Please take your Bibles and join me in Acts chapter number two. Acts chapter number two, all the children are dismissed to go down with Miss Sarah for the final night of Children's Revival Hour. Asked one of the children last night, I said, are you learning anything? They said, oh yeah, I'm learning something. And I said, is the teacher a good teacher? My wife was standing right beside of me, I shouldn't have done that. But she's had a good time getting to know your children this week. I appreciate you letting them be a part of the meeting. And I tell ya, it's been a blessing for us. Sometimes we come to a church and we're praying and planning for revival and we wanna be an encouragement, but the fact of the matter is this week, I think this church has been more of an encouragement to me. And I appreciate that. I appreciate I've been encouraged by the good attendance every night. The attendance has been phenomenal, and I appreciate that. And I'm finding out your pastor is an encourager. And you would think every preacher is an encourager, but some aren't. And thank God that your pastor is an encourager. I've been encouraged by everybody on staff this week and just everybody getting involved. It's been a blessing. But I was thinking about this. Do you know who is the most underappreciated person is in any local church? Somebody said the pastor, I say the pastor's wife. She has to go home with him every day. I'm just teasing, but here it is. Here it is, folks. It's Mother's Day coming up. It was Mother's Day. A friend of mine last year, I asked him, I said, hey, I said, what are you going to get your wife for Mother's Day? He said nothing. I said, nothing. He said, she's not my mother, she's my wife. I said, well, maybe so. But hey, I'm telling you, mom's day is coming up, and behind every good man is a better woman. And praise God for that. I praise God for my wife and the pastor's wife. She's working behind the scenes, keeping things together. And don't take your pastor and his wife for granted. I was thinking about this, and we'll get into the message. John Adams was the second president of the United States. I will argue that he's one of the most influential Americans in American history. He was a Christian. He was a man that feared God. It's all about his life. Well, his son was John Quincy Adams. John Quincy was the sixth president of the United States. And when John Quincy was elected president, many people would come to John Sr. and say, boy, you sure must be proud of your son being elected president of the United States. You know what his response was? My son? had a mother. And thank God for the ladies, and I'm just so thankful to have been here this week. We had a blast this afternoon, no pun intended, and I wish all staff meetings went that way. I said, Preacher, how often do you just come out here and shoot guns? He said, after every deacon's meeting, I come out here. I know he was just teasing, but we had a good time. And I'll tell you this, if something goes down in the US of A and everything falls apart, I'm calling up Pastor Sparks and saying, brother, I'm bringing my trailer, I'm on the way. So we'll be safe in the valley, amen? So Acts chapter number two, Acts chapter number two in the scripture. In just a moment, we'll begin reading in verse number 41. Acts chapter 2 and verse 41. The scripture says, Then they that gladly received his word were baptized, and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls. And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship and in breaking of bread and in prayers. And fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles. And all that believed were together and had all things common, and sold their possessions and goods and parted them to all men as every man had need. And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart. praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved. Let's pray together, will we? Shall we? Father, we come to you. We thank you for your love. Thank you for the sweet fellowship. Thank you for the generosity of these people towards my family. And Lord, this church is truly encouraged our hearts this week to their faithfulness. And and Lord, it's been a good time. But I pray that, Lord, you'd help us to lay those things aside for now. And Holy Spirit, I pray that you'd have your will in your way as we open up the word. And, Lord, time is short. And, Lord, we desperately need to be effective for you. And I pray that you challenge our hearts and our commitment to our local church. Lord, this is the most exciting thing going on in this county right now. It's what's going on in this local church. And I pray that, Lord, you would help us to see that, the importance of it, and get behind it. And we thank you, Lord, for the Bible. Thank you for so great salvation. And we commit these things to you in Jesus' name. Amen. When you come to the book of Acts, the heading in my Bible says the Acts of the Apostles. But you know what it really is? It's the acts of the Holy Spirit through the apostles. And so it's amazing when you come to Acts chapter number two, you have this great, some would call it a revival meeting. I don't know if I'd call it that. This is a one time event. This is Pentecost. And you have Peter who, just really a few pages to the left in the Gospels, he's denying the Lord. And then now you have Peter, he is on fire. And in Acts chapter 2, Peter stands up and he begins to preach. And the Holy Spirit is working through Peter in an amazing way. And often times I'll hear this, I'll hear this, preacher, we need to get back to Acts Christianity. Well, you know what? We can. But if we're going to see the things that God did in the book of Acts, we're going to have to believe what they believed. And so, here they are, and Peter is preaching. And I want you to notice a couple of things about Peter's preaching. Number one, he's preaching very prophetically. Look at chapter 2 and verse 29. Peter's preaching and he says, And he's preaching prophetically, and you know what he's saying? He's saying, David the patriarch, guess what? He's dead. I mean, we can go visit his tomb and we can check it out. You can even open it up and probably pull old David's bones out of there. And he's about to make a comparison. And by the way, every other religious leader the world has ever seen, guess what? You can go find a grave. And more importantly, you can go find a grave that's not empty. And so Peter's preaching, he says in verse 30, therefore being a prophet and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his loins according to the flesh that he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne. It's amazing to me when you read and study the preaching in the book of Acts, you know what the emphasis is? Number one, recognition of sin. Number two, repentance towards God and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ. And number three, always, always, always the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And he's preaching prophetically, but he's also preaching pointedly. Look at verse number 36. He says, Therefore, let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made that same Jesus, and notice the next four words, whom ye have crucified. Boy, Peter's not shying away from anything now, is he? I mean, he's standing up and he is preaching prophetically and he is preaching pointedly. There's no doubt the crowd that he was speaking to And he says there, Whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ. And then you see his preaching is persuasive. Verse 37, Now when they had heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do? Then Peter said unto them, Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. Now somebody would take that verse and say, see there, see there, you need to be baptized to be saved. That's not what it's saying. Now let me put it this way, if I go to the store for my wife, I'm not going to get her, I'm going for her, for her cause. And it's the same way here in the Scriptures. They're not being baptized for the forgiveness of sin. You receive forgiveness of sin when you repent and trust Christ as your Savior. But here he is, he's preaching, and he's preaching very persuasively. He says there in verse number 39, for the promise is unto you and to your children and to all that are far off, even as many as the Lord God shall call and with many other words that he testify and exhort saying, save yourselves from this untoward generation. You know what Peter was? Peter was just a Bible preacher. He was standing up, he preached prophetically, he preached pointedly, he preached persuasively, and he preached passionately. And guess what? God used that. And I want to just get your ear for a moment tonight, because sometimes we sit where you are, and we think, well, I would like for God to use me, but God hadn't called me to preach. Can I tell you, if you're here and you've been blood washed and bought by the Lord Jesus Christ, God wants to use you and you are in the full-time ministry. You are. I like what one fellow said, he said, I'm an ordained plumber when somebody asked him what he did for a living. And you know what, the fact of the matter is, that's exactly right. There's people that are in your sphere of influence that aren't in Pastor Sparks or Pastor Scott or Brother Farnam's and there's people that will never come to this church and maybe you're the only Bible that they're ever going to read and God wants to use you. I mean, I've met Christians like that before that aren't quote unquote in the vocational ministry. It just seems like you watch them and you watch their lives and God is just blessing. I mean, God answers specific prayer. These people know how to get a hold of God. They have opportunities to witness and see people saved, and I see that, and I'm like, what in the world am I doing wrong? And then you study these people and their lives, and you study the Bible, and you study history, and you find out, really, that God wants to use all of us in that capacity. But there's some things that have to be wired into our lives if God is going to use us in an effective capacity, like we see some people. Some people have the golden touch, it seems like. And you read about Peter here and you think, man, God's just using Peter. Could God use me that way? I think he can, but there's these couple of characteristics that you and I are going to have to build into our lives before God will use us the way he used these early Christians and some others. And I want you to notice a couple of things with me. I want you to notice God uses people who are active. They're active. I mean, they're doing something here. Peter, he's preaching, and notice what the scripture says in verse 41. You know what they were active in? Bible preaching. And here Peter preaches and thousands of people come. And I love how simple that God makes it for me because I need it to be made simple. He says, then they that gladly received his word. You say, well, who is that? Those were those people that heard the death, burial and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ for forgiveness of sin. And they believed it. They embraced it. They defended on it. These were those that heard the gospel and were gloriously saved. And then the next step is what? It's baptism. It's real easy in the scriptures. There's salvation, and then there's baptism. I was talking to a young lady not too long ago, and I asked her about her spiritual growth, and she said, well, I've been baptized. Well, you know what she was equating that with? That was her salvation. But there's salvation, and there's baptism, and every Christian that's born again ought to be baptized by immersion. It doesn't wash away sins, but it's just as simple. It just says, I identify with Christ. And so, God makes it very clear, there's salvation, and then there's baptism, and then it says, in the same day, there were added unto them about 3,000 souls. So get it, it's very easy. Number one is salvation. Next step is baptism. Next step is getting busy in a Bible-preaching local church just like this one. There's salvation, baptism, and then local church membership. And so they were actively influencing these early believers through strong Bible preaching. Notice what it says in verse 42. And they continued steadfastly in the Apostles' Doctrine and fellowship and in breaking and bread and in prayers. Well, you say, what was the Apostles' Doctrine? That's Bible preaching. That's just saying, thus saith the Lord. That's just taking the Bible and making it say what it's supposed to say without twisting it. And so if you want God to use you, number one, you're going to have to be actively involved in Bible preaching. And there's two aspects of that. One aspect is being the recipients of good Bible preaching. And can I tell you, I love to sit where you sit. I love to hear somebody else open up the Bible and preach it. Man, I got my notebook out. I got my pen out. I'm trying to take in as much as I can. Do you know why? Because God has changed my life through the preaching of this book. And I tell you, you sit under the preaching of the Bible long enough and it's going to change you. It's going to change you. You might harden and resist your heart to it, but eventually the hammer of the Word of God will break the rock in pieces. And if you're actively involved in Bible preaching, and thank God you've been faithful this week, God's going to use you. But there's another aspect of it, too. You can be on the receiving end, but you can also be on the giving end. You say, well, God's not called me to preach. Well, God's called you to witness. And I'm telling you, you know what we take for granted? We live in a country when we can take a gospel tract and pass it out anywhere just about we want to. And you say, well, passing out gospel tracts is not a real big deal. It's not. This is good seed. And you know what I've learned to look at? The ministry of the evangelist, sometimes pastor, I look at myself as a farmer. And I'm planting seeds, and I'm planting seeds, and I'm trying to leave a trail of seeds all over this country, and one day they're gonna bear fruit. And I'm planting seeds. You say, do people get saved by reading gospel tracts? I meet people all over the country, and I say, how'd you get saved? Somebody gave me a gospel tract, and I read it. You say, well, I'm kind of shy. Well, I'm kind of shy too, believe it or not. And sometimes I just think about it, you know, how can I break the ice? How can I give a gospel track out? I try to give a gospel track out every time I make eye contact with somebody in a restaurant or a gas station. And I'll just give you a simple way to do it. This is a God's bridge to eternal life, a good track. You got a track rack full of tracks out there. You take them when you go to the gas station, the grocery store, you can say, hey, have you ever gotten one of these before? I'm giving them to everybody. And many times they say, no, I haven't, and they'll take it. Or I'll say this, hey, I'm with Grace Baptist Church this week down here in Woodstock, Virginia. And I tell you, those people are awesome. The pastor's a little bit crazy, but the people are great. And this is something that their church puts out. Hey, would you read this? This changed my life 15 years ago. If you'll just read that, that'll be a blessing. And you know what? I very rarely ever have somebody reject the gospel track that way. But you gotta be actively involved in giving out the word. Just give it out. They weren't running it off the presses in Peter's day. So you know what they were doing? They were preaching it. And if you're gonna be used by God, you have to be actively involved in Bible preaching. Let me give you a couple of references. 1 Corinthians 1 and verse 21. Titus 1 and verse 3. Acts chapter 2. What's Peter doing? He's preaching. You read all of Acts chapter 3, you know what Peter's doing? He's preaching. You come to Acts chapter number 4, Peter is preaching. You come to Acts chapter number 5, and daily in the temple and in every house, they cease not to teach and preach Jesus Christ. Acts chapter number 7, you know what it is? Preaching. Stephen is preaching one of the most phenomenal, historical messages you could preach. The whole chapter. And you know what they did at the end of his message? They stoned him. You know what that tells me? You cannot judge the effectiveness of your ministry by results only. I mean, Peter stands up and preaches, and thousands of people get saved. Acts chapter 4, thousands of more people get saved, and Stephen gets up and preaches just as a godly and a spirit-filled message as Peter, and they stone him. Now, who was a better preacher? Well, the Apostle Paul was converted soon after Stephen's martyrdom. And so when you say, well, my life's not that effective for the Lord. Hey, it's not God's fault. Be actively involved in Bible preaching. Acts chapter number eight. Therefore, they that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word. Acts 8 and verse 35. Then Philip opened his mouth and began at the same scripture and preached unto him. Jesus, and I'm telling you, if we'll start making a big deal out of the Word of God and keep taking it in and keep putting it out, mark it down, God will use you. He'll use you. Actively involved in Bible preaching. Here's what a lot of people think. The success of our church is determined by the pastor and how he does his job. No doubt the pastor is very important. But you know, the success of a church is not determined just alone how the pastor does his job. The success of a church is determined by whether you're doing your job and I'm doing my job or not. You see, it's the pastor's job to fill the pulpit. And it's the rest of our job to fill the pew. And so actively involved in Bible preaching. There was a man that came to America after the turn of the 19th century. His name was Alexis de Tocqueville. He wrote a book called Democracy in America. He was a Frenchman. And he came to America when America was just a brand new country. And this is what he wrote about America. He says, I sought for the key to the greatness and genius of America in her harbors. in her fertile fields and boundless forests, in her rich mines and vast world commerce, in her public school system and institutions of learning. I sought for it in her democratic Congress and in her matchless Constitution." And then he says this, "'Not until I went into the churches of America and heard their pulpits flame with righteousness did I understand the secret and genius of America.'" You know what the foreigner said? He said, I searched for the greatness of America in the fruited plains. I searched for the greatness of America in the purple mountain majesties. I searched for the greatness of America across her boundless oceans. And you know what? I found it right here in pulpits, just like this. He goes on to say America is great because America is good. And if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great. This country was not founded on a revolution. It was founded in revival. And early Americans were centered and focused on strong Bible preaching. God used it. He doesn't use it because of us. A lot of times He uses us in spite of us. But God's Word is powerful, and so, number one, they were actively involved in Bible preaching, but number two, they were actively involved in believing prayer. Verse 42, and they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship and in breaking of bread and in prayer. You want God to use you? Start taking your prayer life seriously. Now there's a lot of churches all over the country, and I'm not trying to single any churches out, but sometimes they call the Wednesday night service, the Wednesday night prayer meeting. And you know how it goes? It goes about 20 minutes of request, about three minutes of prayer, and the rest of the time's in Bible study. I'm not opposed to that, but if we call it a prayer meeting, you know what we ought to be doing? We ought to be praying. And I'm not talking about just some casual prayer. My pastor would always tell me, he would say, Brother Tom, when you pray, pray specifically. I mean pray prayers that are so specific that when God answers, you know it without a shadow of a doubt. But you know what I'm guilty of? Sometimes I pray so general, if God does answer to such a general prayer, it's so generally, I generally don't even know he's answering the prayer. But these early Christians, they were actively involved in Bible preaching, and they were actively involved in believing prayer. Intense, fervent prayer to the God of heaven. The English evangelist, Leonard Ravenhill, in his classic book, Why Revival Tarries, he states this, now this is phenomenal, he says, preaching affects men, but prayer affects God. That's powerful. I was reading to the gospels recently and Jesus came in and he overturned the money changers table and he said, my house shall be called a house of prayer. I mean, I've read that, I don't know how many times. And I'm a preacher and I don't really think God's ever called me to do anything but preach. And when I read that, he doesn't say my house should be called a house of preaching. He said my house should be called a house of prayer. Boy, he goes on, Leonard Ravenhill says this, he says, we have many organizers but few agonizers, many players and many payers but few prayers, many singers but few clingers, many fears but few tears, too much fashion, too little passion, many writers but few fighters. He says no Christian is greater than his or her prayer life. It's phenomenal. You say, well, tell me more about it. Prayer is something that's really, it's kind of counterintuitive. And you have, you can have what I call sometimes the paralysis of analysis. Now that's my personality. I'm a kind of analytical guy. I'll analyze something to death, you know. And sometimes I think about that in my prayer life, you know, and I'm like, Lord, You know what I need. I think I know what I need, but I really don't even know. The thing I think I might need might not be good for me, and so you know what I need, and I don't really know what I need, so I don't even know why I'm here asking you to give me what I need, because I'm just telling you how my mind works. I'm a little bit crazy, and so, you know, I'm not saying I got prayer figured out, but you know what it is? I think sometimes it's ultimately saying, God, I can't. But you can. And God, it's not about me. It's all about you. And you know what? I think God just likes for us to come and spend some time with. God uses Christians that are actively involved in Bible preaching and believing prayer. And you could cut a trail through the New Testament and see all of the verses emphasizing prayer and our walk. And so I'm not preaching tonight to try to make you feel like you need to improve on your prayer life because the fact of the matter is we all do. And so, here He is, and these early disciples, and they're breaking bread, they're spending time in the Apostles' doctrine, and in prayer. I was knocking on doors a couple of years ago in Memphis and I was out, I guess, probably at 10 o'clock in the morning. And my goal at that time when I was home, I was knocking on 100 doors a day was my goal. I was knocking on 100 doors a day, inviting people to church, trying to have a conversation with them about the Lord. And I knocked on this one lady's door and she came in and it was probably 10 o'clock in the morning. And when she came to the door, she was doing this right here, you know. Like, I call them the getting the sleep out of your eyes. I don't know what you call it, but I was very apologetic. I said, ma'am, I'm from Eastside Baptist Church. I'm just talking to people about the Lord, and I must have just woke you up. I'm so sorry. I'll come back another time. You know what she said? She said, oh, you didn't wake me up. I said, I didn't. She said, no. She said, I was in my prayer closet. I said, really? She said, yeah. She said, the Lord's been speaking to me and there's some things that I used to do on a pretty regular basis that I'm not really doing anymore and God's worked it in my heart and I'm trying to spend some time in prayer. You know what my response was? Can you put me on your prayer list, please? I want people like that praying for me. And we just talked a little bit about the Lord and how good God was, and we came to this conclusion by the end of our conversation. Much prayer, much power. No prayer, no power. And we look at the average everyday Christian today, and we wonder why we have no power, we have no influence, we have no effectiveness. We're not in touch with the King. I mean, we're so busy, we don't get in alone in our prayer closets and pray. Much prayer, much power, no prayer, no power. How do you be actively involved? Bible preaching, believing prayer. Look at verse 43. And fear came upon every soul and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles and all that believed were together and had all things common. You say, well, that's communism in the Bible. No, this is not a forced distribution of wealth. You know what this is? It's a brother seeing another brother have a need and saying, you know what? I can meet that need. Hey, I can take care of that brother. I can take care of that sister. But that's not the way we are in America, is it? I got mine and you got yours and it's us four and no more. And with that kind of selfishness rife in our churches, it's a wonder that God would use any of us. But here they are, they're just trying to take care of each other, verse 45, and sold their possessions and goods and parted them to all men as every man had need. And they continued daily with one accord in the temple and breaking of bread from house to house and did eat their, now what's that next word? Meat, now I just have to say that, okay? I'm glad that word's in the Bible, meat. And I don't mean to offend anybody, but I'm glad they sat down after some good Bible preaching and some good prayer time and had a little Baptist fellowship around some food. Somebody said one time, boy, he's as poor as a church mouse. I'd like to be a church mouse in this church. Amen. And so here they are, and they're spending time together. They did eat their meat with what? Gladness and singleness of heart. Do you know what a church like Grace Baptist Church needs to be on guard against more than anything? Disunity. I mean, we put our trailer in here and I meet pastor and his wife. We sit down and talk, have a great time. I was encouraged within the first 15 or 20 minutes, just good conversation. I know brother Scott and his wife met brother Farnam and just a sweet spirit. I mean, a house full on Sunday morning and each night, praise the Lord, I'm encouraged. Hey, you better protect that. Hey, you better stamp out this unity as soon as it rears its ugly head. I mean you get together behind a cause that's greater than you and God can use it in an amazing way and that's exactly what's happening here. With gladness and singleness of heart. Verse 47, praising God and having favor with all the people and the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved. Now, I like to cook. I like to eat more than I like to cook, but I really like to cook. And I've enjoyed the meals this week, and I appreciate them. But one of my favorite things to eat is chocolate chip cookies. Now, don't give me any chocolate chip cookies, okay? I love them. My wife, she made a recipe last week. It was called the gooiest, chewiest, chocolatiest chocolate chip cookie. It was awesome. And you could tell there was a lot of sugar, there was a lot of butter, there was a lot of chocolate chips. That's my favorite. And a few months ago, we were trying to have some cookies or desserts without sugar. And I'll tell you, it looks the same on the plate. But when you bite into it, I'm like, why do we even call this dessert? It's not the same. There's something missing. But I'm telling you, you take those important parts of that recipe, you take the flour, the eggs, the milk, you take the chocolate chips, you take the butter, and you put it all in there in generous amounts, and it is wonderful, and that recipe is hitting on all cylinders, and it's the same way with a local church. You take some Bible preaching, You take some believing prayer, you take some brotherly love and affection and compassion, and you put all that together in that recipe, and guess what? God ignites a church like that. I mean, the recipe is going, the place is growing, and the Bible says, and the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved. I'm telling you, there's nothing more exciting to be in a church, whether it's big or whether it's small, that God's at work. It's exciting. Boy, it's exciting. And here they are, and they're seeing it, and we would all say today in 2018 in America, boy, this is what we need right here. Well, if you want what they had, you gotta believe what they believed. Bible preaching, believing prayer. So point number one, they were active, but point number two, I want you to understand this, they were available. Somebody once said that your greatest ability is your availability. Just being available. I want you to take your Bibles from here and turn back over to Acts chapter number one. Acts chapter number one. In verse number 12, then returned they into Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is from Jerusalem, a Sabbath day's journey. And when they were come in, they went up into an upper room where abode." Now, notice the list of these people. These are real people, real names. They were come in and they went up into an upper room where abode both Peter and James and John and Andrew. Let me ask you a question. What was Peter and James and John and Andrew? What did they do for a living? They were fishermen. I mean, not Ivy League educated. They were blue-collar, everyday, down-to-earth fishermen. But you know what? God used them. God used them. Then you see there's these names. There's Andrew, Phillip, and Thomas, Bartholomew, and Matthew. What was Matthew? He worked for the Hebrew IRS. He was a tax collector. Nobody likes the tax collector. Matthew would have maybe had a desk job, and so God uses the blue-collar workers, the fishermen. God uses the white-collar workers, the guy that works in the office, or the lady that works in the office. You know what they were? They were available. They just made themselves available. The scripture says there, James the son of Alphaeus and Simon Zealots and Judas the brother of James. These all continued with one accord and prayer and supplication with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus and with his brethren. So you got fishermen, you got tax collector, the writer, the human writer of the book of Acts. You know what his name was? Luke, he was a doctor, and then you have housewives and moms, you have Mary, you have some other ladies, and God used all of these people, these few people really, to turn the world upside down. These were just people that were active in Bible preaching and believing prayer, that made themselves available, and God used them in an amazing way. I'll read this passage to you. You can turn there if you like. 1 Corinthians chapter 1 and verse 26. The Bible says, For you see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, some but not many, some educated, some scholars, some but not many. He says not many mighty, not many top-tier athletes. There's some. There's some, not many Olympians, but there's some, not many, the scripture says, not many mighty, not many noble, not many kings or those in royalty. It uses some. You know who God wants to use? He wants to use those that are active and those that are available. You say, preacher, I don't really have any gifts. Yes, you do. If you're here and you're saved and you're a part of this church family, God has equipped you to meet needs in this church that nobody else will meet. But you know what we do? We stand back sometimes and we think, well, you know, I probably could do it, but I'm gonna let somebody else do it. You know what happens? Everybody's saying that. And then you got 5% of the people doing 95% of the work. And the fact of the matter is we're not near as available as we could be. And somebody would say this, well, preacher, I really don't have time. Hey, everybody's got the same amount of time. And you know what I've learned in my life? I'll do what I want to do. And so you got to make yourself available. A couple of summers ago, I'm not known for making the smartest decisions in the world. Two summers ago, we were in Greenwood, South Carolina. We just finished a meeting. It was in June. It was hot there already. And we had about three days in our schedule where we didn't have any preaching scheduled. And so the first thing I want to do is go camping. And I said, honey, what do you think about going camping? We can go camping. And she looked at me like, who's we? You know, and well, I said, well, I could take the boys, you know, and and Vance is like two years old and TJ's, he's six years old. And she says, well, what are we going to do about the truck? I said, this is what I'll do. I'll put a list together. I'll put the stuff in the truck. And there's a state park about 25 minutes a year. There's a big lake. You can take us out to that state park, drop us off and come pick us back up in two days. She said, okay, and so I made my list out. You know, I'm going camping. It's like 98 degrees during the daytime. It's about 78 degrees at nighttime, and so I'm writing my list out. You gotta have snacks. You gotta have something to drink, and I knew I was gonna be near electricity, so I said, you gotta have a coffee maker, you know, if you're gonna survive, and I put all these things. You gotta have some good meals planned, and you gotta have the fishing stuff, and I don't use a tent. At least I didn't. I thought it would be more suitable if we just used a tarp. You know, we were surviving out on the shores of this lake, you know, and so I had a tarp, and I had some rope, and I had all these things, something to start a fire with, because even though it's 100 degrees, you still gotta have a fire when you go camping, and so we put all our stuff in the truck. My wife drove us out to the lake. She dropped us off and said, see you in two days, and turned around and left. You know, we got this big pile of stuff here. And so I start setting it up, you know, I'm excited. The boys are down playing in the lake already, trying to catch frogs and fish. And so I'm trying to set our shelter up for a couple days, you know. And I'm trying to best configure this shelter. Now, remember, I'm very analytical, so it takes me a while. I'm trying to figure it out. What's the best here and what's the best there? And we all got to sleep under that night and stay dry if it rains. And so I start rigging my tarp up in the trees and I'm running some paracord down to the ground. And and I got to drive a tent stake. I got 10 stakes and I put that on the list. But there was one thing I didn't put on the list. Who takes a hammer camping with them? I mean, I didn't even think about that. So I'm standing there with this paracord in my hand, trying to figure out what I'm going to do. And I'm not going to tell you how long it took me to figure out that I could use a rock. I'm not going to tell you how long it took me. But I turned around and eventually I did find a rock. And I said, well, I can use a rock. And so I'm hammering away at this tent stake. I only have to drive two in the ground to get my shelter set up for the couple of days. And you know what? I used the rock and it worked. Now, I could drive two stakes with a rock. I wouldn't want to drive stakes all day with a rock. There's a tool for a hammer would be good for that. But I understand what I'm trying to say is as I use the rock because it was available. It might not have been the best tool. There might have been something that was designed to do that in a more effective way. But you know what God uses? He uses those that are active and those that are available. There might be somebody smarter. There might be somebody that can do it better. There might be somebody with the education. But the fact of the matter is they're not going to do it. And God wants to use you to do it. How many of you have heard of D.L. Moody before? If you've read any Christian literature or anything about revival history, you can't get past D.L. Moody. He was an evangelist. There's Moody Church in Chicago. There's all kinds of evidence of his ministry. D.L. Moody was an amazing preacher. He was in England holding meetings. He was preaching in England, and there was a young man that was sitting in the service that was listening to the preaching of D.L. Moody, and he got his life right with God, and he got on fire for God, and he went on to serve the Lord. His name was F.B. Meyer. Now F.B. Meyer is not as well known as D.L. Moody, but F.B. Meyer was a preacher in his own right. He was a writer, and he wrote commentaries, and God used F.B. Meyer, and F.B. Meyer was preaching on one occasion in the United States, and there would be a young man sitting in the congregation, and he would get his heart right with God, and he would get on fire for the Lord, and he would go out into the world to be an evangelist, and his name was J. Wilbur Chapman. Now, J. Wilbur Chapman's not very well known, but he would be preaching and he would have a strong influence in the ministry of Billy Sunday. Now, we need about a thousand Billy Sundays right about now in America. And Billy Sunday, he would travel around the globe and he would be preaching and one evening he was preaching and there was a young man in the tent that got saved and got his heart right with the Lord and he went on to be an evangelist. His name was Mordecai Ham. Now hardly, most folks wouldn't know who Mordecai Ham was, but he was a fiery preacher. And I saw an interview with Mordecai Ham before he died, and they said, Mr. Ham, if you could do anything different about your evangelistic ministry, what would you do? He said, I'd preach harder on sin. And so Mordecai Ham would be preaching one night in a great revival meeting and he would preach the gospel in Charlotte, North Carolina. And there would be a young man in the auditorium that night who would get saved. His name was Billy Graham. Now say what you want to about Billy Graham. The man preached the gospel to more people than I'll ever preach to. And it's amazing, his final testimony after he died, he was always above board with his finances and he was always above board with females. He had a good track record. Billy Graham would travel, of course, all over the world and he would hold revival meetings eventually in Asheville, North Carolina. A young man would be sitting in the congregation in Nashville, North Carolina, listening to the preaching of Billy Graham. He would get gloriously saved. His name is Dr. Ron Comfort. Now, many of you might have heard of him. He is the founder of Ambassador Baptist College and my mentor. And you say, why do you give me those list of names? Because you have no idea of your influence. But all those men were actively involved in Bible preaching and believing prayer and boy they were trying to just do what they could. They were available and God used them. Now how many of you have ever heard of this name, Ed Kimball? Ed Kimball, who's Ed Kimball? Ed Kimball was a Sunday school teacher who got a burden. for one of his Sunday school attendees. Matter of fact, he got so burdened for him that he knew where this young man worked, and one day he decided to go visit him one afternoon, and he met D.L. Moody in a shoe store and led him to Christ. So we know the D.L. Moody's, we know the F.B. Myers, we know the Billy Graham's, we know all those others, but you know where it all started? It all started with a Sunday school teacher that was actively involved in Bible preaching, in believing prayer, and just simply made themselves available. And God wants to use you in the same capacity. If this church continues in effectiveness and success, it's not just gonna be because the staff's doing their job, but because you are doing your job. The local church is made up of New Testament grandmas and grandpas and husbands and wives that are just actively involved and available for serving the Lord. And if you don't do it, nobody else is going to do it. This is our time. This is our generation to be effective for the Lord. Would you bow your head and pray with me, please? with heads bowed and eyes are closed. I just wanna ask you a couple questions. You say, preacher, I'm here tonight and I've been saved. I know I've been saved. I've been baptized. I'm a church member. I'm trying to do what I can for the Lord and God's challenged my heart and I wanna be committed. I wanna be active and available to making Grace Baptist Church, not the very best church, but the best you can make it. And you'd say, preacher, I'm committing to doing my part. I'm gonna be active, and I'm gonna be available. That's a big commitment, but it's worth it. Maybe you're here tonight, and you'd say, preacher, I've been saved, but I haven't been baptized, and I need to obey the Lord in that next step, and I need to be baptized by immersion. Well, if that's the next thing for you, then that's what you need to do. You just need to trust the Lord and do what's right. Maybe you're here and you've kind of been on the fringes here at Grace Thatcher's church. You've been coming for a little while, but you're not really sure if you're going to join the church or not. Hey, they were actively involved. These early believers were saved. They were baptized and immediately they were added to the church and got busy for the Lord. So wherever you are, there's a next step to take. And God wants to use this church to continue to reach Shenandoah County and the surrounding area as a lighthouse. But nobody is going to do it if everybody else thinks that everybody else is going to do it. My challenge is to you and I just be the church members that we ought to be. Father, we come to you. We thank you for your goodness. And Lord, the book of Acts is exciting to read about. And Lord, we look at some Christians sometimes and we wonder, wow, why would God use them? Why would God use them in that special way? But really, Lord, you don't use us because of us, you use us in spite of us. And I pray that we would be actively involved in Bible preaching. Thank God for a Bible preaching church. Lord, I pray that we'd be involved in receiving and in giving in whatever way we could give out the good seed of the word. And Lord, I pray that we'd make ourselves available. Lord, it seems like we make ourselves available for ball games and all kinds of extracurricular activity and there's no time left at the end of the week for you or just a little time. Lord, I pray that we'd give you our best. And God, as we do, I pray that you would use this church, Lord, to reach folks from here to the other side of the globe. Lord, as many people are in this auditorium, we could turn the whole world upside down. Lord, help us to be active, help us to be available. Lord, if there's somebody here that's not sure of their salvation, Lord, I pray that tonight they would get that settled. Then they that gladly received his word. Father, we love you, we thank you for the simplicity of Christianity, the scriptures. I pray that, Lord, we would see your power in our generation. And Lord, we thank you in Jesus' name, amen.