Dennis Haroldson explains in this message how a family can reach the lost. The family can be a powerful tool and witness for evangelizing those around them. One thing he points out is that parents are to focus on raising and discipling their children according to Scripture first. Similarly, husbands are to love their wives. If the family is not walking in the ways of the Lord, the family's effectiveness in evangelism will be stunted.

Proverbs 22:6 (NKJV) - "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it."

The National Center for Family Integrated Churches welcomes Dennis Haraldson with the following message entitled, Finding Your Family's Usefulness in fulfilling the Great Commission. Well thank you for attending this session today. It's a great honor to me that you would be here and again we pray the Lord's blessing upon the preaching of his word and the time that we have to spend together today. Again, I just want to say a little bit about myself before we get started. Again, I've been pastoring a church in...

We're in Rio Rancho, New Mexico, which is a suburb of Albuquerque. We left after church last Sunday, said goodbye to everybody and hit the road for a 1600 mile trip here to be with you guys today and we're just excited about being here with you in addition to my responsibilities as being a husband and and father pastor. I also have a full-time job. I teach school, and every day I head off to the jail. I work with prisoners who have not yet received their high school diplomas.

And so I teach math and science in the jail in Albuquerque, which houses about 3, 000 inmates. But it's certainly a spot where the fields are wide under harvest as I work with those men. So I just ask that you pray with me as I serve those men who are in jail. And just for some of you, I have not always been a Christian. I didn't come to know the Lord until after I was out of college.

And so the Lord called me when I was 25 years old and praise Him that I've learned more and more about Him and His sovereignty and who He is and so there's a lot of time ahead for all of you with families. The Lord works in mysterious ways, but we can just depend on him and trust in him. So I'd like to just start by praying for this time. Let's bow our heads and go to the Lord with a word of prayer. Father, we bless You today in the preaching of Your Word.

May it bring glory and honor to You. Father, We thank you that your word has told us that as the rain comes down and snow from heaven and does not return there, that it waters the earth, and that your word will go forth and it shall not return void, Father. And we pray that as this message goes out into the world that it would accomplish that which you send it for and we thank you that we have that promise that it will father just bless the hearers today that we might impart wisdom from your word to those who are hearing this message, and we will give you all of the honor and all the glory and all the praise for whatever should come to pass from this message, Lord. We just praise you and thank you in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Amen. So, as we begin today to look into ways to find our family's usefulness in the fulfilling of the Great Commission. The first thing I'd like to do is I'd like to just establish why the family is a God-ordained tool for evangelism. It's our duty as parents to make disciples of our children. And it's also a duty that we're called as members of a family to make disciples of the nations.

And so we're here to accomplish both those things, how we can use our family to build disciples and then use our families to go unto the nations. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth and He said it was good. And in that perfect environment, the first institution that God created was formed, and that institution was the family. In Genesis 2.18, The Lord said, it is not good that man should be alone and I will make him a helper, comparable to him. And verse 24 says, therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife and they shall be one flesh.

So God created the family in the perfection of the garden before the fall, and he continues to use the family and marriage as a picture of the nature of His covenant with us, the relationship between God and His people. Throughout the Bible, he has used that picture. We see it in Hosea and throughout the whole book of Hosea, especially in chapter 2 and in the New Testament, he sees in Ephesians chapter 5. Can I get this started? So we see it throughout the scripture that the family is used as a picture of how God is going to interact with us, his people.

It's through the family that we are to be fruitful and to multiply godly seed. And it's through the family that we're to fill the earth and take dominion of every living thing on the earth. We're to bear the image of God our Creator, the King of all, to the earth through the family. That blessing was given about the dominion mandate to man. It was given to the first parents, Adam and Eve, while they were in perfection, and we are to continue to use the family for his glory today.

Matthew 28 18 through 20 which we've been looking at again we'll just read that as Jesus came and spoke to them saying all authority has been given to me in heaven and in earth Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you. And lo, I'm with you always to the end of the age amen and we've been looking at this and how does that relate then to our families we've been commissioned by God to go to the nation's with the good news of our Redeemer and as Christians were called to that mission all of us But what I've observed in the church today is that the family has really been a forgotten instrument as a God-ordained institution for accomplishing the mission of evangelism. The home, or our family, is really the hub around which we are to disciple the next generation of believers, to prepare them to be witnesses to Christ in Jerusalem, in all Judea, and to Samaria, and to the ends of the earth as we're called to in Acts 1 through 8.

In Jerusalem, our home. In Judea and Samaria and the surrounding areas, as well as out to the ends of the earth. We have this sphere of influence that starts in the home. That's where evangelism begins. I'm not a Greek scholar, but I've read one translation of Matthew 28, 19 that says, go therefore and make disciples it says while you are going make disciples or as you continue on your journey make disciples The Great Commission instructs us not only to go out and make disciples of all nations, but also to make disciples while we're going throughout our daily activities.

Verse 20 then tells us how to make disciples. And it says, you make disciples by teaching all that God has commanded us. Jesus is telling us as we're going about our day, we are to make disciples by teaching our children to observe all things that He has commanded. We're called to home discipleship. We're called to catechize our families.

Yet The church today has largely ignored this directive. I was a Christian for a long time before I even heard of the idea of home discipleship, of catechizing our children. The church has abandoned the usefulness of the family in fulfilling the Great Commission. The Old Testament gives us a very clear message about how to teach the commands of God, and this primarily involves parents and their children. Deuteronomy 6, 4 through 7, which you've all heard, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one, and shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your might.

And these words that I have commanded you today shall be on your heart. You, parents, shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. As you're going about your daily activity, your daily business, you are instructed to diligently teach God's precepts to your children, to teach them all things that Christ has commanded. That's one of God's plans for making disciples, to teach our children. But the enemy doesn't want us to be making more disciples.

So he's going to counter God's directive to the family by attacking that foundation. The world's attack on the Bible has been concentrated on getting people to doubt the truths of the precepts of God from the very first chapters of Scripture. We see that in the theory of evolution as being perpetrated on us. That theory taught by the public education establishment is diametrically opposed to the truth of Scripture. If you can cause people to doubt the first chapters of the Bible, if you can get them to doubt Genesis, the Genesis account of the creation of this universe, the creation that was done in six days and on the seventh day God rested.

If we can get people to start doubting that, which many of our children have wonders about. Some of us, I was raised in that situation in the public school system and had doubts about what all this stuff meant. How could this be? And when we have any doubts, then scripture can become suspect. And we've seen that attack throughout our nation and throughout the world through that theory of evolution.

And a more recent attack that we see on the truth of Scripture, but still the truth of Scripture from the beginning is the devaluation of marriage and the push to define family as any group of people who love one another, not the grouping that God said. A man shall leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife, and they shall have children. That is God's ordained grouping. And we see this attack. God established a mom, a dad, the children as the core unit that he would give much, if not most, of his instruction to.

We in the family integrated church movement have been accused of worshiping the family, which doesn't really surprise me that that would be the attack because it fits right into that strategy of the enemy to destroy God's ordained unit that he put together there in the garden, the family. We don't worship the family, we worship the living and true God. We're just using a God-ordained unit called the family to make disciples who would worship the Lord God in spirit and in truth, children who would in turn be fruitful and multiply for the advancement of God's kingdom. When we look at God's instructions to us, the church, who is the bride of Christ, We find that those instructions to the church are rooted in the family. I'd like to just take a look at a few examples of these word pictures that God uses for who are we in Christ.

So who are we in Christ? We're heirs. Romans 8 17, Galatians 3 29, Galatians 4 5 and 7. We're heirs to the promises. We've been adopted into the family of God.

Ephesians 1, 5, we're children of the Father. Galatians 3, 26, we are to love as brothers and sisters. You hear those words? Brothers, sisters, adoption, heirs. All that are words that revolve around the concept of family.

And if we look in the church to see who God says is qualified to lead his church, In much of the church today, who's qualified to leave? The banker, the doctor, the lawyer, men of high standing. But God has used the foolish things to confound the wise. Who's qualified to lead? If we look at 1 Timothy 3, 2 through 5, which talks about men.

This is directed at leaders, but really, If we want to know what a man is supposed to be like, just look for these qualifications of leaders. It's what every man should be aspiring to, not just a leader, all men, Because all men are going to be leaders, whether it's their family or in the church, in the nations. First Timothy 3, 2 through 5, the husband of one wife should be a leader, a man who rules his own house well, having his children in submission with all reverence. For if a man does not know how to rule his own house, how will he take care of the Church of God? Titus 1 11, he must stop those, a leader, he must stop them, those who would subvert whole households.

The instruction to the leaders of the church that Jesus Christ died for is those men who are leaders in their home. So what are the older women supposed to teach younger women? I'm sure you've read Titus 2, 3 through 5. Women to love and submit to their husbands, to love their children. And and says to be a homemaker.

God has directed ladies to be keepers of the home because it's a valuable place. It's where training takes place. It's where discipleship takes place. Yet women are being told to leave the home, to leave their children, Leave the raising of your family to the state. That's not what God's Word tells us.

We're to disciple our own children. We're to raise them in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. How are men to walk? We're to walk as husbands, part of that family. We are to love our wives as Christ loved the church.

And how did he do that? He died for her. Man, that's your calling, to die for your wife, to die to yourself. To yourself. Boys, that's what you should be training for, to be a servant leader, ready to train your families.

Ephesians 5, husbands love your wives, and we're to do that with our wives as heirs. Again, that idea, heirs are family. We are heirs together with our wives in the grace of life. Fathers, we're not to be provoking our children to wrath. We see a lot of children today who are exasperated children, not loving their mother and father.

So why are so many children exasperated today and not following? I believe the one big reason that fathers are not being taught and encouraged to bring up their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. We're told to leave it up to the professionals. God's Word says that it's up to us, fathers and mothers, to raise our children that they would love the Lord. You want to exasperate your children?

Don't teach them the Word of God. They'll certainly be confused. Children, what is your command? We see that? Children, obey your children in the Lord, for this is right.

Obey your mom and dad. Children are to obey the Lord. We're to teach them to obey the Lord. Last night we heard Douglas Phillips go through a list of scriptures telling us how to obey the Lord. If we're to be his disciples, we must follow him.

We must do what he says. Children today sometime, read through 1 John chapter 2. Again, throughout that chapter, if you're to obey the Lord, if you're to obey your parents, you're to obey Christ and keep his commandments. Is there any other better grouping for teaching our children to observe all things that Christ has commanded than the family? The answer is no.

Not according to God's word. And as you parents take the gospel out to this lost and dying world, your children are going to learn to imitate you when we include them in our family's efforts to spread the Word. So where and how does your family fit into this great opportunity to make disciples of all the nations? Where do we fit in that? How does our family, what are some of the things that we can do so that our families can be disciple makers, that we can evangelize the lost?

I want to begin before we get into just a few topics about ways that we can be useful as families to evangelism in addition to fathers training your children and discipling them. I want to look at just a couple principles to bear in mind as we discuss our family's role in the fulfilling of the Great Commission to the world at large. First thing I want to mention is that to remember we all have different functions in the body of Christ, and none of those functions are unimportant. Just remember that as you're trying to find something for your family to do. We all have different functions in the body of Christ.

None of these functions are unimportant, and that holds for our families. You get to a conference like this And you can look around and you see families who have been, let's just say, in the limelight and that are doing wonderful things for Christ. We praise God for that and the movement of the Spirit in their families. But remember, we can't be covetous of having that ministry. It's something that we have to be careful of as families not to covet another family's ministry.

We can pray God to move and to show us what to do, but let's just remember, everyone is important. Everyone has a function. We're not all the eyes or the ears, but we all have feet and hands to go and share the gospel. First Corinthians 12, 18 through 22, but now God has set the members, each one of them in the body, just as He has pleased. And if they were all one member, where would the body be?

But now indeed there are many members, yet one body. And the eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you, nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you. No, much rather those members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary." We all have a part. We have a part within our family, and all families have a part in the fulfilling of the Great Commission. Parents, every family has their own unique sets of gifts and abilities.

Parents, we need to get to know the strengths of our children and use those strengths to build our family ministry. Parents don't just rely on your own gifts. As we build family ministry, Look to the gifts that God has given your children as well. But let's do it as a family. We see families so splintered today, everyone doing their own thing, and we've looked at that idea of individual evangelism.

God has built the family as a unit that can be greatly used in the spreading of His Word. So just as an example of how we want to look out and make sure that we're looking for the abilities and strengths and weaknesses of our own children. I have seen a lot of families and my family's been involved in a music ministry, and God has used our family in just ways that I could have never imagined to share the gospel through a music ministry. I thought I would probably be involved in some kind of sports ministry. Remember, I wasn't a Christian as a young man and was always involved in sports, But God has given my children a gift of music.

And so when I was training up my children in the way they should go, I used that gift that they have to be able to share their gifts and talents to share the gospel with people throughout the United States. So If your kids, and you see that, and I've known many families involved in music ministries, if your kids are tone deaf, it might not be the best thing to say, let's start a music ministry. Let's look at the gifts that God has given to each of us. None of us is unimportant. Everyone has a function.

We all have a place. But let's prayerfully look for what God has for each of each of us in our families. A second thing I want you to keep in mind with, along with, we all have different functions. Another thing is be aware of the...what I like to just remind people about in evangelism, in all of ministry to the body of Christ. There are seasons of life.

We are all in different seasons of life. Ecclesiastes 3 says, for everything, for everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven. In verse 10, I've seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. He has made everything beautiful in its time. We all have a time.

Our families have a time. Just this morning, I heard Dr. Beekie say, evangelism is a lifetime pursuit. We have a lifetime, but we're all in different seasons of life. And as you're looking for how you might serve God with your family, be aware of where you are in that season of life.

Are you just getting started? You have little tiny babies? Do you have toddlers? Or are you… are your children getting older? Are some of them grown and some of them heading out and starting off on their own families?

Depending on where you are, we're going to have different opportunities to minister to people as the body of Christ and as families. Where and how you serve as an ambassador for Christ is affected by the age and maturity of your children. The kind of ministry a family with toddlers can be in may be indeed very different than the kind of ministry you can be involved in if you have grown children. Just remember though, through all that we're all called to evangelize. I want to read from Matthew 11 and verse 1.

When Jesus had finished instructing his 12 disciples, hear that again, when Jesus had finished instructing his 12 disciples, he went on from there to teach and preach in their cities. Jesus first instructed his own disciples, teaching them to observe all that he had commanded. It wasn't until he had completed a season in his life of instructing his disciples that he then commissioned them to go out to the lost sheep and preach the good news. Jesus knew about these seasons of life and Jesus had a small group of men that he spent his time with, that he poured out his heart into, that he poured his life into. Not exactly a family, but the idea, the concept that we start with a small band that we are very, very close to, that we disciple, that we train, that we admonish, that we go to, that know us, that we know them, that we know their strengths, we know their weaknesses, and we work with them to then go out.

That's why your children are arrows, which we then send out when they're ready. When Jesus has finished instructing his disciples, he sent them out. It was not until he had completed that season of instruction that he commissioned them to go. And when he had finished the job, then he went forth, he says, to teach and preach to other cities, to other places besides Jerusalem, to other tribes, to other tongues, to other nations. Both of those jobs are very important, But to everything there is a season.

In the same manner, there is a priority in not neglecting the instruction of our own children to observe everything that Christ has commanded. We have to train our own band of disciples and then take the gospel to the ends of the earth. Acts 1, 8 says, But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth. We will receive power from the Spirit. We must listen to the Spirit.

We must rely on the power of the Holy Spirit as we offer ourselves up for the spreading of the gospel. And as we spread the gospel to enlarging groups, you'll be witness to me in Jerusalem, a city. We are to be witnesses to Christ of His love and His power and His saving death on the cross. We're to be witnesses of that in Jerusalem, in our towns. We come from towns across America, and we all have a place to start evangelizing in Jerusalem, in our hometowns.

And then we spread out from there. We can spread out to the states, to Judea, Samaria. And some of us, to the ends of the earth, We're to be prepared to share the love of Christ anywhere and everywhere that the Lord opens a door to us to witness to the ends of the earth. So with that, I'd like to just talk about a few areas that we as families then can take the love of Christ to a lost and dying world. I've just thought of a few things that I've seen in our church, in Rio Rancho, New Mexico, that people are doing, that I've seen happening across the United States, where families are ministering to their neighbors, their cities, their states, their country with their family.

Now remember, we can't do all of these things, but I just want to just start you thinking about what are some possibilities of things that you can do with your family to spread the gospel, to encourage your children, to disciple your children, to teach them all things that God has commanded. Just like to start with myself and our family, Just to give you an example of what we have done and how God has been able to use us. As I said, my children, I found out when they were young that they had a gift for music. And through people, through the Lord's guidance, we started playing together and it was something that we could do as a family. And it brought great joy to us and joy to other people.

And we came to a point about five years ago where the Lord called us to, for a season, to leave our home. We sold our house. I quit my job And we went on the road. We bought a RV so that we could travel, and we headed out on roads that we only knew where God was going to take us to minister to people across this land. God took us from coast to coast, from Montana to Florida, north, south, east, and west, And we ministered in places to churches, to people in RV parks, to people on the street.

And we were able to minister the love of Christ as a family because people don't see families and just being together, eight of us inside of a motor home and people see you coming out, how do you live in such a space? And God made us grow as well as we were able to minister the love of Christ across the United States. And we don't know always, we don't know all of the impact, but there was not a time when we played, and not always in churches, wherever we played and God provided for us, we would play every single time we played, we had an opportunity to witness to the saving power of our Lord and Savior. There was not one time where we as individuals didn't have an opportunity to talk to someone in the audience about the love of Jesus Christ and what He's done and how He's calling us to His side. A great ministry, and we were in the four corners of the United States in Aztec, New Mexico, and when we came back as the Lord moved, He planted us in Rio Rancho, New Mexico, in the central part of the state and through our children as we we got to Rio Rancho and my children started teaching lessons and a couple of families who came to our music lessons eventually asked me, when are you gonna start a church?

That was the beginning of planting a new church in Rio Rancho due to the ministry that my children had in music. To God be the glory. We see families in our area that are ministering in theater. There's a family in our area who has started a Christian theater group, and this theater group is ministering throughout the city. A tremendous impact for Christ.

Families are working together. The family that started us, they have all kinds of jobs. The boys are building sets, some of them act. So many different areas that they can participate together as families through the opportunity of theater. And again, you get to go out into the community.

We go. People come. They want to know, what is it that makes you different. There's an opportunity in theater. We have a family that came to our church in Aztec, New Mexico, And they came because they saw what was happening with the families in our church.

And they dove right into our body and started just eating up the Word of God and what we were trying to teach people. And they have, they then moved to Denver, and that family, the Scott Davidson family, is today, right now, in Russia with their family. They are ministering, they've started a church in Colorado Springs, Colorado, just this last year, a CPC church, and they are today in Russia. And I just met last night a gentleman who is over in Russia that just came here to this conference today who just saw Scott and told me that they're doing amazing things. They've only been there for several weeks now and they've met with a church in Russia where the pastor has asked his entire congregation to begin homeschooling.

Scott and Andy and their family are meeting with each of the families there to help them, to train them, to teach them how they might disciple their own families. It's just amazing the things that families can do. And missionaries today, the people who are going out, I've seen in the past missionaries leaving and leaving their families behind, leaving their children behind. And we don't have to do that. We have another missionary in Indonesia who's gone out.

His whole family is with him. Yes, it's perilous, but he's taken his whole family. They're ministering the word together. Yes, whole families can go to the mission field, and I believe God has called us, because many of us that were called first to a family. Many of us were called first to leave and unite with our wife and have children.

And God can take that entire family to places to minister. We can minister as families around the world. We've known families that have been called out, and maybe there are people here this weekend who have been called out to start new bodies of Christ, new churches. That takes the entire family to do that. It's not a one-man thing.

It's families that unite together that can propagate the gospel. I don't know if there's anyone here that's being called to that, but it's an exciting opportunity to begin a new work. Again, we've been meeting now at our church in Rio Rancho for a year and a half. It's the second church I've been involved with in starting a family integrated church. And the first church that I was involved with, praise the Lord, we've been meeting as a family integrated church in the four corners for over 15 years.

God is working miracles, and as we've traveled around to see what God is doing throughout our land with these different churches. I just give him all the praise, honor, and glory for what he's doing, how his moving families. And you know because you're the people who are here looking for that, looking for what God has for us in the ministry of our families. I've seen many people involved in nursing home ministries. The nursing home is a great place to go.

There are people there that can't get out. Families can go there. They love to see children. They love to see families. The family has been splintered.

Many of these people in these nursing homes don't have a family. They're without a family. They have no one. Perhaps God is calling you to administer, and you can do it in many ways. You can go read scripture.

You can sing. Whatever you can do, go to these people with a Bible that are hungry to hear God's Word. We have people around the United States involved. Their families are involved in the movie-making industry. The Christ is redeeming that industry.

We see that at the San Antonio Film Festival. We have several families in our body that are involved in that. Many different areas for children to get involved with the propagation of the gospel through the medium of movie making. We have people in our church who are involved with robotics, and some of the the things I've heard from them going out, there's many robotics teams. There's national competitions for things like robotics, for spelling bees, for geography bees, all those kind of things that our children got involved in.

We go as families. We can minister to people who don't know Christ in those places. The robotics family, we've heard just stories of them going out and being able to witness to teams that are, that don't know the Lord. Children who don't know the Lord and they're amazed at people willing to help them, to teach them. These are things that our children know how to do and much of the world doesn't know anything about the love of Christ and they can share the love of Christ even in competitions that are available for our families.

Hospitality is a great way to involve your family. We should be ministering to other families in our hospitality. We've driven across the United States, and there are people that we know across this land who opened their house to us, I'm sure the same for you, that there are people willing to open their homes to share what God has given them. That is a ministry to be able to to share Christ and to share what Christ is doing. Perhaps there's some kind of ministry of hospitality that someone will take on.

There would be, I've heard people talking about things where businessmen might have a place to go instead of a hotel. Hotels where there's things going on that are temptations to businessmen on the road. We could be those people who open our homes to men all over this land who are traveling. God tells us that's one of the things we're supposed to do is be hospitable. The churches that are being started all over the United States, a couple years ago when we were here in the Carolinas, we went to a church that's pastored by Mark Fox, who has started many different churches.

He has an excellent book out on starting a family-integrated church. His church is sent out and started several new works throughout the East Coast here. Families can serve in soup kitchens. Families can serve in homeless shelters. You got a bunch of boys.

All kinds of people need things built, repaired. You've got a bunch of girls. There's all kinds of things that can be done for families, from meals to clothing. There are ministries for our families that we can do. We can serve Christ all over.

Another ministry I've seen that really blesses my heart and I see here at this conference is the ministry that we're called to—I just want to read Psalm 68, a portion of Psalm 68 verse 4. Sing to God, sing praises to His name. Extol Him who rides on the clouds by his name, Yah, and rejoice before him. A father of the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy habitation. God sets the solitary in families.

He brings out those who are bound into prosperity, but the rebellious dwell in a dry land. God has called many families to the ministry of adoption. He's called us. He sets the solitary into families. We need to learn how to do that for the orphans and the widows, to bring people into families, to let people know this institution that God has established.

These are just a few ways that I've seen families serve in evangelism. And again, whether you're the one who is planting the seed or who works to prepare the soil of the heart, or if you are the one reaping the fields that are white unto harvest. When you give yourself to be used by God in the lives of people that don't know Christ yet, then you are following the Lord's directive to go and make disciples. Whatever part of it that you play in bringing a lost sinner to the Lord, evangelism is a process in which God gives the increase. Soil of a person's heart needs to be prepared and the seed of the word needs to be planted.

There needs to be the watering and the fertilizing and the weeding, but... And we can be involved in any one of these areas or all of these areas, but just remember that it is our Almighty God who is providentially in charge of whatever we do. If we know that Jesus Christ is in charge, We can be free to share the Word with anyone at any time. It's not only our word. God is the one who brings the increase.

He's just called us to share His Word. We can do that without fear of failure, that we might do something wrong, because we are not ultimately responsible for a person coming to faith in Christ. That is God's business. We have been given the privilege of being a vehicle for delivering the good news. You're a part of a grand process that God has prepared for maternity past.

So let's go out and make disciples to the glory of God. I want to just close by reading Psalm 145. I will extol you, O my God, O King, and I will bless your name forever and ever. Every day I will bless you, and I will praise Your name forever and ever. Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised, and His greatness is unsearchable.

One generation shall praise Your works to another and shall declare Your mighty acts. I will meditate on the glorious splendor of your majesty and on your wondrous works. Men shall speak of your might and your awesome acts, and I will declare your greatness. They shall utter the memory of your great goodness and shall sing of your righteousness. The Lord is gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger and great in mercy.

The Lord is good to all, and His tender mercies are over all His work. All your works shall praise you, O Lord, and your saints shall bless you. They shall speak of the glory of your kingdom and talk of your power. To make known to the sons of men is mighty acts in the glorious majesty of his kingdom. Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures throughout all generations.

The Lord upholds all who fall and raises up all who are bowed down. The eyes of all look expectantly to you, and you give them the food in due season. You open your hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing. The Lord is righteous in all His ways, gracious in all His works. The Lord is near to all who call upon Him, to all who call upon Him in truth.

He will fulfill the desire of those who fear Him. He will also hear their cry and save them. The Lord preserves all who love Him, but all the wicked He will destroy. My mouth shall speak of the praise of the Lord and all flesh shall bless His holy name forever and ever. Amen.

The National Center for Family Integrated Churches is dedicated to proclaiming the sufficiency of scripture for church and family life and to the establishment of biblically ordered churches. For more information, resources, and products, please visit our website at www.ncfic.org. You