I know our theme for the week, your mission's theme, seeing the field. You know, look unto the harvest and see them. They're white already unto harvest. and uh... we we ought to uh... lift up our eyes lift up our head and realize that uh... that uh... our time is short amen we have uh... just uh... so much time here on this in this old world and thank the lord one of these days he's going to call us all home one way or the other i don't know about you i am not interested in going out in the rupture but i'd like to go out in the rapture amen so uh... i want to be a part of whatever the Lord wants us to be a part of while we're here. And so, again, I appreciate the opportunity to get to know these missionaries, Brother Myers and Brother Simmons. And so, I want us to look at a very familiar passage of Scripture we'll read in Acts chapter 1. We'll read, let's see, I think we'll go through verse number 11 from verse number 1, Acts chapter 1, a familiar passage. The Bible said, the former treaty have I made of thee, made O Theophilus of all that Jesus began both to do and to teach, and teach. Until the day in which he was taken up after he through the Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen. to whom also he showed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them 40 days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God, and being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which saith he, ye have heard of me, for John truly baptized with water, but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence. And when they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? And he said unto them, it is not for you to know the times or the seasons which the Father hath put in his own power. But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you. Ye shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up, and a cloud received him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven, as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel. and which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven shall so come in like manner as you have seen him go into heaven. Then returned they unto Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is from Jerusalem, a Sabbath day's journey. We're going to leave off reading there, and let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father, thank you, Lord, for the privilege to get to be a part of this meeting this week, and Lord, I pray that you'll just guide and direct us to say what needs to be said. I thank you again for a church that is mission-minded and a pastor, Lord, that has led that way. And, Lord, just a group of people that, Lord, realize how important this work is. And I pray that you'll help us now. And may we say the things that need to be said and to leave undone those things that ought not be. We ask it all in Christ's name. Amen. I want to preach to you for just a little while this morning on, you know, I don't know if I can say this, it's kind of a tongue twister, but the main thing about the main thing is keeping the main thing the main thing. And I believe that, again, that quite well you know Acts 1-8, and you shall receive power, and you shall be witnesses unto me. Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, the uttermost part of the earth. I believe that If you took the emphasis that God has placed on missions in the Bible out of the Bible, you wouldn't have much left. And because I'm glad that God's given us instructions on what he'd have us to do. Well, it's exciting to see what and to hear about what y'all have done in the past for missions, but I'm excited about what the prospects of the future are for you. And I don't care what you do for the Lord, you'll never out give God, amen. And you'll never do more than He'll do for you. And I'm thankful again that it is that way. Now He doesn't do all that I want Him to do, but He does more than what I need Him to do. Amen. He's never been insufficient in any way. And because the truth is, even when we don't have what we think we need or want, God's still doing something in our lives to make us more of what we ought to be. It took him just a week to make the moon and the stars, the sun and the moon, Jupiter and Mars. You know the little kid's song. And how loving and patient he must be, but he's still working on me, and I'm glad that he is. And I've been saved now for 40 years in the ministry over 40 years, and I'm thankful that God's given us the privilege to get to serve him. It's not a have to, amen? I don't know about you, but he lets us take something temporal and turn it into something eternal. He turns it into something eternal, amen. You know, realize one of these days we're gonna stand at the judgment seat of Christ and we're gonna give an account for the things that we've done, whether good or bad, whether worthy or unworthy in essence. And you know, our works are gonna be tried by fire where there'll be some silver and gold and precious stone through the fire, they'll just come through more pure. And then there'll be those things that are wood, hay or stubble. And wouldn't it be sad to stand and judge the seed of Christ one day and have nothing but a big pile of ashes? Amen. But the wood hay and stuff was going to burn. But we know the silver, gold, and precious stones got dead. They're just going to come through the fire more pure. And I know you've heard all of that. But I want to encourage you and remind you that you're not doing this for nothing. But we ought to be doing it for the love of God. Amen. The love of God, how rich, how pure. Amen. And no matter how much we love Him, we can never even begin to scratch the surface how much He loves us. Who in here could let their son die knowingly for somebody else and go through all that Jesus went through? I'm just saying that New Testament missions is the main thing. And the main thing about the main thing is keeping the main thing the main thing. And I believe this church does that. And it's the heartbeat, and it should be, of every New Testament church. And the Great Commission given by the Lord Jesus in every book of the Gospels, and Acts, the Great Commission. And too often in our day, it's become the great omission. But all power is given unto me. Jesus said, and he spake unto them in heaven and earth. He said, as a result, go ye therefore, we know Matthew 28, go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I've commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world. What he commanded them to do, to go and do, what he's commanded them to do. So we know that, we see in Matthew chapter 28 there and also in Acts in chapter one here, we see the importance of missions. We see it in Matthew and the power of missions. He said, all power is given unto me. And we see the persuasion or the command of missions, go ye, Therefore, it's not an option. Amen. I believe that all of us have a responsibility to, you say preacher, I'm not a preacher. We're all to be preachers. Amen. We're all to get the gospel out everywhere we are. I believe you ought to do it at home, Jerusalem, Judea, the surrounding areas, Samaria, and the uttermost part of the earth. You say, but Preacher, we can't be all those places in one time. I know. That's the reason that the Lord's provided opportunities for us to get to give. And we can help sin where we can't go. And that's what missions is all about. That's what going into all the world is. And so the persuasion or the command of missions in verse number 19 there in Matthew 28. And so we see the purpose of missions. is again to teach all nations and baptizing them and teaching them to observe all things. He said, whatsoever I've commanded you. And then, so we see missions in Matthew, but also the power and the persuasion or the command and the purpose and the promise. And then the promise again of missions. He said, lo, I'm with you always. Now, I'm glad that we don't do this thing alone. We see missions also, not only Matthew, but in Mark. And I've got to hurry in verse number, 15 of chapter 16, we know, and he said unto them, go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. And he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, he that believeth not shall be damned. And Mark, Jesus set us an example, gave us the example that missions work is to be done in all nations, but I believe that we can do it even on an individual scale by sending someone in our place. And go ye, the scope of missions is into all the world, the sounding of missions is preach the gospel. By the way, well, I'll skip that, but the souls of missions, to every creature, the salvation of missions, those that believe, and the sadness of missions, those that believe not, but yet all of it is included in missions in Luke. And we know in Luke chapter 16, verse 19, a certain man fared sumptuously, and a beggar named Lazarus, if you remember, there. We understand that rich man died and went to hell and he looked and saw Lazarus and said to Lazarus that he might come and dip the tip of his finger in water and touch my, I'll tell you something, I believe the greatest motivation for missions is the fact that there is a lake of fire and there is going to be a place of torment and torture for those that we've had opportunity to be a witness to, or even to make a difference by sending and helping others to go in our place. Because I believe hell is the greatest motivation for missions that you and I could even consider tonight, or this morning rather, and realizing that the Lord has given us the privilege again of having a foresight and foresight enough to do our part. And I know you can't do everything, but you can do something. The Lord knows you can't do everything, but he wants us all involved, amen? And everybody working together, we can accomplish a whole lot more than we can by ourselves. And that ought to be our desire, the sacrifice of the message. It behooved Christ to suffer. And in verse number 46, and the salvation of the message, the repentance and remission of sins, and the sacredness of the message in His name. Everything must be done in His name. The scope of the message, among all nations, the servants of the message, ye are witnesses. And so we are to be witnesses of what God has allowed us the privilege of experiencing ourselves and realizing that God has given it to us. In John chapter, we see missions in John as well. In John chapter 20 and verse number 21, he said, then said Jesus to them again, peace be unto you as my father hath sent me, even so send I you. And when he had said this, he breathed on them and saith unto them, receive ye the Holy Ghost. Whosoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them. and whosoever sins you retain, they are retained. And so as we look at these verses and we consider them, these verses are means of missions, means that God will supply every need in order for that mission and will be a reality because of the servants that are sent out in the same way that the Son was sent to the world, and Jesus was not a failure, and thus the church should not be a failure in missions. And we will stand before Him one day and give an account. And so we see the means of the scripture. John chapter 17 and verse number 19, he said that through the truth, And we go in truth, we take the truth, we preach the truth, they hear the truth. Jesus said in John 14, 6, he said, what is the truth? I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father. but by me. We see the means of, not only through the scripture, we see the means through sanctification. And he said in John chapter 17 and verse number 19, that might be sanctified, that simply means to be set aside for a specific purpose. growing in truth, and discipling in truth, and the means of the Spirit, John chapter 21, and chapter 20, verse 21, rather, were to be directed by the Holy Spirit. Missions in the book of Acts, and so we're trying to hurry to get through this, but missions in the book of Acts. Our text this morning, we come to Acts chapter one, verse number eight, you shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you, you shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and the uttermost part of the earth. So again, this passage we see that the thought or the motive means the moving or the tending to move into action or the cause of action. The person of the motive, the Holy Ghost of God, the power of the motive shall receive power. That power is the power from God. And the product of the motive shall be witnesses unto me. That is an automatic result of what our motive should lead to. And we see the plan of the motive. Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, the uttermost part of the world. That's missions. Amen. Not just at home, but everywhere. And I know you can't be everywhere at one time, but you can help someone go in your place. And that's what missions is all about. And we shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost has come upon us. And we shall be witnesses, where? He said, unto me. He said both in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria and to the uttermost part of the earth. And by the way, I don't know a better way to get that done. than through faith promise missions. And somebody said, well, you know, some man came up with that idea. I'm going to tell you something. It's scriptural. It's Bible. Amen. And because we have a responsibility to do everything we can to get the gospel out everywhere we can. And so Paul's missionary example, he preached the gospel, he organized churches, he indoctrinated Christians, he taught and demanded consecration from believers and for a work to be called missions, it must be consistent of certain things and there are those who think that all is good can be placed under the term of missions, feeding the hungry. I'm not against feeding the hungry, but that's not missions. Supporting hospitals, not against that, but that's not missions. Building schools and colleges, I'm for that, but that's not missions. There can be used as a means to an end. But the truth is, the end is missions, and that's what we're commanded to do. And preaching Christ, baptizing converts, teaching doctrine to converts, organizing churches, and teaching others to do what God's showed us, and helping us, again, to go forward in this thing of missions. Missions is broken down into two categories, home and foreign. See, preacher, we, again, can only be in one place at one time. I know, but our influence can be in many places. And we have an influence, and let's use it. Why? Because the Lord's given it to us. If He saved you, He's given you a testimony. Amen? He's given you, He's opened your eyes to what's important. This life, someone said in that poem, this life will soon be passed, only what's done for Christ will last. I wish that you and I could just get a hold of that fact and realize there's nothing wrong with us doing things that please us that are not sinful and wrong. I don't believe the Lord wants us to walk around like a monk in a monastery. But I believe that the Lord does want us to realize that the most important thing we can do is be involved in that which is eternal. the eternal souls of mankind, and using everything that we can to help with the greatest purpose ever known to mankind. You know, Jesus was the first missionary, and he could have called 12 legions of angels to destroy the world, but he didn't. and he died alone for you and me. I like that song, no one ever cared for me like Jesus. If that be true, and it is, then why is it that we would not care for him more than anything? All that he's done for us. You know, God the Father, I've got two sons and three daughters, several grandkids, a bunch of them, 16. I'd have trouble letting one of my kids, knowingly, with my permission and not being able to do something about it, die for somebody else. God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. I had a church member back when I was in Louisiana come up to me one time and said, Preacher, you just expect too much out of people. I looked at her and I said, How do you think I could expect more out of you than the one who willingly laid down his life for you? I tell you for sure, if someone died for me or died for one of my loved ones, there would never be enough that I could do. My brother back here has given his life, in essence, protect our country, been shot I don't know how many times. Man, I can't imagine our government abandoning him or even his friends and family because of what he's willing to do. I know some of you have done heroic things, but here's the thing that we need to grab a hold of. He did that, what you did, for people that, at least in his mind, deserve a chance in trying to keep the doors of freedom open. But, you know, the Lord Jesus did what he did for us, that he didn't have to, but he left the splendor of heaven. come to this sinful, God-hating world and lay his life down for me. I never will forget the day that I realized that. I was sitting in a service. brother, Bobby's dad was preaching. I don't remember what he was preaching, but all of a sudden he said something and the Lord used to get a hold of my heart and it broke my heart. I had already been saved, but I had to get up and leave before he finished preaching. I was so broken realizing how much the Lord really went through for me. crawled under a big old tree. I began to think about the old crowd that I used to run with, and when I'd get around them, I would get tight-lipped and not say anything, and would get under conviction. The Scripture says, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. And I said, Lord, I'm sorry for being ashamed. You'll help me. I'll never be again ashamed. See, I ran with the wrong crowd before I got saved, and I didn't want them to belittle me, make fun of me, because I'd heard them do it before with other people that were sincere about serving the Lord. That day I said, I don't care. Lord, if I can displease you. If you please God, it don't matter who you displease. But if you displease God, it don't matter who you do please. Oh, today, Christians, that we would use what is at our disposal to bring glory and honor to Him. New Testament missions. or to be done by godly people led by the Holy Spirit of God, to work in and through their local church to reach a lost and dying world. It's broken down into two categories, as you well know, home and foreign missions. And here in Acts 2, by the way, in chapter 41, They that gladly received his word were baptized, and the same day were added to the church, added to them rather, about 3,000 souls, and they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine, fellowship, and breaking of bread, and in prayer. Into two categories, so many other verses I won't take time to read, and I'll just add some shortening to this one. This really is a series of messages that I've thrown together that I've preached before. You know, as you know, the Lord has provided everything that we need in order to accomplish what He expects out of us. Again, in Matthew 28. Jesus came and spake unto them, verse number 18, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and earth. And there is a result of that. To go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing 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. he empowered the church too, didn't he? In Acts 1, 8, there we read, you shall receive power. After that, the Holy Ghost has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses unto me. Well, you know, it's easy to see that the church was not well organized on the day of Pentecost, but it got that way, and for a purpose. And as well, we know that purpose was the church is waiting in Jerusalem for the coming of the Holy Spirit, and the Church is praying together there in Acts chapter 1. The Church is setting in order the things that were needed, and we see the fulfilling of the promise of the Father, the coming of the Holy Spirit. And by the way, we don't see the Church in missions work until after chapter 2, or the empowering of the Holy Spirit. And so you say, Preacher, what are we supposed to do? Well, I tell you, if we're going to do what we're supposed to do, I like, again, we looked at it the other day, the other night. Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? Well, if you ask that question sincerely, He's very good at letting us know what we're supposed to do. Amen. I thank God for preachers. I thank God for godly Christians and folks that love the Lord and that serve Him faithfully. Boy, I tell you, it's just a blessing to get to be around people that, again, have given their lives to the cause of Christ and continue to do so. I said, Preacher, have you always been everything you're supposed to be as a Christian? No. Are you everything that you ought to be all the time? Not at all. But as I look back on my life and I remember where the Lord found me, thank God, I'm not what I was. Amen. I'm not everything I should be, brother. I'm doing much better than when I started. Amen. And you say you're bragging on me? No, I'm bragging on the Lord. Because if any man be in Christ, 2 Corinthians 5, 17, you know it. He's a new creature. Old things have passed away. Behold, all things are become new. Although, if your life hadn't changed after you made a profession of faith, I'm not here to cast doubt, but I'd sure check out. Amen? If you realize again that, you say, but Preacher, I never was doing any bad things before I got saved, and there wasn't much change. There's a change in your spirit, your heart. There's a change in just your outlook. And your purpose for life, there's so much that changes. Again, I'm thankful that the Lord has allowed Ms. Hilton and I to be a part of Faith Promise for many years. And I do not regret any of it, none of it. I'm glad that, I regret not doing more, but I don't regret anything that the Lord has allowed us to be a part of it. But I believe that this church has a—you've got your direction fixed. It's right. Amen. I believe that we ought to take care of home while at the same time—not only going to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria—at the same time, the outermost part of the earth. We can do all of that, because the Lord's provided ways and means for us to do that. And I'm thankful that this church is obviously, obviously interested in pleasing the Lord. And keep on keeping on. Don't slow down. Don't slack up. Don't look back. Just keep looking forward. Keep going. One of these days, the judgment seat of Christ, we'll stand before the Lord. And I don't know about you, but just to get to be there, I know is the main thing. But as a Christian, the main thing is keeping the main thing, the main thing here. And that is the Great Commission. And individually, don't let it become the Great Omission. But we understand the Lord lets us take part in what He's doing. And He wants us involved. It just helps us. It helps the church. I mean, it helps every area of our lives. But anyway, the main thing about the main thing is keeping the main thing. The main thing. Amen. All right, let's pray. Father, thank you for letting us be here today.