Sept. 13, 2026 - Until the King Returns | Luke 19:11-27, Acts 1:6-11 Baptist Bible Church, Sparta MI

I think we'd all agree this morning that final instructions tend to be important.

Final instructions tend to be significant.

Think of a parent leaving for work in the morning.

High schoolers at home for summer break.

Final instructions before the parent leaves for work.

Don't forget to empty the dishwasher.

It's probably important for that teenager to remember those instructions, isn't it?

A teacher before the day of the exam.

Don't forget to study the most recent Greek vocab words.

Probably a good clue, a good indicator that you should have those terms memorized.

Good chance they'll be on the exam.

I'm not speaking from personal experience this morning.

It's almost as though with final instructions, what's being communicated is that if you do nothing else, if you remember nothing else, at least remember this.

At the very least, at the very least, do this because this is important.

This is significant.

Which obviously leads us this morning to ask the question if final instructions are significant, important, what were Jesus' final instructions?

What were some of the things Jesus said before he left?

If these last words, if these final instructions are so important, then we as a church, we as believers, we as Christians this morning, we would do well to know what Jesus said.

To take heed to those final instructions, because they reveal what Jesus considered to be important to communicate before he went away.

In fact, we would contend this morning that these final instructions indeed reveal what the church is called to do while the king is away.

So this morning, open with me in your own copies of God's Word to the book of Luke, chapter 19.

Luke 19 · chapter mention

What I'd like to do this morning for our mission Sunday is to refresh ourselves and remind ourselves on what the mission of the church is.

And if you've been here any amount of time, you probably already know what the sermon is going to be.

Thanks for staying here and not leaving.

But it's important, I think, to keep it in front of us, to keep this reminder front and center.

It can be easy to be distracted by other things.

I think, especially in church life, we can get distracted by other things, not unimportant things, but things that distract us from the why behind why we're here, why we do what we do.

And a Mission Sunday is a chance for us to just remember the why.

Why do we gather?

Why do we serve?

Why do we worship together?

What are we doing here as a church?

What are we trying to accomplish?

And so we're gonna review that this morning by looking to the final instructions that Jesus gave before he ascended to the right hand of the Father.

So in Luke chapter 19, we'll begin in verse 11, but before we do so, let's pray.

Luke 19 · chapter mention

And then we'll dig into the text.

Heavenly Father, thanks for today.

Thankful now for this opportunity to open up your word.

Help me as I preach this morning.

Father, just help me to communicate your word, to preach in a way that helps your word to become more understandable, more clear.

Father, I pray that I would be minimized this morning and you would be magnified this morning through the preaching of your word.

And I pray that as we hear and receive your word this morning, that it would make an impact on us, that it wouldn't just go in one ear and out the other, but that we'd really take heed to the instructions of Scripture and seek to go out and to live accordingly, to embrace your word and to, as we recognized in Sunday school this morning, to walk in the truth, not just hear it, but walk in it.

So help help us with these things this morning.

It's in Jesus' name I pray.

Amen.

Luke chapter 19, beginning in verse 11.

Luke 19 · chapter mention

Before we read that verse, it's important to note that in the book of Luke, one of the things Luke does as he writes this gospel is he uses directional language.

It's kind of interesting.

One of the literary devices that Luke uses is he sets Jesus, in telling the story of Jesus, he sets Jesus on a path.

And as you go through the book of Luke, you'll notice a recurring phrase that Jesus is on a path toward Jerusalem.

And Luke kind of brings this up again and again.

It's repeated several times throughout the book, that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem, traveling towards Jerusalem.

And the reason why Luke does this is because he's pointing towards the culmination of Jesus' earthly ministry.

And his point is that something significant is coming.

Jesus is going in a direction.

He's heading somewhere where that end destination is significant.

Last weekend I got to go up to Mackinac for Labor Day weekend.

We enjoyed some camping, some church camping.

By the way, if you'd like to join us next year, let Mary Claire know.

And you would, I think, certainly enjoy some good church fellowship up there as we camped together up in Mackinac.

But that's been something we've done for several years.

We enjoy it.

It's a destination, though.

You have to drive to get there.

And the drive isn't always the fun part.

The drive isn't necessarily enjoyable, but the destination is.

And you get to Mackinac and there's the bridge, and you think, we've arrived.

And you get to the campground, and other people think, we've arrived.

And I say, no, we haven't arrived yet.

We get the campground set up, and maybe we get the campfire going, and other people think, ah, we finally made it.

And I say, No, not yet.

It's not until we head to the ice cream shop and get my favorite flavor of ice cream, bear claw ice cream.

Now we've arrived.

That's the culmination.

That's the destination.

That's where we're going.

And we go every night, don't we, Riot?

Luke is presenting Jerusalem as this destination.

Something important is going to happen here.

Something culminates here.

This is the climax of the story.

And if you notice in Luke chapter 19, verse 11, we read, as they heard these things, he proceeded to tell a parable because he was near to Jerusalem.

Luke 19:11

And because they supposed that the kingdom of God was to appear immediately.

Interesting.

Now, in the context, Jesus is in Jericho, which is the town just before you hit Jerusalem.

And so Luke is revving up the excitement, the anticipation.

He's in Jericho.

He has the interaction with Zacchaeus, and he is on his way.

Next stop, Jerusalem.

The culmination of Jesus' earthly ministry.

And what's interesting here is that the crowds of people are buying into the anticipation.

They're buying into the excitements.

It's almost like by reading the text, you can sense there's a buzz in the crowds.

Jesus is almost to Jerusalem.

He's almost there.

But notice, notice the excitement, what it was derived from.

What did the people suppose was going to happen when Jesus made it to Jerusalem?

The text tells us they supposed that he was going to establish the kingdom of God.

This is what the, and by the way, not without good reason.

This was prophesied about in the Old Testament, that the Messiah would come and establish this kingdom.

And the people, as they, as they saw Jesus slowly making his way closer and closer to Jerusalem, the anticipation started to build.

Is the kingdom going to be established?

Is Jesus going to sit on the throne of David?

Is he going to rule and reign?

Is he going to overthrow our Roman oppressors and establish this kingdom, this golden age of the kingdom of God on earth?

And everybody's getting excited because Jerusalem's coming.

And Jesus will rule and reign here on earth.

Now, this excitement, this anticipation was not all wrong.

But there's one, there's one minor detail that the crowds did get wrong.

Did you see it in the text?

Look at the very last word.

Immediately.

Immediately.

They assumed that this was going to happen now.

And so what does Jesus do?

He tells a parable.

And the parable is meant to explain, it's meant to teach, it's meant to correct this false assumption.

Yes, something significant is going to happen in Jerusalem.

This is the climax of the story.

But the kingdom of God part, we're not quite there yet.

So Jesus tells the parable.

Let's read the parable in its entirety, and then we'll draw some implications from the story.

Verse 12.

He said, therefore, a noblem went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom, and then return.

Calling ten of his servants, he gave them ten minas, and said to them, Engage in business until I come.

But his citizens hated him, and sent a delegation after him, saying, We don't want this man to reign over us.

When he returned, having received the kingdom, he ordered these servants to whom he had given the money to be called to him, that he might know what they had gained by doing business.

The first came before him, saying, Lord, your Mina has made ten minas more.

And he said to him, Well done, good servant, because you have been faithful in a very little, you shall have authority over ten cities.

And the second came, saying, Lord, your Mina has made five minas.

And he said to him, And you are to be over five cities.

Then another came, saying, Lord, here is your Mina, which I kept laid away in a handkerchief.

For I was afraid of you, because you are a severe man.

You take what you did not deposit, and reap what you did not sow.

He said to him, I will condemn you with your own words, you wicked servant.

You knew that I was a severe man, taking what I did not deposit and reaping what I did not sow.

Why then did you not put my money in the bank?

And at my coming I might have collected it with interest.

And he said to those who stood by, Take the Mina from him and give it to the one who has the ten Minas.

And they said to him, Lord, he has ten Minas.

I tell you that to every one who has, more will be given, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.

But as for these enemies of mine who did not want me to reign over them, bring them here and slaughter them before me.

Now, this is important it's important as we read parables to not take away every single thing out of the parable and assign a meaning to it.

That tends to not really be the point of the parables.

The parables tend to communicate one significant truth.

So we need to keep that in mind as we examine this parable this morning, but as we read it, it does convey some significant concepts to us that are important for us to understand.

So as we look into this very first portion of Scripture this morning, the first thing we need to recognize is that Jesus is the nobleman who went away to receive the kingdom.

In this story, the nobleman who went to receive the kingdom pictures Jesus.

And by the way, that would have been common procedure in Roman times.

The Caesar would have overseen the entire empire, but would have delegated responsibility to rule individual kingdoms that were a part of that Roman Empire.

And so there was actually an example of somebody in Jesus' lifetime, a governor who had gone to Rome and appeared before Caesar in order to receive the right to rule his specific region.

So Jesus is drawing on what had been common practice and puts that into this story.

But what is being communicated here is very significant because remember, what did the people expect?

That Jesus was going to establish the kingdom of God when?

Immediately.

And Jesus tells this parable and clarifies right away that the nobleman is going to do what?

He's going to go away.

He's not establishing the kingdom, he's going to go away and receive the kingdom and then come back.

So here we see in this parable the second coming of Jesus and understand that at the second coming of Christ is when he will establish the kingdom of God on earth.

So we notice that within this parable, Jesus explains this principle, but notice something else significant here.

So we notice the second thing that while Jesus is away, while the nobleman is away, he expects his servants to get to work.

He expects the servants to get to work.

And we need to recognize this morning that Jesus is also communicating this truth to his followers today.

That while the king is away, while Jesus is away, he's not physically ruling and reigning here out of Jerusalem right now.

He's away receiving the kingdom.

And while he is away, there is an expectation that his followers, his servants, will engage in work.

They will get about the business of the king.

We notice the minas that were given would have been a sum of money totaling approximately three months' wages.

So a significant amount of money, but not an exorbitant amount by any means.

What he's communicating is that while he's away, his followers will be expected to engage in the work that he leaves them.

He left us with something.

His expectation is that we will engage in work.

We're not meant to be left to our own devices, twiddling our thumbs, wondering what do we do while we wait for Jesus to come back.

That isn't what's communicated in the parable.

The idea is the king gives specific instructions and says, Do this while you wait for me.

This is the mindset and the attitude we should embrace as Christians this morning.

We are expected to get about the work of the king and notice that one day the king will come back.

The king will return one day and notice that when he returns, there is an account that's given.

He doesn't just come back and just start ruling and reigning.

He brings the servants to himself and he asks the question, What have you been up to?

What did you do with the work that I entrusted to you?

And we notice the first two servants were faithful.

They did the work as was expected.

And notice the reward that was given.

It's exponential.

We notice here the king is generous.

Ten Minas, remember the months, the three months' wage turns into what?

Ten cities.

Ten cities.

Meaning there is an exponential generosity in the reward of the king.

When the king returns to reward his faithful servants, it will be above and beyond the work that was done.

The reward will far outweigh the work.

We notice that here in the text.

But the other thing we need to notice is that there is also a warning here.

The warning is for the idol servants.

The warning is for the servant that didn't do the master's work while the master was away.

We notice that here as well.

One day the king will return.

Idol servants will be held to accounts, and they will not be rewarded.

There's a missionary, a famous missionary named William Carey.

And William Carey was a missionary to India in the 1800s.

And he had a famous quote.

He said, I'm not afraid of failure.

I'm afraid of succeeding at things that don't matter.

I thought that was pretty profound when I heard that the first time.

I think for us as Christians, the challenge is clear.

Don't confuse busyness with faithfulness.

It's entirely too easy to be busy, isn't it?

We can fill our lives with a lot of busy work, a lot of busy labor.

And not bad, I'm not saying bad.

Not saying bad.

But busy.

And it's possible to do that in the church, isn't it?

To just be busy, busy, busy.

Serve, serve, serve, serve, serve, busy, busy, busy.

But is it the work that Jesus specifically left us with?

I think that's the question we have to ask ourselves, isn't it?

Is what I'm doing mattering?

Does it matter?

And I like, I'm just.

This is a question I ask myself.

So don't think I'm trying to point any fingers at anybody this morning.

It's just a question of honest evaluation.

And I think we all ought to be asking that question, reflecting on that at times in our lives.

Am I just busy for busyness sake?

Or or am I engaged in the work that the king wants me to be doing?

That's the question.

It's like when I tell my kids, I tell my kids, you need to go in your room, you need to clean up your toys in your room.

I go into the room and I maybe I see, oh, like maybe one of my sons has built something really cool or wants to show me something, and it's cool and I like to see it.

But then you know I have to ask the question.

But did you do what I told you to do?

Oh, oops.

Right?

Like, are you doing what I told you to do?

Because that's what the expectation is.

That's what matters.

And we notice here in the parable when the king draws the servants to himself, he asks, Have you been doing the work that I've entrusted to you?

So then the question this morning, if if this is what is so important, if we need to be so careful to be doing the work that the king has entrusted, the question then becomes, What is the work?

So that when I stand before the king someday, I know that I've been engaged in the work and in the labor that he wants me to be doing.

That's a relevant question for us this morning.

And I think helpfully Jesus clarifies the work.

He clarifies the work in the form of those final instructions that he gives before he leaves.

So turn with me now to Luke chapter 24.

Luke 24 · chapter mention

This is after the crucifixion, the burial, and the resurrection.

Here we get into some of these final instructions.

Let's go to verse 44.

Luke 24, 44.

Jesus is speaking to his disciples here.

He says, Then he said to them, These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you.

That everything written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.

Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and said to them, Thus it is written that the Christ should suffer, and on the third day rise from the dead.

So here we notice Jesus is explaining to the disciples that my death, my crucifixion, that was all part of the plan the whole time.

That was what the plan was from the beginning, that I would come to earth and offer up my body as a sacrifice for sin.

This in fact is good news, he's telling his disciples.

This is a good thing.

My death was good, in the sense that sin has now been atoned for.

The sins of mankind, your sin that you could never pay for, your sin that you can never atone for.

It's been covered by my blood at the cross.

This is amazing news.

This is this is.

World-changing, life-changing news right here.

And Jesus is saying, This was God's plan from the beginning.

This has been prophesied about through the Old Testament scriptures.

It was all pointing to this moment that I would die for the sins of mankind.

Then he goes to verse 47.

What else does he say?

And what else is part of the plan?

And that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.

What else is part of God's plan?

After the resurrection, post-resurrection, what's God's plan?

That the message of forgiveness, the gospel, the good news that Jesus died for sins was buried and rose again, that that message would then spread.

It would spread.

And church, not by osmosis, not by osmosis, not by telepathy, not by rubbing shoulders.

What's the key word?

Somebody help me.

Proclaim.

As Don proclaimed, it is proclaimed.

This message of the gospel is spread through telling people.

Telling people, hey, your sins can be forgiven.

Jesus died for him at the cross.

You just need to place your faith and trust in him.

This is a part of the plan of God.

That after the resurrection, these are the final instructions, people.

These are the final instructions.

Jesus says, hey, I've done my job, I've done my role, I've offered my life as a sacrifice for sin.

But now guess what?

The story's not over.

The story's not done.

Now it's your turn.

Now it's your turn to go, starting right here in Jerusalem, to the ends of the earth.

Tell people what happened.

And guess what?

That's been going on since 2,000 years ago to today.

The mission hasn't changed.

This is the mission of the church.

This is the mission we're called to.

To go out and to start proclaiming, to tell people about what Jesus did for them.

This is a part of God's plan.

This is the mission and design for the church.

As we look at the parable, this is the work that the nobleman has been has entrusted to us as the while the king is away.

What are we supposed to do?

Tell people what Jesus did.

Tell people what the message of the gospel is.

This correlates to the end of the book of Matthew.

Jesus teaches a very similar concept.

What does he say?

Go and make disciples.

Go and make disciples.

Baptize them and then teach them everything that I've commanded.

Meaning the mission of making disciples, this is the work that the church has been called to engage in while the king is away.

And by the way, this is the work that the church will be evaluated on when the king returns.

It'll be a simple question.

Did you make disciples?

Did you make disciples?

Did you tell people what I did for them?

Did you spread the good news of the gospel message?

That's the question.

Okay, one final passage, Acts chapter 1.

Acts 1 · chapter mention

These are the final, final instructions.

We're talking like pre-liftoff instructions here.

Right before Jesus ascends into the heavens.

What does he say?

Look in Acts chapter 1.

Acts 1 · chapter mention

Look with me in verse 6.

Oops, I didn't let you fill in blanks there.

Fill in your blanks quick.

And turn to Acts chapter 1.

Acts 1 · chapter mention

We read, so when they had come together, they asked him, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?

Now isn't that interesting?

We just read that in Luke, that that was the expectation.

But the problem was, immediately, immediately, that's the problem.

And so Jesus is with his disciples just before he ascends to heaven.

And what are the disciples wondering?

Is it now?

Is it now?

Is it finally now?

Right?

Jesus, now that you like you died, you rose from the grave, you're here with us.

Now is it time for the kingdom to be established on earth?

What does Jesus say in verse 7?

He said to them, It's not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority.

Now, what does that mean?

Okay, let me advance the slides for you.

What does that mean?

In other words, Jesus tells the disciples, that's not for you to know.

Don't worry about it.

Okay, that's what I told my kids on the drive up to Mackinac.

Dad, are we there yet?

That's not for you to know.

Stop asking me.

It's the only way to stop, stop the questions.

You just don't get to know.

That's essentially what Jesus tells his disciples here.

They say, Is the kingdom now?

Jesus says, Stop worrying about the kingdom.

It will be established when the Father determines that it will be established.

So, in other words, what Jesus says is, no, no, it's not the time.

Stop worrying about the timing of the kingdom.

It'll come when God establishes it.

So then after Jesus gives this answer in verse 8, or in verse 7, then he directs her, he redirects the focus away from the kingdom to what in verse 8.

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth.

Boom.

Period.

That's the last thing Jesus said.

Because verse 9, what does it say?

He was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.

Now we do have some more statements from Jesus in the New Testament.

He says some things to Paul.

We have the book of Revelation where he speaks to John.

But the idea is the last thing Jesus, the last instruction he gave his disciples before he ascended into heaven is found right here.

It's the last thing.

And what is the last thing he instructed his disciples to do?

What's the work he entrusted them with while he's away?

Go and be my witnesses.

In other words, tell people.

Tell people.

Don't let this message of the gospel just stay inside of you.

Go and witness to what happened by telling other people.

And that is the mission that we are called to engage in, church.

Don't let the gospel just sit in here.

Tell people.

Tell people what Jesus did.

Go and make disciples.

Reproduce.

Replicate.

See more people come to know Jesus.

This is the mission.

This is the calling.

But notice significantly here that this isn't something we're left alone to do.

Because what does Jesus promise here in verse 8?

He says that you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.

And by the way, one chapter later in Acts chapter 2, we read of that event when the Holy Spirit comes and indwells the disciples.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

And the book of Acts demonstrates how this indwelling of the Spirit is in fact for all Christians.

All believers at the moment of salvation are indwelt by the Spirit, which means at the moment of your salvation, guess what you're empowered to do, people?

The mission.

You may think this morning, I've got a long way to go.

There's no way I could make any disciples right now.

I've got, I have to learn so much more, and I still struggle with these sins.

I've got to work on this and I've got to get myself better.

I've got to change these things about who I am.

I'm on like a five-year tract before I'm ready to start making disciples.

And what does Jesus say here?

Hey, just wait a few days, the Holy Spirit will come, and boom, you'll be ready to go.

That's it, church.

If you have the Spirit this morning, which means if you have placed your faith and trust in Jesus to save you, you are equipped with divine power to do this.

To go make disciples, to tell people about Jesus.

Tell me right now, you don't have an excuse in your mind.

You gotta argue that with God, not with me.

By the way, the transformative work of saving and regenerating dead sinners, or the work of transforming hearts of believers to become more like Jesus, that's Holy Spirit work, by the way.

Which means your mission is simple.

It's simple, isn't it?

What does Jesus say throughout these final instructions?

Just go tell people.

Just go teach people the gospel, tell people the gospel.

Leave the saving to God.

He'll do it.

We're called to be the mouthpiece.

The ones to go out, build the relationships, connect with people, tell them about Jesus, invite them to Bible study.

Don't miss the connection to the parable.

What does Jesus do in verse 9?

He leaves.

This is the fulfillment of the parable.

He leaves.

What are we called to do while he's gone?

Engage in the work he's entrusted us with.

Somebody say amen this morning.

Alright.

Last thing before we go this morning.

One more blank.

The king's gone to receive his kingdom.

He will come back someday.

When he comes, he'll establish that kingdom on earth.

We'll rule and reign with him.

But there will be an accounting.

Did we do what the king told us to do?

It's a simple question.

The indwelling Holy Spirit is who empowers and enables Christians to accomplish the work of the King.

Okay, so my challenge to you this morning: take that next step.

Take the next step of making disciples.

I don't know about you, but when I order something from Amazon, I need the step-by-step guide.

I need it.

Some of you are master constructors out there, you probably get that, and just throw the instructions in the trash and say, I can build this.

Not me.

I gotta make sure I'm following step by step by step, and I still end up with like five extra screws usually at the end of the project.

I'm pretty sure they just throw those in there just to mess with you.

Pretty sure that's just like to make you think you mess something up and maybe buy another one or something.

But I gotta follow those instructions.

They guide me, they help me to know what my next step is.

And here at BBC, we have sought to build a ministry that answers that question for you because I can stand up here and I can preach and I can say, hey, make disciples.

I can say that all day.

And all day I think we can say amen to that.

But maybe the question you have in your mind this morning is, okay, what do I do next?

What's my if I want to do this?

If I want to engage in the work of making disciples, what is my next step on that path?

And so we've sought to develop that with a ministry that's called the trellis.

And the trellis, you've just got a little bit of information up there.

I'll just walk through it quick as we close this morning.

We call it the trellis because in a garden, the trellis isn't the fruits, it isn't the vine, it isn't the growth.

You can have a trellis and you can have nothing growing on it, and it's worthless.

But what the point of the trellis is, is it's meant to support healthy vine growth.

It's meant to help the plant to grow.

And that's the idea behind our Wednesday night ministry is to build something that just helps discipleship happen, helps you take that next step in making disciples.

And so I'd invite you, I'd like to personally invite you to join us for the trellis on Wednesday nights.

We meet at 6.45 Wednesday evening, and we start right here in this sanctuary with a short, it's really, for those who went last year, it's pretty short, isn't it?

Yeah, Dan, thank you.

A short devotional, a short discipleship challenge.

And we go through that together, and then once that's done, um, I keep a list of prayer requests, and we really try to keep that in front of us and be intentional about who I can reach with the gospel.

And we share updates together as uh fellow disciple makers, and we'll share, hey, I've had this update, I got to talk to so-and-so, I've been trying to build a relationship with them, I got to talk with so-and-so, and uh they were asking me about church, and so I got to tell them about what we do here, or hey, I got to make a good connection with a neighbor the other day, and we just we bonded over having kids together, and so we got to have a cool connection, and maybe the Lord's opening a door, right?

We share updates with one another, and then we do something really important.

Yeah! We pray, we pray, we pray for one another, we pray for opportunities, opportunities.

We pray that the Lord would continue to open up doors and opportunities to share the gospel and to make disciples.

We do that together.

It's awesome.

I love it.

I want you to come and do it with me.

If if you couldn't guess by the sermon and the whole Mission Sunday challenge, uh come out and do it with me and do it with other uh folks that come on out.

It really is a good time.

After that's finished, we grab a snack and then we split up.

And that's where we really try to put into practice uh this disciple making process.

And we tend to meet in uh groups of either one-on-one.

Um we try to keep it small because uh we wanna we want to keep that uh in-depth relationship, and it's a little bit easier to do that in smaller groups, but you know, we've got people that meet in groups of three, we've got people that meet in groups of four, and that all works great.

It works great.

And so uh come on out and meet with someone, meet with a couple other people.

We've got resources in the back on our discipleship resource shelf that are meant to be tools to help you to study God's word with somebody else.

And the purpose of that is really twofold.

It's meant to help you and the person you're meeting with to grow together as you dig into God's word.

You can talk about your own personal life, the application of the text to your own life.

That's meant to be helpful in that way, but it's also meant to be equipping you to be able to replicate that with someone else as you study the word, as you go through maybe a Bible study, then as you work through that, then you are then equipped to then go do that with somebody else.

And that's the idea, that's the vision.

So, where are you at on the journey?

What's your next step?

You know, we've seen God answer these prayers.

We just had a couple people get baptized a couple Sundays ago.

First harvest of discipleship efforts being made by the people in this church.

Is that exciting to anybody?

Does that fire you up?

I hope so.

It's exciting to see the Lord at work.

I'd like to personally invite you to come.

Join us Wednesday night.

We start this Wednesday.

And even if you're unsure, just come on out, check it out.

Just join us, just be a part of it.

I promise you won't regret it.

Let's pray and then we will be dismissed.

Father, thanks for our time this morning.

Thanks for the chance to dig into the word and just to remind ourselves on what the final instructions of Jesus were.

They're important.

The last things we're meant to keep in mind.

And as we've seen from the text this morning, Jesus made it a point to challenge his followers to go out, make disciples, share the gospel, create more followers of Jesus.

And that's our mission as a church.

God, we want to be faithful to that.

God, we don't want to get to the end and stand before you and have all these achievements that in the end just don't matter.

We don't want that.

Help us, God, help us to engage in the work that you've called us to engage in.

Help us to be faithful, help us to take that next step.

And for Father, we ask that as we do that, that you would work through us, draw people to yourself, reveal the glory of Christ through us and through our sharing of the gospel.

We ask for people as the result of our efforts to tell people about Jesus, we pray that you would use that work to save people from their sins.

And what great joy! There's nothing better, nothing better than that.

To be used by you, God, that's what we want.

We want to be used by you for those purposes.

Welcome more people into the family of God that we'll get to enjoy for all of eternity.

So help us, Father, help us to do these things.

And we pray that at the end of the day that you would use us and glorify your own name through our serving of you.

So in Jesus' name I pray.

Amen.