The Great Commission

Hello, and welcome back to the Live Boldly Podcast, brought to you by Celebration Baptist Church.

I'm Jessica, and today I'm once again joined by Pastor Scott, who's going to be speaking about the topic of the Great Commission.

So, Pastor Scott, how were the two years that you spent in Singapore impactful on you and your Christian walk?

Life-changing.

I mean, I think this was definitely a pivot point in my life.

As we talked about yesterday, I was in banking in a job and got to a point where I knew I was not where I was either supposed to be or where I was going to be long term.

And so if you fast forward from that moment nine months, I found myself landing in Singapore.

Wow.

And so I was a journeyman with the International Mission Board, and I was assigned to International Baptist Church in Singapore to be their youth pastor.

Singapore is a very multi-ethnic, very diverse country, and so I got to be a part of a very diverse church there and to be to lead the youth ministry there.

However, that time in the youth ministry, in the church in Singapore, I also had the opportunity to be exposed to more nations, more travel, more people groups.

And so I was I was a there was a story, and I think we wrote it in the devotion, was that uh there was a there was a point where I was in Malaysia at a missionary retreat, uh sitting on a bench one morning, just overlooking uh the Straits of Malacca, the body of water between Malaysia and Indonesia.

And uh Indonesia is uh the fourth largest country uh in the world, and uh a very small, very minute percentage of uh believers, uh Christ followers in that country.

And one of our mission leaders, uh who was a good friend of mine, who was also in missionary leadership, uh came up and sat down next to me and just uh and just took that opportunity to to plant a seed in my life, to plant a bug in my ear, uh, if you will.

And he he asked me, he said, Do you see, do you see the horizon out there?

And yes.

And uh he said, that is the that's Indonesia.

It was the island of Sumatra.

And he said, that is he said that's the fourth largest uh country in the world.

And um less than, you know, less than it's like less than 1% at the time, you know, less than 2% Christian over there.

And basically the challenge was, would you give your life to the unreached peoples of the world?

And it was in that moment, it was like, all right, I don't know what it's gonna look like, but my life is very Great Commission uh focused.

Uh the nations will be my ministry uh for my life.

So so I would say that that time in Singapore became very uh impactful because those two years kind of helped set that course uh for me.

Yes.

Wow, that sounds impactful.

So, what made the experiences of seeing different countries, different nations, different cultures, how did that influence your life and become useful to you as a missions pastor?

Well, traveling and not just as a tourist, but traveling as a Christ follower, traveling with maybe God's eyes, uh, if you will, uh being able to go to countries like China or Japan or the Philippines or Indonesia, um, you begin to see the diversity of the world at greater levels.

Yes.

And as you interact with Christ followers, as you interact with the church of the various nations, you begin to see uh that that little taste of heaven, maybe.

You begin to see that God's creation is diverse and God's church is diverse, and suddenly Revelation 7 uh comes to life, where there will be a day that we're all gathered around the thrones of heaven, and there will be a remnant, a multi- a multitude with a remnant from every tribe, tongue, and nation worshiping for eternity.

And so traveling, experiencing the different peoples and cultures opens your eyes to the kind of the truths of the Bible.

That's exciting.

So, what would you say to advise someone who feels like maybe they're being called to a similar life change as you?

Uh but they kind of feel like maybe it's not possible because of certain life circumstances.

Uh, of course it's possible, because nothing's impossible with God.

And God, God knows your circumstances, and if he's calling you, he will provide a way out of those circumstances or through those circumstances that will position you to be able to follow that call.

Yeah, that makes sense.

So, what would you say to somebody who feels like they're being called to the Great Commission, but maybe they're not being called to drastically change their location?

Well, the Great Commission is not just missions.

That's the mistake we make.

Uh the Great Commission is actually a command to all believers.

Yes.

The command is not to go to the nations, the command is to make disciples of all the nations.

And that is evangelism.

That is sharing the good news of Jesus wherever you are.

And so uh it doesn't have to be something so dramatic as we're being called to sell everything we own and move the family around the world.

Now I will say this: many people are that either aren't hearing it or obeying it.

But that perception also can't be the barrier to simply follow in obedience to uh sharing the gospel.

And as this world becomes more globalized, even right here in Tallahassee, uh there are international communities here, yes, including unreached people groups that are here.

So we have the opportunity to share the gospel with lost people, whether they look like us or whether they are from another people group or another country.

So I would certainly say you don't have to go across the world.

You might just need to cross the street.

Yeah, that's important.

So if we're all called to the Great Commission, you know, what would you say to someone who like has attempted to share their faith but then experienced rejection from those that they witnessed to?

How would you encourage us?

That is probably the number one reason why we don't share the gospel.

Yeah.

Why we we we are afraid of rejection, we're afraid of what people are going to think about us.

Or, well, surely they've already heard this and they just haven't accepted yet.

So why should I tell them?

Uh there's bookends to the Great Commission.

And Jesus says, All authority on heaven in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

Yeah.

Therefore, make disciples.

The end of that verse is basically, don't be afraid.

I am with you even till the end of the age.

So we're given, we're given this command out of the authority of God Himself, but also promised the presence of God in it, which should give us that confidence.

One more thing.

Yeah.

And that is this it's God who saves, not us.

We are called to share, not to save.

That should take all the pressure off.

So we're simply called to be faithful, faithful to steward, the gospel message.

That is kind of a relief.

Thanks for all your encouragement today, Pastor Scott.

To everyone listening, don't forget to follow Celebration Baptist Church on Instagram and Facebook and subscribe to our YouTube channel too.

That way you can keep up with our current sermon series, live boldly, and explore everything else happening in our celebration family.

Pastor Scott, would you take time to pray for us today?

Certainly.

Father, again, we thank you for your salvation.

We thank you that you so loved this world, that you gave your one and only Son, that if we would certainly believe in him, that you would grant us an eternal life, that you would grant us salvation.

And Father, you have saved us with a purpose, and that is to reach those who don't know you.

God, I pray that you would break our heart for the lost.

Break our heart for those that do not know you.

And God, I pray that you would, by the power of your Holy Spirit, give us the confidence and the ability to be faithful with the message that you have given us.

And certainly we pray for those that do not know you, that we will come into contact with.

Prepare them to hear the message.

God, prepare them for salvation.

And Father, we pray that you would do this for the glory of your name.

In Jesus Christ, we pray.

Amen.

Amen.

Thank you, Pastor Scott.

Be sure to tune in tomorrow to hear the third installment of Pastor Scott's story.

We'll see you then.