Well, good morning. It's good to be here. It's good to see you all here this morning. We're a little bit short on numbers this morning, but that's OK. I told Larry when he came in this morning, we talked about a little bit and I said, I'm glad the verse in the Bible says we're two to three are gathered together, right? You don't have to have a whole lot of number. And I find it neat in the Bible. It doesn't tell us exactly how many numbers were in the church. If you notice that it says there was about 120. There was about this many. It's not about the numbers. The Lord adds to the church as he sees fit, right? And sometimes we have people that are sick. We have people that are on vacation. We have reasons people are not here. We also have people that just don't show up. That happens too. But I'm glad of y'all that are here. I'm glad you are. So, but we've been looking at some things in the mornings about what we believe. We've been going over these. And I know most of us, most of you already know what you believe, right? I was one of those, and I've said this before, that knew what I believed. And then I was asked some things about why I believed what I believed. And I didn't know how to answer those questions. And I began to realize that what I knew was what my dad taught. Not what I believed. You know, I was raised in church. I was raised in a pastor's home. If I had any questions, all I had to do is come ask dad and dad would tell me. Until I started to the ministry. And then I would go ask him questions. Then what does this first mean? What do you think it means? Why? Just tell me what it means. That's what I ask you. But he wouldn't always do that. Matter of fact, very seldom would he just tell me what it meant. He would ask me what I think it means. And then so I would tell him, this is what I think it means. Well, where do you get that from? Instead of just answering a question, he would ask me questions to lead me along in studying. You know, and I needed that because it's always easier just to ask someone the question and get the answer, but it doesn't stick with you very long if you do that. The way it sticks with you is if you figure it out yourself. The way it sticks with you is if you think about those things that you know, those things that you believe, those things that you are assured of, of the Word of God. Those are usually the things that you have worked out. that you have studied, that you have found the verses for, that you have wondered about, that you have struggled with to figure out. And those things are what really sticks with you, right? And that's what my dad was trying to teach me is to study. Well, we're going over these things about what we believe, and we're down to the New Testament Baptist Church. But on this, I think last time, this may be the second or third message on this, I'm not going to follow much of the notes today. As I was looking at the notes and the verses and things, what I'm going to do, what I want to do is just look at how a church is to operate. That's what we're going to look at. OK, the more that I looked at this of a New Testament Baptist church, we can go over the article that's written and what we believe. And we're kind of going to cover most of that. But there's a lot of confusion in the world today about how a church operates. How does a church become a church? Do you know how a church becomes a church? You know, there's people, there's beliefs in the world in Baptist churches that talk about, that believe that a church has to have authority. And we believe that, right? A church has to have authority to be a church. What is it something that a true New Testament Baptist church will have? Something 12-rhine Baptist church had to begin with authority. But where does that authority come from? It comes from a mother church, right? A church, a New Testament Baptist church that has authority Send someone to start a church. And that's what happened. If you read our history, a woman contacted. I can't remember the name of the church that you contacted, but contacted a church in Kentucky, I do believe in Kentucky and said, hey, I think there's a need for a work in Detroit, Michigan. And so they sent down some people, TP Simmons, and three men, they sent down three men to look at the Detroit area. Now, I wasn't around, I've read the history is what I'm going by off my memory, so it could be a little bit wrong, but we have the history back there in the office of who this lady was, and she contacted the church, and they sent down three men to look, and the three men said there's definitely a need for work here in Detroit. And so they started a mission work. And through that mission work, and eventually at the time, Twelve Round Baptist Church became. But it was through the authority of the Mother Church that we started. Some people will say, yes, a church has to have authority. But if you dig into what they believe authority, authority comes from a pastor that was ordained. That's not the authority to start a church. Because the authority doesn't come through the pastor. It doesn't come through a man. God didn't give the authority to men. He gave it to his church. It's what he gave his authority to. And so what we want to do is kind of look at this. The first church, they're in Acts. But what I want to do first, turn, if you will, to Matthew chapter 28. Matthew chapter 28. Here. Christ is talking to the 11 apostles here. If you start reading here in verse 16, Matthew 28, verse 16, he says, Then the 11 disciples went away into Galilee, into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them. And when they saw him, they worshiped him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations, baptize them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world." Christ here is giving the Great Commission to the 11 apostles, which are going to give it to the church, and they're going to follow this, right? They're going to follow this. You notice what the responsibilities of the church are. Three things here. Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations. We're to be witness, we're to be taking the word of God out into the world. And then baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, the Holy Ghost. Those that are saved, we baptize. And then we teach them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. Okay. A lot of times in churches today, we have this idea, we have kind of changed the great commission just a little bit, just one word. You notice the first word, the word here is go ye, go. Do you know what we as a church are to be doing? not sending our money to missionaries. Yes, we are. We are, don't get me wrong. I'm not saying we shouldn't support missionaries. But our responsibility as a church is to go. If all we're doing is putting our money in faith promise giving and saying, I'm following the Great Commission, that's not what the Great Commission says. That's only part of it. That's only part. We can't just send our money. We ourselves have to go. It's our responsibility. Now, yes, we need to support missions. I believe that. But that does not take place of our personal responsibility. To be a witness, to tell people about Jesus Christ, to take the word out there. And we'll look at this and we'll see that the people in the first church They didn't just send stuff, they went. And it got them in trouble sometimes, Peter and John. Well, look at that, that Peter and John, they witnessed as they went to church, as they went to prayer, as they went, they witnessed. They told people about Christ. A church, our responsibility, our first responsibility is to go, not sit. Not just send, but we're to go ourselves and be a witness to those, to teach all nations. That's one of the ways today that we do teach all nations. We send funds to missionaries to support them so that they can spread the gospel where they're at. But don't ever think that that takes away our responsibility to spread the gospel where we're at. And then we baptize those that are saved. They become members of the church. And then we teach them how to live for the Lord. We teach them the doctrines. That's what we're going through here. These things. Look, if you will, in Matthew chapter 16. Matthew 16, a very familiar scripture, but a scripture here that is kind of sometimes misunderstood. Matthew chapter 16, I want to start reading here in verse 13, Matthew 16 and verse 13. Says, When Jesus came into the coast of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I am, that I, the Son of Man, am? And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist, some Elias, and others Jeremiah, or one of the prophets. He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood have not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And I say also unto thee that thou art Peter, and upon this rock will I build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. We don't believe that Peter is the foundation of the church, right? Christ is not saying here, look at Peter, that thou art Peter, and upon you I will build my church. But Christ is saying, thou art Peter. You're a small stone, you're a pebble. But on this rock, Jesus Christ, the cornerstone, the chief cornerstone, he will build his church upon Christ. And you look at this, and this is the part that I want to look at. It says, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Have you ever studied out what the gates of hell, what that means, what that is? We look at that and we think sometimes that the gates of hell, they will never, the world will never be able to stop the Lord's church. And that's true. But the gates of hell will never stop us from spreading God's word. Will never stop us from taking the word of God, taking the gospel to those lost souls. When we witness to someone, the gates of hell cannot stop salvation from grabbing them and pulling them out, if you will, of hell. The gates of hell cannot stop us cannot stop us from spreading the word of God. Salvation is going to come to those, and you read in the book of John, he says over and over again, and you see it, I've been seeing it in other books of the Bible, those that thou hast given me, those that God has given Christ, the gates of hell can never stop them from being saved. Can't do it. That's what that verse is talking about. We don't have to worry about it. Satan is very powerful. This world is very powerful. The evil in this world is very, very powerful, but it is not more powerful than God. There was a, what do you call it? A riddle. I couldn't think of the word. There was a riddle given to students in universities and colleges and very, I mean, uppity colleges and universities. They gave all kinds of answers, and then they took this riddle and gave it to kindergartners. Kindergarteners got it right every time and the universities, the colleges, they got it wrong. And the riddle was, what is more powerful than God, more evil than Satan? And if you eat it, you will die. That's the riddle. Do you all know the answer to that riddle? Nothing. There is nothing more powerful than God. There's nothing more evil than Satan. And if you eat nothing, you will die. Kindergarteners got that right. And you think about that with us, within our church, in our responsibility as a church. Where to go? And the gates of hell cannot stop the Lord's work to be done. OK, it will try. But there's a verse in the Bible that tells us that we can overcome the world because greater is he that is in you, the greater is he that is in the world. You think about that Lord is greater, he's mightier. He can take care of the work that he's given us to do, so our responsibility. Is to go, we have three main responsibilities, go to baptize and to teach. That's our responsibilities. Let's make sure that we're doing those responsibilities. How is it that our church is going to take care of those of the going? It's by each one of us going. Each one of us have that responsibility as a member of 12-Round Baptist Church. So, and we don't have to worry about it because the Lord will take care of it. Look, if you will, in Acts chapter 1. Acts chapter 1. The church, how is a church to operate? We've looked a little bit there at our responsibilities as a church, and that we, the responsibilities God's given to us cannot be stopped. They cannot be hindered. If it's the Lord's will for us to do that, he'll make it so, right? He will. In Acts chapter one, starting in verse, we're gonna read here in verse 20. I'm gonna start here. So here in Acts chapter one, the church is here, they're gathered together, and let's see. I'm going to start verse 15, I guess, and read here a little bit because it gets the background here. Verse 15 of Acts chapter 1 says, And in those days Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples and said, the number of the names together were about 120. Men and brethren, this scripture must needs have been fulfilled, which the Holy Ghost by the mouth of David spake before concerning Judas, which was God to them that took Jesus. for he was numbered with us and had obtained part of this ministry. Now this man purchased a field with the reward of iniquity and falling headlong, he burst asunder in the midst and all his bowels gushed out. And it was known unto all the dwellers at Jerusalem in so much that the field is called in their proper tongue, academia, that is to say the field of blood. And verse 20, for it is written in the book of Psalms, let his habitation be desolate, let no man dwell therein, and his bishopric let another take. Wherefore, of these men which have accompanied with us all the time that that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John unto the same day that he was taken up from us, must one be ordained to be a witness with us of his resurrection. And they appointed two, Joseph, called Barsabas, who was surnamed Justice, and Matthias. And they prayed and said, Lord, thou Lord, who knowest the hearts of all men, show whither of these two thou hast chosen. that thou may take part of this ministry, an apostleship, from which Judas by transgression fell, that he might go to his own place. And they gave forth their lots, and the lot fell upon Matthias, and he was numbered with the 11 apostles. The church, how is the church, I'm reading this because look at how a church operates. They look at scripture. follow what the Word of God says. Peter saw this in the Word of God, in Psalms, that it talked about Judas. It didn't name Judas, but another one should take his place. And they looked at that and said, okay, this is what the Bible says we ought to be doing, therefore let's do it. It's the way the first church operated. How are we to operate? We're to follow God's Word. We see a verse of Scripture that says this is what we ought to be doing, then we ought to be doing it. But what if it goes against culture? What if it goes against our tradition? Does that matter? Which is more important, our tradition or the Word of God? The Word of God is more important, right? It's more important. Therefore, the church, how we operate is according to the Word of God. Now, I know that there's some things that we do a little differently. It's not written in the Word of God that we have three Psalms. What if one day we had six? How many of you would panic? We're having too many. It would be okay, right? What if we only had one? I mean, you could say all kinds of things. What if we stood up on the first, sat on the second, stood up on the third, and sat on the fourth? What if we did that? That's all okay. That's not written in scripture, right? What we have to do. This is all different things that we get accustomed to. What if we prayed after every song? What if every 10 minutes I called on somebody to pray during the message? Like, well, that would just be confusing. Can we really pray too much? Can we really ask the Lord's blessings? Ask the Holy Spirit to move in the services too much? What is it that we should be doing while we're worshiping the Lord? While we're here, shouldn't we also be praying? that the Lord move, that the Lord help us to see, that the Lord help us to understand, that the Lord open our eyes. It's not that we just come in and sit down and somebody stands up and talks for 45 minutes, then we go home. There's more to worshiping than just being here and sitting in the pews or being up here. There's more to that. They sought out what the scripture said for them to do, and that's what they did. So we worship according to scriptures. The Bible in Corinthians talks about this, and Brother Ken talked about it, that God is a God of order, and he wants our worship service to be in order. And that's what we do. Acts chapter 2 here in verse 41. A lot of these scriptures we know already. Acts chapter 2 in verse 41, the day of Pentecost here, Peter is preaching. And verse 41, then they that gladly received his word were baptized. The same day there were added unto them about 3,000 souls. So you look at this, Christ told the 11 apostles there that the church is to go. Peter preached on the day of Pentecost. There were people saved. Therefore, they baptized them. And now look at what happened in verse 42. It says, And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers. Right here is the fulfilling, the following of the Great Commission. They gave the Word of God to those that were there. When they were saved, they were baptized, and then they continued to teach them. That's what we're to do. That's how a church is to operate. We're not to try and drag them in here. There's a lot of times that people bring this up, not here, but in the world, in other churches, they'll bring up and say, well, look, we have to do something to get people in so that we can teach them. Is that really what the Bible says we're to do? What are we to do to bring people here? We're to go. We're to go, we're to spread the gospel. We're to do what God says to do. And the Lord will add, the Lord will bring them. But we are to witness to them. We're to invite people to church. Tell me, who's the last person you invited to church? Do you remember the last person you invited to church? How long has it been since you invited someone to church? We, if we're not careful, sometimes we get in this idea that we have witnessed. We can tell people about Christ, and we need to do that, but we also need to be inviting people to church, asking them to come. You know, we go out on visitation, and we hand flyers out, and I tell I tell my kids and my family and anybody that goes, if you see somebody sitting on the porch and you don't want to go talk to them, let me know and I'll go talk to them. That's kind of my responsibility. I'm fine with that. I'll do that. Go up there and, hey, we're just passing flyers out and finding people to church. Would you like to come to church? Most people will take the flyer. There was one guy that told me, he said, if you want to save a flyer, You can save it because I can promise you I'm not going to church. And so I told him, I said, well, you know what? You go ahead and keep the flyer, because if one day you need to go to church, you remember us and you come to church and I'll be praying for you that you'll come to church. And he just said, well, I appreciate that, but I won't be coming. He was cordial, I was cordial. But I invited him to church, he needs church. He needs salvation is what he needs. Some people are rude. Don't get offended if people are rude. You know, what I don't wanna do when I witness is to be pushy. Have you ever had somebody try and push their belief down your throat? What is the one thing you're bound to determine not to believe? You're gonna push it down my throat, I'm not gonna listen. And I've told the guy that before. Look, that's all you want to talk about. And I don't believe that, you know it, and you keep pushing it down my throat. I don't want to talk to you about it. I don't want to be that way. I don't want to be pushy. For I invite, I witness, and I invite them to church. Here, that's, and you see this here, Paul, Peter is preaching. And they're saved. And then you look, skip down to verse 46 and verse 47. It says, And they continued daily, continuing daily with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily, such as should be saved. I mean, you look there. Their whole world changed. Because they continued daily with one accord in the temple, breaking bread from house to house. They were together. They were not just, they were studying together, they were reading together, they were growing together. They were with one accord, one thought process in mind. And that was whatever God wanted. Just serving Him, following Him. They had on their mind to follow the doctrines that were being taught in fellowship. That's what they had on their mind. That's what we need to have on our minds as a church to operate is what do you want? What do you want for our church? I hear people say that, you know, we talk about different things at the church and we talk about, you know, the conference coming up in November. And I hear people say, you know, talking about a conference, I always think back to when we had 200 or 300 people here. I would love to see that. I really would. I don't know if we ever will again. But what do we need to be doing? Here they continued daily. They sought the Lord's will, not just for the church, but for their life. They work together with one accord. How a church operates is together. Church operates together. A church has one thought and one idea, and that's just serving the Lord. Not just here on Sundays and Wednesdays, but on Mondays, on Tuesdays, on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, their thought was to just serve the Lord. They weren't church members two days a week. We're church members every day of the week. We're members of 12 Ryan Baptist Church every day of the week. We ought to have that in mind, and that thought, and where we go, what we do, how we live. They continue, look at that, they continued daily. And then verse 47 says, they praised God. It's a daily thing, they were praising the Lord. And I know that you have work, you have responsibilities, you have things going on, all these things happening in our lives. You think they didn't have those things? They did. But they still serve the Lord and followed him. And here in Acts chapter three, Peter and John, they were It says here in verse 1, and Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour. And a certain man laying from his mother's womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple, which is called Beautiful, to ask alms of them that entered into the temple, who seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple asking alms. And you get this picture. You can see this happening when you're reading this, that Peter and John are walking into the temple. They're fixing to go into the temple. And this guy is sitting there who is, says, who is lame from his mother's womb. He sees Peter and John about to walk in. He asked alms of them. Peter didn't have anything to give. But what he said here in verse 6, and Peter said, silver and gold have I none, but such as I have, give I thee. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk. And he took him by the hand and lifted him up, and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength. And he, leaping up, stood and walked, and entered with them into the temple, walking and leaping and praising God. And all the people saw him walking and praising God, and they knew that it was he which sat at alms at the beautiful gate of the temple. And they were filled with wonder and amazement at the which had happened unto him." Peter and John, they didn't have the money. They didn't have things to just give away. But what they had was the Word of God. What they had was Peter healed him. Think, we don't have a lot of money, but what do we have? We're rich in other ways, right? We have the word of God, we have the good news. We have, we can't save them, no. But look, we have, maybe it's you that's gonna be planting this seed. It's not about being there when someone is saved, that's not what it's about. What it's about is doing what you're called to do. Now, yes, it is great to be there when someone is saved. But is that really what you're looking for? I mean, yeah, we are. But what I want you to understand, what I'm trying to get to is our responsibility in things. Maybe we're just the one who's planting the seed. Maybe it's our responsibility to water the seed. It's OK. We just need to do our responsibility as a person, as a church. plant the seed, water the seed, because we have something much more valuable than silver and gold. We have something much more valuable. But this world is going to burn up one of these days, and all these things that this world calls valuable, they call important, they're going to be gone. We're talking about eternity. And when I think about this, you know who I think about? I'm sure you know, I think of Uncle John. who that I didn't like when I was lost, but after the Lord saved me and he'd already passed on. Look, he planted that seed. He watered that seed over and over and over again, and then he was gone. The Lord had already taken him home when the Lord saved me. But he did his responsibility. He did what he was supposed to do. Although he irritated me, frustrated me, I did not like Uncle John at all. But now he is one of the men that I love. And I could never, I can't tell him that now. But I believe one of these days I'll be able to thank him. I believe that. And I thank the Lord that he sent my dad to pastor a church where Uncle John was at because he used Uncle John to witness to me so much. We have a responsibility. It's not about being there when they're saved, it's about doing what God tells you to do. And if the Lord tells you to witness to someone, witness to them. But don't count it a failure when you walk away and if they don't accept and receive the Lord Jesus Christ. Don't count that as a failure because you did what God told you to do. You succeeded. You did what was right. Count that as a success. Because maybe that's the first time they heard, I don't know. But Peter and John, they witnessed as they went about their day. That's what we're to do as we go about our day, we're to witness. And we're going to have to hurry up here. In Acts chapter 6, Acts chapter 6. Here, the church is going along. It's going along good and the Lord is adding to the church. And then there arises a problem. It becomes too many people and too many needs that the apostles, they can't handle all of this. So the church comes to the apostles and they complain to them and say, look, some of our widows are not being taken care of. So the apostles here in verse three. Verse 2 says, And the Twelve called the multitude of the disciples unto them, and said, It is not reason that we should leave the word of God to serve tables. In other words, to serve and be servants to the people here. We need to be studying. And he says here in verse 3, Wherefore, brethren, Look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business. But we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word." Here is when we find that the church brought deacons in, and the apostles told the church, you pick out. You look at seven men, you find seven men of honest report that are full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom. You choose those men out. The apostles didn't choose them out, told the church to. The church chose out those seven men, presented them before the apostles, the apostles ordained them, and they put them to work in the church as servants. Today, to be a deacon means to have authority in the church. But then, throughout the Bible, to be a deacon means to be a servant of the church. And that's what a deacon is. He serves the church. He serves the people. He helps the pastor in that. And you can look at the qualifications here are not any different. They're worded differently. A man of honest report and full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom. You can turn over to 1 Timothy chapter 3 and you can read there verses 1 through 13. That's the qualifications for a pastor or bishop, it calls there, and also the qualifications for a deacon. There, we follow those qualifications. That's how we know if someone is called into the ministry or not. Do they meet the qualifications? I'm not going to turn over there because I'm running out of time, but you can turn over there. We're very familiar with the qualification for pastor for deacons that. And I'll just one of the things that people argue with, people have frustrations over in this is that the husband, one wife. OK, people say there, well, that means the husband, one wife at a time, that's not what that says. For the pastor and a deacon both are to be the husband of one wife." He's not to be divorced. Not to be divorced. I don't believe it's to be divorced or remarried. Either one. I say, well, yes, but it doesn't say not divorced. It also says later he has to have his house in order. How can a man have his house in order if he's divorced? He can't. It doesn't work. So, and we look, and the world today says, well, yes, but, and I've had this told to me. that you can't tell me that it's not good for us to have this divorced man as a pastor because our church is growing. What does that mean, that a church that has a woman pastor and it's growing, that that's God's will? Is that what that means? You're looking at worldly things to determine what God's word says. We look at God's word to determine what God's word says, not worldly things. We have to be careful when we look at all of this to really follow God's word. And there's qualifications there for a reason. Because not all men that desire to be a deacon or desire to be a bishop or pastor are qualified. And if they're not qualified, and I'm sorry, even if it's your son or grandson. I'm sorry, if they're not qualified, they're not qualified. That's it. God is not going to call somebody in a ministry that's not qualified. He knows the qualifications. He inspired them, by the way. He knows them. Look, if you will, in Acts chapter eight, Acts chapter eight. So now we had that in verse six or chapter six there, and now everything is going really good, right? Well, not everything is going good, except for Acts chapter seven there when Stephen was killed. Acts chapter 8 verse 1 says, and Saul was consenting unto his death, that's the death of Stephen, and at that time there was great persecution against the church, which was at Jerusalem. And they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria except the apostles. and devout men carried Stephen to his burial and made great lamentation over him. As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering into every house and hailing men and women committed them to prison. Therefore, they that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word. So the church came under persecution, and what was it that happened? Now the church, all of a sudden, is scattered abroad, going different places. It says they're the regents of Judah and Samaria. They were scattered abroad to get away from that persecution, but what did they do? They didn't run and hide. What did they do? Verse four says, therefore, they that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word. They went, and everywhere they went, they witnessed. They told people about Jesus Christ. Although they were being persecuted, they went everywhere preaching and teaching. And that word preaching just means to declare. It means to broadcast the good news. Broadcast that, the word of God. And then, so there's persecution, and then in chapter 11, Acts chapter 11, verse 19. Remember, what we're looking at is how a church is to operate, right? There's times that we come under persecution. We're not too much under persecution in this country. There's things that happen, there's things that may happen coming on us, and we look back to Acts. I do. Acts, how the first church operated, how that when they were threatened, when Paul and Peter and John were threatened and told not to preach in the Word of God, preaching the name of Christ anymore, what did they do? They prayed for boldness. That's what they prayed for. The Lord, don't let us stop preaching your word. Here in Acts 11 verse 19 says, Now they which were scattered abroad upon the persecution that arose about Stephen traveled as far as Phenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, preaching the word to none but unto 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 great number believed and turned unto the Lord. So we we kind of have now, if you if you remember, Chapter 10. Is when Paul went to Cornelius. And then we had the first part of Chapter 11 is when we came back, he was pulled on the car. Peter, I keep saying Paul, but Peter went to Cornelius when he came back, he was pulled on all on the carpet because you're not supposed to go to a Gentile. And Peter's like, what was I supposed to do? This is what the Lord showed me in a vision. Don't you call unclean what I have made clean. And then I'm there and the Holy Ghost comes on them just as it did on us. What am I supposed to do? And they're like, okay. But then we go back to when those that were scattered abroad over the persecution of Stephen and what did they do? They go over as far as Antioch preaching the word of God and people are being saved. by the Word of God being taught to them. And then in verse 22, it says, Then tidings of these things came unto the ears of the church, which was in Jerusalem. And they sent forth Barnabas, that he should go as far as Antioch. Why did they do this? Remember something a church has to have? Authority. It must have authority. Look, these people that went, they had some things in common. They were saved. They were baptized. They were members of a church. They were scattered abroad. They went as far as Antioch. They preached. There was people saved. So today, in some circles, they would say, well, there's a church. That's not what the Bible says. When the church of Jerusalem found out they heard that there was people being saved there, they sent Barnabas to go as far as Antioch to check this out. It says in verse 23, 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. Leave those things of the world, leave what they believed before, leave those heresies, leave all of that other stuff that they believed before, and cleave only to the Lord. Verse 24, For he was a good man, and full of the Holy Ghost, and of faith, and much people was added unto the Lord. And then you have there where that, then Barnabas is such a large work that he goes and he finds Paul and brings Paul back to there. And this is that verse 26, and the disciples were called Christians first at Antioch. So the church at Jerusalem sent Barnabas to check out, but I would call it this, they sent Barnabas with authority. to go check out what's happening there and to form a church there with those saved people that are being saved as far as Antioch. And then you have here in chapter 13. Here in chapter 13, it says, now there was in the church that was in Antioch. Where did that church at Antioch come from? How did it form? The church of Jerusalem sent Barnabas with authority. to go over there to Church Antioch, and now there's a church that's at Antioch. And now you look, and certain prophets and teachers, as Barnabas and Simeon, what's called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene and Menin, which had been brought up with Herod the Tetriarch and Saul. And they ministered to the Lord and fasted. And you look, it says, the Holy Ghost said, separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them. The Holy Ghost, the Lord, tells the church, and they're at Antioch, I have called Barnabas and Saul for a work. I want you to send them out. Notice he didn't tell, the Lord didn't tell Barnabas and Saul, you need to leave. but he told the church to send them out. Followed the proper authority. Where does the church come from today? If you wanna know our history, I have it on my computer, I saved it. I can print that out for you, you can see our history, where we come from. How this happened, how we got to be 12 Ryan Baptist Church. It's important to know. It is important to know. But what is important to understand is that we come through the authority, the proper authority of a mother church. Not just a pastor that was baptized, not just a pastor that was ordained. I didn't bring authority with me. I came here because you already had authority. It's not through a man. The Lord, when he gave the Great Commission, he said all power is given to me. Now I give it to you as a church to go and to do and to maintain and to keep that great commission. So the church here, they sent out, it says, verse three says, and when they had fasted and prayed, they laid their hands on them and sent them away. Paul, a lot of the New Testament, Paul writes to different churches. The church of Ephesus, the church of Corian. Where do you think these churches come from? The Thessalonians. Where do you think, how did these churches become churches? Where did their authority come from? I've heard a lot of people say, well, yes, the Church of Jerusalem started all those churches. In a way, they did because they gave the authority to the Church of Antioch to become a church. The Church of Antioch sent Paul and Barnabas out by the word of the Lord to go out. And Paul, this is the beginning of Paul's first missionary journey. And he goes through and witnesses and preaches and churches are formed through the authority of the Church at Antioch. That's how the church operates. That's how we operate. We do not believe in, almost said spontaneous combustion, but it's not combustion. We don't believe in the spontaneous, boom, there's a church. There has to be authority. Just like a person does not just, boom, they appear. There has to be a mom and a dad. There must be. And that's what we believe about churches, and that's what the Bible brings out, and you follow this first church and how they're formed. how that they follow the word of God, how that they do all of this, how they operate. That's where we get a lot of our operations from and why we do the things we do. Why do we seek out and make sure that when someone comes to join that they have the proper authority in baptism? Because the authority, look, even there in Acts 13, the Lord followed the authority he gave to the church. He didn't bypass that authority. Neither should we. We should follow that and make sure that we keep the proper authority in there. So I'm going to stop there. But how a church operates is important today. It's it's always important. We need to make sure we maintain all of this, how a church operates and where do we get all this from? It's not from what makes sense. It's from the word of God is what we go by. So. But if you're here today and you're lost, I know this has not been a message to the lost, but we preach the gospel. We spread the gospel, we witness to people, and what we tell them is that they need Jesus Christ. That's why we invite people to church, so they can hear the word of God. And I'll tell you here today, in closing, that you need the Lord Jesus Christ if you're here today and you're lost. Doesn't matter if you're a church member or not. If you're lost, you need the Lord Jesus Christ. So repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and He'll save you. If the song leader and piano player will come, if you will go ahead and stand.