Eight Words From Acts

Imagine getting on an airplane, you don't know where you're going, but in the middle of the flight the pilot comes on the intercom and he says, I have got good news and I've got bad news. The good news is we have a great wind stream and we're making great time. The bad news is we don't know where we're going. That reminds me of many churches that I've visited and seen who give to the missions programs and they don't really know where the money's going, they don't know what's going on or what's accomplishing, they just write the checks and send it overseas.

Today is a once a year opportunity to give to the people of Christ Community Church and update our missions and where our plane is going. We know where that plane will end up. Revelation 7 verses 9 and 10 says, after this I looked and behold a great multitude that no one could number from every nation from all tribes and peoples and languages standing before the throne and before the lamb clothed in white robes with palm branches in their hands and crying out with a loud voice, salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the lamb.

Now I've learned that many years when I would come home to mission trips and I would get to speak usually once every three years when we would come home, there were some who would turn their ears away, not interested. They would have their ticket to heaven, but they just didn't care about the world and what God was doing in missions. And it reminds me of the story of William Carey, that great missionary who was a shoe cobbler who felt burdened to go to India and he became a pastor. But in the year 1791 at a pastor's convention, he suggested that they talk about the topic of is the command to go into the world and make disciples to all nations still valid today because the Protestant Reformation had happened for several hundred years, but Baptist churches, Protestant churches were not going around the world with the gospel.

So he asked the pastors, is that command binding on all successive generations? An old pastor looked at this little young William Carey and said, young man, sit down. When God pleases to convert the heathen, he will do it without consulting you or me. But William Carey did not stop. He would go to India, translate the word of God into up to 42 languages. And Carey had a motto, which I believe is ours, expect great things from God, attempt great things from God. Last year, you, the faithful givers of Christ to me church, gave about $34,000 so that 14 people could go to Argentina.

Nine of those had never been on a mission trip before. In our Thanksgiving offering, you raised about $32,000 for four different countries and specific mission projects that we had. Week in and week out, your faithful giving allowed Christ to me church to add a third pastor that we could support a pastor in Uganda last year.

And we continue to support pastors in Russia, although we can't send the money with the sanctions, and pastors in Argentina, and of course, Esteban Bustos in the Spanish program. Your faithful giving allowed us to support three men in seminary in Ecuador. They are in the third year of that support, and Lord willing, will graduate this year and begin their ministry.

Your faithful giving allowed elders to go to Myanmar and Ecuador and train pastors on mission trips. When I came back to Christ to me church four years ago from Myanmar, there was a man in our church, Jerry Simmons, had kept a spreadsheet of all the mission trips and all the people that had been on those mission trips and where we'd done. So I continued that spreadsheet, and in the last 30 years, Christ to me church turned 30 years last October, Christ to me church has participated on 76 mission trips with over 522 people going.

That doesn't include 13 more mission trips in the United States with eight days of hope and another 183 trips. It was Mike Statura who said, the mark of a great church is not its seating capacity, but its sending capacity, and I believe that's true of Christ to me church. There's a book in the Bible that shows us how to do missions right, and that book is the book of Acts. Acts gives us directions on how to do missions right. You know Acts was written in about the year 62 A.D. by Luke, a follow-up to the book of Luke, and it's a history of the New Testament church.

It lasts a period of about 30 years from 33 A.D. to 62 A.D., and Acts can be summarized in eight words, and they're on your outline if you have an outline, Pentecost, power, Peter, preaching, persecution, praying, Paul, and progress. So let's get going. The first word for Acts on how to do missions right is Pentecost, and if you turn to Acts chapter 2, Acts chapter 2, and we'll just read four verses, but we'll talk a lot about this.

This is the first sermon in the book of Acts by Peter, but I'll just read the first four verses today.

Acts chapter 2, verses 1 to 4 says, When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place, and suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting, and divided tongues of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. The New Testament church began 50 days after Jesus Christ rose from the dead.

Now not all Christians recognize the day of Pentecost. There's a lot of churches, like some Pentecostal churches, Roman Catholic churches, Lutheran, Anglican, especially Eastern Orthodox, that would celebrate the day of Pentecost. This year it would be on, I think, May 14th, 50 days after Easter. We don't make a big deal about it in our church, but it is a big deal in the history of the church. Pentecost means 50th, and it refers to one of the feasts, there were three annual feasts that every man in Israel, every Jew, was required to go to.

So it's called the Feast of Weeks in Exodus 34, verses 22 to 23, or the Feast of Harvest in Leviticus 23-16. So the males would bring their first fruits of all their grain they're offering, their fruit, produce, to Jerusalem, and they would give it to the priest, and the priest would wave it before the Lord as an offering.

This is the day that the Holy Spirit chose to come as the first fruits of the believer's inheritance, as described in Ephesians 1, verses 11 and 14.

Just how important is the day of Pentecost? It's the day that law became grace. It's the day that legalism became liberty in Jesus Christ. It's the day that Judaism became Christianity. It's the day that gospel to Jews alone became the gospel for Jews and Gentiles. It's the day that Israel, as God's chosen instrument, was changed to the church as God's chosen instrument. It was the day that the synagogue was replaced to church worship. It was the day that Jerusalem was the center, that the world would be the center of God's attention.

It was the day that Sabbath worship changed to the Lord's day, and it was the day that performance of works was changed to the power of the Holy Spirit. There are two words that are key in understanding the day of Pentecost, and we read them both, wind and fire. Wind in verse 2, fire in verse 3. And it says that in verse 2, it says, and suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind. Wind is often described in the Bible as a picture of the Holy Spirit, and that's exactly what it is here.

In John 3, 8, it says, the wind blows where it wishes. You hear the sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So is everyone born of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit is symbolized as a violent wind here, meant to symbolize the coming of a new creative power of God to usher in a new era where churches would be planted. The first church was started that day in Acts 2 in Jerusalem, and in the last 2,000 years, multitudes upon multitudes of churches have been planted.

The second symbol is fire in verse 3, and it says, and divided tongues of fire appeared on them. Fire is a symbol of God's presence. You know in Exodus 3, 2, we have the story of the burning bush. And in Hebrews 12, 29, it says, our God is a consuming fire. What does fire do? Fire brings light. Light erases darkness. Darkness that is described in 2 Corinthians 4, 4 says the God of this world, that's Satan, has blinded the minds of the unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ who is an image of God.

So light brings light, sorry, fire brings light in a dark world. Jesus said in John 10, 16, that I have other sheep, I must bring them also. Jesus says I have, there'll be one flock, that's the entire body of Christ, and one shepherd, that's Jesus Christ.

And Jesus Christ said in Matthew 16, 18, I will build my church. And Jesus said in Matthew 28, that we were to go in the world and make disciples. Pentecost was that great day, the beginning of the New Testament church that continues to grow to this day. The Christ Community Church, we're not working with mission boards, mission denominations, we're working directly with pastors. Pastors who plant churches, who train pastors to plant churches that would preach the gospel. The first flag I'll discuss today is the second one next to the United States of America, and that is the flag of Argentina.

Christ Community Church has been going to Argentina since 1997, and they've been supporting Eduardo Bullardine for the last 27 years in Argentina. His son, Matias, has taken up the mantle, so they both co-preach at that church in Monte, Argentina. They have a pastoral PTC, pastoral training center, that trains pastors from Mexico, Ecuador, Latin America, all over Latin America and South America, to plant churches. When we were there, they were getting ready to commission a missionary to send to France.

They're serious about planting churches and sending missionaries out. So this year, part of your offering went to support his son, Matias, who lives on $300 a month in Argentina. We gave him a love offering of $5,000 to help him with the work. The second word from Acts on how to do missions right is power.

The Holy Spirit came on that day of Pentecost with wind and fire, demonstrating a new power was starting and that the New Testament church began on that day. The Holy Spirit is mentioned at least 52 times in Acts, and the Greek word dunamis, which we get the word dynamite in our English language, is mentioned 120 times in the New Testament and at least 10 times in the book of Acts. And you all know that verse, Acts chapter 1, verse 8, says, But you will receive power, dunamis, when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.

In Acts chapter 4, the high priest asked Peter and John and the disciples, they had healed a crippled man, and the high priest said, they said, By what power or by what name did you do this? They were shocked, the high priest, they had seen that these young men, these disciples, had healed a crippled man. They wanted to know, where did you get this power? In Acts 4, verse 34, it says, And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all.

In Acts 6, it says, Stephen, full of grace and power, was doing great wonders and signs among the people. The last time we see the word power in Acts is in Acts 26, 18, and it says, God told Paul, I'm sending you to open their eyes so that they may turn from the darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive the forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me. Satan has little power, but God has the ultimate power to remove the darkness in the stone cold hearts of unbelievers and bring them to the light of the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Many years ago in our evangelism training class, Tom Mason said, We share the gospel of Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit, and we leave the results to God. You know, I really wonder today, do we understand that we have that power? We have that authority that Jesus gave us? We're not to be ashamed of the gospel, but we have power to talk to people about the gospel. The second flag on the wall to my left is the flag of Mexico.

Now we used to go to Mexico, but we don't go anymore because Mexico came to us. It's everywhere in our neighborhood, and that flag represents not just Mexico, but all the Spanish-speaking countries in Latin and South America. They are almost 100% Roman Catholic, and so they believe in works, and they almost all don't speak English. It was the year 2018 that Christ Community Church hired Esteban Bustos, who later would graduate from the Master's Seminary, to be our Spanish pastor in the Spanish ministry, and they're meeting down, having Sunday school right now in WW4.

There is power in that ministry, and that power is displayed week in and week out, and that ministry will grow at Christ Community Church as we support it. The third word from the Book of Acts in How to Do Missions Right is Peter.

Now you all know Peter. Peter was a fisherman. He was not an educated man. He didn't have any formal training. He just spent three to four years with Jesus, and Jesus transformed him from an uneducated man, a fearful man, into a courageous and faithful apostle who became an instrument that God would use to build his church. He was the most well-known of the apostles, and he's known for his blunders, his outspoken faith, but in the Book of Acts, he's the one that God used on the day of Pentecost in the power of the Holy Spirit to preach the gospel in Acts chapter 2.

He would preach there that day, and 3,000 souls would be won to Christ. He would be instrumental in taking the church to Samaria in Acts chapter 8. He would take the gospel of the Gentiles in Acts chapter 10 and 11. I could talk a lot about Peter, but the point I want to make about him, he's uneducated, and we have a lot of pastors today in the world like Peter. It's estimated that 95% of the pastors in the world are uneducated, and even if they got to go to seminary, that doesn't mean they know how to preach or teach or shepherd the flock.

The largest seminary in Myanmar doesn't even believe the Bible or the miracles that are out there. But in Acts chapter 5... I'm sorry, Acts chapter 4, Peter is going to give a defense to the Sanhedrin, and in Acts chapter 4, this is the third sermon in the Book of Peter, and Peter will give the sermon to the Sanhedrin in Acts chapter 4, verses 5 to 12, but I'll just read for you verse 13.

Now, it says, Now when they, that's the Sanhedrin, these highly educated Jews, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished, and they recognized that they had been with Jesus. We have a lot of Peters in the world today, and a lot of the ministry that Christ Communion Church does is to the Peters of the world, uneducated pastors. That's why we go to Myanmar. I don't know if we'll be able to go again.

The rebels are winning the war, that's good news in Myanmar, but the country right now, you can't go there, we can't bring those Naga pastors. Christ Communion Church is working with the Nagas. A hundred years ago, they were headhunters, but they literally all came to Christ. There's a small tribe in northern Myanmar that Christ Communion Church has been working with, training these uneducated farmers who are pastors how to preach the Word of God. And the first time you have them in a conference, and you take a simple book of the Bible like James, and you break it out in paragraphs, and you try to instruct them to get the meaning, they're not so good at it.

But when we came back last year, and we took the book of Genesis, it was absolutely amazing that Tom Mason and I saw they could break the passage down, they could make the outline, they could get the main idea, they could get the sub points. They were growing and learning. Uneducated men who are spending time with Jesus. It was Peter's last verse in the Bible that Peter said in 2 Peter 3, 18, But grow in grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, to Him be both glory now and to the day of eternity.

That third flag, or the fourth flag to my left, is the flag of Myanmar. And we go to those Nagas. Right now the trip in March is on hold because we're not going to spend $10,000, $20,000 to fly pastors there. There's no gasoline, there's no diesel, so the price of airline tickets has skyrocketed. But we trust the Lord that someday we'll be able to go back to Myanmar and finish the two courses, two conferences we need to finish this four year curriculum that we began. But the world is full of Peters, and Christ Community Church is going to come alongside of them and teach them to preach the Word of God, teach them to shepherd the flock.

The fourth word from the Book of Acts on how to do missions right. And if we're going to plant churches like the Day of Pentecost in the power of the Holy Spirit, train up the Peters of this world, it will be done through preaching. And in Acts 2, I mentioned the sermon on the Day of Pentecost. And I won't read it today because it would take me about seven minutes to read it. But it's the first sermon, and 3,000 people came to the Lord.

But I would like you to turn to 2 Timothy 4, if you could turn to 2 Timothy 4, verse 1, because the Apostle Paul gave a command to Timothy, and it's a command to all preachers of the world today and subsequent to that Day of Pentecost. And in 2 Timothy 4, verse 1, Paul says to Timothy, I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom, preach the Word, be ready in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, and exhort with complete patience and teaching.

Now listen to verse 3, for the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching. What is that time? It's now, right? Not just the United States, but the whole world. But it says that, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions and will turn away from listening to the truth. Last week's message here in Christ in the Church was all about veracity, the truth. Paul says they're not going to want to listen to the truth. They're going to want to have their ears tickled by pastors, and they're going to wander off into myths.

And Paul says, as for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of evangelists, fulfill your ministry. At least 32 times in the book of Acts, we see the word preaching or proclamation of good news. One-fourth of the book of Acts is sermons. People argue about how many sermons there are. There's at least 19 or 20 sermons in the book of Acts. Peter would preach at least six of those sermons. Paul would later preach 10 of those sermons. But let me just tell you about Acts chapter 2, verses 14 to 38.

It's the sermon on the day of Pentecost. We read the first four verses, and then Peter would get up and preach.

But four things about that sermon that our pastors need to do today. Number one, it needs to be centered on the Bible.

Peter would go, in verses 16 to 21, he would quote Joel 2, where it refers to the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the prophecy that is not completely fulfilled until the Millennial Kingdom. Then Peter would go in verses 25 to 28 to Psalms 16, verses 8 to 11. Then he would go to Psalms 110, verse 1, the most quoted verse in the New Testament. So Peter's sermon is centered on the Bible. Number two, Peter's sermon was centered on Jesus Christ.

Peter would talk about Jesus' ministry in Acts 2, verse 22. He would talk about the crucifixion in Acts 2, verse 23. He would talk about Jesus' burial in Acts 2, verse 29. He would talk about Jesus' resurrection in Acts 2, 24 and Acts 2, 31. And he would talk about Jesus' ascension into heaven in Acts 2, verse 33. So it's centered on the Bible. It's centered on Jesus Christ. And number three, it was fearless preaching.

50 days before this great sermon, Peter had denied Jesus Christ three times. Yet now, the day of Pentecost has come. The power of the Holy Spirit is there. And Peter, an uneducated man, is preaching boldly. And the fourth thing about this sermon, it made the audience think. You know, when you leave today, I hope you'll think, is there some application today? You may never go on a missions trip, but what can you do to expand God's kingdom? You can pray. You can support in many, many ways. But the result of Peter's sermon was that 3,000 souls, they said, they were cut to the heart and they said, what shall we do?

And 3,000 souls were added to the church that day. So whether it's the pulpit here every Sunday with Lance Sparks preaching, whether it's Esteban Bustos preaching in the second service in West Wing 4, whether it's the five men in Ecuador studying to preach, some of them are already preaching in their churches, one of them is an engineer, one of them is a doctor during the week, yet on Sunday, they're pastoring churches.

They're just getting their Masters of Divinity through the Master's Seminary. Whether it's the Naga pastors in the north of Myanmar, they are to preach the word of God on Sunday. Steve Lawson says, I would place preaching of the word of God at the very center of the life of the church. It is biblical preaching that sets in motion and leads to everything that is good in the church's transcendent worship, godly living, loving fellowship, energetic service, and Christ-centered evangelism. We cannot worship God until we know who he is and what he has done for us.

Expository preaching enhances such worship. We cannot live holy lives until our sins are exposed and the path of godlessness is made known to us. Again, it is biblical preaching that leads to this. There is no true fellowship in Christ at a meaningful level apart from biblical preaching. Neither can we serve the Lord in the power of the Holy Spirit nor carry out authentic evangelism without being challenged by truth in preaching. The next flag is the beautiful flag of Uganda to my right there. Christ Community Church has been going to Uganda, I think, since 1997.

But in last year, or 2023, we began supporting a wonderful pastor, Jotham Kissa, in Uganda. He's a graduate of the Master's Seminary. He went from 2015 to 2018, then he went back to Uganda, and he started a community Bible church in Mukono, Uganda. If you see his prayer card, and I trust you have his prayer card, the prayer cards for Pastor Sasha Alexander in Russia, Pastor Jotham Kissa in Uganda, and Eduardo Bulladyne are in the back that you can be praying. But you'll see that behind him is just a bunch of boards, right?

And there's holes in those boards, and behind those boards is a chicken coop. And so when I was preaching there last year, or the year before, the chickens were making so much noise it would disrupt the sermon. Well, Christ Community Church sent $7,500 from the Thanksgiving offering that you raise to finish that church. And Lord willing that Tommy and I could go back, that church building will be finished, and we can preach the word of God there. But he's a great preacher of the word of God. He's not just preaching that one church on Sunday.

He ministers to other churches and tries to train pastors on how to preach the word of God. The fifth word from the Book of Acts on how to do missions right is persecution. So if you plant churches like the Day of Pentecost in the power of the Holy Spirit, using the Peters of the world, preaching, it will inevitably bring persecution. You know, I was looking through the Book of Acts, and all the people that got arrested in the Book of Acts, it mentions in Acts 116 that Peter mentions that Jesus was arrested.

And then it says eight more times, Acts 4, Jerusalem, the apostles are arrested and released. Acts 5, the apostles are arrested. You have that miraculous escape, and then they're beaten. Acts 6, Stephen is arrested and actually murdered in Acts 7. In Acts 12, James is arrested and executed. Peter is arrested, and then he gets miraculously escaped. In Acts 16, in Philippi, Paul and Silas are arrested, beaten, then an earthquake happens, and they're out. Acts 18, Paul is arrested and brought before Galileo, and Galileo releases him.

In Acts 19, Paul's companions, Gaius and Aristarchus, are arrested and released. In Acts 21, Paul is in Jerusalem, and he's arrested and beaten. And there are many plots to kill him. The word arrest means to stop the progress or movement of something. In Acts, what they're trying to stop in Acts is the spread of the Gospels. What the Sanhedrin told Peter, John, and the apostles is stop talking about Jesus. Vance Havner said, wherever Paul went, there was either a riot or a revival. But, you know, persecution brings a two-fold purpose.

One group that you might want to subscribe to is vom.com, Voice of the Miters. And I can't put this on the board, but I think you can see the colors. This is Africa, Europe, Asia, Russia. So you see the green at the top? Those are all the countries of the world that are restricted. You can't go to Russia anymore. You can't go to China anymore. These countries are Islamic. You can't go to them in Africa. And then you have the yellow, like India. You can't go to mission trips to India. You can't go to a lot of these countries here.

So they're hostile. So you see that almost probably half the world has persecution or hostility to the gospel of Jesus Christ, and you can't go there. I counted 15 times in the book of Acts, opposition to the gospel. And I'll just give you one, probably the most famous one, Acts chapter 8. Acts chapter 8. In Acts chapter 8, verses 1 and 2, it says, and Saul approved of his execution. That was Peter. I'm sorry, that was James. And there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem.

And they all were scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. Persecution does two things. It prompts the gospel to go to places that it previously hasn't gone. So you see here the Jerusalem church, this massive large church, is forced out. Because in Acts 1 to Acts 7, the apostles were content to stay in Jerusalem. But remember, Jesus said in Matthew 28, go into the world, and there'd be three stages. So God uses the persecution that Satan thinks he's winning to force the gospel out of Jerusalem into Judea and Samaria.

So the gospel, persecution prompts the gospel to go out. It also purifies the church, because you're not going to stay there and be persecuted. I told this story before, but I'll tell it again. The first time I went to Uganda, I got to talk to Pastor Moses, who subsequently went home to be with the Lord a few weeks after that missions trip.

But I wanted to know, what was it like in Uganda when Idi Amin ruled? Uganda was only 4% Muslim, but Idi Amin, a Muslim, took control back in the 80s. He slaughtered about 800,000 people, including most Christians, forbid church worship. They couldn't go to church on Sunday. So I asked Pastor Moses, what was it like? And as he's telling me this story, he's smiling. I'm like, why are you smiling? But he had this calm peace over them. He said, they used to sneak out into the cornfields, and that's where they had church.

It wasn't everybody in the church. It was just those people who are willing to die, because soldiers could be out there, they could be caught, arrested, shot, and died. But he was smiling because he said, those were beautiful days, because those people were willing to die for Jesus Christ. That was a pure church. It was G. Campbell Morgan who said, it's a remarkable thing that the Church of Christ persecuted has been the Church of Christ pure. On the other hand, the Church of Christ patronized has been the Church of Christ emperor.

We might just need some persecution in the United States. Let's move on. The fifth flag to my right is the flag of Russia right there. Now, you know we can't go, right? Tom Mason can't go anymore. He's been 34 times, I think. We can't even send money with the sanctions. But what we can do is pray, and that's part of God's plan. But pastors in Russia are under persecution, not only from the government, they don't recognize the Baptist churches, they don't recognize evangelical churches, but from the Russian Orthodox Church, which hates Christians.

So even though we can't go, we need to pray for Sasha Alexander and his church that it can grow. The sixth word on the book of Acts in how to do missions right is praying. Turn with me to Acts 13, Acts 13, verse 3.

Well, I'll read verses 1 to 3 in Acts 13. And it says, now they were in the church of Antioch, prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simon, who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Mananin, a lifelong friend of Herod the Tetrarch, and Saul. While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them. That began the first missionary journey of the Apostle Paul.

It began with a prayer meeting, okay? In Acts 12, you know, remember when Peter is released from jail, and the church is praying, and they're praying so fervently that they don't even believe Peter got released, they thought it was a ghost. In Acts 16, what are Paul and Silas doing in jail? They're singing and they're praying. In Acts 22, when Paul is arrested in Jerusalem, what is he doing? He's praying. Did you know that the first missionary movement in the United States of America began with a prayer movement under a haystack?

It's called the Haystack Revival, and it began in August 1806. It was a college called, I think, Williams College. There were five students, and they gathered in a field to discuss the spiritual needs of the heathen living in Asia. A great thunderstorm arose, and they took shelter in the lee of a haystack, and they continued to pray. That gathering became known as the Haystack Revival, and it launched the first missionary movement in the United States, and the first missionary, Adroniam Judson, would go to Burma.

Luke 10 says, the harvest is plentiful, labors are few. Therefore, pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out labors into his harvest field. Most of the missionaries in the world today are not from America. They're from Thailand. They're from China. They're from, in Argentina, they're sending a missionary to work among the Muslims in France. So God is sending missionaries all over the world. You may not go on a mission trip, that's okay. But you can pray for the world, and you can support that work.

You know, there's a woman in our church who I know makes the best pies. I know that because I'm an expert in pies. I used to go to the adult Bible study, and she would always have her pies there. Well, what makes Ruth Matheson the best pie maker at Christ Community Church? It begins with the crust. Now, I love pie, but my wife won't eat the crust. But you will eat this crust because it's so light and flaky. So as a pie expert, what begins to make a good pie? The crust, okay? What begins missions?

Prayer. If you're not praying, if you're not involved in missions, I would say you're not praying very much. So a good pie begins with the crust, and good missions begins with prayer. Listen to what one man said. In our lifetime, wouldn't it be sad if we spent more time washing dishes, or swatting flies, or mowing the yard, or watching television, than praying for world missions? I'm sure some of you, like me, might want to watch a football game today, right? It'll be about three hours, three to four hours maybe, right?

The Thailand Women Missionary Movement used to pray every week for three hours. I know that because my wife would be gone for three hours. They prayed, and prayed, and prayed. We need more missionary movements like that. That brings us to the flag of Thailand in between the flag of Ecuador and Russia. And Mary gave her, you can read Mary's testimony here through this booklet here. Our children raised $1,000 in coins about a year ago. And we raised $5,000 at Thanksgiving, that's $6,000. That will buy about 3,000 copies of the book, Knowing the One True God.

But they need a lot more, as you heard Mary say. So you can pray that God will provide the money, and that book can get into the prisons in Thailand. As I mentioned, false teachers have their books. And one of the greatest needs in the missionary movement is discipleship materials. So pray for the Thailand prison ministry. Pray for Mary that we can get more books, and that God would transform and change Thailand, which is a Buddhist country. The seventh word from the book of Acts on how to do missions right is Paul.

We talked about uneducated Peter. Well, here we have educated Paul. Paul was a Benjaminite, a Pharisee trained under the famous Gamiel. You know all about Paul, and I could take a lot of time to talk to him. But just turn to Acts 20, Acts 20, and I'll make it quick. Acts chapter 20, Paul gives another sermon, except this sermon is to the Ephesian elders, to Christians. But Paul will give a powerful sermon, and you can read it sometime. But Acts 20, verse 27, he says, for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God.

Paul would preach the whole counsel of God. He was highly educated, and that's what we need today. We work with Peters around the world who are uneducated. We have conferences where we train them in how to preach the word of God. But then we also support, I think I messed up, didn't I? The seventh flag is the flag of Ecuador. And I mentioned that we have been supporting five men who are doing the online seminary at the Master's Seminary in Spanish. And we're now supporting them for the third year, and Lord willing, they'll graduate this year.

Those men will be highly educated like Paul. They will have the best education out there possible. And they're gonna, I think three of them have churches, two of them don't have churches right now.

But when they graduate, all five will be, they have the best education possible, and we provided it for them. So we support the uneducated Peters in the world, and we support the educated Pauls in the world in Ecuador. The eighth and last word from the book of Acts that I wanna give you is the word progress. And the word progress in the book of Acts, in Acts 115, it says that there were only 120 people in the upper room that day. But then you go through, they are at least, I think, ten more or nine more progress reports.

And it says in Acts 241, and those who received his word were baptized, and they were added that day about 3,000 souls. In Acts 247, it says the Lord added to their number day by day, those who were being saved. In Acts 4.4, it says, but many of those who have heard the word, believed, and the number of the men came to 5,000. And then it says in Acts 5.14, and more than ever, believers were added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women. Acts 6.7 says, and the word of God continued to increase, and the number of disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem.

And a great many of priests came to be obedient to the faith. Acts 9.31, so the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace. And it was being built up, and walking in fear of the Lord, and comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied. Acts 12.24 says, but the word of God increased and multiplied. Acts 13.49 says, and the, verse 49, and the word of the Lord was spreading throughout the whole region. In Acts 16.5, it says, so the churches were strengthened in faith, and they increased in numbers daily.

And lastly, Acts 19.20 says, so the word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily. You know, if you're like me, when we see what's going on in our world, the United States, we pray every day for the return of our Lord Jesus Christ. It's like that beautiful hymn that says, soon and very soon, we are gonna see the king. But we hope and pray for the return of Jesus Christ would happen even today. But if it doesn't happen today, you know what's happening? There's a day of redemption today.

There's a day of salvation today. There's a day of church growth today. Most of those Christians will come from Latin America, Africa, and Asia. Probably not the United States. So although we can get discouraged, while it can be hard to share Christ here, we should not be discouraged. That today, yesterday, Violet Doss sent me a video of a church in India. We spent, my wife and I spent six years in India. And this church was in Hyderabad that numbers 300,000 people. It looks like it's a pretty solid church.

So even in a country where there's a lot of persecution, there's a lot of strength in numbers there in that church. That leads us to the last flag. Now, of course, it's the beautiful flag of the United States of America. Here at Christ Can Be Church, we have an obligation to share the gospel, not just to the four corners of the world, but to our Judea, our Samaria, our Jerusalem. You know, we have just a few members at Christ Can Be Church who go to the jails. Just a few women, just a few men. We need some more.

We have just a few people doing release time. Do you know what release time is? You can actually share the gospel in the Azusa School District with kids. And I don't know how long that'll last, right? But we have a few people doing that. Just a few people going park to park. We have a young man in our church in high school that started a Bible study at Glendora High School. A young man in our college group a few weeks ago asked me for some materials. He's starting to go door to door near his college.

They're just starting these on their own. So as we leave here today, I want to give you three more P's real quickly. Are you praying? Are you prepared? And are you pursuing? Are you praying for the world? Let me ask you this.

Two weeks ago, did you hear about what's going on in Nigeria? I think maybe Fox News may be the only news station that carried it. Nigeria is an interesting country. It is the largest country in Africa, over 300 million people. The top half is all Muslim. The bottom half is Christian. Now, that's Christian in name, not just born again Christian. But they had a civil war in the 60s. And it's a terrible place for Christians if you live near those Muslims. So if you heard about it, they slaughtered about 200 people a couple weeks ago.

More Christians will die in Nigeria this year than any country in the world. But when you heard it, what did you do? It ought to cause you to do two things, two prayers. One, you ought to pray for the persecuted Christians around the world. And pray that those believers were born again. That they could have food and clothing when they burn their villages down, when they kidnap their children. Pray for them. Number two, you ought to praise the Lord that you live in the United States of America.

And you got up this morning and drove to church, and you have so much freedoms. We ought to thank the Lord for that. Well, a lot of the world doesn't have that obligation. Are you praying for the world? I have an app on my phone called Operation World. You can download it free. Every day it says, pray for this country. Starts with A, then goes to B, C, and you can pray for that. There's Voice of the Martyrs I mentioned, Heart Cry Mission. There's so many apps. The book Operation World, you can pray.

I think the youth in their Sunday school class prays through Operation World. But are you praying for the world? Number two, are you prepared to speak?

First Peter 3.15 says, but in your hearts, honor Christ as Lord, as holy. Always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that's in you. But do this with gentleness and respect. So are you prepared? If you meet a Catholic, if you meet a Seventh-day Adventist, meet a Jehovah Witness, meet a Mormon, there's a Sunday school class in our second service.

If you want to go, they started last week, but I'm sure you can sneak in. They're teaching you, what do you say when you meet these people? How do you start the conversation off? You know, we're not going to argue with them, but we're going to tell them who Jesus Christ is and how one's saved. But it says, are you prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have? If you're not prepared, we'll have another evangelism training class this March. Get in there.

We help you. We teach you. We go with you. If you want to go on a mission trip with Christ in each church, you've got to go through that class. And number three, are you pursuing souls?

You may not go to Ecuador this year, but you go into your workplace, you go into your schools, you go into the Army or Air Force, and also you go into your neighborhoods. It was that great missionary, Jim Elliot, who was killed in 1956 by the Indians in Ecuador. He said something that's very important. He said, let me not be a mile post on a single road.

You know what a mile post is? A mile post is just an ordinary sign, and there's a lot of Christians that are just like the stop sign, the 45 mile an hour sign, and you just go by it and you look at it, right?

You just pass it, right? But he said, make me a fork in the road that men must turn one way or the other. You understand what a fork in the road is, right? You either got to go left or you got to go right. Jim Elliot says, Lord, put me in the middle so that I can tell people this is the way to heaven, that is the way to hell. Make me a fork in the road. Would you pray about being a fork in the road? Would you be prepared to speak? And would you be ready to pursue souls everywhere you go? If you're interested in going on a short-term mission trip this year, we chose Ecuador.

Now I know some of you are saying, wait a minute, did you hear what happened in Ecuador this week? That's Satan at work, isn't it? Everywhere you want to go. Well, we're going to do what the Apostle Paul did. The Apostle Paul couldn't go someplace, what'd he do? Go to another country. So if the things don't stabilize in Ecuador, we will not put our youth, we will not put our members in danger. But if things don't stabilize in Ecuador, we will simply switch the trip to Argentina. So don't worry about that.

But if you're interested in Ecuador, which we hope we can go, please go get the information. If you're interested in going to Amory, Mississippi, the trip to Ecuador would be July 18th to the 27th. All the information is on the lobby. But the trip to Mississippi, Amory, Mississippi, had a bad tornado and eight days of hope. You got to be physically fit to go on this trip and you got to be financially fit to go on this trip because we got to buy airline tickets like in a week. But if you're interested to go on that trip, you got to do construction work.

And while people are doing construction work at the houses, they try to share the gospel with people that lost their houses or don't have insurance. That trip will be March 16th, I'm sorry, March 8th through the 16th this March. There will be an information meeting after the second service next week in WWII by David Lovash.

So see me or see David Lovash. But you got to be ready to go at a moment's notice if you want to go on that one.

But I began this message with a plane illustration. We know where the plane is going and what we're doing on our mission trips. We just ask each and every member, thank you for what you're doing, what you've done, but to continue to be involved in praying, supporting and going on mission trips. Our motto is expect great things from God and we will attempt great things from God. We will continue to train pastors and plant new churches, retraining existing pastors to be faithful to preach the word of God.

Let's pray. Father, thank you for what you have done. Father, we're not here to boast about our accomplishments, but you've allowed us to go in these countries and then at times you stopped us from going to other countries. We pray we could go to Myanmar this year. We pray we could continue the work in Russia that we started. But Father, if it's time like the Apostle Paul to pack up and go to another country, may you open those doors. Father, may we be a source of salvation, not just at the four corners of the world, but in West Covina, Baldwin Park, Irwindale, through the radio program.

People would give to the radio program that that voice could go out to prisoners, to shut-ins, to those traveling on the freeways. Father, that we could reach the fourth, fifth and sixth graders in the Azusa School District through release time, that we could reach the women and men in the L.A. jails. Father, that we could reach the people in the parks, that we could reach the high school kids in Glendora, the college kids out around the Master's Seminary. That I think even next week, with the Lunar New Year, just a few people will go out and try to share with the Chinese who go to the Lunar New Year from Christ Community Church.

Fathers, we leave here today. May we be praying for the lost. May we be prepared to share the gospel at a moment's notice.

And may we be pursuing souls for your kingdom and glory until that great day when you take us home. And Father, we long for that day that's described in Revelation chapter 7, that says there will be people from every nation, every tribe, every language, every tongue, worshiping you, saying salvation belongs to our God. In Jesus' name, amen.