You Will Be Witnesses (Part 2)

Well, once again, before we get into the message this morning, I want to share with you a bit more of our strategy for missions.

We're emphasizing that throughout this month. My desire is to kind of lay before you the kind of the broad categories of missions, our strategy to missions to bring the gospel of Jesus Christ to the world.

We'll begin with two verses of the scripture again. First one is Matthew 28, 18 and 19. And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, 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 all things that I have commanded you.

And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Amen. And so there is that passage. That is the bedrock verse of scripture from God's word.

We call it the Great Commission, but it's not the only place that the Great Commission appears. The other place that we need to look is in Acts chapter 1 and verse 8.

But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you shall be witnesses to me. Where? Where? In Jerusalem and in all Judea and in Samaria and to the end of the earth.

Now, I mention this verse again because this not only is an example, once again, of our commission given to us directly by the Lord Jesus Christ, but it also includes with it a strategy.

And we have put together a strategy for missions that includes all of these areas. Now, no, we're not probably going to go to Jerusalem.

It would be great to go visit Jerusalem, wouldn't it? Some of you have been there. We're not going to go to the region around Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria. And the end of the earth is rather vague.

But we are, of course, taking these particular areas and noting that Jesus is starting at home and moving out from there. And so the commission includes not just here at home, our Jerusalem, but advances out to the end of the earth.

And it is my contention from Scripture, and I think I'm right on this, that every local body of believers, that's us, we're a local body of believers, baptized believers.

We call ourselves Highland Park Baptist Church, that we need to be involved in all four of those areas in some way or another as God leads us. And for us to obey the Great Commission in its entirety means that we then connect ourselves in all those areas.

Now, a few weeks ago, starting with our Jerusalem, and that is, of course, as the picture suggests, our Bartlesville, and I would include Dewey in that.

And I listed for you a number of things that we as a church want to be involved in in the coming year and years. And then we move from Jerusalem to our Judea, which means our state, Oklahoma.

And we talked about that a few weeks ago, and I shared with you some points of mission, some contact connections, rather, that we need to be involved in in our state.

And then this morning, we're going to be focusing on our Samaria. And our Samaria, I believe for us, would include North America.

And so we're going to be looking for establishing some points, some contact points of missions in various parts of North America.

And in a broad sense, our first connection, other than prayer, would be our giving. And so the first area of missions on the North America, the scope of North America, would be our Annie Armstrong missions offering.

That's number one that I would mention to you. And we have been, of course, committed to that over the years and want to continue to be committed to our Annie Armstrong missions offering that we take around Easter every year.

And you might remember that that money that's given goes 100% toward supporting the gospel and the spread of the gospel through missionaries right here on our continent.

So we want to continue to be committed to that. Second, a point of missions that we would be involved in directly would be Nome, Alaska.

That would be number two. And Scott and Mary Bates. Now, just what that kind of connection is going to look like is going to take some time to develop that.

But we have Scott and Mary there on the field there in Nome, Alaska. And already God is blessing them. And they're involved in a number of things there in regard to missions and spreading of the gospel.

And the second place that we want to connect with will be Colorado. Colorado, you might know if you have looked at our state paper, Baptist paper, that Oklahoma has started a partnership with Colorado.

And you might also know, because I've mentioned it already, and I believe Brother Paul mentioned it just briefly last week, that our association is also making a connection with an association in Colorado, the Pikes Peak Baptist Association.

And I don't have to even tell you where that's located. You know, the name itself tells you that it's right there in view of Pikes Peak. And it involves a number of churches there, a number of church plants.

And we're going to connect in probably multiple ways with the ministry that is being done there in Pikes Peak Association, which really takes up most of the area around Colorado Springs.

And just where we're going to connect, that's not been decided yet. What our connection there is going to look like, we don't know yet. But we want to be involved.

It certainly will involve praying for the church planters and the work that's being done in that area. It may also include actually going and being a part and supporting the ministry that is taking place there in the local church, as well as some mission type of work there.

There in a place, by the way, that is so godless, so dark, certainly Christless, a difficult culture to share the gospel to, and a lot of New Age.

In fact, I would say in that area, in fact, it has been said to us, that a community right outside of Colorado Springs is today the New Age Mecca of the United States.

And how will we plant churches there and share the gospel? It's difficult. And we want to connect with them and support them. And so Colorado Springs would be another part of our go-to, our Samaria, our North American continent.

You might have heard or remember that Brother Paul mentioned last week a trip to Mexico that would be a student trip. And I would very much like to see our kids, if God leads and makes that available, our young people to be a part of that.

That will be this summer. So there's a connection there to Mexico, so Alaska and Colorado and Mexico. And in a broad sense, our giving to our Annie Armstrong missions offering, that encompasses or describes our going to our Samaria, which is North America.

And so that's the strategy for North America. All right. Now, if you take your Bibles and turn very quickly to Acts chapter 1 and verse 8, we're going to be spending our time there again this morning in my sermon.

And I've been preaching a series of sermons throughout, well, not really throughout the book of Acts, but throughout this particular verse, Acts 1-8, which, again, is an example of one of the commissions given by our Lord Jesus Christ.

And so if you have it there, Acts chapter 1 and verse 8, let me go ahead and read that passage. I've already read it, but now I'll read it again. But you, Jesus speaking, of course, speaking to his disciples, you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth.

All right. I'll read a very important passage in regard to missions and our great commission. You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you shall be.

You shall be. Not hope to be. Not may be. But shall be, Jesus says, witnesses to me. To ultimately to the world are a very key passage.

I heard a story some years ago, and I've never forgotten it. It's a story about a certain notorious bank robber by the name of Georgie Rodriguez.

I don't know if you've ever heard this story. Georgie Rodriguez operated along the Texas-Mexico border about the turn of the century. And what he would do, he would rob banks in Texas, and then he would take the money and cross over secretly across the Rio Grande over into Mexico, and he would hide the money there.

And he was a very successful bank robber. So successful that the Texas Rangers decided to put together a posse to capture just him, just Georgie Rodriguez.

And so a Texas ranger was watching him one day and noticed that Georgie Rodriguez had slipped across the river on into Mexico, and so he followed him so that he could get the drop on him.

And he watched him as he traveled to his home village, and as he kind of mingled with the people out there in the village square, and then he watched him as he went into one of the cantinas there in that little village.

And so the ranger decided he would slip in after him and get the drop on him, and he did. And with his gun pointed in Georgie Rodriguez's direction, the ranger said, he said, Georgie Rodriguez, I have come to get all the money you have stolen from the banks in Texas and take it back with me, and if you don't give it to me, I am going to blow your brains out.

What is that doing? Just one problem. Georgie Rodriguez didn't speak any English. And the Texas ranger didn't speak any Spanish.

Well, about that time, there was an enterprising Mexican there in the cantina, and he said to the ranger, he said, I am bilingual, and if you will allow me, I will translate for you.

And the ranger nodded his head in affirmation, and so the Mexican man put the words of the ranger in terms that Georgie could understand. And just as soon as Georgie Rodriguez understood what the ranger had said to him, his eyes got as big as silver dollars, and he nervously responded to the ranger, to what the ranger had said, of course, by way of the Mexican interpreter, and he said, tell the big Texas ranger that I have not spent any of the money, I still have the money, and if you'll go out to the well in the square there, and face it from the north, and count down five bricks, and find a loose brick there, and pull it out, he'll find all the money there.

Tell him. Tell him. Tell him. Please tell him quickly. I do not want to die. And so the ranger asked his interpreter, he said, well, what did he say? Tell me. What did he say?

And the Mexican translator looked at the Texas ranger with a very solemn look on his face, and he said to him in clear English, he said, Georgie Rodriguez, say he is a very brave man and he's ready to die.

Communication is pretty important, isn't it? I mean, if you're going to communicate something, you need to communicate it correctly. I mean, just ask Georgie Rodriguez, that is, if he's still alive.

And just what you communicate is extremely important. And our communication can either be helpful, or it can be hurtful, like in the case of Georgie Rodriguez.

Or it can be, in many occasions, on many occasions, it's of no value whatsoever, and a waste of time. But the substance of our communication is very important.

And possibly more important than you know. I remember another story about a certain millionaire whose hobby was to collect rare antiques and priceless pieces of art.

And he had such a passion for this hobby that he hired a man to work for him full time and to travel around the world and to find these works of art and to purchase them for him and for his collection.

Well, on one occasion, the man was traveling in China. And he came across a very expensive, very rare tapestry. And it was worth, or the asking price was $50,000.

And so he telegrammed his wealthy employer back when they used to do that. I guess we could say he texted him. And he described the piece of art to his employer and informed him of the price.

And the employer responded very quickly and with a message that was very short. And the telegram read, No price too high. And so he went out and bought the piece of art for his employer.

Well, it was just one problem. The telegram was missing a very important point of punctuation. And the telegram read, No price too high. But it should have read, No, period.

Price too high. You see, communication, whether it's verbal, as in the case of Georgia Rodriguez, or written communication, or communication in many other ways, it's very important that it be done right.

And that is no less true for those who call themselves communicators or are called to be communicators of the Lord Jesus Christ, to be communicators of the gospel.

And by the way, that is all of us. We've all been called to do that. And Jesus alludes to that right here in our text for this morning. And with these few words in Acts chapter 1, verse 8, Jesus commissions his church, and that's us, he commissions his church to be what we could call specialized communicators.

Specialized communicators. But specialized communicators of what? Of exactly what? Well, that is the second thing that I want us to see in this text.

And we've been talking about great commission work, the great commission work of the church. And you might remember a couple of Sundays ago that I emphasized this aspect of our great commission work.

And that is, number one, you'll remember this from a few weeks ago, hopefully. Number one, rely on the source of great commission work.

Rely on the source of great commission work. That's number one. Jesus told his disciples not to leave Jerusalem for a while, for a period of time.

He said, wait, wait for the promise of the Father. He said, very soon you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit. That is, very soon your life is going to be dramatically changed.

Your life will be literally immersed in God. and that event will provide for you the empowerment of the Holy Spirit.

Or, what I said a few weeks ago, the dynamic power of God. He said, you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses to me.

See, that is the source of our great commission work as believers and the source of our great commission work as a church. In fact, we could say correctly that the Holy Spirit is the source of all that we do as believers.

That is, if we want what we do to be pleasing to God. It's the Holy Spirit operating freely through a life that has yielded all to Him.

And so, that's number one, rely on the source of great commission work. But now, number two, and this is what we're going to focus on this morning, recognize the substance of great commission work.

That's number two. Recognize the substance of great commission work. Did you notice what Jesus said? You might just pass over it and not pay attention to it.

He said, you shall be witnesses! To what? Say it. Me! There it is.

Me! I tell you, the most important, I think it could be said that the most important word in this verse, in the great commission, is that little two-letter, first-person, objective, singular, personal pronoun, me.

Me! See, the great commission is, in essence, the command that all born-again believers be communicators of Jesus Christ.

Be a communicator of Him. You say, well, bless my soul, pastor, we know that, don't we? But do we? Do we really? Let me ask you, are you a communicator of Jesus?

Verbally? With any measure of frequency? A communicator of Jesus verbally? Or, how about this? Does your life in total, does your life in total communicate the person, the life, the message, of Jesus Christ?

Or, does it more often than not communicate something else entirely? Or, does it just, or is it rather, void of any communication of the life and ministry of Jesus Christ?

But, Jesus said, what? You shall be witnesses to me, to me, or unto me. But, what all does that include?

Well, I want to give you four simple statements this morning that I hope will describe what it means to be communicators of Jesus, to be witnesses to Him. First, to be a communicator of Jesus, one must have a genuine relationship with Jesus.

Had you thought about that? In order to be an effective communicator of Jesus, to be a communicator of Him at all, in a positive sense, one must have a genuine, I would even add, personal relationship with Jesus.

Now, I read a moment ago from Acts chapter 1, verse 8, here still in that chapter, look up at verses 2 and 3. The Bible says here, until the day in which He was taken up after He, through the Holy Spirit, had given commandments to the apostles whom He had chosen, to whom, and now notice this, He also presented Himself alive after His suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen, seen by them during forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.

Now, what's the point there? Let me ask you, or illustrate it in this way. The word witness that we read there in Acts 1.8, means, it's a tremendous word, but in the technical sense, it is a legal term.

And it simply refers to a person who has seen something and then can give a report about what he or she has seen.

Now, let me ask you something. Raise your hand here this morning if you have fought in a foreign war. Raise your hand if you have fought in a foreign war.

Brother Grundy can't hear me back there because I know he fought in the war. All right? Served in the military. Any others served in the military during wartime? All right?

Got several. Maybe I should ask the question that way. Now, these men who raised their hands could speak at length about their experience as a soldier during wartime.

Right? They could. And we're not going to give them the opportunity this morning to do that, but you can get with them afterward and I bet you they'd love to tell you about their experiences. Raise your hand if you have ever been to the city of New York.

That'll be a lot easier for many of you. All right? Hands all around the room. You could be a witness, bear some kind of witness of New York City.

That is at least the park you've seen. Raise your hand if you have been scuba diving, ever been scuba diving. all right? All right?

Several of you. A lot more than I expected. And, you know, what could you do? You could tell us about it, couldn't you? Tell us about that experience. Now, you're getting the point here, aren't you?

If Charles Lindbergh were here this morning, he could bear witness of crossing the Atlantic Ocean in a single engine plane. If Neil Armstrong were here, he could tell us all about going to the moon.

If George W. Bush were here, he could tell us to bear witness to the presidency, being president of the United States. I'm sorry, Texas fans, but if Albert Pujols were here, he could tell us about hitting three home runs in a World Series game like he did last night.

Oh, woe is me. There are some Cardinal fans out here, I heard. Okay. They could bear witness to these things. Now, for my part, I have never fought in a foreign war, been a soldier.

I've never been to New York City, at least not yet. I have never been scuba diving. I certainly have not flown a single-engine airplane anywhere, not even across my yard, and nor would you want me to.

I certainly, you might have guessed, have never been to the moon, and I assure you, I will never be the president of anything. And I couldn't hit a fastball in a major league if my life depended upon it.

I could hit it with my body, I guess. But even then, I don't know if I'm quick enough to get in front of it. See, I can't bear witness to these things. I just can't because I've not experienced them.

But I can bear witness to Jesus. I can bear witness to Him. And why can I do that? Because I have a genuine, personal, intimate relationship with Him.

It's real. I hope you have the same testimony. It's real and it's current. He saved me and I can tell you about that.

He loves me and shows that love to me every day and I can talk about that. He speaks to me through His Word and I can tell you and testify to that.

He works in my life in a host of many ways, some ways I'm conscious of and observe and I can tell you about that and what He's doing in my life.

And so to be a communicator of Jesus, first of all, one must have a genuine relationship with Jesus. If you do not know Jesus in a personal way, then you cannot bear witness of Him.

You cannot do it. In fact, a number of years ago, when I was working on my master's at Mid-America and not pastoring at the time, I preached in a number of churches and there was a little church in Arkansas that I preached several Sundays at.

And during that time, there was this big teenage boy who was saved and I had the privilege of baptizing him for that little congregation. And when I talked with him about this experience, about how he was saved, what happened, that kind of thing, to give a testimony, he said, well, it all got started just a week before when we were having kind of a family get together.

My grandma and grandpa were there, mom and dad and some other family members were there, and we were all sitting around in the living room, and he said everybody was kind of telling their story about when they were saved.

I gave a little testimony. And we were going around the room, and pretty soon I saw that it was going to get to me, and it suddenly dawned on me, I didn't have anything to say.

I had no testimony. He could not bear witness of this Jesus because he did not know him. Now he can. But to be a communicator of the gospel, to be a communicator of Jesus, you must know him personally, have a genuine relationship with him.

Number two, to be a communicator of Jesus, one must be filled with the Holy Spirit. One must be filled with the Holy Spirit. Now let me add just a few, in fact a whole string of adjectives to this.

One must be, in the first place, consciously filled with the Holy Spirit. Consciously. And so I would ask you, do you know experientially that God the Holy Spirit lives in you?

Do you know that experientially? You should be able to say yes to that. Or maybe I should reword that and say it this way, do you know experientially his power operating in your life?

flowing through your life, enabling you to do many things that he has called you to do. Do you know that experientially? And so conversely, do you know when that's not happening in your life?

See, every Christian knows these two things. Christian knows that when he or she is serving the Lord or doing anything in life, there is this experience, this knowledge that God is working in me.

And by the same token, there are those horrifying times when you're trying to serve him and doing it in the flesh. But the point of it is that we're to be filled with the Holy Spirit consciously.

Secondly, consciously. Second, one must be controllingly filled with the Spirit. Controllingly.

And this really is the primary point or idea behind the filling of the Holy Spirit. And we talked about this a few weeks ago. And what I mean is have you yielded and are you yielding on a daily basis the control of your life, the control of your life to God's sovereign lordship.

And that's a daily thing. It's not my will, but thy will, O God. Filled with the Holy Spirit.

Consciously, controllingly. Number three, one must be consistently, consistently filled with the Holy Spirit. It's not an on and off, on again, off again kind of spirituality.

spirituality. It's an ongoing, daily thing. And it's consistent. In order for us to be effective communicators of Jesus Christ, we must have that consistent, controlling, filling of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

Number four, conspicuously. Conspicuously filled with the Holy Spirit. There's an interesting verse of Scripture, just a few chapters over. In chapter four, let me read that to you.

You can turn to it if you'd like. Wouldn't take you long to get there. Acts chapter four and verse 13. And it says here, now, when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled.

And then this little sentence here, and they realized that they had been with Jesus. That's a tremendous statement. And we're talking about unbelievers observing something in the life of Peter and John, these two common, everyday fishermen.

And they certainly noted that they were uneducated in the formal sense. uneducated, untrained. They marveled at that. But then this is the most incredible thing.

These unbelievers realized that Peter and John had been with Jesus, been with him. Boy, that's what others ought to, others around us ought to be able to say and observe about us.

It's very conspicuous. And so, you see, our witness matches that. It's perfectly consistent with that. Alright, so we're talking about effectively communicating Christ to the world.

And to do that, one must be filled with the Spirit consciously, controllingly, consistently, conspicuously, and I would add, number five, contagiously.

Contagiously. Filled with the Holy Spirit. That it is so real, this presence of God in your life.

So real, so observable, so validating, validating of our message, of what we're communicating.

That is the life that is observed and the power of God that is quite obviously evident in your life, that it is, that it validates the things you're saying about Him.

You're communicating about Him. So confirming of your message that when others see that, they, if nothing else, they realize they don't have it.

Whatever you've got, I don't have. love. And some, by the grace of God, will want that too. Will want what they see in you.

That you're not just simply speaking something that you don't really know. Or trying to persuade someone to believe something that you're not really convinced of yourself.

Because see, people can recognize that. They see the inconsistency there. you're just simply preaching. But when they hear what you're preaching and see that your life is consistent with it, then they're going to want that.

So to be an effective great commission worker, we must be filled with the Spirit. Jesus told His disciples in Luke 24, 49, Behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you.

That's the Holy Spirit. That's what He was speaking of there. But He says, Terry, that is wait, wait in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high. He says, wait, wait for the promise of the Father.

And then Jesus describes that promise as recorded in John 15, 26. And He says to His disciples there, but when the Helper, the Paracletos, the one called alongside, that's the Holy Spirit, when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of Truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of me.

And you also will bear witness because you have been with me from the beginning. Well, see, listen, the Helper has come. We live on this side of Pentecost and He indwells every born-again Christian.

And so to be a communicator of Jesus, which is the substance of our witness, one must have a genuine relationship with Jesus.

One must be filled with the Holy Spirit. And third, Jesus is to be preeminent in all we communicate. He's to be preeminent in all we communicate.

Jesus told His disciples to wait in Jerusalem until they receive the promise of the Father. I mentioned that a moment ago. And He said to them, John baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit.

Now, what does that mean? Baptized with the Holy Spirit? Well, it kind of depends on who you ask. And let me tell you what I think it means. The word baptized, by the way, means to be immersed in something.

Don't let anybody tell you otherwise. The very word baptized, baptizo, just comes right on into the English, means to immerse in some substance.

In fact, in ancient literature, in Greek literature, when a ship was caught in a storm, and if it capsized, it was engulfed in the ocean, it was said to be baptized.

baptized. Now, the ship wasn't sprinkled with water, or poured on with water, it was immersed in water. In fact, I have kind of a bone to pick with all Bible translators.

If we were to truly translate the word baptizo, we would do so with the English word immerse. And so our Bibles would say immerse, and not just bring the Greek on into the English, but that's another, that's a, well, we'll go on from there.

But here's the point. If it means immersed, then Jesus is saying in the first place that those whom John, John the Baptist, those whom John baptized were completely immersed in water.

That's the idea, that's what he's saying. Water completely surrounded them. They went under the water. water. And so Jesus is saying that when a person is born again, born again, that person is baptized in the Holy Spirit.

That means that that person is immersed in God. That's what happens when you're saved. God places you in Christ.

You are immersed. You are baptized in God, immersed in God. And so the point here is that salvation is a full body experience.

Or maybe I should put it this way, the born again experience is a total life commitment. And what does that commitment look like? Well, it's a commitment to a completely new life.

A brand new life. A life that is surrounded by God. A life that is hid in His life. A life that draws its spiritual life, spiritual strength from His life.

And so Christians are not people who now lead some kind of dual life. Shame on us if that's the case. I mean, for us, you know, we might say, well, there's my sacred life.

That's what I do at church and for the church and with the church and so forth. And then there's my secular life. Don't ever make that distinction in your life as a believer. For the believer, there is no secular life.

You say, but I have a secular job. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about your life is to be hid in Christ so no matter what context, no matter where you are, no matter what you're doing, that life is sacred.

Or maybe I should use this word, sanctified. For the believer, there is no secular life. It is all sacred. It is all sanctified.

And so you can't say, I operate, you know, by a certain standard when I'm involved in church work, church things, and then I operate by a different standard when I'm doing everything else.

There are some believers, God help us, who work that way. And so the way they conduct themselves in church, ethically, is different than the way they conduct themselves in business.

Ethically. But no. A follower of Christ, as a follower of Christ, you can't say what I do in my private life is my business, and what I do with my personal life is my business.

Really? What does Colossians 1.18 say? Well, I'll tell you. It says, And he, that's Jesus, is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things, how many things?

All things, he might have the preeminence. Or how about Colossians 3.17? It gets even more personal, because you say, well, he's talking about the church, but what about me?

Well, in Colossians 3.17, he says, And whosoever, whatsoever rather, you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by Him.

We're talking about being effective communicators for Christ. And to do so, Jesus must be preeminent in all that we communicate.

And I mean all. Not just what we say verbally, but in all that pertains to life.

Everything you do and everywhere you go and the way you act and how you respond and the very totality of your life is a communication, communication is to be a communication of Jesus.

One more. Number four, Jesus must be found in every mode of communication.

Just real quickly. What I mean is He's to be there in the communication of the mouth. Everything you say.

You're to communicate Him, honor Him. That means you have to have Jesus in every sentence. I'm not saying that. Everything you say is to be consistent with your relationship with Him, with the person and message and ministry of Christ.

Nothing that we use our mouths for. Not even when you hit your thumb with a hammer. Is to contradict or be inconsistent to the life of Christ.

Someone is always watching. Always. Not just with our mouths, but with our manners. And the way we conduct our lives, how we carry ourselves, how we conduct ourselves, our manners.

others. You know, you can defame and dishonor the name of Jesus with just a certain look on your face.

Our mouths, our manners, our moods. Some Christians are the most moody people you would ever not want to meet. And we all do battle with that.

But let's just consciously, consciously remember that even in our moods, our mood swings, we can, by the Holy Spirit, have power over those things.

And we do communicate the life and message of Christ to our moods.

Or we can do damage to that communication. And often that's the case. Motives. Our motivation for certain things we do, certain things we aspire to, certain things we desire and buy and hope for, our motives.

Sometimes our motives can be a contradiction to the message, our message of Christ, even in our giving of money to the church. Meditations, our music, our money.

I suppose we could add a number of other things on here, but I couldn't think of any other M words. Okay? Listen. We communicate Christ.

Don't you know? That whether it's to your children at home, to the people you work with, the people you pass by there at Walmart, the clerk that checks your merchandise out, or wherever it is, whatever context, we are constantly communicating Christ or we are communicating something that absolutely contradicts what we say we believe.

What we say we believe. Jesus said, but you shall be witnesses! to me.

Unto me. Recognize the substance of our Great Commission work. It's Jesus. Jesus. . Thank you.