Welcome to the Kerwin Baptist Church broadcast today. Our desire is for the Word of God to be spread throughout the world.
so that all may know Christ. Join us now for a portion of one of our services here at Kerwin Baptist Church. Located in Kernersville, North Carolina. John were in the Philippines. Absolutely fantastic.
Did a good job. I told Julie he behaved pretty good while he was away from home. But it was a wonderful experience and God really used those guys and we appreciate being able to partner with you in that. I'm honored to be in a church. That has a whole month dedicated to missions.
That's tremendous. I'm just honored to be here tonight. And I'm so thankful for your influence and help in our ministry as well. I heard a preacher the other day, he said he was up preaching and he was giving all these details. And he said the Holy Spirit seemed to whisper to him and say, Shut up and get to the point.
So tonight I'm going to shut up and try to get to the point. Heard about one pulpit committee. They asked the pastor, candidate, he said, how long does it take you to preach? A 25-minute message. How long does that take?
Take your Bible, turn to Acts chapter 13 in your Bible, Acts chapter 13. Tremendous music tonight. I think God was honored. I sure enjoyed it. Praise the Lord.
Acts chapter 13 and verse 1. Acts chapter 13 and verse 1. The message tonight, the foundation for missions. The foundation for missions. Acts chapter 13.
Stand to your feet if you would, please, beginning in verse 1.
Now there were in the church that was at Antioch certain prophets. You'll be shocked how many times the word prophet and prophets are mentioned in the New Testament. Notice what it says here. Certain prophets and teachers as Barnabas and Simeon that was called Niger and Lucius of Cyrene and Mannon which had been brought up with Herod the Tetrarch and Saul. Notice verse 2.
As they ministered to the Lord, say that out loud, ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, separate me, Barnabas and Saul, for the work whereunto I have called them. And when they had fasted and prayed, They laid hands on them and sent them away. The church was in its infant stages. God was doing a new thing. There was a moving and a shaking going on that had never happened.
The old was being replaced by the new. The shadow of the Old Testament was giving place to the substance of the New Testament. Everything was brand new. They had... cultural diversity, but supernatural unity.
And at Antioch, the Bible says there were certain prophets and teachers. They had already identified the leaders, these prophets and teachers. Prophets are foretellers and they are fourth tellers. They're foretellers and they're fourth tellers. They had gathered to worship.
And what happened in this gathering? Missionary enterprise was born in this situation. The first thing I want you to notice is that the foundation for missions, the context, was a worship context, a worship context. Notice what it says, as they ministered to... The Lord.
Father, have your way tonight. Thank you for this church and what you're doing. God, build tonight, we pray and speak. We give you praise with anticipation. In Jesus' name, all God's people say amen.
You can be seated.
Now notice this missionary enterprise was born in a worship context as they ministered to the Lord and fasted. There was a worship-based leadership. And the early church ministered to the Lord. You know, a lot of churches minister for the Lord. A lot of them minister about the Lord, but here they are ministering.
To the Lord, and when it says they ministered to the Lord, that means they were worshiping God.
So they were ministering and fasting. Corporate worship was a big deal in the early church. One of the reformers said that if the worship of God is not central in church services, the church will become a personality cult. Have we seen that or what? And I'm just here to tell you that worship was a big deal in the early church.
A.P. Gibbs put it this way, he said, prayer is preoccupation with your needs. Prayer is preoccupation with your needs. Praise is preoccupation with your blessings. But worship is preoccupation with God.
You know, Tulser talked about having one magnificent obsession. It's not the program. It's not the people. It's God himself. And you know, worship is just really the interruption, the interruption of preoccupation with ourselves.
Because worship is becoming preoccupied with God. And I'm going to tell you, the praise is just bragging about what you enjoy. And in the early church, they were praising the Lord, they were worshiping, they were fasting, and God calls his people to be worshipers before he calls them to be workers. It was a worship context.
Now the only way you can comprehend That first church in the book of Acts is prayer and the Holy Spirit. In fact, there's 38 references to prayer in Acts alone, 38 more than one per chapter, 53 references in the Bible, in the book of Acts to the Holy Spirit. No way to comprehend what was going on other than prayer and the Spirit of the living God. Can I say something to you? They didn't have Bibles.
They didn't have a completed canon. They had the Old Testament scriptures. They had some epistles. But most of the preaching was based on our old tradition. That would trip up the expositors of today, wouldn't it, brother?
I'm just telling you, they had a whole year. They didn't even have a whole Bible. What were they doing?
Well, they studied the Old Testament. They read the epistles and they worshiped and ministered to the Lord. I love I love and I fired up, hyped up. energetic worship service and I believe that's what they had going on here. as they ministered to the Lord and fasted.
Now the early church practiced corporate fasting. Today's churches, we practice corporate Feasting. more often than fasting.
Some people fast to burn calories. Other people fast to break chains. And the New Testament fast is about Breaking chains. Prayer is reaching out to the unseen. Prayer is reaching up to the unseen.
Fasting is letting go of all that is seen and temporal. Listen to Andrew Murray. Prayer is the one hand with which we grasp the invisible. Fasting is the other with which we let loose and cast away the visible. Old Hansby said this, those early spirit-filled Christians...
experience such an acute hunger for God that they felt compelled to fast. By and large, today's poverty-stricken churches have laid fasting aside. Entirely. Listen to what one church historian said. I can't pronounce it so it starts with an E, but listen to what he said.
Who does not know that the fast of the fourth and sixth days of the week, Wednesday and Friday, are observed by Christians throughout the world. In the early days of the Christian church, They had the discipline of fasting. There was, I'm sure there was spontaneous fast, but there was the discipline of fasting. The Christians fasted twice a week. It was a normal part of Christian devotion.
And their fasting was not merely some external regulation. I'm telling you, it served as a means and as an expression of intensified praying.
Now the early Methodists, they practiced fasting twice a week. Wesley went so far as to say if a man doesn't fast, he's not saved. Got a lot of unconverted people in our country if that's the truth. I'll tell you that right now, but but but that's what he said now listen fasting provides direction And in the early church, It was fasting and prayer that launched this first missionary journey of Paul. It was the result of corporate fasting because fasting aligns our heart with the heart of God.
Can I say to you tonight, fasting births miracles. It births miracles. Jesus said some things ain't going to happen apart from prayer and fasting. I'm I'm a little bit I'm a whole lot weary. of the Kesara What's going to be is going to be.
What you do don't make any difference. What you say, what you think, it makes no difference. Everything is for, some things Jesus said are not gonna happen apart from prayer and fasting. It unleashes the power of God. Is not this the fast that I have chosen?
Isaiah 58. Listen to this. To loose the bands of wickedness. How many of you think we got some bands of wickedness going on in our nation right now? How many know there's some bands of wickedness in the houses of God in our nation?
What's the purpose here? To undo, undo the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens. to let the oppressed go free and break every yoke. I'm telling you. They were fasting and praying.
That's the context of the first missionary journey and the first missionary call. But notice number two, if you would. Not only was there a context of worship, There was communication from the Holy Spirit. There was communication from the Holy Spirit.
Now, notice what it says there in verse 2. The Holy Ghost. Sad. Yeah. The Holy Spirit spoke.
Now again, 53 references to the Holy Spirit. in the book of Acts. God can speak anytime. to anyone anywhere And who could deny that God speaks in the context of worship? You know, in the 70s, there was a, in the late 60s, there was a great missionary call.
You know how many people went out back in those days? And did you know that when the Holy Spirit is poured out, Missions progresses at warp speed. In the Canadian revival in Canada, when God visited Saskatoon, Bill McLeod's church, Ebenezer Baptist. Started out with 250. Seven weeks later, they had 4,000 on Great Cup Sunday meeting.
Do you know what happened? One of the things that happened, many things happened. But one of the things that happened was that Bible colleges were flooded with missionary candidates. I mean, it was exponential the amount of people that got called into missions. And can I say something to you?
When the Spirit of God is poured out, missions get stirred up. That's just the way it is. Heaven is not silent. How many know the Holy Spirit is a communicator? He's a communicator.
The Holy Ghost said that's too spooky for some people, but I'm at a point in my life where I don't care. The Holy Ghost said, he spoke.
Now it's possible to do many things without the Holy Spirit. It's possible to do good things without the Holy Spirit. It's possible to do big things without the Holy Spirit. But what happened here wasn't a good thing. It was a God thing.
This was not the result of human engineering. Hear me out tonight. This was not the result of an advertising campaign. This was not something that had to do with human ingenuity. A great power was upon them all.
I'm telling you, God was in the midst of the people, God was speaking. I heard about a man one time, he had died in his sleep.
So his wife called in the barber to give him a good shave before they buried him.
So the barber took the candle back in the old days, went upstairs, and here was the guy, the dead man, laying on the bed.
So he took the candle, lit it, and put it on the man's chest, and he commenced a straight razor to shave the corpse.
Well, he did that side, but he needed to get to the other side. But the bed was up against the wall, so he took his shoes off, climbed up in the bed. Put his knee, put his knee on the chest of the dead man, and when he put his weight down on the dead man's chest, He rose up in bed and Blew out the candle. The barber was terrified. He thought the guy was alive.
He goes running down the stairs in stocking feet with the straight razor. He's alive. He's alive. He ran outside. He was so shook up.
Well, the pastor was there. He went upstairs and... surveyed the situation, saw the candle blown out and laying over on the side and all the man laying there and he figured out what had happened.
So he came down and went and found the barber. And he said to the barber, he said, You know something? He said, He said, that man's not alive. That man's not alive. He said that corpse had wind But it didn't have breaths.
He had wind. But he didn't have breath. Can I just say something to you tonight? that activity, wind, and noise does not constitute the power of God. The early church had the breath of heaven.
God was in communication with his people, and they were speaking to God and God was speaking to them. The Bible says they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and they spake the word of God with boldness. With boldness, listen to this, with great power, the apostles gave witness to the resurrection. There was communication from heaven in the early church. Here they are worshiping God.
Here God is talking to them. You know, the seven angels, messengers, pastors in Revelation 2 and 3, these pastors of the churches, these angels. Ah, yes, the Bible calls them angels. And they were ministers. And you know what?
The Lord wrote letters. to the pastors personal addresses what does this tell you the holy spirit is a communicator and can i tell you it's the speaking voice of god that makes the difference in life and ministry Never gonna let it navigate these last days. And I don't have to go into a diatribe of what's going on. I was trying to preach an encouraging message this morning, and I got carried away with some of the... Lunacy that's going on in Ada.
Shut up and get to the point.
So I had to go back to my notes and figure out what I was supposed to have been saying.
So I'm not going to get off on that. Hello. We got to walk in the spirit. We gotta live in the spirit. That means to keep in step with the Spirit.
That means you're talking to the Spirit. The Spirit of God's talking to you. There's divine communication. That's what made the early church so unique. And you know, there's different philosophies of ministry today.
A lot of people view the church as a field. It's a field. It's where you work for God. You go to the church, the plant. the campus to work for God.
You go there to teach, you go there to pray, you go there to sing. They view the church as a field. Other people view the church as a, not as a field, but they view the church as a fortress.
So we're holding out here, man. We got the holy huddle going on here. The gates of hell ain't going to prevail, but it sure looks like it is. And here we are. And the church is a fortress where we huddle up.
and we comfort one another. Pretty much all comfort. Richard Orn Roberts said that the average church is already so comfortable you would think they were engaged in a sleeping contest. But they view the church as a fortress. But in the New Testament, the church wasn't the field.
The building wasn't the field. It surely wasn't a fortress. It was a force for God in the culture of that day. And I'm telling you, they had communication with the Holy Ghost. Would you go along with that?
That's King James English right there. Don't get offended at that. And they had a context of worship, but listen to this. Not only that, they had a call to ministry. Look at this.
Now look there in verse 2. where the Holy Ghost, what did he say? Separate me, Saul. and Barnabas for the work. Whereunto I call them.
Now, when did God call these two out?
Well, the early church I say again, was speaking to God. And God was speaking to them.
Now listen to this. In Acts 1. There's 120 men and women in the upper room praying. Acts chapter 2, the whole church is praying. Acts chapter 3, Peter and John are going up to the temple for the hour of prayer.
Acts chapter 4, they continued steadfastly in prayers. You know the early church was born in prayer. And it continued in prayer.
Now you check this out. The men prayed and the women prayed. How many of you know that women can pray out loud in church? I mean, that's what happened in the early church. The men prayed, the women prayed, the leaders prayed, the laymen prayed.
They prayed in trial and they prayed in triumph. They prayed together and they prayed alone. They prayed by the riverside and they prayed also at the seashore. They prayed in the daytime and they prayed at night. They prayed together and they prayed alone.
They prayed on the rooftop. They prayed in the upper room. They prayed in major decisions as well as ordinary obediences. They prayed when they were sending out missionaries as well as when they were ordaining deacons. They prayed when they were feasting and they prayed when they were fasting.
One thing to be said, these people really prayed. 38 references to prayer, the book of Acts. Go home and look them up. You'll find four references to continual prayer. Four references to continual prayer.
11 references to leaders. in prayer. Here's one of them in Acts 13. Two references to women in prayer. Eight references to miracles in prayer.
Three references to kneeling in prayer. Three references connected to selection of leadership in prayer. Prayer was in the DNA of the early church. This is who they were. This is just right out who they were.
They were talking to God. God was talking to them. The early church was on speaking terms with the head of the church, the Lord Jesus Christ. S.D. Gordon said, There's more you can do after you pray.
Yes, there's more you can do after you pray, but until you do pray, there's nothing more you can do but pray.
Now notice what God said. He said to the church, of the prophets to the teachers to the leaders separate Saul and Barnabas for the work. Did you know where the glory of God resides? The voice of God is heard? That where the power of God is active.
The speaking voice of God is heard. And prayer is the Christian's vital breath. Ian Bound said prayer is when faith ceases to pray, it ceases to live. When faith ceases to pray, it ceases to live. Can I challenge you tonight, Kirby?
Throw off the fatalism. The defeatism. The junk. that we got fed along the way and understand that God's still on the throne. He still can do great and mighty things.
The days of great spiritual experience are not all in the Bible or a thing of the past. That God can pour out his spirit and do mighty things in these days. And he is some places. And I love to be in those places. I'll just tell you that right now.
Last year I had the privilege to be in seven, seven, count them seven revival atmospheres within a five-month period. I've never seen anything like this. I'm talking about where God was working. I'm talking about where miracles were happening. I'm talking about where things were going on.
I'm talking about where people got converted. I'm talking about, it was incredible. And you know where God's glory resides, his voice is always heard.
Now life-giving churches give birth. They give births. to missionary enterprise. Wherever God is working, God's calling. And you know, he said, separate me, Saul and Barnabas.
In the mid-90s we were having the men's prayer advances and I can't tell you how intense. I cannot begin to you how intense. these meetings were. One year we had eight. are professionals doctors, lawyers.
Engineers, salesmen, eight. Eight. called to a midlife career shift. and they entered full vocational ministry. Although they were already established in what they were doing.
Well, the glory of God was on the place, and you know what? The voice of God was speaking, and God was calling people. And I wanted it tonight. How many people are going to be called out of your church? I watch those children go out.
Man. At least y'all are fruitful and multiplying. Amen. That's a great thing. And you know what?
I watched those teenagers go out. But I like that. We just did a men's thing in Illinois. About a hundred and some guy, and you know what? Over half of them.
were in their 20s or teenagers. Praise God. How many will be called out of this assembly right here? Maybe God's calling you tonight, or maybe he's calling you to stay home and teach a Sunday school class. or to work in the youth or the children or the ladies or the men's ministry or the recovery ministry.
I'll tell you, the Holy Spirit speaks to people. who have ears to hear. A lot of us heard the call way back when. You know what? We need to keep on hearing to kind of just refine and realign the mission.
And I'm just here to tell you, when the church is worship-based and prayer-focused, We can pray the Lord would send forth laborers into his harvest. I'm telling you, there was a context of worship. There was communication from the Spirit. There was a call to ministry. But notice number four, there was a commission to go.
Say that out loud. A commission.
Now the mission strategy. In Acts. Didn't come from a think tank. Didn't come from a mission board. Didn't come from a deacon planning retreat.
No, no, it came out of a worship context. And in verse 3, what does it say? They laid hands on them. and sent them out. That's what it says.
There was a commission to go. They laid hands on them. They sent them out. The church separated and supported those who were called. My family and I had the privilege to belong to a church some years back.
There was a super missions church. How many of you know there's evangelistic churches, teaching churches, worship churches, and mission churches, and it's hard to find one that does it all, okay? This was a missions church. The budget was $800,000 back in those days, and back then $800,000 was... was a pretty good chunk of change.
You know what that church did? a non-affiliated independent baptism. You know what they did? They sent their own missionaries.
Now they were able to do it? But you know what? Um rather than have the missionary go and waste. I said waste. Two to four years.
getting $50 a pop from a bunch of cheapskates. You know what they decided? If God calls somebody up our church, it's our responsibility. They view the mission board as a servicing agency, but the church was the sending agency. I kind of think that's what was going on right here.
Don't you think that was what was going on? And they sent them out. And can I say something to you? That that church developed a policy with other churches in the area. And if God called out somebody from one of the congregations to the mission field, then the home church would take on 50% of the support.
And when they came home, the missionary didn't have to run all over the country. They were part of the staff of the local church. That's the way they viewed them. And then they had the other churches who would take 10% each.
So If somebody got called. That's the way they did it.
Now, not everybody can do it like that, but what I'm saying to you is this: there may be some innovative ways that the Holy Ghost would speak to us about if we would get in a worship context and start calling upon the name of the Lord. Good preaching, Brother Harold. All right, now look. Maybe there's a better way. Would you go along with that?
Is it possible that there's a better way? How many know that a hundred dollars ain't worth nothing? I mean, that's a trip and a half to Wendy's, man. There's got to be a better way.
So now we're supporting people who's already in their country, which. May be a good idea in some cases. Amen, Brother Harold. All right, now look, here we got what you got here is a commission to go. Yeah.
But the others had a commission to stay. Yeah. Well, I want to say something to you tonight. You being in your place. As a child of God in your local church, is just as important as those who are being sent.
I believe that. I believe we all have a part to play. I believe we all have our place. And I believe when we're doing what we're supposed to be doing, you say, well, what are we supposed to be doing? walking in the Holy Spirit.
What about that? Praying in the Holy Spirit. conducting serious prayer for missionaries.
So Paul said, pray for us, strive with us, labor with us in prayer, man. Giving. I know a church. I got a good buddy, and they do the faith promise. Uh they had a goal.
They had a goal of The greatest news that anyone can receive is the news of the free gift of salvation found in Jesus Christ. It is our desire for you to know him personally. Would you take a moment to hear this today? Every man is born with the sin nature. Romans 3.23 says, For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
No matter how hard we try, We're not good enough to obtain God's glory. or to get to heaven. Because of that, sin carries the penalty of death. Romans 6.23 says, For the wages of sin is death. But the gift of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
The wages of our sin, or the payment of our sin, only equals death and separation from God. But it's only through God's Gift. salvation through Jesus Christ that we can accept him as our Saviour. Jesus Christ paid for your sin debt. The Bible says in Romans 5:8, But God commendeth his love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
All you have to do is receive Christ. by faith as your Saviour. Romans ten nine says That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. Verse 13 continues, For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. It's as simple as admitting that you're a sinner believing that Jesus is the only way.
and calling upon his name. Bible says whosoever, that's any one. can call upon the name of the Lord to be saved. Have you accepted Christ as your personal Savior? There is no greater day than today to take care of this.
Would you accept Christ as your Savior? If you have any questions, please give us a call at 336-993-5192 or visit our website at Curlin Baptist Church. Dot com. or visits that person at one of our three service times. We hope you have a great rest of your day.
God bless you. Mm-hmm.
