Leave behind 'Great Commotion,' Denison says
___By Dan Martin
___Texas Baptist Communications
___CORPUS CHRISTI--For the sake of a lost and dying state and world, Texas Baptists "must leave behind the Great Commotion for the Great Commission," Jim Denison said in the annual convention sermon at the Baptist General Convention of Texas.
___Denison, pastor of Park Cities Baptist Church in Dallas, said Texas Baptists must take two simple but life-transforming steps: "First, love the lost with all your heart. ... Second,

JIM DENISON preaches the convention sermon.

preach Jesus with all your strength."
___Texas Baptists "exist to take the gospel of God's love into our fallen, dark, dying, decaying, immoral world. Not wait for them to find us--to find them. To go to them with the incredible good news that God loves us," Denison insisted.
___The BGCT annual session in Corpus Christi was held "in the midst of the greatest conflict and commotion we have ever known as Texas Baptists," he acknowledged.
___"Let us be very certain about our founding and our future. So long as we keep Jesus as the foundation of our souls and our churches and his commission as our purpose and passion, our future is more bright than any we have ever dreamed, by the grace of God," he said.
___"There are 100,000 unchurched souls within three miles of Park Cities Baptist Church, 1 million lost people in the city of Dallas, 10 million unchurched in Texas, 173 million in America," he reported. "Two-thirds of the world is lost; one-third has never even heard Jesus' name.
___"And we Baptists have not been famous in recent years for loving them."
___A survey of residents who live near the North Dallas church where he is pastor discovered that people associate the words "pushy," "self-serving," "cliquish," "discriminates," "fundamentalists" and "hateful" with Baptists, Denison said.
___"You and I must determine to love the lost people we know, today, with all our hearts. Only then can we prove to them that God loves them," he added.
___Baptists must preach Jesus with all their strength, Denison said. "I believe every word of the Bible is the word of God. And so I believe John 20:31: 'These are written that you believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.'
___"D.L. Moody (a 19th century evangelist) was right--the Bible was not written to instruct our minds, but to change our lives. Preach the Christ of the Bible with all your strength. Witness to his love, his grace, as your highest purpose and passion, whatever the cost."
___"Today, we Texas Baptists say to our world: 'We love you and Jesus loves you. We are committed to fellowship, to friendship, to unity for the sake of the gospel. We love you, and more importantly, Jesus loves you,'" he stressed.
___"Today, we Texas Baptists say to our critics: 'We believe that the Scripture is the word of God, his truth for the world. We believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, his hope for the world. We believe that the Great Commission is his purpose for the church, his mission for the world. And we are ready to get on with it.'
___"Today, we Texas Baptists say to our friends: 'We've only just begun. We are not done until every person in our state has a realistic opportunity to know Jesus personally and follow him fully. All 10 million. We are not done until we have partnered with other believers to take Jesus to every soul on Earth. We've only begun.'"
___



The Baptist Standard