We'll do it after. Even the offering after. You know I'm being led of the Spirit when we take the offering after. And I just feel like we need to jump right into the message and we'll make a few announcements and offering at the end of the service. Acts chapter 1 in your Bibles. Acts chapter 1 verses 8 and 9. The Bible says, But ye shall receive power. After that the Holy Ghost has come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and in Samaria and unto the uttermost part of the earth. And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up, and a cloud received him out of their sight. And let's pray. Lord, thank you for the Scripture. the great purpose You've given us here on earth. We have many, many privileges that we get to partake of as being Your child and a children. But Lord, we have one main purpose, and that's to be witnesses of who You are, what You've done for us, and what You can do for them. And I pray that You would help The gospel light shines so brightly from this corner here on Curtis Corner and South Roads that it would shine not just our communities, but all the way across the world. Would you give us power and wisdom as we seek to just change the very fabric of our communities with the gospel? Would you empower our missionaries and multiply our finances as we send them all across the world? Would you help us to make a greater impact in our state and community? And Lord, only You can do those things. I pray You'd work miracles from this church and these people as only You can. Help us to accept the Word of God, receive it, learn from it. And teach us Your book tonight in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. You may be seated. Acts 1-8 is a very powerful verse for the Christian. It reminds us of our purpose as children of God. It's a difficult thing to stay on task, isn't it? Think about how often during your week you are trying to get something done and you're distracted from that task. I read in a book years ago about time management, and he said, the most powerful question I teach people to ask themselves is this, am I doing the most important thing that I could be doing at this moment? And that question changed my life. And I don't do it as often as I should, but sometimes the Holy Spirit, I'll get so bogged down in the details, and where do I go next, and lists of things to do, and distractions. What is the most important thing that I need to be doing right now? Sometimes that's your wife needs you. Sometimes that's your children needs you. Sometimes that's you need to spend time with me today, God says. Sometimes that you need to tell someone about the Lord. And it's a beautiful thing to allow the Holy Spirit to keep you on task. Because the devil is the master distractor, isn't he? He gets us so busy doing everything that we don't accomplish anything. And we must be careful then. The same with the church, with Christians. We get so distracted by life. If we were to begin to list for the people in this room your responsibilities you have during the week, it's daunting. If we were to take a lady's responsibilities and put those on a projector this afternoon or this evening and show you everything that you were responsible for this week, you'd probably break down in tears, get depressed, go to the doctor, pay psychiatry bills and go on medication. No. It depends on how much faith you have. Or empathy. One or the other. And for you men, if we were to take and just put up on a screen everything that you had to accomplish, and I'm not just talking about the things you think you need to accomplish. I'm talking about the things you're committed to and the things the Lord wants you to accomplish. Boy, we would get awful overwhelmed, I think. And part of the mistake is we often make our list But if we're not careful, our to-do list is not the same as God's to-do list. Because the devil's trying to distract us. And the church goes the same way. Boy, there's all kinds of ministries a church could be involved in. Thank God for a church like this that's got a lot of things going on. I visited a church some years ago, I was passing through, a famous church, I won't give the name, was passing through and saw the preacher outside. And I had someone with me and we went in to talk to the preacher. And boy, what a wonderful conversation we had. And I started talking to him. And he said, well, what do you do? He said, I'm the pastor of this church. Well, that's wonderful. Can you give us a tour? And we took a tour of that church. And I said, tell me about your services Sunday morning. And what other services? Sunday morning. No Sunday school? No. Evening service? No. Bible study? No. Prayer meeting? No. Activities? No. Are you? Nursing home? Soul winning? Prison? Junior church? I said, what do you do? He said, I'm studying for my doctorate. He said, I'm getting my PhD. Wonderful! And here's a man pastoring a church making $85,000 a year that has one Sunday service. It's not all that uncommon. You get into the denominational type churches. And I thought, why am I making things so hard on myself? You know how much time I could have. I wouldn't get one PhD. I'd get ten. But the truth is that saddens me because it's a church that lost its purpose. How many churches are out there like that? And for some churches, it's apathy. They're not doing anything. For other churches, they're so busy doing so many things, they forgot the main thing. I think about the church in Ephesus there in the book of Revelation. They were busy, they're working, they're laboring, they're working. God used that word twice. They had all these wonderful things, but they forgot their first law. They left their first law. Then you've got the one that has a name that it's alive, but it's dead. Church on the side, but it's dead as a doornail inside, and everything in between. And we must never forget, as Curtis Corner Baptist Church, we must never forget our purpose. I'm thankful for everything we do, but the truth is, everything we do should be funneled down into the Great Commission given us by Jesus Christ. Every organization has a mission statement nowadays, a purpose statement. But the truth is the church was given its mission by its founder. We don't have to try to come up here with a mission statement. Why do we exist? God told us why we exist. The Great Commission. Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature. Matthew 28 says it paraphrased. Go! when baptized teach. That's the purpose of every church. And don't forget, the church is made up of Christians, so that must be our purpose. And here I fear that so many church members, even in good Baptist churches and good churches across America, sometimes the church may have that as its overarching goal, and that is something that's preached, but do the church members really buy into it? Dr. David Gibbs said, your standard is not what you put on paper. Your standard is what you allow and how you live. Well, you can have a lot of nice things written on paper, but the truth is, who are you? What do you do? What does your life say? We can say, I'm a separated Christian, but I do this every now and then. We can say, well, I praise God for people getting saved. Did you tell anybody about Jesus in the last day, week, month, year? Well, I'm not in that ministry. And I said in our last meeting, soul winning and getting out the Gospel is not a ministry. It's part of our spiritual DNA. When I was rebirthed, I have the seed of life in me. Just like that apple that comes off that tree. How do you get that apple? All that has to happen is that apple die and the seed be exposed so there can be more apple trees. Jesus said, except a corn or wheat fall to the earth and die, it abides alone. But if it falls and dies, it brings forth much fruit. And boy, that's the purpose of the Christian. There's so many Christians that have the seed inside of them, a beautiful nice apple, a beautiful nice orange, a beautiful clump of grapes, but we're unwilling to die and let that seed be exposed and bring forth fruit. Many churches out there that are like a produce section of a grocery store. A lot of pretty colors. Waxed up real nice and looking good. but sitting on the shelf. I don't say this by way of rebuke tonight. I say it by way of a great reminder that Curtis Corner Baptist Church can never, never get away from its purpose. We can never get away from who we are. And winning people to Christ and witnessing is not simply a time that we put in our schedule. It's not just a block of something that I have to do. If I'm going to be a leader, I better go so on. And a pastor's going to... Man, what about the privilege to tell people about Jesus? I'm excited about these testimonies tonight where people say, hey, I told someone about Jesus this week. Hey, I passed out some tracts. Hey, I tried to give someone the gospel. Man, that's exciting to me. Thank God for all of you. And all of you that didn't say it, but you did that this week. That's how Curtis Corner Baptist Church is going to live. Understand that we are stepping on the precipice of 170 years on this corner. The church didn't stay here this long because they forgot its purpose. Now if you trace the timeline and talk to some of the folks that have been here a long time, there have been times where things have gotten closer to its purpose and kind of gotten away from its purpose. And Brother Ken's been here most of the time, the church started. So he's our church historian. Yeah, there you go. But the truth is, it's kind of a wave, and every generation had to make their own choice. Are we going to be focused on God's purpose for us, or are we going to get bogged down in our own purpose? I thank God for a church that for 170 years has been on this corner. I was talking to someone recently, another pastor, and I didn't know him well and was talking to him over the phone. He said, how long has your church been there? I said, 170 years. He said, what? He said, 70 years? I said, no, 170 years. I said, 1842. There's silence on the other end of the phone. I said, wow. That's not normal, folks. We're very privileged to be a part of this. I'm very thankful to be in the lineage of a long line of pastors that have stood behind pulpits like this on this corner in this community, heralding the Gospel and teaching the Word of God. And if we're not careful, we'll get so nearsighted and we can only see what's right in front of us that we can't see the big picture, and oh, that'd be a shame. The Bible is very clear about the church's purpose. Go, win, baptize, teach. Jesus was not happy when the church failed. We won't take time to turn to it, but Mark 16, Jesus came back and He appeared in that upper room and He upbraided them for their unbelief. They didn't believe that He had been seen in the way. They didn't believe He had been seen after His resurrection. And He showed up and said, what do you mean you don't believe? We talked about this over and over. And that's when He said, go into all the world and preach the gospel. So He upbraided them for not believing Him. Then He reminded them of His purpose, of their purpose as a church and as Christians. And then we come here to Acts chapter 1 and a beautiful portion of Scripture when Jesus is getting ready to go back to the Father. He's in His glorified body. This is after His three and a half years of ministry on earth. This is after the false trial and the trumped up charges and the crucifixion where He shed His blood for you and I. This is after the grave. This is after the resurrection. He's been around for forty days or so, showing Himself alive to many witnesses. And what's the last message that He will give to His people? They're walking down to the place where He's going to ascend up into heaven. And they begin talking about all the wrong things. If you look at Acts 1, verse 4, "...and being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which saith He, He hath heard of me." This, of course, speaking about the great day of Pentecost. For John truly baptized with water, but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days since." Boy, what a great warning that we ought not try to do the work of God without the Holy Ghost. Don't ever make the mistake of trying to live like God without God. It's called self-righteousness. Trying to be like God in your own strength. Oh, it's impossible. With the Holy Spirit, though, we receive power. And Jesus warned them to wait. Then they started talking. Verse 6, When they were therefore come together, they asked of Him, saying, Lord, wilt Thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? They're still focused on wanting Jesus to come back to earth physically and put the Romans in their place and set up the Jews as the strongest country on the planet, the superpower, with God Himself as its head ruling from Jerusalem. But they got their mind in the wrong place. Look at verse 7, and He said unto them, It is not for you to know the times nor the seasons which the Father hath put in His power. Jesus said, you're asking the wrong questions. You're not looking at the right dates on the calendar. We've got a lot of work to do, boys, before I come back and do that. Don't be watching your calendar trying to figure out when I'm coming back. Stay busy till I get back. Jesus said at one point, occupy till I come. Keep yourself occupied doing what I told you to do until I come back. Boy, that's what we ought to be doing, isn't it? If Jesus had come back yesterday, would He have been pleased with you? If Jesus were to come back tomorrow, halfway through the day, would He be pleased with you? Would it change your life at all if Jesus said, I'm coming back three weeks from now. You've got three weeks to get your act together. I don't know about you, but I'd be going, oh my! I've got a lot of work to do. That's the way we're supposed to be living all the time. Amen? He said, boys, I don't want you looking at the calendar trying to figure that out. I've got a job for you to do. Verse 8, But ye shall receive power. after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you, and ye shall be what? Witnesses unto me." Both in Jerusalem. That word both means at the same time. He said, boys, I've got a lot of work for you to be doing. You're going to be doing a lot of witnessing. What's a witness? A witness is just someone who tells someone else what I have seen. What I've experienced. He said, I don't know how to be a soul winner. You can tell someone what God's done for you. If you're saved, you know how to tell someone how to be saved. If you're saved, listen, you know how to pass out a track. We know how to write a card. We do know. This is the last thing recorded that Jesus Christ told His people before He left. Now look at this. He says in verse 9, "...And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up, and a cloud received him out of their sight." Boy, I'd love to see that. Walking on water? I want to float right up into heaven. The last things he told his people is, don't forget why you're here. We've got to keep the main thing the main thing. We've got to keep focus on what God has told us to focus on. We've got to keep our purpose in sharp view. Look at Acts chapter 8 here and we'll exegete a little bit and then we'll go home. The Bible tells us that God wants us to be witnesses. Now, we could take a lot of verses and, hey, this is a soul-winning church. We talk about soul-winning quite a bit. And I hope you never get tired of talking about soul-winning. I hope you never get tired of talking about getting the Gospel out. I hope you never get tired of hearing sermons on the salvation. I hope you never get tired of who you are in Christ and what we ought to be doing in Christ. You know, what I've found is people that don't like preaching on soul-winning is usually because they're not doing it. The book of Proverbs says, correction is grievous to him that forsaketh the way. You know, when someone's preaching on the sins that I don't do, I'm saying, Amen, brother. Amen! That's right! But you know, when the preacher starts getting on my sins... Let's never get tired of it. Never get tired of being encouraged. Never get tired of being even rebuked and chastised. What a wonderful blessing that we have a God that loves us enough to say, hey, you're getting off track. Let's get back on track here. The Bible says that we should be witnesses. And look here in chapter 1 verse 8, you shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem. Now Jerusalem was the headquarters there. That would be the main town. That would be like Wakefield here. And what a wonderful privilege we have to reach Wakefield with the Gospel. I want to knock on every door in Wakefield. I want to knock on every door in Wakefield so often that we knock on the door and they open the door and say, thank you very much. I've already gotten several of these this year. I'm not ready to get saved yet. I'll call and make an appointment when I am. I've already got pastor's number on speed dial. I want it saturated. I want it where the gospel is so thick in our town, everybody knows who Jesus Christ is. Everybody knows Curtis Corners about winning people to Christ. Everybody knows that God's the God of love. And nobody in Wakefield should be able to stand before the judgment seat of Christ or the great white throne judgment and say, I lived in Wakefield, Rhode Island, and I never heard the gospel. Shame on us if that happens. We've got a lot of work to do. People move. You say, I knocked on that door. Knock on it again. People move. I wouldn't recommend knocking on it and then slam the door in your face and turn around and knock right away. I wouldn't recommend that. But you know what? People move. Things change. Man, if there's someone the Lord puts on your heart, and you say, I already talked to him. If the Holy Spirit puts that person on your heart, God may know something you don't know. God may know they're struggling. God may know they're searching. God may know they've got a broken heart. And man, go after that! Witnesses in Jerusalem. And then in Judea, that would be like South King's Town. A bigger area here. That'd be the surrounding towns here. And boy, what a privilege it would be to take the gospel all around. Not just Wakefield and Peacetail, but Exeter and Charlestown and North Kingstown and Narragansett and just as far as we can go and Shannok and Westerly and all around! We've got a lot of work to do, folks. There's over 26,000 people that live in South Kingstown, Rhode Island. We had less than 200 today. You say, oh, you're just looking for numbers. You better believe it. And so's God. God wants people to be saved. Jesus Christ didn't die and then say, well, I died for you, but go to hell still. The Bible says Jesus wants all people to come to repentance. He wants all people to be saved. He wants as many people born again as possible. I THANK GOD FOR THE PRIVILEGE! We've got Jerusalem here, our Wakefield. We've got Judea, our South King's Town, and that's a big area to cover. But then we've got Samaria, that's the next town. That's the Westerlies, the North King's Towns, the Exeters, the Narragansetts, and goodnight, Westworth's got 85,000 people, on and on. Providence has 176,000 people, 1.1 people in Rhode Island of less than 1,000 square miles. There's only 200,000 less people in Rhode Island than in the whole state of Maine. We got our work cut out for us, folks. That ought to drive us. If my heart is beating in unison with Jesus Christ, then if He came to seek and to save that which was lost, and if the world's on His mind, and He wants all people to come to repentance, and He's up in heaven interceding, and He's at the throne of the Father just hoping people to get saved, and every person that gets saved is rejoicing in the presence of the angels, and it doesn't cross my mind that's a problem. We've got Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria. And God skips everything else and says, I want you to go to the ends of the world. How do you do that? We do that by sending our missionary money, and thank God we support missionaries here. Praise God for that. We got some leftover missionary money or surplus in our missions account this year. We're looking at different missions and folks of our missionaries that have special needs and we're going to send them a chunk of money. We're going to cut up everything else and just send all our missionaries an extra chunk of money. And thank God for that. Thank God that we're a giving church to missionaries. We got missionaries on the field that can't even get a decent toothbrush because of where they are. But they're there winning people to Christ. And then we go, I believe a healthy church will not only send missionary money, but they will raise up missionaries. I believe out of Curtis Corner Baptist Church, a natural growth. It doesn't have to be something that we ride one horse and beat one horse to death, but you better believe it, friend. God wants to call people to the mission field, and God's probably going to call people from our church and praise God for parents that say, you know what? I understand for my children to serve God, it's a wonderful privilege. Being a missionary, being a preacher is better than being a president of the United States. I believe that not because I am one. I believe that because of their purpose, their call. It's a special thing. Don't ever diminish the call of God. Don't ever pretend like the call of God doesn't exist. It's a wonderful thing. All of us are called to influence where we are, but some are called to influence others and take places of leadership far away from home. Jesus Christ Himself was a missionary. I believe a healthy church will start churches. We're not just a soul-winning church. I want to be a church-starting church. It's natural and right for a young lady to have children. Thank God for that. Matter of fact, the New Testament tells us that that is the great calling of a young woman. To be married, to help her husband in the home and to rear godly children is the greatest calling a woman could face. Don't ever forget that. Don't fall into this career type of mentality. And if you're not out making a job, making $20,000, $30,000, $40,000, $50,000 a year that you're a nobody or nothing, my Christian lady friend, you better understand that you are rearing a soul. And you young ladies, don't ever look down at a stay-at-home mom. If you've tried it lately, that's a full-time job. I've had to take on some motherly duties in the last couple of years. I can tell you I appreciate women greatly. Greatly. And we've got Christian women feeling bad because they're not working a full-time job. If you and your husband decide to do that and you can work it out and find out how to glorify the Lord and take care of your family and do that, I'm not opposed to it. But don't ever be guilted into it. We're just all over the place tonight, but I like it. I've seen the heartbreak of young ladies when they can't have children. My wife and I for many years, not for many years, for several years, we wondered if we would have children. We had three miscarriages before we ever had a child. sit in the holidays watching the nieces and nephews and other people's kids in tears rolling down our face wondering if we would ever get the privilege. And people look at that and say, oh, that's unnatural. God bless these people. You ought to pray for those people. That's a difficult thing. Thank God for those that choose to adopt. And God adopted you. Amen. But it amazes me that we can look at a healthy lady and say, boy, it's unnatural that she can't have children. And we never give a thought that churches don't birth churches. And living organism gives birth under the right conditions. And the church was made to give birth. The church was made under the conditions of obedience and spiritfulness and a proper soul-winning zeal and proper doctrine. All of these things come together. For in a healthy church, it can't help but send out missionaries. A healthy church can't help but go soul-winning. A healthy church can't help but start other churches because they understand the importance of it. And you listen to me tonight, friends. I stand before you tonight, 35 years of age, and with God giving us the strength and protection and help, I expect Curtis Corner Baptist Church to start churches in Rhode Island in my ministry and in our ministry time here. It's right and it's proper. We'll send people across the ocean and give them oodles and oodles of money for them to go do their thing here, and yet we won't go just outside of our driving radius and do the same thing. There could be a thousand churches in Rhode Island started and we wouldn't even scratch the surface. Think about that. Put a hundred churches in Providence, they still have to try to reach over 17,000 people a church. We ought to be motivated by these things. We ought to pray about these things. Oh God, would You help us. I like the bus ministry. I'm for getting people saved any way you can. I love soul winning. I love church services. I love the idea of we're going to eventually start churches. I like the idea of having home Bible studies just outside of our area of where people can drive in. I like the idea of home Bible studies. I'm not talking about getting rid of a service. I'm talking about sometime during the week, a Monday-Tuesday, a Thursday-Friday, a Saturday, a home Bible study somewhere where we can get people and that becomes a feeder to the church. There's probably a lot of people that have friends and they know people that wouldn't necessarily feel comfortable coming to church, but they might come over to their house for a Bible study over a cup of coffee and a few friends. Well, I like that idea. You say, well, my soul winning doesn't work for me on Friday morning or on Saturday. There's one hundred and sixty eight hours in the week. We just have to get creative about these things. Listen, I fully expect to outgrow this building. If we built another building, I expect to outgrow that. Why? Because God wants His church to grow. We're going to have to get creative at some point in time. We might have to go to multiple services here. We might have to go to multiple locations. We're going to eventually have to start other churches. And thank God for that. But we can't allow fear and the unknown to keep us from reaching people. We obey the Scripture. Let me give you three points and we'll go home. How do we keep our purpose and focus? Number one, we must Let me say it this way. If a Christian is not actively praying and working to bring people to Jesus, they are in sin. We've got to get back to calling sin, sin. You say, well, I just can't get out like I used to. Do you pray? Do you ever fall on your face and pray for sinners? We use our schedule as excuses. We use our burdens as excuses. We use our health as excuses. And I am familiar with all of those. But do you and I understand that we can't use our circumstances as an excuse for a cold heart? It is a sin if you did not pray for people to be saved this week. I'm talking about homosexuality is a sin. Not wanting people to get saved is a sin. You say, well, I want people to get saved. Sure, we are happy when it happens, but are we an active part of it? Are we praying for it? Do we beg God and say, God, give me a time to go? God, show me somehow in my schedule that I can work this out. God, bring me opportunities at work. God, help me. Is it on our minds at all? God's people have to give back to the fact that if we diminish the blood of Jesus Christ, if we don't publish the cross, if we don't lift Him up, if we're not actively praying and working to see people saved, it's a sin against a holy God. And if you can't agree with that, then you're either ignorant of the Scripture, or coldness and hardness has set in. Can we call it a sin? The great John R. Rice, evangelist of yesteryear, had a sermon that he preached called, The Sevenfold Sin of Not Winning Souls. The truth is, not telling people about Jesus isn't one sin, it's seven different and distinct sins. And the devil gets us comfortable in the fact that we're not an active part of it. Look at Acts 1, verse 8 again. The Scripture says here that ye shall receive power after the Holy Ghost has come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses. Now the Bible reminds us here a couple things. First of all, if I don't witness, then I have no power. One of the evidences of the power of God on my life is I have a Holy Spirit boldness to speak the name of Christ. Study the book of Acts. One of the evidences of the power of God on my life is not that I'm making the blind see and making the lame walk. Boy, those things are wonderful. But my friend, if we don't even open our mouth and tell people about Jesus, how can we claim any type of spiritual power? I'm preaching myself here. These are conversations that Paul Chapman has with Paul Chapman. We've got to be honest about this thing. The Bible says when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, you'll receive power and witness. If we are not actively witnessing and praying for people to be saved, we cannot claim Holy Spirit fullness. How in the world can I say that I'm filled with the Holy Spirit when the things that are most important to my Savior are not important to me? If I'm not witnessing, I'm not following Christ. Jesus said, follow Me and I will make you fishers of men. It's non-negotiable. This is the way I talk to me. Can I just let you in on my brain for a minute? Can I let you in on how God talks to Paul Chapman? How can I deceive myself into thinking that I'm following a Savior that died and bled for souls? How can I deceive myself that I am truly following Him if I'm not telling people about Him? And how many Christians would say, hey, I'm a Christian. Of course I'm right with God. Well, of course I do this. Well, of course... Have you been begging God for souls? Have you been finding a way to use your gifts and talents to get the Gospel out? If I'm not actively praying and working to bring people to Jesus, it's a sin. I'm not telling you if you don't go soul winning for 90 minutes this week, it's a sin, because God knows you and He knows your schedule. But I'm telling you this, and I mean this with all my heart. I feel like if someone cannot look at me and know If they can't look at me and know by my actions and my voice and my tone that I am actively in the business of bringing people to Jesus Christ, then I am not right with God. Can we be that honest with ourselves? I'll just be frank with you. This sermon was born out of... I've been awful sick lately. I haven't been out like I wanted to be. My wife's been awful sick lately. I've had a lot of things pulling on me. And thank God, He constantly reminds me not to lose the main things. Are we open to rebuke from the Spirit of God? We've got to call coldness about soul sin again. Number two, no member or ministry is outside of the Great Commission. Curtis Corner Baptist Church keeps the main thing, the main thing. We keep our purpose and focus by understanding there's no member or ministry that's outside of the Great Commission. I fear that Christians have unionized the ministry. I was a union carpenter for three months and it was a miracle I got that and God really opened the door. But the truth is I was a union floor layer. We were doing jobs, sometimes putting floors in hospitals, sometimes putting floors. We were remodeling a hospital, make it into a public service station with police and a fire and all that kind of stuff. And you know what? The truth is, if you were in a room and a light bulb went out, you'd get in trouble for changing that light bulb. Northwest Indiana is one of the most tightly controlled union areas of the country. If I saw a hole in the drywall and fixed it, I'd get in trouble. I could lose my job for that. It's so specialized that they have a union for everything. And I feel like that's what we've done to the ministry. Well, I don't go so many. I work in the nursery. Why do we have a nursery? Well, I don't go so many. I'm a Sunday school teacher. Why do you think we have Sunday school? Well, I don't go soul winning. I'm an usher. Why do you think we have ushers? I mean, honestly, talk to me now. We've unionized the ministry. Oh, that's the preacher's job. Oh, that's so-and-so's job. Oh, they're in the soul winning ministry. Soul winning's not a ministry, it's who we are! Well, I don't do that. I'm a junior church worker. Well, I don't do this. I'm a prison ministry guy. Listen, I'm thankful for all those things. I'm not putting down anybody in any one of those ministries. Thank God for you. But I need you to understand the very purpose of that ministry is to get people saved and baptized and teach them how to observe all things whatsoever He's taught us. And then let me say lastly, If the purpose of an activity or ministry is more than one step removed from the Great Commission, it is a distraction. You say, what do you mean by that? Why do we have a youth group? If the purpose of the youth group is not to fulfill the Great Commission, it's a distraction. It doesn't mean all they have to do is soul winning. But they better be doing some. An activity can be one step removed from the Great Commission, but the truth is we have activities at Curtis Corner Baptist Church to build relationships, to soften hearts, to practice the doctrine of replacement for things of the world and to help those people grow. Ladies Helping Hands is a viable and important ministry, but it's only one step removed from the Great Commission because the purpose of Ladies Helping Hands is to win people to Christ, get people baptized, and disciple ladies. You understand what I'm saying? Every ministry of Curtis Corner Baptist Church has to have its purpose rooted in the Great Commission. There's no ministry or activity that we have. If in the years past, we won't have it this year because it's on a Saturday night, but there are New Year's Eve service where people get together and pray and have fun and all those things. The purpose of that is rooted in the Great Commission. There is nothing we do where the purpose is not to get people saved, to get them baptized and to help them grow in Jesus. You understand what I'm talking about? And when a church begins to get the idea, well, that ministry is for this, and that ministry is for that, and that ministry is for this, and they disconnect those ministries from the Great Commission, the church begins to die. You understand what I'm saying tonight? You say, how does that change us? Nothing. Because everything we do here is rooted and grounded in the Great Commission. I just need you to know it. I need Curtis Corner Baptist Church to be on one page pulling on the same rope. We are in the business of fulfilling God's mission on earth. We get the privilege of partnering with God. Bow your heads and close your eyes. There will probably be some that say, oh well, another message about soul winning. I'm not talking to you tonight. I can't help you right now. That type of attitude is steeped in callousness and apathy. I don't know that anyone has that. I just felt like the Holy Spirit wanted me to say it. So there you go. Did the Lord speak to you tonight? We've got a lot of people out sick. There's a lot of distractions. I know there are people in this room, you're barely here because you've been sick. You're hurting right there in your seat. You came tonight possibly to say, boy, I need encourage tonight and I feel like I got beat up. I'm not trying to beat you up. I'm trying to open your eyes to one of the greatest blessings that this life affords. being involved in seeing people saved. It's one of the greatest sources of joy and peace and fulfillment that you can experience in this life. And I confess to you tonight that I want to do a better job at it. Would you join me in that? Would you join me in saying, boy, maybe I've gotten a little distracted. Perhaps even a little cold. And I'm not going to use my burns in my trials as an excuse. I want my heart to be on fire. On fire with a passion and zeal for souls. Help me care, God. Help it be important to me. Help me live every day with souls in mind. I pray about it, to look for opportunities. What a wonderful blessing it would be. Let's stand. As the piano plays, you come. The altar is open. The Lord speaks your heart tonight. We have to keep our purpose in focus. Jesus said, follow me and I'll make you fishers of men. Jesus said, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. May I ask you a blunt question? How in the world can we expect people to take us seriously when we teach the Bible if we don't live one of the greatest truths in the Bible? How can I expect my own children to take me seriously about the things of God when I spend my life making excuses about why we're not influencing people for Jesus? Why should God allow me to teach the Word of God and teach all the wonderful doctrines when I ignore the doctrine that's most close to His heart? Lord, I'm grateful that we're a soul winning church. Thankful for everybody in this room that spends time each week praying for souls to get saved. That meditates on the cost you paid to see people saved. whose heart is in tune with your heart as you just long and long for more people to be saved. Thank you for those that each week in different various ministries take time to go visiting and soul winning. Lord, help us never to believe the lie that it's okay for us to be a Christian that's quiet about the Lord. That it's okay for us to be a Christian that does not make the salvation of souls one of our greatest priorities. Thank you for all these that are here. And Lord, I pray that you'd speak to each heart in this room and wherever they are and whatever they need, would you this week help them to see how they can be more effective for the kingdom of God? And Lord, thank you for the Word of God that leaves no gray areas on this subject. It's a subject that we can go forth and live in total and complete confidence. Help us not to fear the reprisal of man. Help us not to fear fleshly rebukes and discouragements of the devil. But may we go forth in faith and carry thy banner high this week. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Alright, remain standing. Let me have my ushers real quick. Ushers! I'm going to say a couple of announcements while the ushers pass the plate. We do need an offering. It's the end of the year, December, November, December, January are typically our worst months for offering. And I don't mind that if God gives us less, but I'd hate for God's people to take the bounty He's given them and spend it on other things. So let's pray. Lord, thank You for this offering. I pray that You'd bless it. And the gift in the giver, multiply it so we can get the Gospel far and wide. Amen. Alright, as they are passing the plate, let me make just a couple of announcements. And let's see. Can you play quietly in the background? I always like to be serenaded while we're giving announcements here. Let's see. Providence Bruins game this Friday night. If you're interested in that, see Patrick. We've got a couple places left. Christmas program practice this Saturday, 2 p.m. And that's a must. Annual business meeting, keep that in mind, on the 14th. There are copies of the proposed budget for our members. 2012, we are resetting some of our budget accounts. We're cutting back the entire budget about 15%. We fully expect the Lord to bless us. We're praying and expecting to be dealing with a surplus next year. We just wanted to reset some things and insulate ourselves in case the Lord decides that the economy is going to go bad. And so keep that in mind, you can get a copy of that. And if you have any questions, you can see me about that to explain any changes. Anything I'm forgetting? That's right, the bookstore does have some things available. So you can keep that in mind for Christmas time. And I think there's one more thing here. Yeah, you got all those in your bulletin. Thank you for reminding me of that. I knew there was one more thing. We are having a Ladies Helping Hands Christmas party. It's not in your bulletin. It'll be on the 19th. And they're going to have a cookie exchange. And so you bring some cookies and you'll be able to exchange everybody else with some cookies and give a nice plate to your pastor. Is that how it works? We don't need any, do we? Alright, we appreciate you. Thanks for coming tonight. The leadership meeting, the choir. The choir sounds great, by the way. I'm looking forward to our Christmas program. And you are dismissed. God bless you. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do it. I can't wait to see you again. I can't wait to see you again. I can't wait to see you again. I can't wait to see you again. I can't wait to see you again. I can't wait to see you again. you