The Mission Continues

Do you hear that? [Wait in silence.] That’s the sound of the final days of 2025 ticking by. In just three days from now, 2025 will come to an end and 2026 will begin. The last few days were filled with gift giving, family visiting, and remembering the gift that is Jesus to the world so long ago. The next few days will be filled with anticipation and reflection. For me, this time of year, the final week, is a time of reflection and preparation as the calendar starts all over again with new challenges and new opportunities that will present themselves.

Change is coming. It always does. It is inevitable. You and I cannot relive this day again. You and I will not relive 2025. What has happened has happened. We stand on the dawning of a new year. You may be excited that the year is coming to an end. Some of you may be wishing you had a bit more time. But that’s the thing about time. It ticks on without a thought to our feelings, our desires, or any effort we take to control it. So, whether we like it or not, change is coming.

The disciples knew change was coming. Jesus had been preparing them for his absence. He prepared them in the upper room before his betrayal, and many of them thought he meant his crucifixion. Even though he had predicted his own resurrection, they were in the midst of their grief when he rose again and appeared to them. He spent forty days with them and with others before he called them together one last time.

Matthew 28:16–20 NASB95

But the eleven disciples proceeded to Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had designated. When they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some were doubtful. And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. “Go therefore and make disciples of all the 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 lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

These verses serve as the church’s marching orders. Every good southern Baptist knows these verses. They are the cornerstone of who we say we are and what we say we will do. They are the verses that have inspired generations of missionaries. They are some of the very last words of Jesus while he still walked this earth. And they are our reminder that no matter what happened this year, the mission continues.

As we revisit these familiar verses, we are going to discuss how this relates to our mission, and what I believe, after a lot of prayer and meditation, God would have us do in 2026.

Before we get there, I want to remind us of three essential truths if we are going to make 2026 the greatest year it can possibly be.

Jesus is still in charge.

Jesus says all authority has been given to him. This was a present reality when he said it, so it is still a present reality now. Jesus reigns right now. But you might be asking, “If Jesus reigns now, why doesn’t it feel like it?” That’s a fair question to ask. If Jesus is really in charge, shouldn’t things be different? Let’s consider why things might be the way they are so we can understand the situation we are in.

When Jesus rose from the dead, he was given all authority in heaven and on earth as verse 18 says. On that day, planet earth was under new management. It belongs to Christ. He chooses to let the world know it is under new management by sending his representatives into the world to let them know. That’s you and me. Since day one, there are people who have rejected Jesus’ authority. They have rejected his right to rule. Then there are those who did accept him, and they passed down the truth from one generation to the next, and here we are. Now it’s our turn. Now you and I are his agents who go out into the world to tell it the world is under new management and call people to submission to his authority.

So Jesus is still in charge. A day is coming where he will exert his authority on the earth forcefully, but for now, the world has the opportunity to voluntarily place themselves under the authority of Christ. And he has chosen you as his messenger.

Jesus wants us to reach everybody.

Jesus told his first disciples that they were to go and make disciples of all nations. There is a common misconception in verse 19. I'm going to get nerdy for a second. In grammar, verbs have what is called a mood. The mood of a verb explains what the speaker is trying to do with their words. The imperative mood tells us that the speaker is issuing a command. He wants the audience to take action. When asked what the imperative command is in verse 19, many assume it is the word go, but it isn’t. Make disciples is. The focus of the verse is the command to make disciples. Go is a participle. It implies ongoing action. So verse 19 is better translated, “As you are going,” that is, as you live your life, go to work, go to school, go to sporting events, spend time with others, make disciples.

Nobody is off limits. Jesus is the creator of the whole world, he will rule the whole world, so it is only natural that he wants all of it to be saved. There are those who will be saved and those who won’t, but the offer of salvation and the invitation into his kingdom is made available to all people. The command to make disciples is what we ought to produce.

Our mission statement is to help people find forever family through Christ-centered relationships. The first part of that statement, find forever family, is that we help them come to know that Jesus is in charge and help them voluntarily subject themselves to his authority. When they do, Galatians 4:4-5 says that we receive adoption. We are made children of God. We become brothers and sisters of one another. We gain a royal status. We want everybody to have that. The second part of that statement, “through Christ-centered relationships,” is the vehicle by which we accomplish helping people find forever family. As I said last week, when Jesus is the true center of our lives, we will learn to love what Jesus loves. And Jesus loves everybody.

So the whole world is our mission field, but local churches exist to reach their communities.

Jesus wants us to teach others how to walk with him.

For a long time, the focus of the church was baptisms and church growth. I want to be fair. I am not against mega churches. I am against mega churches with shallow theology and little substance. If the focus of a church is to baptize people and get them to participate in Sunday services, and then measure success by how much the Sunday morning audience grows, the church has missed the mark. The church programming was the vehicle by which people learned to walk with God. Then the culture shifted, programs died, and churches turned their focus to keeping the people they had. The message was watered down. Nobody cared for theology. Accountability went out the window. There are a number of people in church today who have been baptized, but they do not know how to walk with God.

You have direct access to the creator of the universe. His desire is that you follow everything he commanded. The result will be a well balanced and well ordered life that will bear much fruit. The tides are turning in many churches where the focus is on making disciples. We are in the process of outlining that in our context. Believe it or not, God has equipped you to help someone else walk in the faith. Our desire is not just to baptize them, but provide the training ground where they can live out their calling as an ambassador for the kingdom of Christ.

So now, after much prayer and meditation, I have selected a target to aim for in 2026. Here we are at the end of one year before the start of a new. Where is First Baptist Church Three Rivers going next year? There has been this thing hidden under a cloth during this whole service and there are some of you dying to know what it is. Well, let me show you.

Inside the glass box is hundreds of colored ping pong balls. Through the work I have done this year behind the scenes, I knew next year would have a great emphasis on evangelism, that is sharing the gospel. I said, “Lord, what do you want me to do?” He said, “I want you to set a goal for number of gospel conversations churchwide.” So I said, “Ok, you give me the number and I’ll do it.” I waited for a while, but clarity did come.

Our goal for 2026: 500 gospel conversations

That’s right. Our goal over 2026 is to share the gospel 500 times. Now if you panicked just a little, don’t worry. We’re going to talk about this and break it down. Every ping pong ball in this tank represents a single gospel conversation. Next week, the tank will be empty. When someone in our church shares the gospel with someone next year, one ping pong ball will go in the tank. The person who shares the gospel will grab a ball, write the first name of the person they shared with, and place it in the tank. We will have an opportunity to celebrate that together in every worship service.

Here’s what counts as a gospel conversation:

You must share about the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus in the conversation.

The conversation must include an opportunity for the person to respond.

Multiple conversations with the same person will count.

The person you speak with either must be a nonbeliever or someone who professes faith, but lives contrary to the faith.

Here is what does NOT count as a gospel conversation:

A conversation about spirituality in general.

Answering questions about God, Christ, the Bible, etc.

Telling someone Jesus loves them, “God bless you,” or something similar.

Giving someone a gospel tract, a Bible, or some other Christian literature.

But if you read the gospel tract to them, it counts!

You will be asked to share your experience with how the conversation took place, what the result was, and what you learned from that encounter.

It’s scary, I know. It’s ambitious, I know. It’s a God-sized goal. But you might be asking, “How on earth are we going to pull that off?” Let me show you.

How are we going to do it?

We will offer in-person and online evangelism training.

We already have a few people capable of having gospel conversations. They will be asked to be the designated evangelists at every event we host.