Our Values Driven Mission - Part 1 - Pastor Greg Addison - August 11, 2024

Ministering to the heart of Western Arkansas's River Valley for over 165 years, welcome to Chapter and First, the Bible Teaching Ministry of Fort Smith's First Baptist Church.

You'll find sermons and teachings from Pastor Greg, our ministry staff, and guest speakers.

Thank you for listening.

If the sky were a parchment made and every man a scribe by trade, and if every tree stalk was a quill, and the oceans were an inkwell, that to write about the love of God would literally stretch across the entire sky and drain the ocean dry of ink.

What an incredible picture of the love of God.

And that's really why we are here is to share that.

We've sung incredibly beautifully today and straightforward about Jesus as our Savior and what that means, that he died for us, that he stepped out of heaven, even while we were in the condition of having rejected him as sinners.

And he stepped out of heaven, lived a sinless life, died on the cross to pay the full wrath and punishment for our sin, and then rose again, conquering death and sin to offer to us the salvation that we've been singing about that scripture teaches about.

And that's really why we are here.

Over the next three weeks, I want to sort of unpack something for us as a church.

It's good for us to stop at times and really focus on who we are and what we are doing as a church.

You know, often you get that question as a pastor.

So, Pastor, what's the vision for your church?

Or what's your vision for your church?

When I meet with visitors and talk with them, and they'll often say, Pastor, what's the vision for your church?

What is your church about?

What are we doing?

How do things work there?

What's the vision for your church?

When we talk to uh potential staff people, uh, what is the vision for your church?

So, like right now, we are trying to work towards finding a worship pastor that would allow us to start that campus in the Chaffee area.

And as I talk to men about that, they'll say, Pastor, what's your vision for the church?

That's interesting.

A lot of times we get that idea of vision, and it can mean a lot of things to a lot of people.

Um when you get a uh phone call from your alma mater, the University of Arkansas, or whatever, or when uh you get a phone call or you meet someone from a hospital and they'll cast vision for you, a lot of times what they're doing is they're saying, I need money for this particular building or this wing or this program, and they're casting vision for that, and that stirs us, and we go, oh, that's vision.

But that's really not vision for the university or the hospital.

As a church, sometimes we'll focus on something that we're doing and engage in that, and and and we'll use that term vision, but is that really the vision of the church?

I remember another church that I was at.

We have a we have a sign out here with electronics on it, and it lights up and tells you what's going on in the church.

And I was at another church where we built one of those, and and it was exciting because we were on a main street where the whole town is driving up and down through that, and they were passing that, and the counts were in the hundreds of thousands of people that viewed that sign.

So somebody came up afterwards, we're standing out in the parking lot, we're admiring the new sign, and they said, Pastor, it's so nice to see your vision come together.

And I thought, surely you know our vision is bigger than a sign.

I mean, I know that word and I know what they meant, and it was sweet for them to say, but I thought, no, we need to know what our vision for the church is.

Now it's interesting when you are in the business world and uh you are setting a vision statement for your company, those are all going to look a lot different because every company is about a different purpose.

Every company is about a different type of widget or a different service that you provide.

And so a lot of times they'll spend a lot of money bringing in consultants and all of that.

It will design some process and we'll say, okay, here's the vision statement for the church.

I mean, for that company.

Well, praise the Lord for churches, we already have a vision statement or a mission statement for us.

In fact, I pulled the mission statement off of the website for our church just to remind you that our church has a very clear statement and sense of what our mission is.

Our reason for being is to fulfill the great commission of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

To do this, we teach his word, we reach out to the world with his gospel, and seek to advance his kingdom.

That's incredibly well said.

And as you see there, our reason for being is to fulfill the great commission of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

That's a very specific statement.

And if you've been around church for a long time, you recognize the term of art, the great commission, which generations past have sort of attached as that shorthand way that we refer to, the passage of Scripture, Matthew 28, 18 through 20.

And we see there in that passage of Scripture where Jesus gives us the vision statement for who we are as his church.

And that's why our mission statement as a church refers to that.

And for a church, really, we don't have to spend any time or money figuring out what our vision statement for the church is.

Because our Lord and Savior, our leader, the head of the church, as it says in the book of Philippians, has already made our vision statement clear.

Turn with me in your Bibles to Matthew 28, verses 18 through 20.

Matthew 28:18–20

You'll also see it on the screen.

And we're going to take a minute and just see again what our vision statement is.

The Bible tells us here Jesus is at the end of his ministry on earth.

He's already risen from the dead.

He's accomplished salvation.

He's created that for us.

He is preparing his followers.

He has told them, I'm going to go to heaven.

And it's recorded in Acts chapter 1, where he went to heaven.

Acts 1 · chapter mention

He gives a very similar statement in Acts chapter 1, where he says, I'm going to heaven, but here's what you're going to do in the power of the Holy Spirit as I am in heaven, praying for you, seating at the right hand of the Father.

Acts 1 · chapter mention

Jesus came near and said to them, All authority has been given to me, Jesus, in heaven and on earth.

Go therefore, because of who he is, because of the authority he has as the Savior and Redeemer, because of the authority he has as the head of the church.

Remember, Jesus right before this has said, I, Jesus, will build my church.

And so here he is as our leader, as our authority, as the King of Kings, all authority is given to me.

Therefore, because of that truth, you go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I've commanded you.

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

Now, there's a lot of ways to encapsulate this passage of Scripture, but I'm really focusing on it today, on helping us make sure that we are all on the same page and can repeat and state together as the army of God, as the church of God, what that vision is.

Now, it is very clear that the key statement of this is go and make disciples.

And he tells us how to do that, but we are to go into the world, into a lost world that needs Jesus, and we are to share with them the salvation that only comes through Jesus.

And as they give their lives to Christ, we are to bring them into the family and teach them to go and do the same thing with us.

And the linchpin of this passage of Scripture is that we are to always be driven by going into the world to share the gospel.

The lostness of the world around us is what drives us.

The authority and direction of Jesus is what empowers us.

But from the beginning of our time as a Christian till the time we are called home, our lives are to be consumed with the vision of advancing the gospel.

Just as our mission statement says and just as it reaffirms what's in the Great Commission.

Now, that is a passion that is developed in the heart of a believer.

It is caught in a body of believers that have that passion.

It is a flame that will die if it is not stirred.

And it is a focus that never goes away.

This past week I was at a board meeting for Love Worth Finding, which is the media ministry of Dr.

Adrian Rogers.

Many of you will know as a pastor where I grew up.

And it's hard to get a better example of someone who from the beginning of their ministry to the end of their ministry was consumed with the vision Jesus has given us.

This week they showed us this video that they're using in a lot of ways.

It's really short.

But as I watched that, I thought, I'm just not sure that I would ever be able to say it any clearer or model it any better than this.

I don't mind telling you that I'm excited.

There has never been a more glorious time to preach the wonderful gospel of Jesus Christ than this time, this day, this age in which we live.

For over 50 years, pastor, teacher, and author Adrian Rogers preached God's word with strength and authority, never wavering from his calling and his convictions.

And I'm going to ask you today to give your heart to Jesus Christ.

I'm going to ask you today to trust Jesus Christ and Him alone to save you.

I'm going to ask you just to give your life to him by faith.

But I am telling you today, friend, that God brought you here to this place to be saved, and he will save you today, and he will save you and keep you saved.

Forever.

Would you today pray and ask Christ into your heart?

Pray a prayer like this: Lord Jesus, I believe you're the Son of God.

I believe you shed your blood on the cross for my sin.

I believe God raised you from the dead, and now by faith I receive you into my life as my Lord and Savior and Master.

As he neared the end of his earthly assignment, and even while his body was losing physical strength, Pastor Roger's heart remained true to his love for his family, his love for the church, and his love for the Lord Jesus.

This was demonstrated when just a short time before he went into the hospital for the final time, he entered the studio to record his final challenge for the coming generations.

There had never been a greater day to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And we need to stop whining and moaning and complaining and going around with a head between our knees, singing, hold a fork.

We need to lift up our heads, sound the trumpet, unsheathe the sword, and say, onward Christian soldiers.

My friend, I want you to meditate on this verse.

The three great truths that I want to bring into your heart.

His unlimited power.

His unchanging problem, and his unfading promise.

He will not fail you.

You want a thrill?

You want something that can't counts.

You let Congress make the laws.

You let Wall Street handle the finances.

Let Hollywood have the thing.

You become a winner of souls.

He that wins souls is wise.

In light of that testimony, listen to this scripture again.

All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations.

Baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you.

And remember, I, Jesus, am with you always to the end of the age.

We all want to have that kind of singular focus to the mission that God has given us.

To the mission and the purpose and the agenda that our Savior who died for us, who is the author and finisher of our faith, the gospel, who has entrusted us with the gospel, to spend every focus, energy, and passion that we have to reach a lost and dying world with the gospel.

What is our vision as a church?

It is to go to make disciples.

Baptizing them in the name of the Father and Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to deserve whatever I've commanded you, and doing it in the presence of Jesus.

Pastor, what is your vision for the church?

It is the one that Jesus gave us.

So then the question becomes okay, so how do we do that?

How do we do that?

Well, we take that mission statement, and then we have certain core values that are driven by Scripture that drive everything we do as a staff, as lay leaders, as committees, as deacons, as Sunday school leaders, as student workers, as people who are working in the nursery, all of us, every activity that we do is a reflection of certain core biblical values that are nothing more than the how-to's of taking the gospel to a world that needs Jesus.

And so we've begun to define these.

These, over the last two years that I've been here, these are the things that we've begun doing.

And these are the things that we are regularly doing.

But it is always good for us to come back together and remind ourselves and clarify this is why and how we do what we do.

And here are the three core values that we build everything off of evangelism, individual transformation into the image of Jesus, which is what God does in the life of a person, and the presence of Jesus in all that we do.

Because listen, if Jesus is not here, if he's not central, if he's not the one empowering us, we're just wasting our time.

And so those are the three things we do evangelism, transformation, presence.

Everything we do is advancing the gospel, finding ways to advance the gospel.

We'll talk about that more in a moment.

For the next couple of weeks, we'll take these other principles and we'll begin to unpack those again.

But we want to start really encapsulating that vision into these core values, and this drives everything that we do.

Transformation is that individual who has come to know Christ as their Savior, and he begins that transformation process where he shapes and moves us into the image of Jesus.

He matures us, and then that presence of Jesus that encapsulates everything.

Now it's important for us to understand these for a lot of reasons.

It is these core values that we stand on, that we make our choices on.

A lot of times in leadership settings, people will say this, folks give to vision, or they'll say, folks give to need or whatever.

Well, those are both true.

And for us as Christians, that's especially true.

The vision of taking the gospel across the river valley, into the high schools and into the middle schools and the elementary schools around us and the community around us to take the gospel into our state of Arkansas in partnership with Arkansas Baptist, to take the gospel around the world, to plant churches in El Salvador and help revitalize churches in London, England.

Those things we're doing, that is a great vision to take the gospel.

It is also a vision driven by the need because the world around us is dying and going to hell without Jesus.

And our calling ultimately is not to make the world a better place from which to die and go to hell.

Now, when we go serve in our communities and we do those things, it creates a platform to show the love of Jesus.

But we're not here just to make things better.

We're here to feed the need of the human soul, which is salvation through Jesus Christ.

And so when we serve to need, when we give to need, when we serve to vision, give division, we're doing the same thing as believers.

There's a clarity that we have that's incredible that other places are trying to find ways to put it together.

Man, ours works because Jesus has created it to work.

It's important that all of us understand that the vision and the core values drive us, and everything we do gives to that.

Again, give you that example.

This week at Love Worth Finding at that meeting was a great way to illustrate it.

We were talking about giving and how people give, and we're talking about the budget that operates the function of the organization and all of that.

And then they have some incredible projects where they are translating sermons and a website into the ten languages that are the most populous language groups in the world.

When you translate sermons and materials into Mandarin Chinese, you're opening the opportunity to a billion people who need the gospel.

And man, you give that, and people go, oh, that's a great vision.

And so they give to that, but you think, but we got to have the bodies and the plan and the organization and the translators and able to accomplish that.

Which one is the vision?

This process is just a reflection or an example of the vision of the Great Commission.

For church, when we give, it's not only giving to a mission trip or a mission team or giving to whatever, but it's when you give to the function of the church.

And when you give to the operation of the church on a weekly, monthly basis, however it is that God works, when you're doing that, you are fueling literally the vision of the church.

There is no function of the vision or pursuit of the vision without that.

When you volunteer to serve in our student ministry, or this Friday, if you volunteer to bring cookies and go with Jared and the team to the University of Arkansas, Fort Smith campus, and when you do that, that's the vision of the church.

That is the core vision.

It is one reflection of everything that we are doing under the core value of evangelism.

And if we forget and miss the engine of the train, that is the vision of the church, then we'll struggle and lurch and atrophy.

Now, it's great for us as a church because we have an incredibly strong core of people.

Man, you guys are awesome the way that you give.

And you guys are awesome the way that you serve.

I'm telling you, some of the best preachers in the River Valley are teaching Sunday school classes at First Baptist Church.

And we have incredible people who are teaching the Bible.

We have a great group of volunteers serving in students.

The faithfulness of people who are working in our nursery are incredible.

They're incredible.

That's the engine of the train, and it is fueling the vision for us as a church as we are going, as we are creating opportunities in schools and in neighborhoods to share the gospel, as people are being transformed and discipled in the image of Christ, as our prayer team is praying and they are helping us seek the presence of Jesus and cover in everything that we do.

That is the vision of our church.

The engine and the operation of these things is the vision of our church.

It is encapsulated in that process.

So let me give you an example.

You know, we have three folks, we have three positions in our student ministry, and we are excited as a church family to have those three positions and all of that.

And so we have one of those open.

Brad and Abigail are doing an incredible job, and they're doing so well, and we're getting excited about students.

They say, when are we going to get the third one?

When the church embraces the vision of that.

We do that.

You see, what we do when you teach Sunday school, when you work in extended session, when you help Eli and Children's Church, when you invite your neighbors to church, when you have someone in your Sunday school group who signed up for a mission trip, and you help them go and you give them some money to help defray their costs, and you volunteer to be their prayer partner, or you keep their kids, or you cut their grass while they're gone, and you step into those things, you are embracing the vision of the church.

You are functioning off of those core values, and every one of those decisions strengthens and fuels us forward in our vision.

Let me just show you where these come from, from this scripture and from this verse.

Here's what the Bible tells us in these scriptures.

We're talking about these as core values, as essential values.

You get that directly from the scripture.

Therefore, Jesus said, Therefore, when you see the word, therefore, you ask, what is it?

Therefore.

And it connects you to that thought.

And the thought is very clear.

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

He is the one who is the authoritative potentate.

He is the king of kings and the Lord of Lords.

He is the one who died for the church, the one who's building the church.

It says again in Ephesians, he's the head of the church.

And so he is the one that we follow.

And he says, This is what you're going to do.

You are going to make disciples.

And that word, that command, make the verb in that, it is a command to do something very specific, to develop learners who are committed to following and emulating the teacher.

We're not here to make Baptists or First Baptist members or whatever.

We are teaching people how to follow Jesus and become like Jesus.

Now, in our world today, we use the word Christian.

I think it's a great word.

It's a word that's been adopted over generations.

But this is a very different concept than what we think of as Christians.

You can fill out a census report and tell someone on the census report that you're a Christian by faith or background, but that does not mean that you are a follower of Jesus Christ, that your sins have been washed by the blood of Christ.

We'll say, well, I'm a Christian, and we're good with that.

I go to church 50% of the time, or I do whatever, or I, you know, vote this way, or whatever it is, and that's a Christian.

That's not what Jesus tells us to make.

In fact, in Scripture, the word Christian, if you do some research on that, it's only used three times in Scripture.

And the first two times, it's used as a slur or a derogatory term.

Oh, those are just those Christians.

If you break it down, it's the original language that it came from, it's little Christians.

And so they're giving a derogatory term the first two times.

They're just mocking Christians.

But it uses the word disciple almost 300 times.

Which conceptually is a much bigger and deeper term.

It means that I'm sitting at the feet of a teacher and I'm so taking in what the teacher says that it is actually becoming a part of my life, and then I become a teacher of what the teacher teaches.

I am being, in a sense, mentored by that teacher, and then I become a mentor of other things.

So to be a Christian is not really the standard in the way it's used in our culture today.

Now that's a fine word, so I'm not knocking that.

You're tracking with me.

But what Jesus tells us to do is we are to invest the truth of Scripture and the gospel in a life so it transforms that life in such a way that they become not just a follower of Jesus, but they become someone who shares Jesus, who brings other people to Jesus.

They live like Jesus.

This term is a powerful term.

And so we are said, therefore, because of who Jesus is, these have to be our core essential values.

We must be about this and make sure we're tied to it.

Then our three, those three values, they come directly from Scripture.

The first one, let's talk about evangelism.

He tells us to go, and he tells us baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Spirit.

This word go, if you break down the original language, it means as you journey forward towards a destination, we are headed in a direction.

It was sometimes used as an idiom.

If you think about when we say walking with Jesus, we're describing that in your daily walk and the decisions that you make, you're following Jesus and talking to him and being obedient to Scripture and it's defining your world.

It's a similar type of picture here.

It also has this idea that I'm going towards a destination.

And so I am to go to share the gospel.

We don't put a sign in the front and yeah, hey y'all, we're over here.

We go.

God puts you in the place where he puts you because there are people there that need Jesus.

He puts you in that school, in that family, on that neighborhood, in that street.

He puts you in that business, he puts you in that company, he puts you in that organization that you serve in.

He puts you on that ball team.

He put you with those parents.

He puts you wherever he puts you.

Because there are people who need Jesus.

And we are going through all of those things.

Baptizing.

We can never walk away from the call to Jesus.

We must always make clear the call to salvation.

We are all sinners by birth, by nature, and by choice.

Every person, because of our sin, we are born on our way to an eternity spent in judgment in hell.

You can't change that, you can't do anything about that, you can't fix that, but praise God, Jesus did.

He stepped out of heaven and he lived a sinless life.

And then he went there to the cross and he took on our sins.

That incredible verse that we read that Gary led us in before we sang the love of God, the verse from Romans chapter 3, when he says, Listen, it's not about whether you're good or not good or whatever it is.

Romans 3 · chapter mention

It doesn't have anything to do with it.

All of us are sinners.

And Jesus, while we were still in the condition of sinners and we could not forgive ourselves, and we could not clean ourselves up, and we could not forget that, and we could not forgive ourselves, and we could not fix what was wrong.

Jesus, in that condition, stepped out of heaven for us, lived a sinless life, went to the cross, and there died in our place to take care of all of that for us.

And the most loving thing we can ever have is when we tell someone about Jesus that he loved them so much, he died for them on the cross.

He rose again, conquering death and sin to offer us salvation, to offer us a new life, to offer us friendship, to walk through life with us.

And we must always be about the purpose of giving invitations and calling people to faith in Jesus Christ.

In our individual relationships, inviting people to come to Jesus.

Do you know Christ as your Savior?

Jesus is very clear.

And then this baptism part, we're not baptizing because we're baptists on the sign.

We have a baptistry in our church because of the Great Commission.

Because baptism is that moment when you take that act of obedience and you are defining yourself in a sense like a ceremony.

It is a ceremonial statement that, man, Jesus has saved me.

When you go down in the water, you are confessing that Jesus died for my sins, and that's what I believe.

And when you come up out of that water, you are confessing your belief in the gospel that Jesus rose from the dead to offer us life.

And you are confessing that I have now set my course.

I have given my life to Jesus.

And the way he died for me, I have died to myself and given myself to Jesus.

And that's why Scripture says we are buried with him in the likeness of his death, and we are raised to walk in newness of life.

We are different because Jesus has now saved us.

And when you are baptized, you are in that commitment.

And so we work with folks to walk them through that and understand that baptism.

That's what evangelism is.

And it is an essential part of everything that we do.

But the transformation part of that, look what Jesus also says.

He commands us.

There are commands in Scripture.

There are musts in Scripture that we must do.

Jesus told his disciples in another passage, He it is who loves me who keeps my commandments.

To walk in love with Jesus is to be obedient.

Why?

Why?

It is not because it is a philosophy or a life or some legalistic thing or whatever.

It is because when I gave my life to Christ and it says I am buried with him in the likeness of death, I am raised to walk in newness of life.

It means when Jesus saves you, you're a new person.

Paul wrote to the churches in Corinth in his second letter in 2 Corinthians, and he said, if any man is in Christ, he is a new creation.

Old things have passed away, and all things have become new.

And so we are a part of participating in that transformation of a life into the image of Jesus.

So these are commands, and what are those commands?

What are those commands?

They are classrooms that Jesus uses to hack away the things that look like old Greg before he got saved and put in new things that look like Jesus after he got saved.

Look at how he explains it.

Teaching them to observe whatever I've commanded.

It's not just information.

This is not an encyclopedia.

I am not a professor.

Praise the Lord, I'm not a professor.

I was the worst student in history.

In fact, my attitude was so bad in school.

Kids, don't listen to this part.

This is not a good example.

I was such a bad student.

It was I was awful.

I made good grades, and that just made my attitude worse because I said, see, this is just a game.

Anybody can do it.

I mean, I would take a test just to prove that you could take a test without studying and still make a good grade.

I was that student.

I had a professor in college, and he was a nice man.

He was boring as all get out, but he was a nice man.

But the reason that I picked him was not because he was a good professor.

I picked him because on Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays, he had two classes back to back, one at eight and one at nine, on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

And I figured out that at Monday I could go to class at nine o'clock, and Wednesday I would take the eight o'clock class, and on Friday I'd take the nine o'clock class, and I got half of my classes, but I got credit because he saw me every day.

I spent more time trying to do that in school than I did trying to learn in school.

It was, I was a terrible student.

Praise the Lord, I am not a professor.

You would not want me as a professor.

It was bad.

I later actually taught college, and it was really hard because every time I'd start to say, why not?

And then I'd think, I remember as a student I used to hate that.

It was really it was so bad.

I'm a pastor.

We're a church.

This is not an encyclopedia.

It's not a political position, it's not a life philosophy, it's not a belief system.

It is the living and powerful word of God, and it is the tool he uses to transform us into the image of Jesus.

What does the Bible say in 2 Timothy 3, verse 15?

2 Timothy 3:15

All scripture is given by God and is inspired by God, actually.

For what purpose?

For reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

We're not teaching information, we're not compiling cool facts to know, we're not tickling the brain.

Although scripture is incredibly powerful.

Whether you are an intellectual or whether you don't enjoy that, scripture has more than enough to do all of that.

But its purpose is to teach us how we walk with Jesus and He transforms us into His image.

And so we teach to observe.

We teach to intentionally in a way to encourage and equip people to behave the Scripture.

So in that classroom of stepping out in faith and obedience to what God has commanded, they are hearing from the Lord and they're feeling his work and they're sensing his guidance and they're being pruned and taking out what used to be like who they were before they got saved, to putting in what happened after they've gotten saved.

And everything that we do is designed to help people be transformed.

That's what a disciple is.

And then finally, a presence.

Sometimes in my prayer time, this is the most important thing that I do.

Jesus reminds them, yes, I have given you my authority, but I'm with you.

I'm with you.

I'll never leave you alone.

I'm with you in every step.

I'm faithful in the good and the bad.

When you don't know where to go, I'm there with a plan.

When you don't know how to face the struggle, I'm there with you, and I'm the power in your life.

When you make a mistake, it's okay.

I've got you.

I paid for that sin and we're going to learn together, and Jesus is always with us.

Sometimes when I'm praying over our services, I'm pleading for Jesus to be here and to speak.

And I'll say, man, my church needs so much more than just Greg.

You need Jesus.

You need the Holy Spirit.

Holy Spirit, move and speak and work.

When we worship, when we come together and worship, we are seeking the Lord Jesus.

We're not just enjoying what's happening, but we are focusing on Him so our minds and our hearts are attuned to Him and the Holy Spirit has a freedom to step in and move.

And at the end of this service in a moment, when I ask for you to come and give your life to Jesus, and if I plead with you to come and give your life to him because he gave his life for you, it is in the presence of God when God's people have been with them and you are praying, and the Holy Spirit is moving.

That's when we're empowered as the church.

It is when those people who are going to the campus at University of Arkansas, Fort Smith all week, that our gunners in our prayer ministry are praying every day, carrying them through every moment, because we are trusting God to open those doors and empower what's happening.

So we are not just building the testimony of our church, but we are sharing the name of Jesus so people who need to be saved can have their eternity changed forever.

The core values of our church are rooted in Scripture.

And so everything we do is the Great Commission advancing the gospel, evangelism, transformation, and presence.

So evangelism becomes easy to understand in this setting.

Since we are always trying to teach to observe, teach to transformation.

We are always making disciples.

So if Jesus said about himself he came to seek and to save the lost, then we all need to be those who seek and save the lost.

Then we need to teach people to observe the command and the character of Jesus to seek and to save the lost.

So how do we go about that as a church?

How do we transform ourselves into an evangelistic body where we are going to make disciples?

Well, we have certain principles of how we express that core value.

We've taught to you often, and we will continue until Jesus comes back to talk to you about your love list.

If this great commission, if this going and baptizing and calling people to Jesus is a requirement of all of his followers.

Now remember, when you see that passage of Scripture, you go back and read Matthew 28, it is not a pastor's conference in which he says that.

It is all of his followers.

In Acts chapter 1, when he talks about the Holy Spirit will come upon you, give you power, and then you shall be witnesses.

Acts 1 · chapter mention

The word witness is actually the root word that we use the word martyr from.

Your life is not your own anymore when you gave your life to Christ.

You are grafted into the advance of the gospel.

That's not a pastor's conference where he says that.

It is all of his followers.

And so every one of us has to learn to share Jesus.

Every one of us have to learn and be a part of that, to be a disciple where we are reproducing ourselves in the lives of others.

And so the way we teach to observe that command is we ask every person to have a love list.

That's three people you know who need Jesus.

Three people God put in your path.

Well, I don't know three people.

Then change your path.

Add a branch.

Look a little closer.

Go.

Not just stay.

Three people that you know who need who need Jesus that he put in your path.

And three things you're praying for them.

You're praying for them to be saved.

You're praying for a chance to invite them to church.

And you're praying for a chance to share your gospel story, your testimony of salvation, as it creates a door for you to share the gospel.

Every person, we want to celebrate those.

When somebody gets saved off your love list, call us and tell us.

Come get in the water with them.

Come take that journey with us.

Let's encourage the other brothers and sisters in church.

Let's all be a part of that.

Let's share those love lists.

Let's reach out.

Let's start to pray.

Let's ask God to move.

That's that relational training.

We're about to put online, another training program.

Jared Farley, our pastor of young adults, and another one of our guys in our church, Grayson, they have put together a video training.

We're going to post in a couple of weeks.

It's another simple way to share the gospel.

We want every person to have multiple ways you can share the gospel.

We've shown the EE thing, and get on our website and you can click on there and take the online training.

We want to provide as many ways as we can for you to be a personal soul winner and for you to be able, for God to use you in your love list.

Then we are always looking for networks, and our staff were always talking about, we just use this word network.

There can be relational networks, they can be organizational networks.

For example, last week we went over and some of our folks served breakfast at the elementary school around the corner.

This week we're serving at Darby across the street.

We've built all kinds of relationships at Darby, and we love our Darby students and we love the staff over there, and God's given us great favor and opportunity to go in there and share Jesus.

That is a school that God has put under the shadow of our steeple.

When we get to heaven, one of the first questions we're going to ask is, Church family, Jesus is going to ask us, church family, how did you do with the school I gave you under the shadow of your steeple?

And praise God, He's opening doors.

University of Arkansas, Fort Smith, this week, we built contacts with the administration.

We have great support for the BCM, our partners there as Arkansas Baptists on the campus.

We're creating every opportunity we can to get in there and share Jesus and to see kids saved, or if they're already saved and they've come from somewhere else to go to school, they are not lost.

They have a church home and a church family that will encourage their walk and walk alongside them and help them become disciples that share on the campus.

We're using those organizational networks, geographic networks.

Chaffee is a geography area we're trying to get into.

I'm excited about our folks that live in Oklahoma and our families across the border, and they've already begun to pray and to do some things and look for opportunities.

And I believe we're going to see God open doors right across the river for us.

Because He's given us people in our church that have all kinds of networks and opportunities there.

And so, where is your Your network.

As you are learning your individual soul winning, you're praying for your love list.

What connection, what network are you in that you help us reach and expand the gospel there?

And then our missions partnerships.

El Salvador, London, the Arkansas Baptist Convention, the giving that we do, the going that we do, praise the Lord.

We have an incredible team going to London the last week in September.

We have 12 folks from our church that are going.

And I'm so excited they're going.

Because we're going to take the gospel to see people saved.

There is a church meeting this morning in El Salvador because of our church folks who've gone on our behalf under the power of the prayers that we've been praying and the support, and they have gone and they have helped planted a church, and we're going to continue to help support that church plant.

Because we are what?

We are great commissioned people, and our core value is evangelism.

Are you participating in the vision of the church?

Are you giving sacrificially to the vision?

Are you giving because you see it and understand it as a vision, or is it just a part of the monthly budget?

It makes a difference because people that give that way, they also serve the vision.

And they go to advance the vision.

And they pray.

Because we are seeking the presence of God in all that we do.

We are a church with a vision.

It is the vision that Jesus has given us, and it is driven by the biblical core values that He's given us.

And I want to say thank you for all that you do and have done to make us a vision, core value-driven church.

And I hope that you are excited about the future of our church in a way like never before.

God is moving, people are serving, our prayer forces, praying.

Folks are giving incredibly, sacrificially.

We have people teaching, we have people meeting with kids, we have people investing their lives in other people.

Come be a part of the vision of our church.

But that begins first by being a member of the body of Christ.

And that only happens when you give your life to Him as your Savior.

I've shared the gospel multiple times.

We've sung the gospel multiple times.

Pastor, how do I get saved?

How do I give my life to Jesus?

How do I ask him to forgive me?

It's very simple.

It's a choice of faith.

That famous verse, John 3.16, the Bible says, For God so loved the world.

Jesus died for you because he loves you.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only son the greatest thing that God could have done.

He didn't create some path of salvation.

He stepped out of heaven.

He went to the cross, died for our sins, rose again.

He himself did that for us.

God gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believes in him will never perish but have everlasting life.

How do I believe in Jesus?

It costs you the same thing it cost Jesus.

Jesus died for us on the cross.

To place your faith in him, all you have to do is take your life, everything you've been, everything you are, and everything you ever will be, and you give it to Jesus.

He will use you for eternity.

He will walk with you and never forsake you.

He will forgive you.

He will change you.

He will create for you a home in heaven where you live for him forever.

He will save you from the judgment of hell.

He will save you from the penalty and the punishment of hell, he will save you from the power of it here in your life, and he will unleash for you the opportunity to walk and be transformed, to be like him.

Friends, if Jesus, whether you're watching online or you're here and you don't know Christ as your Savior, Jesus has created this opportunity for you.

He is calling to you to give your life to him so that he can save you and transform you and love you and be your savior and your friend forever.

I'm going to ask you to bow your heads.

If you're at home, you're watching online, right there where you are, you just give your life to Jesus.

There's no particular words.

He sees your heart.

There's no incantation.

You just confess your sin to him and you thank him for how much he loves you and that he died for you.

And you give your life to him in your own words.

You just cry out to him.

He sees your heart.

You share with him.

If you're here in the room, we are giving you an opportunity to come.

We have pastors at the head of our aisles, our deacons can follow up.

We're here to answer your questions and walk this journey with you.

This is why we are here to share the gospel with you today.

Come and give your life to Jesus, who loves you more than anyone will ever love you, and more than you can imagine, he loves you.

Lord, we thank you for the clarity that Jesus speaks to us.

We thank you for the vision of the gospel.

It saves us and then it enters us into this transformation process where you work to make us a new creation, filled with hope and joy and power and love and your presence.

And I pray this morning, whether they're watching or here in the room, they will give their lives to Jesus if they need to be saved.

Lord, let this be the day that people say I was saved on that day.

Lord, I thank you for our church family.

What a joy it is to serve in a church that they know what their vision and mission is.

What a joy it is to serve alongside brothers and sisters who give, to pray on the prayer force with so many who pray, to teach scripture with so many Bible-believing teachers in our church, to serve alongside folks who love kids and students that want to see the hope of Jesus in their lives.

Lord, I pray that you stir us and that you draw us and that you keep us on mission.

We pray for someone who needs to be saved.

Give them the freedom to be saved.

It is in Jesus' saving name that I pray, and all God's people said.

We pray this message has been a blessing to you and helped to strengthen your walk with Jesus.

Please know we want to minister to you and pray for you.

Send an email to contact us at fsfbc.org and let us pray for you and help you in any way we can.

Thank you for listening to Chapter and First, the Bible Teaching Ministry of Fort Smith's First Baptist Church.