So, So, so so I don't know. I don't know. I'm going to play it again. Thank you all for being here. I'm going to play a little bit of it. I love you. I love you. I love you. So, So, I love you. the the the Good morning, everyone. Welcome to our service on this Lord's Day, a beautiful day outside, a great day to gather together with God's people, to worship together and to honor Him. I do have to begin this morning by apologizing for the screens. The result, well we don't know if it's the result of being outside, but because we've been outside all summer, we haven't been in here running these projectors. And for whatever reason, this morning when we went to turn them on, these two projectors didn't come on. And that's why we're starting a little late, because we've been trying to figure out, is it a breaker? If so, where would that be? What could have happened to prevent these from working? Unfortunately, if we had learned this Last week, we could have had it fixed by now. We haven't, so that means you don't have the information on the screens that we typically do. But the bulletins have all the information that would have been on the screens, except for maybe a song or two. But we can always use our hymn books, and we'll make our way through on that. Lord willing, we will rectify this problem so that next week we'll be back in business again. And it's probably something very simple, but we don't have time this morning to continue to try to troubleshoot it. So, just wanted to let you know in case you're wondering, why aren't the screens working? It's just one of those things, but we won't let that impede our opportunity to worship the Lord. We don't need the screens to worship the Lord, right? It's nice, it's a convenience, but it's not a necessity. So we will soldier on, as they say. Just a couple of quick reminders. Next Sunday, we go back to our regular, our normal Sunday schedule. By that, we mean that church will begin at 9.30, so rather than 10 o'clock, our worship service will begin at 9.30 next Sunday morning, followed by a general Sunday school class around 11 o'clock. In conjunction with the general class, our DIG classes will begin in October. So October, November, December, we'll have the options that you can choose this class or this class or this class. But for the month of September, just a general adult Sunday school class. But in addition to that, we are going to have a membership class. I'll be teaching the membership class for the month of September. If you would like to be a part of that class, being a part of the membership class doesn't mean that you're obligated now to join the church. The membership class is an opportunity for you to learn more about us, for us to learn more about you. At the end of that, if you would then like to join the church in formal membership, then we're more than happy to see that through. So I'll be teaching that. If you can't come to every one of those Sundays, that's fine. Come to the ones that you can, and we will work with you on that. So the membership class will start that next Sunday, but it'll go through the month of September during that Sunday school hour. Men, our retreat, the men's retreat is September 13 and 14 at Longview Camp. You can sign up for that online. If you would need more information about that, just talk to me and I will help you with that. That's Friday night and Saturday. If you can't come Friday night, do come for Saturday. Friday night is the better meal. You get steak on Friday night, but that's okay because it's not all about the food. It's about the fellowship. It's about the opportunity to be with brothers in Christ. Do some things like throwing hatchets and all those things that we like to do, right? But more importantly, It's just being able to build relationships with other brothers in Christ and do some fun things together, but also be challenged in the Lord. So guys, I hope you'll make your plans to be there for Friday night and Saturday, or at least be there for Saturday and sign up for that. All right, our memory verse, one last time, for the month of August. Next week will be September, the first Sunday in September. We'll move on to verse nine in Romans 5. But for now, we are memorizing verse eight, and I encourage you this morning to recite the verse with me, reference before and after. Romans 5.8, that God commendeth his love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5.8. For our prayer time today, do pray for Rick Fichter III. He is our deacon of the week. So he will be coming here in a moment to open our service and prayer. Pray for Laura Berea. She is our teacher of the week. She teaches second grade in West Seneca Christian School. So pray your blessing upon her. And pray your blessing upon West Seneca Christian School. This week we begin our pre-service training. A week and a half from now school starts. So pray for the school. Pray for all the prep that's going in. Continue to pray for enrollment numbers. I pray the Lord's provision for our school. Pray for Peggy and Rick Fichter. The Lord's blessing upon them. We appreciate the Fichters. We're grateful for Rick. We're thankful with him. that his shoulder is healing well and properly. Continue to pray that that is the case. Pray for Bill and Lori Smith. They are missionaries to Papua New Guinea. Pray for Mr. and Mrs. Douglas and Deanna House. We want to congratulate them. They're not here this morning. You would understand that, but pray the Lord's blessing upon them and the home that they established yesterday. Pray for Marilyn and Heidi as they continue their respective battles with cancer. Pray for our senior saints, the Lord's blessing upon each of them as well. that the Lord would be with them. I think there is a song sheet being handed out now. So as Rick comes to open our service in prayer, hopefully you've received one of those. I'll invite you to stand as Rick opens our service in prayer. Let's pray. Father in heaven, we come before you. We come humbly. come lowly, we understand we are nothing, and yet because of the sacrifice of your son, we have a chance to come into your presence at any moment in prayer, in worship, with our songs, with our offerings, with our voices, with our hearts. This is an exciting day, but we do celebrate the marriage of two people that love you, And Lord, we ask that you would walk with them through the many ups and downs, through the trials and tribulations. Lord, when those moments strike, when those things happen, I pray that their eyes would be fixed on you. Lord, may we as a church body come alongside of them and support them in the many ways that scripture exhorts us to do. We do lift up the Smiths. Lord, they have been faithful in Papua New Guinea for so many years, and they face very real demonic forces there. We pray that you would uphold Lori in particular. She's gone through a number of physical ailments. And Lord, we understand that there are not a lot of people that are willing to give up everything to go to one of the darkest places on this planet. And so Lord, for that reason, we pray that you would protect them from everything. that the gospel might go out through the little tracks that they give out, through the radio Bibles that they give out, speaking their languages, various languages there. As they help to heal folks, Lord, I know that they have a chance to present the gospel on a daily basis. May your word not return void. May the people not only accept you, Lord, but then bear fruit in their life because of sincere conversions. We look forward to how you will build up this body, Lord, even through membership class. We pray that for those that are excited to be part of this body, Lord, that they would be excited to be more than just attending, but also serving and fellowshipping. And we thank you for the opportunity to restart Sunday School and the education for some of us older folks, all the way down to the youngest, Lord. These moments, these truths are so important because when we step outside these doors, we face a world that is combative, that is antagonistic. And we don't expect that to ever change. We know things will wax worse and worse until you return. But Lord, we pray that our eyes would be fixed on you, not just today, but each day in our own personal time with you. And Lord, we ask that you would help us channel all of our thoughts to you this morning through pastor's message. Lord, some of the challenges even last week are still with us. They were convicting, and Lord, I pray that they would be more than just convicting, but that you, through the Holy Spirit, would effect change in our lives and hearts. I pray this in Jesus' name, amen. All right, just one last announcement is that the junior church, it would normally go down after the last hymn. It should wait until we have a special music quartet singing, and so the junior church will go down after that. So our first song this morning, we still have our old trusty hymnals. No matter what turns on or doesn't, these things tend to be around, so that's nice. M165, again, our foundation is not in the electricity, which is sometimes here, but it is upon our God, upon our Lord who died for us. M165, the church's one foundation. The Church's one foundation is Jesus Christ, her Lord. She is His new creation by water and the Word. From heaven he came and sought her, to be his holy bride. With his own blood he bought her, and for her life he died. He lacked from every nation yet one more on the earth. of salvation, one Lord, one faith, one birth, one holy name she blesses, one holy food, and two, one hope she presses with every grace endued. Mid toil and tribulation, And tumult of her war, She waits thy consummation, Forevermore. Till with a vision glorious, Her longing eyes are blessed, Then the great Church victorious shall be the Church at rest. Yet she uneartheth union with God the Three in One, We're singing, maybe seated, The third verse talked about waiting for that peace that comes forevermore. We know that true peace comes not from just a lack of conflict, because we know that just because people have stopped fighting doesn't mean that they won't start fighting again. We see that all around our world. We see that in our own lives as well as we look for that eternal peace, which comes only through Christ. through the salvation that he brings. In 156, how can it be? Again, the blessing that we have within this church is to know that our God has saved us. The amazing love that he has for each one of us individually as we gather together in 156, how can it be? O Savior, as my eyes behold the wonders of thy might untold, the heavens in glorious light arrayed, the vast creation thou hast made. And yet to think how lovest me, My heart cries out, How can it be? How can it be? How can it be That God should love a soul like me? How can it be? As at the cross I humbly bow And gaze upon thy thorn-crowned brow And view the precious bleeding form Thy cruel nail so bent o'er I know thy suffering was for me. In grief I cry, how can it be? How can it be? How can it be that God should love a soul like me? Can it be? ♪ How can it be, how can it be ♪ ♪ What's ever grace so full and free ♪ ♪ From heights of bliss to depths of woe ♪ ♪ In loving kindness, how didst go ♪ ♪ From sin and shame to rescue me ♪ ♪ O love divine ♪ How can it be? How can it be? That God should love a soul like me? Oh, how can it be? In the church, we have the blessing of unity around the salvation that our God gives to us, but also we know, as hymn 83 says, that we have the confidence that our God will guide us. It's not just the Israelites in the wilderness that had the blessing of the guidance of their great Jehovah, but we as well. We know that each day of our lives, we have our God to guide us. Let's sing together hymn 83, Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah. Guide me, O Thou great Jehovah, pilgrim through this barren land. I am weak, but Thou art mighty, hold me with Thy powerful hand. Bread of heaven, bread of heaven, feed me till I want no more. Pain me till I want no more. Open now the crystal fountain, Whence the healing waters flow. Let the fire and cloudy pillar lead me on my journey through. Strong deliverer, strong deliverer, thou still my strength and shield. Be thou still my strength and shield. When I tread the verge of Jordan, bid my anxious fears subside. Bear me through the swelling current, let me say mundane and sign. Songs of praises, songs of praises, I will ever give to thee. I will ever give to thee. as a song, reminds us of the Israelites in the wilderness and how we have that same God. And we know that God promised to bless them if they were obedient to Him. And we know that things went well sometimes and things went not well other times. And the blessing of God was very much dependent for them upon whether or not they were obedient or not. And we know that the history of humanity is a demonstration that we don't do a very good job of obeying our God and we needed our God to step in and for Christ to come to the earth, to be obedient in our place and to fulfill the law and to do what we could not do and that is to live a perfect life. And so it is because of Christ that we can be perfect and we can be justified and we can find that completeness that is only found in Christ finished work. And so a song that we have learned at times in the past, but it's helpful to have the words in front of us. And so thankfully the copier works. And so we're able to get those out to you. So let's stand together and sing together, complete in thee. Complete in thee no work of mine Could take, dear Lord, the place of thine Thy blood hath pardoned but for me then complete in thee. Yea, justified, O blessed Lord, and sanctified, salvation wrought, thy blood hath hardened not for me, and glorified I too shall be. Complete in thee each want supplied, And no good thing to me denied. Since now my portion, Lord, will be, I ask no more complete in thee. They justify no blessed thought, And sanctify salvation wrought. Thy blood hath pardoned wrought for me, And glorified I too shall be. Come, breathe in thee, no more shall sin, Thy grace hath conquered rain within. the tempter free, shall stand complete in thee. Hey, justified, O blessed Lord, and sanctified, salvation wrought, thy blood hath poured and bought for me, and glorified I too shall be. Dear Savior, when before thy bar All tribes and tongues assembled are Among the chosen I shall be, At thy right hand complete indeed. Hey, justified, O blessed God, And sanctified, salvation brought, Thy blood hath pardoned but for me, And glorified I too shall be. singing, maybe singing. Give me a passion for souls, dear Lord, a passion to save the lost. Oh, that thy love were by all adored and welcomed at any cost. ♪ Jesus, I long, I long to be winning ♪ ♪ Men who are lost and constantly sinning ♪ ♪ O may this hour be one of beginning ♪ ♪ The story of pardon to tell ♪ ♪ Though there are dangers untold and stern ♪ ♪ Confronting me in the way ♪ ♪ Willingly still would I go nor turn ♪ ♪ But trust thee for grace each day ♪ ♪ Jesus, I long, I long to be with thee ♪ ♪ Men who are lost and constantly sinning ♪ ♪ O may this hour be one of beginning ♪ ♪ The story of pardon to tell ♪ ♪ How shall this passion for souls be mine ♪ ♪ Lord, make Thou the answer clear ♪ ♪ Help me to throw out the old lifeline ♪ ♪ To those who are struggling near ♪ ♪ Jesus, I long, I long to be winning ♪ and who are lost and constantly sinning. Oh, may this hour be one of beginning, a story of pardon to tell. Jesus, I long, I long to be winning, men who are lost and constantly spinning. Oh, may this hour be one of beginning, the story of our love to tell. All right. Thank you, folks, for ministering to us in song at Quartet. Imagine we'll be happy to hear from them again. Amen. All right. Got somebody here to respond. Thank you. And maybe there are a few other quartets or duets or whatever out there that we would love to be blessed by you as well. Acts chapter 11 this morning, Acts chapter 11. Young folks are making their way down to junior church. Acts chapter 11. This week, as I was preparing for Dorothy Little's funeral, it gave me pause. I began to think about the large number of our brothers and our sisters who once filled these pews. Men and women who taught Sunday school, They worked in vacation Bible school. They worked in our Wednesday evening clubs. They worked with our youth. They transported young people and adults to church. They were involved as prayer warriors. They supported the church with their time, with their talents, with their money. They were the church. And I commented at the funeral, as I stand up here, I've been here long enough now that I can still see certain spots where certain individuals, you know, we all kind of gravitate to the same place, right? We may not have pew rent, so to speak, but it's sort of like, this is my seat, and we hope nobody else will take it. Well, that's been true all along, and I can look around this room and I can think about individuals in the specific places where they sat, where I would see their faces week after week, and they're with the Lord now. Men and women who were instrumental in building First Baptist West Seneca. I think about those 15 individuals who met in a living room not too far from here, 60 years ago now, and determined that they wanted to start a church in West Seneca. They formed the church. They bought a house, 511 Union Road. We pass it every time we come in the church lane. And a church began. And from purchasing that single house, all the property and all the buildings that you and I enjoy today are the fruit of their labor. It's a fruit of their prayers. It's a fruit of their giving. It's a fruit of their work. Thinking about God's blessing, how God's hand was upon that small group of men and women who gathered together and wanted to start a church. And thinking about how you and I benefit today, 60 years later, because of all that they did as they sought to serve the Lord, to worship the Lord. And you and I have simply taken the baton. Some of you have been here for good portions of that. Dorothy had been a member of this church for 41 years. So over two-thirds of the history of the church, Dorothy Little was part of it. I know for many of you, There are a number of folks who have come here since Dorothy was unable to attend, and you didn't know Dorothy. But for those of us who was here during her ministry, with her violin, with her time in the choir, we know that she represented so many of God's people, God's saints, who served the Lord down through the years. Now, I mention that this morning by way of introduction because it started my thinking. I read an article sometime back, and the article's title was basically, What Kind of Church Does God Bless? What kind of church does God bless? And I'm going to take that, and I've adapted it, if you will, to apply it to our time together here this morning. Thinking about how God blessed so many down through the years, and God has blessed their ministry, and through the Christian school, and through missionary endeavors, and through just the ministry of the people who constituted First Baptist West Seneca, because we know the church isn't brick and mortar. The church is made up of people. And through the ministry of the people who have been this church over the last 60 years, so many lives around the world have been touched. And you and I have the privilege today, until Christ calls us home, of continuing that work and continuing to touch lives. And so I want us to think about this morning, what kind of church does God bless? And of course, the purpose of it is for us not only to know what kind of church God blesses, but that we might be the kind of church that God continues to bless. So with that in mind, I'm going to begin reading here in Acts 11, verse 19. We're going to read down through verse 30. So just a few verses here at the end of the chapter, and then we will ask the Lord to bless our time in His Word today. So, Luke writes in Acts 11, 19. Now they which were scattered abroad upon the persecution that arose about Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, preaching the word to none but unto the Jews only. And some of them were men of Cyprus and Cyrene, which when they were come to Antioch spake unto the Grecians, preaching the Lord Jesus. And the hand of the Lord was with them. and a great number believed and turned unto the Lord. Then tidings of these things came unto the ears of the church which is in Jerusalem, and they sent forth Barnabas, that he should go as far as Antioch, who, when he came, and had seen the grace of God, was glad, and exhorted them all, that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord. For he was a good man, and full of the Holy Ghost and of faith. And much people was added unto the Lord. Then departed Barnabas to Tarsus for to seek Saul. And when he had found him, he brought him unto Antioch. And it came to pass that a whole year they assembled themselves with the church, and taught much people. And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch. And in those days came prophets from Jerusalem unto Antioch, and there stood up one of them named Agabus, and signified by the Spirit that there should be great dearth throughout all the world, which came to pass in the days of Claudius Caesar. Then the disciples, every man according to his ability, determined to send relief unto the brethren which dwelt in Judea, which also they did, and sent it to the elders by the hands of Barnabas, and Saul. May God bless the reading of his word to our hearts. Let's ask his blessing upon our time in his word today. Our Father, as we bow our hearts and we come into your presence on this Lord's Day morning, Father, we thank you for the privilege we have of gathering with our brothers and our sisters in Christ. We thank you for the opportunity we have to openly and freely spend time within your word. Seeking, Father, to gain insight, not only insight into something that happened nearly 2,000 years ago, but gaining insight about what it means to us, the application of your word practically to our lives and to our church today. Lord, your hand of blessing was upon the church in Antioch, and there are lessons we can learn from them. Lord, our prayer is that your hand will be upon First Baptist West Seneca. Our prayer is, Father, that we, like the church in Antioch, will have great impact upon our community, upon our region, and that through this body of believers, as we have had privilege for 60 years to touch the lives of men and women around the world, that, Lord, you would continue to bless us and give us that opportunity. Lord, help us to lift up Christ. Help us to exalt him. Help us to worship you in spirit and in truth. And Lord, help us to be an encouragement to one another. Lord, may you bless these moments we have together. We pray this in Jesus name and for his sake. Amen. We live in a day when many churches seek to build their attendance through gimmicks and entertainment. We just have to be honest about that. Interestingly, one gentleman shared a story years ago when this movement first began to use marketing techniques to sell the church, if you will, a gentleman by the name of Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones. Some of you may have read something from him. His ministry was in London, England. Many years ago, we're talking 60s, maybe up into the 70s. He was the pastor of Westminster Chapel in London. And he, one day, was speaking to his church, to a group there in his church, and he said, folks, I know how we can fill every seat in our church this coming Sunday. And of course, folks in the church, that little group gathered said, what would that be? And let's do it. I mean, wouldn't that be great to fill every pew, every seat in the church? He said, well, this is what I'm going to do. Now you have to understand something about Martin Lloyd-Jones. He was He was a Welshman who was always well-dressed. In fact, he always wore a suit. In his biography, there is a picture of him with his young daughter at the beach, and he is wearing his suit and tie as he is sitting on the sand playing with his daughter. Just something of the picture of the man. Different time, different era, we understand that. But he was someone who was always wearing a suit. So, what was his prescription to fill every pew? He said, here's what we do. We put an ad in the Saturday London Times saying that this Sunday, the very next day, Dr. Lloyd-Jones will appear in the pulpit wearing a bathing suit. And I guarantee you we will fill every seat because people will want to come to see such an odd sight. Now, after the shock silence of that little group of church members, he then proceeded to talk about the biblical basis of worship as opposed to the approach of using entertainment to entice people to attend church. So it was the shock value he was using for his own church members, but he used that as a way to teach them about what true worship really is. Today there are seminars nearly every day of the week around the country teaching pastors how to build numbers. noting how to create user-friendly to outsiders. To shorten sermons, you can't have long sermons. Well, that would be a problem here. I'm sorry. So you have shorter sermons, and you can't say anything threatening to the unchurched. What subject will you not be touching upon if you don't want to be threatening to an unsaved person? You're not going to talk about sin, are you? Because that would be offensive. The only problem is, and we talked about this back in the summer, how do you talk about the gospel without talking about sin? Why did Jesus die? If we don't talk about sin, then we make his death meaningless and questionable because there would have been no purpose. He died because of sin. And so that is and has become now for decades the mantra of so many in the church. Now this is not a message about that, but it's a message that recognizes that yes, you can build a large congregation by using marketing techniques, but is our purpose to simply get a lot of people in the building? Is that what God has called us to do as a church? Is that what God has called churches to be engaged in? Just getting numbers? If we use numbers as the barometer of success, then what do you do with the Mormons? I mean, you realize there are hundreds of millions of Mormons around the world. If it's surely by numbers, then we've got a problem with what you and I would consider to be a cult. What about the Catholics? The point is, it isn't how many people may be engaged or involved in a particular church or denomination. What we use as the barometer of success is what God's Word says. It's how God's Word defines what a church is. And that brings us here to our text. Here is a text that is sharing with us a remarkable church. Now, I don't know that you and I would immediately, if I were to ask you, name me one of the early churches that really was impactful upon the day in which they existed, and God has used them in wondrous ways, and we could learn from them. Well, we can learn from all of them. But we would probably say Ephesus, maybe Corinth, Thessalonica. Those are churches, places where churches existed that we would point to and say, that was an influential church. I wonder, would you have got to Antioch? Would you have mentioned the church in Antioch? But I could argue, I think a good argument could be made that the most influential church after the church was forced to leave Jerusalem, that the most influential church during that early church period was the church of Antioch. And I'm going to explain why I would say that here in just a few minutes. But here is a church that God used in a powerful way during those formative years. A church that demonstrated impressive growth numerically, but their numerical growth was growing out of what God was doing spiritually. And that really is what we're called to affect. After all, we can't save a soul. Only God can save a soul. God has given us the responsibility to minister one to another. God can use us both in disseminating the gospel to the lost. God can use us, of course, in being ministers one to another. I'll say more about that in just a moment. How did this church begin? Well, here's where the remarkable story of the church at Antioch begins. This is a church that began through persecution. It was a church that began because of persecuted Christians, refugees, forced to leave Jerusalem, and a small number of them made their way to the city of Antioch. In fact, three times in this passage, verse 21, 24, and 26, Luke underscores the large number of people that came to know Christ because of a small group of people who, because of persecution, left where they were in Jerusalem and made their way to the city of Antioch to the north. The reason this church experienced such remarkable growth was not because of the leaders employed using the latest church growth principles. They didn't study demographics. They didn't come up with a strategy of marketing. The reason they grew, and I want you to notice this in verse 21, the reason they grew, beginning of the verse, and the hand of the Lord was with them. That really is the key to this portion of this chapter. When we think about the narrative of the church in Antioch, Their story begins and continues throughout the recorded history of the church here in the Scriptures with that very statement, the hand of the Lord was upon them. This is what you and I should pray for. This is what you and I should desire. That the hand of the Lord would be upon us. As a church, with the hand of the Lord upon us, we can accomplish great things for Christ. And we can do so because of His power, because of His might. It is a God-centered focus. not a man-centered focus. This was a church that God was blessing. That should be our aim. That should be our prayer. To be a church that God blesses, we need to learn from the Church of Antioch. Now, employing the principles of the Church of Antioch, it may not result in numerical growth, not on the scale that we might wistfully look at some other congregation and say, well, if we could only have 10,000 people, we wouldn't be the same church, and you wouldn't have the same experience. And I don't think, frankly, my own view on this, by the way, is that it's better to have four churches of 250 than one church of 1,000. That as far as the body of Christ and the true growth of God's people, four churches of 250 will have a greater impact than a church of 1,000. A church of 1,000 will have greater resources but it isn't the resources that will make the difference. That's the point. It is the hand of God upon us. And so that should be a motivation in how we look at this church. There are seven principles that I want us to think about in this passage that are important for us if we want to be a church like Antioch, and if we want to be a church that God blesses. The first one is very simple, and I touched upon this a moment ago. A church that God blesses is a church where every member ministers. Every member ministers. If we want to be a church with the hand of God upon us, then we have to foster and we have to maintain this, what I believe is a godly mindset. Every one of us is a minister. We have lay people and then we have ministers. But in the body of Christ, we have God's people. Period. Some of us may have a gift of doing what I'm doing. But it is one gift in the church, but it is by far not the most important gift in terms of the body of Christ. We all have a role to play, and a church that God blesses, if the hand of God is upon us, every one of us is engaged in exercising the gifts that God has given to us. The founding and prospering of the Church of Antioch, and we're gonna talk about this now, I think is arguably one of the most significant events in Western civilization. Why would I say that? Here's the first reason why this church should be given more place in our minds than we often give it. Number one, this is the church where the distinctiveness of the church as a body that would be made up of Jews and Gentiles together. This is the church where that happened. Up until the church of Antioch, the church was Jewish. Now you might have someone like Cornelius who would come to Christ, but Cornelius would be considered an exception. because he was a man who already had a sensitivity to the God of the Jews, and it was Peter himself, an apostle, who led him to Christ. The church in Antioch was the blending into one body of Jews and Gentiles. It was here that the followers of Christ were first called Christians. You and I have this title that we use. Where did it come from? It's not a title that the Bible says, if you believe in Christ, you are now a Christian. Here is a derisive name, most likely, that was given to these people who follow Jesus of Nazareth, Christians. And yet you and I embrace that title, right? I am a Christian. From Antioch, the first missionary journeys into Europe were sent out. This is an influential church. You and I, and I speak as a fool as some would say, would conceivably not be Christians today if it hadn't been for God's blessing on the church of Antioch. They were groundbreakers. They were out front doing things that other churches, Jewish churches, were not doing. Now, what makes this even more remarkable is how the church started. I've already given you part of the story. But now let me fill in around that skeleton a little bit, if you will. What was the apostle that founded the Church of Antioch? That's right. This is not a church founded by an apostle. All right, what pastor founded the Church of Antioch? Oh, that's right. This is a church that wasn't founded by a pastor. In fact, this is a church that was not founded by trained missionaries like Paul's group. This is a church that was founded by unnamed men who were scattered because of the persecution of Stephen. I'll have more to say about that because in my mind it's remarkable how the pieces come together around the church of Antioch. Stephen was martyred. Remember Stephen? He was one of the first deacons and he was martyred and there was a persecution that grew out of his martyrdom. And so a small group of men left Jerusalem and they made their way to Antioch. And as they got there, they began to talk, not just to the Jews, but to the Gentiles, and they began to tell them about the Lord Jesus Christ. In fact, notice verse 19. It says that they were scattered abroad, persecution around Stephen, preaching the word to none but of the Jews only, and some of them ran of Cyrene. And as you go down, you notice spake unto the Grecians, preaching the Lord Jesus. is the word for normal conversation. This is significant. How did the church, how did this small group of persecuted men and women, as believers left Jerusalem, came to Antioch, how is it that a church was established? Not because there's a missionary in the marketplace preaching every day. Not because of the ministry of a pastor or the ministry of an apostle. It's because these, and I use this term carefully, these normal believers who would come to be known as Christians, they simply spoke about their faith. That's how this church was started. Now, here's why I think our church, I hope it has a greater affinity, but there is some affinity with this church. Those 15 people that started First Baptist West Seneca, none of them were pastors. They were what you would consider 15 normal people. And yet they had a desire to start a church. They gathered together. They started a church. They didn't have a pastor. In fact, they did not formally have a pastor for about five years. It's kind of odd to think how the church could have existed for five years without a formal pastor. But it didn't. Pastor Siebert was the first pastor, and then there, I'm the fourth one in line in 60 years. That's remarkable, too. churches where so many pastors come every three to five years, you change over to another pastor. To be able to say four pastors in 60 years, that says something for the stability of First Baptist West Seneca. God has blessed this place. Now, I say that because the implication here is that these were just normal Christians who simply used their everyday contacts to tell others about Jesus Christ. They would go buy bread. They would tell people about their faith. Whatever jobs they had, whatever their vocation was, they would tell their fellow ditch diggers, whatever they might have been, they would simply share their faith that they were believers in the Lord Jesus. It may have begun by, what are you doing here in Antioch? Aren't you a Jew from Jerusalem? Now, some of them were from Cyprus, some of them were from Cyrene, but they were still Jewish. It's just that they had already been part of what is called the Jewish diaspora, but they'd come back and they'd gotten saved in Jerusalem. The church was Jewish. So there may have been questions like, what are you doing in Antioch? Why would you come here? And they could say, well, we're here because... and it was a stepping stone to get to the gospel. It really is as simple as that, isn't it? I've been asked through the years, why are you, as a Southerner, in Buffalo, New York? Well, I'm here because of the grace of my marvelous God. And because His will for my life was that I would be here and have an opportunity to be a blessing to and be blessed by people in Western New York. It's an opportunity to get to the gospel, right? It doesn't have to be a complaint fest. You're right. Who would ever come to Buffalo? They had to bring me here kicking and screaming. No, I came here willingly because this was God's will. Somebody has to be here, right? God put us here to be ministers to people in Western New York. There's a reason to believe that Luke himself was a native of Antioch. We can make that argument. We'll get into that this morning because I don't want to distract us. But you can imagine, as a physician, Luke is working with some gentleman about whatever physical ailment he had, and that believer is taking that opportunity to share his conversion. Luke hears it. He is moved by it. He comes to know Christ as his Savior. It's interesting. Luke could have told us who these people were. He knew where they were from, right? If he did not know personally, it wouldn't have taken much effort on his part to say, now, okay, which one of you were the guys who came here and started this church? I mean, the church is not 60 years old when we're reading about it here. When Luke is writing about it, the church is still only... It might have been when Luke is writing this, 20 years old. So, here's a church that is still young, basically. 30 years old, something like that. The people who started the church would have either been still in the congregation or everybody would have known them. He doesn't focus on their names. I think there's a reason for that. If they had been named... Here's human nature. We would then elevate them up as missionary heroes, and we would view them as being a notch above the average church member. Well, you know, I could never do what they did. They're not mentioned here because I believe the Holy Spirit wants us not to focus upon who they were as individuals, but to focus upon what they did, because what they did, you and I can duplicate. We can do this. We can simply take the opportunity to share our faith with other unbelievers. We can do what they did. And I want you to notice this very quickly. Notice also that when Barnabas and Saul rose to positions of leadership through their teaching ministry, this church didn't depend upon them to function and grow. How do we say that? Well, later in chapter 11, there is a famine. The church in Antioch gathers an offering and they send it to the church in Jerusalem. And who takes it? Barnabas and Saul. Now, we know Saul as the Apostle Paul, right? But this is as he is gaining the experience to be considered the Apostle Paul. So at this point, he is a leader in the church of Antioch along with Barnabas. They sent them. They're gone for two months, three months, to take the offering down, give it to them, make their way back. The church continued to operate. Then later in chapter 13, The Holy Spirit says, I want you to separate Barnabas and Saul, and I want you to send them the first missionary journey into Europe. It begins with Barnabas and Saul, leaders of the church. They're sent out. The church continues to operate. Why? Because this church knew the principle of the body, that God has gifted every member and each one is expected to exercise his or her gift in the ministry. We all are involved. That's the first point. This was a church that God blessed because it was not a church that was built upon the personality of one person or one group of people. It was a church that every part, every member of that church was important and every member of that church exercised whatever gift that God had given them for the edification and the encouragement and the building up of other believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. Number two. Gotta go quickly. So every member is a minister. Number two. A church God blesses is a place where the gospel is proclaimed as the power of God to save sinners. Now, let's understand a little more about Antioch. Because again, that's why I think this is a remarkable church and one that doesn't really often get its place. Antioch is 300 miles north of Jerusalem. So geographically, 300 miles north of Jerusalem. If I were to ask you, what were the largest cities in the Roman Empire? What would you guess they were? Rome? Okay, that's a given. What would be the second largest city in the Roman Empire? Old ancient geography lesson. How about Alexandria in northern Egypt? You'd be right. Alexandria was the second largest city in the Roman Empire. What was the third? Corinth? Ephesus? Antioch. The third largest city in the Roman Empire was Antioch. How many of us would have thought Antioch? We would have thought it had to be Corinth or Ephesus or one of those more famous cities, right? Because not having lived 2,000 years ago, we don't always think about a city like Antioch, the third largest. Half a million people lived in Antioch. Now, that in itself is remarkable, but there's something else about this city. This city was proverbial for immorality. I mean, this was the reputation of the city. Five miles outside of town was something called the Grove of Daphne. Oftentimes these pagan gods were worshipped in groves, high places with trees. You read about that even in the Old Testament. The worshippers of Artemis and Apollos pursued their religion of pleasure with temple prostitutes in the Grove of Daphne. Now, we've talked about that in Ephesus. This was something even more pronounced in this particular city of Antioch. In fact, this is so true that a Roman satirist named Juvenal, if you've read any of the Roman people, you've heard of Juvenal. I'm not going to ask how many of you have, because you'll probably say, who? What? Here's the important thing. He wrote about the moral pollution of Rome. So here's a Roman writing about the moral corruption in the city of Rome. And this is how he described it. This is how he's trying to say how bad things are in the city of Rome. He said, the sewage of the Orontes, the Orontes is the river that ran through Antioch, The sewage of Orontes has been discharged into the Tiber. The Tiber is the river that ran through Rome. Now understand, geographically, we're 1,300 miles apart. Those two rivers do not touch each other at all. You've got more than half of the Mediterranean Sea between them. So, literally, the Orontes and Antioch cannot literally empty into the Tiber in Rome. What was his point? His point was not that literally the sewage of this river runs into this river. It was the sewage of Antioch, the immorality of Antioch has impacted the city of Rome itself. So, in trying to describe how bad things are in Rome in terms of immorality, he used Antioch. We're almost as bad as Antioch. be almost like if we were to say, you know, things are so bad around here, it's almost like New York City. It's that kind of thinking. Now, I'm using that simply to say this. This is a city that was not a bastion of what you and I would say were good people, where they simply got there in the right place in the right time, and these good people who lived in Antioch, in northern Syria, southern Turkey, that's kind of where the city would be in our modern maps. These are good people who heard the gospel and moved by it and got saved. No, this is a highly immoral, corrupt place. Things aren't any different today, folks. We may say, oh, it's worse today than it's ever been. And I've said this before, I'll say it again. It isn't that it's worse today than it's ever been. It's simply that you and I live today. And so we tend to judge everything has to be worse today than it was then. But the gospel was the same then as it is today. And the gospel that created the church of Antioch is the same gospel that saves souls today. Just like the song the quartet sang. Honestly, I had no idea what song they were singing. I really didn't know. But when they're singing that song, I'm thinking about this message saying, Lord, you worked out the right song to fit with the message today. Because souls were saved. because of normal believers simply sharing their faith in the midst of a corrupt, immoral society, but the Spirit of God moved, the hand of God was upon them, people came to know Christ as their Savior, and they turned their backs on their paganism. That's the point. That's what we understand. And so we recognize how important it is that the Lord moved in this way. Number three, the church that God blesses is the church where His grace permeates the body. We could spend a lot more time on this, but let me just see if I can say it quickly in a way that we can all understand. commentators you'll find if you read. Well, note there's some concern behind the church in Jerusalem sending Barnabas to Antioch. They're the mother church. The church began in Jerusalem. It's still during that period when you've got those first generation believers. The apostles are still in some way attached to the church in Jerusalem. So we're the center of the universe for believers. And now word gets to them about this church in Antioch. And they're doing something different. And it may not be a good thing. I tend to have this same viewpoint. Why did they send Barnabas? They didn't send Barnabas because, man, we're so happy and whatever they're doing, we need to send somebody up to learn so we can do it too. No, they're a little bit concerned. Why? Because the church in Jerusalem is Jewish. Every other church that has started springing from the church in Jerusalem is Jewish. And now they're hearing about a church 300 miles away in Antioch? Wicked, immoral Antioch? where they have Jews and Gentiles coming together, proclaiming faith in Christ, going to church. There's a note of concern here. It's kind of the idea of saying, we need to send somebody up there to find out what's going on and we need to kind of get those people straightened out. Maybe we hear the church wasn't started in the conventional way because it wasn't an apostle or a pastor or one of our missionaries. We've got to get it straightened out. And so they send Barnabas. And Barnabas goes and probably, in my mind's eye, we'll find out if this is accurate or not when we get to heaven, but in my mind's eye, somebody's probably come up alongside Barnabas and said, now, you know, when you get there, you just be real careful to get those people in line. You know, make sure they're towing the company line. That they're following what they're supposed to be doing. The way we do it. Because, you know, we're Jerusalem. and they should be doing what we do. So find out what is all this Gentile stuff that they're doing anyway. By the way, how many of us... don't raise your hand. Is there anyone here who is not a Gentile? So we have no Jews here today. Now, I say that, why? Because here's the church where Gentiles are led into the church. Can I say it this way? Our people. We today are Christians. Here's the church where it was okay for Gentiles to be introduced to the Savior and to be invited to believe. Barnabas is sent there to get things in order. Did you notice verse 23? When he came and had seen the grace of God, was glad and exhorted them that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord. When he got there and he saw Jews and Gentiles worshiping God together, he rejoiced! Wow! Praise God! Guys, keep it up! I see the grace of God so evident. This is the way Barnabas is looking at what is going on here. Here's a man who lived by God's grace, and he saw God's grace, and he rejoiced. Now, do we imagine they were perfect? I mean, were these Christians, these soon-to-be-called Christians in Antioch, were they perfect? No. Now, I say that for this reason. I'm sure that if he's standing there, Barnabas, as a leader in the church in Jerusalem, who's been sent to scope out this church in Antioch, I'm sure he could look out. They wouldn't have had glasses like we have today, but if you can visualize looking over the top of his glasses, he could probably look out and say, that young man isn't dressed right. What is this person's hair doing over here? I mean, you imagine that he could have been thinking that way? Now, why would I say that? Because aren't we tempted sometimes to think that way? Some person comes to know Christ as Savior and they start coming to church, and immediately what do we begin to do? We begin to look at them and say all the reasons why they do not look like they're supposed to look. Can I say it? We're in danger of being like the Judaizers because that's exactly what they did. We've got to get these Gentiles in line. They need to become Jewish before they can really be Christian. Was that biblical? No. But it didn't change their outlook. And we have to be careful that we do not adopt that same kind of thinking. That we do not look at a new believer and immediately begin to judge them. We need to recognize that it is the grace of God that teaches that young person, that new believer. to exemplify Christ. In fact, the fourth point here, a church that God blesses is a church where grace is the motivation to remain true to the Lord. Titus 2.12 says that it's God's grace that teaches us to deny worldly desires to live sensibly, righteously, and godly in this present age. Barnabas could see that these new believers needed to grow in their faith, but that's precisely what they needed, to grow in their faith. Every pastor can say it's one thing to make a profession of faith in Christ, it's another thing to persevere and grow in holiness when temptation begins to hit. And that happens. Temptation is real. And how do we deal with temptations? God's grace in Christ is what motivates us to holy living. It is God's grace that teaches us to deny ungodliness, worldly lusts, etc. Genuine conversion is a matter of the heart. When I became a Christian, I had not been raised in a Christian home. I didn't grow up with a Christian viewpoint on the world and life. I didn't look like a Christian. I didn't dress like a Christian. I didn't act like a Christian because I wasn't a Christian. And when I started going to church as a young guy just shy of 15 years old, that small church in southern West Virginia, First Baptist Church of Chapmanville, West Virginia, those men and women simply loved on me. As a young believer in Christ, they would pick me up, and they would drive me to church. And yes, I will say it because we were talking about it a little bit last night. They would come to the trailer park. I lived in a trailer. And they would pick me up and they would take me to church. And then they would take me back home. They poured their lives into me. They never once said, listen Dana, you've got to stop doing this and stop doing that and you've got to do this and you've got to do that. They simply taught me what the Bible said. They helped me to become a student of the Scripture. They helped me to love the Word of God and to put my nose in this book to eat up every opportunity that I had to hear somebody teach or somebody preach. And as God's Word was poured into my life, you know what began to happen? It began to change. But it was what God was doing internally that was changing the external. Now what's really interesting is, when I became a Christian in that, you know, I went to a public high school, a small public high school in southern West Virginia. When I became a Christian, you know, it was so interesting how out of the woodwork all of these other quote-unquote Christians that I never knew were Christians until I became a Christian, and now suddenly all these other young people are Christians, and so many of them wanted to tell me what I now had to do if I wanted to be a Christian. Where were they before? And why are they now telling me that I've got to do A, B, C, and D if I'm really a Christian? Now, I'm not saying they were or they weren't. That's between them and God. What I am saying is, I thank God for that small group of believers at First Baptist Chapmanville who looked at that young guy who was a blank slate and said, let's love him and let's teach him. And the grace of God operated in my life to teach me. draw me closer to Him." A church that is a church that God blesses, I think, is that kind of church. In fact, what is Barnabas' nickname? What is Barnabas known as? He is the son of encouragement. He began to encourage these new Christians with purpose of heart to remain true to the Lord. That's what the end of verse 23 says. And that with purpose of heart, they would cleave unto the Lord. He isn't saying, guys, you kind of got some things messed up here. He said, I am so grateful for what God is doing in this place. Listen, folks, let me tell you, you just need to cleave to God. You need to hold on. You need to get as close to Him as you can. You need to grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ. That's terminology we might use today. Cleave unto Him. Steadfastness in the Christian life is not an accident. It's a matter of resolute purpose. We need to purpose our hearts. What did Daniel do? Remember in Daniel chapter 1? How did Daniel withstand the temptations put before him by Nebuchadnezzar when he has been torn away from his life, from his family, from everything he knew, physically transported over a thousand miles away to a foreign land, and now he has this pagan influence coming upon him? What did he do? He purposed in his heart. Folks, if we want to be a church that God blesses, we need a purpose in our heart that we are going to allow the grace of God to do that work in our lives. All right. Number five. So we're getting there. All right. Number five. The church that God blesses is where God the leader set an example of holiness and faith. Verse 24 says that Barnabas was a good man, full of the Holy Ghost, the Holy Spirit, and of faith. Note, he's a man of integrity. What does that mean? He's a good man. He practiced what he preached. Those who knew him knew he was a good man. The reason he was a good man is he was full of the Holy Spirit, he was full of faith in the living God. Barnabas' heart was not to seek glory for himself. Barnabas could have stayed right there and said, you know what? This is a good situation. I'm glad they sent me up from Jerusalem. I'm going to stand right here with these people and build this church, and people are going to say, look at what Barnabas is doing in Antioch. But what did he do? We don't know how long the passage is compressed because the Holy Spirit... There would be a really big book if every detail was there, right? So we don't know exactly the timetable. Barnabas is there. He sees what God is doing. He encourages those people. And at some point, he recognizes, you know, I need some help. And I know just the guy to do it. And he travels another hundred miles from Antioch to a place called Tarsus. And who lives in Tarsus? Saul, we know him as the Apostle Paul. At that point, he's in Tarsus, probably ministering in a smaller church in Tarsus. He was a persecutor of the church, we remember the story, rode to Damascus, comes to know Christ, goes out into the desert, spends three years out in the desert studying the Word of God, learning the Word of God, and at some point he makes his way back to Antioch, or to Tarsus. And now here we have Barnabas going to Tarsus and saying, hey, Saul, would you come with me? There's a ministry over here in a much larger city. God is at work over here. We could use your help. Saul comes over with Barnabas, and the two of them form a team, and for one year, they teach the church in Antioch. For a year. At this point, obviously Saul has grown in his own knowledge of Scripture. He is someone who is acknowledged as being a good teacher. Barnabas isn't worried about his own reputation. He's willing to bring Saul in. He's an encourager. And the two of them together have a huge impact upon the church of Antioch. So we see the work of this guy. Number six. A church that God blesses, not only do you have the teachers, the pastors, the leaders who love the Lord and they're not in it to make a name for themselves, they're willing to do whatever they can to be a blessing to God's people. The church that God blesses is where God, the leaders, are devoted to the teaching of God's Word. What did they do for a year? They taught the Scripture. And it's interesting because immediately after this, and taught much people, notice at the end of verse 26, and the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch. Now, how did this come about? Well, we really don't know, but again, I can use my imagination. We'll find out exactly how this happened, but this kind of makes sense, doesn't it? these believers in Antioch and they're standing out maybe just on the corner and they're talking to some people and they're sharing about their faith in Christ. Probably people across the city have heard about this new group of people who are following this Jesus of Nazareth, this Jewish guy, but it's not a Jewish thing because all of these Normal people, they would say, Greeks, Gentiles, we would say, were also now becoming believers in this. So I can imagine there's some buzz going on, right? What's happening here? Why are these people trusting in this Jesus? And as a group is standing there listening to this guy talk about his faith in Jesus, somebody else walks up and says, hey, what's going on? Who is this guy over here? Oh, he's one of those guys that follows that Christ, that Jewish guy Christ. They're Christians. Something like that. It was a derisive title. It wasn't intended to say, oh, they need to have a name. I wonder what a good name would be for them. How about Christian? Little Christs or Christ men. That's kind of the idea behind Christian. Now, they were trying to make fun of them. They were trying to mock them. But I want you to ask yourself this question. Can you imagine a better way to be mocked? They didn't say they're stupid people, they're dumb people. What did they say? These are people who are like the Savior they worship. They're little Christs. The Word of God was taught The Word of God impacted their lives. The Word of God changed the way they acted, the way they spoke, the things that they did. God did this work in their lives, and people saw it, and it made a difference. Number seven, a church that God blesses is a church where the members are devoted to spontaneous, generous giving. This is the final point, so just bear with me a few more moments. So in the early church, there were apostles and prophets. Ephesians 2.20 tells us they were the foundation of the church. Once the foundation was laid, the canon of scripture was complete, those gifts passed off the scene. We know that historically, we know that biblically. But during that time, there were some who were prophets, who would edify, who would exhort, who would console God's people, and they would, from time to time, receive some revelation. A gentleman named Agabus came, and he said, God is going to send famine. There will be famine around the world, around the Roman Empire. What was the response of the church of Antioch when they heard there was going to be famine? What would our response be? I mean, if this was a function today and someone stood up and said, hey guys, within the next year there will be famine in the world. What would our first thought be? Oh, we better start stockpiling food. I mean, you know, we better fill our pantries and our basements and, you know, we got to get ready. There's some people that think that way even today, right? But we would all be on that bandwagon. Well, we got to start getting stuff ready because there's not going to be a whole lot of food out there. What was the church of Antioch's response? All our brothers and sisters in Jerusalem. You know, we need to be a blessing to them. Well, what about us? We trust God. But we want to be a blessing to them. Let's have an offering. So every man, as he could, let's say every man, every man and one, every believer, as they could, they gathered an offering. And they sent that offering by Barnabas and Saul to the church in Jerusalem. A church is blessed when it is a church that spontaneously gives for the needs of others. I'll say this. God has blessed our church in the last year financially more than he has in the 22 years I've been here. I think I can safely say that. I don't remember any year where God has blessed us as a ministry in the way that he has in the last year. What changed? The hand of God. Alright. But you know, I've been thinking about that. And working on this, the thought occurred to me. I can honestly say about this congregation, we may not be the biggest in Western New York, but I doubt that there are many that are more generous. Because this is a body of believers, who when they hear there is a need, they're willing to give. Not just in their monthly fellowship fund offering, but when special gifts come up. And we put the call out to the body. There is a need. We need this much. You know, we always get more than what we said we needed. God's people give. And I really believe that we see God's blessing upon us because we're willing to be generous. We're willing to say, Lord, what can I do? How can I be a part of this? God will pour out His blessing on a generous church. So, wrapping this up. Antioch is a church set before us as an example. Far more influential than maybe we would normally think about it. A church founded by simple believers who knew God and called every other person they saw to him, a church where the very title Christian was first applied to them, a church that proclaimed the gospel as the power of God to salvation, that operated by God's grace, that saw God's grace as the motivation to go on with the Lord, where leaders set an example and taught the word of God, where they were generous givers who trusted God to meet their own needs. The hand of God was upon them, and God blessed them. And that's what I covet for our church. That the hand of God would be upon us and that God would bless us. And how does that happen? When we're God-centric. When we're focused upon Him. When what we do and what we say is focused upon what His Word says. God can take a group like us, who yield ourselves to Him as living sacrifices, who apply the principles of the Word of God to our lives, God can take a church like ours, and He can do wondrous things. And that's my prayer for our church, that God would do just that. It's not about how can we make a name for ourselves, how can we raise our visibility so that people will think we're wonderful and great. You know, I could care less if anybody would ever say, oh, that's the church that Dana Klein pastors. I would much rather people look at First Baptist West Seneca and say, you know, those are a group of people who, they love their God, and they love people. That's what I wish they would say about us. Because it's not about us individually in terms of making a name. It's about lifting up our Savior, exalting Him, It's about then ministering to one another as we share his word. The hand of God was upon the church of Antioch. Would you pray with me that God's hand would be upon First Baptist West Seneca? I hope you'll pray with me. Let's bow our heads. Father, I thank you for the opportunity that we have to think about the church of Antioch. Lord, to try to glean principles from that church. Others have done it. I've just tried to borrow from them, Lord, make the point of what I think the passage is teaching. But Lord, we need to take these principles, we need to apply them to our lives individually and as a church. Lord, this is who we need to be. This is who we should aspire to be. And Lord, we cannot do any of this without the unction of the Holy Spirit working within our hearts and our minds. And so, Lord, we yield ourselves to you as a church. We pray that the Holy Spirit would do his wonderful work in our midst, teaching us and training us and helping us to grow. And Father, I pray that we will become the people of God that we need to be, that we would have an impact upon our community and upon our region as you do that work within our hearts. Lord, we commend our church to you. We pray that your hand will be upon us and that it will resound to your glory. We pray in Jesus name. All right, well thank you so much for being in the Lord's house this morning. We will be back tonight at six o'clock, so hopefully we'll see you then. Next Sunday, 9.30 a.m., so please don't show up at 10. You'll miss a lot of the service if you do, so we'll start at 9.30 and then we'll have a General Sunday School membership class for those who might be interested starting next week. Thank you very much, have a great day, and hopefully we'll see you tonight.