God’s Plan for Churches • January 11, 2026 • Andrew Spradlin • 1 Thessalonians 1-1; Acts 17

Welcome to the Valley Baptist Church sermon podcast.

We're so glad you're here,

and we hope this message inspires you,

builds your faith,

and moves you toward a deep relationship with God.

Today, you'll find great insight into the Bible

and learn how you can apply it straight to your life.

So welcome and enjoy the message.

If you have your Bible, please open it with me to 1 Thessalonians in your New Testament.

You might also want to make your way to Acts chapter 17 because we're going to be in Acts 17 for a while as well.

Acts 17 · chapter mention

In a message I'm calling God's Plan for Churches.

We're beginning a brand new series going verse by verse through 1 Thessalonians,

which is one of Paul's very first letters, if not his first New Testament letter.

I'm calling this series the hope of his coming because the second coming of Jesus is mentioned in all five chapters of this short letter.

And one of the main themes of the book is that Jesus is coming back someday, not as a suffering servant, but as a ruling king.

Now today's message is sort of a introductory message.

So we're only going to cover one verse in the letter today.

So let's read it together. All right. It says, Paul,

Savanis. Now we know him by his nickname, Silas and Timothy,

to the church of the Thessalonians in God, the father and the Lord Jesus Christ,

grace to you and peace from God, our father and the Lord

Jesus Christ.

Now, whenever we write a letter, we sign the letter at the very end of the letter.

But in the first century, they signed their letters at the beginning, I think,

so that people didn't have to unroll the entire scroll to see who it was from.

So we see here that it is the Apostle Paul who's the primary author, humanly speaking,

but he's not writing alone.

He's got two co-authors with him, a guy by the name of Silas and a guy by the name of Timothy.

And they're writing to a local church that...

was in the city of Thessalonica, which is in modern-day Greece.

Now, any time we read one of the New Testament epistles or these letters,

it's very important that we realize that we're sort of entering into the middle of a conversation

between two people who already know each other.

I'm sure you've had that experience before,

where you walk up on two people having a conversation together,

and you think...

You know exactly what they're talking about, only to find out that's not at all what they're talking about, right?

Context matters, doesn't it?

Well, there is a specific context in which 1 Thessalonians...

was written. In order for us to fully understand what God is saying to us through this letter,

we need to do our very best to understand the context. First off, the Thessalonians knew exactly

who Paul, Silas, and Timothy were because just a handful of months earlier, 18 months or so at most,

these men had started the church.

You see, Paul, Silas, and Timothy were church planters.

Yes, they were missionaries,

but they were missionaries who planted churches.

Scripture teaches that churches

are supposed to start other churches.

Now, starting churches certainly is not the mission.

Jesus gave us the mission in Matthew 28,

when he says, go into all the world

and make disciples of the nations.

That's the mission.

But while church planning is not the mission, it certainly is a huge part of the strategy.

We see that from the book of Acts.

The very first church in Acts chapter 2 was in Jerusalem.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

It had over 3,000 people on it day one.

And they met at the temple in Solomon's porch.

They also broke up into small groups and met house to house.

But as we read Acts, it was not long before one church became many churches.

Now, the Bible teaches very clearly that there is one body of Christ.

There is one church.

But it also teaches that there are many churches.

So, which is it?

Well...

It's both.

The word church or ecclesia

that we see in verse number one of Thessalonians,

it means the called out ones

and it refers to an assembly of gathered people.

So the one body of Christ

that the scripture sometimes refers to

is called the universal church by most people.

It's referring to all believers throughout all the world,

throughout all of time.

Other times, the universal church is referred to as the invisible church,

referring to the fact that we can't visibly see it

because people aren't gathered.

It's not all gathered together in one.

But I believe that someday we will visibly see it someday

when history is over, as we know it.

The church, all believers of all time, people from every tribe, nation

and tongue will be gathered together as one in heaven

as the universal visible church before our Lord.

But that someday is not today.

For now, in God's genius,

he has organized his church into churches.

local, visible expressions of the body of Christ.

Valley Baptist Church, for example,

is a local, visible expression of the body of Christ.

We are a church.

Well, Paul is writing to a church that's in Thessalonica.

It's a brand new church that has just been started.

And in a moment, in Acts chapter 17, we're going to read about how it got started.

Acts 17 · chapter mention

But I want us to back up for just a moment, since we're talking about church planting today,

it's going to be a little different kind of message today.

I want us to back up to Acts chapter 15.

Acts 15 · chapter mention

And we see that in Acts 15, the church at Antioch sent Paul and Silas out as missionaries.

And everywhere Paul and Silas went, they told people about Jesus.

And everyone who believed, they formed local churches with them.

Now, while they are on their mission trip, they picked up a young man in Lystra by the name of Timothy.

And we read about, if you're to read between Acts 15 and Acts 17, we read about how Paul, Silas, and Timothy,

their plan was to travel to Asia, but the Scriptures say the Holy Spirit forbid them.

He didn't let them go.

And Paul received this vision from the Lord of a man from Macedonia saying,

"'Please come and please help us.'"

Now Paul rightly discerned that that was from the Lord.

And so they changed course and they headed towards Europe.

Now Paul and Silas and them would later go to Asia Minor,

but that was not yet in God's perfect timing.

So they went as directed and they went to Europe.

And their first stop in Europe was to the city of Philippi.

And when they were in Philippi, they preached the gospel.

And a lady, a woman by the name of Lydia, a prominent businesswoman, she received Christ.

Her heart was open to him, the scriptures say.

Eventually, they shared to Christ to the point many others got saved, but eventually they were arrested.

And the Bible says that they were beaten severely with lashes upon their back, and then they were thrown in jail.

Long story short, because we don't have time,

God miraculously sends this earthquake,

their chains are loosened, they're released,

they're free to go.

And in the midst of that situation,

the prison guard is saved and his family is saved

and him and his family are baptized

and the church at Philippi was born.

Now Paul and Silas, they were forced to leave that city

after that situation and they were asked to leave,

so they left.

Now, at this point, I think if it were me, I would be very tempted after being beaten, after being put in jail, to just go on home.

You know, let's go. There's people back home that want to hear about Jesus.

Maybe I'll tell them about it. But that's not what they did.

They went to the next city. They went to Thessalonica.

And when they arrived in Acts chapter 17, verse number two, we see what they did.

Acts 17 · chapter mention

It says,

And a great multitude of the devout Greeks and not a few of the leading men and women joined Paul and Silas.

So Paul, as is custom, he goes straight to the synagogue there in Thessalonica.

And he begins telling people about Jesus.

And some of them believe mainly the God-fearing Greeks of the day.

But Luke adds that a lot of the leading women believed as well.

Now, there's a little side note, but isn't it interesting

that the first European convert in Philippi

was a businesswoman by the name of Lydia.

And now the first converts in Thessalonica

included prominent women leaders.

Do you know, if you look through church history,

that godly women have always played an important role

in the kingdom of God?

They're at the heart of God's kingdom work so often.

Now, none of these ladies became pastors,

but Luke points them out because I think

they became critical prominent leaders within these churches.

Now we see that in Thessalonica,

there were three basic responses

to the gospel message that they proclaimed.

It's really the same basic responses that we have today.

Some of them received it.

Some of them rejected it.

And others of them ridiculed it.

And we're going to see that those who ridiculed the gospel message, their ridicule quickly turned to persecution.

Verse number five says,

But the Jews, who were not persuaded, becoming envious, took some of the evil men from the marketplace and, gathering a mob, set all the city in an uproar.

They started this riot.

And they attacked the house of Jason and sought to bring them out to the people.

But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brothers to the rulers of the city,

crying out, these who have turned the world upside down have come here too.

Jason has harbored them and they're all acting contrary to the decrees of Caesar,

saying there's another king, Jesus.

And they troubled the crowd and the rulers of the city when they heard these things.

So when they had taken security from Jason and the rest, they let him go.

Then the brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea.

When they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews.

So here's what we see.

Very quickly, all these new believers in this church, they were hit with persecution.

Persecution.

right away.

And I think that's one of the reasons why the Apostle Paul,

when he's writing to them,

mentioned five separate times,

or mentions the second coming in all five chapters,

because they needed some hope.

He's reminding them, no matter how bad things get,

just know Jesus is coming back.

So don't lose hope.

You have the hope of his coming.

Now, here's what I wanna do

in a little different kind of message today.

I want to focus the rest of our time,

it's a little insider talk,

on the fact that God's plan is still for churches

to start other churches.

Now, we've done that a lot as a church throughout the years,

but as we grow, as we mature even more as a church,

I think it's very important that we pick up the pace

when it comes to church planning.

Now, in order to do that,

we need to increase the number of qualified church planters

that we're raising up from our church and sending out.

Now, we want to be like the Church of Antioch.

They sent Paul and Silas out, some of our best.

We want to be like the Church of Antioch.

In fact, our prayerful goal is that we would plant over 100 churches in Bakersfield and throughout the Central Valley during our tenure as your pastors.

And so here's what I want to do this morning.

I want us to take a look at Paul, Silas, and Timothy, the human writers of 1 Thessalonians,

And I want to learn from them what a church planner should look like.

What kind of people do we need to be raising up and sending out?

Now each point I make could be a whole sermon, but there's 10 points.

So we're going to go real fast, rapid fire, right? And please don't tune me out.

Thinking, well, I'm never going to be a church planner,

so I don't really need this. First off, you don't know that.

You don't know that.

You don't know what God has in your future.

And second, these points apply to every Christian, okay?

So you just invite the Holy Spirit into this and ask him to apply it to your situation in life, all right?

Number one, church planters have a sinful past.

This is important to recognize because sometimes people put missionaries and pastors and church planters on this pedestal,

and they think, well, it's only for perfect people to go out and start churches.

No, it's for sinful people saved by God's grace.

People like all the rest of us.

Did you know that the people with sinful pasts are the only ones that God ever uses?

That's all he uses.

The Bible says all of us are sins for all of sin.

And so one of the prerequisites to ever being used by God in your life is to recognize that and to admit it.

Now, you might be thinking, yeah, Pastor, but you don't understand.

You don't know what I've done.

Listen, I know what Jesus has done.

I know what Jesus has done.

The Apostle Paul, before he met Christ,

he was a murderer of Christians.

In fact, in the known world at the time,

every Christian was fearful of Saul of Tarsus

because he hunted Christians down.

He imprisoned them and arrested them.

In fact, he had some of them stoned.

But one day...

When Saul was on his way on the road to Tarsus, to Damascus,

when he was headed to Damascus to arrest Christians there,

he saw this bright light and the Lord Jesus appeared to him and his life was changed.

It was radically saved and transformed from the inside out.

And now today he is recognized as the greatest missionary our world has ever known.

Some of you are brand new Christians.

In fact, I praise God, many of you in our church family are new Christians.

You barely know Job from Job, and that's okay.

And you have no idea how God is going to use your life to help other people.

You have no clue.

In your mind, you're just, you're so recently removed from your life that was consumed by sin.

You're just starting to fall.

You have no idea what's in store for you, how God's going to grow you and mold you and produce fruit in your life.

It's hard for you to imagine, but I'm telling you, he will if you just surrender to him and allow him.

Now, here's another thing.

Church planners need to be a part of a church planning team.

When we read the New Testament, Paul is never alone.

I don't know if you've ever noticed that.

On his first mission trip, it was Paul and Barnabas.

On his second mission trip, it was Paul and Silas.

And on both trips, many others accompanied him.

Guys like John Mark and Timothy, Luke,

Tychicus, Trophimus, Aquila and Priscilla,

and many, many others.

Paul knew the importance of doing ministry together.

to have a team starting these churches.

Every church planning pastor that we send out needs to have a team with them.

Because being a church planner, being a missionary,

is a lonely and spiritually dangerous work if done alone.

That's why they're all going to need a team of non-pastors to help them who can be a witness in the marketplace of life,

can be salt and light in their workplace and provide ministry support and service and finances and prayer and support.

Now, here's another point.

Church planners, they need to be led by the Spirit of Christ.

Paul, Silas, and Timothy, they were headed towards Asia,

but the Spirit of God did not permit them to go.

Now, we don't know exactly how they knew

that was of the Spirit.

Maybe their transportation plans kept falling through.

Maybe the support that they needed was not there.

We're not sure how the Spirit was forbidding them,

but eventually the Spirit made it very clear

and provides a vision from this man

from Macedonia asking help.

Every Christian, every believer, certainly every church planter needs to learn, and it's a process of learning, how to be led by the Spirit of God.

To seek Him in everything.

To rely upon Him for everything.

Now, most of the time, as we're led by the Spirit,

the Spirit of God doesn't give us a vision like He did for Paul.

But He leads us in many other ways, doesn't He?

And we always have to confirm His leadership with Scripture as He leads.

You see, God knows us.

He knows exactly how we're wired because he's the one who wired us, right?

And so if God knows you very well, he knows exactly how to get your attention.

He knows exactly how to speak to your heart.

We need to be sensitive to his leading and seek him in all things above our own.

Now, another point is this.

Church planners, they need to share the gospel of Jesus often and well.

Pastor Phil used to tell me all the time concerning the gospel.

He said, tell it often and tell it well.

Andrew, tell it often and tell it well.

Throughout Acts, if you were to read, especially the early chapters,

you'll see over and over on every page that everywhere the disciples went,

they continually, ongoingly spoke about Jesus Christ.

They were consumed with Jesus.

They were consumed with the gospel, and we need to be as well.

Whether you're a church planning or just in ministry, all Christians,

we must be consumed with the good news of Jesus,

and we need to tell it well as well, don't we?

Some churches, unfortunately, have gotten away from the basics.

of how we get to know God, the basics of the gospel message.

They don't talk about sin anymore.

They don't talk about the cross and the blood.

They don't talk about the resurrection.

They certainly don't talk about repentance.

That's a problem.

That is not how Paul and Silas approached things.

In Acts 17 that we read a moment ago, it says that Paul went

and he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, right?

That is, he let the word of God do most of the talking,

and then he used the word of God

to persuade others to believe.

And then it says that he explained

and demonstrated that Christ had to suffer

and then to rise again.

That's what preaching is.

That's what my job is.

That's what every pastor's job is.

Every church planter,

Planting pastor needs to recognize that a church is not built upon pop psychology.

It should not be.

It should be built upon the word of God.

Let's reason together from the scriptures.

Let's explain from the scriptures.

And let's demonstrate point by point from the scriptures that Jesus died for our sins and rose again.

Let us all share the gospel of Jesus often,

and let's share it well.

And here's another thing.

Church planters make incredible sacrifices.

Think about all the sacrifices that Paul and Silas

and Timothy made.

I mean, they left their families behind.

They journeyed by foot and by sea.

They were beaten and stoned.

They were put in prison.

multiple times.

They sacrificed greatly for the gospel.

Starting new churches always, always, always

requires sacrifice for those of us who are sending

and supporting and those especially for those

who are going and planting.

Another thing is this, church planners

must prepare for battle.

Church planners.

must prepare for battle because church planting is not for sissies.

for warriors. The apostle Paul told all of us as believers in the book of Ephesians to put on the

whole armor of God. Why? So you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil, the attacks

of the devil. You see, there's a spiritual battle that's taking place for the souls of men and women,

and we can't see the battle, but it's taking place. It's taking place in the heavenly realm.

It's taking place on earth amongst us here. And every one of us as Christians, as followers of

Christ, we are soldiers in the battle.

Now, here's what church planners sign up to do.

They sign up to charge the enemy in the battle.

If you charge the enemy, you can expect to be shot at.

You can expect to be shot at.

So you better be armed up every day

or you're gonna be wounded or worse yet,

you'll be a casualty of war like far too many

in ministry are.

Another point is this, church planners need persistence

and determination.

Think about the determination and the grit

that the apostle Paul and Silas had.

I mean, they just wouldn't quit.

In Philippi, Paul and Silas, they were arrested.

They were beaten.

with lashes, they were put in jail.

And then they eventually were forced to leave.

They didn't quit and go home, though.

No, they traveled about 100 miles

through the city of Thessalonica.

And I'm sure as they traveled

and walked on that old Roman dusty road,

I'm sure they were tired.

It's a long ways.

I'm sure they were hungry.

I'm sure they were thirsty.

Maybe even the scabs that were still on their back

from the beating they took,

broke up and began to open up

as they carried their belongings

and their shirt was filled with blood.

We don't know exactly what it was happening,

but they would not quit.

They just kept putting one foot in front of the other

until they arrived at Thessalonica.

And what did they do?

They walked right back into the synagogue

and they started sharing with the Jews

who were troubled to hear about Christ,

but they kept sharing Jesus with them

and some of them got saved.

Now others, they started a riot,

caused quite a commotion.

And so again, they're forced to leave Thessalonica.

Did they go back home?

Absolutely not.

They went to the next city of Berea

and they went right back into the synagogue,

back to the wolves that kept getting them in trouble

and they kept...

sharing Christ. Paul had no quit in him, and that's what it takes in ministry. Whatever ministry

you're involved in, it's not for the faint of heart. It takes grit. It takes determination.

It takes love and an unwavering confidence in the gospel. In fact, that's our next point.

Church planners, they've got to have an incredible confidence in the power of the gospel to change

lives.

As Christians, how in the world can we be so resilient in a world that hates us?

In a world that has opposition, how can we be resilient?

It's because we know we have the power.

We know the power is found in the gospel of Jesus.

Unfortunately, there are some churches who have lost confidence in the simple power of the gospel.

They've allowed themselves to get distracted by programs and processes and budgets and things of that nature.

They lost sight of the simple message of Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

Listen, no program has the power to save.

No pastor has the power to save.

No music ministry has the power to save.

Only Jesus has the power to save.

Church Planner needs to have a supreme confidence in the gospel message

because when the going gets tough, and it's going to get tough,

he must know that he never preaches in vain,

that the Word of God never returns void, that God is always working.

The very fact that he has gone out as the Spirit led,

the very fact that he is declaring Jesus that success.

That success, our job as Christians is to tell people about Jesus and then leave the results up to him.

That's success.

Two more points very quickly.

Church planners need to pray for and work for citywide impact.

Oftentimes we think very small, too small.

William Carey, the great missionary, in fact, he's known as the father of the modern missions movement.

He said, expect great things from God and attempt great things for God.

Do you remember when we read a moment ago the accusation that that mob made against Paul and Silas and Jason and all the brothers?

He said, those who have turned the world upside down have come here too.

What an incredible statement.

That's the kind of reputation I want us to have as a church.

We've turned the world upside down.

But listen, they hadn't actually turned the world upside down.

They had turned it right side up.

Because that's what Jesus always does.

But to the world, it seems so backwards.

They don't understand.

Their eyes have been closed to the good news of Christ.

And it's our job to get them the gospel so their life can be turned right side up.

Sometimes churches think way too small.

Now, the fact of it is, we have to think small because individuals matter.

Families matter.

We've got to shepherd all of God's people, but the world is a big place, isn't it?

And sometimes if we're just focused just on us, who's going to tell the person out there that desperately needs what we know,

that we have a Savior who loves us, and we have a relationship with God that they can have if they surrender to Him?

Every church is placed in a particular city.

Now...

In our case, it's Bakersfield.

And I believe it's a church's responsibility to reach,

try to reach their city for Christ or die trying.

One church can't do that.

Even a big church like Valley.

can't possibly reach our city for Christ alone.

We need a bunch of churches,

more and more churches sharing the good news.

When Paul wrote to the church in Rome,

at the very end of his letter, he said,

He said, now be sure to greet those who are in Aquila and Priscilla's house,

the church that's meeting in Priscilla and Aquila's house.

So already in the church of Rome, the one church that first started became multiple churches,

turning the world upside down.

Now here's our last principle for today, and it's one that really applies to all of us.

Church planners desperately need our support and our prayers.

Every Christian, I believe, should be involved in church planting.

By either praying, I think all of us should be praying.

Some of us need to be equipping.

That is...

helping raise up the next generation as parents.

We desperately need your help to link arms with

as we're trying to raise our kids to love Jesus.

Some of you, God may be wanting to,

on the equipping side of our kids ministry,

our youth ministry, our college ministry,

investing in those who are going to be sent.

It's praying, equipping, giving,

going, and for some, even leading.

Now, not all of us are called by God to lead or to go.

And that's within His design. That's okay.

We only want to do what He wants us to do, right?

But it is very important that we do our part.

Every member of the body of Christ needs to be carrying their weight in this.

Shouldering their part of the responsibility.

We're all called to be a part of it.

William Carey was headed off to India in the late 1700s

and he famously said to his friend Andrew Fuller,

he said, I will go into the pit if you'll hold the rope.

By hold the rope, he meant if you'll support.

And I don't know about you, but I don't wanna let go

of the rope of some of our brothers and our sisters

who've gone down into the pit.

And they're doing the real hard work.

We just got to hold on to the rope.

Our missionaries and our church planters desperately,

they're counting on us to tightly hold on to the rope

with our support and with our prayers.

Now, I want us to finish by jumping back

and looking at this first verse in Thessalonians.

At the end of the greeting, the Apostle Paul says,

he says, grace to you and peace from God our Father

and the Lord Jesus Christ.

This is a beautiful, prayerful greeting.

Paul is praying that the believers in Thessalonica would experience the grace of God in all aspects of their life.

Now, certainly that includes that they've initially received the grace of God, but he's writing to believers.

So he's talking about that they would experience the grace of God in all aspects of their life.

And that they also would experience the peace of God in all aspects of their life.

Now, how does one do that?

Through a relationship with Jesus Christ.

That's how it starts, and that's how it continues.

Now, the word grace means unmerited favor that's unearned,

that God treats us a whole lot better than what we deserve.

Peace means a sense of well-being.

You know, even today when the Jews greet one another, they greet one another with shalom, which means peace.

Shalom.

And shalom doesn't refer to an absence of conflict.

I mean, how could it in this world?

It doesn't refer to an absence of conflict.

It refers to a sense of wellness.

A sense of wholeness.

Did you know that God is offering grace to you and he's offering peace to you and that you can receive it today if you ask him for it?

He can make you well.

He can pick up all the broken pieces of your life.

And listen, sin breaks a lot of pieces.

It breaks us apart.

Our sin, sin that's done against us,

sin that's just a part of being in this sinful world.

There's a lot of broken pieces.

God is willing to pick up the broken pieces of your life

and to put you back together

like you've never been put together before

to make you whole in Christ Jesus our Lord.

I want to invite you to bow together.

This is a holy moment in the life of our church.

In just a moment, I'm going to pray.

And after I pray, we're going to stand to our feet.

There's going to be pastors and other leaders all across the front here.

And we're going to sing a song.

And as we sing, we're going to invite you to do business with God.

To seek Him.

Amen.

and what He wants with your life.

Maybe you desperately need peace today.

Maybe you're feeling the weight of your sins.

and your failure, and the guilt, it's eating you alive,

and you haven't even realized it until now, perhaps.

The weight of the world seems like it's upon your shoulders because you have sinned.

If that's the case, it's very, very important to admit that to God.

Just come clean with Him. He already knows about it.

He already knows about it.

But you must admit it to come in a right relationship with him.

So you've got to say, God, I have sinned.

I have failed, and I'm sorry.

God offers you his grace today, the gift of his son.

The Bible says, as many as received him, to them he gave the right to be called the children of God.

How do you receive Jesus?

You receive him by faith.

To recognize that God loves you.

And let me tell you, no one has ever loved you like God loves you.

It's not based on performance.

It's not based on anything other than his love.

He loves you.

And he loves you so much that he sent his son Jesus to die on the cross for your sins,

for my sins, for the sins of the world, for all who will call upon him in faith.

The Bible says,

Whosoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son

that whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life.

I want to invite you to believe on Jesus today.

To go all in.

to let go of all the baggage that you've been carrying along with you,

that's been holding you back in life, that's been weighing you down,

that's been breaking up all your relationships, causing a lot of pain.

I want to invite you to let it go.

Jesus is offering to take it off your shoulders.

He'll carry it for you on the cross.

So you can be free from all that and forgiven.

And enter into a relationship with Him.

And there's nothing like it in all the world.

That's the starting place of the Christian life.

And the continuing place of the Christian life is just to keep walking with Him.

When we fall flat on our face, that we just get back up by His grace.

And we keep taking one step after another.

I want to invite you to receive Jesus today.

Now, maybe you're a believer today already.

When's the last time you thanked God for our church planners?

When's the last time you thought about them and our missionaries?

When's the last time you prayed for them earnestly?

You know, if it wasn't for church planners, our church wouldn't exist.

Humanly speaking, many of us would have never met Jesus.

Our lives would be very, very different right now.

Little Baptist Church in Shafter, Kern County, right here.

First Baptist Church of Shafter sent missionaries to Bakersfield many, many, many, many years ago,

and they started a bunch of churches.

And as a ripple effect, our church eventually was started.

Let's thank God for those church planters all those years ago, most of which are in heaven.

You know, I would like to invite all of our members, every person who knows Christ,

to ask God right now what level and what area, not really level,

but what area of involvement He wants you to have in church planning.

I firmly believe He wants all of us involved in the area of prayer involved.

And He wants all of us in one way or the other involved in the area of equipping and giving.

But some, He wants to go and to even lead.

Now you may not know that now, but I would just challenge you to at least ask the Lord.

Just let Him know you want what He wants and seek Him in that.

It's all in His timing. He has each of us at different places at different times.

Now, if you believe that God is calling you into ministry, a call to ministry is a call to prepare.

I firmly believe that.

A soldier goes to boot camp. They get prepared.

to face the enemy.

A call to ministry is a call to prepare.

So if you sense that God might be calling you into ministry

to maybe lead in one of these aspects

or be a missionary, whatever it might be,

maybe you don't even know yet, that's okay.

And I want to invite you to come and let us know about that

so we can pray for you, we can get your name,

we can follow up and make sure

that we help you take the next steps.

Let's pray.

Father, we thank you so much, Lord,

for your amazing grace in our lives.

And I know, Lord, that this message was a little bit different,

focused on the three names that begin this letter, Lord,

those who started this church, Lord.

But I think there's a lot for us to learn and be reminded of.

And I'm just praying, Lord, that you use it in powerful ways.

to impact the world for you.

Please, Lord, touch the hearts of those who need to be touched.

Lead all of us by your Spirit.

Give us yielding hearts, hearts that want to follow.

Help us have the courage and the faith it's going to take to go all in for you.

I pray, Lord, that you use our church family.

There's many, many churches in Bakersfield.

I pray that you use all of us.

But Lord, we ask that you would just help us reach our city.

Help us reach the Central Valley and California and beyond.

Lord, I know it's just one step at a time, one person at a time, one gospel presentation at a time.

Lord, please do a work amongst us.

And I pray for any that don't know you yet.

They don't have the privilege of knowing what it's like to have a relationship with you and how sweet that is.

I pray, Lord, that you do a work by your spirit today.

That you tug on their heart.

Give them the courage it's going to take to step out and come and to give their life to Christ.

We ask in Jesus' name. Amen.

Thanks for listening today.

We hope you enjoyed this message.

And if you did, we would be so grateful if you left us a review.

Also, go ahead and subscribe to the podcast if you would like to be notified when a new sermon is released.

If you feel the Lord calling you to take the next step in faith through salvation, service, or giving, don't wait.

reach out to us by texting podcast to 88988.

That's podcast to 88988 or connect with us on one of our social media platforms.

You can also visit our website valleybaptist.org

to find even more great resources. No matter where you are in your journey,

know that we love you, we're praying for you, and we can't wait

to see what God will do in your life.