Truly is the hope of all nations, is it not? Acts chapter 13. Did you find it? Acts chapter 13. You've met the missionaries. They all got displays. They've been here all week. Last night we had Brother Thomas and his wife, Brother Irvin, come in. They are members of The Bible Baptist Church in Deland, Florida, Brother James Knox, Brother Thomas, would you just stand up real quick? And I want to introduce Brother Thomas. They've just surrendered to go to Africa's missionaries praying about our Wanda. Thank you, brother. And I heard about Brother Stark and what we're trying to do. And so I said, man, you just need to come. You need to come and meet Tony Stark. And so they came in for last night, and then this morning they'll be leaving this afternoon. And I just wanted them to see what's going on. And he's praying about our Wanda. Pray with him about that. They have, excuse me, they have just started, I mean just been sent out of their church and just starting deputation to pray for their Irvins, if you would. Boy, we've heard a lot of preaching this morning. or this weekend and this morning and tremendous Sunday School lesson, tremendous. Brother Thomas really enjoyed it. In fact, it really helped him. You had to be here to understand that. But just tremendous preaching. And so I just want to give you a quick thought and then we'll take up faith promises and then we'll have Dinner on the Grounds, Acts chapter 13, familiar chapter. It's a chapter that we turn to quite often in missions sermons and mission thoughts. In Acts chapter 13 and verse number 1, now there were in the church that was at Antioch certain prophets and teachers as Barnabas and Simeon, that was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manan, which had been brought up with Herod the Tetrarch, and Saul. As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them. And when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them, they sent them away. So they, being sent forth by the Holy Ghost, departed unto Seleucia. And from thence they set sail to Cyprus. And when they were at Salamis, they preached the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews, and they had also John, That's John Mark to their minister. And when they had gone through the island of Paphos, they found a certain sorcerer, a false prophet, a Jew whose name was Bar-Jesus. The first 11 chapters of the book of Acts is about one church, and it is the church at Jerusalem. And it was the greatest church in the world at that time. And the reason why it was the greatest church in the world at that time is because it was the only church in the world at that time. All of the apostles were still in Jerusalem. And it started in Acts 2 with 120 believers in an upper room. Then you have the day of Pentecost. They're in Acts 2. And the church began to experience explosive growth, 3,000, 5,000, and then just multitudes, just by the thousands. And many of you are familiar with that. And then persecution came. And Christians began to flee for their lives. And as they fled and resettled in other regions and other lands, even other continents, they took their Christianity with them. And one of the places that some of those Christians went to was Antioch of Syria, where the second church that we know of was started. The outline of the book of Acts is Acts 1 through 12. It's taken up with the church of Jerusalem. But then the church of Jerusalem fades into the background. Acts 13 to 28 is taken up with the ministry of the church at Antioch. Now, here's the thing that we know about the church at Antioch. It was a missions-minded church. I preached several weeks ago here, I think on a Wednesday night, the difference between the Jerusalem church and the Antioch church. How you have the Great Commission reiterated in Acts 1a, and the church of Jerusalem never really did buy into that, and they never really did try to fulfill that. But the church at Antioch, they were all in with missions. And the first thing that you read about them in chapter 13 is they are sending chosen men out of their church to the mission field. The journeys of Paul and Barnabas starts at Antioch. Antioch lays hands on them. Antioch ordains them, sends them into the ministry. Paul makes three missionary journeys. At the end of two of them, at least, he comes back to Antioch and he reports back to Antioch because that is His home church. So all of the missionary activity that takes place from Acts 13 to the end of the chapter, you understand that is fruit to the account of Antioch. And I was thinking about that church these last couple of evenings as I was preparing for this service. Of course, this has been a great week for our church. And here's the thing. It has been a week to just emphasize missions. Just missions. Sometimes we have revival. Because we're carnal as goats and we need the devil preached out of us and we need the Bible. Sometimes we have Bible conference and bring guys in like Brother Knox and Brother Logan and these guys. Man, just preach to us. But this week it is about mission conference. It is to recharge us. It is to stir us up about the urgency of missions. And I could quote a lot of verses to you. Matthew chapter 28, the Great Commission, go you know all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. John 15 and verse 16, you've not chosen me, but I have chosen you and ordained you that ye should go and bring forth fruit and that your fruit should remain. And there's a lot of verses that we could go to. The church at Antioch has bought into that. They are all in. One of Brother Harris's points was taking it serious as a stroke, and they're taking it serious. And this morning, when we take up faith promise, I want you to know it is the most serious thing that we can do as a church. It ought to be the thing that we enter into with more prayer and fasting more than anything else. It's more important than building a building, than hiring staff, or any kind of program that we could start. And there has to be a lot of heart preparation into it, because this determines how much we are going to give to missions in this next year. And in every church, in every year, there are some who take it very seriously. And there are some who say, alright, I'll get involved, but I don't see what's the big deal. And did you know that in every church, in every situation, in every year, there are some that will just blow it off and say, you're crazy. You want me to give my money 52 weeks a year to missions? I'm not in. Some take it seriously. Some don't take it. at all. Now, this week, here's what we've heard. We've heard about the blessings of missions. The services was not to discourage you. It was to encourage you. It's supposed to pump you up. Not just to make an emotional decision, but it's to get us excited and to want to pray and to get us stirred up. Not just making an emotional vow, but to be excited about what we're doing. Missions is a blessing. And we highlight the blessing. But I want to be fair with you. Missions is not all about blessing. There are some burdens to missions as well. You know, there are some people who only see the negative side of life. It's just the way that they're geared. And maybe somebody this week complained about how long the services were. How mean the kids were in the nursery. I'm sure that was true. And maybe somebody complains about that. And we had to fix all of this food and all the money that we put out. And this international dinner, whose crazy idea was that. And by the way, if you are that way, then you will be against what the church is doing. And I can't help you. God will have to help you. That's a hard matter, isn't it? There's a great verse. There's a great verse in Proverbs, chapter number 14, in verse 4, and it applies to a lot of different areas of life. And here's the verse, where no oxen are, the crib is clean. Where no oxen are, the crib is clean. I tell you, the way not to spend any money and the way not to have to get involved in hard work is just don't do anything. If you want a clean crib, a clean stall, then don't have any oxen. Makes sense, doesn't it? Now, if you want oxen to plow the field and do the work for you, then you have to put up with the mess in the crib. But where no oxen are, the crib is clean. Hey, I'm going to tell you something. If you want a team ministry, the crib's going to get clean, dirty. It's going to cost money. They're aggravating. It's just part of it. If you want a visitation program, it's going to take money and it's going to take work. And if you're going to have a missions program, it's going to take money and it's going to take hard work. But the alternative is just to sit on your hands until Jesus comes back and let the lost world die and go to hell. So I say to you this morning that when you look at missions and what we're trying to do, that in your heart, it's either a blessing or it's a burden. You're either excited or you're bothered. It's one or the other. I give you three thoughts this morning from Acts chapter 13. Look, if you would, back up to verse number, chapter 11. Back up to chapter 11 and look at verse number, verse number 28. This is in Antioch. This is when Paul and Barnabas comes. Barnabas has been there. He has sent for Paul to come and help him. And there stood up one of them named Agabus, and signified by the Spirit that there should be great dearth throughout all the world, which came to pass in the days of Claudius Caesar." So here's what happens. So prophets from Jerusalem come to Antioch to check in on what they're hearing about in Antioch. And one of those preachers, Agabus, stands up and he prophesies that there's going to be a dearth, a famine, a famine throughout all the world. Now, if we knew that a famine was coming, if we knew there was a calamity coming, if we knew that we were getting wiped out by a hurricane, that is a good time to stock up. When you agree with me, bad time to take an offering. Are you with me? Help me out a little bit, alright? Verse 29, Then the disciples, every man according to his ability, determined to send relief unto the brethren which dwelt in Judea so we just heard economy's bad. We just heard gonna be a family We just heard this is not a good time and he nearly on the heels of that They said we should take up an offering and send it to the brethren in Jerusalem now since they decided to send relief You know how you spell relief it is M O N E Y That's what the word relief means. It means money They are taking up a collection and they're sending it to another church in Jerusalem. Here's my first thought to you, that when you think about the money in missions, to you it is either a blessing or it is a burden. One or the other. I don't play psychological games, but I'm careful in how I emphasize certain things. And when we're coming up to the mission conference, I'm careful not to take up special offerings and talk about different needs because I don't want anything to compete with faith promise. I know that in the next couple of months, we're going to try to raise about $4,000 because we're doing the Christmas parade outreaches and we've got to start as soon as this is over. We've got to get on that. And we need to raise about $20,000 to roof this auditorium and finish this project. And I've got AC units that I need to replace. And somebody said last night about some doors. And so there's a lot of things. We're eventually going to need to replace some speakers and some sound equipment and who knows. And all of that's on the back burner right now. And then we invested in the Rwanda project and meet with Brother Stark this week. determine what's the plan, and we've got the dates now for going in April over there, and so what's our plan for moving forward and raising some more money? And here's the thing about it. You can look at all of that money, and you can see that as a blessing, or you can see that as a burden. And I could give you a list of 20 things that would be real cool for our church to do We gave $113,000, $114,000 last year to missions. And you know what? If we were just to keep that in the coffers and buy that property next door and build that gymnasium and that family life center, I'm going to tell you, that'd be cool. That'd be cool. But it wouldn't be as cool as supporting missions. And by the way, you can look at your own finances the same way. Yeah, you sat down and looked at the spreadsheet, here's my bills, here's my debts, here's what's coming in, here's the raise I think I've got coming, here's what I have left over. It is a blessing or it is a burden to be involved. You either resent it or you are thankful for it. Amen. And the number that I've already put on the card, there's a lot of places that I could put that money somewhere else. And somebody says, boy, a new toy, a new car, a better wardrobe, whatever it might be. You look at it one way or the other. Blessing or burden. So what is it to you? Is it a blessing or is it a burden? Look back here at verse number 29. Then the disciples, every man, according to his ability, Everybody doesn't do the same, and nobody's making anybody get involved. Voluntary, from the heart, free will, give if you want to, kind of offering. And some see it as a great opportunity, and some see it as a great obstacle, and some grumble, and some rejoice. But does it bother you? Does it bless you? I have to tell you that if you're in the bothered camp, then it's not about the amount of money. It wouldn't matter if it's a dollar. Because the issue is not the money, the issue is your heart. And you've got to see this as not a financial matter, it is a spiritual matter. And have you ever wondered why a hundred dollar bill looks so small at the county fair or the ballpark? But it looks so big when the offering plate is coming by. And why is it that when the check comes from the waitress, that 15, 18%, nothing to it? It's just expected. But 10% times? Oh! But why is that? I heard about a preacher that got up to his congregation end of August in a particular year. He said, folks, we've got good news and bad news about the finances of the church. He said, it's the end of August. He said, we've got four months left. He said, I want you to know that we already have all of the finances that we need to finish paying all of the bills for the rest of the year. Man, folks are excited. Man, I mean, it's just the end of August and already all of the money to pay, not just for the next month, but I mean for the rest of the year. He said, that's good news. He said, now the bad news is that most of it's still in your pocket. All this money going to missions, an opportunity or an obstacle to put money in for the next 52 weeks to support missions. Now, here's how some people compute the blessing of giving. Here's the mindset. Well, the preacher said that if I give the faith promise, God would bless me. So I'm going to try it out. So, I'm going to make a faith promise, X amount of dollars. And I'm going to see if that illustration really works. I'm going to see if I end up with more money than I had at the beginning. Can I tell you that God can bless you in more ways than just money? That's not the only way that God blesses. It is not that I'm going to give, and it's an investment as in, I'm going to see if God gives me that money back. Did you know there is no record of the church at Antioch becoming a wealthy church because they gave to help others? Nothing's ever said about their fancy buildings or their fat bank accounts that they acquired because of their giving. The blessings in missions comes not just in more finances, for you to buy bigger and better things. No, there's other ways that God... But did you know, did you know, and I don't have time to get into the history of it, did you know that in the history of Christendom, there is one city, there is one church, that is really looked at to, and it is associated with the preservation of the New Testament Scripture more than any other city. You'll never guess what church that was. It was Antioch. God blessed them that way. And it may be, it may be that God decides to bless you with more gold in your pocket. I don't know. It may be that God blesses you by allowing you to see your children serve God. Well, wouldn't that be a good blessing? I couldn't put a price on that. It could be the blessing of seeing God come through time and time again in ways that you never have imagined. Money. Money. Is it a burden? Or is it a blessing to you? I'll show you the second thing. Look back in chapter 13, verse number 1. There in the church that was Antioch, certain prophets and teachers. And it names five of them. Now, we don't know who all of these men are. We know who Paul and Barnabas were. But I'm going to take a leap of logic here. And since these five men are listed They're enlisted in a positive light, they're praying, they're fasting, the Holy Ghost is speaking to them. I'm going to say these are key men in the church. Probably Sunday school teachers, they're deacons, they're prophets, they're preachers. And what's going to happen is it's going to be two of these men, Paul and Barnabas, that the Holy Ghost is going to select out of that group, and He's going to say, I want you to send those men away from this church and send them around the world to preach the gospel. Now, here's what that means. That means that on Sunday morning when you come to church, there's two less men sitting in the pew. That means there's two less families to take up a pew. Money. Blessing or burden. But I'll tell you the second thing it's going to take It's manpower. And you can look at that as a blessing or burden. Did you know there are churches, there are preachers, whom if God came to their church and said, I'm taking two of you at best, you know, they wouldn't like that. That's right. Because a lot of times we're about building our empire. Let's put as many bodies in the pew as we can. And we don't want to lose any key members. Now, Lord, if you will let me select who you want to send to Tanzania, I'll give you names. I mean, I'm not going to give you names. I'll give the Lord names. That's not how the Lord works, right? And here's what the Lord does. He always calls somebody that's busy and that's already serving. But if victory of the Baptist Church is going to be all-in for missions, then the manpower has to be a blessing. This year, this past year since our last mission conference, has been a year of losing families in our church. We've had a couple of families leave just because they left. But we've had a number of families that have left. Well, the Scruggs, we've sent him to Freeport. Of course, the Jacksons are in Connecticut, and well, the Francis went to Pennsylvania to work in that church, and the Brennams moved, and we've had a number of families that have left, that filled a role, and then God moved them to another ministry. And here's what happens. Here's what happens. That when somebody leaves, and they leave a hole, they leave a gap, then somebody else just steps in and they fill that gap. Because what all of us need to know is that none of us are indispensable. God calls you away, there'll be another young man, another young lady, there'll be another couple, there'll be another older man, there'll be somebody that will step into that place and the church will just keep going on. Hey, I'm not even indispensable. If God moved me away or took me home or whatever it might be, you know what would happen to this church? You'd just call somebody in that's a better preacher and a better organizer and a better administrator and just go to greater heights? Because the church is not built on me. And the church is not built on you. Hate the popular, but it's not. It's built on the Lord Jesus Christ. Hey, these missionaries that are here with us this morning, do you know where these missionaries came from? They came from churches. And you know what they were doing? They weren't sitting in the church griping and complaining. They were working. They were busy serving the Lord. But Holmes was the first staff member at his home church where he's at. He worked for two years there and worked a full-time job and still worked at the church. And wouldn't it be an honor for the Holy Ghost to visit this church this morning or any time and select some young man, some young lady, some family that says, hey, I want you to give up your career. I want you to give up your home. I want you to put it all up for sale. And I want you to go to a mission village and this church get behind you and say, man, what a blessing that would be. You have less body. Yeah. It's either a burden or it's a blessing. It's not about just building an empire here. It's not about just making sure that nobody leaves so we have a good crowd. It is about getting the gospel to the world, and that takes manpower. It's either a blessing or a burden to you. I'll give you a third thing. Look down at chapter 13. Look at verse number 13. If you remember back up in verse number 5, they had also John. That's John Mark to their minister. So when Paul and Barnabas started out on this first missionary journey, John Mark, a young man, a young man of the church, he travels with them and he's just going to serve them. He's going to be an assistant to them. Look down in verse number 13. And when Paul and his company loosed from Pathos, they came to Perga and Pamphylia, and John, departing from them, returned to Jerusalem. I'm talking about blessing or burden of money. It's a blessing or a burden. Manpower. Blessing or burden. But I'm going to tell you a part of missions. It's the Marks. The John Marks. There's a team of three men and then they go out and they visit four or five cities and one of those men quit. And if you know the story of the book of Acts, it actually causes a division between Paul and Barnabas. Barnabas takes John Mark. Paul says no. Paul picks up Silas. And it could have even had a ripple effect. It caused a division between two good men. And it could have caused trouble in other places other than men. We don't know. But there is some trouble in missions. Hey, can I tell you something? That is not the last time trouble was involved in missions. Did you know that is not the last preacher that quit? There's been 10,000 problems, and there's been thousands of missionaries since then that have quit. And if all you see are the John Marks, if all you see are the problems, then you will not support missions. I could sit here all afternoon, and I could tell you story after story after story about bad missionaries. I could. I could tell you stories about missionaries who are frauds, and who cheated churches. And I can tell you about missionaries that went to the field with one woman and came back with another, divorced their wives, sent them home. I can tell you stories about missionaries who came off of the field and didn't tell anybody. I can tell you about missionaries who stayed on a field and never did a work. I can tell you story after story. Or I can sit here all afternoon and I can tell you story after story after story about some great missionaries. I mean, some missionaries that just stay faithful, and some missionaries that did a good work, and you can't get sour on missions just because you heard about one that quit. And John Mark did quit, but by the way, John Mark did become a blessing. Later on, he redeems himself, and he even regains the competence of Paul, and there's a Barnabas who encourages him, and so thank God for that. But here's what the devil wants you to do. The devil wants you to see the bad ones. that ever wants you to see all of the moochinaries. And there are some. But thank God for the missionaries, the thousands of worthy men and the faithful wives and the children that just stayed with God. And you can look at the John Marks and say, it's all a fraud and I'm not having anything to do with missions. They're all crooks and they're all moochers and I'm not going to waste my money. Or you could say, you know, we had a mission conference and we had this guy here from Nigeria that's been there for 14 years doing the work. And so we had this missionary here It's in a small town in Mexico and he's just moved to Guadalajara and he's going to go to all these marketplaces and he's got a burden. And we had this mission conference and we got this young man and he wants to go to Arwanda. Where is Arwanda? Who ever heard of such a place? He wants to go to Arwanda. We have this missionary here that has been in New Zealand, and God took a child, and they moved, and God's planted them in a very dangerous place where there's mafia all around them, and they just spend their year after year after year. Boy, I know there are some moochers, I know there are some, but thank God for those that are staying by this stuff. I've heard of some who quit, but I've heard of some who are just faithful and didn't quit. Man, what a blessing they've been to my life. Some missionaries make a real mess on the field. We have seen and we've heard enough that nothing would surprise us. But some do great work. Some see churches built. And you either see the burden or you see the blessing. By the way, do you know why John Mark quit? No? You don't. The Bible doesn't tell you why. Just like you don't know every challenge that these missionaries face on the field. You don't know. And it's so easy to sit in our ivory palaces and throw stones and cast judgment against situations that we don't really know about. And you can't let one man, one story, one situation, one bad thing influence you to just stay out of missions. I'm glad the church at Antioch didn't do that. It is an excuse that is not going to fly with God. Let me tell you, these things are a blessing to you and you're excited about it. Well, this is a real burden to you. If this is a burden to you, it's not about money. It's not about whether God wants you to be involved. It's not about that. It's about a heart issue. I really believe if you get your heart in tune with God's heart, you'll see this thing is a great blessing. A lot of money. I hope a lot more. Oh, I do. What a blessing. The manpower? Boy, if God would put His hand upon some of our families, good families, key families, that's filling a big hole. If God would send them somewhere, boy, what a blessing that would be. And every once in a while you hear about somebody that... You say, you know, for everyone that I've heard that quit, Let me tell you, about 10 are still on the field.