In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of not getting distracted from the main purpose of Christianity. He highlights that Christianity is not just about being moral or making right decisions for personal blessings, but it is primarily about loving God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and then loving our neighbor as ourselves. The preacher shares the example of a pastor who created a "hallway of heroes" in his church, filled with pictures and information about missionaries, to constantly remind the congregation about the importance of missions. He urges the church to prioritize spending time in the Word of God and seeking obedience to it, rather than just getting involved in missions as a superficial solution.

Let's open up our Bibles just for a moment to Jeremiah, chapter five. Before I get started, I would just like to say it's a great privilege for us to be here and it has been and I'm sure will continue to be a great privilege for us to be able to fellowship together, to know one another, to grow, to see things God, to see God do things throughout this land. And not only through this land, but through the many lands around the world. Let's go to Jeremiah, chapter five, verse 18. Yet even in those days, declares the Lord, I will not make you a complete destruction. It shall come about when they say, why has the Lord, our God, done all these things to us? Then you shall say to them, as you have forsaken me and served foreign gods in your land, so you will serve strangers in a land that is not yours. Now, this is just by way of introduction. Many of you would say, well, this is a very strange passage to be preaching. If we're going to be talking about the Great Commission, it's true. But there are some principles here that are they're absolutely astounding for us today. Here we have the people of Israel. Their primary obligation was to serve the Lord, their God, with all their heart, soul, mind and strength. They were created for that. They had no other purpose. When they were brought into a covenant relationship with Yahweh, with Jehovah, every other purpose in their life fell off. Everything became secondary to serving Yahweh. That is why they were so warned in Mount Sinai. They were warned. Are you sure you want to become the people of God? Because if you make that commitment, if you enter into that covenant, I am going to place upon you requirements and you are going to be called to obey them. And I will hold you accountable in the way that I have never held any other nation accountable. And if you do not serve me. Then all these things will come upon you. And so we see that it is, as it is said throughout scriptures, it can be a terrible thing to enter into a covenant relationship with God, to call ourselves his people. Because when his people. Get distracted. And become immersed in the world. And no longer serve him principally, primarily. Then discipline falls. Now, notice I use the word discipline, because if you see in verse 18, yet in those days declares the Lord, I will not make you a complete destruction. He is not going to wipe Israel off the face of the earth, but he is going to discipline them and discipline them severely. Now, let's notice one other thing before we get to our point in this text, the ungodly can rage wildly against God, and it seems as though he does nothing to them. Even in Psalms, a passage that we all memorized early in our Christianity, Psalms one six, for the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. God allows the wicked to rage against him for a time as though it seems he didn't even know their way, but you take the righteous, those who have entered into a covenant relationship with him, when they step out of line, God steps in. Have you ever wondered to yourself, why is it that so many people around you commit all sorts of abominations and God never does anything? But the moment you step out of line, the hammer falls. Yes. Well, you should rejoice if that's the case, because that's indication of having entered in to a covenant relationship with God, that you're really his people because he disciplines every son that he loves. Now, let me spring on you the reason for me going to this text to begin. Our country is not a Christian country, and I would dare say that it never has been a Christian country. God only has one nation and that is the people of God. However, there are physical nations that have had the blessing of being influenced by Christianity and our nation falls into that category. We have been influenced by Christianity and this nation has received many great blessings because of Christianity. But even though this is a Christian influenced nation, it's not what I want to talk about. It's not the point of this text. The point of the text is the Christians in this nation. For over 200 years, we have had freedom to serve the Lord. We have had freedom to do whatever our conscience dictated with regard to what we discovered in scripture. Is that not true? No persecution. No stamp of government approval needed. We have had unlimited freedom for 200 years to serve the Lord and the other blessings that have followed along with that have been economic prosperity, safety, the absence of war, so many things. But look, look in verse 19, it shall come about when they say, why has the Lord done all these things to us? Why? The people of God ask, then you shall say to them, as you have forsaken me and served foreign gods in your land, so you will serve strangers in a land that is not yours. In the land of Israel, God gave the people of God freedom to serve him through his son, David, and then through Solomon, he liberated his people from all their enemies. There was no war after David. Solomon had a great time of peace. Everything was guarded by God, established a monarchy so that God could be glorified in a nation and that nation could serve him without fear. But. What did the prosperity do? Instead of turning them to God, it turned them away from God, and although they would call upon the name of the Lord, it was the prosperity, it was the ease of life, it was the economic blessing, it was the striving for things that really had a hold of their heart. We can say the same thing about us today in America. For 200 years, there have been blessing of religious freedom for 200 years. There has been economic prosperity for 200 years. We have had the opportunity of no other nation on the face of the earth to serve the Lord God and to spread the gospel throughout the nations. But is the primary thought of your life. Serving the Lord, is that what fills your head, young person, when you get up in the morning and when you go to bed at night is the cry of your heart. Hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done. Is that the reason why you go to work in the morning? Is that the basis for the decisions you make? Is that how you raise your children? I would say that the answer is probably no, though Christian. We become so easily distracted. By those things that are not the primary thing. And instead of taking the last 200 years. To spread the gospel to all the nations. We have, by and large, sat down and soaked up the blessing. Now, here's the horrible news. Folks. The nations. That we have not evangelized. Are coming for us. The very nations where we did not take the gospel, those are the nations that are coming for us. How different could it have been if we had spent these last 200 years serving the Lord, our God, preaching the gospel to the whole world, taking the gospel of Jesus Christ into every city and small town of the Middle East and of Asia and of Africa. What if they had heard the gospel of peace? Instead of a religion of war. What if in our own country we had evangelized the peoples? That we would have prayed and we would have fought and we would not have allowed them to take over our education system and our universities and every one of our institutions and then kick us totally out. I am afraid. I'm afraid. That apart from a miraculous move of God, apart from some sort of phenomenal revival that no one can even see on the horizon, what happened to the nation of Israel is going to happen in this country. That we will end up. As Christian people, I'm not speaking about the entire nation, I'm talking about Christian people subjected. To ungodly kings and ungodly rulers with foreign gods, because in the time that we had the freedom to serve the Lord, our God, we did not. We did not. Now, let me say something here that's very, very important. I spent many years on the mission field. And I want you to know that even on the mission field, the missionary is not immune from being distracted from the primary work of serving God. Even on the mission field, there was a battle against the desire to do other things, and even with all your sincerity and your Bible study, there was always the possibility of being distracted from the only thing that matters, the only thing that is eternal and that is loving the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and making his name great among the nations. So if it's easy for a missionary to get distracted and if it's easy for a missionary to get distracted on the mission field, how easy is it for the average brother and sister in the pew to get distracted from the main thing? You see, Christianity is not merely about being moral. It's not merely about making right decisions for yourself so that God will bless you. Christianity is first and foremost about loving the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. And then. Having done that in that context, it is loving our neighbor as ourself, and one of the ways in which we love all our neighbors as ourself is we present to them the greatest gift that can be given them, and that is the gospel of Jesus Christ. You see that. I am greatly afraid. On the human side. For Christianity in America. Apart from a revival quicker than we would all believe, our freedoms to serve the Lord will be taken away. And I am reminded of those words of the Lord that we should work while it is still day. Because night is coming when no man will work. If you want to serve the Lord openly, freely, if you want to for him to use you in any public arena whatsoever, you had better do so now, because in 20 years we could all be using little signals and passwords to tell whether or not we're Christian. Meeting in homes and hiding. If we will not serve the Lord now. We may have to serve taskmasters. Who are cruel and care not for the things that are precious to us now in saying that, I want us to go look at a missionary heart for a moment, I want you to go to Matthew chapter six. Anytime you want to know anything about anything, here's what you do. You go to Jesus Christ. Anytime you want to see the way anything ought to look, you go to Jesus Christ. I'm serious. There is no other example. Nothing greater than he. So when we look in Matthew chapter six, we see the heart of our Lord. How should our heart be as Christians in Matthew chapter six? He says in verse nine, pray, then pray then in this way. And you say, well, Brother Paul, he's talking about prayer. He's not talking about the content of his heart. My dear friend, listen to me, prayer is the verbal or public manifestation of the content of your heart. If every time you hit your knees, your praying is all about you or the things you need, you have revealed to God and anyone else who's heard you the content of your heart. So here we see the content of the heart of Messiah. He says this, our father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Although it sounds rather common, it wouldn't be wrong to translate this special be your name. Let your name be special, let it be unique, let it be set apart from every other name in the universe, a cosmic separation in which there's God's name and every other name is put in another category. He said this is the will of my heart. This is the desire of my heart, father, father, that your name. Be separated by the people's and honored by the people's above absolutely every other name, that there's no competition whatsoever. And let me ask you a question. Can you and I say that that is the desire? Of our heart, is that the cry of your prayer life? Is that one of the most frequent statements that come out of your mouth in prayer? It's repeated Malachi, it's one of the phrases that that heart cry is most identified with that your name be great among the nations. We ought to be a person who looks inwardly at our own heart and says, is this true of me? Is this the greatest desire of my life that God's name be glorified in me? Then we look at our relationship with our spouses and ask ourselves this, is this my desire? Is this what I am diligently working toward that God's name be great in that relationship? Do we look at our children? Yes, we are missionaries to our children. Do we look at our children and think this, my greatest desire in that child? Is that God's name be great in him or her, that God's will be done, that God's kingdom come. Now, if someone were to step back and film your life. Would they be able to look at your relationship with your children and say, man, Matthew six, or would they say, I think the greatest desire they have for their children is that they be popular in a twisted, demented culture or that they be successful. In a temporal, worldly, financial sort of way, or that they be the greatest baseball player, soccer player, football player, basketball player. How much time do you invest in a missionary endeavor with your children? It goes back to that statement of years ago when I met this boy and all he could do was talk about China, how he loved the Chinese, he wanted to go to China, he wanted to be a missionary in China. One day I just looked at him and I said, you know, the reason you love Chinese people so much is you don't know any Chinese people. That doesn't mean that I have something against the Chinese people. I have friends that are Chinese that are quite wonderful. My point is this. It's easy to love someone 10,000 miles away. It's easy to talk about a missionary endeavor to people you're never going to have to witness to. I can tell you the missionary content of your heart by seeing what you do with those closest to you. Our father who art in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Do you desire the advance of capitalism? Do you desire the advance of democracy? Does it bother you when you hear news that democracy is on the demise or capitalism is dead or socialism is king? Does that bother you? Well, I guess it should. But it shouldn't bother you a fraction. To the degree that this should bother you, the kingdom of Christ. It's not advancing now, I can assure you that it is, but I can also assure you that we ought to become participants and seek for its greater advance. Does it bother you that there are countries where there is no gospel? Is there well, there's need a gospel here, listen, someone can get saved in America if they want to get saved in America. Now, they may have to scan the airways for a long time and travel to a lot of different places, but they can find a gospel. There are places all over this world where there is no gospel. Cities of a million people where the kingdom of Christ has yet to advance, does that bother you? Now, let me talk about the word bother for a moment, preoccupation, cause of anxiety, so on and so forth. The heart can only handle a few anxieties at a time. Or else it break down, sometimes, you know, you you come home from work, all of us know this, you've got all kinds of problems, and soon as you're met at the door with your wife or your children or something else and they've got another problem and you go, no, I can't take another problem. I'm full. Well, let me just say this, one of the reasons why we are not as anxious, as preoccupied, as concerned about the advance of Christ in the world, one of the reasons. Is because we're so filled up with all sorts of manmade anxieties that we have brought upon ourselves. Everything from keeping up to the Joneses, to financial debt, to worries about things that are not eternal, but they are temporal. We are so worried about so many things that don't matter. There are some very great things to say about Albert Einstein. He was he was an amazing, amazing individual. One thing that I've heard about him and read, hopefully it's true, is that if you opened up the doors of his closet. There were several different changes of clothing. But it was the exact same shirt, the exact same socks, the exact same suit coat. And so on and so forth. And someone said, what is this? Why do you do this? He said, because I've got too many other things to think about. I do not want to waste the mind I have thinking about something as unimportant as does my do my clothes match. Yet, ladies, if we took your preoccupation for clothes and the matching therein and we turned that into prayer time, we would probably have the gospel preached throughout all the nations. And men, I can say the same thing about all our endeavors, we're filled with so many things that aren't important, that do not satisfy, that cannot help us, that cannot bring any benefit whatsoever eternal to our families. Yet our minds are so filled with so many silly things that we cannot set our minds on things above. Which is the kingdom of our Lord and its advancement, it's true. It's just true, I discovered when we were in Peru for the first probably half of the time there, the country was under terrible political and civil unrest. I mean, you would have to wait in line for a bag of rice, bombs were blowing up everywhere. There was no no possibility really in many, many of our friends lives to get an education, to prosper in business or anything. And because so many things, so many doors were shut off to them, they had no hope whatsoever. Their devotion to Christ was supreme. All they had was that which is eternal, Jesus Christ and living for him. But the moment there was political victory and some sort of peace in the nation and prosperity came back, you started seeing many of the same maladies in Peru, their commonplace in the church in America. Distraction, distraction. I'm going to preach at a missionary, at an ex-missionary. I don't think you can ever become an ex-missionary, but he's a missionary who became a pastor down in Georgia. And what's amazing about his church is I don't think there's a hall. Literally, there's a hall you can walk down more than five feet and not see a big picture of a missionary. And the data of that missionary. He calls it his hallway of heroes. And what he told me was this, I don't want these people in this church to ever forget about missions. I want them to see missions everywhere they turn on every wall, every window, every place. There is a place to put something about missions. We're going to put it about missions because there is so much competition in this world that distracts even the good people of God. That's true. So he says here, our father who is in heaven, hallowed be thy name, your kingdom come, your will be done. Our involvement in missionary activity or our lack of involvement in missionary activity again is a great reflection of our own heart. If you honestly believe that the most important thing in the world. Is the will of God. Then you will be involved in missions. But before you ever get to the mission field, that desire of yours will be reflected in your own life. Just let's think for a moment. How much of our lives. Is lived. In practical atheism, practical atheism. Yes, you love the Lord. We love the Lord. We read the Bible in the morning and we pray we want to do what's right. But at the end of the day, before we go to bed at night, if we were to take inventory. How many hours of that day was lived without a consideration for the presence of God or the importance of his will. The supreme importance of doing his will, when was the last time you did anything thinking, am I doing the will of God? To purchase a car. Or a house or clothing. Or friendships. Any manner of thing on the planet that you must decide foremost in your mind should be the will of God. And when that happens, I want you to know that the same concern will bleed over into the nations. You will be concerned about this. Do the nations know the will of God? Are the nations subjected to the will of God, not in slavery or bondage or by force against their conscience? But have they heard the gospel? Have they been changed by the power of the Holy Spirit in the work of regeneration? Are they willingly, freely, joyfully concerned with the will of God missions? It begins in the heart. It begins in the heart. Now, I want us we've kind of just jumped all over, but I want us to get for just a minute to the Great Commission, just point out a few things that are very important. Go to Matthew 28. My problem is whenever I decide I'm going to preach on a certain text, I end up making about 20 sermons out of it. And so when I'm going to preach it once, I got to just jump all over the place. Matthew 28. Verse 16, but the 11 disciples proceeded to Galilee to the mountain which Jesus had designated. I just noticed for a moment, it's 11. And not well. One fell away. Not only did he fall away. He hung himself in such a fashion that his bowels exploded. He spilled himself out. He died and he went to hell. But it says these 11 proceeded to Galilee. They proceeded in obedience, they kept moving forward. Now we're going to see in just a moment, we don't have much time. We're going to see that they went there timidly. They went there with worship, but they also went there with doubt. These were not a rock solid band of followers of Jesus Christ at this point. They are confused. They are bewildered. They are making two stands. It says literally in Greek, undecisive about which way to go. But they were proceeding. It's just too good to pass up. There are some that begin the Christian life and end up labeled sons of perdition. They do not continue on. They deny the Lord and walk away. Do you realize, young people, even among your group, there will be some who do that statistically? I'm not a prophet. Can't see into your heart, but statistically of all the young people that come out of this church, some of them will be like Judas. Maybe even most. The problem is in Christian America, you can get away with having a Judas heart and still come to church. And still think you're OK. The radical. Dangerous nature of Christianity. Eleven show up. One is lost forever. Eleven proceed on in obedience to Christ. One is literally stopped dead in his tracks. Christianity is a very dangerous thing. Now. It says when they saw him, they worshiped him, but some were doubtful. Now, this word worship here is very important in the Greek. I believe it's proskuneo in the Greek. It refers to worship, the bending of the knee in the Septuagint, which is the Greek version of the Hebrew Old Testament. It's used with regard to reverence toward God and reverence toward men. But in the New Testament, it is used with regard only to God and Jesus Christ. It is a mark in the New Testament of deity. That they worshiped Christ, the same word is used when the man Cornelius tried to bow his knee to Peter and Peter said, no, no, no, don't don't don't you do that? I'm just a man just like you. It is also used in the book of Revelation, I believe, in chapter 19, where John seeks to proskuneo the angel, he seeks to bow down and give reverence to the angel and the angel says, don't you do that? It is a word in the New Testament that is to be done only toward God. And if Jesus is not God, then we have blasphemy here because these men worshipped and Jesus allowed it. Now, it goes on, it says they saw him, they worshiped, but some were doubtful. Some the word literally means a dual standing or two standings, they were standing over here a bit in belief, they were standing over here a bit in unbelief, they weren't really sure what to do, who this was, what's going on. You ask yourself, you say, why would the New Testament writers put that in there? I mean, if they're trying to prove that Jesus is the son of God, why would they put that in there? Well, I'll tell you why they put it in there. They put it in there because it really happened. You see, they weren't a bunch of fraudulent men trying to soup up a story to make it believable. They were telling you things the way they really happened. But I want you to know this, the doubt of the disciples actually gives us confidence. Why? Because after this and after the day of Pentecost, they became not knowing that we shouldn't touch it. They were standing back. They did not know how to deal with this person in front of them. This is no longer a carpenter with calloused hands. This is the resurrected Lord of glory. How do I approach him, what do I say to him, how do I act? Let me tell you something, sometimes when Jesus Christ comes in his presence into a church, yes, there is joy and the raising of the hands and people so excited. But I want to tell you something, if his presence never turns into everyone laying on their face trembling, then I would have some doubts. There needs to be in the missionary endeavor a holy, reverent awe of God and not just in the missionary endeavor, but in the church and in the pulpit and everywhere else. Yes, there is time for rejoicing. There is time for putting our hand out and touching the scars in his side, in his hands and his feet. But there are other times we need to withdraw, be quiet and worship. Now, it says Jesus came up and spoke to them. One of the things I wrote down in my notes, if I've been going through this passage, is that he's not only an omnipotent commander, he is a compassionate commander. He really is, he really is, and we would expect him to be after all, he is a compassionate high priest. So he is a compassionate commander. He knows that our frame is weak, that we are made of dust. He became like us in every way except without sin. He knows how to sympathize with our weaknesses. He saw this trembling, weak group of followers and he didn't stand back and rail at them because of their weaknesses and their doubts. He came to them and he spoke to them. Listen, there are men that you can work for that you will be afraid to carry out any new endeavor for them because, you know, if you fail, the hammer's coming down worse than the hammer, the hatchet. That is not the case with our Lord. I have never known a missionary truly called of God that did not accept that call with fear and trembling and great doubts about himself or herself. I don't hardly know of a missionary who, when they are traveling over, finally going over to the country where they're going to serve, that they're not sitting on the airplane thinking, when I come back in a year as a total failure, how am I going to explain this to everybody? But you see, that's the beauty of it. Christ does not use capable men. Are capable women, he uses the weak, the willing, those who just continue on. Who proceed to the place, the next place he tells them. I have served the Lord for several years and I have never known him to be without compassion. I have never known him not to be forgiving, not to be kind. I, as a missionary and a preacher, have tested my disobedience and my weakness, have tested the Lord in almost every way he could be tested. But he continues to call, continues to speak and continues to use me. This is one calling in which we should never have fear to accept, but fear to refuse. Because he is a compassionate general in this commission. Now, Jesus came up and spoke to them saying, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. That was it. That was it. You see, there are certain small statements that after they're made, nothing else has to be said, absolutely nothing. Here are these trembling, frightened followers who possibly already know something of the commission that is ahead of them. Who know they're not capable. When Jesus was there, when he was right by their side, they were rather bold. But when he wasn't there, they couldn't even cast a demon out of a little boy. He looks at them and just says this, all authority has been given unto me. Every type and kind of authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth with unlimited jurisdiction. There is no place on this planet and there is no place in the heavenlies where I am not king. You know, we don't have time to go there, but it says in the book of Daniel chapter seven that that the son of man comes in the clouds and he is taken up or presented to the ancient of days to receive all authority in heaven and on earth. And it reminds me of do you remember back in Genesis with Joseph, he's down there in the in the prison, he's been thrown in the prison after Potiphar's wife did all the lying that she did and his life seems to be one chaos after another. And finally, he is thrown into the prison. And then in just a matter of minutes, he's brought out of that prison and he is escorted in to the throne room of Pharaoh. And Pharaoh looks down at him and says to all of Egypt, not one finger, not one hand or finger will be raised in all of Egypt without your word. Now, you think about that. Christ. Is in the tomb. He is brought up as Joseph is brought out of that dungeon, Christ is raised from that tomb and it is at that resurrection that he is publicly declared with power to be the son of God. Romans one for it is at that time in Peter's sermon, we find out that God made this Jesus whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ, and he is brought into the presence of the ancient of days. And God looks at the entire cosmos and says this, not one finger will be raised apart from his word. That's what it means when he says all authority has been given to me. That is why we do not fear the rulers of these nations. We pity them. Because we know who is really king. We know who's really seated upon the throne. And we go out with unlimited jurisdiction, there is no place that we cannot preach. There is no one on this planet that has the right to tell me or you where we can or where we can not preach. Because the Lord of glory has said all authority has been given unto me in heaven and on earth. Now go go. Now, just quickly, he says, go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations. Now, there are two extremes here. Some people who put all the emphasis on go, go, go, go, go, go, go. And then other people who are more theologically astute and perhaps have had a semester of Greek say, no, that's not the emphasis. It's make disciples, make disciples, make disciples. And I have found that both extremes lead to nothing. I think the best translation here is having gone make disciples. You can't make disciples hidden in a hole. We're to make disciples here and make disciples there, say, Brother Paul, how are we to govern this? I mean, should we just look for a place where no one is and send somebody there? Well, that's not the problem. The problem is when the people of God collectively. Are so mesmerized by the things of the world and so concerned with the anxieties of this age that they're not seeking to discern the will of God. If all of us were pressing hard to understand God's will and to live it out in our daily lives, God would be burdening different individuals for different places. God would be burdening churches, even like this one, to say we feel led to concern ourselves with this one area of the world or that area of the world or this type of ministry or other type, because they're seeking God's will. You see, I don't want you to seek missions. I want you to seek God. I don't want you to bring your missionary ministry in line, I want you to bring your lives in line and then everything else will fall in place. Do you see that? Very, very important. He says, having gone, therefore, make disciples of all nations. Of all nations. Oh, I want you to know, don't think that what God has done, he has done in a corner. God is raising up people in all the nations, he's doing a great work, I'm not going to sit here, stand here tonight and tell you if you don't go, everything's going to fall apart. But I will tell you this, if you don't go, everything in your own life may fall apart. You see, God's going to do the work. He has decreed that he is going to bring all the nations to his son. The question is, do you want to participate in this or do you want to waste your life? He said, well, Brother Paul, what if I'm not called to go? Well, make sure you're called to stay and remember this, that missions is simply two ministries. You either go down into the well or you hold the rope for those who go down. You either go and serve as a missionary or you support spiritually, financially and every other way the missionaries who do go. Now, we just finish up here, go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you. And I find this very, very interesting. It is not just filling their head with knowledge, but teaching them to obey what they know. It is so easy to teach. It is another complete thing to disciple, to teach, to simply teach. You can just transfer information from your head to theirs. Or if you want to be really spiritual, from your heart to their heart. But when you disciple, you're not just sharing information or giving them some emotional experience. You are teaching them to obey, to live this thing out. And the problem there is you can teach. You can preach what you don't practice. But you can't disciple what you don't practice. You can teach people all kinds of things you don't do. But you can't take your life and show them how to obey those things unless you yourself are obeying those things more and more and more and more and more and more and more. What I want to see the people of God doing is reading their Bibles, reading their Bibles, reading their Bibles, memorizing scripture, meditating on scripture. It has such a permeating power to it. And if we stay in the word long enough, we will not be able to stay there without being brought into obedience to that word. So church, I could say, you know, get involved in missions, but that's just going to put a bandaid on the problem. What you really need to do is spend your life in this word, hearing from God, knowing that this temporal life is temporal. That you're going to die. That everything you've worked for is going to rot. But those who serve the Lord. Those who serve the Lord, they do not pass away and what they have accomplished does not pass away. And then he says this, Lo, I am with you always. The idea there is behold. He's saying, look at me. You know, one of the things that dads and especially moms have to do is you can't just give a command to some children. I mean, they're just gone before they even hear what you've said, you've got to look at me. No, no, no, stop. Look at me, look me right in the eyes. That's what Jesus is doing here. He's saying, look at me, listen to me. I am with you always. So. You are with me always, you who sits upon the throne of the entire universe, who is omnipotent and omniscient, you are with me always, you're not just thinking about me, you don't just have me on your mind, you're not just standing from afar and gazing, you are with me, Emmanuel. God with us even to the end of the age now here is very important. The end of the age is not referring. Necessarily to the end of the world. But to the end of this age, we are living in. The world doesn't so much come to an end, it comes to a consummation right now, we live in the age, I love saying it this way, we live in the age of Messiah, we live in the reign of Christ, he sits upon a throne right now, right now, he is the ruler of every governor and prince and king and president right now, nothing is even thought about apart from his permission. But. There is a consummation when the church militants. Becomes the church victorious. Yes. When that kingdom is consummated. With the shout. Of an archangel with the trumpet call of God. And before you can even let out an exclamation. You're standing there with Christ. And he and his universal reign is acknowledged by friend and foe alike, because he who rules the nations, part of those nations, those nations who submit to them, he will rule them as a shepherd with a shepherd staff, but those that refuse, he will rule them with a rod of iron. And every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus is Lord now on that day. Don't you want to know? That not only, you know, him. But he knows you. That he is going to rule you as a shepherd. And not as a judge. Don't you want to know on that day that by the grace of God, you did not waste your life. But you lived it in service to the most high God, that what he commanded of you, you set your hand to that plow and you did not look back. Let's pray. Father, I come before you, Lord. And I ask you that you might. Use this, Lord, to kindle a fire in the heart of your people. Or even use this, Lord, in the salvation of someone who may not yet belong to you. As one of the redeemed. Father, use this word. According to your will and for your glory, in Jesus name, amen.