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Floyd to students: complete Great Commission


LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP) — Christians in this generation need to complete the Great Commission, Ronnie Floyd said in a chapel service at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Oct. 16.

“Let us go to places where the Gospel has never been,” he said at Southern’s campus in Louisville, Ky. “We must complete the Great Commission in our generation, and we need to make a commitment together that their spiritual death will not happen on our watch.”

Floyd, president of the Southern Baptist Convention, urged students to fulfill the Great Commission and take the Gospel to unreached people, both overseas and even across the street.

He used several passages from the New Testament that emphasize Jesus’ command for Christians to go and make disciples, asking students to consider their plans to obey Jesus’ command to share the Gospel.

Floyd, senior pastor of Cross Church, Northwest Arkansas, asked students to think about their lives and ministries in conjunction with the Great Commission. He told students to think about their part in the Great Commission, whether it is overseas in closed countries or in hostile neighborhoods in the United States.

One way students can think about their role in the Great Commission, he noted, is to attend the 2015 Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting in Columbus, Ohio. He said he hopes to see many students attend and to care more deeply about denominational life for Southern Baptists as a whole. Southern Seminary will offer several course credit options for Boyce College and Southern students in connection with the annual meeting.

“We need life, youth, vitality. So please come,” he said, noting that the convention meeting is a good opportunity to practice what students are learning in the classroom.

Preaching primarily from Matthew 28:18-20, Floyd noted several undeniable realities of the Great Commission.

First, Christians have the authority and presence of Jesus to help them in the mission.

“The Great Commission is authorized on one end by the authority of Jesus Christ and on the other end by the presence of Jesus Christ,” he said.

“When you’re a Great Commission Christian living in a Great Commission church, you can be assured that you have been authorized by the authority of Jesus and the presence of Jesus to do what you do every time you preach the Gospel, every time you share the Gospel, every time you go somewhere the Gospel is not known. You’re there with authority.”

The Great Commission is also anchored in the Word of God and centered on the mission of God, he said.

“World evangelization is not a choice you make. World evangelization is your life,” he said.

Christians need to advance the Great Commission, personally, strategically, collectively, cooperatively, progressively, innovatively and urgently.

The Great Commission “is the final will and testament of the Lord Jesus Christ,” he said, making the task for Christians to go make disciples imperative in this generation.

Floyd also exhorted students to take the Great Commission without reserve and to the glory of God.

“The vast majority of the world needs to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ
and how he died to save them. We must complete the Great Commission in our generation,” he said. “And it’s time now for all of us to shift our lives, to shift our dreams, to shift our futures, to take the hope and the message of the Gospel to the places where the Gospel’s never been before.”

Audio and video from Floyd’s message are available at sbts.edu/resources.

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  • RuthAnne Irvin