and turn to Acts chapter 1, and if you'll look on the pews, there should be a handout there. I'll be giving the handouts before, and we've always put them on the table here, and people have just come up to get them. We're trying to cause that not to be the problem, but we've kind of sprinkled them throughout, and if you need a handout, just look around, and who wants one? Alright, ladies in the back there, and we should have some, there's some up on the second pew here as well. And we'll get them to you. Charles and John Wesley were not permitted to preach in their father's church after he died. And they would go out to the graveyard of where their father was buried and they would preach and 10,000 people would come to hear them preach. Someone came up to Charles Wesley and they said, how in the world do you get 10,000 people out to the graveyard to hear you preach? He looked at them and said, I set myself on fire and people come to watch me burn. Now, it was either Charles or John Wesley, one of them, who said that every seven years they burned their messages. You know that, Brother Ray? And he said, if I can't write better messages, if I haven't grown deeper in the Lord after seven years, I shouldn't be preaching, so I burn my messages every seven years. I taught this series back 17 years ago. I don't burn messages. And some of you, even Sunday morning, I had someone come to me and said, You combined some messages together for that message Sunday morning. And they were right. I had. And we have people here who have the Cambridge wide margin Bibles There they have the alliteration that I give, they have the illustration. If I tell the story wrong, they come up and say, you told it differently back in 1992. In 1992, you told it this way, and it was partly cloudy and 72 degrees. They know everything about that day. But I don't burn messages, but I think that there is some improvement, hopefully, that comes. So this is not going to be a word study from the book of Acts. It's just going to be a survey. we're going to survey the chapters of the book of Acts. Now, let me get started by saying that the author of the book of Acts is, of course, God, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, but was penned by Luke. I believe the key verse is Acts 1, verse 8. But you 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 other parts of the earth. And I believe that is the key verse. The key word is the growth of the church. And I was thinking what better book to review again when you see that this is the example of the church, this is the early church, this is the pattern of what God expects, His expectation of the church. Now in this book we find out a lot of people We would not know about Saul of Tarsus were it not for the book of Acts. We would not know about his conversion in Acts chapter 9 on the road to Damascus. We wouldn't know about the imprisonment of Peter who was there and chained between soldiers because it pleased the Jewish people, so Herod did so. We would not know about the cleansing of the church of Ananias and Sapphira. There's so many different things we would not know that this book alone really is a springboard. It gives us a well of wisdom that helps us, especially through the Pauline epistles and other scriptures as we'll see. Now, each message that's preached in the book of Acts, the central theme is the resurrected Savior, the resurrection of Jesus. And that's the hot button. Those Jews could take a lot of it, but boy, when you talk about He was risen, that was the hot button with those folks, let me tell you. Do you know why? Because they said when He was before Pilate, crucify Him, crucify Him, let His blood be upon us and upon our children, and it is. And that's why it's a hot button for them. So, the book was written somewhere between A.D. 62 and the middle of the 2nd century, so I've given you some foundation there. Now, let's read the first 11 verses here. The former treatise, which is just simply a word for book, have I made or written, O Theopolis, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach. So he's saying that he is the one who has given the experience and he's writing the things that Jesus began both to do and to teach. Unto the day in which he was taken up after that he, through the Holy Ghost, had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen. Now he makes his appearance, verses 3 through 8, to whom also he showed himself alive after the passion of many in fallible proofs, being seen of them forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God. Now he's talking here about the coming of the Holy Spirit. And then he speaks in verse 5, and John truly baptized with water. These are the words that Jesus spoke to his disciples. But ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence. When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the time or the seasons which the Father hath put in his own power. But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you. And ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts 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 while they looked steadfastly towards heaven, as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus... What a blessing this is. This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go up into heaven. Let me tell you something, that time is close. So we have these first 11 verses and verse 11, it concerns the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 8 concerns the coming of the Holy Spirit. Verse 5 concerns the promise of His coming. And then we see the power of His coming. But ye shall receive power. And then we see the product of His coming, speaking of the Holy Ghost. And you shall be witnesses unto me. So we have power that's given from above by the person of the Holy Spirit. And the product of that power would be converts. You shall be witnesses unto me. Now the Holy Ghost wasn't given. so that we might be spiritual giants. The Holy Ghost wasn't given so that we could jump pews and grab the Christian flag and run around the building. The Holy Ghost wasn't given so that we could have a shout-out moment in a camp meeting time. The Holy Ghost was not given so that we might be slain in the Spirit. The Holy Ghost was not given so that we might exercise our great gifts. The Holy Ghost was not given so that we might be slain in the Spirit, but He was given that we might be witnesses of Jesus. That's the purpose. And there are those who say, you know, I just don't have the gift of Gab. Well, let me tell you, it's not the gift of Gab. And it's not a recommendation to go ye, it's a command to go ye. And soul winning, it is the life's blood of the church. A church that does not reach out to win souls is not an obedient church. And a Christian that does not reach out to win souls is not an obedient Christian. We're walking in disobedience. The only alternative to soul winning is disobedience. So there's the word missions. Now we have a mission board, Far East Baptist Missions International. We have, of course, some of our missionaries here who are stranded and they want to get back to their mission field. And we have missionaries out of our church. We have a missionary tonight, the Keatons that are in prison. They were out of our church for numerous years. The Keatons' daughter, Tanya, she's a missionary for many years now in Kenya, and she was a very sickly young lady. I didn't know if she was going to make it there or not, but she has just been tough as a pine knot. God has used them in a great way. As a matter of fact, when I was with Brother Hanks, there's a family out of his church going to Kenya, and we were talking with them one afternoon, and I said, Shelby's they said they lit up and said that's who we're going to go work with that's who's going to help I said you're in good hands With those folks small world, especially in the independent Baptist circle and everything. It can be a small world so But the word mission listen The word missions is not found in the Bible a Church Must be mission minded when we think of missions We, our mind travels because of missions, conferences, I think it travels to missionaries and to money. And rightfully so. I was looking over here. Before the pandemic happened, we were going to take our faith promise and we haven't ever taken it. Now, some of you have already started giving, and some of you, I think, have increased, but we never took it. It just stopped. And I preached every Wednesday night about missions. We were building up for this. And it just didn't happen because of the pandemic that took place. But when we think of missions, although the word missions is not in the Bible, we think of supporting missionaries, we think of giving money, who are going to go to foreign places and build churches. But the mission of the church is evangelism. That's the mission of the church. And the mission of the Christian is to win souls. That's our mission. And if the church is not evangelizing and if Christians are not winning souls, we are in failure. Notice in verse 8 of chapter 1 of this book, the Acts of the Apostles. He says in the middle, he says, unto me both in Jerusalem. Both in. I want to focus on that word for just a moment. And let me say that we should be witnesses both in our neighborhood and in other nations. We have a responsibility. I don't have time, but I've preached a message years ago, actually as a guest preacher in this church, about the unpaid debt of the local New Testament church. And the fields are fighting to harvest. It's something that you need to understand. Listen to me on this. China or the Philippines or Australia or Scotland or, you know, I could go on. Spain is not these people's field. Those are our fields. They are laborers for the harvest that God has called. And I've said this many times, that if God calls us, we should go. But if God hasn't called us, then we should send those who have been called and pray for those who we have sent. That is the responsibility of a worldwide evangelism. Now, our neighborhoods and in other nations, both in, is what the Bible tells us here. So soul winning in our community and country is missions. Soul winning in our community and country, that's what missions is. Every person in Jackson, listen, they're a missionary or they're a mission field. Every person. We used to have a sign up in the other church that we were in, just a strip that says, you are now entering the mission field. And that's true. When you walk out of these doors, listen, you're going to the mission field. Listen, it's around the world and it's across the street. And a church has to be strong in order to support foreign missions. I was talking to Pastor Harris in New York, and just in the very beginning and then towards the end of that week, COVID just really took place. We flew to New York, David and I flew to New York, and I preached a missions conference there. The devil fought all week long. All week. You wouldn't believe the week we had. And Brother Harris was involved in a bad car accident. There's just so many things that happened. And Debbie got very sick. I mean, extremely ill. Fever and chills and very sick. The devil just fought, and I wasn't sure. We had preached Wednesday through Sunday. We had an international dinner on Saturday, and I spoke about 20 minutes about missions there. But Brother Harris called me last week, and it's been a while, but he said he's like every pastor. He wants to make sure he's coming in before he says anything. But their missions program went up over $1,000 a month after that missions conference. That is tremendous. And what's even more a blessing, they took on all of our missionaries out of our church. They had already supported Zach, but they took all the others on as well. Isn't that a great blessing? I was there in the service, and Pastor Harris showed videos of each of our missionaries from our church. And I gotta tell you, while I was sitting on the platform, my buttons were bursting. I was so proud of what our folks had done by the power of the Lord. And so they took on the other three families as well. Now, a church has got to be strong in order to do that. A church has to win souls and has to disciple converts in order to grow. You know, Pastor Harris has just started this Faith Promise Missions. I think they're in their seventh year, but it's not something he did the first three years. He's building the church. God's using him to build the church. He's strengthening the church. So the church has to win souls. The church has to disciple converts. And to grow enough to support foreign missions, you know, some time, some strength, some additional missionaries. There's support for the pastor, there's support for tracts, there's support for radio, sometimes TV, sometimes bus ministry, and all of this is home missions. All of it is. I met a really sweet couple that's going to... Oh, somewhere there in Kansas, I'm trying to remember. when I was with Pastor Hanks. There's not one King James Bible, not one independent Baptist church in that area. You know, my heart, I didn't say that we would support him, but I told him I sure would support him in prayer, and I would love to support him. You know, I haven't met most missionaries I meet I want to support them. You know that? I would love to do that. So, understand what missions is. It's not just sending the missionary to the field. So, soul winning in our community and country is missions, and then soul winning in other countries is missions. Now our church should provide for missionaries to foreign lands. How do we do that? We do that through faith promise. Now some of you may be here, you don't know this, you don't understand this, but we give our tithes and offerings. Why? Because they belong to the Lord. The tithe is the Lord's. and we're to give an offering. But above and beyond the tithing offering, we give faith promise. And that is our faith promise mission support. That's how we send our missionaries to go across the seas and around the world. They've got to be supported. And listen, some of the missionaries have taken a licking since this COVID-19 have shut churches down. Just this past last month, I think, or a month and a half ago, we had an increase in our faith promise or in our missions budget, and we cut an extra check for $1,000 to all of our missionaries just trying to encourage them and help them some. That's what the church needs to do. and understand that our church should provide for missionaries to go to the foreign field. Our church should pay for missionaries to be supported to go to the foreign field. Now there's churches that have all kinds of Lottie Moon and Annie Armstrongs and all this stuff, and they think they've done good stuff because they gave $350 to missions that year, or $800 that year. And yet the Convention Missionary Association, he makes about $130,000, $140,000 a year. That's a little bit upset. That's a little bit upside down, isn't it? Say, Pastor, you know what you're talking about? I know exactly what I'm talking about. But we should pay for missionaries to go. And our church should not just provide for missionaries and shouldn't just pay for missionaries. We should be producing missionaries to go. We should be having young men and young women grow up and have a heart for missions. Mission is the task of the church. It's not the task of the Bible college. It's not the task of the mission board to send forth missions. It is the church's responsibility to send forth missions. Take missionaries and get them out. So, we should be witnesses both in our neighborhood and in nations. And then secondly, we should be witnesses both in our conversation and in conduct. Now the primary meaning of conversation in the Bible deals with your conduct. It's not always talking about what you're saying. It's talking about how you're behaving. This is important. I'm referring to speech and behavior here. In Acts 8, verse 4, "...therefore they that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word." They that scattered abroad, that was a church family. That was the lay person, not the preachers. They stayed and faced the opposition. Matthew 5, verse 16, "...let your light so shine before men." that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven. So the primary means of conversation in the Bible is conduct, and it's referring to our speech. People will listen to our talk, what we say. There's folks who will listen to our talk. They're hearing all kinds of junk. It's worse than ever. It's worse than it's ever been. Back when I was just a young preacher, just 17, 18 years old, I used to get on the TV and I used to listen to these people. I used to like to listen to them. Have any of you ever heard Reverend Ike? Let me see your hands. One, two, three, four, five, six. Yeah. Reverend Ike would say, The love of money is not the root of all evil. The lack of money is. That's why he would preach that. And he would have a handkerchief like this, and he would wipe his sweat, then he'd sell it. Because it had holy sweat in it that had healing powers. Am I telling the truth? Tell me when you're laughing. You know I'm telling the truth. He said, I'll sell it to you for $25. It has healing. I'll give you mine for $15 tonight. Right tonight. Now, There's all kinds of things that are being said. Much of the junk that they hear, they hear with the name of Jesus tacked to it. We need to tell them about Jesus. We need to tell them the truth of the Lord Jesus, and we need to tell them the true gospel and the grace of God. 1 Corinthians 121 says, for after that in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God. It pleased God, listen, by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believed. So people will listen to our talk, what we say. And then people will look at our walk, what we do. Our actions need to match our advertisement. Our practice needs to match our preaching. No Christian is perfect. but we should have great desire and give a great endeavor to live godly and righteously in front of people. You know, we may be the only Bible some person reads. We should be witnesses both in our neighborhood and nation, both in our conversation and in conduct, And then both in our weeping and our warning. I think this is key. In Jude 1 chapter, verses 21 through 23, keeping yourselves in the love of God. I think that's key, isn't it? You know, some people, they just don't love the Lord when they should. And that's why they don't reach out to people and talk to them about God. It's not that they're shy and they're bashful. Man, you see them at a ball game, they lose their heads. Am I telling the truth? Are you listening to me tonight? Keeping yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ into your eternal life. And if some have compassion, making a difference. Some people have been born with kick me on their back and they just need somebody to love them. Someone to take time with them. When I was much younger, my my youngest son, John, would come up and talk to me and I'd be I'd be busy and I'd be reading my Bible or making some notes and he'd come up, he'd be talking to me and he'd say, Daddy, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. And then he reach up with his little hands and put them on my cheeks and say, Daddy, look at me when I'm talking to you. He knew did not have my attention. And he'd say, Daddy, Daddy, please look at me when I'm talking to you. And I said, Okay, I put the pen down and I fold my arms, I look at it says, What is it, john, what do you need? And he would tell me, it was usually ice cream. And, and the other kids had put him up to it. They knew, I'd say no to them. I think it's always the baby that gets away with it. Y'all need to learn that, you know, don't you ask for ice cream, let bear. And make sure he's not the only one who gets it either. But anyway, there are people that if you just give them your face, your eyes, and your attention, and have some compassion, it goes a long way with them. You know that? We have people in our church that I mean just a dog shouldn't have had the childhood that they've had. And the fact that we've taken some time and I want to tell you this church, the fact that when they first enter this church, you overwhelmingly embrace them and love them made a huge difference. You know, the pastor can't do that by himself. The church does that. And so, understand there's power in tears. Psalm 126. And they that sow in tears shall reap in joy. He that goeth forth and weepeth bearing precious seeds shall doubtless come again with rejoicing bringing his sheaves with him. People will care more about how much we know if they first know how much we care. And I want you to know that I'm afraid that what happens to us sometimes, and it happens to me as well, we're so experienced in our program and in our presentation and how we deliver the gospel that we become robotic and a machine and there's not much heart there for that person's soul. And friend, that's where the difference is. When they see that we're broken and we're loving and we're concerned and we're real about this thing. It makes a difference in when we talk to them. So there's power in tears. Let me say there's power in terror. I preached on hell. I preached on the mark of the beast a week ago, and I preached on Bible salvation, and I mentioned hell Sunday morning. You know, hell's not hardly ever mentioned. When's the last time you heard a preacher mention hell? I'm not talking about you who are in independent Baptist churches. When's the last time you turned the radio on? When's the last time you got on the internet? When's the last time you watched TV and somebody talked about hell? What they'll say is, and if you don't come to Christ, there'll be this great gulf of separation there. Well, that's hell. That's what it is. They don't want to talk about it. That's not PC. There's preachers today who are preaching. They don't believe in hell themselves, and yet they can fill a coliseum of people. Unbelievable. You know, I love to preach to a coliseum full of people, but I tell you what's more important to me than that, standing before the Father and hearing well done and being right with this book. You see, there's power in tears, but there's power in terror. John the Baptist, he thundered in his preaching. In Matthew 3, verse 7, the Bible says, But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Man, I love that passage. I was visiting a family. Debbie was with me. I was visiting a family some years ago. And we were there, and this couple had visited our church. And you have, you know, Mr. Casper Milquetoast, who just sits there and doesn't say nothing. He looks at his wife. The wife's going to call the shots here. You know what? Lead your family. If you lead them wrong, just lead them, please." And I turned to her and she says, well, we're really looking for more of a compassionate place, a place like Jesus. The sweetness of Jesus, just like that. I said, are you talking about Jesus who went into the temple and threw the tables upside down? Who had made a cat of nine tails and was swishing it back and driving the money changers and the thieves out of the house of God? Is that the Jesus you're talking about? Are you talking about the Jesus who got up and said, you're full of dead men's bones? You're a white painted sepulchre? You're a generation of vipers? Debbie's over there like her mouth hanging out like, what are you doing? Is that the Jesus you're talking about? Well, they didn't come back. But you need to know who Jesus is. Soul winning is telling people the good news. But let me tell you, soul winning is also telling them the bad news. And it's Jesus or it's eternal damnation. One way to put soul winning in other words is to say that we're keeping people out of hell. And I can't think of anything better than that. So we should be witnesses both in our neighborhood and our nations, both in conversation and conduct, both in weeping and warning. And then four, both in public and in private. Notice in Acts 20, the Bible says, "...and how I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you." He didn't hold back. He didn't give a little bit. He didn't hold anything back. "...but have showed you and have taught you," look what he says, "...publicly and from house to house." Now publicly, we reach people in groups. We reach people. I have street preached publicly. There's radio. Can I tell you that Facebook is so much better than radio ever could be? I've had radio broadcast. It costs a lot of money. You get 15 minutes, and, I mean, if you don't get your 15 minutes done, you're cut off right there. It comes on at a certain hour. It's not heard again after that. I mean, what a blessing this is. There's through newspapers, there's internet ministry, all kinds of things I could say. And people write us often. Often I've gotten letters about assurance of salvation. I've got numerous tracts back that some of our teenagers have passed out, some of you have passed out, that have come back saying, I received Jesus Christ. You know what we did one time? We took a huge helium balloon and we put gospel tracts in it. It's a big bus promotion one day. It was like a weather balloon. It wasn't like some balloon you get at Walmart. It's a weather balloon. And we launched that thing. And I forget now, does anybody remember that thing? I think it came down in Canada somewhere. And we got feedback from that and about the gospel. It was many years ago. Now, every Christian should participate. Listen to this. Some of you don't believe this. This is where some of you are Baptist atheists. Every Christian should be a participant in winning people to Christ. I mean, God's not asking us to go up on top of the roof and weld a cross on the steeple. He's just asking us to go hang a plastic bag on the doorknob. That's not a whole lot, is it? And to talk to people when we get a chance. Witnessing to a Sunday school visitor after class. Winning your family member to Christ. Witnessing to a fellow employee, a co-worker on your break time. It should be public and private. Witnessing to people. Listen, there should be a cohesive corporate time to go soul winning. But we should witness daily. Some folks don't know they can get saved on Monday and Tuesday. I think it's got to be on Thursday night and Saturday or Sunday in the service. No. You know. And listen, don't second guess the Holy Spirit when he pricks your heart to give a word. Ah, I was recording on Facebook one day, and I want to tell you something. God just got in that thing. I mean, it was as if someone's going to hear this, someone's going to listen to this, someone's going to replay this. And I gave the gospel as simple as I knew how to give. And then lastly, we should be witnesses both in giving and in going. In Philippians 4, verse 15, it says, Now ye Philippians know also that in the beginning of the gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no church communicated with me as concerning giving and receiving, but ye only. Now, the work referred to above this communication is giving. He's talking about giving. He's talking about support here. And Paul went and they gave him support for his travels. They gave him support so that he could preach the gospel. And every Christian should be a part of giving and going because those are the two legs the gospel gets out of. I don't know how many years now, but listen, we have given to our ties and offerings. We still give to the building debt retirement. We still do that. And we give to missions to support our missionaries. Listen, that's part of our obligation. And what I found out, the more we give, the more God blesses. He does. Now, Paul went and they gave him support. Witnessing takes money. Oh, brother, we love you. We're praying for you. Well, that's great. I want to tell you something. You don't get people to go on the other side of the world and not have to support them. They can't get jobs over there. There's some people say, well, why don't they just get a job over there? You know, that's somebody who's never been out of, you know, you know, Shelby County. You know, I'm trying to pick a county nobody lives in. Witnessing takes money. Philippians 4, verse 16 and 17. Well, I read that earlier. But, you know, a local church has these expenses. They have salaries. They have mortgages. They have utilities. They have outreach. They've got to buy tracts. They have to buy books. They've got to, you know, support. You know, our bus ministry, that's diesel fuel, that's insurance, that's replacing rubber on those things. Listen, we replaced all the tires on one bus that's going to camp. It's $1,800, and that was some years ago. I said, well, why would you spend so much? Because I don't want our kids riding on imagination. I want them to get there. As a youth pastor, we rode on imagination. You had to pump the brake three times to get a pedal. Our pastor didn't care. I mean, we just rode around in junk. I don't want that. Witnessing takes money, and then witnessing takes manpower. Matthew 9 verse 37. Then said he unto his disciples, the harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few. Every Christian should go sowing. Someone must go and To the prospect, someone must go. To the foreign field, someone must go and build a strong church, either across the seas or here in America. I'll tell you this, America's becoming a dry wasteland spiritually. We need to have gospel-preaching churches. So, let's be balanced about this great commission. Let's win souls in our neighborhood and in other nations. Let's win souls in our conversation and in our conduct. Let's win souls in weeping and in warning. Let's win souls publicly and privately. Let's win souls in giving and in going. Let's be witnesses both ends. This is the first of many lessons and messages we'll have as we begin to survey the book of Acts. God's people said, Lord, I ask that you help us tonight. We want to pause, dear God, and ask you to help us. We can read the purpose-driven life, and we can read all Jesus plus nothing equals nothing, or equals Jesus. We can read all kinds of books, and some of us have. But there's not a better book than the book, your book, the Bible. And you've given us the perfect illustration and example what a church should be in the early church. I know that we have evolved in many ways and that can be good and it hasn't always been good, but it can be. But the core values and the plan and preparation and program of the church is pretty much the same as it was that you commissioned the disciples to do. Help us to be a part of it. While heads about and eyes are closed, let me tell you a story. I had a pastor friend of mine, he's a good man, but he spent a lot of money on a telephone program that would randomly call people all day long and give them the gospel. He was a little small country town. And he was laughing and telling me he was rejoicing, saying, this is going to be it. We're going to see so many people save our church is going to grow. And three years later, I saw him, I said, hey, how's that program going? And I walked away that day telling David, that's not going to work. And he says, you know, we never got anything out of that. So we've turned it into dial a prayer. And people can call it now and give a prayer request. And you may tell you why it didn't work. Because God's plan of so winning and reaching man was laid out in the book of Acts, and that he hasn't deviated from it. We can't call people in Bangladesh or Pakistan. We can't call people in China or in Taiwan. We can't call people in the Soviet Union, the old Soviet Union or Australia. We have to go. Go ye. God hasn't changed that. Now we may be able to go with computers and we may be able to go there and back in 15 hours. We may be able to go and I mean, there's a lot of things that have changed, but God's baseline purpose for the church has not deviated not one bit. We are to go. That's his command. We are to go. in our streets and we are to go around the world. He hasn't changed that. And by the way, when he gave this to disciples, they didn't have Internet. They didn't have airplanes. They didn't have cars. They didn't have transportation. They didn't have telephones. And they still went. And God worked his supernatural way to do it. And I want you to know, church, as we look through this book of Acts. The very first chapter. Luke writes about he gives the importance of evangelism. Are so winning both in. The very first 11 verses of this book. The key verse is Acts one eight. The key word is the growth of the church. The central theme of every message is the resurrection of Christ. And it hasn't changed. God help us. I mean, there's so many churches have gone to entertainment, and I think we can have entertainment. I think we can have picnics and ballgames and, you know, meals and a wonderful shower last night. But I'll tell you this. We cannot forsake the mission of the church. Our mission is to win the lost. The church is disobedient unless they go, and the Christian is disobedient unless he tells. Stand with me. Lord, help us tonight. Thank you for this very first lesson as we look and survey this great book. What a wonderful book it is. This one, Lord, I love the word of God, but this is one of my favorites. And I just pray That you'd help us. As we go through pandemics. And sicknesses and diseases and possibly jailings. This is what the early church went through. Help us to be true. And be obedient. If God spoke into your heart tonight about anything. Come and meet with him tonight. Be transparent with God. Have God's blessing on you when you leave. You come now.