 Anyways, my name's John, I'm the canvas pastor here in Richland and formally the holiday pastor, so I'm feeling really good about today and grateful to continue this series in the book of Acts. So if you brought your Bible, you can turn to Acts chapter 13, but before we read, I'm just gonna give us a quick recap. Last week, Pastor Garrett shared a tremendous message out of Acts chapter 11 about how we're called to make disciples and in there, we're introduced to the church in Antioch and Barnabas is there, he's helping establish this church. It took root because of the persecution that took place when Stephen was stoned and so he was killed and there was a scattering and they ended up building this church and sewing into it and Barnabas spent time there building disciples and building leaders in the church and then he went and got Saul and brought him back and so that's chapter 11, but then in chapter 12, which we're skipping, but there's some good stuff in there, you should read it. Herod, the king actually puts James, the brother John to death by the sword, that's not the good stuff, but he does and the Jewish leaders are so stoked about it that Herod's like, oh, I'm gonna make him happy again and so he arrests Peter, but it's Passover and so he can't do anything yet and so he's gonna put him in jail and then he's gonna bring him out after Passover and he puts four squads of guards over the jail to watch over Peter because he's concerned about what could happen, well, lo and behold, angels shows up, shackles fall off of Peter, he's set free from prison, that'll preach right there and he walks out with the angel and he doesn't even know what's happening, he thinks he's having a dream. How many of you had like dreams where like this, is this happening, is this really not happening? The Bible says he got like kicked in the ribs, he's like, wow, this is a vivid dream, this angel's waking me up and so he walks out, suddenly the angel's gone and it's just him and he's like, wow, this really did happen and he's in front of Mary's house and so he knocks on the gate and in this house are praying for Peter to be set free from prison. The Bible says the church is earnestly praying for the release of Peter and there's power in prayer and so he's free, he knocks on the door, this young lady and he, Rhoda comes out, here's Peter, sees him, freaks out so bad that she doesn't even let him in. She just runs back to the people who were praying like, Peter's here and they were like, no, no, Rhoda, relax. I know we say we believe in prayer but let's not act like it's gonna work, you know, kind of a thing. Like they literally don't believe it's Peter. She's like, get it, so they all go back and Peter's still knocking like, hello and they let him in and in that moment, I mean, the faith of the church is revived and miraculous things are happening. Then it ends chapter 12 with Herod killing, unfortunately, the guards who he held responsible for Peter's escape and then he gives this oration to the people and he's in his royal garments and he's sitting on a robe and the people are start chanting, these are the words of a God and not a man and the Bible says, pride fills the heart of Herod to the point where he dies, he's consumed by worms and he falls over dead from an angel. So that's where we are. All right, chapter 13, I told you, like you should read chapter 12, it's crazy but now in chapter 13, we are again back at the church in Antioch and Barnabas is there, now Saul, Paul, the apostle is there and they're building the church, they've been there for over a year and this is an incredible move of God and we're gonna pick up the first 12 verses, I'm gonna read of chapter 13, but before we even do that, I wanna just sow the seed of what we're about to read in these first literally four or five verses changed the world and that's not hyperbole, that's not pastor talk, that's not an exaggeration. This portion of scripture literally changed the face of Christianity and the mission of God for all of eternity and the reason is because this is the very first time at the church of Antioch where we see individuals intentionally sent to other places, other nations to share the gospel of Jesus Christ. So I've called it the power of ascending church. There had been, as I said, persecution that scattered believers and churches ended up in different little pockets but this in Antioch, in Acts 13, we're about to see an intentional move of God, move of the spirit to send people to where the gospel had not been preached for the very first time and on the heels of this, 200 years later, from this one church, one act of obedience, one small church at the time created a spark that literally lit a flame for the gospel to spread in 200 years to all of the Roman Empire and 2000 years later, we're at a place where almost every single nation has heard the gospel of Jesus Christ and it all started in this church with their obedience and their active faith. So we're gonna read the first 12 verses of Acts chapter 13 that says, now we're in the church at Antioch, prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manny and a lifelong friend of Herod the Tetrarch and Saul. While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, set apart from me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I've called them. Then after fasting and praying, they laid their hands on them and sent them off. So being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia and from there they sailed to Cyprus and when they arrived at Salamis, they proclaimed the word of God and synagogue of the Jews and they had John to assist them and when they had gone through the whole island as far as Paphos, they came upon a certain magician, a Jewish false prophet named Bar-Jesus. He was with the procounsel, Sergius Paulus, a man of intelligence who summoned Barnabas and Saul and sought to hear the word of God. But Elimus, the magician for that is the meaning of his name, opposed them, seeking to turn the procounsel away from the faith. But Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him and said, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, full of all deceit and villainy, will you not stop making crooked the straight paths of the Lord and now behold, the hand of the Lord is upon you and you will be blind and unable to see the Son for a time. Immediately missed and darkness fell upon him and he went about seeking people to lead him by the hand. Then the procounsel believed when he saw what had occurred for he was astonished at the teaching of the Lord. Lot to cover in those 13, 12 verses, but we're gonna get through it. And this is my motto on a holiday weekend for all of you. It's the five B's. The five B's of preaching, be brief, brother, be brief. Those are the five B's. I never usually get them, but that is what they are. So let's pray. We'll dive into Acts 13. Father, we thank you. We've had this opportunity to worship, to create a throne room for you to come, for you to dwell. God, we ask that the word of God right now would go forth in power. You said that God, your word would not return void. When it goes forth, it accomplishes what you have sent it out to do. So God, let your word go forth in power, stir hearts, encourage, admonish, correct. Do whatever you need to do, Holy Spirit. We are open to it as your people in Jesus' name and everyone said, amen. Okay, so we're introduced to the church at Antioch. And we see here, as I said, this is the first time in all the New Testament, all the Bible, all the Book of Acts that people are intentionally sent out on mission to reach people with the gospel of Jesus Christ, with the good news that hadn't currently heard it. And so I read this, and again, it's inspiring, because this was just one church and one act of obedience. And I see so many parallels to the church of Antioch with Radiant Church. I'm in my 19th year serving at this church and I've seen so many things happen, so many things God has done, so many ways he has been so faithful. And as I read this, I'm just encouraged, like God will use any church, and he is using Radiant Church in many ways to be a sending church, sending of people, sending of finances, sending of resources, sending of prayers to reach people with the good news of Jesus. Like that message and that mission has never changed. So there's five attributes of the church at Antioch that I wanna just pull out briefly this morning, talk about those, and apply those, and say, this is what we at Radiant Church are aspiring to do as well, and what every Bible-believing church should be able and willing to want to do to see a move of God. And so five things out of these scriptures, the first is this, is that the church at Antioch was united around the word of God. United around the word of God. Look at that first verse. It says, there were in the church prophets and teachers. And then he lists them, and this is a very diverse bunch. Barnabas, we talked about him. He was the encourager, man of faith, came and built the church, Simeon, who was called Niger, literally of dark skin, probably from Northern Africa. Lucius of Cyrene, Manny and a lifelong friend of Herod the Tetrarch. He might've been a buddy of Herod. Herod the Tetrarch was the one responsible for beheading John the Baptist. So I'm not exactly sure how their friendship went, but obviously it's changed a little bit. And then you have Saul, who was formerly a persecutor of Christians. So you have all these different dynamics, different backgrounds, different nationalities, ethnicities, all in the church of Antioch. And the thing that unified them, that united them was the word of God. They were teaching and prophesying the word of God to the people. And that's what they built the church on. That was the unifying factor. And as we look at the church 2000 years later, we know this, the word of God is under assault. It's under attack. Denominations and churches are bending to the ways of culture and saying, no, no, no, we're gonna change this. We don't really believe this anymore. In an attempt to sound more loving and in an attempt to make the gospel more desirable or more pulpable or more appealing to the masses and we cannot doctor, water down or change the word of God as believers. And 2000 years later, what was true then is true today. And that's what they were united around. That's what they understood is that this gospel, these letters, what Jesus has said, this is truth and let everything else be a lie. And they united their lives around it and it united the leadership of the church. I love this. Again, all different backgrounds, different ideologies, different nationalities represented in Antioch, but it didn't matter because that wasn't what they identified as. That wasn't what they looked to to unify them. They looked to the word of God. And it wasn't just the leaders guys, it was also the church. In Acts chapter 11, you see Jews and Gentiles worshiping together, fellowshiping together, breaking bread together that had never happened. That had never taken place before. There was always a massive divide between Jews and Gentiles. Well, how is that possible? Because they weren't looking to their nationality to unite them. They were looking to the word of God. And the Jews realized this same promise is true for the Gentiles. Like we're all sinners. We've all fallen short of God's best. We're all in need of a savior. And if you're in this room today or you're watching online and you're not a Christian, we wanna tell you we're not united because we're all the same or because we all agree on everything or our political stances are the same or our ideologies are the same or our backgrounds are how we were raised. All of us are different in those regards, but what unites us and joins us is the gospel of Jesus Christ and the truth of his word that we build our lives on. That was true in Antioch. Let it be true of radiant church 2,000 years later. It's what unites us. It unites us. Please, don't let politics unite us. Please. Don't let, you know, again, our social or economic status, it's not what unites us, the word of God unites us. United in Antioch, united us. That's number one. Number two, attribute of the church there is they were focused on the glory of God. So first, united around the word of God, focused on the glory of God. Look what they were doing. It says with verse two, while they were worshiping the Lord, the Holy Spirit said, set apart for me, Barnabas and Saul for the work that I have for them. Worship in the church is what made a way for mission to the world. Worship happening in the church paved the way for mission to the world. The fact that they were passionate about God, passionate about who he was, passionate about what he said. As they worshiped, the glory of God became a reality to them. The worthiness of God became a reality to them. God became bigger. God became greater in their eyes. You realize that God is the same, right? Like God's not changed ever. But David prayed in Psalm 34, magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt his name together. What does it mean to magnify? It means to make, oh my word, 4th of July, you already blew your fireworks out. When you magnify something, you're making it bigger, exactly. But I mean, you know, when you have a magnifying glass and you're using it, what you're putting it on isn't actually getting bigger, right? I know none of you burned ants and things like I did as a child. But no, when you're looking through it, it's not actually bigger. What is it? It's bigger to you. It looks bigger through your eyes. Your perspective changes as you're looking through that lens. And as we look through the lens of worship, God is magnified. God has made bigger. The glory of God becomes a greater reality in our hearts. And that's what was happening in the church. At Antioch, witness to the world is born through worship in the church. Witness to the whole world. I want you to think about this. The world was forever changed because of Antioch. Missionaries went out for the first time. Churches were built all throughout the region and beyond because of this church. And where were they focusing on? The glory of God. Focusing on worship. Focusing on the worthiness of God. And as they did that, the residue of that led them to be concerned about people around them. People who didn't know Jesus. People who were outside of covenant with God. The worship of God is what inspires us and propels us. Passionate declaration of who God is in worship will make you passionate about declaring who God is through the scripture and through gospel and to the world around you. And so you can be here today and you can say, so what are you saying, John? Like, if I'm not passionate about singing, then I'm not passionate about God. No, yeah, no, no. Listen, I get it. Everybody has a style, maybe they prefer. Everybody's not as demonstrative. I'm not talking about all of us have to be robotic in our worship, but I will say this. Like, if you come into an environment where God's being worshiped and for the most part we're all kind of on the same page in our worship and there's not part of you that's willing to surrender that, give that, grow in that, then I would question like, how do you think you're gonna get passion for the lost? How do you think you're gonna get passion for other people when you don't really have passion you've stirred up for the Lord? And that happens in the place of worship. Worship isn't just singing, I get that. It's a lifestyle, it's a posture, but it does include singing. It does include declaring to God why he's worthy. And when you do that, you're so filled with God's goodness and God's presence that it's a natural reaction. You wanna go into your workplace. You should wanna go into your school, into your neighborhoods and say hey, my life has been changed and altered and renewed because of the presence and glory of God and now I wanna tell you about it. Now I want you to know this God. And I don't know if you're aware of this, but there are thousands, probably hundreds of thousands of people in Kalamazoo who you work with, go to school with, live around who do not know the glory of Jesus. Do not know who he is and what he's really done. And you are a messenger of that and you establish that and grow the ability to do that through your worship. Through your worship as God becomes bigger, as he's magnified, the natural reaction is I wanna take this to my neighborhood, I wanna take this to my sphere of influence and ultimately I wanna take it wherever God asks me to go. Mission, mission was birth in the place of worship. That's what we see at Antioch. Worship is so key, it's so important. It's such a part of who we are when we declare the goodness of God. So we've got these amazing songwriters. We've got Caleb and Rachel and I are saying, we sing all blessing and honor and glory and power from our heart to yours. Worthy are you Jesus? Well, the whole world needs to hear that. The whole world needs to know that. And so why do we sing it here? Because we're all coming together to declare the greatness of God, but then where do we bring it? Out to our neighborhoods, out to our places of work, out to our schools, out to where we have influence and then we also bring it to, we don't stop there, we bring it to the nations of the world. Why is it important to go to the nations? Why do we partner with one heart in Africa to see Bible's translate or do you wanna know why? Because there's 3,000 animistic tribes in Africa right now that are praying to spirits and that are praying to other gods that are not worthy of praise, glory and honor. Only Jesus is worthy of that. Why do we partner with Brother Abraham in places like India and Sri Lanka and Bangladesh? Why? Because there are 950 million Hindus that are worshiping more gods than you can count, but none of them are worthy of all glory and honor and blessing and power, only Jesus is. And they need to hear, why do we send people to communist nations like China and Cuba, Vietnam? Why? Because they've grown up and atheistic in societies and they've grown up in cultures where they've been told God isn't real, God doesn't exist, there is no God. And we go there and we say no, there is a God. His name is Jesus and he's worthy of your glory, your honor, your worship and your praise. And a passionate people about declaring God's goodness will become passionate about declaring who God is to the nations. Why does Pastor Joel send teams to the Middle East to dangerous areas? Why? Because right now there's 1.5 billion Muslims who are fasting, giving alms, praying five times a day to a God who is not worthy of glory and honor and praise, only Jesus is worthy. And we many times guys, and myself included, sit here as Americans in our churches where we've heard the gospel a million times and we're not moved for the people who haven't heard it once, one time. And if we believe the Bible, then the reality is people are dying and they're plunging into an eternity apart from God and the world needs to hear. And worship is what birthed a mission movement. We're focused on the glory of God. Number three, they were postured to hear the voice of God. What it says, it says, while they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, they heard the Holy Spirit speak. I love this. This is the posture of the church. They were worshiping, praying, and fasting. And in that environment, as they postured themselves, God spoke and God moved and God did what only God can do. And that is true then, it's true of the church and it should be true of each of us as followers of Jesus. People say, well, I don't hear God, I don't hear. Well, are you posturing yourself to hear from the Lord? Are you worshiping, praying, and fasting? I'm just gonna tell you guys, and this may come as a shock, I am a terrible fastier. I'm the worst. I usually go like 10 minutes and then I'm like, surely the Lord hears my heart and my cry. By now, I tried intermittent fasting once and it was like, you know what? I am an intermittent fast from like 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. I'm not gonna eat a thing. It's gonna change my whole life, change my whole diet. And I'm grateful that they don't say how long they were fasting. They just say they were. I'm assuming it was a meal or maybe a snack. And I'm just kidding, but they were posturing themselves to hear from the Lord. And in that environment, God spoke, God moved, God confirmed, God gave them the ability to know what to do next and I love that. It wasn't a program. It doesn't say, hey, they were frantically trying to get something else started, frantically trying to build this other ministry, frantically trying to get this thing going. No, they were in a place of prayer, worship and fasting and it was in that environment. And listen, I'm not against ministries. We have an amazing children's ministry. I'm so grateful for, we have groups that are an expression of who we are that are so important for discipleship and fellowship. But I'm just gonna tell you guys, and if this is you, don't raise your hand. But many times people be like, you know what we need, pastor? And immediately I'm like, ah, I'm gonna go out on a limb and say we don't need this. But yes, go ahead, please. We need this. We need a men's this. And women, we need a singles, but ready to mingles group is what we need. And I'm like, look, I'm not opposed to groups, but I will say this. What is important to radiant church is what you see is five times, 15 times a week for five days, three times a day. We're in a place of prayer, a place of worship and a place of intercession because we believe that's the environment where God moves. That's the environment where God speaks. And we are grateful for groups and we're grateful for events and we're grateful for the ministries that we have and they're important. But at the end of the day, when you posture yourself in a place of prayer and worship, God will speak to you. God will speak to the church. God will give direction to the church. It's why I'm so grateful for Pastor Lee because he is a man of prayer. He is a man who is not, this ministry is not built on Pastor Lee Cummings. It's not built on John's honor, Caleb. Anybody's name, it's built on the presence of God, the word of God, worship and prayer. And when you build it on that, it can't be shaken. It can't be moved. I'm telling you, I mentioned these other churches and denominations and I'm not trying to throw stones as much as say they think it's gonna help, it's not gonna help. They're losing all their power. They're losing all their influence and they will not have the Holy Spirit's blessing because they're not in a posture to hear from him. They're not in a posture like they were in Antioch where they were saying, God, we want the nations to know. We want to be true to your word. And so speak to us. And God, we're praying, we're worshiping, we're fasting, we want to hear your voice. They were in a posture to hear from the Lord. And I wasn't planning to say this, but I'll just say it. We had prophetic Presbytery a couple of weeks ago, which I love, so grateful for. I just want to tell you, especially those of you who maybe didn't get a word or were disappointed that you didn't get a word. God has 789,000 words that he wants to speak over your heart, over your life, over your family, and over your future. So I'm grateful for prophets and pastors and those that are in the five-fold ministry. The Spirit of God will minister to you in a way that no human being ever can. And if you'll put yourself in a pot, so many too many Christians are like, well, God doesn't ever speak to me. Hold on, let me get the dust off this because I've never read it. And I'm just gonna tell you, like this is how the Lord speaks to you. This is how he will give you direction. This is how he will confirm what he's saying. This is how your identity will be shaped. You're not who the world says you are. You're not your feelings. You're not any of those things. You are what the word of God says that you are. And he determined your identity because he created you. So he's the only one allowed to. So put yourself in a posture. A posture where you can hear from God or he can speak to you like they did in Antioch. So they were united around the word of God, focused on the glory of God. Postured to hear the voice of God. But number four, they were obedient to the direction of God. So they're in this position. They're praying. They're worshiping. They're fasting. And they hear the Lord say, set apart from me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I've called them. And again, you got to put yourself in the position of someone who's attending the church in Antioch. Barnabas and Saul were a big deal. Like maybe they were like, are you sure they said that? Maybe they said Sam and Titicus. You know, like Sam's great, but he's not. Saul and we need Paul. No, they heard from the Lord and they didn't argue. They didn't try to negotiate with the Holy Spirit. They laid hands on them and they sent them to do what God had called them to do. They were obedient to the voice of God. They were obedient to go where God told them to go. What God was speaking, they were hearing and then they were putting into action. And at the end of the day, obedience is what really sets apart those who are walking after God. Sometimes you can hear God. Sometimes you can delay it. Sometimes you know, oh, was that really God? But when you take a step of faith and when you take a step, when you don't know where the next step's gonna be or where the next thing's gonna come from or how this is ever gonna work out, those are the moments where God moves in power, where God moves in glory. And the church in Antioch was like, look, these are our best leaders. They've been here building disciples. They've been here like doing everything that we need to have done, but we're not gonna hang on to them. We're not gonna have this closed fist, like, oh no, please don't go anywhere. We're gonna send them because that's what the Lord's doing. And another thing I appreciate so much about Pastor Lee is when we have people who come, people who serve, and then people who go, we're not like, you know, whether they're leaders or whether they're on staff or whatever. Like we want you to be where God wants you to be. We had Corey Asbury, amazing. And then he leaves and we're like, oh no, the church is gonna sink. You know, no one will know what reckless love is, but we do actually. And it's okay. And God brings other people and God has other plans. And so again, when you're obedient to that and the church needs to be obedient to that and then individuals, like what is the Lord asking you to do? How is the Lord stretching your faith? What is the Lord wanting you to lay down? What comfort, what thing, what is it that he's speaking to you? And if you're in a posture where you can hear him, God will ask you to do something to reach the nation, something to reach people, something to reach either your Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, or the ends of the earth. And so I want to take a moment and I told him I was gonna do something to just honor Pastor Joel and Amy Dorlag and their children are here. And you may not know who he is, although his handsome face has been on a couple of videos lately. So he's kind of getting a big head about all of this Richland fame. He can't even go to Meyer anymore. It's crazy. So I was just kidding. But I have known Joel and Amy for a very long time and I remember clearly we carpooled, our kids went to the same school and he came and he said, the Lord's calling me to Haiti to take my family and to go to Haiti. And I was like, what? What, the carpool? Come on. No, I'm just kidding. I didn't say that. That's terrible. And I remember we baptized Mark Forward that night together. He worked as a manager of like a landscaping Joel did and he was like, I'm leaving and he did. And he took his family and he obeyed the voice of the Lord and he served there. He served children of the promise, a beautiful ministry for or and learned the language and just was so incredibly faithful. And then he came back and Pastor Lee was like, I want Joel to be the missions pastor here. And many of you don't know this but he has and their family has sacrificed much, has relied on nothing but the word of God that was given to them to take teams, to take people, to initiate relationships with our missionaries all over the world and they have sewn their lives into the kingdom of God. And now we are reaping the benefits of that as a church. You may or may not know this but many of the relationships we have, many of the things that are happening in India and other parts of the world are obviously the grace of God, but also because of the faithfulness of Joel and Amy Dorlag and I just wanna honor them for who they are and what they've done. They're amazing, they're amazing. When I could name others, Rachel Sims, a young lady who was in my youth group, she's in Portage today, she was just his next level, just bleeds the great commission. When you cut her open, it's just love for the lost. It's so incredible and we have others in our church. You know, I could talk about the clines and the bosses and ministries and me and Mar and other places, the Mark digraphs who go and serve at the mission. Here's the thing is when you open yourself up to say, God, I want the glory that you placed in me to be seen by others and I want other people to know who you really are. God will use you. He used one church at one time in Antioch 2,000 years ago and he's using radiant church and you are radiant church. This is not a building, it's not a walls, it's not a structure. It is the people of God hearing the voice of God and then saying, God, where do you want me to go? What do you want me to do? How do you want me to sacrifice and give? And that's what they did in Antioch. And the last thing, number five, they were obedient to the direction of God and number five, they were empowered by the spirit of God. None of this happened in their own strength. When I talked to Pastor Joel at staff on Tuesday, he was like, bro, in my mind, I'm just a simple mechanic and I have no idea how this all happened. He's in like the homes of dignitaries in other countries. He's rubbing shoulder, like it's this crazy. And I'll tell you what it is, it's the power of God and it's the power of the Holy Spirit and it happened to Saul and Barnumus. I just read it, you might have glossed over it, but they send them out. They pray, they lay hands, they say, go. So they go and they end up in Cyprus on this island and they end up in front of the procounsel which would be like the governor. The whole leader of the island is like, hey, I want to meet with you guys and I want to hear what you're talking about. I want to hear more about this Jesus. So like Paul and Barnum was like, well, what? We're just two dudes from a little church in Antioch and all of a sudden we're sitting with the governor. It's amazing, he wants to hear about what we're talking about, he wants to hear about Jesus. So they start, but then it says, David Blaine shows up, apparently. Sorry, David, if you know the Lord, but a magician and a false prophet, Emilius, and he tries to distract them. He tries to get him to not have faith in what they're saying. And Paul, it says, gives them, the Bible says it gives them a stern look like your mom gives you when you're talking in church or whatever, like. And Paul did not hold back. He said, you son of the devil, how long are you gonna make crook at the straight paths of the Lord? And he says, you know, you deceitful and he goes off, you know what, the hand of the Lord's upon, and you're gonna go blind from this moment on. And then there's like a miss that happens and he's like, I can't say. And then Paul turns to the governor and he's like, what were you saying? What are we talking about? Governor's like, I believe that gospel. Let me just tell you. And he's in front of people that he never would be in front of. He has an audience with people he'd never have an audience with. Why? Because the Lord's with him. And because he said yes, and because he went where God told him to go. But look at this scripture, right? Before he rebukes Alimus, it says, but Saul. So he was seeking to turn the procounsel, the governor away from the faith, verse nine, but Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him and said, you son, now listen, I'm not saying we go out and we call people that or we attack people, but I will say it was the power of the Holy Spirit that enabled Paul to do what he needed to do. And the same Holy Spirit lives inside of you. The exact same spirit that Paul had 2,000 years ago, the same spirit that raised Jesus Christ from the dead, if you are a Christian is alive inside of you. And listen to me, church. The more that we give of ourselves to the nations, the more that we decide we're going to have influence for Jesus in our city, in our region, and in the nations, the not easier it's gonna get the harder it's going to get. There are gonna be Alimuses. There are going to be those who tried to turn people away. We've already seen that in downtown. We've already seen people that are not real happy that were there, that are not on our side, if you will, at this moment. And so if you came to Christianity thinking this is gonna be easy and this is gonna be great and this is gonna be comfortable and God's gonna make it all work out, like that's not always the case. Following Jesus was never supposed to be easy, but it's always worth it. And pouring your life into something that matters will never return void. I talked to my children, I talked to my son, I tell him what is the ultimate goal of every single human being? And he'll answer to know God and to make him known. That's it, simple. Not trying to, you know, do theology, I'm not trying to get him to understand revelation. I'm saying to him, son, this is your call. Girls, this is what it means to be a Christian, to know God and then to make him known. Simple call for every single Christian. And it's the power of the Holy Spirit. You don't know where God may wanna take you. You don't know how God may wanna use you, but the power of the false prophet magicians in our land has caused us to be apathetic, has caused us to not care, has caused us to be indifferent and cold-hearted towards the loss and to only focus on ourselves. And so we have an entire generation that's coming up that thinks, well, what really matters is my status and my followers and how much money I have and how many things I can get and how many degrees or letters I have after my name. And at the end of the day, everything will burn up except for knowing God and making him known. That's what it means to follow Jesus. That's what we need to tell the world. That's what it means to focus on the glory of God, to be a worshipper. Is to say, God, everything else will not matter. It just won't matter. And so I put my focus on you. We sing the words, God, all my life belongs to you. All I have belongs to you. Well, this is what it means. Is to say yes to the call to be a follower of Jesus. Not just a fan, not just say I'm a Christian, but what does God ask me to do and where does God want me to go? A church at Antioch, one yes, one act of obedience from one church, change the course of history forever. And that's how God works. It's amazing. How many of you know God could snap his fingers if he wanted to, I guess. And everybody would be a Christian, but he doesn't do that. Jesus said the kingdom of God is like leaven. A little bit gets into yeast and it grows and it spreads. And the beauty of the kingdom of God is he uses broken people like us to do it. I want you to just pray with me for a minute. I'm gonna invite us. I have a missions card here, kingdom builders. That's what Pastor Joel is overseeing. That's where our trips come from. That's how we designate finances to brother Abraham and others that we support us all through kingdom builders. And this church is insanely generous and committed. It's unbelievable. We raised three quarters of a million dollars to reach people in India, the poorest and the most unreached. That brother Abraham is spending his life reaching and it's beautiful. But I sensed coming into this weekend that there would be those that the Lord is saying, I want you to take another step. I want you to step outside of your comfort zone. I want to use you to reach people, maybe locally, but maybe in the nations. That's what we do here. Not everybody is necessarily a Pastor Joel who's called to go to Haiti and live there, but everybody can go on a short-term mission strip and see how other people live and see what the gospel of Jesus Christ is doing around the world. And I want to encourage you to pray about that, to ask the Lord, what does that look like? I'm leading a team, the shameless plug to the Philippines. I'm so excited about it. I'm gonna be hooking up with Paul and Marcy Babor who are literally heroes of mine. She was in my youth group. Now she has children and now she's literally just spent her life reaching, they'll probably do 330 days of ministry this year with 30 days off. And when I say ministry, I mean in the heart of the Philippine all over tribes, villages. And so the end of September 24th through October 2nd or 3rd, that's where I'll be. If you wanna come with me and see the power of God on display, I'd love to have you come. But whatever that looks like, there's other trips. There's other opportunities. There's things that we're doing with alternatives, things we're doing at the Columns of Gospel mission. But I'm gonna pray for us. And if you sense that from the Lord, like, hey, this is my time. This is God kind of tapping me on the shoulder. I want you to come up here. Our prayer partners are gonna have these. You can scan them. You can take them home. But rather than just say, hey, go home and check out the Kingdom Builders website, which you can do. Radiant Dot Church slash Kingdom Builders. But then everybody's kind of go, oh wait, I gotta get Captain Jack fireworks or whatever. We get distracted. Or you can do it now. And you can come forward and you can just grab one of those and really act on what the Lord might be speaking to you. So I'm gonna ask you if you would to just stand with me and I'm gonna pray, I'm gonna have our prayer team if they would to come forward. And I wanna just close all of us just again, asking God to make us ascending church and ascending people that the nations need to hear. So Father, we come and we posture ourselves just as the church in Antioch did with prayer and fasting and worship. And God, we ask you to speak to each one of our hearts. God, we believe this church is here because of the grace of God and the power of God alone. It is your grace that has enabled us to have any of the impact and influence that we have, but we ask for more, God. We ask for more, more people, more resources, more hearts that burn to see the gospel of Jesus Christ reach the loss and the hurting in our city and our Jerusalem and our Samaria and our ends of the earth, God. We pray for that. And I pray right now that Lord, I just sense there's some in this room, young ladies, at least one who knows, there's supposed to be a full-time missionary who knows that the Lord has called you. The Lord has put the nations on your heart and it's been trepidatious and it's been hard. And I'm not saying you've even been fighting it, but it's just been this like block or this fear. I just feel the Lord is releasing strength and grace and faith into your heart and into all of our hearts. So God, we surrender. We surrender to you. We surrender to you. What would you have us do, God? What would you have us do to know you and to make you known in the ends of the earth? Fill us, enable us, give us the Holy Spirit's power in Jesus' name. Amen.