From Middletown to Spain: The Gideons' Journey - Wednesday Evening - October 9, 2024

Hello and welcome to the Middletown Baptist Church podcast,

where we are proclaiming the truth to the

world.

My name is Pastor Josh and I want to thank you for listening to

I hope that this podcast can be a blessing to you and strengthen

you in the word of God.

Now come along.

Let's look into the Bible and see what God has for us here today.

We have many different speakers come into our church through

But I can tell you honestly that I have a vested interest in

One being that Brother Colton and I are from the same place.

We went to the same church, had the same pastor for a while,

and we have a lot of things in common

in that concept.

I actually had the privilege and the opportunity to be at Colton's

Some of you know, I went down there to South Carolina, and I told

It turned to a worship service in the middle of the ordination,

and so it was great.

I was greatly encouraged by it.

Colton and Ali are faithful, and there's nothing like seeing someone

Okay.

I had an opportunity to hang out with their family today, and

And this is making me feel really old.

But Colton is a fella that even though he's younger than me,

I look up to his wisdom.

He is really, really blessed and gifted in studying the word and

And so I want to say, first and foremost, I'm proud of you, Colton.

And that's in the biblical way.

I'm thankful for what God is doing in his life.

His parents were my Sunday school teachers.

So through the years, there was a lot of things that we had in

common.

And I always been telling people tonight, everything that he

It isn't because of my teaching in school, okay?

He made it through and survived on the other side, and so

And Colton and Ali are going to be going to Spain.

They're on deputation.

And so as they're coming in, they're looking to gain support in

They're traveling around the country.

They're starting that process.

And so I'm thankful for them.

I'm thankful for what they're doing for the Lord.

And I'm looking forward to what God is going to do in their

life.

Colton has been serving at Grace Baptist down in west Columbia,

Some of you might know the pastor there, my former pastor, Pastor

And so we just have a lot of commonality in that way.

And so I really know that your hearts are going to be blessed through

I encourage you to stop by the table.

I encourage you to get more information about what they're looking

And I'm also going to say that here this evening at the end of the

We're going to be taking up a love offering for them, and we want

to them as they travel on.

They're heading up to New York for a missions conference this weekend,

this.

So what we're going to do now is we're going to show you a video.

Is that good?

We're going to show you a video of their ministry, a little

bit about what they're doing.

Then after that video, Brother Colton's going to come up, share

a few things, and then he's going to

And I know that our hearts are going to be blessed through that.

Hi, I'm Colton and this is my wife, Allie.

These are our daughters, Audrey and Annette.

We are the Gideon's family and we are missionaries to Spain with

In spite of Christianity being in Spain for the last 2000 years,

My wife and I have always desired to go to an unreached place,

However, it wasn't until recently that the Lord really made

In the country of Spain, Christianity has been present for

However, today, less than 2% of its population actually professes

And most of the people who do profess some sort of religion follow

But even then, each generation over the last 40 years or so has

And in addition to that, out of the 8000 towns or so there are

I grew up in a ministry home.

My parents left for the mission field when I was just one

My parents still did a wonderful job of just being very

the gospel wherever they went.

And so when I accepted Christ as my savior, missions was always

on my heart and on my mind.

And as I went to college, that desire to go into missions began

to grow.

And Colton and I met, and we both had that desire.

The Lord really used missions to bring us together and to make

it clear that it was his will for us

And so we got married in 2019.

We have two little girls now, Audrey and Annette.

We decided to stay in the United States for a few years to

we were growing our family.

But the Lord began to make it clear that it was time for us to

For the first few years there in Spain, we'd like to take some

We're also praying that the Lord would, during that time, guide

go there and plant a church among those

people.

Because I grew up in the Caribbean on the mission field, the

So when Cuom came to me and said, what do you think about going

I was very excited about the possibility.

One of the things that has drawn us to the country of Spain

and really given us a burden for its

of the people who have grown up there

to reject a gospel that they really

They've been given a picture of who Christ is, and many of their

who Jesus is and how much he really loves

We are so excited to see how the Lord leads our family as we seek

And so we'd like to invite you to also consider praying for us and

is doing there in the country of Spain.

Well, good evening, Middletown Baptist Church.

We are excited to be here with you and just share a little bit about

to let you know more about us, our family,

Our family's mission.

Our mission statement is to make disciples and plant healthy

may know and worship Jesus.

You know, the book of Revelation paints a picture of the

is over and we see a picture of people

In revelation five nine, it says they sung a new song saying,

thou art worthy to take the book and to

So we believe that Jesus is worthy of worship from every nation

on the earth.

And our desire is that God would use us to play a part in his

him for all of eternity.

Like we mentioned, like Pastor Josh mentioned, my name is Colton.

My wife's name is Allie.

We are the Gideon's family.

We have two little girls that are in the nursery in the kids program.

Audrey is three years old, Annette is one, and so they're here

We come from west Columbia, South Carolina, where I've been serving

About four years.

And our pastor there was my pastor growing up, Pastor Josh's

years.

That's how the Lord ended up leading us there.

And so, like we mentioned, I'm originally from Tampa, Florida, where

area.

I've got lots of family there who have evacuated, so hopefully

they will all stay safe there.

But my wife, even though I grew up in one place, grew up in

My wife actually grew up all over the place.

She mentioned in the video that her parents were missionaries

in the Caribbean.

They spent time in Costa Rica, Cuba, the Dominican Republic.

Her parents are Chris and Don Phillips.

Chris Phillips, my father in law.

I believe many of you would know.

He was just here recently for a marriage conference, I believe

it was.

So that is Allie's dad.

So she grew up on the mission field with them, and so she speaks

I'm trying to learn it.

And then my in laws, after serving on the field overseas for

Now, around the time that Ali and I met in Bible College, we came

And the Lord did that through a missions conference that we got

And so it was during one of the missions conference sermons that

It says, how shall they believe in him of whom they have

not heard?

And how shall they hear without a preacher?

Now, at that point, I was in Bible college studying to go into

ministry.

Knew God wanted me to be in ministry, but I was still wrestling

with what exactly God wanted me to do,

And it was during that message that the Holy Spirit used that truth

And God used that truth to grip my heart, to convince me that

Now, when you hear the term unreached people or unreached places,

And you can answer.

You can just shout it out if you feel more comfortable raising

your hand, I can call on you if you want

What comes to mind when you hear the word unreached, whether

people or places?

Africa.

Yeah, of course.

Any others?

South America.

Aborigines.

What else?

Asia.

Yeah.

So when I hear unreached, I think of the 1040 window.

Now, I forgot to use the clicker here to.

Is it gonna work?

Hi, I'm Colton.

It is.

I don't know where it is.

I don't know if you want to find where that presentation is.

And then I'll get going.

There it is.

Perfect.

Perfect.

Okay.

Yes.

Yeah.

So, when I hear the term unreached, I think of what's called

And I'll show you a picture of that real quick.

Sorry, it's kind of gotten a little out of order here.

There it is.

The 1040 window.

How many of you ever heard that term before?

Yeah, so it's between ten degrees, 40 degrees latitude on the

If you hear the term unreached people groups, the vast majority

of them, billions of people among these

of the world.

So naturally I thought if God wanted me to go to an unreached place,

The Middle East, South Asia, North Africa.

I never once had Spain or anywhere in Europe on my radar.

In my mind, most people in Europe are probably christians, right?

Or maybe if they're not mostly christian, there's at least enough

Well, I used to think that, but then a few years ago, I became

I'll jump back a couple slides here.

So God made me aware, just through studying and learning different

First of all, the number of believers in Spain actually remains

Less than 2% of the population of the entire country professes faith

And that's not much higher than many places across the 1040

window.

You go to Iran, Iran is a little more than 1% that would profess

Now, Roman Catholicism, as I'm sure you're aware, is still pretty

Each generation is actually becoming even more and more nonreligious.

If you look at this, this kind of shows you the 18 to 29 year olds

country.

You see that even higher.

Now, there are many people, again, who still claim to be Roman

Catholic.

But something interesting you'd find there.

In fact, when we took a trip there, we would meet people who would

Catholicism is so ingrained in their culture, they still claim to

But again, most of them will say, I don't actually believe in

God.

And to them, their perception of Christianity is what they were

And in their minds, it is all about rules.

That's one of the things we heard from those very same people

who said, I'm Catholic, but I don't believe

They would just talk about their upbringing and how strict it

Because in their mind, their perception of the gospel of Christianity

is simply about a list of rules to follow

If you didn't follow their rules, there's no room, no understanding

of the love and the grace of Christ.

And so with so few believers in the country, it's not a surprise

then that actually most towns across the

In fact, there's close to a little over 8000 cities, towns, villages

And out of those 8000 or so, over 7000 do not have one gospel

And that's not just a baptist church.

I'm not just saying they have a healthy church of some kind that

I'm saying they don't have a church that at the very least preaches

in Christ alone.

Not one.

Most of them, in fact, all of them really will have a large cathedral

Even if it's a really tiny town of just a couple hundred people.

They'll have a large catholic cathedral, but not a single gospel

So there's just a visual there of every single town in the country

And one other interesting thing about the country of Spain

that really makes us aware of how needy

it is, is that even though Spain is

They have people from South Asia, East Asia, the Middle east,

and especially from North Africa.

A lot of people moving in, especially to the major cities and

Now our plan first of all, is we desire to go to find a church

that already exists and to seek mentorship.

We want to find a place that's already been planted, an established

and discerning what exactly the Lord

to take that time to partner with a

to learn from them, to serve with them,

So during that time, we're hoping to also identify another unreached

a gospel preaching church, and then

go on from there.

And so the region of the country that we believe God would

Now, this region is known for being the homeland of the basque

people.

And something really neat about the basque people is they have

They actually lived there since long before the people who

The basque people have, for some reason, somehow, over the last

And so when Ali and I took a trip there earlier this year, we

And so we, through that, came to believe that that is where God

And through that trip, we also got to meet a couple of missionaries,

a couple of churches that are there

If you look there on the map, you probably can't see it.

It's pretty tiny.

But the city that we'll be in is called San Sebastian.

It's the second largest city of the region.

About half a million people in the whole area, and maybe about 15

So in significant need of more churches to be planted.

Beyond that, our plan is to do what every local church exists to

to make disciples, and just to plant

of disciples, people who can know and

we know, love, and worship.

So we are partnering with our home church, Grace Baptist Church

from West Columbia, South Carolina.

They've agreed to be our sending church.

And then we also have decided to partner with biblical ministries

us with churches.

And our hope and our prayer is that churches like yours would also

so that people can know and love and

Now, if you have your bibles for just the last few minutes here,

28.

Matthew, chapter 28, verse 16.

Matthew 28:16

If you are familiar at all with missions, then I am sure you

It is the great commission that Christ gave a well known, probably

So go ahead and turn there to Matthew, chapter 28, and we'll read

Matthew 28 · chapter mention

16.

This past April, when my wife Allie and I were able to take our

to do was to rent a vehicle to drive ourselves

People would tell us, you know, the public transportation is

coast.

So we figured it probably better just to rent a vehicle.

But one thing that I did not think about ahead of time, I failed

to think about was whether or not I

Now, fortunately, most of the signs, they're pretty self explanatory.

I figured it out pretty quickly, but there were some things

For instance, go ahead and take a look.

Oh, I'm going to have to go.

Oh, there it is.

Perfect.

Thank you.

This sign here, looking at these two signs, I want you to tell

no cars allowed?

The one on the right.

That's the one that we would see here in the US, no cars allowed.

But it's kind of a trick question there.

Actually, both of them mean no cars allowed.

The one on the right, that's what we would see here.

But in Spain, their sign looks like the one on the left.

Whenever you see a circle sign that has a red ring around it, that

But I didn't know that.

All right, I see that, and I think it means cars are allowed to

So there I was in Spain, driving down a super narrow road

in a very tiny town where the road is

Google Maps is telling me to go a certain way, and I don't remember

that before I made the turn, I remember

Allie pointing it out and questioning,

like, are we really supposed to go down that

road?

And I thought, yeah, of course, you know, Google Maps is

So I turned down the road, and so now I'm driving down an even narrower

around.

And I hit somebody.

I'm just kidding.

I didn't actually hit anybody.

The story is much less dramatic than that, I promise.

We just came up to an end where there were some, you know,

Made it obvious this is actually just for pedestrians.

And then I had to do like a bajillion point turn just to get

alleyway.

So fortunately, I didn't actually hit anybody.

But I could have, right, driving down a street that apparently

And I was doing that because I misunderstood what this sign was

for.

I had a flawed view of what the sign was for.

I could have hurt someone at the very least.

I wasted our time getting to wherever it was that we were going.

But all of that happened because I had a flawed view of what

I am convinced that many of us have a flawed view of what Jesus

has commissioned us to do.

We have a deficiency and an incompleteness in our view of what

And, you know, many of the problems that we face in our churches,

I believe, actually stem from this

deficiency.

Many times we hesitate to share the gospel because we have

a deficient view of the great commission.

We in many churches across our country, we habitually lead people

to make professions of faith in Christ,

And we do that and we see that happen, I believe, because we have

a deficient view of the great commission.

We even have disagreements and arguments and disputes among church

and to reconcile.

And I believe that happens because we have a deficient view

of the great commission.

And when I say we, I don't mean you.

I don't mean some kind of nebulous we other people out there.

I mean, first of all, me.

I operate.

I live and act many times with a deficient view of the great commission.

I hesitate to share the gospel.

I have led multiple people to make professions of faith just to

It didn't mean nothing.

I have struggled to forgive people in my own church because of

I've done all of those things because I often forget what missions

is really for.

You know, for some reason ingrained into my thinking is that

about getting people into heaven.

And that's true, right?

We want people to live forever with God in heaven.

That's part of it.

But missions is not merely for getting people into heaven.

It's first of all for getting heaven into people.

Because when you get heaven into people, you will get people

into heaven.

What do I mean by that?

Another way to put it, or what we're really going to look at tonight.

What scripture teaches us from Matthew 28 is that the reason missions

It's not just about preparing people to die.

It's about preparing people to live with and for Christ.

So let's look here at Matthew 28, verse 16, and unpack this here

Matthew 28:16

In verse 16, it says, then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee,

them.

And when they saw him, they worshiped him.

But some doubted, and Jesus came and spake unto them, saying,

all power is given unto me in heaven

and in earth.

Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name

of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to

And lo, I am with you alway even into the end of the world.

Amen.

Let's pray before we dive into this this evening.

Lord, I pray that you would help us to understand why it is that

us to do.

God, I pray that your spirit would speak to each and every one

and love you.

We ask this in your son's name.

Amen.

So according to Matthew 28, what is missions for?

First missions is for worship.

Missions is for worship.

Did you notice before jesus got up to say a word, what were his

They worshiped him.

It says, some of them doubted.

Some of them were still, like, amazed and wondering, how can this

be?

But most of the disciples there, before they ever went off

to tell other people of how great and

And then when jesus spoke still before he actually gave them

then?

He said, all power is given unto me.

All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.

And by saying that, what jesus was doing was, he was announcing

that now he reigns over everything.

And because he reigns, he was making it clear that he is the one

Everybody under heaven, everybody in earth, on the earth,

was under his rule, under his reign,

and deserved, he deserved their worship.

We see this especially in places in the Old Testament, in different

First chronicles 1631 says, let the heavens be glad.

Let the earth rejoice, and let men say, among the nations, the Lord

reigneth.

Psalm 67 four says, o, let the nations be glad and sing for joy,

One of my favorite books on missions is a book called let the

His name is John Piper, but he wrote this book, and it's been one

And in the opening lines of the book, he makes a really interesting

statement.

He says, missions exists because worship doesn't.

Missions exist because worship doesn't.

Why would he say that?

What does that mean?

Well, he's actually trying to point out two things, really.

First of all, that the goal of missions is to worship.

Missions serves the worship of God.

And the goal of missions is to lead people to worship him.

You know, one day, the great commission is going to be over, right?

Jesus will return.

Our task will be done.

We won't be able to share the gospel with anyone else.

Our task will end.

Missions will end, but worship will never end.

Like we looked at in revelation, five.

People will fall down at Jesus feet and worship him for all of eternity.

Psalm 1611 tells us, in thy presence, God is fullness of joy.

At thy right hand are pleasures forevermore.

So God intends missions just to play a temporary part.

It's his plan to prepare a people from every nation to one day

forever.

So worship is the goal of missions.

But what that statement also is intending to teach is that worship

Worship is what fires us up and makes us go and want to tell

It's our passion for Jesus, our love for him and his greatness.

That is what compels us to tell others about him.

You know, you can't lead others to worship someone that you

Right?

It's kind of like trying to sell someone a product that you don't

They're gonna see right through it.

It's fake.

It's the people who really believe in the product.

They're the ones that convince people to want to buy it, to receive

it.

So why would people want to worship Jesus, want to know him and

about Jesus, why would our neighbors want

If we're not passionate about worshiping Jesus, why would our coworkers

Our goal is to proclaim to them that Jesus is worthy their worship.

And if that's our goal, it first has to be what fuels us, what

Our lives ought to burst with joy at the goodness of Jesus.

Now, just saying that you ought to enjoy something, does that

No.

Have you ever tried to tell your kids, if you have kids, to eat

did it work out very well?

Maybe eventually you got them to eat it, but it's pretty tough,

right?

You can't make them want to do something.

Now, the truth is, if you know God, you truly have multiple reasons

to rejoice and to enjoy and to worship

Sometimes we just need to be reminded of those truths.

So to do that, you can turn to scripture and look at the many places

that we have this privilege of worshiping.

Goddess.

One of my favorites, psalm 103, rehearses over and over again

It says there in psalm 103, bless the Lord, o my soul.

Forget not all his benefits, who forgiveth all thine iniquities,

who healeth all thy diseases, who redeemeth

mercies.

One of my favorite parts, where he says later, for as a father

For he knoweth our frame, he remembereth that we are dust.

The compassion of God moves us to worship.

Or you can go all the way to the end, back to the book of revelation,

I make all things, things new.

All of the sorrows, all of the suffering, all of the trouble that

of this life are done.

Everything is new.

Everything is perfect forever.

Those truths, he's reminded of us over and over and over again.

If we just rehearse those, remember those, meditate on his word,

to enjoying, to praising him.

And that is what will fuel us to go and share the gospel.

So missions is first of all for worship.

But more than that, Jesus tells us there in Matthew 28 that

Missions is for discipleship.

You know, in this passage, Jesus actually only gives just one

command.

Only one phrase in this passage is an imperative, where he's

and all the other statements he makes

in the great commission are just telling

And the only command that Jesus gives that lies at the center

of the great commission is the phrase

Now, when you hear the word teach, what does that bring to mind?

Maybe classrooms, a chalkboard, textbooks, things like

Elementary school, high school.

It brings to mind schoolwork, right?

Homework.

Well, the word teach that Jesus actually uses here is not that

He uses that word later where he says, teach them to observe all

But this word teach is actually a verb for the same word

So when Jesus said, go teach all nations, what he was saying is,

But what is a disciple?

You know, sometimes bible words kind of lose their meaning

on us over time, don't they?

We get used to them, we get familiar with them.

We use them, but we kind of forget what they actually mean, what

It's kind of like the word church.

We all know that the church is not the building, it's the what the

people.

But we still call our buildings churches.

Right.

It's just habit.

We're used to using scriptural terms in certain ways that we forget

Even if we know in our minds what they mean.

Our lives and our habits kind of betray that we, what we say that

I think the word disciple is very similar.

We're used to it.

We use it, but we sometimes forget what it actually means.

So when that happens, I find it helpful sometimes to think of

term.

That kind of keeps the meaning fresh in my mind.

And one person who's really helped me to better understand what

He says a disciple is simply an apprentice to Jesus.

It's an apprentice to Jesus.

But why is that?

Because an apprentice is somebody who learns from a master

to become like his master.

For example, in an apprenticeship, what does the student

Do they just sit in a classroom and receive instruction,

write down notes and take a test, and that's

it?

No.

You know, we use that, the word student, to describe that the

at them, whether they receive it and

But an apprentice is different.

An apprentice requires a much more personable approach.

The aim is to become like the person who's training you.

You spend time watching their movements, learning from them, usually

You begin to do things like them.

At first, it feels awkward because it's not normal for you to

But then the more you do it, you find yourself taking on their

And then you become fully trained in that craft, and you can

So at that point, you no longer have to consciously think

and feel awkward trying to do things

like your master.

It just becomes like second nature to you.

Well, Jesus actually tells us that that is what discipleship is.

Luke chapter six, verse 40.

Jesus said that the disciple is not above his master, but everyone

Everybody who's fully trained shall be as his master.

So to be an apprentice to Jesus means you are learning from

Whereas the author I mentioned, who's helping me, the

to jesus means learning from jesus to

So if jesus were a retired grandparent living in Middletown,

Delaware, what would he be?

What would he do?

If jesus worked in your place of work, how would he interact with

How would he treat the boss that mistreats you?

How would he treat the neighbor who mistreats you?

As an apprentice to Jesus, you are learning to become like him.

And at first, like an apprentice with his master in the

craft.

It feels awkward, doesn't feel normal.

But the more you follow him, become like him, it becomes like

You take on his character, the character of Christ, and truly become

When jesus saves a person, he really, truly desires to save them

He wants to save them and remake them into his image until

the day he returns and he completes.

Colossians three tells us, you have put on the new man, which is

One John three two says, beloved, now are we the sons of God,

And that is the central task of.

Of the great commission.

That is what Jesus commanded us to do, to be apprentices to him

him.

You know, what would happen to us in our churches if we truly believed

Not just for getting people into heaven, but for seeing them

can follow him and become like him?

What would that do to our churches?

You know, how many church squabbles and disputes and arguments

How many people would turn to Christ and worship him if they saw

They saw his compassion in us even when they mistreated us.

How much better off would our neighbors be if our churches were

where they truly were like what Jesus said.

Salt.

That hasn't lost its savor.

You know, many times the reason we don't see these things

We substitute apprenticeship to Jesus for other things.

We tell people Jesus can save them from hell, but then we don't

He wants to save them from their sin and remake them into his

image.

We teach people how to present the gospel.

We provide evangelistic programs and times to do so.

But we don't emphasize the need for people to live like Jesus

by actually doing what he said.

We tell people that their lives need to be distinct from the

But many times we limit what that distinction is to just how they

And we don't actually train them to live with radical compassion

and goodness and kindness like Christ.

And please know when I'm saying that, I'm not saying this

is doing that at all.

I don't know your church very well, but I know myself, and I know

I know how I have acted many times within my own church.

I've cared more about articulating the gospel correctly

than I have actually treating fellow church

to.

I have done all of these things.

You know, we all fall short of being like Jesus in one way or another.

But apprenticeship to Jesus isn't an option, is it?

It's what he commanded us to do, to follow him and to make disciples

him.

He's commissioned us to not only be like him ourselves, but to

him.

You know, I'm beyond grateful for how our churches and others like

a passion for spreading the gospel

And I'm glad.

I grew up in a church that was passionate about missions.

I grew up in a church that had missions, conferences where I got

And already from a young age, God used that to stir in my heart

a love and a desire for missions.

And I hope that your church and my church and other churches

like ours will continue for generations

to be used by God to spread the gospel

But to do that for us to truly be a part of what Jesus is doing

in our world and what he wants people

to do for us to continue to do that

for generations to come, I believe we

Missions exists to make disciples of Jesus who worship and

That's our mission.

That's our desire.

That's our goal.

To go to Spain to make disciples and plant healthy churches

so that the people in Spain can know

And my hope is that God will use your church, Middletown Baptist,

to do that here and do that as you support

to obey the great commission to make

of worship.

Let's pray.

Lord, I thank you that you have given us this task.

Lord, you have allowed us to be a part of your plan in redeeming

Lord, not only have you given us the privilege of knowing you ourselves

forever.

But, Lord, you have done so much more in allowing us to participate

I pray that we as a church, and we as followers of Christ would

we can be the kind of people that you

We love you.

We ask this in Jesus name.

Amen.

Thank you, Colton.

There we go.

Thank you, Colton.

I appreciate that.

You know, I think a lot of times we think that there are things

There's a lot of things that we think are mandatory within church.

You know, the one thing that's mandatory within the church is what

the great commission.

But so many times we put the great commission way behind all the

Not that those things are wrong, but so many times we get our

This is the priority.

This is the marching order from God to the church to follow

the great commission.

I hope as a church that we see that as our first and foremost priority.

Many times we can see ourselves thinking, well, you know

what?

This isn't the way that I like it.

This isn't the way that I want it to be.

And I loved what Colton said about a lot of the squabbles that

we have within churches could just go

not.

That's not helping us.

When we fight amongst ourselves or when we have issues

to do the effective work of the gospel

ministry.

And so I thank you for that, Colton.

We all needed to hear that message here this evening.

For sure.

It's a little bit of a precursor to what our theme is going

I can tell you that our theme for 2025 is going to be wrapped up

there.

I don't want to give away too much, but we're looking forward to

to happen next year when it comes to

being.

Being the church and being a missional church.

You know, we have missionaries, but why do we have

missionaries?

Because all independent baptist churches have missionaries

and we need to have missionaries.

No, there's a purpose to why we have 29 missionary families.

There's a purpose to.

Why we want to add more on.

There's a purpose to all of this.

And that is as acts chapter one, verse eight, says, to go to

And then what?

To the uttermost part of the earth.

And that's.

That's the whole goal for our church.

So.

So you might not be called to Spain, but guess what?

The Gideons are.

And so you can pray and you can invest into the Gideon's life

so that we can then effectively reach

All right, so that's.

That's the thought.

That's the goal.

Well, I thank you, Colton.

Thank you, Allie, for being here with us, and I appreciate their

video.

Appreciate to hear the wife's perspective right.

Sometimes we see folks going off into a mission field and we think,

this?

You know?

And I would encourage you to pray for them as they're going through

Two young girls that are going to be going off into the mission

field and, you know, I can't even imagine

We left Florida and came to Delaware and everyone freaked out.

I can't imagine going across the Atlantic Ocean.

But I know that they have a supportive family, both sides.

And I was going to mention, you guys know Allie's dad.

He was just here, brother Chris Phillips.

So I know they have a good support staff.

I know they're being sent out from a wonderful church at Greece.

And so I'm excited to see what God's going to do.

So as you guys head out this evening, please stop by the table,

let Colton and Allie know you're praying

Grab a prayer.

You have prayer cards, right?

All right.

Make sure you grab a prayer card.

Put that up somewhere that you're used to seeing a lot.

I know for me, it's either the fridge or at my office.

Okay.

Because those are the two places I'm at the most, I think so.

So those.

Those are places that you could do that.

You could put those.

And then, like I said before, if you feel like God's leading you

make sure you do that.

Put that in the box there in the lobby, and I know that they would

Thank you again for listening to the Middletown Baptist Church

podcast.

I hope that this sermon has been a blessing for you.

If you would like to find out more information about our church

or this sermon, you can find [email protected]

or find us on Facebook or YouTube.

You can also email me [email protected].

if you've enjoyed this podcast, please subscribe and follow

Thank you so much.

God bless.

Have a wonderful day.

Foresee maybe in the future, once they're settled in Spain, you

We already have a lot of spanish speakers in the church.

We can just go on over there and make it.

Make it a trip.

Excited to see what God's going to do in their lives.