We usually know about March madness and I know it's not March yet, we'll get a little bit early start, but it's going to be March missions for us. Every March we have a missions emphasis and I thought that we would start giving some teaching and understanding about missions on Wednesday nights and I'm kind of torn about that because most people who are here on Wednesday nights understand missions quite well and probably already give to our Faith Promise program. But some of you may not know some things and I hope that this will be a help to you. I want to start tonight in Acts chapter 13 and have a handout. that will help you. If you would like to get that, it's here on the Lord's Supper table. You're welcome to get one. But let's start in Acts chapter 13. The title of this is The Work of World Evangelism. The Work of World Evangelism. Let me say this. We have our own mission boards out of our church, Far East Baptist Missions International. and we've had it now for almost 20 years. We have a number of missionaries out of our church in China and we support a number of other missionaries as well that aren't out of our board or out of our church but we really try to be a great help to all missionaries, but especially those that are home missionaries. We really need to be praying for our missionaries. It's a very difficult situation where they're at. I'll tell the church, I wrote an email yesterday and I asked our missionaries to come home. I feel like they need to come home. We pray for them every morning. And there's a lot of reasons, I've never done that, and it's not a mandatory thing, I just told them that it's of my opinion that the threat is great and they should come home. I want them to pray about that, but I would like them to do that. There's several reasons why, and maybe I'll get a chance to mention some of those. I will say this. We don't know what this coronavirus is all about. China doesn't tell us, you know. We don't know if this is a dirty bomb that went off or if something they set off. There's so many things we don't know about it, but we know that it's spreading. And I know David Lewis, who's a missionary at Madison Baptist, is in Korea for years. They canceled church last night. They have a serviceman that has the coronavirus and Brother Lewis says he's the first so far he knows of but it certainly won't be the last. So there's a lot of things that are involved in this and I just feel like You know, when we went through the, about 20 years ago, the surveillance plane issue in Communist China, some of you remember that, we knew who our enemy was. We could see them. This coronavirus, it could be on your tabletop, your counter, and you don't even know it. And I feel like, I sent an email out that said, urgent, and I've talked with our missionaries, a couple days ago, then I talked with all of them this morning. So pray for them. As a matter of fact, I've had mission boards call me, ask me what we were doing. I've had other pastors call me, ask what we were doing. And I sent my letter, I forwarded it to a couple of pastors as well. Brother Allison, Mike Allison was one and Brother Allison, he sent a letter out very similar to what I'd sent and sent that to me. So it's across the board and we don't turn and run. We're not fear mongers and we're not quitters. But things have changed a bit, and I don't think that, you know, if we lose one of our missionaries, one of the spouses or one of the children, you know, God forbid, but the percentages are very high of the possibility of that. And with that, I feel like that we can go back once this crisis is over and start over again in some areas. So just pray for Neil and Beth. Pray for Zach and Lydia. Pray for Ben and Andrea. You know, it's a difficult thing. I don't think some of them are going to come home, and that's their prerogative. But I pray about every morning. And yesterday I just felt moved in the spirit to exercise that, and I would not just snatch them off the field unless sin was involved, but I've given them a green light, and several other pastors have done the same. With that, let's look at our message tonight. Acts 13, verse 1. 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 Menaean, which had been brought up with Herod the Tetrarch and Saul. So this church in Antioch, it had some prophets and teachers there, kind of like Bethel. We've got some prophets and teachers that are here. And so this is a, I think it would be fair to say it's a mature church. It says, verse 2, Can I tell you that the mission field is a calling? It's not a vocation. It's not something that you think would be cool to do. It's a calling. And they were called of the Holy Ghost, verse 3. and laid hands on them, they sent them away." Now it says, when they had fasted and prayed, it says, they sent them away. That's the church. No one just goes to the mission field, handy-dandy, I'm just going to go to China, I'm just going to go to you know, the mission field, Mississippi, and, you know, Michigan, and just start preaching the gospel, you're called to the Lord and you're commissioned by the church. And not just everybody, it's just not a slapstick, God bless you, you're on your way. These men have to be interviewed and checked out before the church gives them sanction, and you can tell they gave that. They fasted and prayed for them, and when they laid hands on them, they sent them away. They sent them out. Now the Holy Spirit came to this church, Antioch, and this is a church that was already involved in ministry. They had prophets, they had teachers, it was a mature church. Let me remind you that the Christians were called, or they were called Christians first at Antioch. And so the Holy Spirit led in verse two, once again, the Holy Ghost said, separate me, Barnabas and Saul, for the work. And I'm speaking about the work, the work of world evangelism. And this is a foundational message for what we're going to be dealing with. It's a work. It's a work that people are called to, and it's a work that the local church needs to realize that this work, it's the calling of the Holy Spirit who moves in this. The Holy Spirit was calling Barnabas and Saul to missions. So, you know, specifically foreign missions, going to a place where maybe they did not speak the same language, they didn't speak the same dialect, they didn't have a clue. You know, you don't just show up in a Buddhist country or in a Hindu country and just start preaching Jesus. You don't do it that way. And we're going to see what took place here. So we see the local church. They commissioned these men to take the gospel of Jesus Christ to places and to nations other than theirs. This is a church responsibility. Now, it's not the missionaries' responsibility. They're the called ones. But we are the ones who hold the lines and who lay hands on them after we have interviewed, interrogated, and find them worthy, and then send them out. Now, notice first of all the manner of the work. In this passage, you'll see in verse 4, so they being sent forth by the Holy Spirit departed unto Seleucia, and from thence they sailed to Cyprus, And when they were at Salamis, they preached the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews, and they had also joined, or had also joined to their ministry. And when they had gone through the Isle of Paphos, they found a certain sorcerer, a false prophet, a Jew, whose name was Bar-Jesus. Now skip down to verse 13. And when Paul and his company loosed from Paphos, they came to Perga in Pamphylia, and John, departing from then, returned to Jerusalem. But when they departed from Perga, they came to Antioch in Pisidia and went into the synagogue through the Sabbath day and sat down. And after the reading of the law and the prophets, the rulers of the synagogue sent unto them saying, Ye men and brethren, if you have any words of exhortation for the people, say on. So we see here the manner of the work. The manner of the work was accomplished by going. We're told in Mark chapter 16 verse 15, and he said, and then go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. You know, when the Bible says preach the gospel to all nations, The Greek word is ethnos. It means, we get our English word, ethnic, from it. The gospel is to be preached to every person. We're told in Matthew 28, you know it well, verse 18, and Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given to me in heaven and earth. Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations, baptize them in the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, even until the end of the world. Amen. So we have the great commission. God's commission is to the church. And in the church, God's going to call certain individuals in the family to go. Now, you could go. God may call you. It's exciting life. It's exciting to be in God's will. There's people who have, over years, they've overdramatized, I think, the calling of God to missions, and they think that they're going to be in Africa. And can I tell you something? McDonald's is pretty much everywhere. I remember being with Eddie Ray in China and I don't remember where we were at, you might remember it, somebody who's been over there, but I think we were in the Oh, the Forbidden City or the Heavenly City. What's it called? The Heavenly City. But we were coming out and we looked and there was a Starbucks. And Eddie said, even, you know, even the king, the emperor has a Starbucks. And, you know, there are some places and our missionary tonight was Luke Shelby. He's done a tremendous job. He's been in Kenya for, I don't know, probably, 20, over 20 years now, well over 20 years. And he's got many churches, they go out into the bush and God raises up these men that he's had saved and they feel the call of God on their life and they have the Bible Institute, they school them and they man these churches. This is the way God's, this is the manner in which it takes place. But listen, it begins with going. A matter of fact, in the text we just read, Acts chapter 13, notice words like this, and I kept them underlined for you, like departed from thence they sailed when they were at Selemis. when they had gone through, when Paul and his company loosed from Paphos, they came to Perga, they departed, they came to Antioch, all these phrases indicate that these men were on the move. And we have to go. We have to take the gospel. We have to go. They were on the move. They were going from place to place now. So the manner of the work was accomplished by going. And then Jesus went about all the cities and villages when he was here, when he walked on this earth. Matthew nine, verse thirty five, it says, And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in the synagogues and preaching. the gospel of the kingdom and healing every sickness and every disease among the people. Jesus, he came. He went about all the cities. He was teaching, preaching and healing the people. He set the example for us. Now, let me tell you, you may not be called to go to China. You may not be called to go to Ireland or or to Bangladesh or India. But I will tell you this. We're all called to give the gospel. And if it's not around the world, it is, you know, across the street, for sure, and down the street. So Jesus, in his active ministry, he was going, he went from cities to villages, giving the gospel, and he has an expectation of his children, his disciples, to be actively involved in ministry and in going and giving. In short, we are to be going as well. Now, we schedule a time to go. The reason why is because if it's not scheduled, we may never get around to going. But, you know, people can get saved other than just Saturday morning or Thursday night. People can get saved throughout the whole week. And we need to be prepared, and that's why you'll have a nice good track wallet, so you'll be prepared. You'll have everything in there. This commercial, I want the proceeds of that. But I love my track wallet. I don't know if you've got one or not, but it so much has my cards, it has different tracks, it has our church brochure. Even has a $10 bill stuffed in there somewhere, but don't tell my grandkids. But, you know, I'm prepared. I take it with me. I go into a restaurant. I have what I want. If it's Spanish, I pull the Spanish out. If it's English, I pull the English. If it's redneck, I pull the redneck out, and I lay it there on the table, you know. The redneck one doesn't have words. It just has pictures. You know why. Now, Jesus promised to bless. He commanded them to go. He commanded them to preach. He commanded them to teach. That is a great commission He's given us. He hasn't retracted that. That's for today. And while we are very grateful for our missionaries understand world evangelism, it deals with our Jerusalem right where we are into the uttermost parts of the earth. Now, notice not just the manner of what we're speaking about here, the manner of the work, but secondly, notice the message of the work. The message of the work is simply Jesus. That's the message. I love it in the scriptures where you'll see He ran to him and preached unto him Jesus. That's what people need. Now, listen, don't raise your hand, but how many of you have led people to Christ? Can I tell you this? Listen, that's the heartthrob of God. to see people saved. And we see here that the message of the work is Jesus. That's the message. And I've broken this up in, I think, four parts. I love the way Paul did this. Now understand, he's not in his hometown. He's in a far distant place. He's gone and gone and gone and gone. They've sailed and he went on missionary trips. He went on ships. It's wonderful how he lays the foundation in giving the gospel. And we can learn from this. We need to learn from this. Notice, first of all, Paul preached Jesus by beginning with Jewish history. This is who he's talking to. He's talking to some Jews. And he says to him in verse 17, the God of this people of Israel, chose our fathers and exalted the people when they dwelt as strangers in the land of Egypt. And with a high arm brought he them out of it. And about the time of 40 years suffered their manners in the wilderness. And when he had destroyed several nations in the land of Canaan, he divided their land to them by lot, and after that he gave unto them judges about the space of 450 years, unto Samuel the prophet. And afterward, they desired a king, and God gave unto them Saul, the son of Cis, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, by the space of 40 years. So, he begins in speaking to these people, he's laying the Jewish history of where God began. Now, when missionaries go to the mission field, they don't just talk about Jesus. They start with laying a foundation, building up to that. I think of some missionaries who were in New Guinea, and they were out in the bush, and New Tribes Missions put out a great video called Etow years ago. Some of you can remember it and we showed part of it for our missions conference one year and he begins talking about creation. He asked them how do they think they were created and they said they thought two birds got together and through those two birds they were created. And then the missionary told them that where he comes from, they are taught there that some of them feel like they came from monkeys. And they laughed out loud, so that's the silliest thing they ever heard. But then he began to show them where they're located at in the world, on the world map. And where he's located, where he came from. And so there's a foundation, and Paul's very wise here. He's laying the foundation of Jewish history. He talks about God and how the Jews are the chosen people, the people of Israel, and God chose the fathers. And he talked about how they were stranger in the land of Egypt God parted the Red Sea. He led them out of Egypt. And he goes on about the 40 years of suffering in the wilderness. And he continues on about the Promised Land and destroying those Philistines and those heathen nations in Canaan and dividing the land. And he's laying the foundation about Jewish history. Then secondly, Paul, he introduces Jesus by talking about the lineage of David. David was one of their, if not their favorite king, was one of their favorite kings for certain. And verse 22 says, And when he had removed him, he raised up unto them David to be their king, to whom also he gave testimony, verse 22 is where I'm at, and said, I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after my own heart, which shall fulfill all my will. So he's given the lineage of David. And we see this. So he's building systematically a way to conclude with Jesus in the gospel. Now, let me say this. I think it's fine if you have just been saved. I think you can still share the gospel. I've always said that Paul, he told about the Damascus Road long before he ever wrote the Romans Road. But I think it is helpful for people when we have a systematic way of presenting the gospel. And I've got two or three ways depending on how much time I have. And, you know, there's a man in our church. I led the Lord about three years ago, and I remember sitting with him and asked, was he saved? And he said, yeah, he was. And I said, how did you know? He said, well, I was baptized as a baby in the Lutheran Church. And I said, you know, nowhere in the Bible does it say that that saves you. And I said, can I just sit down and show you? And I, in a very systematic way, presented the gospel to him. And he looked at me and he pointed to my Bible and he says, no one has ever showed that to me. I've never had anybody show that to me. And he bowed his head and in his own words prayed and received Christ and very faithful in our church today. I'm just saying this, that we need to be careful with the gospel and we need to have some systematic way, you know, something cohesive to give to them where it brings them to the conclusion to receive Christ. So Paul, he preaches Jesus by beginning with Jewish history. He introduces Jesus through the lineage of David. And then thirdly, notice Paul, he spoke of the life, death, and resurrection of Christ. Can I tell you this? You don't believe in that, you can't be saved. I had somebody ask me one time, can I still go to heaven? I don't believe Jesus rose from the dead. I said, no. That you have believed in your heart and confessed with your mouth that, what is it, that Jesus is risen? Is that what it is? That God has raised him from the dead, thank you. Thou shalt be saved. I said, no, no you cannot. You know, by the way, the resurrection is a cardinal doctrine that separates Jesus from all the other would-be saviors. So we see here that he deals with their history. He deals with the lineage of David. Now, he's speaking about the life, death, and resurrection. He says in verse 26, "...men and brethren, children of the stock of Abraham, and whosoever among you feareth God." So he says, those of you who are Israelites, Jewish, and anybody here who fears God, he says, "...to you is the word of this salvation sent." for they that dwell at Jerusalem and the rulers, because they knew him not, nor yet the voices of the prophets, which are read every Sabbath day." You read this every Sabbath day, but they didn't see him as the Messiah. They have fulfilled them in condemning him. They fulfilled the scriptures. And though they found no cause of death in him, yet desired they pilot that he should be slain. And when they had fulfilled all that was written of him, they took him down from the tree and laid him in a sepulcher. But God raised him from the dead." You see the gospel he's giving here to these people? He's established the history of Israel, the Jewish people, he's given the lineage of David, and now he's given the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. He says in verse 31, and he was seen many days of them which came up with Him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are His witnesses unto the people. And we declare unto you, glad tidings, how that the promise which was made unto the fathers, what's that promise, of Messiah will be given. God hath fulfilled the same unto their children, in that he hath raised up Jesus again, as it is also written in the second psalm, Thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee. So he deals with the life, the death and burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Now he closes, here's his closing. This is what I would call, when I close, I call it drawing the net. He presents Jesus as the only way of salvation. Look at verse 38, verse 39. Be it known to you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins. and by him all that believe are justified from all things from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses." Now, that's strong preaching because everything's about Moses and the law of Moses. And, you know, Jesus was constantly being attacked because he broke the Sabbath, you know, and the law of Moses. And so he clearly presents Jesus as the only way. And I want you to know we have to do the same. It's not your good works, and you know these things. It's not your baptism. It's not your church membership. It's not how sincere you were. It's not if you prayed in Jesus' name. It's none of these things. The message is of hope and promised salvation. Now, lastly, notice the magnitude of the work. We see the manner and the message, but the magnitude. Look at verse 44. And the next Sabbath day came almost the whole city together to hear the word of God. They wanted to hear it, didn't they? Almost the whole city came. And when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy. You'll read that a few times in the scriptures, let me tell you. And spake against those things which were spoken by Paul, contradicting and blaspheming. Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold and said it was necessary The Word of God should first have been spoken to you, to the Jew first, but seeing ye put it from you and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles. Here's a great example for us. Not everybody will listen, but somebody will listen. You know, when we would go into the prisons to speak, There were those who, when you came up to their cell, they would go, and that was his living quarters, his living place, and you didn't contest that. You moved on. You didn't try to even talk with him. You moved on. But then you had like the Muslims that are in prison and they want to talk about Mohammed and they want to argue and what they want to do is they want to tie your time up when you don't get around. And you know you need to be careful with people when you go door to door. Don't let people tie you up. And you know when I understand this, present the gospel. I can't tell you how many times I've been leading, talking to somebody about the Lord and they want to bring up, do you think murder, people who murder, do you think they can be saved? I'm not there about murder. Do you think people who commit suicide go to heaven? You know, what's your feelings about abortion? Their need is salvation. And don't don't let them get you off track on those things. Now, notice the magnitude of the work here. Let me say, first of all, the magnitude of the work is the ends of the earth. That's a tall order. Now can I remind you that when Jesus gave this command to his disciples, they didn't have telephone telegraph, they didn't have iPhones and iPads, they didn't have any of that. But yet he gave them this commandment to the ends of the earth. And so Paul declares that the message of Jesus would not only be preached to the Jews, but also to the Gentiles. Now we all will say amen over that. because we are the Gentile. Now, you know, there's a there's a there's a blindfold over the Jew. And I think there are a number of Jews in Israel that are being saved who are who eyes are being opened when we flew to Israel. We saw them do their prayers. We saw them at sunrise wrap their arms and the cord that's closest to their heart and put on the law between their eyes, the scroll, and we saw them go through all that. And let me tell you, if it wasn't for the blood of Christ, we'd be sacrificing goats and calves and bullocks and doves. You know that? We'd still be in the sacrifice. Thank God, the supreme, sufficient, final sacrifice, the Lord Jesus Christ paid for our sins. So the magnitude of the work is that it's to the ends of the earth. And then the message of salvation would have been carried to all the regions of the world. Acts 13, verse 47. That's quite a magnitude of call. Notice in your conclusion, how can we be involved in the work, the work of world evangelism? Number one, by going across the street and down the road with the message of Jesus Christ to the loss that are around you. By going to them. That's how we are part of the work. Secondly, by realizing the magnitude of the work. We need help. We need help on our buses. We need help in our children's churches. We need help in our Saturday morning soul winning program. You know, it's a huge, huge ongoing work. We need to help support and to, you know, meet the needs of our missionaries. Number three, how can we help be involved in the work? by joining hands with the missionaries that are truly reaching the ends of the earth with the message of salvation. We need to hold the ropes for these who are called. Now, I've said many times that if you're called, you need to go. If you're not called, you need to send those who are called, and then you need to pray for those that you send. Now there's three ways to help our missionaries, and I want you to think about our missionaries. Think about Luke, Shelby tonight, but I want you to think about all of them, but especially the ones that are out of our church. Number one, prayer is a help. Pray for them. We pray for our missionaries every morning. Every morning we start the day in prayer. Prayer and coffee and the word. You know, the word and prayer and coffee. That's the great trinity right there, let me tell you. And yesterday morning as I was praying, I became very heavy. And I think that I've done the right thing in giving them permission and then asking them. I told them, I plead with you and I beg you to return home ASAP. And I said some difficult things that needed to be said. But this is not the same thing and what we've experienced before. This is something and understand this in America, we have a great chance of being affected by it as well before it's done and over with. We're flying to New York next week, and I dread to be on the plane and inhaling everybody else's germs on that plane. Pray for your missionaries. Number two, encouragement. Encourage your missionaries by writing, by emailing, by calling them, by sending them a card. Send them their birthday card. Send them an anniversary card. Think of their children. Encourage them. I know many of our missionaries staying in contact with me. Brother Ray, not so much. When he contacts me, I'm like, what's wrong? What's going on? But Zach's always good. Lydia's always good to text us pictures of the kids. Beth, always. Sunday morning, I'm trying to get ready for Sunday school, and she's texting because it's midnight there for them. and late anyway, and she's showing us pictures and just proud of their family and grateful to the Lord. Encourage them. I think, by the way, each of them told me thank you for writing them and for calling and talking with them and for loving them. I feel responsible for them. And so, encourage them. And then lastly, by giving. We live in the land of plenty. I tell you this, you may not feel like you've got plenty, but you live in a land that does. And we need to learn how to share and how to help them, and we do that by participating in faith-promised giving. And let me say this, and I'll be done. We're to bring our tithes and offerings to the storehouse. If you don't know this, Altia, the storehouse is the house of God, and that's God's plan and his way of supporting the work of God. That's how he does it. And isn't it gracious? He says you keep 90% and give 10% in an offering. I think that's very gracious. You know, your waitress asks more than that. She wants 15%, 18%, 20%. So God is gracious in that. And he's given us all kinds of promises, how he's gonna bless and our cup will run over and give, it should be given unto you, all these different things. It's not a tithing message, but I just want you, it's there. But then above and beyond your tithes and offerings, if you look at your offering, matter of fact, look at the offering envelope. Pull one out and look at it. Everybody, just look at it. They're brand new, by the way. Now, if you have one in your hand, put a $50 bill in it now. No, I'm teasing. Special offering to Pastor Savage. I'll help you fill it out, you know. But notice it has a place for missions there. And, you know, make that part of your weekly giving. Now, I want to preach on faith promise. I'm not going to cover it tonight, but we've been giving. How many of you have been giving the faith promise for years? Let me see your hands across. Look across here. And this is how, well, I sure do love, I love the Rays. Well, I do too, but let me tell you something, love's not gonna keep them in the field, it's gonna take some money. And through our faith promise giving program, and it's not if God gives it to me, I'll give it, we give it, then trust God to give it to us, you know? And he does. Give and it should be given unto you. Cast thy seed upon the water. You can't see what the seed's going to do when you cast it on the flooded water, but when the water retracts, then the harvest sets in. You'll never go belly up giving to God. I just want you to know that. But I wanna encourage you this month to be praying about your faith promise. Some of us who have been giving for years, perhaps God would have us to increase. I don't think God wants us to decrease. And then some of us who haven't enrolled in faith promise, you'll have a chance to this month. You'll have a card and it will have a place there that you can check or write in how much you're gonna give a week. Or if it's two, every two weeks, however you wanna give it. And there's a number there, then you'll tear that card, there's a peripheral line there that you'll keep part to remind you of that. There's nowhere to sign it, but you'll turn that in. And that's how we budget our faith promise giving. That's how we can budget it. And, you know, we need to be about the master's business of the Great Commission. We need to go if we're called. We need to send those who are called, we need to pray for those who we send. And this is the manner, the method, and the magnitude of the call. This is a foundational message for this month. Now, tonight, before we dismiss, let's just, tonight, cry out to God on behalf of our missionaries. Let's ask God to help them tonight. And just don't prolong it. Let other people pray. But let's cry out tonight for God and ask God to meet needs. Listen to me. This is a serious thing. And I'm very concerned. And I would hope that they will all come home for until this crisis. It's a crisis until it's over with. So, James, you open in prayer, and as God leads you, let's pray for our missionaries tonight. Let's remember Brother Shelby tonight as well. Oxygen machine. A lot of machines always have different needs and some of those things are harder to do.