Charles Simeon was the pastor of Trinity Church, Cambridge, for 54 years. He went at the age of 23, and the parishioners weren't happy to have him, so they locked the pews and wouldn't allow anybody to sit in the pews. And this went on for 10 years, pastor. And he had to bring in benches and put them in the aisles so the common people could come and hear him gladly. And so he stayed for 54 years as the pastor of this church. When he was 48, he got seriously ill and that lasted for 13 years. And he figured this is, you know, this is it. It's over. He took a pilgrimage to God's country, that would be Scotland, and his spirit was revived. And he says, it's just like the woman that touched the hem of his garment. And so he went back invigorated to his pulpit and preached another 17 years. And as he lay dying, his bed was surrounded by many of his friends and family. They said, brother, what's going through your mind right now? And he said, well, I was just thinking about God's creative handiwork and how he made the world in six days. And some of them were a little perplexed. What are you talking about? You know, that's going through your mind? Why is that going through your mind? He said, well, if God If God can make a world in six days out of nothing, He can make something out of me. That illustration just touched my heart, and the bakers sang it so beautifully. The wonder of it all. It's a bit emotional for me to be here today. This is my church that I pastored for 14 years. Brother Mark and Paula Vittori are here. He's the director of the mission board I currently serve with. So glad to have him here with us this morning. He was scheduled to be your speaker, but as you know, some family situations came up and so he asked to be relieved of that responsibility. And early on, Pastor Hawkey had asked me months ago, would you be willing to preach in case somebody was not able to come? And I said, sure, I'll be glad to do that, not thinking for a minute that it would come to pass. But I did have a message ready. And so I told the pastor I had a message ready, and he said, well, that's a good message, but here's what the theme of the conference is. And here's what we'd like you to preach on. And so I had 10 days to get ready, and that was plenty of time for me to do that. So thankful for this opportunity. Good to see the walls here, Brother Wilson. I remember that meeting at the Commerce Club. years ago when you came up with this idea for special assignment missionaries. I don't know that you realize that I might be one of them, and it may have caused you some pause for thought if you'd have thought that through. But in any case, it is what it is, and I'm thankful for the opportunity. We have eight special assignment missionaries with Gospel Fellowship Association, and we're thankful for the ministry that God has given these men as they serve around the country and sometimes on foreign lands. Open your Bibles please to the book of Acts chapter 13. Acts chapter 13. The need for laborers, sending churches, and who does the sending? Would you please stand as I read just the first four verses, Acts chapter 13. Now, there were in the church that was at Antioch certain prophets and teachers as Barnabas and Simeon that was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaan, which had been brought up with Herod the Tetrarch, and Saul. As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them. And when they had fasted and prayed, and had laid their hands on them, they sent them away. So they, being sent forth by the Holy Ghost, departed unto Seleucia, and from thence they sailed to Cyprus. Father, I honor the reading of your Word. I pray that it will not return unto the void, but that it will accomplish that whereunto it is sent. In Jesus' name, Amen. Thank you and please be seated. The book of the Acts of the Apostles is a book of beginnings. One writer promptly labeled it, I think, as the book of the acts of the Holy Spirit through the apostles. The book records the transition from the ministry of our Lord Jesus in chapter 1 to that of the apostles and the prophets and the evangelists and the pastor teachers and now it has come down in the 21st century to folks just like you and just like me. Acts chapter 1 verse 8 gives a very good outline of the book. You shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you and you shall be witnesses unto me in Jerusalem and in all Judea and in Samaria and unto the uttermost part of the earth. The verse gives a very good outline of the book. Jerusalem, Acts chapters 1 through 7. Judea and Samaria, Acts chapters 8 and 9. To the Gentiles and to the ends of the earth, that would be Acts chapters 10 through the end of the book. In reading through the book recently, I was able to identify at least 15 different beginnings for the church that took place in this one book. Of course, we have the founding of the church in Acts chapter 2. In Acts chapter 3, we have the first apostolic miracle, when the man who was lame was begging, and Peter and John went up to the temple at the ninth hour, the hour of prayer, and Peter looked at him and said, look on us, and he was expecting to receive a gift. 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 leaped up. And the text says that he held Peter and John. And that word held means I gripped tightly. He wasn't going to let them go because of what God had done for them. In Acts chapter 4, we have the beginnings of persecution. The Sanhedrin did not like what Peter was doing and what he was preaching. After all, he preached on the day of Pentecost and some 3,000 souls were saved. This was revolutionary. So they didn't care for it one bit. That's in chapter 4. In chapter 5, we have an example of the first apostolic judgment of sin. Ananias and Sapphira and the subsequent consequence of, of great fear, awesome respect for God that fell upon the local church. In Acts chapter 6 we have the first deacons appointed. In Acts chapter 7 we have the first Christian martyr, Stephen. In Acts chapter 8 we have the diaspora, the dispersion, the persecution came and God's people scattered and the text says they went everywhere, doing what? Preaching the Word, God's plan for His church. Acts chapter 9 we have official persecution. Letters were desired by Saul of Tarsus so that he could go to Damascus and arrest these heretics and bring them bound to Jerusalem for trial and death. In Acts chapter 11, or excuse me, I passed over one, there was the first Gentile convert also in Acts chapter 8, and that was the Ethiopian eunuch. And Philip ran up to the chariot, said, you understand what you're reading? How can I? Well, let me explain it to you. And he opened the text and preached unto him what? Brother Bill, Jesus. Acts chapter 11, we have the first controversy between Christians. In Acts chapter 13, our text, we have the first missionaries being sent out by this missionary church, Antioch. In chapters 13 and 14, we have the first missionary journey. And in Acts chapter 16 and following through chapter 20, we have the first European outreach. When Paul was hindered by the Spirit of God, he wanted to go here, he wanted to go there, he wanted to go somewhere else, and the Spirit of God said, No! Perplexed, what do I do? And then he had a vision of a man of Macedonia who said, come over and help us. And the gospel went to Europe for the first time. So this book is really a book of beginnings. Our focus this morning is on the great need for laborers with an emphasis on sending and sending churches. And the text is found there in Acts chapter 13. Our missionary emphasis is taken from this verse that you see behind me for this conference. The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few, therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send forth laborers into his harvest. Now, it's been my privilege for Judy and for me to be special assignment missionaries with Gospel Fellowship Association since 2012, when we stepped away as pastor of this church. That was a Sunday, our last Sunday. The following Monday, I was retired. And I stayed home all day. And I was going out of my mind. I said, Judy, I can't do this. If this is retirement, I want none of it. So we made application to Gospel Fellowship Association and for some reason, I don't understand, they took us on as special assignment missionaries. but I'm so thankful that they did because it's been such a blessing for Judy and for me to be able to travel and to meet God's people everywhere and, and just fall in love with people and do our best to try to help them and God sometimes works in miraculous ways, providentially, in arranging circumstances to fall into place, not of my doing. God did it all and God gets all the glory. Now one of the requirements of GFA is that the 275 plus missionaries be members of local churches. I think the count is 281, that's the last number I heard, but to be on the safe side, we kind of rounded off at 275 missionaries scattered around the globe. Now a number of those missionaries have just gone out from their local church. Many others have gone through a more formal process of a commissioning service, such as we read about here in Acts chapter 13 in the first three verses. Grace Baptist Church has a number of members who are missionaries, and some of them have been commissioned and sent out by the assembly. The largents come to mind. Brother Dale Richards and his wife Lela up in Escalante, Utah, I was talking to him the other day and he reminded me, well, you came out and preached my installation service. I said, I did. I mean, I did, yes. That's right. That's exactly what I did. You understand, don't you, Brother Marv, that it's hard to remember things sometimes. You start repeating yourself. You understand, Brother Marv, that it's... I want to make four statements from this text. Number one is found in verse one. The church had gifted leadership. Verse 2, the first part of the verse, the church at Antioch worshipped God. Number 3, the Holy Ghost communicated directly with the church at Antioch. and number four in verse four, the Holy Ghost sent out Barnabas and Saul. The church in Antioch had gifted leadership. Look at the text again. Now there were in the church that was in Antioch certain prophets and teachers such as Barnabas and Simeon that was called Niger and Lucius of Cyrene and Menaion which had been brought up with Herod the Tetrarch and Saul. Gifted leadership in the local assembly. Five prominent prophets and teachers in the Antioch church, a small church, a new church. At the time this was written, the Greek scholars tell us that the Greek construction suggests that Barnabas and Simeon and Lucius were prophets. That is, fourth tellers as well as foretellers. And Manan and Saul were teachers. Scripture expositors. I want you to see that the leadership of this local assembly was a reflection of the cosmopolitan makeup of this local assembly. The leadership reflected racial, cultural, and socio-economic diversity. Barnabas He was a, a Levite, a Jew from Cyprus. His name is found 29 times in the Bible, 24 of them right here in the book of Acts. We know much about him. His name was Joses and he was called Barnabas which translated is the son of consolation. He was a consoler. He could come alongside and put his arm around you and just give you a little hug and encourage you. He was an encourager. When Saul got saved, Barnabas went to the church at Jerusalem and says, now you need to get rid of your prejudices against this man and you need to understand he's been born again. And we need to receive him into our fellowship. He was an exhorter par excellence and we meet him in Acts chapter 4 first when he sold his land and gave the total purchase price to the church at Jerusalem. Simeon, Simeon may have been from Africa. Nigeria is a word that comes from his nickname, Niger, nickname Black. He may have been a black man from Africa, and he was part of this gifted leadership in this local assembly that demonstrated its cosmopolitan nature. Manaan. He was an intimate friend or perhaps a foster brother of Herod the Tetrarch. Now this is not the Herod of Jesus' day who killed all the children two years and under. This is Herod Antipas who killed John the Baptist and then put our Lord on trial. So he was there. Lucius, who came from Cyrene, may have been one of the founders of the church in Antioch, Acts chapter 11 and verse 20. And then Saul, who is listed last, but eventually he would become first. I think Barnabas and Saul were the co-pastors or the pastor and the assistant pastor of this church at Antioch. But the diversity of the backgrounds of the leaders of the church shows the cosmopolitan nature of the church. And I've been in some churches like that. My son's church over in Cary, there are a number of Indians who are members of the church, engineers. It's the Research Triangle Park. And just brilliant people who love the Lord Jesus. There are a number of black women who come from the Durham Rescue Mission. They send a van over there every Lord's Day morning and pick up a crowd and bring them in. and these ladies stay the day and they're there for the morning and the evening services. And so it's a cosmopolitan church. At one time we had kind of a cosmopolitan work here when the Spanish congregation met with us on the Lord's Day morning. That was a blessing. The downside of the Iglesia Bautista de la Gracia having its own church location is that they're not here anymore. and they brought such a blessing to the service. The most cosmopolitan service Judy and I have ever been in was at Spurgeon's Tabernacle on a Monday evening. We went there for a service. They were singing out of Spurgeon's own hymnal, interesting hymnal. There's no music in it, just words. And most of the songs we knew, I think there were one or two that we didn't know. But here was a crowd filled with just every diverse racial group that you could think of, all gathered together under one roof, singing songs, who knew the music, and singing praise and glory to God, and what a blessing it was to see that. You know, here in the South, let me tell you, back in Colton, California, we had a diverse population, a lot of Hispanics, 73% Hispanic population in Colton. But we had a number of different people from different ethnic backgrounds. Do you know the most segregated hour in the week in the South is Sunday morning at 11 o'clock? Now think about that. Why is that? I mean, if you had a, a member of your leadership team that happened to be of a swarthy complexion, would that bother you? I hope not. I pray not. I think not, because I, I think we've got the kind of congregation here that would be accepting of any brother or sister in Christ. Barnabas was a Jew from Cyprus. Simeon was a Jew, but his Latin name, Niger, indicates he was of dark complexion, but also that he moved in Roman circles. Simon of Cyrene could be the one who, Simeon, could be the one who carried our Lord's cross in Matthew chapter 27. That's debatable. Some people argue for it and against it. Lucius, also from Cyrene in North Africa. Mannan, reared with Herod the Tetrarch. as I mentioned earlier, a cosmopolitan makeup of a congregation and gifted leadership. Now when special assignments come up and we get sent out, usually it's because the pastor has left the church to move somewhere else. God has called him to go somewhere else. and the church is left without a pastor. This was the situation in Colton. The pastor gave him two weeks notice and he was gone, boom, out the door. Small, struggling church, impossible situation, just no way in the world that God was going to keep that thing afloat, but God didn't think that way. He did it, and He put it all together through providential circumstances going back two years, God did the whole thing. But churches, little churches, have one pastor, the pastor of the thriving church in Walkerville, Arkansas, down in Horsehead Swamp. We were just there, Judy and I, visiting. I went to church with my cousin Stella. She's chairman of the cemetery board, and they have a nice cemetery just about a mile down from the church. We went to church there. When I was reading the requirements for the pastor a number of years ago now, one of the requirements was that he had to cut the grass. So brother, just put that on your plate, alright? I want to see you out there on that riding mower. We have a church here that has gifted leadership and a plurality of leadership. We have our pastor, we have the assistant to the pastor, we have the senior's pastor, we have the music director, we have godly men who are serving as deacons, and we have a lot of wonderful ladies who are working diligently behind the scenes to make this whole thing work. gifted leadership that God has given Grace Baptist Church and I know, having talked to Pastor Hockey, how thankful he is and how blessed we are here at Grace Baptist Church. So this church had gifted leadership and secondly, the church at Antioch worshipped God. Look at verse 2, As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, Now this is a church setting. It may have been just these five who were ministering to the Lord, or it may have been the whole church. We don't know. The text does not say. But we do know this. When they sent them away, it was something that the whole church took part in. Now last week our pastor pointed out the difference between what is going on today here in our town and around the country and across the world with a so-called worship experience as to what it means to truly worship God. And I got to thinking about that. we are met together on the Lord's Day morning to worship God. How do we do that, Brother Bill? We've got to figure this question out. What do we do when we worship God? Are you worshiping God this morning? Well, I think first off, it comes with an attitude readjustment. We need, we need to, we need to focus honoring God by our presence in a local assembly. True worship of God begins with a desire to honor God and should include praise and prayer and, listen to this, and an attentive spirit. Don't depend on the pastor or the preacher to keep you awake. If you have to drink a cup of coffee, I made the coffee this morning, it'll keep you awake. If you have to drink a cup, do whatever you have to do to be attentive to the message, to listen to the preaching. This man is not standing up here just exercising his gifts for the pure pleasure of it. He wants to communicate a message to the people sitting in the pew, and we have a responsibility to listen. I remember hearing a preacher one time, and it just taxed me sorely to listen to this man preach. I heard him preach a whole message one time on Rahab the harlot. Only he said it this way, harlot the Rahab. The whole message, harlot the Rahab. What am I going to do? I made up my mind that the next time I heard this man preach, I was going to focus my attention on what he had to say in the message. And you know what? I got a blessing from that message. So I have a responsibility to listen! when the pastor is preaching, and so do you. As they ministered, the text says, as they were ministering. There are six different verbs translated by our English verb, to minister, and this one has the idea, listen to this, to supply public offices at one's own cost to render public service to the state. It is a Greek word from which we get our English word, liturgy. the liturgy of the Church. And so this was what they were doing. These were in effect a carryover from the Old Testament priesthood and today we have a royal priesthood of believers in 1 Peter chapter 2 verses 5 and 9 and again in Revelation chapter 1 verses 5 and 6 we are referred to there as kings and priests. kingdom of God. Now stop and think. This is what we ought to be about every Lord's Day, not rendering public service to the state, but gathered together in Jesus' name to render public service to God. To listen to the announcements, This is not just a speech exercise that somebody's going through when announcements are made. They're important. Maybe you can follow up on them. Singing praise to God, as we have done this morning. Do you know who our primary audience is whenever we sing? It's God. The health wealth syndrome crowd, the mega church crowd, the prosperity bunch, they've got it all wrong. They put on a show, they have entertainment, and they think, you come in here and we'll give you this fleshly music, and if you like the music, maybe you'll like us, and maybe you'll like God. That's the mentality behind it. But God is not pleased. God is pleased when God's people meet together in Jesus' name and sing praises to Him. And that's what we do on the Lord's Day. That's a part of our worship. The offering plate gets passed. Do you know that's an act of worship as well? Putting some money in the offering plate. I have a liturgy. I don't write the check. to go in the offering plate until I'm dressed with my suit and tie on. Then I sit down at my desk and I write a check to put it in the offering plate. You said, well, that's crazy. I said, well, I've been called worse things than that. It's an act of worship for me. Take this piddling amount. multiply it, magnify it, use it for God's glory. People develop things that they do. Did you know that Stonewall Jackson would never take a drink of water without lifting his head to God and thanking him? We get into some good habits, I think. giving, tithes and offerings, serving God with your talents and giftedness, paying attention to the preaching, responding when an invitation is given. You don't have to get out and walk the aisle necessarily. If an invitation is given, you feel impressed to go down and shake the pastor's hand and say, Pastor, I'm under conviction today. Thank you for that message. I need to make some things right with God, maybe with somebody else. God works on your heart. Respond to the invitation. Now let me just ask a question. This is personal. Has anybody in this room never walked an aisle? I don't want a response, but just think about that. That's part of our worship. It's all about God. Worshipping God. You read Pilgrim's Progress about faithful and pilgrim. These men knew what it was to worship God. They were priests. They were part of the priesthood of believers that Peter talks about in 1 Peter chapter 2. In the Old Testament, the priests were known by three things. How they dressed, how they behaved, and how they spoke. Well, you read that passage about faithful and pilgrim. Evangelist says, you're going to have to go through the town of Vanity, and the Vanity Fair is going on, and they've got a bunch of streets there with hawkers hawking their wares. There's the British row, there's the Roman row, there's the Greek row, there's the Spanish row, and you're going to find all of these people in Vanity Fair trying to persuade you that what they have is what you need. Well, there were three things about faithful and pilgrim that stood out. Number one, they didn't dress like the people in Vanity Fair. Number two, they didn't talk like the people in Vanity Fair. Have you ever met somebody that not long in the course of the conversation, first thing you know, they want to start talking about Jesus? What are you, some kind of fanatic or something? No, my dear friend, that's what you should be doing. You ought to steer the conversation. Bring it around to Jesus. Somehow, someway, you can do it. And then their behavior was different. And you know what happened to Faithful. Lord Hategood, the judge and the jury condemned him to death and he was stoned to death. But you know what was waiting over in the wings? There was a chariot that took him to heaven. God's people ought to be known by characteristics that are different from the world. So that's something we need to think through. In the third place, the Holy Ghost communicated directly with the church, the last part of verse 2 and verse 3. As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them. And when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them, they sent them away. Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them. Now this was a commissioning to go on a missionary journey to reach Gentiles with the gospel. Paul had already been called way back in chapter 9. Barnabas before that, back in chapter 4, we read about him. So these men were already called of God to serve God, but now we're going to set them apart for a specific task, and that is to take a missionary journey that is going to be fraught with danger. So the Holy Ghost said, now how did He say that? Now remember the canon of scripture was not complete. Bible wasn't finished. Beware of modern day prophets who come along and said, the Lord gave me a prophecy concerning you. That's like the guy from the IRS who says, I'm from the government and I'm here to help you. Just chalk it up. He's not, he's not helping you. Pastor, you put new batteries in the clock back there. The thing is running just way too fast. Separate me Barnabas and Saul. The Holy Spirit directed the calling. God had already called Paul to minister to the Gentiles. He had also called Barnabas to labor and the church confirmed their calling by commissioning them to go out and enlist other believers into the cause of Christ. The Holy Spirit communicated to them while they were ministering, fasting and praying and perhaps He did it through the prophets who were there. who got a prophecy from God directly. Or maybe the Spirit of God did as He does today. He impresses our spirit. My spirit agrees with your spirit. Yeah, that's right. That's what we ought to be doing. Frequently in the book of Acts, the Holy Spirit gave directives to God's leaders, and here He directed the five while they were worshiping and fasting to set apart for Him Barnabas and Saul. And so we have this first commissioning service. And when they had fasted and prayed, verse 3 said, this was not ordination to the ministry, but a solemn consecration to the great missionary task. A.T. Robertson says that it was clear in Acts chapter 15, verse 40, that the brethren there commended Paul and Silas. Perhaps some of them, he said, acted for the whole church, all of whom approved the enterprise." End of quote. Fasting and praying. Now there is a lost art. I don't want to know if you've ever fasted. That's none of my business. But you know. Have you ever felt so burdened about something that the thought of food just went away? I don't need to eat. I'm burdened about something. Have you ever felt like that, and have you followed through with it? Praying. The New Testament Christians regularly prayed and fasted. God's presence and word was more life-giving than food. And our Lord clearly instructed His followers to fast with the heart in secret to God, not as a show for other people. That's how the Pharisees did it. They put on a long face. Oh, bless your heart, dear brother. I can hear the piety dripping from their lips right now. It's not lost on me that I think the most important service of the week, in the middle of the week, our prayer meeting is also the least attended. Brethren, these things ought not so to be. Now I understand if you have age-related issues, if you have work-related issues, if you have health-related issues that preclude your coming out in the middle of the week. I understand that. That's legitimate. But maybe you could readjust your schedule. Maybe you could at least make an effort. Do you know how discouraging, I know how discouraging it was to come to the midweek service when we had a much smaller crowd and just have a handful of people show up. You want discouragement? You should have been with me in Colton, California where my wife and two other people were the attendees at prayer meeting as we were in the month of August. Albert Barnes comments, that their prayers were heard. So the Holy Ghost. spoke to these people and said, separate these two men. And verse 4 says, the Holy Ghost was the one sending Barnabas and Saul. So they being sent forth by the Holy Ghost. Luke carefully noted that the person ultimately responsible for the sending was not the local congregation, it was not the leadership of the church, it was God Himself in the person of the Holy Ghost. He's the one who sends out missionaries, and He alone. Holy Ghost, third person of the Trinity, mentioned 42 times in the book of Acts. In 11 separate verses, He's also referred to as the Spirit of God 53 times in 28 chapters. Remember what I said at the beginning, the book of Acts of the Apostles might be better titled the book of the Acts of the Holy Spirit through the Apostles. If you're on the mission field or considering missions, you better be dead sure that the Holy Ghost is the one who sent you. Too many people have got a glamorous notion of what it means to be a missionary. It's anything but. You can just get over your fantasies about missions. William Carey is an example. Here's a man who would pay any price, make any sacrifice, undergo any hardship to bring the gospel of Jesus Christ to as many people as possible. Family tragedy. Carey and his wife Dorothy lost three of their six children to death. His wife, Dorothy, in India progressively lost her sanity. Couldn't cope with the strain of living at a subsistence level in India. They had three other young children to bring up. No one would have blamed them if they said, this is too much, this is too hard, we can't do this, we're going back home. didn't do it. They stayed and finished the job God had called them to do because the Holy Ghost had separated them for the task that they were about. Slow results. Cary spent seven years before his first convert. The list goes on. The British East India Company officially opposed them. There was the disastrous fire in 1812. The mission printing plant was destroyed. Years of Carey's translation were gone up in smoke. Had to start all over. Repeated attacks of malaria, cholera, impoverished living conditions, insufficient funds to eke out even a minimal existence. Carey had to take up secular employment just to survive. But he did it. But go back to one of the first missionaries sent out by the church in Antioch of the Jews. Five times received I forty stripes, save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Thrice I suffered shipwreck. A night and a day I have been in the deep, in journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen. in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren, in weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness, besides all those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches. it's not glamorous. Now, I've come to the application. Who can go to the mission field from our assembly, Grace Baptist Church? The answer is this, all who are called by God to go. The problem we face is a shortage of new faces who will answer the call of God. It's getting harder to find qualified candidates for the mission field. Brother Marv, you remember what Mission Prayer Band was like back when we were in school. I mean, it was well attended. The ministerial class that I was in comprised one-third of the entire student population at Bob Jones University. Attendance at Mission Prayer Band is on the decline, I've been told. Now I need some audience participation now. I'm going to ask everybody 12 years old and older up to the age of 25. 12 to 25. Would you please stand up, please, just so I can see you. Older than 12 and under 25. Amen. Let me just say, keep standing for a minute. Let me just say something to you. You are the future of the Christian church. Here's something that I came to a strong belief concerning when I was 40 years old, way too late almost to do anything about it. I figured out that I ought to settle the question of missions in my own heart before I settle down in the United States of America. And I'm just addressing all of you young people right now. You need to make up your mind that that's what you're going to do. I'm going to settle the question of missions in my own heart and life before I settle down in this country. Thank you. You may be seated. age ought not to be a factor. Robert Moffat was a missionary in South Africa. He came home to Scotland to see if he couldn't find some more laborers and on a rainy winter night, he went to a church to preach and his text is right here on the wall. This is the text he was going to preach from. He walked into the church and nothing but women in the Church. God bless them. Back in those days, women didn't go to the mission field by themselves, alone. It just didn't happen. I've got a message to preach on praying that God will send forth laborers into the harvest and all these dear ladies and not one of them is going to be able to go. Should I just cancel the message? Should I just stop? Should I just quit? but he decided in the face of it all, I'm going to go ahead and preach. It's kind of like the young preacher who went out to the nursing home to preach on the sins of youth. I mean, it's just not suited to the audience. So he preached. He didn't know that up in the organ loft where the bellows was to pump the air for the pipe organ to play. There was a young teenage boy listening. Here's what Moffat said, every morning when I get up and look at the horizon, I see the smoke from a thousand villages where the name of Christ has never been heard. That teenager heard that. I'm going to go. By the way, his name was David Livingstone. Teenager. Now, those of you who are 65 years old and older, I'm not going to ask you to stand. Some of you may have trouble getting up. But folks, we need to pray for laborers. Brother Baker is the new kid on the block. He's 39 years old. Next is Brother Bill Keefer. He's 68. Back there is Mel Wingrove. He's going to be preaching this afternoon, Lord willing. He's 72. I'm not the oldest. I'm 75. Over here is Marv Frey. He's 76. Does that not tell you something? Brother Marr, we've got fewer days ahead of us than we have behind us. If the Lord tarries, we might not see each other again this side of glory. We need to have some volunteers from those of you that stood up. to answer the call of foreign missions and determine, by God's grace, I'm going to go. I don't know where, I don't know how, I don't know when, but I'm making up my mind, I'm going to go. But you folks that are 65, let me say something to you. Perhaps God is calling some of you to spend your latter years in some aspect of missions. You can do it. Spend a little extra time praying for your missionaries. You've got the time. Spend a little extra money for postage, or maybe other mundane needs that your missionaries have. I remember a missionary friend of mine that was called to Chile, and when he was packing to go, he had to figure out how to pack five years worth of toothpaste. to go to Chile. So missionaries have needs that you can satisfy. Go visit one of our missionaries. We had a missions team go out this last summer that went to Utah to visit with the Richards family. And Brother Dale is just beside himself with thanksgiving over this group that came to help this little church in Escalante, Utah. He's just really blessed by that. Go on a short-term mission trip to help a missionary. Listen to Brother Bill here. Go to Brazil. You don't have to speak Portuguese, right? It's impossible to learn anyway, right? Would be for me, brother. Age is not a factor. Raymond Lull was a missionary to the Muslims. On August the 14th, in 1314, August the 14th, 1314, Raymond Lull sailed a third time for Islamic North Africa, Algeria. He had been to Tunisia on the eastern side of the continent and now he's going right in the middle where Algeria is located to serve as a missionary. This would be his last mission trip. He had established chairs of missions in several European universities. And although considerable interest was aroused, no one was willing to go with the message of love to the Muslim world. No one would go. Lull himself, when he was 60 years old, reviews his life in these words, I had a wife and children, I was tolerably rich, I had a secular life, and all these things I cheerfully resigned for the sake of promoting the common good and diffusing abroad the holy faith. I learned Arabic. I've several times gone abroad to preach the gospel to the Saracens. I have for the sake of the faith been cast into prison and scourged. I have labored 45 years to win over the shepherds of the church and the princes of Europe to the common good of Christendom. And listen to this statement. Now I am old and poor, but still I am intent on the same object. I will persevere in it until death, if the Lord permits it. failing to stimulate interest in his burden for reaching the Muslims with the gospel, he returned secretly to Algeria in 1314 to disciple the few Christians he had already won. He stayed one year. You want to know how old he was when he left? He was 79. Well, In his 80th year, he says, I'm going to go into the marketplace and publicly profess Christ as Savior. And you know what they did? They stoned him. Historians are divided. He may have died then and there. He may have died on a trip back to Mallorca, which is on the east coast of Spain, which is where he lived. Or he may have died at home. Nobody knows for sure. But folks, He died in a good old age, 80 years old, going out to preach the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ one last time. Listen again to what he said, I'm intent on the same object. I will persevere in it till death if the Lord permits it. He did, he died, and God blessed his ministry, because now I can talk about it here to you today in the 21st century. Back in the day, in the preacher boys class, we used to sing, Souls for Jesus is our battle cry. I don't know, is that still sung? Matt, is that still singing that in the preacher boys class? How many of you know that song, Souls for Jesus is our battle cry? All right, those of you who know it, you join me in singing it, will you? Souls for Jesus is our battle cry. Souls for Jesus we'll fight until we die. We never shall give in while souls are lost in sin. Souls for Jesus is our battle cry. And all God's people said, Amen. Pastor?