The Mission of the Gospel

0:00 Today's message is entitled, The Mission of the Gospel. I want to talk to you today about the mission of the gospel. Say that. Mission of the gospel. One more time. Mission of the gospel. That's the title of this message today, the mission of the gospel. I want you to open your Bibles to Matthew chapter 24.

0:26 Matthew chapter 24 and... In chapter 24 and 25 of Matthews, Jesus begins to give instructions concerning the last days. I don't know how many of you realize it or not, but we are in the last days. I know you think you got time to get it together. Go ahead, look at that person next to you, eyeballing eyeballs, say you ain't got no more time, baby. I know you think you got your future in front of you. I know you think you got time. but these are the last days. And in chapter 24, Jesus talks about those last days.

1:23 He gives specific indicators. As a matter of fact, Let me just walk through starting at verse 1 of chapter 24 of Matthew. It says, then Jesus went out, verse 1, and departed from the temple. And his disciples came up to show him the buildings of the temple. And Jesus said to them, verse 2, do you not see all these things? assuredly I say to you not one stone shall be left here upon another that shall not be thrown down. Now as he sat on the Mount of Olives verse 3 the disciples came to him privately saying tell us when will these things be and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age. they ask him two specifically pointed questions.

2:25 When are you coming back? Because he had told them he was going to go away, but he was coming back. And they asked him also, what will be the indicators of when you're going to come back and what the end of time is going to be? And he gives them specific deals. I want to walk through here because I want you to see that these are the last days. Go ahead. Tell your neighbor, you ain't got much time. Y'all have said like y'all really believed it. That was a little weak. I need y'all to have a little attitude on that.

3:05 You ain't got much time. Verse four, Jesus answered and said to them, take heed that no one deceives you. For many will come in my name saying, I am the Christ and will deceive many. There are a lot of so-called prophets. A lot of people over our lifetime who have declared that they were the second coming of Christ. The Father divine, the Daddy Graces, the Sun Young Moon.

3:55 Y'all know who Sun Young Moon is? He said he came to finish the work that Jesus didn't complete. I want to punch that joker in his face. Because I read where Jesus said, it's finished. Do y'all believe that?

4:31 I don't need nobody else to come along and talk about Jesus didn't finish anything. It's all done. Nothing else needs to be done. Are y'all with me? Hang with me. Y'all a little weak right there on that point right there. But no, there's nothing else that needs to be done. And people have been tricked deceived and pulled astray because they don't know, they don't read the scriptures. They don't know the Bible. But if you read the Bible, you'll see that Jesus says, it's all done. I've finished. He's done everything. Nothing else needs to be done for you to be saved. For you to get saved, you don't have to pay no indulgences. You don't have to do any of that. He did everything that needed to be done for your salvation to be secured. And guess what? It is secured. Amen.

5:27 Verse 6, and you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled, for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. Whether you know it or not, there's a lot of wars going on now. There's a lot of rumors of wars. Verse 7, for nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines, pestilence, and earthquakes in various places. All over the world, famines, pestilence, earthquakes. I was studying, doing some research on this. 26 major earthquakes in the world since January of 2026. 26 major earthquakes.

6:09 Go ahead, lean over and tell your neighbor, we must be in the last days. Verse 8, all these are the beginning of sorrows. It's just getting started. When these things start, then you know that you are approaching and you are in the last days. We are in the last days. Somebody.

6:30 Yeah, I need to come back there and preach to you right there. That's the kind of people I need who will holler out, that's right, pastor, go ahead and preach. Amen. Then they will deliver you up to tribulations and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for my name's sake. A part of what I need to do is try to prepare you to understand that when you take a stand for Jesus, everybody is not going to celebrate it. When you say I believe and I put my trust and when you say I'm going to live my life according to his teachings, people are not going to like you. it's going to cause you to have to take a stand. You got to take a position.

7:26 You can't be a secret. You're going to reach a date where you can't be a secret Christian. You can't be an undercover Christian. How do you know whether a person is an undercover Christian? Watch them when they go have lunch. Because when you're an undercover Christian, you don't want nobody to know that you really saved. When you're about to eat your lunch, you just fire your hair real quick and just soak back up. Now, if you really say, you say, can you pray with me as I thank God for the food that I'm about to receive? Now, we're not asking you to pray till Jesus comes back over our meal.

8:11 But we don't want to be ashamed of the God that we serve. Are you hearing what I'm saying to you today? Go ahead, lean over and tell you never. He's preaching better than you're saying amen. You will be hated by all nations for my name's sake. When you take a stand for the Lord, when you preach and teach the Lord, when you take a position to honor Jesus, people are going to not like you. I was telling the service this morning, the first service, I got a letter recently, an email from somebody who said I was preaching politics. and I want that person to understand I'm not preaching politics, I'm preaching morality.

9:04 Amen. You assigned it to a political party. Yeah, I'm going to preach what's right and what's wrong, period. And I let the chips fall where they may.

9:24 Amen. I'm not going to compromise. If you've been a part of this church any length of time, you know that I don't compromise on what I'm preaching and teaching. Amen. I don't take sides. But when it's right, I declare it's right. When it's wrong, I'll declare that it's wrong, regardless of who it reflects on. The claps came from the back, so let me go ahead. Look at them, ain't none of them clapping up here.

10:05 She said, don't go back there, don't go back there. I'm coming back here. This is the crowd that's with me. This is the crowd. Amen. Yeah, that's what I'm talking about. These people right here. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. This is probably where I need to be every week is come right here and walk back and forth. Do y'all understand what I'm saying to you today? You're going to be hated. Y'all get ready. Get prepared. People are not going to like that you take a posture and a position to honor the Lord and celebrate him. Amen. And people are not going to like it. They're not going to like it. So last year sometime, I think last year, it might have been a year before that, The state of Maryland passed a law that seeks to say, they want to say it's illegal for an organization to base hiring practices on what an organization believes. Here's what that means.

11:13 That we can no longer say that in order to be an employee of the First Baptist Church of Glen Arden, we can't say that you have to believe in Jesus. Ain't happening here. Go ahead and lock me up. Put me in prison. Because you have to believe in Jesus to work here. You have to be convicted of Jesus to work here. Right? Y'all understand what I'm saying? Yeah, we fighting that. We're fighting that. And people are going to hate me for it. It's okay. It's all right. I'm willing to take a stand. I'm willing to take the punishment for it. Are y'all still with me?

12:07 We in the last days. We are entering into the last days. and so they're going to hate it. As a matter of fact, y'all are going to be hated. When you really take a stand, when you say you believe what the Bible teaches, people are not going to like you. Are you prepared to take that? Are you, wait, are you prepared for people to unfollow you? Go ahead and follow me. I didn't ask you to follow me in the first place. I don't base my value on how many followers I have. My value is on the fact that I have a relationship with the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. Let me come back here. She's beckoning for me to come back in.

13:10 If I had a hundred of you, more of you, I could get rid of all of these other thousands of people. Thank you, baby. Great job, man. Appreciate it. Thank you. Praise him.

13:51 See, y'all don't know what it's like. Y'all don't know what it's like to be up there trying to preach and teach people something. They looking at you like they don't know what you're talking about. And when somebody stand up and say, go on and preach, Pastor. I love it. I love it. I love it. Okay, where was I? What verse did I stop at? Let me see verse 9. They will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for my name's sake. And then many will be offended and betray one another and will hate one another. All because you made a postural position. They're going to treat you this way. And many, verse 10. And then many will be offended and betray one another and will hate one another. Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. and because lawless will abound, the love of many will wax, will grow cold.

14:50 Verse 13, but he who endures to the end shall be saved. Amen. I'm just wondering, do we have some people who will say, I'll stick to the end. They might unfollow me. They might not like me. They may be critical of me. They might hate me. But I'm sticking with Jesus.

15:15 And I want you to be able to stick to the end through all of the thickens, the hatred and the dislike and the criticism. I want you to be able to say, I'm still here, Jesus. I'm still here. I still love you. I'm just wondering, do we have people who are willing to say, I'm going to stick with the Lord whatever the cost, whatever the conviction? I don't know where y'all are, but he done done too much for me to turn my back on him. Too many doors he's opened. Too many prayers he's answered. Too many miracles that he has worked. Too many things he has done on my behalf. I will not sacrifice or compromise. I am persuaded. I will stick to the end. Now it's quarter of and I got 15 minutes to give this last verse, verse 14. I want to talk about verse 14.

16:17 That's my verse. That's the main verse I'm talking about. I laid up all the way, all I've been talking about, first 13 verses just to get to verse 14. so I can give you clarity about what the mission of the church is in the midst of all this drama, all of these earthquakes and false prophets and all of these pestilence and famines in the midst of all of this, we come to verse 14 that tells us what our mission is.

16:46 And that's why I want to talk about what our mission is, the mission of the gospel. I got five points to give you in 15 minutes. Go ahead, look at your neighbor and say, we're going into overtime. because he ain't going to be able to do no five points in no 15 minutes. We're going to be in overtime. Y'all supposed to say, we'll stick with you, Pastor. It's God's justice. Don't say it now. Y'all should have said it a minute ago. And here's what verse 14 says. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come. and this gospel of the kingdom will be preached. What's our mission? Here's the first point I want to say is what we are supposed to do.

17:41 Here's what we're supposed to do. The what, here's our assignment. Somebody say our assignment. What is our assignment? Our assignment, the what we are called to do is to preach the gospel. amen we we no other message i'd have been to church over there and preached everything but the gospel amen but we ought to preach the gospel and that's what we do here at the first baptist church of glennartman we preach the gospel we preach the great message the great news that jesus christ died on the cross for our sins jesus shed his blood took the punishment took the whipping that we should have gotten. You should have gotten. I should have got that whipping, but he took the whipping. He took our place and shed his blood. And when he shed his blood, he died on the cross and they buried him. And early on Sunday, he got up out of the grave and it is faith in that message that will transform lives. Oh, I feel a shout in my soul right there that God saves us, not because you sing in the choir, not because you're an usher, not because you gave money, not because you got baptized, not because you did this or did that.

18:58 We got saved. We got a relationship with God, not because of what we did, but because of what he did on the cross on our behalf. Oh, I feel a shout down in my soul right there. And it is because of you putting faith in it. And I know I got some witnesses of people here today who can declare that because when they put their faith in Jesus, their marriages got saved. When they put their faith in Jesus, they came off drugs. When they put their faith in Jesus, they came out of the, off the streets and out of the club and your life got transformed. There's something about the message of the gospel that changes lives. I wish I had somebody who knew what I was talking about. When you sincerely put your faith in what Jesus did on the cross, it changes your life. Do I have a witness anywhere from anybody?

20:01 Go ahead, damp up somebody. Tell them I know that's right. Damp them up on the other side. that message breaks shackles. That message takes people off drugs. That message gives you life. That message will give you hope. That message gives you a purpose for living. It's that message that gives you a reason to get up in the morning. I wish I had a prayer cry. It's that word. When you put your faith in what God did for you, he changes lives. I believe God. I believe God. You can't make me doubt him. You can't make me question him. I know he's alive and well. I know he's got all power in his hands.

20:55 I know he's a miracle worker. I know he's a problem solver. I know he answers my prayer. And he's worthy of my praise. He's worthy of me giving him the thanks. and me giving him a shout and me raising my hands and me opening my mouth. He's worthy of my praise. Somebody say that's the what, that's the what. That's the what?

21:29 It's the gospel. That's what the gospel is. We are called to declare the gospel. And we are to preach it. That's what the text says. It will be preached in all the world. That's my second point. So the first point is what? The second point is where. And the where is all the world.

21:49 All of them begin with W, baby. They all start with a W. Amen. I worked hard to get these W's. I want y'all to show some appreciation that I got all these W's. Every hedge, every highway to every person, to all your neighbor, I don't care where they are, what they're doing. They need to know that the gospel is good for them. I don't care what culture they live in. It doesn't matter the color of their skin. It doesn't matter what part of the world they live in. This gospel is good for the world.

22:22 And one of the things I celebrate, and I'm praying about this. I'm praying that God raises up people who are willing to go into the world and share the gospel. I'm going to have to use you again, Tanya. This is Tanya Martin right here. Tanya Martin is one of our first missionaries to go and take the gospel to the world. Yeah. You know what she did? She gave up the comforts of her home, of living in America, and went to another country and lived. Matter of fact, you know, I thought something else you did. This girl gave up the comforts of America because y'all not leaving y'all nice family homes. Y'all You're not leaving your condos. You're not leaving your nice cars. You're not leaving that to go to another country. She not only went to another country, she learned their language.

23:19 Now I don't mind learning the language and going to another country as long as they speak jive. Is that what it's called? That's not the language. What's it called? Ebonics. Yeah, I preach Ebonics.

23:45 If they know what yo means, I can go there and talk to them. But she got, girl, stand back up. I didn't sit you down. Let me move you over here. She went to another, I'm praying that God raises up more people in our church that are willing to do the very same thing she did. I'm grateful for her because missions work is not high level, high interest in the United States of America among black people. Black people don't do that. But she did it. She went to the Ukraine. Let's show her some love and celebrate her for doing that. Amen, amen, amen.

24:38 Okay, you can sit down, man. I'm so proud of you. To the hedges and the highways. That's what the God, she took it to the hedges and the highway. Here's number three. I got to roll on. I'm asking all I got. Oh, ooh, ooh. I don't want y'all to think I ain't never been nowhere.

25:02 My first missions trip was to Guyana, South America. I went to Guyana for 10 days. a whole 10 days. And if I could be honest with you, those 10 days were not over fast enough. Especially when I had to learn how to use an outhouse. Do y'all know what an outhouse is? No, y'all don't. Y'all don't know what an outhouse is.

25:37 Who in here had to use an outhouse? Y'all lying. Y'all stop lying. I had never seen an outhouse. I didn't know what an outhouse was. When they told me, Pastor Steve, when they told me that the bathroom was outside and I had to go outside to use it, I said, I'll just hold it in until I get back to America. But Mother Nature woke me up one day. And it would have been okay if Mother Nature had wakened me up in the morning. But it was at night that I had. It's at night. We can do it. Whoooo!

26:30 So I made my way outside to the outhouse. And through the cracks in the door, I saw a lizard coming my way. What do you do when the lizard is coming your way and you don't know how long you're going to be in there? I said...

27:29 There's somebody in here. Can y'all pray for me?

27:50 And then I had to use the bathhouse that was outside. Y'all know where the bathhouse is. I had to use the bathhouse. Whew. and I had to carry my water with me to the bathhouse. Y'all don't know nothing about this. When you get a bucket of water and you wash yourself up with the bucket, dip your cloth and do it, and then you take the bucket and pour it over you. See, y'all think it's hot water. No, it's freezing cold water. Oh no, you've got to have a call from God to go into another country to share the gospel. That's why I know I'm saved. Can I get an amen right there?

28:49 Amen. I think, let me tell you something. I think, I should have said this at 8 o'clock. I forgot to say this at 8 o'clock. I think every teenager should go on a missions trip outside of this country. Listen, parents, I want you to put aside some money to send your kids outside the United States. Then maybe they'll appreciate what you have provided for them. They'll appreciate that bedroom and that bathroom that you provided for.

29:46 The car. They'll appreciate it, but they don't have the experience to know how the rest of the world lives. Okay, I got to hurry up. What was my, what was the point? Where. Here's point three is the why. Why do we do it? and this gospel, verse 14, of the kingdom will be preached, and all the world has a witness to all the nations. Here's the why. We do it because we've been called to be a witness.

30:26 We can testify. We can bear witness to the fact that our lives have been changed by our relationship with Jesus. Our lives have been changed because of our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why we do it. That's why we have this missions department. That's why we're doing missions work in the United States and in other communities in the United States and outside the United States. Why? Because we can bear witness to the power of the gospel.

30:59 Somebody look at your neighbor and say, the gospel changes things. Tell them on the other side, the gospel changes things. Matter of fact, tell them I can be a witness because I've seen the power because it's changed me. Somebody say, he changed my life. He changed my circumstance. He made a difference in my life. And I can be a witness to the power of that gospel. Here's number four. How long do we do this? It says, right? Look, this is good for this.

31:32 We do it till the end of time. it says in the latter part of verse 14 then the end will come we are to do it until we get to the end until Jesus comes back that's how long we do it that's the when when do we do it? till the end comes now, today, right now we're to share the gospel here's point five my time is up I was hoping somebody would say take your time, but nobody said nothing. I gave you space to say it, but nobody said it. It's okay. She was the only person out of the 4,000 people sitting in here. One person said, take your time. Thank you. I love you so very much. I wish I had more. If I had more like you and more like her, I'd be sad. I'd be a second. Thank you very much.

32:27 here's point five. Who should do this? It's not in the verse, but I added it. You know who it is? It's you. It's you. He's called you to do it. When's the last time you bore witness to somebody about the power of the gospel? When's the last time you made it your business to share with somebody that Jesus changed your life, answered your prayers, worked a miracle on your behalf? When is the last time you told somebody about how he made a difference in your life? That's what we are called to do. That's the mission of the gospel. What was my point? What was point one? What? What is our assignment? To preach the gospel.

33:19 Number two? Where? Where? In all the world. Number three? Why? Why? I'm called to be a witness. We're called to be a witness. Number four? When? When? To be a witness. And number five? Who? Who? You. Amen. If you've been blessed by