is not just that, and if we think it, we are mistaken and here’s why I say that. Yes, uttermost. Uttermost refers to what?

Uttermost refers to the furthest point from where you are, right? That’s the uttermost. So for us, you know from choice hills sometimes when I was a missionary, that’s one thing I would calculate is Cambodia was just about around the uttermost. I actually got a globe, know, just nerd it out on it a minute. You know, that’s kind of the way it is. That’s uttermost but stop a second. You said, so the great commission is telling us to send the gospel to the uttermost. Great.

But it is that same commission that tells us that everything between where I am standing at this moment and the uttermost is also is also the place where the gospel needs to go. Amen. And so the same commission that is the the mandate to give the gospel out and support missionaries and send missionaries and go be a missionary is the one that tells us that we need to be going to Downtown Greenville and telling people about Jesus or going to our family and to our friend because remember, between me and the uttermost, you have to walk, I have to walk through my house where my family lives, have to walk across the street where my neighbors are. In other words, your family and your friends who do not know the Lord Jesus Christ are also part of that uttermost.

So the question is, are we obedient? The outermost is not just out there. It’s everything between where I stand and there. It includes supporting missionaries as well as giving the gospel to our family and friends as well as knocking on people’s doors as well as engaging people at the gas station as well as going to Downtown Greenville as well as helping out those who are homeless, you know, and on and on and on as we seek to give the gospel to people And this should be something we do on purpose. Again, not an incidental.

Notice Jesus says in verse number 18, in preparation for this command, the Lord says this, all power is given unto me in heaven and in earth, go ye, what’s the third word? Therefore, in other words, the Lord says, I have all power and authority and that’s exactly what Philippians chapter two says. That’s that’s the... Has risen, He is seated above all, He is Lord of all, nothing challenges His authority. He supersedes all power.

Look if you would at Ephesians chapter one, I just wanna emphasize this briefly, Ephesians chapter one verse number 20. Ephesians one verse 20, Which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead and set him Christ at his own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come. So if the government of China says, you can’t tell people about Jesus, Jesus says, I have all authority.

Amen. And the and the command we have we have coming in verse from Christ in verse number 28 verse number 19 rather in verse number 20 comes from the one directly. It’s an order if you will from the president himself. To do this, to share... To give the gospel to people. He says, I have... It doesn’t matter if the Roman Empire outlaws it, it doesn’t matter if the Chinese government outlaws it, it doesn’t matter if the American government outlaws it, if the federal government, or the state government, or the local government tries to say, no, you cannot give the gospel to people. You cannot talk about this. You cannot urge people to repent and receive the gospel. You can’t do that.

Well, the one who supersedes all authority commanded us to. We ought to obey god rather than man. Amen. But the truth is, let me be honest. We live in a country with great freedom. Our biggest issue is HOAs saying no soliciting. Authority Our biggest issue is we wanna kinda sometimes be a jerk on private property and we think we’re being persecuted because somebody’s private property, somebody on their private property tells us to beat it.

Well Jesus told me to go, well I mean I get that, but we have great freedom, right? We have great freedom. And we can give the Gospel pretty much anywhere we want, can we not? But that’s not the rub. Now if you lived in China or you lived in Sudan or you lived in one of the countries in The Middle East, get this real.

Am I going to obey? Okay? But here’s the thing I want you to see, that the authority question cuts both ways. Yes, the authority that Christ has been given all authority in heaven and on earth, yes, that gives us, that’s the basis for the command to go no matter what a secular government or what a man says. But the reverse of that is this, how can we deny and disobey the one who has all authority?

So to us, that authority cuts too and yet we do. And yet we do, we do not obey even though the highest authority above them all has commanded us directly as His people.

So to finish up, this command that we see in verses nineteen and twenty poses a challenge to us and the challenge is not just a logistical challenge, It’s not just a monetary challenge. Really, the biggest challenge of the great commission is a personal challenge because the lord is calling us to do something that is uncomfortable and that is difficult and that none of us are really good at.

He’s calling us to do it still. We have doubts, we have fears, we have reservations, we’re shy, it’s hard. Yes, and he still calls us to do it, just like these disciples.

And the only alternative is to disobey His command. You know, if you can’t find the strength to obey the Lord’s command to give the gospel to people, maybe you’re too shy, you’re too embarrassed, you don’t know what to say, you can’t use these as excuses for disobedience to the Lord’s command.

When you feel, when you know the Lord has commanded you to do something and you feel that you can’t do it, what is always the solution? The solution is to go to the source and say, Lord, I cannot, I need help. But when you say that in request is a desire that I want to obey and there comes the rub.

So my question to you is given this command to give the gospel to people, to actively and intentionally go out to give the gospel to people. The question I have for you is this, when is the last time that you’ve sought to engage another person with the gospel?

On purpose. When is the last time you’ve made a point to obey the Lord’s command to teach all nations, to preach the gospel to every creature? If it was recently, let me ask you this, how many times in the last say six months have you engaged to obey the Lord’s command to give the gospel to people?

We cannot, listen, we cannot simply wave away the one whose authority is above all. We must heed what he says. This world stands in need whether they know it or not, whether they like it or not.

Would you bow your head and close your eyes?