And you may be seated. And we'll dismiss the children to go to the creche in their class with Mrs. Shore. And it is a topical message this morning, so I don't have a text for you to turn to. And it has a lot to do with that song we just sung, Give of Your Best to the Master. You stop and think about it today. If you were rescued off a boat last night in the Perth Report, you'd have a sense of indebtedness to the person that had rescued you. I mean, there would be a... In affection, I mean it just happened. I just got saved. I want to do something for you. I want to do something for your family. I certainly want you to get glory for what you did. Because I wouldn't be alive if it wasn't for you. You stop and think about what our Lord Jesus Christ did for us. When He died on the cross for our sin, He purchased our salvation. Our hearts grow cold if we can't think this morning and go, you know, I really want something to give back. I want to do something for Him who did everything for me. My message today is a bit like a speech from the throne, where the Queen sets out the agenda for Parliament, or the State of the Union Address in the United States, where the President sets out what's been accomplished and what the vision is for this next year. And this morning, I want to do that for church. You can see that in the handouts there. You've got it. You might think, how are we ever going to get through this? We're going to move pretty quickly. You don't always see my notes. And maybe that's a good thing, right? It doesn't happen in front of you. But I want to set up a big picture for us as a church. What are we doing? I want to encourage us to accomplish the vision, okay? And motivate us to do what God has put in our hearts to pray about God doing. I noticed something interesting this week about prayer. As I mentioned, reading the Old Testament, and I'd open my Bible, I was reading 2 Samuel 15 verse 31, and it's where David is seeking to flee Absalom's revolt. His son, David was king, and his son tried to take away the kingdom, so he kind of tried to set himself up as king, and David's having to flee, and in 2 Samuel 15 verse 31, One told David, saying, Ahithophel is among the conspirators with Absalom. And David said, O Lord, I pray Thee, turn the counsel of Ahithophel into foolishness. Okay, Ahithophel was David's counselor. I mean, he's been betrayed by a main guy in his cabinet or in his kingdom. And he's burdened about it. So he gets on his knees, he prays to God, he goes, God, please turn the counsel of Ahithophel into foolishness. And the problem with that was this. Ahithophel was a very wise counselor. In fact, the Bible says about Ahithophel in 2 Samuel 16.23, his counsel, which he counseled in those days, was as if a man had inquired at the Oracle of God. So was all the counsel of Ahithophel, both with David and with Absalom. The Oracle of God is the Word of God. And it's like somebody just came to God and said, God, what should we do? And Ahithophel said that. I mean, that's how good his counsel was. And so if he got that kind of counsel about killing David and capturing him, David was done. It's a very important prayer. But you know, David didn't stop at prayer and say, well, I prayed, that's enough. The story goes on. It came to pass that when David was coming to the top of the mountain where he worshipped God, the old Hushai, the archite, another counselor, came to meet him with his coat wrapped and earth upon his head. Unto whom David said, If thou passest on with me, then thou shalt be a burden unto me. But if thou return to the city, and say unto Absalom, I will be thy servant, O king, as I have been thy father's servant hitherto, so will I now also be thy servant. Then mayest thou for me defeat the counsel of Ahithophel. Okay, and so it goes on in verse 37. So Hushai, David's friend, came into the city, and Absalom came into Jerusalem. And so David prayed about it. He said, God, I'm burdened that you overturned the council and hit the Pope. But David didn't stop at prayer and say prayer is enough. I mean, that was the, you can call it this, and this is going to be the context of kind of what we're thinking about. That's his prayer vision. God, I believe you can do this. But on the other hand, he's going to participate. And this is the action of faith. And he's got this man, Hushai. And he's going to put him in there to overthrow the council of Hithophel, which he does. Very neat story. You should read it sometime if you haven't read it. But he does so well that Hithophel goes out and commits suicide because he knows it's all over and David's coming back, because he absolutely rejected his council. And so this morning. If we're going to pray, we need to be a praying church. My burden as pastor would be, we get that burden. Let's pray about it. Let's ask God to do it. Let's believe that God can do it. But if we just pray, and that's the vision, without the action of faith, and say, I'm going to participate, then the prayer can be very vain, asking God to do something that we're not going to attempt to do anything about. I'm reading right now Edwin Orr's biography. Edwin Orr grew up in Northern Ireland in the early 1900s. He's contemporary with James Stewart, if you ever read any of James Stewart things. But as a young man, he gets burdened to go into worldwide evangelism. I mean, he is young, 21. And so without any money, because his mom was a widow and he's supporting her, he gets on a boat to Liverpool. When he gets there, he's got, I mean, just not enough for anything. And incredibly, God, and you've got to read the story, God miraculously provides. And that becomes the life of this man. He ends up traveling the world preaching. And I mean, he preached and he cycled. This is incredible. He cycled all over the United Kingdom from down in Cornwall up to John O'Groats many times and through every area in Scotland, Britain, England, and Wales preaching the gospel. And then a few years later, he's traveling in Europe, and then he's traveling in Africa. I mean, it's just incredible to read about where God took him. But he had both things. He had prayer and vision, and he had the action of faith. And it's actually in the story, when he was in Wales, it was a time when the Welsh Revival was taking place, and God's done incredible things. He meets a man by the name of Evan Roberts. Evan Roberts was the man that God used, especially in southern Wales, for revival. And Evan Roberts said this, working for God is prayer in action. Being wholly yielded ensures that God will direct you all the day. Therefore, one's task is to listen for the voice of the Lord, and then to obey." He's just talking about the fact that if you want to really be somebody that does something for God, you pray about it, but then your heart is this, God, whatever you want me to do, I'll do. No matter what it is, no matter how tough it is, no matter how awkward it is, how much out of my comfort zone it is, God, if you say to do it, I'll do it. It's called surrender. And if you do that and they get involved, that's what it's about. It's about the action of faith. He went on to say, vision is as desirable a gift as faith. In faith, he's talking about active faith. I've seen men who've had great faith, but have never exercised it because of their lack of vision. I've seen others who have vision, but who never responded because of their lack of faith. He's kind of combining the two, but it's like we can pray and say, God, do this great thing, right? But if we don't act upon it, that's vain. And it's vice versa too. We need both. And so we need to pray. That's vision. God, I know you can do this. And we need to participate. God, I'm willing to get my hands dirty to get it done. And so what are we praying for this year? And what you have in front of you, if you've got it, You've got a handout that I'd like to use tonight because tonight in our service we're going to pray. Okay, that's what we're going to do. And we're going to pray and we're going to have the Lord suffer. What are we going to pray about? We're going to pray about these things. I'm going to share with you this morning, and I gave you the handout so you could be actively involved in what I'm talking about and looking at it. You might, if some of this stands out to you, you can jot something down, some scripture down, or something that speaks to your heart about it. But you've got it there. And we're going to take these things to the Lord. And so, as we pray, we need to pray. And we ought to pray. I think everybody in our church ought to say, you know what? Pastor, you're right. We need to be praying about this. We need to ask that because that needs to be done. That's important That needs to be done. But on the other hand, we need to be saying and if God works in my heart About participating in that there's something I can do to get that done and by God's grace I want to do that. All right, so let's pray and participate. Let's pray right now and ask God's Spirit to guide us in this time. Father, I thank you for a voice this morning and And I thank you for your enablement and your help this morning. I can't preach or teach the Bible and lead our church as pastor without you. I mean, Father, it's all of you. It's no boasting if we ever see something accomplished because it will be you doing it. Father, we need to participate. Father, without participation, it's all of you. But Father, this message isn't going to be preached without me preaching it. It's not going to be declared without, by the grace of God, me declaring it. It's both. And so Father, we ask you to work. Father, I've got a responsibility. And Father, it's the same with us in our walk with God. All these things, we're going to pray about and preach about this morning. Father, I pray that we really get this idea of praying and participating. And may the Spirit of God guide me as I speak and as we listen. It's in Christ's name we pray. Amen. Alright, so we're asking God, and this is where we start this morning, is God, please help us build your church. And a church is not a gathering of individuals, though it is. I mean, there's individual aspects. Everybody here is different, and we're all coming from different homes and different lives and different responsibilities. But when we come together as a church, we come together as a body. So the Bible teaches. The Bible teaches diversity and individuality, and it teaches unity, alright, in the body. 1 Corinthians 12, 12 says, whereas the body is one and hath many members. And all the members of that one body being many are one body. so also is Christ. And so what we have here, apart from a bunch of individuals, we have, praise God, a local church body. Free Baptist Church of Lone Head is the name that's given to this entity that exists, the body of Christ, here in this place in Lone Head. So what are we praying about with regard to God building our church? Well, God, please give us a faithful core group, okay? A faithful core group, because we want to grow as a body, right? God, give us people that are saved, follow the Lord and believe His baptism, are sanctified, set apart, that are surrendered and say, you know what, God? I want to be a part of that. That's very important to what we desire to see God do here in our local church. God, would you do that? Give us new recruits. And you know, nobody, no woman wants to give birth to a baby that doesn't thrive. And actually I think they have a term, failure to thrive. The baby's not gaining weight, not getting where it needs to be. It's important that that goal be achieved. So sometimes you've got to stop and look at it and say, you know what's going on? How can we help this baby to survive? Because you don't expect a baby to stay a baby. And I was thinking about this this morning, by the way. As a child grows up, we could have here in our congregation, I'm not saying we do, but we could have a future prime minister. Why? Because the prime minister at some point was in their youth. in a child, I mean it could have been in church or not in church, you know what I'm saying? So we don't know what a body is going to be in the future. And we might look at our church, and I imagine some people looked at a prime minister at some point in their youth and thought, this child never amounts to anything. And lo and behold, years later, they're the prime minister. You know, people can look at our church body this morning and think, well, you know, it's not going to be that great or whatnot. But you know, God can make it great. God has the ability to add to this body, to build this body, develop this body, grow this body. So we're burdened about seeing God recruit those people into this ministry. The military just entered into a new recruitment tribe. I don't know if you've seen it, it's kind of silly. The posters, this is what the posters really say, I'm not making this up. They're looking – it's like the You Are Wanted posters that we want you in the military. They're looking for snowflakes, binge gamers and phone zombies. Seriously. Alright? Snowflakes. Do you wonder what is a snowflake? I had to look it up. Maybe you know this. It's slang, and this is what it is. A snowflake is a 2010s derogatory slang term for a person implying that they have an inflated sense of uniqueness, an inwarded sense of entitlement, or are over-emotional, easily offended, and unable to deal with opposing opinions. And they're going to change that in the first week. I'm telling you, boot camp has a lot of work to do. Right? That's what they're looking for. You know, we're looking for people, and I don't want to get into that. You can think about that, what you want, as far as the RAF and their desire there. But what we want as a church, can I be honest and say for one Corinthians 1, we're not looking for greatness. Because the Bible says that, you see your calling brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called, but God has chosen the foolish names. And the things that are not, and the weak things, and God can use anybody. who's willing to be committed to being a part of what we're praying about, right? You see what I'm saying? I mean, we're praying, God, give us a faithful core group. I think that's important for us as a church to pray about. I think God is going to do that. There's reasons why we believe God's going to do that. We'll talk about that. But we need to be praying about it. God, build up that group of recruits that we can see in the church. And then God is going to come help us train church leadership. Okay? Ephesians 4.11. God's going to do this. He gave some apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints. God gives church leadership to grow and develop the church. So the desire of a preacher-teacher is that everybody in the church be growing, building up, and learning. And it's what it says right there in that verse, for the perfecting of the saints. But I'm not a Greek scholar. But I've sat in a lot of classes in my pastoral studies, undergrad and graduate work, that talk about this text. And they said this, these phrases, for the perfecting of the saints, and then it says, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying or building up of the body of Christ. It goes back to that phrase, the saints. So you've got apostles, pastors, teachers, and they're going to build up the saints, so what? So that they, the church, can do the work of the ministry, so that they, the church, can edify the body of Christ. Alright? And in that verse you see both things. Prayer, God, you gotta do this. He gave Son. And you see participation. And you know God, again, He's going to help us with that. 1 Corinthians 12 verse 18. It says, but now hath God set the members, every one of them, in the body as it hath pleased him. You know, praise God. I'm excited about that. As a church, we're burdened to see God grow our church. We're going to see God in His grace and His mercy bring people in when they come. They're going to come with different skills or they're going to be given different gifts according to God's plan to make them a part of this body. Praise God. Okay, God's going to do that. But then we also need to get that done for God's glory. 2 Timothy 2, Paul said, the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, participators, who shall be able to teach others also. Okay? And so we're praying God raise up these leaders. Specifically, who are we asking God to provide? God, please provide Sunday school teachers. God, we need teachers in our church. I know that might sound scary to some people. You know, standing up in front of people, Jack got to come up here this morning and read the scripture. It's a little intimidating. It takes courage to get up front and to try to do something or try to communicate something. My church growing up, Bible Baptist Church in Hudson, Wisconsin, was a church of about 100 to 120. and a great church. They put, that I know of right now, 35 full-time workers into ministry. Christian school teachers, principals, missionaries, preachers, pastors. I mean, I praise God for that heritage. Not a big church. But you know, in that church, there were a lot of lay leaders. That's just a lay person, a member that is a full-time vocational teacher, but they teach the Bible. My teacher, P4 to P6, was a man that, I mean, he would flip houses and rent them out. His son is a minister now in South Africa, a missionary. Dan Hanson, a good friend of mine, the Locksleys that attend our ministry, they're from that church in South Africa. You know, this man is just a server of the Lord. That's willing to get involved in our... we have many... teachers that did that, but how did they come about? Did they get saved and, wow, they're a Bible teacher? No. There was a process of God developing them, but then they stepped into the harness and took the job of faith and said, you know, I'm going to participate and teach and God developed them. Would you help in that way if God so would? Some of you are starting to help in our kids' classes, and that's great. Praise God. And you know, we need that. And so let's pray about it. Let's participate. God, please provide deacons, okay? Deacon sounds great, right? I want to be a deacon. Do you know a deacon is a church servant? That's what diakonos means. It means a servant. And it came about when the widows were being neglected in the daily food provision that the church was giving. And the apostles and the preachers were too busy to get bogged down with menial things that other people could do to take the burden off them so that they could give themselves to preaching the word and praying. And so they said, Looking out among you, from the church, seven men, at that time, of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost, and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business. But we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word. Now, let me ask you this, do you expect your pastor to be spirit-filled? I hope so, and pray God help me be spirit-filled. Do you expect me to be a man that has integrity when it comes to the Word of God? Yes. So honest report, so that people look at it in honest report. But in that text, is it talking about preachers? No, it's talking about, look you out among you, from your church, men that have that quality of being spirit-filled, that are honest men, that we can trust. with this very important responsibility of the church, ministering to these widows. And so, there are qualifications that God has, not just for a pastor, as that Bible is very clear, 1 Timothy chapter 3. List, and you can study it and say, does Pastor Schor mean that? The requirements that God has for me as a minister, if I feel those requirements, I am disqualified to be the minister of this church. But he also has qualifications for deacons. And as a church, we can say today, well, you know, God knows this is 2019. We can't have too high expectations for men that come to our church. And by the way, deacon as a man, as a minister as a man, it's clear in the word of God you'll see in just a second. We can say that'll never happen. Or we can say, by God's grace, we're going to develop that kind of leadership in the church. And we're going to say, you know what, God, even if that man never becomes a deacon, that in his heart he would strive to be that godly man that God desires him to be. 1 Timothy chapter 3, verse 8, about the deacons, says they must be grave, serious, not double-tongued, not double-speaking, not given to much wine, they're not a drunkard, not greedy of filthy lucre, they're not materialistic. holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience. They've got a right heart with God. And they're proved. Let these also first be proved. That means they've stood up the test of time. There's a process of time where they've shown themselves faithful men. Then let them use the office of a deacon, being found blameless. Now it doesn't stop there. Even so must their wives be grave, serious, not slanderers, not gossips. Sober, serious about spiritual things. Faithful in all things. And let the deacons be the husband of one wife. So a deacon is to not be divorced, but married to one woman. Ruling their children in their own house as well. The children should be in subjection. For they have used the office of a deacon well, purchased in themselves a good degree, and great boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus. Let me ask you, as an infant of after church, would we, in pastoral leadership, congregational involvement, and deacons, okay, that would be a part of that? Should we pray about it? Yeah, we need to pray about it. I mean, we need to get on our knees and say, we're singing to see free Baptist Church established to the glory of God. God, we need godly men. God, we need them. And we need godly spouses for those men. OK? Now, we can either not really sincerely pray about it, Or we could pray and participate and say, God, I'm going to strive to be that kind of man. God, if we're married, I'm going to try to be that kind of couple that really is godly, really honors God, so that someday when this church is at the point of appointing deacons, by God's grace, we can have them. And so let's do both. Let's pray and participate by saying, no, I'm going to strive for that and seek to achieve that. Please help us develop our church programs. By the way, if we get bogged down or something, don't get worried. We're going to go fast at the end. You don't normally have my notes, and you're like, well, they aren't long this morning. I'll try to hurry through them, and we'll see what we do. Please help us develop our church programs. I remember a teacher pastor I had in Bible college saying, the church is like a tomato vine, okay? And you got the fruit that's there. But, you know, when you see a tomato grow, it's supported. Have you seen that? I mean, the programs are like that support. And so our ministry today is not about having programs. A lot of churches are about their focus is on the structure, and it's not on the fruit. Our focus is on the fruit this morning. And I hope I conveyed that to us, that the importance of us being a good church, a strong church, a healthy church, is for the sake of the gospel in this community. That's it. It's for fruit. But we've got to understand it has to do with programs. Because that supports it. That's what holds it up. So that's important too. We need to pray about it. And so God, we need your help with our weekly programs. Acts 20 verse 7. It says, upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow, and continued his speech until midnight. Acts is the model for the church. It's what allows us to understand, how did the early church work? How did they function? How were they structured? This verse teaches us they came together on what day? They met together on the first day of the week. It was Sunday. Alright? And they gathered together for preaching. Right? It was a gathering of disciples, so we know it was a gathering of believers. They gathered for breaking of bread. What does that mean? The Lord suffered. Tonight we have the Lord's table, okay? It's part of our service tonight. And so we can learn about, oh, that's how the church was structured. They met together weekly on Sundays. But by the way, they didn't just meet together weekly. The Bible says, Acts 2 46, they continuing daily with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house and to eat their meat with gladness and seamless of heart. I mean, if you want to say, well, the early church only met together on Sundays. Actually, the early church met together probably a lot more than we met together, okay? And so there was that weekly meetings that were taking place. And so we pray to God for God's glory. God grew our Sunday school. We're studying in our adult teen class, we're studying Romans on Sunday. God grow our Sunday morning, God grow our Sunday evening, God grow our Thursday evening, God grow our youth choir, immense prayer time. I mean, these are our weekly meetings. I want to ask you, you might know this, when did our services begin? Alec, when did the church start? Do you remember? Excuse me. Our church started on the 4th of July, not because I'm American, because that was the first Sunday in July, right? 4th of July, 2010. Alec came on the 5th Sunday, so he would've come about the beginning of August, is when Alec would've come. We started with Sunday school and Sunday morning. That's nine years ago, this summer. About a year later, God allowed us to start a Sunday p.m. and Thursday p.m. service. I was praying about it, and asking God that we could do that. I came in and I asked, and Gail, the lady that was here then, said, you know what? There's a lady that's pregnant. She has a class on Thursday nights at six. She's gonna have to stop that class because of her delivery, and you can have that time slot. It was perfect. And I talked about how affordable it was for us as well. So we started that then. Six years ago, we started a weekly revival prayer meeting that we've been praying, asking God, God, send revival. We continue that today, now at 515 on Sundays in the evening. Three to four years ago, we started a youth choir. You know when you start something, you've got to be there even if no one else is there, and you have it whether or not anyone's there. That's what you do. Because, I mean, you're praying, God, help us get this started. And so, I mean, there's that determination that, by the grace of God, we're going to continue. By God's grace, our church, when we started something, we haven't stopped. That's just been what God's allowed us to do. There were times, Thursday night, and nobody would be there, but maybe our family, a couple children, and the kids would go to their class, the wall would go up, and I'd sit on this thigh and pray. And I mean, I've done that many times. It's just me sitting in here praying, asking God, God, build up this Thursday night, God, build up this Sunday night, and particularly those two, alright? I mean, we've always said that. Alec, you remember coming, one of your first times, and you said, I'm the only one here, we don't have to have church, you remember saying that? And I said, look, if you weren't here, we'd have church anyway. And you say, and I praise God for Alec and his faithfulness, you've hardly missed a Sunday in the last nine years. I bet I could on two hands, or less, maybe one hand, the number of Sundays that you've missed. I mean, he's been very faithful to being here. Praise God for that. You know the word of God says in Hebrews 10 25, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as a manner of some is, but exhorting one another so much the more as you see the day approaching. A very basic principle of a church is this. A church meets together. Here's why. And a lot of churches are stepping back from this. They're cancelling Sunday night. They're cancelling the midweek. They're stopping being together. What's the problem? The church is going to die. It's going to die. Why? Because a church that ceases to join together ceases to exist. It does. I mean it's all about, the entity is all about being there. By the way, I don't like going anywhere without my arm. I'll just tell you. I like to take it with me. I don't like going anywhere without my mouth. Especially to the pulpit, alright? I like to be able to say what God wants me to say. Everybody that is a part of this church is a member of that body. Every single one is as important as this guy up here standing up and getting to declare the word of God. Everybody has a vital part and it's so important that those parts join together and serve God together. And let me ask you something and tell me what you think. Do you think Satan has a reason for me not going to church? Yeah, and I think this, I think any time I want an excuse not to go to church I can have one. And I believe this, it can be even a pretty good excuse. Does that make sense? Like, I would accept it. And I would say, you know, that's a pretty good reason for not going to church. I get that, I understand that. And that's fine if God gets it. Does that make sense? That's fine if God agrees. I'm just challenging you to do this. In your heart say, God by your grace, I'm going to pray about these meetings. I'm going to really pray about it. I'm going to get the vision and say, God, that Sunday school time, that's important. That Sunday morning time, that's important. That Sunday evening time is important. That men's prayer time is important. That Thursday night is important. God, I'm going to pray about it. I'm going to pray about it. Seriously. And God, by grace, I will participate unless I'm providentially hindered. What's that mean? It means God put something in my path. I can't go. Okay, if you're vomiting, I'll just tell you that it's providential hindrance. Okay? Do not come. We don't want you here. Alright? That's what I mean when I say providential hindrance. And God gets that. God understands there are times I can't come. And that's the test. God, is this you hindering me? Because I intend to be there. Or is it just an excuse? Just a reason? My grandpa swore I praise God, was a godly man. They were dairy farmers. Before that, he was a fire department in Denver, Colorado. And I mean, they just had a little dairy farm out in the plains of Colorado, up in this open plain above the mountains. They had to go down through the mountains to church, 25 miles. In the wintertime, very, very dangerous roads, very dangerous. In fact, some of those roads, even without rain or snow, are dangerous if your brakes fail. And my grandpa actually lost his brakes Earth-moving equipment, vehicle he was driving, and had a crash, got spared. I mean, it's dangerous. But they determined to go to church. And on a Sunday, when the dairy cows got out of the pasture, got into, I think, local weed, or some weed that would blow up their stomach and kill them, my uncle and my dad said to their father, my granddad, they said, we'll stay, we'll put the cows back in. And my grandpa said this, no, we're going to church. Get in. You know they lost one sickly cow? And you might think, well what a waste. If they would have stopped, they could have saved that cow. But I want to tell you something about my family and praise God for my heritage. My uncle became a missionary in Brazil for 20 years. Then came back and started a Portuguese speaking church in San Jose. My aunt married a man that started a church in Albuquerque, New Mexico and pastored it for like 45 years. My dad pastored and preached for 50 years. My aunt, my dad's younger sister, she and her husband smuggled Bibles with Brother Andrew's ministries into communist countries. Why? Because in my grandparents' house, they were serious about serving God. I mean, it was real to him. You know what? It wasn't like, ah, give or take, we'll be there. No, it was like, Pastor, unless something providentially hinders me, by the grace of God, I'm going to be there, because I'm serious about it, and I think it's important that we pray about it, and that I participate in it. God, we need your help weekly. God, we need your help monthly, OK? Some of our ministry opportunities are not weekly, but monthly. We've got monthly ladies' meetings, first Monday of the month. And that's good. It's good fellowship. It's good discipleship. It's good evangelistic. Some of you ladies can invite other ladies and say, hey, you know, our church is having this first Monday and I'd like to invite you to come. It's a good opportunity for outreach as well. We've got the trust service. That's the second Sunday of the month. And that's evangelistic outreach. That's ministry for our teens. We've got youth activities monthly on the fourth Friday of every month. They're fun. It's a good discipleship, evangelism opportunity at God's Kingdom Church. Shall we pray about these? And I honestly, I think if we don't pray about it, I think we're remiss. I think that we're missing out on what God desires us to do. Let's pray about those monthly ladies' meetings, monthly teen activities, trust service, youth activities. If we can participate, God help me participate. If I can invite and encourage others to participate, I want to do what I can to build those up for God's glory. God, we need your help with our annual events. And I'll tell you this. I know we've got a lot of busy people in our church. I'll tell you this, my schedule is busy. I could share with you my weekly schedule. Just my weekly schedule is generally writing a normal week about 20 pages of notes. That's not just type. I have to study it. I have to pray about it. I have to prepare it. God's blessed me with the ability to type quickly. That helps me. Some weeks it's 24 or 25 pages of notes because we have five services two weeks a month. We have the trust service. We have youth activity. I've got evangelism outreach that I do. So, my normal week is busy. I'll tell you this, these annual events that I'm going to mention now, we don't add them to our calendar because we've got extra time, you know, because we've got a lot of free time. We add them because they're important service opportunities for God. And so, you've got in front of you, this is our calendar for this year. On the 14th, or I'm sorry, it's going to be 15th of January, We've got a pastor's fellowship. I want to encourage you to come. Pray about it, but I want to encourage you to participate. We're going to host all these pastors here. It's an opportunity for us in the church to serve them, and to care about them. Does God care for them? Is Jesus interested? and being a blessing to these folks that are going to come in. Plus, we've got a missionary that's been on the field for 55 years, Barbara Ventrello. Her husband, 50 years, Merle Ventrello. We're going to honor them, because they've got to go back to the States now because of health issues. It's not easy for them. And they're going to share their testimony. It would be great for you to be there, hear how God has worked in the last 50 years in their life and ministry. We're going to honor them. That's important. Let's pray about it. Men's camp in Ireland, that's the week following Easter, Wednesday through Saturday. You know, that's great. The men have been. That's a blessing. It takes time, out of schedule. It takes finances, getting over there. It takes the commitment of being there. But let's pray about it. Let's participate. We've got a family seminar. I haven't announced. We've got a family seminar the 24th through the 27th of May. The 24th through the 27th of May, we have Dr. Bud Stedman and his wife, Mrs. Stedman. And they're coming over here. And they contacted me, let me know they're going to be here. He's the director of Baptist World Mission as our mission agency. He is a well-known man. There's big churches. He pastored a big church in Indiana. He has ministered to families for years. He's going to come. He's going to give us his time on a Friday night, a Saturday night, and a Sunday night at 6 o'clock. to minister to our families. Is that important? It is. You know, should we pray about it? Yes. Should we participate? If we can. If we can. If we can be there, we ought to say, you know, God, I want to be there. I'm burdened by it. I'm asking more that you work. That's discipleship and evangelism. We can invite unsafe families. Come on out to that family seminar. In June, on the 8th of June, we've got a football tournament. This year, I mentioned Bakers, Amanda Baker that's been here, her mom and dad, herself, and another person is coming with 10 teens, 10 teenagers that are going to help us with our football tournament. And praise God they're coming. And we need to be praying and ask God, bless our football tournament. You know this girl right here and that girl right there wouldn't be here this morning if we didn't have the football tournament last year. Because that's where Holly came and that's where then Zoe came and Harry came. Praise God. And through that we met Raj because he came to Holly Bottom Club. I think through these guys. And then, Charlene, are these ministries important? I think we can look at it and say, you know what, it's really important. So let's pray and let's participate. The Gallaudet and the parade, the HBC, the Holly Bible Club, the two weeks of ministry that we have, in our evangelistic meetings that are coming up in late September, through early October, okay? We've just now scheduled Barry Webb. Kids, Barry Webb is a gifted preacher, but he's also a puppeteer, all right, and incredible. He's a, do you remember him when he came last time? Yeah, and he does chalk art. He plays the fool horn, which is like a trombone that's been crushed into a trumpet. And he's just, they're a skilled family that loves God. They're going to come, they're going to be with us for a week. We can see people get saved. We can see lives change and hearts surrender. We're going to pray about it, right? But we need to ask God, God by your grace, I want to just pray about it. I want to participate if I can, alright? And as I mention these things, I'll say it again, are these life-saving opportunities? Yeah. Yet somebody could come, and they could be saved from hell. How important is that? If I treat that like, well, you know, I've just got a lot of other things going on. Imagine me saying, I've just got a lot of other things going on. I don't have time to do a football tournament. I don't have time to do Galilee. I don't have time to invest in, every night, evangelistic meetings. Let's stop and think about it. then I don't have time to impact somebody's life for all eternity and reach out to them and seek to see them get saved. Alright? And so, that's why we're praying now. You know, I thought you got your point one. I'm gonna have to save some for tonight, okay? But then we ask God, let's just finish this main point this morning. Please help us with the discipleship of new converts. 272 verse 2 says, and the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men who shall be able to teach others also. Okay, so God's plan is this, teaching somebody to teach somebody to teach somebody. I mean, that's it. I mean, it's not about just somebody teaching people that always take in, never give out. You get it? I mean, it'd be kind of like going to a fishing class and always being taught how to fish and never fishing. And never teaching anybody else how to fish. I mean, God desires us, learn it, pass it on. Learn it, pass it on. And that's how God desires us to develop in our ministry for the Lord. And so it's very important, our discipleship that we do. So, how do we do that as a church? Well, we do it in a couple ways. Some of you are in or have done the Growing in Grace Bible study that we do. Alright, God's provided that for us. Dr. Ed Nelson, he's 95 now, but a great pastor that is still preaching at 95, wrote a discipleship course in just the basics of being a believer. When somebody gets saved in our church, we don't want to just see them accept Christ as their Savior. We want to see them develop in their understanding very quickly of the basics. And so my wife and I will take time and take that time to go through discipleship lessons. And we enjoy that. But you know what's important? As our church grows, there's going to be, we trust, many people getting saved. Our burden is that others teach others. And that God raised up in our church people that are comfortable taking the Bible and that lesson, that Bible study, and going through it with somebody that they led to the Lord, or somebody that got saved in our church and passing that on. We've got leadership lessons that some of you have listened to. And if you want to be involved in our ministry, we've got these lessons that have handouts. And there's four lessons. You listen to them and get an idea of the expectations that we have for those that would lead and participate. in our ministry, all right? And getting involved, and growing, and accomplishing something. And that's important, isn't it? When people get saved, we want them to get plugged in. I had a friend that Earl Simmons, he got saved in our church in Michigan. Earl had a great question after he got saved. He said, I joined the church, what do I do? You know, a lot of people don't join a church and think, what do I do? They think, what do I get, right? Which is, what do I do? You know, Jesus came not to be ministered unto, but he came to minister. That ought to be our heart, you know, and I hope that's your heart. I think it is. I'm excited with our church because I'm seeing people get involved. I could list, in the last two months, everybody in here and things that you've done, praise God, and getting involved. And that's what it's about, isn't it? But we've got to give those opportunities and develop people in those opportunities. So we want to pray about that, and then we want to do that. I don't have time, obviously, this morning. to continue and go through these other points. But these are things, as you look at it, you think, you know, Pastor, we do need to pray about that. The next point, let me just highlight the points. Let's pray, God, help us to see people get saved. Real salvation, right? Are you burdened about it? Are you tired of, you know, the lack of fruit? You know, you're burdened. God, please save people. Well, let me ask you, if I pray about it, ask God, God, please save somebody, but I never open my mouth to share the gospel. I never speak to anybody about God. Is that vain praying? Yeah, it is. Why? Because the Bible says in, how shall they hear without a preacher? How shall they preach except they be said? Not just people that we know we're praying about God save them. I need to witness them. Somebody needs to talk to them about the Lord as we're praying. And we've seen God do that. There's specific people we've prayed about, and we've seen that working in their hearts. Praise God, right? Praise God. But it's participating in them and encouraging them. I don't know about you, but I'm burdened about Midlothian. I'm burdened about Edinburgh. I'm burdened about Scotland. I'm burdened about the United Kingdom. I'm burdened about the Gospel to the world. And so we have flyers, we have door-to-door, we have other gospel opportunities. Let's pray about it and then say, God by your grace, if I can do something about it, I'm going to do something about it and participate. The third point on your handout is, God please bless our missions program. He said to them, go ye into all the world, preach the gospel to every creature. You know, this is a missions church. I'm a Baptist minister. I'm church planning in Scotland, but because I've left my home country and traveled to another country, I am a missionary. We're supported from the States. Without their support of this pastor and his family, we couldn't be here doing work that God's called us to do. God may not call you. I pray he does. I pray he calls a lot of our young people into full-time missions. They get the burden for worldwide evangelism. God may I call you to that. But you know there's things that you can do as you pray. You know we've got the giving to missionaries that is important. The Kelly family we support in Ireland. As a church later this month we're going to vote or think about how we're going to decide who else to support. We could take on a second missionary this year, praise God. Right? And God, help me to get involved in worldwide evangelism. Why? Because it's important. I don't want to pray about it, but I want to participate. We've got to think about how this is going to take place. The way I ask God, as we have been praying about it, just a couple more points very quickly. God, please provide a permanent location. Right? God, we need a... and this facility is great. We're very thankful for it. But I'm trying to set a vision for our church this morning, what we're dreaming about and praying about, asking God, God, do this. And we've prayed much about this as a church. We've asked God, God, would you provide? There's been some closed doors, things that we've considered. And most recently, the police station, and that's a closed door. And we're just going to pray and ask God, God, provide that. Listen, let me ask you, can God provide that? Yeah, with God all things are possible. It's going to take a miracle, I'll admit that, but with God all things are possible. I believe God has a building for us somewhere at some time. But you know what, we also need to participate and say, you know what, our church has a building fund, and I'm praying about it, and I'm going to ask God, can I help give so that this can be accomplished? Because it's going to take finances. God, what about my hands? I hope you men have a heart, and women as well, to work and say, you know, we get that building, you know, painting needs to be done, walls need to be taken down, structure needs to be changed. God, I want to participate. God, would you provide skilled laborers within our congregation that will get the job done? I could give you illustrations about how that takes place and how I've seen God do that in other ministries. And then lastly, this morning, God, please help us to start other churches. God, please help us to start other churches. Now, this is our church, Free Baptist Church, Lone Head. Praise God for it. We're excited about what we've seen God do here in the last nine years. But I'll tell you this. Bigger needs a Baptist church. West Lenten needs a Baptist church. Trinet needs a Baptist church. And those are just some of the bigger areas that I can mention in this Midlothian area that need a gospel witness. They need it. We need to hear the Macedonian vision that Paul heard when he heard them say, come over into Macedonia and help us. We need to get burdened about it in prayer and asking God, God, can we start something there? But listen, that's not going to happen without a lot of labor. There's going to be a lot of literature put out. There's going to be Bible studies that have to take place there. And people committed to saying, I'm going to participate in that, and I'm going to get burdened by it. It might be in the future that we have, as a church, if God allowed us to grow to the point where some families could say, I'm going to commit to that church plant, and I'm going to move from this church body into that church plant body to help establish a church. So what are we talking about? It's not enough to pray. It's not. And I'm worried about it. But it's only enough when I pray and I participate. So I have a vision, God you can do this. But I have the action of faith. God I believe you're going to do this. And so I'm going to participate in this. It was read this morning, James 2.14. What does it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith and have not words? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister be naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you say unto them, depart in peace, be you warmed and filled, notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful for the body, what doth it profit? Even so, faith. if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. That's not what we want. I mean, we don't want that this morning. We don't want a congregation that says, I've got great faith, God can do that. And so people come in, and it's obvious that they don't have a nice winter coat, they don't have proper food, and we say to them, you know, we love you, we'll pray for you, depart in peace, being warmed and filled. And we don't meet their need. God says, that's not faith. Faith is, you know what? I'm going to pray about this, I'm going to get burdened about this, and by God's grace, I'm going to do something about it. I'm going to pray vision, and I'm going to participate, faith, with my shoes on, active faith. And let me just say this. If you want to say this morning, You're right, Pastor. I really think people should do that. And in your heart, think this. Just think individually. Just think like nobody else is here. And you've got to have this mindset, because I'll tell you, if you don't, you'll quit. And it's this, it doesn't matter if anybody else gets what pastors are saying this morning, alright? Anybody else steps up and says, and by the way I want to say I am thankful for the attendance of our church, I'm thankful for the commitment of our church, I'm thankful for what's being done, okay? But I would encourage you in your heart to say this. If nobody else got that this morning, I got it. God spoke to my heart. I need to pray. I do need to pray about those things. And I'm going to sincerely pray about it. And because I'm praying about it, I'm going to say to God, God, if I can help answer that prayer, I'm going to do it. Right? And let me ask you, is God pleased with that? Very. And I would even go so far as to say God expects that. I mean, I think so many times we're saying, God, why don't you send revival? God, why don't you send revival? And God's saying, why don't you get revived? Why don't you get the sin out of your life? Why don't you start doing evangelism? Why don't you get serious about the things of God? Why don't you get involved? You know what I'm saying? Part of revival is me saying, God, I'll obey, I'll obey. The other hand is God. We praise God. He does so wonderfully, and I pray He's done so this morning. He works in our heart. He goes, you know what? That's what you need. The Spirit of God encourages us. He motivates us. So then we commit and say, by God's grace I will. And I'll stop making excuses. I won't blame others. I'll just get involved and I'll say, that's going to be me. I'm going to participate. And let's talk it into the kindred. And let's pray. Father, I pray, may the Spirit of God take the Word of God. and put it deep in our hearts. Oh, Father, how we need the hand of God. How we need the Spirit of God to graciously work. And so, Lord, we look to you and pray for you to work. But Lord, it would be vain for me as pastor to put the blame And Father, I mean that graciously. I mean, there's great things that we desire to see done that may not be accomplished just because we give our best. Because, I mean, there's many that have given their best and not ever seen what they desire to see. But Father, we're not going to blame you when there's a lot of times we can just look in the mirror and say, you know what? You're part of the answer to prayer, but you've got to step up. And so I pray, may the Spirit of God speak to hearts this morning. May real decisions be made that honor Jesus. It's in Christ that we pray. Amen. Amen. Let's stand, please, and we'll sing. 389, standing with me please. 389, is your all in the altar. You know that's what it is about, isn't it? It's about surrender. It's about saying to God, okay God, whatever you want, you get it. It doesn't matter if it's tough for me or not. I'm gonna honor you. I'm gonna please you. 389, is your all in the altar.