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And it really helps, you know,
when at times, there's times when, especially on Wednesday
nights, remember, I'd have to play and lead from there, and
then that's a hole you have to preach out of sometimes. And,
you know, if you've ever had to get up where the Phelps and
preach after a really bad choir number, That's a hole to preach
out of, man. Anyway, I'm just thankful today. Good singing and the piano playing
and the music leading and the good singing of everybody here.
It's a blessing. It really is. And I'm thankful
for that. We're in Acts chapter 8 this
morning. Brother Jim has read our text, Acts chapter number
8. I'm going to give you some scripture
here before we get to the passage and just kind of lay a foundation
here before we move along. In Luke chapter 4 verse 18 and
19 Jesus quoting Isaiah 61 said, He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted,
to preach deliverance to the captives, the recovering of the
sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,
to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. In Matthew chapter
4 and verse 17 the Bible says from that time Jesus began to
preach and to say, Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand.
In Matthew 11, verse 1, the Bible says, And it came to pass, when
Jesus had made an end of commanding His twelve disciples, He, Jesus,
departed thence to teach and to preach in their cities. in
Mark 1 in verse 38. The Bible says, and he said unto
them, Jesus said unto them, let us go into the next towns, that
I may preach there also. For therefore came I forth. Luke 4, Matthew chapter 10 in
verse 7, he says, and as you go, telling his disciples, preach. saying, The kingdom of heaven
is at hand. Matthew 10, 27, What I tell you
in darkness, that speak ye in light. And what you hear in the
ear, that preach ye upon the housetops. If you've ever preached
or been a pastor or a missionary and preached the Word of God,
there's been times when the Word of God has spoken to you in the
dark places of your room and of your study. And the Holy Spirit
of God has spoken to you through the Word. And Jesus said, Get
out there and preach that. Get out that as something special
that God has given you. Mark 3, 14, and he ordained 12
that they should be with him that he might send forth them
forth to preach. You're getting the theme, aren't
you? Luke 9, 2, and he sent them to preach the kingdom of God
and to heal the sick. In Luke 9 and verse 60, Jesus
saith unto him, let the dead bury their dead, but go thou
and preach the kingdom of God. In Acts chapter 1, verse 7 and
8, the Bible says, and he said unto him, it is not for you to
know the times or the seasons, WHICH THE FATHER HAS PUT IN HIS
OWN POWER. 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 JUDEA, AND IN SAMARIA, AND UNTO THE UTTERMOST
PART OF THE EARTH." IN MARK 16, 15. SOME OF THE LAST WORDS THAT
JESUS GAVE TO HIS CHURCH, AND HE SAID UNTO THEM GOING INTO
ALL THE WORLD, AND PREACHED THE GOSPEL TO EVERY CREATURE. AND VERSES 19 THROUGH 20, THAT
SAME MARK 16, SO THEN AFTER THE LORD HAD SPOKEN UNTO THEM, HE
WAS RECEIVED UP INTO HEAVEN AND SAT ON THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD,
AND THEY WENT FORTH AND Strange, they did what they were commanded.
Preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming
the word with signs following, amen and amen. I like that. Jesus preached the gospel. The
first church was commanded to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ.
The apostles were told to preach the gospel. The first deacons
of the church at Jerusalem preached the gospel. And we'll see here
in our text persecuted church members went out and preached
the gospel. If there is one thing that should
define every New Testament Baptist Church is the preaching of the
gospel of Jesus Christ. Amen? I think it ought... I had
it ready. I found it. You're gonna have to help me
or this is gonna take a lot longer. See, I've just taken 45 seconds. You
could have been to lunch, right? Because I'm telling you, I think
I have to explain things when you don't help me out here, right? If there's one thing that should
define a born again child of God, it's the preaching of the
gospel of Jesus Christ, amen? All right, good, we're doing
good now. 1 Corinthians 121, for after that, in the wisdom
of God, the world by wisdom knew not God. It pleased God, why? How? By the foolishness of preaching
to save them that believe. I have to caveat this all the
time. Not by foolish preaching, but by the foolishness of preaching. The First Baptist Church at Jerusalem,
I know that might make a Presbyterian nervous, but the First Baptist
Church at Jerusalem is continuing to grow here in Acts chapter
eight. And as we come to Acts chapter eight, God is going to
show us what to do When life takes a left turn. What do you
do when life doesn't turn out like you thought it was going
to? What do you do when there's a turn in the road that you didn't
allow for? You look from hilltop to hilltop and you look like,
but you didn't see that what the road was gonna do in the
valley. And I wanna show you today, may
the Lord help us to see this this morning from our chapter,
what do we do when life doesn't turn out like we think? You see,
Saul had consented, the Bible says here in verse one, he had
consented unto Stephen's death. Stephen was one of those first
deacons at Jerusalem. Man, he could preach, he preached
so much, it made the Jews mad, he himself was a Jew, and they
were so angry about it, and the Bible says that Saul was consenting
unto his death. Many know the background of this
whole event right here, and so I don't want to take the time
for it, but that word consent does not only mean agree with,
but that word consent here means to be pleased with at the same
time. He was not only in agreement,
but boy, it made Saul happy to see the stoning of Stephen. Listen,
now the Sanhedrin, they had no authority to put anybody to death.
And even the Pharisees or any of the council, because of the
Roman rule over Jerusalem at this time, they had no authority
to really put anybody to death. But they got so worked up into
a frenzy that they dragged Stephen out of the city and they stoned
him until he died. And the Bible says that Saul
was happy, he was happy with this proposition. He didn't want
to hear what Stephen had to say. He obviously disagreed with Stephen's
connection of Jesus Christ to the Messiah. And all that Saul
wanted at this point in his life was for this newly elected deacon
by the name of Stephen, he just wanted him to shut his mouth. And they attempted it. They got
it accomplished with rocks, right? And they killed him. Now, I don't
think Saul just disagreed with Stephen. I think happiness filled
his heart when he saw the death of Stephen. He consented to it,
right? You know what I think Saul wanted?
I think he wanted the guilt to go away. I think he wanted the conviction
to go away. We know this is a fact in Acts
chapter 9 when Jesus himself told Saul that it's hard for
you to kick against the pricks. It's hard for you to kick against
that sharp, long stick, that goad that would be used to poke
sheep to go their way and livestock to go their way. Paul was being
poked with that sharp stick of the Gospel and he didn't like
it and he thought he could shut it out by stoning the messenger.
But I can tell you the Gospel of Jesus Christ is bigger than
any messenger. and you can't shut it up and
you can't put it away. And he was not able to do that. Here in verse three, as for Saul,
he made havoc of the church, entering into every house and
hailing men and women, committed them to prison. He ravaged the
church. He devastated the churches of
Jesus Christ. He went out to ruin them. It says, hailing men and women. dragging them and drawing them
before the courts, dragging them into prison, dragging them into
punishment, no doubt others had been killed. This was how brutal
Saul was. This was the hunt that Saul was
on to squash out the gospel of Jesus Christ. It was such an
overreaction that it almost looked like it was personal, because
it was. He wanted nothing to do with
this gospel. And the God of heaven was drawing the apostle Paul
through the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Later
in life, Saul would write, now going by the name of Paul as
a Roman. Now Paul, he had two names. The
Bible never says anywhere that God changed his name. He had
a Roman name and he had a Jewish name. He was full-born Roman
citizen and he was a Jew. His Jewish name was Saul. His
Roman name was Paul. And because he was sent to the
Gentiles, I think it's pretty obvious, he went by the name
Paul as he went to the Gentiles. But later in Galatians, he would
write this in verse 14, verse 13, chapter one, for you have
heard of my conversation in times past in the Jews' religion, how
that beyond measure, Beyond measure I persecuted the church of God
and wasted it. Wasted it. But listen, Paul wasn't
looking to scare these people into keeping their mouths shut.
Paul was looking to wipe them off the map. Yeah. Should come as no surprise, right?
It really shouldn't. This is exactly what Jesus warned
of, did he not? John 15, 18, he said, if the
world hates you, know that it hated me before it hate you.
You know what the world hates about you? Jesus. They hate the
one who is in you. And so Jesus said over in 2 Timothy,
by the inspiration of the Spirit of God, the Apostle Paul said,
yea, all that live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. Now listen, nowhere in the Bible
does God tell his children to go out and voluntarily kill themselves
or voluntarily look for persecution as some type of badge of piety
and holiness. No, he doesn't teach us to do
that at all. Can I tell you if you are living godly you don't
have to look for it, it's going to come. And if persecution hasn't
come upon your life for the cause of Jesus Christ it ought to be
another indicator that maybe you don't have a life that is
living godly in Christ Jesus. I mean come on. A plus B equals
C. You know C minus B equals. I messed that up. Can I tell you when you tell
the world they are wrong they are going to attack. Now some people have told the
world they're wrong with a really bad attitude. They tell the world
they're wrong as if they were never wrong. It's like, hold
on, Bubba, you were wrong too one day. No, we tell the world
they're wrong with compassion and with love and with concern
because we know that they're headed where we were once headed
as well, right? But see, listen, but opposition,
what we're seeing here in our text is that opposition can never
stop the gospel of Jesus Christ. When they told John Bunyan to
quit preaching and they threw him in prison, you know what
he did? He went to the window of that prison and through those
bars, he preached the gospel to those that would gather in
front of that prison window. animated and his hands would
go out of those bars to try to preach the Gospel with urgency. They would take whips and whip
at his hands and try to get him to stop the Gospel. Friend, you
can't stop the Gospel. Even if you killed John Bunyan,
you know what? Somebody else comes along, and somebody else
comes along, and somebody else comes along. And here we are
2,000 years after the Lord Jesus Christ. You know what we're doing?
We're preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Amen. Listen, there's
going to be opposition to the gospel. Don't get so shocked
about it. Don't get so discouraged about
it. There's going to be opposition. But with opposition, watch, comes
opportunity. opportunity. Look at verse 1, And Saul was
consenting unto his death. And at that time there was a
great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem.
And they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea
and Samaria, except the apostles. Now the apostles stayed behind
there in Jerusalem. BUT BECAUSE OF THE PERSECUTION
THAT CAME UPON THE CHURCH AT JERUSALEM, MANY OF THOSE MEMBERS
BEGAN TO LEAVE THEIR HOMES. AND THEY BEGAN TO SCATTER OUT
THROUGH THE AREA. AND THEY WENT ALL THROUGH THIS AREA, THE BIBLE
SAYS. AND THOSE WHO SCATTERED, WHAT DID THEY DO? LOOK AT VERSE
4, WHAT THEY DID. THEREFORE THEY THAT WERE SCATTERED
ABROAD WENT EVERYWHERE PREACHING THE WORD. AMEN. I LIKE THAT. These are not apostles,
friends. Listen to this. They're not apostles.
These are not pastors. These are not deacons. Listen,
there's only six deacons now, because they already killed Stephen,
so they're down to six, right? These are not the upper echelon of the Church. Right?
These are the regular folks. I don't even like that because
nobody is laity. Nobody is regular folks. We don't
have a hierarchical order except what God has chosen a sheep to
be an under shepherd and the deacons to go along. But there
is no great hierarchical order in this place. Right? We are
all just sheep under our shepherd. But listen there are those that
have different responsibilities and different callings than others.
Watch this, the gospel just doesn't stop with them and the responsibility
of the gospel doesn't just end at the pulpit or at the Sunday
school class lectern. It goes to everybody who is a
child of God sitting in this room. You have the onus and the
responsibility to preach the gospel to the whole world. And
this is what they did. Right here in Acts, this is what
they did. They were persecuted and had to pick up house and
go buy another house where it was a little quieter. What did
they do? They got in, they backed up the U-Haul, they unloaded
their stuff, they said, where's my Bible? And they went out,
or my scroll, whatever they had. And they went out and what did
they do? They preached the gospel. I like that. moms and dads and
carpenters and camel drivers and store owners and the uneducated
and the educated, the young and the old, everyday people falling
under the persecution that came when they left their area, they
went and preached the gospel wherever they moved to. Can I
tell you this? Hopelessness can never take away
the message of hope. I don't care how hopeless life
gets, there's always hope. DEATH CAN NEVER TAKE AWAY ETERNAL
LIFE, AMEN? BAD NEWS CAN NEVER DESTROY THE
GOOD NEWS. THEY CANNOT DO THAT. THE WORD
OF GOD HAS BEEN PREACHED IN THE DARKEST DUNGEONS OF THE WORLD.
THE WORD OF GOD HAS BEEN PREACHED IN THE DARKEST CONTINENTS OF
THE WORLD. THE WORD OF GOD HAS BEEN PREACHED
IN THE MOST UNFORGIVING CIRCUMSTANCES ACROSS THE GLOBE. THERE IS ALWAYS
OPPORTUNITY TO PREACH JESUS CHRIST. I TELL YOU WHAT, What an indictment
on our own nation. We just talked about this Memorial
Day that we'll celebrate tomorrow and the freedoms that we have
for those that gave their life for our America and for our way
of life. Watch, they gave their life for
our freedom of religion as well. pulpits are cold today. They
are devotionalizing today. They are self-help gurus with
some Bible attached to it so you can have your best life now.
No, they need to know the Gospel of Jesus Christ. What is the
Gospel? Well, it starts with bad news.
What is bad news? Well, you are lost. And we're born sinners
by nature and sinners by choice. And we're on our way to hell
if we stay in that condition. But the good news is God sent
Jesus, His only Son, to pay the price for our sin and shed His
blood, which was accepted by God. And the good news is that
our sins can be forgiven eternally and we can forever be reconciled
to our Creator. Forever. One of these days, we'll get
back to Hebrews 8, Hebrews 9 actually. We'll look at this again. It's
awesome. Yeah. There's always been the opportunity
to preach the gospel. On January 8th, 1956, a very
familiar story to most people in this room, Jim Elliott and
Nate Saint and Ed McCulley and Peter Fleming, Roger Uterine,
were attacked and speared to death by a group of Akha Indians,
South American Ecuador. Brother Boonstra, who's now passed
away, he met, I think it was Nate Saint, he had met Nate Saint.
His daughter and son-in-law were missionaries in Ecuador, and
he got to meet some of these people. But we know the story,
most everybody knows the events of what happened with Jim Elliott.
And we know what else happened with his wife Elizabeth and Nate's
sister Rachel, who eventually went back to that very same village
After their husbands and their brother were killed by the same
Indians, they went back to that very same village. When their
lives were turned upside down, when their future was shattered
and destroyed, they went back with a team and won many of them
to Christ. The very ones that put a spear
through her husband's chest, she was able to win to Jesus
Christ. Wow. Needless to say, Elizabeth and
Rachel were not trained missionaries. But you know what? They went
anyway. Why? Because it's the gospel that has the power to
change lives. Amen. See, life hadn't gone as planned
for them, but the ladies looked at the opposition as an opportunity
and hazarded their lives. to reach the murderers of their
husbands, and their brothers, and their relatives with the
gospel of Jesus Christ. This is what these Christians
in Acts chapter eight are doing. Scattered by persecution, simply
carrying on what they started in Jerusalem. How could they
do that? Well, can I tell you number one, I think one of the
reasons is, because they believed it. It was real. I'm getting
more convinced, at least half of our church doesn't even believe
it. Half of the church is America. I don't know if they really believe
it. I don't know if it's really real. I mean, there's a lot of
religion, and there's a lot of ritualistic things that go on,
even Baptist rituals that go on, but I don't know if there's
a relationship sometimes. I wonder at times. What moved
these people? Well, how could you move them
off of something that they knew? John said over in 1 John, you
know, those who we saw with our eyes and heard with our ears
and touched with our hands, the word of life himself. How did
they go to their death? Because they knew him and they
met him and he lived in them and they couldn't be drawn otherwise.
This is why they lived their life the way they did, right? Because they believed it. They
believed it. Opposition turned into opportunity. Would you notice
the outcome here? Philip the deacon went down to
Samaria. Look here in verse four. Therefore they that were scattered
abroad went everywhere preaching the word. Then Philip went down
to the city of Samaria and preached Christ unto them. Now let me
give you a little clue here. You said down. That seems like
south to us. Samaria is north. How do they
do that? Well to a Jew Israel or Jerusalem
is one of the highest points and you always go up to Jerusalem
and down from Jerusalem. That's how they give directions.
When I was over there a guide told us everything is up right
to Jerusalem and if you are in Jerusalem everything is down.
though they were going north in elevation they went down from
Jerusalem down into Samaria. And so this is what Philip had
done. Jesus had already been there
a few years earlier speaking to that woman at the well. But
listen to this, no place on earth has all of the Gospel they need.
Nixa does not have all of the gospel they need. Though we're
in the Bible Belt, though there are churches on every corner
around this place, I dare say there are so many people in this
city that have never had a clear presentation of the gospel. I'm telling you, we knock doors
and we talk to them, and they go to certain churches around
this place, and you give them the gospel, and I'm telling you,
they have some weird and strange ideas of what it is to be a child
of God. Why? They've never heard the
gospel of Jesus Christ. He went down where Jesus had
already been and he preached to them. Watch this, the people
of Samaria, verse 6, they listened. And the people with one accord
gave heed to those things which Philip spake. They listened to
him. They believed them, hearing and
seeing the miracles which He did. For unclean spirits, crying
with loud voice, came out of many that were possessed with
them, and many taken with palsies, and that were lame, were healed.
So, not only did they hear the preaching of the Gospel of the
Word of God, at this time in the book of Acts and the transition
from the Old Covenant to a New Covenant, from Israel to a Church,
and the Church is not Israel. I don't have time to get into
that, but I'll just throw it out there. But in this interim period God gave
this interim period signs and wonders to authenticate the message
they were preaching. And they heard the preaching
of the Gospel. and they saw what was going on with the demons
and the sick were healed and the crippled and the palsies
were healed. What did they do? They believed
the gospel. Look at verse 8. And there was great joy in the
city. Can I tell you this is what happens
when the gospel is believed? Great joy. Great joy. How many
can remember the day they were born again by the Spirit of God?
Was that one of the lowest days in your life? It was one of the
greatest days, was it not? It was a happy, happy, happy
day, was it not? Yeah, amen, it was. There was
great joy in the city. I'm amazed at how many unhappy
people I've come across that named the name of Christ. Yep, there's a lot of carnality
within the household of God nowadays within the United States of America. Hey, listen, we all get caught
in it, don't we? We all get caught in the doom
and the gloom of where we're living, the time we're living,
and you know, if we just ponder a little bit of where we used
to be and where we are now and where we're headed, it'll help
you out. It'd bring the joy back. It'd bring the happiness back.
It absolutely would. I mean, tell you, we are living
in a negative, negative society. You know, we have more money,
more technology, and more creature comforts, and perhaps we have
ever known, no doubt we have, and people live in a state of
constant anger and angst. I mean, anybody you could come
across, Christian or non-Christian, it's just like, you know, they're
ready to fight over everything. It's like, my goodness, God,
help us, right? We have the God of heaven that
lives in us. Who can't go away? You know when
the Holy Spirit is going to go away and come out of our, exit
our life? Is when we exit the body as well.
Someday this carcass is going in the ground. Our soul is coming
out. And you know what? When we leave it, He'll leave
too. But before then, He's not leaving. Amen. We are secure
in Christ. Ought to make you happy, friend.
Amen. Joy unspeakable. Full of glory. When I realize all my past was
wiped away, all of my future was taken care of in the blood
of Jesus Christ, can't help but make you happy. No. Even when I think about it today,
when I think about it this morning, I can't help but get happy to
know that the God of heaven loves me. If nobody loves you, God
loves you. Yeah. He died for you. He died
for me. He shed his own blood for me.
Why? It was all about relationship. Because the God of heaven wanted
to have a relationship with his creation. My sin is gone, we
just sang it, amen? Heaven is my home. Listen, sometimes
you just gotta tell somebody, amen? You ought to. This is what they did. There
was opposition. But with that opposition came
opportunity. And when they took the opportunity, look at the
outcome. Joy. Salvation. People coming to Jesus. Their eternal destiny changed
in a moment. Amen. This is by no means An
endorsement, please forgive me if this brings something back
to your head as it did for me, but it came to my head and I
want to show you the error of it. I shouldn't. Forgive me. Dionne Warwick sang
a song. What the world needs now is love,
sweet love. Sorry, it's in your head, I know
it is. She said it's the only thing that there's just too little
of. Wrong. What the world needs is the gospel
of Jesus Christ because God is love. If you get the gospel, you'll
get everything that the world can never offer you and more. If there's one thing that's missing
in our nation, in our churches, in our lives, if there's one
thing that's missing, it's the gospel, the preaching of the
gospel of Jesus Christ. Listen, we're building colleges,
we're filling seminaries, we're building houses, we're digging
wells, we're feeding the hungry, we're sheltering the homeless,
we're making reality shows, we're growing internet presences with
churches and things like that, and the advertising, and colleges
are like, I just heard of a college, a Bible college the other day.
I just heard of it the other day. They have marketing. I really
have trouble with marketing Bible colleges, but their marketing
is 90% of our graduates have a paid position when they graduate.
Well, who on earth cares? How about going where God wants
you to go? Oh my goodness. I mean, we got so much. We're
collecting more money than we've ever collected probably in the
history of our churches, but our nation has never been farther
away from God than it is today. People have never been more stressed.
People have never felt more empty. Young people have never been
more deceived and confused. I mean, they don't know if they're
a girl or a boy. And the psycho adults that are trying to tell
them what they are. They ought to be in jail and the kids need
some help. Amen. Good night. It's sick. People have never been so unhappy.
Can I tell you something this morning? Listen, the world may
have scattered your life. Your life may have taken a turn
that you didn't expect. Persecution may have marked your
life. Just life itself and the weight of life and the change
of life and the direction of life may have just upended your
life like you have not expected. But can I tell you, regardless
of it, you can still preach the gospel. Amen. You don't need to be a pastor.
You don't need to be a deacon. You don't need to be a Sunday
school teacher. You don't need to be specially gifted. You don't
have to have a perfect past, hallelujah, right? You can go
out and say, yeah, I was that, but look what Jesus did for me.
And he can do the same for you today. Amen. If you've been purchased
by the blood of Jesus Christ, and you're living in obedience
to the word of God this morning, and listen, you know what you
do? Go out and just preach Jesus, preach the cross, preach an empty
tomb, get out and preach. What we sang it this morning,
plead with them earnestly, plead with them gently, right? Jesus
will save if they only believe. Rescue the perishing, care for
the dying. Jesus is merciful, amen? Jesus
will save. Could you imagine going out with
a job from your, with such confidence behind you as God will, you do
this and God will do this. Boy, that's confidence. First
Corinthians 118, for the preaching of the cross is to them that
perish foolishness, but in us which are saved, it's the power
of God. Listen to me, people say, I need
the power of God in my life. I've just lost the power of God
in my life. Well, go out and preach the gospel. That's where
the power is. Just get out and preach it. Sometimes the reactions are fun. I had a meeting over in Sparta
about a week ago, and these guys wanted some stuff done on their
windows, you know, some painting. And they said, well, we'll have
a open house night, and you'll have to come to that. And we'll
have plenty of liquor. And I'm like, oh, well, I'm a
Baptist preacher. And they're like, oh. I don't know if it ever gets,
how far this gets online sometimes. I gotta be careful. But strangely
enough, I'm not gonna be doing the project. And I think, oh,
that's funny. Anyway. Amen. You want the power of God in
your life? Regardless of, listen, regardless of what life has done
to you, regardless of what the world has done to you, Yeah,
preach the cross. Preach Christ. I messaged a friend
of mine this morning, I said, do you mind if I tell this story?
He said, it'd be just fine, absolutely. I've told it before, I think
it's been a while, but friends of ours from Berean, Brother
Al Price was the assistant pastor at Berean, and him and his wife
were there for some time, and then went back out to Florida. He pastored other places, and
he pastored in Florida, then he resigned from there, and they
were kind of in retirement time out in Arizona. And that morning,
he had a Facebook post of his thought of his wife and how long
they'd been together, 40 some years since high school. And
he said these words, I don't know what it'd be like to, I
can't imagine life without my wife. And later that day, she
was killed. They were coming back from vacation,
a little time up in the mountains, and a drunk driver drove across
the line and hit him head on. Killed her instantly. And he
went through some dark, dark, dark times. And he said, I don't
know how to live without my bride. I don't know how to do this. And eventually the court case
came up and the trial came up. And he'd post every once in a
while, would you pray for me? You don't know the pain I have that
my wife is gone, but I still don't want this guy to die and
go to hell. I still don't want him to die and go to hell. pray
for me, I wanna have some words. And at the trial, he was able
to have some words and able to tell him, I forgive you, I forgive
you. He said, you took my bride, you
took my life away from me, but I forgive you. And later on,
I don't know if it was a year later, I remember him posting,
he says, I have an opportunity to send him something in jail.
He went to jail for a long time. And he took his wife's Bible
and sent her, sent this man his wife's Bible. and said, I want
you to have this. I want you to read this. I want
you to be saved. My wife would want you to be
saved. And supposedly, from the word back, he was born again.
He got saved. And he was very happy about that.
You know, no matter what life throws at you, and no matter
what left turn comes, and no matter what persecution comes
into your life, no matter how life turns out like you didn't
expect it to, you can still preach the gospel. You can still see
people come to Christ. And in the deepest, darkest times
of life, rays, brilliant rays of joy and hope can overshadow
the darkness when somebody in their own heart calls upon God.
to be saved. There is no joy greater, friend,
than to listen to somebody humbly call upon the name of the Lord
Jesus Christ and get up from that place knowing that their
sins are gone and they're a child of God. Listen, I don't care
what life has done, what persecutions happened. Listen to me, we just
need to get back to preaching the gospel everywhere we go. Our Father, thank you this morning.
Would you help us to be a church to be a people, no matter what
happens in our life, to just keep preaching the gospel of
Jesus Christ. It is the power of God unto salvation,
and we thank you for that. We pray you'd have your will
and your way in the invitation today, in Jesus' name, amen. Let's stand this morning, if
you would please, the invitation is open. I don't know where life
has taken you, but maybe you just needed to be encouraged
and get along with the Lord this morning. and just continue preaching the
gospel of Jesus Christ. Maybe life has taken your joy
from you, taken your peace from you. Can I tell you that joy
would come back if you get back just to preach in the gospel?
It would come back. It absolutely would. You respond. to God this morning. Maybe you're here this morning
and you've never been born again. Maybe you're watching online, you've
never been born again. You need to be saved today. Can I tell
you, God is waiting, Jesus is waiting. Whosoever shall call
upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. If you've never been
saved this morning, you need to come today and ask God to
save you. He will. There is no other name
given among men under heaven whereby we must be saved. Jesus said, I am the way, the
truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. You come to him today. Church,
are you preaching the gospel? Are you faithful at your job?
Are you faithful with the people you come across? Are you faithful
with the open doors and the opportunities that come to you to give people
the gospel of Jesus Christ? Are our pockets full of tracts?
Are they ready to be handed out? Yeah. Preach Christ. so All right. I'm going to have
you stay standing just for a minute. I'm going to have Ruth come forward.
Ruth, why don't you come up here, if you would. And not in trouble at all. Ruth
has wanted to present herself for baptism to be added to Crimson
Avenue Baptist Church. And Ruth, we've spent a couple
of years now, right? We've been thankful for Ruth
being here, her faithfulness. And I've told people our non-members
are more faithful than our members. Oh, never mind. We've been thankful
for Ruth's faithfulness, and we've had a lot of time of teaching
and training, but she's never been scripturally baptized. I've
talked to Ruth a while back, and we went over her salvation.
She knows, she knows she's been born again, but she wants to
follow the Lord in baptism. So, all of those who are members
of Crimson Avenue Baptist Church who are ready to receive Ruth
into the body here by baptism, would you lift up your hand and
say, Amen? Amen. Alright, probably nobody opposed,
because if you're opposed we'll have to church you. No, we don't
do that. Well, not that one, anyway. So
that wasn't too hard, was it? No? Amen. And so we're going
to set up a bab between Ruth and Anne. I didn't call her Sue
today. Anne will be here tonight. And
Anne is in the same, you all are almost sisters, right? Well,
except you're Dutch Reformed and she was Lutheran. So OK.
but Dan is gonna be being baptized as well. So we'll be having that
set up and I'm gonna get with Brother Shoal down in Spokane.
We've already talked about it using their baptistry. And so
we're trying to plan this, how we're gonna do it on a Sunday
after the morning service sometime. And we'll have something fun
planned. So we'll do that quickly here soon within the next week
or two. All right, come by and give Ruth a right hand of fellowship,
would you? And we'll be dismissed on a word of prayer. All right,
Brother Ian, would you close us in prayer, please?
ACts 8
Series Acts
| Sermon ID | 52525179143003 |
| Duration | 39:09 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Bible Text | Acts 8 |
| Language | English |
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