The Great Comission

by Dr. Joe Morecraft

Some Introductory Observations

1. Three errors in interpreting the Great Commission
1. Thinking that the idea is to save the greatest number, no matter if they obey God.
2. Believing that there is not a free offer for anyone to be saved.
3. Finding excuses not to evangelize.
   
2. This helps us transform society with the gospel. John Calvin evangelized France. At the beginning, there were only 30 reformed churches. When he was finished, there were 30 million believers.
3. Universalism - in a good way. The target is ALL NATIONS. Racism stops the Great Commission. The target is the world - John 3:16

Now we will go through the Great Commission.

1. Universal Authority

Everything is under Jesus' power.
God gave him Authority to give everlasting life - John 12.
Jesus is the ruler of earthly Kings.
Ephesians 1:19-21
Christ is over us - not will be over us.

2. Mandate of World Discipleship

A disciple is a learner.
A disciple submits to Jesus.
Jesus says to make entire nations disciples, not just individuals.
Our mission is not complete until all the Nations are Christ's disciples.

A. Person Winning

Person to person witnessing.
Good books on evangelism:
Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God J. I. Packer
Tell the Truth Will Metzger
Today's Gospel: Authentic or Synthetic?

B. Family Winning

Be an example in your family to other families.
Families should teach.
Parents need to teach the children.

C. Culture Winning

Disciple the nation.
Christian nations.
Christian Culture.
Politically Christian, Economically Christian, Educationally Christian, etc.
For 1000 years, Europe tried to be Christian. The modern historians call these the "Dark Ages."

We have to win the individual, the family and the nation - all three.
The Great commission is the dominion mandate taking into consideration that man is fallen.

3. The Promise of Christ's Presence

Here we see Christ claim deity.
Christ will be with faithful evangelists.
He echoes Deuteronomy 20 - Christ leads us into battle. He fights for us.
God says we will reap.

The 2007 Chalcedon Fall Conference

Last week we attended the 2007 Chalcedon fall conference which was called "The Relevance of the Reformed Faith". One of the speakers there was Dr. Joe Morecraft. He had two speeches which were called "The Great Commission" and "Cromwell Done Right!" We enjoyed these two speeches very much, so we have typed up our notes to put on the blog.

Father Son Retreat - Day 2

We woke up with the sun on Saturday, and Daddy got in the car to prepare his sermon for that day. He got in the car so he could plug his laptop in. We went to the fire, and then walked down to the lakes to watch the fishing tournament. There was an award for the biggest and the most fish. The boys that we knew did not catch anything! The only thing was that Anthony Daming caught a fish about an inch long!

When it was time for breakfast, we walked back up to the tent. Breakfast was french toast and sausage. Mommy and Rachel served sausage from over the fire. The first sermon was by Mr. Burroughs, and he talked about the use of time. Then he sent us out to have a father and son time. After this, Daddy got up to give his message about fathers working with their sons. It was a good message and lots of other people liked it too. Then Mr. Dohm spoke about purity. Then there was another father and son time. We went through a list of questions where fathers told their sons about their lives.


After this, at 2:30 there were games. We were on the blue team. The first game was tug-of-war. We first went against the green team. We planned out how we would work together well. We went 1, 2, 3, PULL! On pull, we would pull our hardest. The first match we beat the green team. Then we decided to go ready, PULL, ready, PULL! so that we would pull better. It worked! So we beat the green team again. Then we moved on to the red team. The first time they beat us, because there was slack in the rope. But then the second time we beat them. So for the third match, we pulled and pulled, and then we won! That meant that we won the entire tug-of-war! Here are some pictures:

On your mark (Daddy talked with our team about what to do (he has the hat on))



Get set (the red team)



GO!!!




After the tug-of-war, we did the balloon toss. Half the group shot balloons with 3-man-slingshots to try to get them in the tarps held by the other part of the team. It was hard. We only got seven in. The red team got seven, and the green got four. We did not do very well, because we got 50 balloons!

Then we did the canoe race. We did pretty well on this also. Other people flipped there canoes, and we did not flip at all, except for one canoe. Daddy was in this canoe. He was docking the canoe at the end. He was in with two boys whose fathers did not go, and so he offered to go with them. He was a little off, so he turned the canoe really sharp, and one of the boys leaned the wrong way, and it flipped! It was funny, because Daddy had been saying how good he was at managing a canoe! We had a lot of fun. We also shot bows and arrows. We did not do very well in that. Over all, the blue team was the best at the games! Here is Daddy and Stephen doing archery:



After this, there was some free time. We went swimming in the pond. Then we ate dinner, which was hamburgers and beans. Mommy and Rachel served beans over the fire. It was good. The final message after dinner was by Mr. Brown on how Joshua showed how fathers should be leaders.

We had a good time at the father son retreat, and look forward to going again next year!

Here is more information on the Father Son Retreat: Click Here

Father Son Retreat - Day 1

On October 5th&6th we had a father son retreat at our church, Hope Baptist Church. On the 1srt day which was Friday, first we had BBQ Chicken for dinner. Here is Mommy and Rachel waiting for somebody to come who she can serve mashed potatoes. Mr. Breagy was supposed to do the first session, but he had to get a treatment and he had an infection so he had to stay overnight at the hospital. Mr. Brown did a session for him. Then he did another session on the heart battle between fathers and sons. Then Bill Brown, his father, was going to talk about the stars but it was too cloudy.

Romania - Day 10

On Friday we arrived at the airport in Budapest at about five in the morning. There was a long line at the luggage check-in. The flight to Paris was uneventful. We all slept most of the way. On the way to Philadelphia we had the same kind of plane we had going to Paris. We had a window seat and our seats were not as far back in the plane. This is a picture of the plane:


Stephen got bored and started to take pictures of himself. It took a long time to land in Philadelphia and we had to re-check our baggage. When we went to get tickets everybody said to go to someone else. We were confused because where we landed was on the wrong side of the airport. The plane going to North Carolina was so small that we boarded it from the ground. We bought some Stromboli in Philadelphia for what seemed to us dinner(it was really lunch time.) The flight was supposed to be 2 hours but it seemed a lot shorter. When we got home from the airport we had dinner, even though we weren't hungry. We were very tired and glad to be home. We went to bed at about 8:30.

Romania - Day 9

We got up in the morning, and then showered and ate breakfast at the person's house that we stayed at. It was a good breakfast. Here is a picture of us with the wife. The rest of the family were at school or work:

Then the wife called a taxi to take us to the missionary house. She went with us, so we did not get lost! We arrived there safely, and then got in the car and started on our drive to Bacau. It was a pretty drive through the mountains. We stopped twice. The first time, we got some food. First there was some good sausages. Then we got a kind of dessert. It was dough that was cooked for a few minutes until it was just a little brown, and then had sugar sprinked on it. Here is a picture of some cooking:

Here is a mountain:

After this food, we got back in the car, and drove to another stop. This was in a big pass through the mountains. It had a river, and cliffs on either side. It was really pretty. There we bought some things to bring home. All of the boys (David, Stephen Breagy, Stephen Horn and I) bought pocket knives, I bought a ship, and Daddy got Rachel a box that has a secret way to open it. Daddy got Mommy a honey pot and a tea cup. We only stayed for about 15 minutes, so we had to be quick.

Then we got back in the car and drove to Bacau. We arrived just before the service. Daddy and Mr. Breagy spoke in church. Afterwards we had pizza. Then Mr. Breagy, Stephen Breagy, Daddy, Stephen and I got in a van to drive to the airport. Mr. Brown, David and Max were staying for a few more days. So we got in the van, and drove to the airport. We got there really early in the morning, so we tried to sleep in the van for a few hours. We did not get much sleep.