The Simple Obedience of Go in the Last Days

I'm working with a ministry called Jesus True Street Ministries and we started the ministry where the Lord saved me and then sent me out to these places where I used to hang out at. Let me pray. Lord we thank you father for your word. God we're so thankful for all that you do for us and in us and through us. Thank you Lord for changing us. Thank you Lord for saving us and thank you Lord for sending us. We ask you in verse 18, all power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore and teach all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I command you and lo I am with you always even unto the end of the world. Amen. This morning I would like to talk to you about God's command, Jesus' command, his word. He's commanded us to go and preach the gospel and unfortunately today there are so many things going on in the church but one of them is not evangelizing. I spent most of my time out on the street before Christ, that's what I used to do. I was a drug dealer and a drug user and for the whole time that I was out on the street, I never once ran into a Christian. Not a follower of Christ. I mean there's people that I run into the street even to this day that say they're Christian, but they're coming out of the bars, and they're coming out of the clubs, and I'm like, and they'll tell me things like, I'm already saved, I've been saved, I was saved when I was twelve, I was saved when I was ten, and I'm like well what are you doing here? So that's where we see the church at, coming out of the bars. Now I'm from Texas, and Texas has very big churches, there's a church in Texas a few years ago had a, they were giving away cars, flat-screen TVs, iPods, iPads. A church of a few thousand almost tripled in size for this one Sunday, Easter Sunday, because you had people coming in that wanted a TV, they wanted a car, and of course the pastor justified it by saying that they were trying to bring in the lost. Now can you imagine the disciples giving away a sheep, goat, we're going to give some shekels, can you imagine that? So these are some of the things that the churches are doing across the country, and what's really sad is that some of these things that they're doing here, they're being sent to other places around the world, and that's even worse. Now when Jesus tells us to go, we just need to go, and I remember when I got saved back in 1984, Brother Van Meter, he was going, he was on the go, and that's how he ran into us at a city park. We were sitting there smoking some marijuana when he walked up to us, and he told us how God could change our life. Told us how God loved us, shared some simple things with us that actually made me think, and when the Lord saved me, I just went with Brother Van Meter, and he wanted to go out on the street, and he would go, and I remember him giving me a little gospel, a little stack of gospel tracts, and just started handing them out. At the time I really didn't know what I was doing, but whatever it was, it was important, and I wanted to tell people what God had done in my life. Have you seen, read throughout the scriptures, how many times Jesus would do something for someone, and they would go tell? Remember in the gospel of Mark chapter 5, Jesus and his disciples got on the boat, they went across to the other side of the Sea of Galilee. As soon as they landed, there comes a man that's been running through the cemetery with no clothes on. He's been cutting himself with stones, and that's the first person that Jesus sees. Oh, he sets him free. He cast out the devils, the pigs run off, they drown, and all of a sudden this man is sitting there in his right mind, and he's clothed and in his right mind. And then, it's like Jesus is done. Okay, well guys let's go. That was it. He went all the way across, sets this man free, and he's going back to the boat, and the man wants to go with Jesus, and Jesus says, no. Go back to your family, go to your friends, and tell them what great things God has done. For you, and I believe that when God comes into our life, and he saves us. I know where I was going before Christ came into my life. Do you know where you were going? We were all going to the same place. It starts with an H, and it's not Houston. We were all headed to hell. Now can you imagine being saved from the pit of hell, from the lake of fire, and knowing that you were going there, and knowing that everybody behind you is going there, and to just kind of move out of the way, and let them keep going. Well, that's exactly what's going on today, unfortunately. A lot of people are on their way to hell, and Jesus has already told us to go. Now, a few years ago, I tried something. Because I had talked to so many people. I'm always trying to get people to go. Let's go. Let's go witness. Let's go share the gospel. Let's go talk to the people. Let's go to 6th Street. Let's go to Bourbon Street. It started off going to the park, and now I'm actually going to Bourbon Street in New Orleans, and downtown DC, and downtown New York City, and downtown LA, and just planting seed, just as many people as I can talk to. But it's like everybody always has to pray about it. You know, so I was driving one day, and my wife was with me, and my wife Amy was with me, and we were going to Walmart, and she was putting on, you know, her makeup, and we were at a red light. We were stopped at a red light, and I thought to myself, you know, I'm going to try something. So the light turns green, and I stayed there on purpose at a green light. Now, you know what happens, right? When the light turns green, you're supposed to go. And my wife looks at me and says, hey, the light's green, and I stayed there. Because, you know, when the light turns green, if you're in New York City, it's like they're at the light with the hand on the horn, you know, and as soon as it turns green, beep, you know, it's like, man, give me a chance. But over here in West Texas, they're a little bit slower, you know, so it took about three seconds before the first person honked, and it wasn't even the first person, it wasn't the person behind me, it was like two or three cars down. You know, they were nice, but after about 10 seconds, you know, the honking's going, a few seconds later, I see, I'm looking through the rear mirror, and there's a guy, you know, shaking his fist, and, you know, before you know it, we were creating a big mess there. And as I'm looking, the cars are piling up, they're trying to get out from behind me and go to the next lane, and, you know, I mean, it's just very chaotic. And I could see through my mirror, you know, other hands coming out, and then I saw, you know, a guy, you know, telling me I was number one, you know what I mean, with his finger, and it's amazing what that means, you know, when they point that finger at you, they're like telling you, I hope you die and go to hell. I mean, they're actually thinking the worst of you, and I'm stopped at this green light, and some of them made it, and then I'm like, man, this is, it's working. So by this time, nobody behind me likes me. Nobody. Talking about road rage. So then the light turns green again. And I stayed there again. So the people are driving by, rolling their windows, yelling at me, telling me stuff. I mean, they are just, you know, I mean, this one guy, he was literally hanging out, you know, I mean, this far out the window, and if that guy could have punched me in the face, he would have. He was pretty upset. Now, of course, Amy, this whole time, she's telling me, you need to go. They're getting very upset. Everyone's mad at you. And at this point, I'm smiling. See, I prove something. When the light turns green, you go. And if you don't go, then you have a big problem. See, when you're not going, everybody behind you isn't going either. So you're going to keep a whole bunch of people from going. Now, you have a big problem. Not only did you not go, but everybody behind you didn't go either. And it's your fault. It was my fault. I'm holding everybody up. Now, Jesus told us about 2,000 years ago, go ye therefore, go and teach all nations. Do we have to pray about that? Jesus already said, what if your boss came in Monday morning and said, hey, I want you to go and do this? Okay, I'll pray about it. What if your husband says something or your wife says something and, honey, I'm going to pray about it? What if your teacher said, go and get me the eraser or go? What if they, I'm going to pray about it. You see, every time somebody tells us to go, we usually do it. We don't stop and pray about it. But why all of a sudden, when Jesus says go, we have to pray about it? He already said, go. Go into all the world and preach the gospel. Now, Jesus, He's still saying, go, today. You know, last night, there's lost people everywhere. Everywhere we go, there's lost people. Now, a few years ago, back in 2001, there's a bridge in Texas that goes into an island. And it's the only road that goes to this island, South Padre Island. And a boat hit one of the big pillars and knocked about a hundred foot section of the bridge, and this bridge is about a hundred feet high, and it just collapsed. There were cars coming over that bridge, and several fell into the water below, killing several. Now, can you picture yourself going down this road, and you see a section of road missing? What are you going to do? Are you going to pull over, and you look through your mirror, and you see other cars coming? What are you going to do? Are you going to pull over and pray for them? Well, I better, man, I better not say anything. They might get offended if I jump out in the middle of the road and get in their way. Man, I don't want to bother them at this time. You know, what would you do? If that happened, I mean, I know what I would do. I would pull my car sideways. I would put my hazard lights on. I would jump out. I would probably jump on my hood, you know, and wave at everybody that's coming. Try to stop as many people as possible. That's what I would do. We know we're living in this world, and there's a lot of people that are driving down along the highway of life, and we know where they're going. They're on their way to hell. And we see them going by, and say, well, I need to pray for them. Sometimes they don't even get a prayer. But there's things to do in the church. We've got barbecue. You know, I remember we were invited to help a church do an evangelism outreach in their neighborhood. It's a church of about 3,000 people. They announced it from the pulpit two or three Sundays in a row. We showed up. We had the sign-up sheet. Six people. Six. Can you imagine? Six people? Are you kidding me? But then the following week, they had a barbecue for a men's cookout. 900 men showed up. Wow. What's going on? But you shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you, and you shall be my witnesses. You shall be my witnesses. Be my witnesses. It's a command. Jesus is not asking us. He's commanding us. Be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem, and all Judea, and in Samaria, and to the other most parts of the earth. Now, I was down on 6th Street in Austin, Texas, and an atheist walked up to me, and he said, you know, you Christians really don't believe what the Bible says. See, this atheist had read his Bible. He'd read a Bible twice. Two times. More times than most of the Christians in the world. Did you know that the average Christian has never read the Bible once? One time. In their lifetime. Isn't that sad? But this atheist told me, he said, look, I read the stories, I read the parables, I read about hell, where people are going, and you know what I've seen is that I don't see anybody warning us. If they really believe this, why weren't they warning us? If this place is so bad. Said a bunch of hypocrites. And then you know what he told me? He said, but I'm glad you're here. At least you're talking to a few people. Now, 6th Street is a really crazy street. You know, we get out there about 11 o'clock at night, and we stay there till about 2 a.m., and there's people just partying away. It's a really bad place. But there's places like that everywhere. There's places like that here. You can see lost people at the park. You don't have to go to 6th Street. But I think sometimes people think that, oh, well, those places are really bad. Man, there's lost people at Walmart. You know, last night we went to go eat at IHOP, and I like to share the gospel wherever I go. And our waitress, her name was Naomi. And I asked her a question. I said, could I ask you a question, if you don't mind? She said, yeah. How long have you been working here? She said, about a year. I said, a year? I'm going to ask you another question. Has anyone asked you in the past year if there's anything that they could pray for you about? And she thought for a few seconds, and she said, no. One year, I thought to myself, I actually, I think I said it, I guess no Christians eat here. Can you imagine? We ended up praying for her. We told her to just take her time, bring us a prayer request towards the end, and she did. She's pregnant, expecting a baby in April. And we prayed for her. Now, she was a part of a fellowship, thank God. But you know how many aren't? And we just sit there and eat, and let's go. Simple. Everywhere you go, there's lost people. And you know what? If we don't say anything, who is, who will tell? Who's going to go out there and share the gospel? Now, we have to plan these things. See, of course, you can just witness as you go. But see, I believe people need to plan things. You know, when you go on vacation, you just get up and say to your wife, hey, let's go. Where are we going? To the beach? No, you plan it in advance. You have it planned. You already figured out, well, I'm going to take off in two months, I'm going to take this week off, and we're going to do this, and I'm saving up this much money. And see, you have it planned. Or you're going to go to a game. You just don't decide, you know, hey, let's go to the game at the last minute. And you know, evangelism, you could do the same thing. You know, your fellowship can get together, hey, you know what guys, let's go to the park today to go share the gospel. We can go in two weeks and get your little group together, gather up some gospel tracts, and let's go out. Let's go share the gospel. Let's go plant some seed. Plan it. Now, think about this, how many things like that are planned? Man, we need to focus on these, you know, this is the end time. And you know what? The church is asleep. The church right now, I mean, we were out in Dallas this past weekend, passing out gospel tracts at Megafest. Man, prosperity. We had a lady, she said, we were, one of the girls was offering this lady a gospel tract, and she said, if it's not about, if it doesn't have anything to do with money, I don't want it. And she laughed. And I'm like, wow. She said, y'all need to come inside and get really blessed financially. I'm like, wow. That's what's going on. And a lot of people are getting sucked into that. Forget holiness and righteousness. The word repent, you don't really hear that from the pulpits anymore. I was speaking at a, to a youth gathering, there were about three, four hundred youth, and I mentioned as I was speaking, I mentioned that Jesus Christ is coming soon. Afterwards, several young people were crying and coming to Christ and repenting. And I noticed that afterwards, I was there talking to several people, and there was a man among all these kids. And I'm thinking, well, he's probably, his son or daughter is up here, and he's waiting on them. But as he stood there, he just kept crying and crying and just, but no, he didn't have any kids up there. He wanted to talk to me. And he waited till the very end, after all the kids had already spoken to me. And he walked up to me and he said, thank you for telling me and reminding me that Jesus Christ is coming soon. I've been going to this church for 19 years, and I cannot recall the last time I heard that statement from the pulpit. Can you imagine? Jesus is coming soon. And we need to tell as many people as possible. As many. Now, I brought some gospel tracts. We'll have them back at the table. You can take some. And today, plant a seed in somebody's life. You're going to go eat somewhere. Plant a seed. And you know what? Ask someone if you could pray for them. It's very simple. It's very simple. And I encourage you to do that because we're running out of time. And we have this message. God's given us this ministry of reconciliation. To go and reconcile the lost world to God, just like somebody told me. I encourage you to do the same. Now, it's very important to do a couple of things. Read your Bible and spend time in prayer. Because that is a part of the relationship that we have with the Lord Jesus Christ. We talk to Him, and He talks to us. But so many times, we're talking to Him, and we're not allowing Him to talk to us. So, about 1% of the church population today, only about 1% has actually read their Bible once in their lifetime. I'll close with this story. I jumped on a subway train in New York City. And a young man jumps in, and I'm holding on to the pole there because the train's about to move. And the young man's about in his early 20s, and he had a little booklet open, and he's reading it. So, I glanced over his shoulder, and I said, hey, what are you reading there? He said, oh, it's the holy book. He was a Muslim. I said, oh, really? I have one of those too. I have a holy book. I said, could I ask you a question? He said, yeah. And he stopped, re-looked at me. I said, hey, how many times have you read that book? Would it be safe to say that you've read it at least once? He said, oh, yeah. Five times? Oh, more than that. Ten times? Oh, more than that. Twenty times? More than that. Twenty-five? More than that. Thirty? Somewhere around there. Thirty. And then he said, but this is nothing. My grandfather reads it once a week. Now, can you imagine? And here we have a great number of population that hasn't even covered the Gospels. A young lady that's been in church fellowship for five or six years just finished the book of Galatians for the first time. Now, if we don't have the word in us, well, no wonder we're not going out. We ain't have nothing to share. You know, and if Jesus has done something in your life, would you want to go tell somebody? You know, let's go tell the people what God has done in our life. Like that man that was running around in the cemetery. You know, and he didn't go to seminary. I mean, can you imagine in such a short time, this guy's running naked through the cemetery, and now he's been commissioned by Jesus Christ to go back. And we don't know what would the span there, maybe it was fifteen minutes, maybe it was an hour. But Jesus touched his life, he set him free, and he sent him out. Now, what has God done in your life? You know, if the relationship that you have, that you claim to have with Jesus Christ, if that relationship is not worth talking about, you are not saved. How about that? Thank you for your time.