Let's pray together.

Father, I thank you for the tears that come unbidden and sweet when I watch those missionary pictures.

There is so much interwoven life there, there's so much pain there, there is so much joy there. These are the people, among others, of whom the world is not worthy

and none of them feels that way.

And we want their tribe to increase.

And this is not man's doing, it is your doing. And so I ask for divine enabling to so preach that divine calling

calling would happen.

I ask this in Jesus' name, Amen.

When Jesus had finished his great saving work

and had laid down his life for millions and millions of people who had come to

believe in him from all the peoples and all the centuries and had risen from the dead and had given his final mandate or in the

giving of his final mandate he said these words just before he went back to the

father this is the last thing he said in the gospel of Matthew all authority in

heaven and on earth has been given to me.

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations,

baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age.

The mandate to make disciples from all peoples

is as valid today as the promise that he gave is comforting today. The promise that he gave was I will be with you always to the end of the age.

Now that has not come to an end yet. So that promise is comforting and

valid today and since the promise was given as a foundation and support for the mandate, the mandate is valid today.

This was not a mandate given to the 12. when they're done, nobody else has to listen.

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