The Great Ascension and Commission

All right, take your Bibles and let's go to Matthew chapter 28. If you are new around here, we Have as the mainstay of this pulpit the verse by verse, chapter by chapter, expositional preaching. Of the word of God. I call it local church-centered expositions, though, as we glean from the text. What our body needs As we're preaching through, and I don't body, I mean the church body.

as we're preaching through books of the Bible. But I'm in between books and just haven't I've asked the Lord, Lord, what would please you that we pick up next? And I haven't found anything, but I have found particular texts that I can exegete that I believe. Speak to where we need to be spoken to. And this is one of those, very familiar passage.

Matthew 28, verses 18 through 20. I call this the Great Ascension and Commission. The great ascension and commission. There's two things going on here, I'm convinced. And these two things are intertwined.

Matter of fact, as I preach, they'll overlap one another. And we'll talk about that a little bit more after I read the text itself. Matthew 28, verse 18. And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations.

Baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Teaching them to observe all that I've commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.

Now classically we've called this text the Great Commission. Magna Carta of our faith, if you will. That is that it is God's will. For all of the earth All Christians of all times, doesn't matter your nationality, your ethnic background, if you're a believer in Jesus Christ. This is for all of us, for all time.

Go into all the world, make disciples, baptizing them, teaching them to deserve all things whatsoever. I've commanded you, and I'm with you always. Even to the end of the age.

So that is the great commission, but. I believe, my own self included, that sometimes we have preached this text a little out of balance. Out of balance, that is, with the whole of the New Testament, as the New Testament fills out. The particulars, the specifics of how the Great Commission is to function. Dr.

Seal, I try to tell the boys that we exegete the text in a systematic context. Not just in the immediate context. What else is the scripture telling us? about this year.

So I want to strive to do that in the time that we have here together. Reminding you afresh that I am not a scholar in a graduate school. I am the pastor of a local church. I want the precept, the command, to come clear. But I want us also to get the shoe leather of the command down.

Getting down to brass tax. How do we do this? What does this look like lived out? I believe there's been a great failure in confession. Confessing evangelicalism over the past several decades, as we've got one or two extremes seem to always come to bear.

That is, a preaching that is mildly biblical and they never really get to the heart of the matter. And then a preaching that is so ethereal or academic, if you will, it's just about the mind being expanded. But Christianity isn't about just filling your mind, it's about guiding your footsteps, too. Both and by the way. We inform the mind to Change the life.

So we'll strive to walk in that balance.

So there is the great commission here: go into all the world and make disciples.

Well, just how do we do that? We'll talk more about that in just a moment. But not only that, there is a great ascension here. And I'm going to put it in stations. Of ascending order.

We start here and we're to ascend in faith to the next station. We're to ascend in faith to the next station and then the next station. And then listen to me: as you, as an individual believer, as a part of this local church. are growing Are ascending in your faith. then you can better help the whole church body do the great commission going into all the world to make disciples.

They go together. The ascending nature of our growth in faith. and the Great Commission Of going out into all the world. Co-labor together, if you will.

Okay, station number one, as we'll outline it, just focusing on, if you will, the ascending of our growth in faith. But again, we will intertwine, of course, the central theme of the text: go into all the world, make disciples.

So section one is the possession of faith. Make disciples. Yeah. You understand there's a time When you're not a disciple. There was a time when you did not possess Faith, that is saving faith.

So there's a time when you did not. And there's a time when you did. And the time when you came to faith in Christ is when you became a disciple. I used to not believe it that way because I thought a disciple had to do this and that, and have this discipline and that discipline, and grow this far or that far, and then you could be a disciple. That's not true.

Your disciple, the moment. You come to faith the moment you possess faith in Jesus Christ.

Now you're not a mature disciple. You're not an advanced disciple, if we could use such a phrase. But you begin to be a follower, a learner after Jesus.

Now, when we say a follower of Jesus, you've got to be a little bit careful because you can't do what Jesus did. You're not the Son of God incarnate on the earth. But I think the idea is primarily we want to join him in his purpose in coming, and that is to glorify himself, to glorify his father by securing the church. They're pink.

So we want to get in on the mission of God with God the Father and God the Son, Jesus Christ. We want to follow him in that pursuit. We've changed our lives from following our selfish, worldly, pleasure-seeking pursuits to turn to say, Jesus, we sign up with you. That's what happens when you possess faith. You turn to say, and I remember when I was first converted.

Age 18, maybe.

Well, I guess I just turned 19 and didn't know hardly anything. I didn't know anything. Yeah. But if you had said to me, If Jesus wants you to do something, would you do it? I'd say, sign me up.

It just doesn't matter what it is. I was so grateful about my forgiveness and the love he had flooded my life with. But the moment you become a believer, you possess faith, you become a disciple. True saving faith comes into you. I just say a couple of practical things here.

As Jesus tells his followers after his resurrection, before he ascends into heaven, he gives them these. Simple direct marching orders. If I'm going to go make disciples, I need to know what one looks like. Here's a thought or two there. We've covered this in other ways.

You may feel like you got a drink out of a fire hydrant before we get through, but maybe God will stick to your bones some of the things that you need to remember. One way to know if you possess true saving faith. i.e. you become a follower, a learner after Christ. Is that now you gladly own him?

As your only one true prophet. As your only one true priest, And as your only one true king.

Now, you don't even understand what all that is when you're first converted. I certainly didn't, but as I understood it, I said, yes. As I learn the scriptures, as a pastor preached to me, and I begin to grasp these things, I say, yes, he is the only true prophet of God. All the Old Testament prophets foreshadowed him. They were a type of him, but he's the antitype.

He's the reality. He's the one true. Truth teller from God because, by the way, he is God.

So I look to Jesus as the only wisdom I must follow as revealed in His holy word. When you're saved, that begins to resonate in your heart. He is the truth that I will follow. He's the only true prophet. He's the only true priest.

The priest is a mediator between God and man. The priest is the one who brings a holy God in union with sinful man. And no human priest can do that. And all of the priests of the Old Testament were the type, the foreshadowing. Jesus is the culmination of the real priest.

He's the one and true only high priest. He's the only one that can solve the gap between holy God and sinful man. And I claim him as my priest. Priest. Prophet and priest And king.

There were a lot of kings in the Old Testament. Very imperfect kings, but they were foreshadows. They were a type, imperfect type, but a type. of the one true King Jesus. He is our king.

And so you possess faith. When there is something that resonates up in your soul, as Jesus is taught as God's one true prophet, as Jesus is taught as God's one true priest, as Jesus is taught as God's one true and only king, then something inside you says, Yes, and amen. That's settled for me. That's in evidence. of possessing saving faith.

Now there are many others, but that is a very, very real evidence. I'd like to say a brief word here again about primary and secondary repentance. You know, you're saved when there's something in your heart, in your mind, where you have decided. All other approaches to pleasing God, I reject. All other ways to God that I may have heard about or been taught about, I reject.

All other teachers are saviors. Our spiritual authorities that told me to find God this way, I reject. I repent. I turn from all other avenues and look only to Jesus. That's primary repentance.

Now, secondary repentance is: I'm going to clean up my thought life. I'm going to clean up my words. I'm going to clean up my morality. I'm going to clean up my lying and stealing and cheating and anything that the Holy Spirit convicts me of. But as I've said before, if you have to repent of all secondary things in order to get saved, you're never saved because you don't even know all of them yet.

You repent them as you do them. As they arise in you, and you have now look. Always primary repentance, turning from all of their approaches to find God except for Jesus. That's foundational, and it always includes secondary repentance. You can't Receive Jesus and turn around and say, but I'm going to keep being a liar.

You can't receive Jesus and turn around and say, yeah, but I'm going to keep stealing or whatever it is. Certainly, as you know the secondary things, you would repent of them. But You can have a lot of secondary repentance and not primary repentance and never go to heaven. There's a lot of people that cleaned up their language. There's a lot of people that quit drinking.

There's a lot of people quit cheating on their spouse, and that makes them a better neighbor. It doesn't make them right with God. Only Christ And make them right with God. That's another way you know you possess faith.

So, we're to go into all the world and preach this gospel so that people become. disciples that is they possess faith But Jesus didn't leave it there. This is one of those texts that is pregnant with meaning. And by the way, as a side note, before we go to two, he said, Go and make disciples of all the nations, that is, not just the Jews. They are God's chosen people.

There's no way you can believe the Bible and not believe there seems to be some special plan for Israel in the future.

Now that's the remnant. converted, repentant, believe on Jesus Israel. The nation of Israel may do a lot of evil and bad things we can't support. Of course, that's true. But that God has something in store for a future Israel, I just don't see how you can cut that out of the text.

But When he's building his church. It includes all the nations. Red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in his sight. We go to all men everywhere and urge all men everywhere to repent. Because his glory is such.

His magnanimous nature is of such infinite wonder that it deserves glory and worship and praise and service from all peoples, tongues, tribes, and nations.

So, the possession of faith is the first station, if you will, in this ascending of faith in our lives. He said, Go and make disciples. Then he says, secondly, station two: a profession of faith is important. This is Jesus talking. Verse 19 again, go therefore and make disciples of all the nations.

Baptizing them. In the name of the Father. And the Son and the Holy Spirit.

So we're beginning to see some structural order to how God wants his work carried out on earth. These people become true believers. And that's why I so venerate our Baptist forefathers that when the state churches of Europe back in the even the sixteenth, seventeenth, eighteenth centuries all believed you were sprinkled into the church as a part of the state religion, And the Baptist rose up and said, That's not what the Bible says. You don't sprinkle babies, you only baptize believers. Like Jesus said, they become disciples.

Then you baptize them. That order is not secondary. That order is not of any consequence or of mild consequence, it's of serious consequence. Baptize them. By a local church, that is, and before a local church.

We would not hold that you can properly be baptized in someone's swimming pool unless the church is present and it has the blessing of the church family. That's the way God ordained it to function.

Now, that's not all spelled out here, but it definitely is in the following epistles that fill in, if you will. How this is worked out, and how the, if you will, the brass tacks and the shoe leather of how this is done is laid out for us. Matter of fact, when you look at this text. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. Teaching them to observe all that I've commanded you.

Well, how's that going to get done if you don't have people coming together and local congregations overseen by preaching, teaching pastors? There's no way to make that work. God's given us the way it's supposed to unfold, the way it's supposed to be structured and organized.

So, people are to be one to Christ and then baptized and become a part of a local body of baptized believers, i.e., a church, a local church. That's why you have the letter to the Ephesians. That's why you have the letter to the Philippians, the church at Philippi, the church at Ephesus, the church at Colossae, the church in the Galatian region, the church at Rome, the church at Corinth. Everywhere Paul went, he did two basic things. He preached.

and he built local churches.

So that's why at Grace Life Church, when we do missions, we only do two things: we send out preachers and establish local churches. or help revitalize the churches that are there. Can I just give you just a honest A statement about my own spiritual pilgrimage. When I was first converted, I was dismayed. At the hypocrisy.

And maybe the unbiblical nature of so many of our churches.

Now, there were some godly and genuine Christians in these churches, but overall the churches were just mildly biblical at best, it seemed to me. I would confess, maybe I was too zealous and judgmental, perhaps.

So I just begin to kind of discount the church and say, well, we can make true disciples through. Bible study groups on Tuesday, our discipleship groups on Thursday, our accountability groups on Saturday, and And it's as if God spoke to me one day, and you said, Did he speak to you audibly? No, it was louder than that. And God said, I've laid out the perfect plan right here. You don't have to reinvent.

The wheel. Pun intended. Why don't you just do what I've told you here and do it right and let me get the glory for my wisdom instead of you doing it your way, and then people can glorify your wisdom? You don't have any.

So that's when there was a radical turning point in my heart and soul that we're going to be about the church. And we're going to do all we can to make the church thoroughly biblical, glory of God-focused, Bible-saturated, and then see if God might multiply that. By the way. If you and I As a church family, I'm going to take this commission seriously. And we're going to go into all the world.

We need to take with us something worth reproducing. We ought to have a biblical enough, a decently healthy biblical model here. Before we take it over there. Doing mission work very long before I realized that the entire world sort of follows America. And unfortunately, the the entire Professing the Christian world followed the American church, which is very unhealthy.

And I thought, well, maybe God might let us. never perfect, never having arrived, but might let us give a healthier Model. to the world that they might follow.

So this is all about being baptized. if you will into the life and the body of a local church. When you're baptized, you're proclaiming, of course, Christ's death, burial, and resurrection. And when you're baptized, it's important to whom you're baptized before. You're baptized before a body of committed, covenant, established believers.

Who are pledging to serve God together. That's what local church membership is all about. You might say it this way: baptism says, baptism makes these statements. Number one, You're saying my hope. And only confidence is in Jesus Christ and his resurrection.

Number two, you're saying, now I am like you guys. I'm a believer, I'm saved, and I'm purposing to get on board with Jesus' purpose in the earth. to build his churches everywhere. And thirdly, you're saying I pledge to be one with you because we now belong together. Because we've begun to discover that none of us really, listen to me, none of us really fit rightly in any other collectivity that's out there.

Y'all do know I'm a Tennessee fan, don't you? But sometimes college football nauseates me. It is nauseating me. I like to cheer for them. I like to root for them.

But then sometimes I think this is the stupidest thing on earth. Do you ever do that? Do you Alabama fans ever do that? If not, you might need to check your spirituality. It's pretty stupid.

To cuss people out after you beat them. It's not smart. And there's something in you as a child of God that says, this doesn't really fit me. Nothing wrong with athletics, nothing wrong with enjoying the game, nothing wrong with cheering for your team, but I hope there's something in you that says, I don't really fit this. Boley.

But you know what? I walk in here and I think, boy, there's a lot of imperfect birds in this place.

Some strange sheep out here. And I'm one of them, but you know what? I just feel like I fit this. I was born again for this. But this collectivity, and by the way.

I love this new stage. I can come over and preach to TJ. Go over there, preach to Dacas, and both those guys need it. Lots of train of thought. This is what we're here for.

Here's what I was going to say. And it never ends. We're together forever. Get over it. Get used to it.

Enjoy it. But aren't you glad we When we're in the eternal state, he'll get rid of the old me and he'll put the new me on in full. The new glorified me.

So we're baptizing people into this special collectivity, this special organism, this special body of believers.

So that's your profession of faith. That baptistry is where you're professing publicly: I belong to Christ, and now I belong to you, local church family, and you belong to me. Forever. That's what Jesus is telling us to do. Anyway.

Uh we had um A stink bug apocalypse at my house the other day.

Somehow they found a crack in a bedroom. window upstairs and The first one came through and said, hey, y'all come on. Yeah. Pam stumbled upon them. And her first response is: Jeff, get the shop back and get these bugs up.

So I got the shop back and I went upstairs. And you know, I've noticed two things about stink bugs that are like Christians. Two things. Number one, they cluster together. Have you noticed that?

There are a few stragglers here and there, but most time they were kinda if you found one, you found a whole wad of them. That made sucking them up in the shop back a lot easier. And that's the way we are. We're to cluster together, we belong together. Secondly, they stink.

Now, here's what I mean by that. Paul said to the Corinthians. To some people, we Christians are the aroma of life. But to others we stink we're the aroma of death. You see, I want to be in the collectivity of people that think I smell good.

That thinks I'm an aroma of life when I stand on the truth and I love Jesus, that they like that, they're drawn to that. But there are people out there. Ask Charlie Kirk. He's in heaven. You can't ask him personally.

But ask, they hate you. You're a stitch to them. We don't fit anywhere else. We're like stink bugs. We blow them together and we have an odor.

That blesses some. We're destined for life and salvation, but others are going to hate.

Now look. I always try to say this because I've seen this happen too much. Don't go out there and try to be stinky. Irritable Obnoxious, difficult. No, you should be kind and gracious and loving and caring to all men.

But at the end of the day People who don't love Jesus are probably not going to thank you kind of guy or gal they want to be around closely anyway. All right. Station level three, if you will. As we see this ascending of faith. and the fulfilling of the great commission if you will Station three is the progression of faith.

You don't just win them to Christ and they possess faith, they become believers. You don't just baptize them and chunk them out in the membership and leave them alone. No. What does it say? You teach them to observe all things whatsoever I've commanded you.

You help them grow together.

So these new baptized believers, as these believers are going to go out from this Galilee area where Jesus is meeting with them, they're to go out there and win these people, they're to possess faith, they're to baptize them, making them a formal part of a local church family. And then God-called elder pastors are to teach them all things. That there too, and the word in the text is observe, not just know. Not know all things, that's where some of you fall short. You've made an idol out of scholarship, but not discipleship.

You know it.

So that you might do it. Model it. Scholarship's important. but only to the end that it makes churches stronger. and more obedient to God.

So he says, I want you to teach them that they might observe all things. Just some cross-references here to show you the emphasis on doing. over just knowing. In John seven, seventeen, Jesus said, If anyone is willing to do, not know, to do his will. In other words, You can take a 12-year-old boy that really loves Jesus and is trying to do the things of God, he can open the Bible and maybe understand more wisdom of God than the scholar.

In the graduate school. Because he's willing to do it. And God gives him more light and more understanding. You see, it takes more than human scholarship. It takes Holy Spirit illumination to understand that book.

Are you with me, church? And as we as a church are willing to do what the Bible says the church is to be about and ought to be doing. Not perfectly, praise the Lord for that. He'll give us more light and more light and more understanding and more understanding. How's he word it there?

If anyone's willing to do his will, he will know the teaching. Bishop Rouse says, it's the great Inlet of illumination. When we're willing to do his will, not just know the word of God, but to do his will. How shall I say this? And I'm saying this in a context.

Don't run with this and misquote me. But some of you would do better to know less but do what you already know. Or maybe not know a whole lot more, but keep doing better what you already know to do.

Well So who's going to be responsible to teach these folks?

Well, Jesus said to Peter, if you love me, feed my sheep. We know that the apostles, the original 12 disciples, if you will, Paul added on later. These apostles taught the local churches in effect. And then God assigned pastor teachers. To be the preachers, teachers of the body of Christ.

Ephesians 4:11 and 12, and he gave some as apostles, some as prophets, some as evangelists, some as pastors. And you could in the Greek just make that one title pastor slash teachers. For the equipping of the saints. See, that's doing it. For the work of service to the building up of the body of Christ.

So God's got a way, as you go through the New Testament, of doing what he commanded to be done in the Great Commission. Organize These new people who possess faithy disciples, baptize them as a formal entry into that fellowship, and then God-called pastor teachers are to. Teach and instruct them to observe, to put into practice how. He wants us to live out this Christianity. This is why the New Testament requires church members.

to hold in high esteem their pastors. to love their pastors. to submit to their pastors. and to obey their pastors. All biblical phrases are words For you as you look toward your pastors.

Why? Why would we have to hold those rascals in such high esteem? I don't mean that any of us are rascals, but sometimes people feel that way about a pastor.

Well, here's why. 1 Thessalonians 5.13. You esteem them very highly in love. Here it is, forwards, because of their work. It's not who they are.

It's what God has called them to do. that deserves your highest esteem. As one Baptist father is known to have said. While elders or pastors are not essential for the being of a church. You can go out and preach the word, and 20 people get converted, and they're baptized, they form a church, and they don't have a pastor yet.

quite common. But it is a church.

So pastors are not essential for the being of the church, but they are essential for the well-being. of the church. That's why, as the apostles were coming off of the scene, the Bible says they went everywhere appointing elders in all the churches. Pastor elders to carry on the work. That the early office of apostle used to perform, but now it's been handed over to.

Pastors.

So, now, how are you doing in this ascension of faith? Do you possess faith? Have you made a profession of faith? Why haven't more of you been baptized? Why haven't you obeyed God and been baptized?

Who do you think you are? You're not exempt from the divine plan for your work for God and the church.

Some of you today need to say, God, I'm heading toward baptism unless you stop me.

Some of you, you're way too over-analytical, and I'm going to tell you what I think some of you are doing. You're hiding behind, waiting for some particular set of goosebumps.

Some feeling. Do you possess faith? Have you made a profession of faith through baptism? Are you now in a sound church under sound preaching so that you can learn more how to observe all the things that Christ commanded us?

Some test that you're progressing.

some test the way you can If you will, analyze yourself to see, am I progressing? Let me ask you this. Here's some questions to ask yourself: Am I loving and treasuring Christ more than I did before? Am I loving and treasuring God's word more than I did before? Am I growing in gospel humility?

Am I feeling and sensing the weight of my unworthiness and sinfulness more and more? But at the same time, I'm joying more and more in the joy and cleansing and forgiveness that Jesus gives me. That's the gospel humility we talk about. Are you growing in a love? For the true local church.

More than you were before. I say that because there's a lot of congregations where there's some good and godly people in them, just not many of them. And it's hard not growing a love for people who don't know Christ. But when you get in a church that's doing a decent job at being a real church or a true church, you should find yourself loving those people more. If you're progressing in the faith.

And here's what's wonderful about it: you begin to love people who aren't like you at all. Oh my goodness, there's been such a movement over several decades of designing our churches so that every niche somebody's in, they can find a group in the church that's in their niche. Motorcyclists for Jesus, or deer hunters for Jesus, or whatever for Jesus. That's not necessarily wrong, but does your love for Jesus not overcome whether or not you hunt together? Does your love for Jesus not overcome whether or not you get on a bicycle and act like you're in hell's angels and you're 90 years old?

Scares me to death. I see these motorcyclists come down there like, oh my gosh, they're going to kill somebody. They look rough and rugged, and I get to look at them. I said, Well, the average age is 75, they're not going to hurt anybody. Nothing wrong with that.

But here's our identity: that Jesus saved us all, a bunch of wretches that hold to be in hell, and we love him, and we have that in common, and that supersedes anything else. Anything else?

Now, you know, if you're an Alabama fan, you may not go to a ball game with an Auburn fan, but that's just a ball game. You overcome that nonsense. Any other time. Amen? Are you grow are you progressing in your faith?

An axiom. Is something that's self-evident. An axiom is something that requires no proof. Here's some axiomatic things. The axiom that there is a God.

Don't try to explain him being an apologist about there's a God. Just preach his word, he'll make himself known. He doesn't need your wisdom to make it real that he's a God or he is the God. It's an axiom there is a God, it needs no explanation. It's an axiom that Scripture is the Word of God, it's of divine origin.

As Spurgeon said, it's like a lion. You don't need to defend it, just turn it loose. Watch what it does. And it's an axiom. that all believers that belong to a local church.

You see, it's continually exemplified in the New Testament, and it's the only organized structure for Christian fellowship and service that we see in the New Testament. There are no basketball clubs for Jesus. There are no fellowship of Christian athletes. There are no Gideons. Those are fine and wonderful.

We support some of them, but those come and go, but the church stays.

So let's do that right. Let's do that right. and get to the other things if and when we can. In one sense, if it's good enough for the Apostle Paul, it ought to be good enough for us. That's why the Bible says, do not forsake the assembling of yourselves together, because there's only one institution on the earth, one organized structure on the earth whereby Christians sharpen, fellowship, encourage, love, care for, hold accountable, discipline, all the things we need.

All that's to happen in a local body of believers, a local church.

Now And every Body of believers. The other axiomatic thing. is that every local church must be about this commission. They're going to all the world. Make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I've commanded you, and lo, I'm with you always, even to the end of the age.

Every local church. It's axiomatic nose, that's their job. Immature. Organisms always reproduce. That's why there's Grace Life Church of Brookhaven, Mississippi, and Grace Life Church of Pryor, Oklahoma.

and Grace Life Church of Senatobia, Mississippi. And Redeeming Grace Church of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Grace Life Church of southern New Hampshire, and many, many more. Why? Because if we become a decent model of what a church is, we ought to be reproducing. Because that's what the text tells us is our job.

They go everywhere. Make decidos. baptize them into local church fellowships, then grow them up.

Now I have some things I'm going to skip right quick, but let me just note the context of this, and that is that. The New Testament. is abundant with illustrations and commands. To help. One another in this effort.

to preach the word and plant churches all over the world. Paul over and over emphasizes to churches and church leaders all over the world where he's ministering: help this brother, support this brother, help me when I come through, over and over. God means for that to happen.

Well, okay. Station four. In the ascending of faith. Do you possess faith? Have you made a profession of faith?

Are you progressing in your faith in a local church under sound preaching and teaching? Number four, the provision. for our faith. And what a provision this is. Last phrase, verse 20 of our text.

And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.

What a promise. I am. It's a prophetic perfect. It means I'm with you and I always will be. You have May And then this ascending of faith.

You know what the last level is, if you will, it's right here. Knowing he's with me. Knowing Hum. Experiencing him. Cherishing Him.

drawing near to him. Because then that Comes full circle around to.

So therefore, I want to go and make disciples for him. And I want to baptize them for him. And I want them to learn all they need to learn and observe for him.

So that they might grow up. Form a local church, and then they might go through the same process and go out and win more for him. And baptize more for him. And grow them up to observe all things for him. Because he's our primary provision.

and motivation. and purpose What a provision. What did he say when he first started here? He comes up and says, I want you guys to know something before I go to heaven. All authority's been given to me.

In heaven? And an earth.

Now they saw his authority on the earth. My goodness, healing all the sick and Providing food for all these people, and miracle after miracle, and casting out demons, and raising the dead. He said, but I want you to know something. I don't just have authority down here, I have authority in the place I came from.

Now you need to think on that. I had all authority in heaven where I was. I have all authority on the earth, and I have all authority in the place I'm about to go to again, and that's heaven. It's all mine. And he's saying, I'm all yours.

That's your provision. The Christ, God the Son, and the Son of the living God. What a provision. He is in us. And he is with us now and forever.

More.

So, with the power of that full authority in heaven and on earth. Go and help folks to possess faith, become disciples. Help folks to profess their faith by being baptized. By and in a local congregation. Go and then help them to observe and be trained to grow up.

And all of these things. and to joy in and glory in my presence with them.

So that they might go out from themselves. Help folks to possess faith. Become disciples, that is. Help folks to be baptized, become members of a local church. Help them to grow up.

And learn that I'm their real provision.

So that they themselves might go out. And it keeps going. And it keeps going and it keeps going.

Well, that's what I call the great ascension of our faith. And the great Commission. of the church. How do you store? What station are you at?

Can you say, Pastor, I'm I'm there where I'm committed. I'm not saying you have a burden about it, okay? You're not always going to have a burden about missions or church planning. Are sending out these boys we're training to plant churches. But there ought to be something in you that says, But I've come to the point where I know that's the main thing.

And I'm willing to pray for it. I'm willing to go with them from time to time. I'm willing to financially support it because that's the pinnacle. Your faith needs to get to. All because.

Uh Because Jeff Knoblett is wild and crazy and yells at us about it. No. Oh. Because I'm Jesus. I belong to him and he is mine.

And I love him. And even if my pastors mess up, I'm still going to be about it. It's still about him. We need each other. We need the family.

We need faithful preachers. But at the end of the day, it's because I know him. What station are you at? Yeah.