It was the late 1990s when Malcolm Marshall felt a pull on his heart to tell his oldest brother about God. As a US Marine, his brother was getting ready to deploy on a third mission to the Middle East.
Marshall, who was a new Christian himself, pushed back: “Lord, I don’t want to talk about you to my brother. I want to talk about the weather and sports!”
But he just couldn’t shake it. So, he mustered the courage and shared the Gospel, and by the time he hung up, his brother had accepted Christ.
“I was beside myself with joy! I’ve researched back five generations in my family but couldn’t find one man who loved God,” said Marshall, who serves as a campus pastor for Houston First Baptist Church, as lead chaplain for the Houston Rockets, and tours nationally as Christian hip-hop artist, Excelsius.
Marshall shared this story with students when he led chapel services at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor on Wednesday, February 03, 2021. He told the students that even though he didn’t think he was ready or equipped to share the Gospel, he listened to God’s call for him to disciple his brother.
“We all know someone who doesn’t love Jesus,” he said. “But, if you are bearing His name on the earth, you’ve been called. This is the mission to be accomplished.”
Marshall based his message on verses from Matthew 28:19-20, which is commonly known as the “Great Commission,” where the resurrected Jesus instructed his disciples to spread the Gospel to all the nations of the world.
“These are the marching orders for all Christians—to know Him and to make Him known,” he said, pointing out that doing this may look differently for each person.
“For me, discipling people is running my mouth and rapping over beats,” he said. “For you, maybe you’re intellectual, maybe you’re athletic, maybe you cook—whatever you do, God wants to use (your talents) to accomplish His mission.”
Growing up in a broken home, Marshall described his days as a young college student when he gave his life to Christ his sophomore year.
“I remember the sin that I was wrestling with and the temptation that was chasing me,” he said. “But I also remember the arms of a loving Savior saying, ‘If you do this my way, in the end, it will go well for you.’”
He encouraged the students to always focus on the first word of Matthew 28:19, which is “go.”
“When you’re engaging with classmates and peers and neighbors and families and friends, make disciples. When you’re serving in the community, make disciples. Whatever you do, do it for the glory of God, and go make disciples,” he said. “Be willing to invest in someone who does not know what you know. This is an ongoing aspect of what it means to love Jesus.”
Watch Malcolm Marshall’s chapel service on the UMHB Facebook page.
