Matthew 28, verses 18 through 20. Our pastor
read this a few weeks ago. And Jesus said, And Jesus came
and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in
heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore and teach all
nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the
Son and the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever
I have commanded you, and lo, I am with you always, even to
the end of the world," or age. This morning, I want to take
a moment to talk to you for a bit about my last trip to Honduras.
It was a prosperous trip, I believe. I was able to meet with seven
of the students. I call them my kids. There are
seven that I got to meet with this last trip. Each of them,
most of them, I suppose, are in the universities there at
San Pedro. One of the students came from
the capital, Tegucigalpe, and I've never met him before, even
though I've talked to him for five years and corresponded with
him and talked with him on video chat for over five years now,
but I've never got to actually meet him. He's graduated now
from the university there in the capital and is going to be
moving to Spain, he's going to immigrate to Spain, where he's
going to live and hope probably in a year or so he'll be legal
to go on and work and go on about his life. That's Caesar. Now, Caesar is a very educated
young man, smart, brilliant, really. He speaks English, He's
fluent in English. The university's testing him
out. He has his certificate. Of course, he speaks Spanish.
And then he taught himself. When he didn't have anything
else to do, he taught himself to speak French, too. So he's
a very accomplished young man. I got to be with him for a couple
hours on Saturday afternoon, and then The next day he came
back and we had breakfast together on Sunday morning, and then I
put him on a bus and sent him back home. Well, that's one.
Well, there's six more that I met with. Each one of them are in
school and have various different needs. And what I do in Honduras,
I deal with these kids. They're somewhere from 20 years
old to 25 years old, university-type age students. I'm working with
them, trying to be a witness for Christ with them, talking
to them, and trying to advise them, and trying to help them
in their walk of life. This morning, before the service
started, I got a message from one of them. One of them was
working in a call center. In this call center, they have
contracts in Honduras, and they would, you may be getting a call
from somebody, but the person could be in Honduras, and that's
what he did. He was representing Dish TV. Well, his contract was
dispensed of, and they laid him off, and they gave him $1,000
severance pay. Well, as he goes to the bank
to cash his check, he comes out, and a few minutes later, he's
robbed. This is the type of place that these people lived. We had
our floods here in Harris County and in Texas, and it was horrible,
completely horrible. But when I was there a trip ago,
I saw people wading water up to their chest, going to their
little huts, trying to find if something that was left, because
they had floods, mighty floods like we did. Each one, of these
kids represents the future of that noble country. It's a very impoverished country. It has little and nothing. It
has no opportunity for the young people that's growing up. Drugs
destroys the nation, and corruption will get the rest of it. And
this is what we're trying to do. Our passage this morning
is veratim. It's a passage that says, and
Jesus came and spake unto them saying, all powers given to me
in heaven and earth, go ye therefore, go ye therefore and teach all
nations and baptize them in the name of the Father and the Son
and the Holy Ghost. So often we have a perception
that our Lord was speaking to his disciples lined up on a pew
he's giving them like an ordination service and he's going to finish
their studies now he's going to send them out to preach well
so much is so true but in reality our Lord was speaking to a great
multitude of people people like ourselves who probably will never
speak in a congregation or be a pastor or a missionary or something
like that, but there are people who have found the faith of our
Lord Jesus Christ in their heart. God has spoken to people and
he's awakened them from the misery of their sin and shown the light
of Almighty God. And that's what we call a believer.
One who has received the Spirit of God, the forgiving power of
the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is my opinion this morning
of this scripture. That God has called all of us
to go and to teach and to preach to the ability and the talent
that God has given you. Now, if you remember the parable
of talents, The landlord gave out this much and this much and
this much and he gave each one a different amount. Each of us
here today have been given the ability to do certain things
and God has given you the ability to speak and to give and to do
what you do. God, it's God given and it is
for us in this in this church age in this day that we now live
to use whatever ability that god has given you to be a messenger
to be a witness for the cause of our lord jesus christ in mark
16 15 the scripture says and he said unto them go ye unto
all the world go ye and to all the world the world Meaning,
go from wherever you live. Your world may be only, as in
the case of my own family, my mother never left the state until
she came to see me here in Houston. She was born and raised within
30 or 40 miles from the place that she was born, and that was
her world. Your world is now a little bit
larger than that of my mother's. You have traveled, some of you,
intercontinently. You've traveled all over the
world. You have gone to other states. This is your world. Your world is much broader. Wherever
your world is this morning, God is calling you to go and witness
the grace of Almighty God. It may be no more than acting
with common sense. Representing your country and
representing your God as a Christian in your conduct among other people. Speaking a word of comfort whenever
is necessary and is invited. Sometimes we find ourselves in
an elevator, in a hotel, which we're going to be with someone
for maybe 15, 20 seconds. Within that 20 seconds, that
30 seconds in that elevator, you might be the only voice that
that person has ever heard the Word of God to. an opportunity
to witness the grace of our living God. We find the grace of God
to be unmeasurable in our heart and soul. We find it to be enlightening. It causes us to shout physically
and vocally sometime in thanking God for his wonderful gifts unto
us. Why not share some of that enthusiasm? Why not share some of that energy
in witnessing that same feeling that you have unto others about
God and about your Lord and Savior and Jesus Christ? The first thing
we remember that we wanted to do when God opened our heart
was to tell somebody else. But somehow or another, between
that point and to this point, we've lost sometimes our zeal
to tell someone else about the glory of Almighty God. In Matthew 9, in verse 37, the
Word of God says, And then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest
truly is plenteous, but the labors are few. Every child of God is
a representation of the Lord himself. Let me say it again,
sound good. We as children of God are the
true representation of our Lord Jesus Christ. You are an ambassador
of Almighty God this morning. in this life. You are an ambassador
to Almighty God to the neighbor that you live next door to you
and across the street and the people that you work with and
the boss that you answer to. You are an ambassador to God
to all those people. You are his personal representative
this morning and God has called us to go and to teach and to
preach. and to baptize those unto the
Lord Jesus Christ. God has called each of us by
the grace of God, but he has called us also to witness of
the saving power of our God. Jesus said, all power is given
to me in heaven and in earth. if our Lord, and he did, he stood
and he said to each of us, I have all the power of Almighty God
within me, and now I send you to be my witness unto the nations,
to the world. This command of Jesus is significant
because It is a personal instruction for Christians to have a profound
faith in Jesus Christ as indicated in our verse 18, all power, all
authority in heaven and in earth. There is no power apart from
our Lord Jesus Christ. There is no power apart from
God. We need not fear any power that
comes against us because our God is supreme. The verse acts
as a clear claim to Christ's omnipotence and therefore his
deity. If Christians do not believe
this statement, complete faith is non-existent. When we deny
the very power of Almighty God, we are denying God himself. We are denying the very Lord
that we say has bought us and died for our sins. In verse 19,
Jesus said to his believers, those words, go therefore and
make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of
the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost. Jesus calls all of
his followers to act and to share the good news of salvation through
the world. People hear this calling and
travel each year as missionaries and as preachers, evangelists. They go everywhere and they declare
God's Holy Word. But I'm asking you this morning,
besides our beloved preacher, besides our pastor, what about
your travels? What about your going? What about
your calling? What about your witness for Almighty
God? In this day and time, in the
21st century, every one of us can probably reach and touch
a cell phone at this very moment. It's something that we carry
with us everywhere we go. It seems like we feel like we're
uncomfortable unless we have our cell phone with us. That
very cell phone can put you in contact with people throughout
the entire world. There's people that I will never
meet in my life. There's no way, I don't see how
I'll ever be able to meet some of the people that I know throughout
the entire country that I talk to. There's one man that I have
become acquainted with, never have met him, probably will never
meet him. He works on a cruise ship for
the Princess Travel Agency. He travels all over the world,
he's gone to Russia, St. Petersburg, Russia in that particular
tour. He's gone to the Southern Hemisphere
tour. He's gone the tour that goes
all the way up into Alaska and all up in there. Sends me messages
from all over the world. I envy his job. But he has gone
six months at a time before he comes back to his wife and family.
But that's his job. Well, wherever he's at, I can
assure you that he's talking. about our person, the Lord Jesus
Christ. Well, the communication devices
that we have today gives us that opportunity to come to know people. and to witness to them about
the grace of God. Even our church is on Sermon
Audio and other sources whereby people can hear the voice of
our pastor and preach, hearing the preaching of the word of
God. So to say that I cannot is kindly. wrong you can you can reach out
you can go to places that you cannot go physically but you
can go there electronically and witness the grace of our lord
jesus christ another important aspect of verse
19 is that christ is specifically teaching the doctrine of the
trinity he is taking our lord is taking the power equal to
that of Almighty God in the Spirit, baptizing them in the name of
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Once we run across
someone that denies the Trinity, the deity of our Lord Jesus Christ,
that he is less than God in the flesh, there is no saving faith. in that person. You cannot deny
that which you believe in and still be a child of God. The Trinity is something that
you have to believe in. You have to believe in the deity
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now in verse number 20, Jesus
provides a specific direction to his followers, teach them
to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you and I am
with you always to the end of this age. Wherever we go, the
Lord Jesus Christ is with us because our Lord does not stand
here beside me physically, but our Lord Jesus Christ is within
each of us in the Spirit of God that encourages us in all ways. But this is the greater truth
this afternoon. The Lord not only encourages
us with his Spirit, but our Lord Jesus Christ provides the means
by which we have to go and to declare the Word of God. The Lord did not call us to go
and to preach and to teach and to witness without his strength
and his mercy. He also provides means to provide
for us to go. Sometimes I wonder how am I going
to accomplish this? How am I going to do this or
that? But it is true that he provides
our every need. He provides and the witness that
we give for him is a witness that he gives to us and he gives
us the means to go and witness of the grace of the living God. Christians are instructed to
teach others about Jesus Christ and the entire truth. We cannot
profess Christ our Savior, our Lord, while rejecting these great
truths presented in these three verses. So this afternoon, I'd
like to ask you now, what is it that God has called you to
do? What is it that God leads you
to do today. Sometimes we become, we could
use the word self-centered. I might say we become lonely
in ourselves. We become in a position or condition
in our life that we think that our lives are not counting for
anything, that I'm not accomplishing anything in this life. Our lives will always be something
that amounts to something for almighty God. Remember the parable
of the talents. God has not given everybody 100
talents. God has not given everyone 50
talents. But God has given all of us some
talents that we can use and propagate the gospel of our Lord Jesus
Christ. What is the gospel of our Lord
Jesus Christ? It's the proclamation of the
faith that you already have. It's not something that you have
to look for. It's something that you possess
now that you have the opportunity to give to others. May God bless
you today. May God bless you and your endeavors. And I do pray that you might
ask God to bless in the endeavors that I have undertaken, some
now over six years. May God bless that. And may God
make much fruit of the labor that he has set.