Matthew 15: 1-9

Amen. This is what we're called to do, to take

Him to the nations, to proclaim forgiveness in

His name, to turn from those who live in darkness,

to turn into the great light that's in Christ.

And so this morning, I would ask that you pray

in prayer for Chris and for Paola, their son

Liam, who's in the nursery even now, that you

pray that God will bless them and say, go back

to that South American nation, that the Lord

would use them in a mighty way that many people

might be brought to a saving knowledge of Christ.

Chris, if you would come at this time. Alright,

did I do that right? Sweet. Thank you Pastor

Ryan so much for this opportunity and thank you

Mamrie Baptist Church for welcoming us so warmly

today. As Pastor Ryan said, my name is Chris

and we are delighted to be with you here today.

We will be looking together at Acts 16. But before

we dive into the scripture, Pastor Ryan has given

us the opportunity to share a bit with you about

our ministry in Lima, Peru. I believe that we

have a video that explains a bit about what we

do. So I'll let Jared take it from here. Hi,

I'm Chris Fry. And I'm Paula. Paula and I both

grew up in Lima, Peru. I was a missionary kid

and Paula was a pastor's kid. We got married

in 2018, and on the day of 2022, God blessed

us with our son, Liam. Hi, I'm Liam. As a family,

we've loved serving God together in Lima since

2016. Lima is the capital city of Peru with a

population of over 11 million people. While we

both previously served Christ in school settings,

God has... open the door for a new type of ministry

we can now see how it has been preparing us for

this new ministry we are returning to career

as field mobilizers with via for via nations

our desire is to develop and deploy the next

generation of caribbean missionaries to reach

the nations did you know that today there are

three billion people that know Also, while in

Lima, we serve at Iglesia Navidad Lima New Life

Community Church. We serve on the leadership

team helping lead in discipleship. ministry,

children's church, and preaching and teaching

the world. Before he ascended, Christ told his

followers in Mark 16, 15 to go into all the world

and preach the gospel to all creation. This command

still stands for every believer today, but for

us specifically, we feel called to do that in

Peru. We're eager to return to Peru, but we can't

do it. without the help of churches and families

like you. Right now, we are building the spiritual

and financial support team we need in order to

do this ministry well. Your partnership helps

us continue to equip and deploy the next generation

of Peruvian cross -cultural missionaries to bring

the gospel to places that have not heard of Jesus

yet. To learn more or to give, please visit prizecrew

.com. God bless and thank you for your time.

So at Via or Via Nations, as missionaries, we

want to help every Christian thrive in his or

her unique role. in the Great Commission. And

so part of how we are doing that is with three

different areas in Peru. One will be leadership

and discipleship with our church, Iglesia Nueva

Vida, or New Life Church there in Lima. We will

also be supporting with administration work with

Via Nations. Probably a lot of that for me will

be translating things back and forth between

the headquarters in Arkansas and the team in

Peru, as well as being part of the field mobilization

and discipleship towards missions in Peru. As

mentioned in the video, we are looking for churches

and individuals who feel called to partner with

us in perhaps three specific ways. One, and by

far the most important and powerful, would be

dedicated prayer. Also, we live in a real world,

and that world operates on finances. And we are

also looking for the financial or annual... support.

And then also one -time gifts towards our launching

fund that the mission agency is asking us to

raise as well. So please keep that in your prayers.

Our goal would be to be back in Peru by October

or at the very least by the end of the fall.

Now, please turn with me to Acts I've titled

this message, A Church for All Nations. As we

see throughout the book of Acts, the Lord moving

and working in different ways to expand this

small little segment of Judaism, which in and

of itself was a relatively small religion in

the ancient world, to be the predominant religion

throughout the world. A religion that has founded

orphanages and hospitals throughout its centuries.

The religion that essentially developed what

we call today adoption, as we know it today.

The only religion that has the truth of how to

get a soul right with God. Now, as we're jumping

into Acts 16, skipping over 15 chapters. So I

would like to do a quick little previously on

to kind of get us all caught up to speed. So

before Netflix, before Hulu, you know, I remember

all the cartoons, you know, the Spider -Man cartoon

from the early 90s. It would always have this

like previously on Spider -Man, the animated

series. So I have a little one like that for

us today. Previously in the Book of Acts. After

splitting with his longtime co -worker Barnabas

in chapter 15, Paul rallies a new missions team

made up of himself, Silas, Timothy, and Luke.

They're excited to start. They're all packed

up. They have the cities circled on their maps.

However, the Holy Spirit throws those plans into

the bin and tells them to wait. And this is where

we pick up in Acts 16, verse 9. Paul and his

Acts 16:9

team, they're young, they're restless, they're

excited to go. The only problem is, God has told

them to hold the horses, to wait. And that they're

not going to Asia Minor like they thought. Finally,

late one night, we read that Paul has a dream.

A vision appeared to Paul in the night. A man

of Macedonia was standing there, urging him saying,

come over to Macedonia and help us. And when

Paul had seen the vision, immediately we sought

to go into Macedonia, concluding that God had

called us to preach the gospel to them. Now,

this raises the question, Where's Macedonia?

I don't remember Macedonia from 10th grade geography.

Let's be honest, probably most of us, except

for the 10th graders here, don't really remember

our geography anyways. So Macedonia is what we

would consider modern day Greece. And we have

the ruins of Philippi. And they are circled.

there on the map. And we can see the architectural

ruins of the city Philippi. It was a Roman colony

of its time. And this is perhaps the first purposeful

attempt to bring the gospel to a new continent.

That continent being Europe. It's estimated that

this trip happened in 49 AD. So just under 50

years from everything that we read in the Gospels.

And this is probably Paul's first time on the

continent Europe. He's known about Macedonia.

He knows about Philippi. It was a relatively

well -known city. It was important for all sorts

of trades and other things like that. And so

Paul hears this call. essentially in the exact

opposite direction from where they were planning

to go. And if we jump down to verse 14, we meet

Paul's first convert in Philippi. One who heard

us was a woman named Lydia from the city Thyatira,

a seller of purple goods, who was a worshiper

of God. The Lord opened her heart. To pay attention

to what was being said by Paul. And after she

was baptized. And her household as well. She

urged us saying. If you have judged me to be

faithful in the Lord. Come to my house and stay.

And I believe that the Holy Spirit and Paul.

Or rather the author of Acts was Luke. So the

Holy Spirit and Luke. Have given us so much.

insight into how to live a life that believes

that the church is truly for all nations in just

these four verses. Paul's first European convert,

her name was Lydia. She's originally from a different

city called Thyatira, but for whatever reason,

perhaps work, perhaps marriage, she finds herself

in a new city there in Philippi. And because

of how it is worded, we're pretty confident in

assuming that she herself is not a Jewish lady.

Rather, at some point in her life, she had heard

of the God of what we would call the Old Testament.

She had heard of the God of the Hebrew Scriptures.

And she wanted to worship the one true God and

the small... Jewish community found there in

Philippi. However, at this point in Philippi,

there was not a large Jewish community. There

wasn't enough people there to have a full on

synagogue like you would see in Israel. So instead,

they met, in the previous verse, tells us that

they met down by the river for a time of worship

and mutual meditation and prayer on the goodness

of Yahweh. So while she was not Jewish herself,

she already had previous knowledge of the God

of Israel. However, at this point, she still

hadn't heard of Christ. And maybe that is like

a lot of us here today or we have friends and

family that are like this as well. They know

of God. They're able to answer some Bible school

questions, right? They might confuse who parted

the Red Sea with Noah or Moses. They got a 50

-50 % chance on that one, right? They know that

Jesus died on the cross and they call themselves

Christian because, well, they're not atheist

or Buddhist or Muslim. but they really haven't

encountered Christ in a real way. While it's

not a one -for -one for the same scenario that

we see with Lydia here, it is very similar. It

is very applicable to what I think a lot of us

have seen in our friends, family, co -workers.

Or perhaps hearing this said today, you realized,

I might fall into this camp too. And so what

happens? The Lord opened her ears to hear what

Paul said about Jesus. And she accepts Christ

as Lord and Savior. And this is, again, Paul's

first recorded European convert. Now, Christianity

has gone global. three different continents.

Africa, Asia, and Europe. And the rest of the

2 ,000 years catching us all the way up to Ironton,

Ohio, is all about it getting even further and

more global. But right here, within 50 years,

we see this small little segment that was essentially

12 young men and a handful of ladies go into

three different continents. It's exploding like

nothing else we have ever seen in history. Anyways,

as a missionary, that really gets me excited.

But let's talk about Lydia some more. Because

I believe there are three specific things that

we see happen in Lydia's life upon her salvation.

And I believe that it is the expectation of...

this to happen in every Christian. What did Lydia's

salvation lead to? Well, the first thing we see

is Lydia's salvation led to multiplication. Lydia's

salvation led to multiplication. She did not

keep this new knowledge about the beauty of Jesus

Christ hidden under a bushel. No. She told her

family and her family got baptized. She went

out and she shared the word first with those

closest to her. To confess to you guys, sometimes

as a missionary, it is a lot easier to tell the

random people the Lord brings in the park or

at the coffee shop than my actual family. But

what do we see here? First, I believe the big

principle is salvation should lead to multiplication.

Secondly, Family. We need to be bold and courageous

in helping our family truly understand the beauty

that is solely found in King Jesus. There are

two other things that we see. Not only did her

salvation basically immediately lead to her multiplication,

it also led to generosity and hospitality. We

read one of the very few things that we know

about Lydia is that she is a seller of purple.

We mean purple dye. And at the time, and really

throughout most of human history, the color purple

was one of the hardest colors to make. It came

from exclusive product, and it was a very hard

product to deal with. And so basic economics,

principle of supply and demand, meant that purple...

fabric, purple clothes, purple blankets was incredibly

costly. So this probably means that she is economically

well off. She's economically comfortable. And

what does she do with that money? Well, she immediately

begins to invest it back into the mission. We

see that because she says, if you believe me

to be faithful, Let me help you. And so she helps

these four men that she really doesn't know.

She buys them food, water, shelter. Not only

that, but if you look at the table of contents

in your Bible, you will see that there's a book

called Philippians. Spoiler alert, this is that

book, right? This is the church of Philippi that

Philippians was written to. Jumping forward in

the table of contents, in Philippians 4, 15 through

17, we can read Paul writing a letter back to

this church that we're seeing started here in

chapter 16 of Acts, saying, thank you for your

support, your financial and prayer support of

my ministry. And if you look at Philippians 4,

15 through 17, there's something very interesting

that Paul says. He essentially says, I'm so glad

that you guys jumped on board in the way that

you did by helping with a very physical and practical

means because the work that I am now doing, that

credit, God will now credit to you. Paul knew

that God would provide. what he needed one way

or the other. He had experienced miracle after

miracle. His faith in God by the time he writes

Philippians is pretty rooted and sure. But he

is excited for the Philippian church that they

get to participate in what he is doing as a missionary

in a very real, tangible way. The Philippian

church reminds me of what the famous missionary,

William Carey once said, William Carey, famous

missionary to India, one of the first modern

missionaries to India. His friend was a pastor,

and right before he was shipped off to India,

his pastor friend invited him to speak. And he

said, I will go down into the pit if you will

hold the rope. And we see Paul. Saying something

like that 2 ,000 years ago. The Philippian church

was holding the rope for Paul to go further in

and further out. Paul had two big things on his

bucket list. Preach in Rome, get to modern day

Spain. And the way that the Lord helped move

those things was through people like Lydia at

the church of Philippi. which again we see being

birthed right here in Acts 16. Notice how it

wasn't just generosity, it was also hospitality.

She invited Paul and his mission team to stay

with her. Which, can I just brag on your pastor

for a moment? As he has been a modern day Lydia

to us. this weekend, inviting us over to his

house, setting up a room for us to crash in,

making us feel warmed and welcomed and comfortable,

taking us out to some amazing tacos last night.

That is very Lydian, if you will. And you guys,

as a church, this has been one of the friendliest,

most... warming, welcoming churches that we have

been to. And thank you for your hospitality.

Thank you for your warmth. And I believe that

we see in Lydia, and I have experienced from

y 'all today, that when we are hospitable to

those serving God, we are serving Jesus through

our hospitality. Today we are focusing on how

we can do that for those who are spreading the

gospel. But let me just put a quick little thing

in here. This is a great, great evangelistic

tool. I would argue if you are trying to reach

an unsaved neighbor or friend or someone who

is backslidden, invite them over to dinner before

you invite them to church. Hospitality. When

we are hospitable for... We are serving Jesus

through our hospitality. So we see that the church

is now on three continents. And if we jump to

2 ,000 years to present time, the church is on

all, well, six continents, right? Maybe there's

a Christian scientist in Antarctica right now.

I don't know. I should have checked that. Probably

would have been an easy Google search. Anyways.

We see that the church is in Asia, Africa, and

Europe. However, even though it is on all six

inhabitable continents, our work is not done.

Go back to the words of Jesus in Matthew 28,

19, where he gives the final marching orders

to his squad of 12 young men. What did he say?

Go therefore and make disciples to all nations.

When Jesus uses that word nations, he doesn't

mean the 190 sovereign states that we think of

as nations like the United States, Canada, Peru,

Mexico, Iraq. You get it, right? He doesn't mean

the UN recognized nations. He means ethno -cultural

types. Different ethnic groups all around the

world with languages and dialects that separate

them from other communities who might be living

in close geography to them. It is estimated that

we still have 7 ,400 nations to reach with the

good news of Jesus. The job that Christ gave

us is still far from being completed. And it

has been going on for 2 ,000 years, and we don't

know how much more time we have. 7 ,400 different

people groups are considered unreached. To put

that in a different way, there are 3 billion

people who have no access to the gospel. Now

please listen, my dear brothers and sisters,

to what I just said. I didn't say that there

are 3 billion unsaved people. That number is

sadly much bigger. There are 3 billion people

who have no access to the gospel. That because

of their governments, their internet is blocked,

their libraries have banned Christian books,

the Bible is considered outlawed in the very

few editions that are in. are cut through like

Swiss cheese. That a country like Japan, who

has resisted the gospel for nearly 2 ,000 years,

modern day Japan, you can go and start a church

tomorrow. The paperwork is as annoying, but not

more annoying than any other kind of paperwork.

However, it's the cultural weight of leaving

a mentality of atheism. but also denying and

bringing the shame of leaving the Shinto and

Buddhist practices that your family has done

for eons. It means that Japan is one of the hardest

nations to reach. China. Christianity is still

essentially outlawed. Again, you're allowed one

version of the Bible, and it's basically a Swiss

cheese version. All the political things against

the Communist Party have been cut out, leaving

major, major holes. However, how good is our

God? Because it's estimated that because of the

sheer size of China, there are more... Chinese

believers number -wise in China than in most

other countries, if not all other countries.

But it's all through a secret home group church.

Three billion people do not have access to the

gospel. Perhaps the two major countries doing

the most missions work today. are the United

States and South Korea. Our Christian populations

in those two countries and the countries across

Europe that do it are not enough to tackle this

three billion size issue. We, my wife and I,

what we are going back to do in Peru is to be

a bit more strategic perhaps. In this new stage

that Peru has found itself in. And yes, we are

going to go to make more disciples. To make new

disciples. But we want to go specifically to

help train disciples. Train Jesus followers to

be mission minded and missionaries themselves.

I was just talking to a man who was a missionary

in Bosnia for about 17 years until Bosnia kicked

him and his wife out. And he said some of the

best missionaries to Bosnia were the few Peruvian

missionaries that he met. Just the cultural similarities,

the plates, the food, even like the grammar structure

of the two very different languages was so similar.

A lot of, in the late 2000s, In the late 2010,

so 2018, 2019, 2020, the Venezuelan socialist

system began to collapse. And so a lot of Venezuelans

migrated to Peru, Ecuador, all across South America,

and even up to North America. What we found out

is that Venezuela has great relationships with

Iran. And so we can go back to Peru and we can

train Venezuelans living in Peru to be missionaries

to Iran because they essentially have very little

visa paperwork to do. And so that is what we

want to do. We want to help mobilize the Christian

church wherever it is to reach the unreached.

And so how will the lost be reached? Whether

that is the three billion people across Asia

and the Middle East, or that one co -worker at

home, sorry, or that one co -worker at your work,

or that one family member, maybe teenage college

-age son or daughter at home. The lost will be

reached by, I believe, three basic principles

that we see. In this passage today. Now granted

throughout the entire book of Acts. And the New

Testament. There are a lot of other principles.

But in this passage from today. By modern day

Lydia's. Who draw their households to Christ.

And men. We are called in this sense. To be a

modern day Lydia as well. The statistic that

I recently read. When something like. If the

husband or the father. starts being apathetic

or leaves his religion, there's about a 30 %

chance that the children will continue with their

mother. However, if it's switched, if the mother

stops going to church, being a practicing Christian,

but the father continues, it jumps from 30 %

to 80%. Isn't that interesting? The important

role that both parents have in the spiritual

growth of the children. By modern day Lydia's

who give of their time, talent, and treasure

to the expansion of the church. Time. It takes

time to devote time in prayer. To pray well for

the large board of missionaries that we have

right around this corner. It takes time out of

your day to listen to a one -minute podcast to

learn about a new tribal group in Thailand. And

talent. It takes talent. It takes what you alone

are capable of doing and the unique way that

you are able to do that. Whether that is because

of your charming personality or the unique skill

set that you can bring on a one -week missions

trip. By modern day Lydia's and modern day churches

of Philippi. Who partner with and send out missionaries.

Who are called to reach and mobilize across geographic

and cultural borders. And by looking at that

large map that you guys have around the corner.

I would say Mapri Baptist Church. You are in

many ways a modern day Philippi. Doing your part.

But how is God calling you to be a Lydia today?

Do you feel a pull to double down in one of these

areas? To draw in your household as the Holy

Spirit allows. To maybe step it up with how you

can reach the nations using your unique time.

talent, and treasure? Or maybe as a church, thinking

about this, can we do even more? Or can we start

planning to do more in the next few years? Thank

you guys so much. We love being here. We love

the opportunity and the stage that we are in

and our missions work. We're able to visit beautiful

churches filled with beautiful Christian brothers

and sisters like you. And we greatly appreciate

it. Thank you. Thank you, Chris. You know, one

of the things that was so interesting to me is

when I get calls from missionaries, I usually

like to know where they're from. So when we bring

someone in, it's usually not a cold call. I don't

say it happens occasionally, but not always.

And the actual, the mutual contact we had was

a man named Eric Alfre. Some of you may know

Eric in here. And Eric grew up in Ironton, Ohio.

And he was the one that was my youth pastor when

I was in seventh grade. He took an interest in

me, invested his time in me. He's the first one

that ever taught me to do devotions out of the

Book of Proverbs as a seventh grader. He'd take

me on calls to visit people. And then he ended

up leaving. And then he actually was in pastoral

ministry for a while. And then he went into education

and he served in China. in the Network of International

Christian Schools. And he was in China for about

a decade, is that correct? And his daughter learned

Mandarin there, and he and Martha were there.

And then, as the pandemic came, Lee left China,

and then, as God and his providence have him,

took him to Lima, Peru, where he became the director

of the Network of International Christian Schools

in Lima, which is a school that I had considered

working in right out of college. There was a

position open for my school set. And so when

Chris had called me, it was through Eric, who

an Ironton guy, served in China, went to Peru.

Now he's in South Carolina back in pastoral ministry.

But this is the way that our God works. But this

is what we want to do. I really pray that you

all, my prayer this morning is that you catch

a vision of what you can do. We sometimes, we

might have a defeatist mindset. We're just here

in Larry County, right? That's what we call it.

Old Lawrence County. What are we going to do?

No, we can, there's so many ways that God uses

small things to accomplish great purposes. And

this is what I want you to see. I love what they're

getting ready to do, and I hope you understood

that. It's not just to go back and reach Peruvians,

yes, but Peru's about 10 % evangelical Christianity

right now. That's growing. That's really encouraging

for South America. But it's not just to reach

Peruvians, but because Peruvians lack culture,

they want to mobilize them to go reach some Middle

Eastern countries that share a very same culture.

That a lot of times you can't get in as an American

because of diplomatic ties. They're disbarred.

But Peru doesn't have those same diplomatic barriers.

That's fantastic. And you and I get to be part

of that, taking Jesus to the nations. Some of

us can go. Some of us can. We can all pray and

give. And I don't want to just keep preaching.

I'm tempted to, but I'm not. Open up your house

and dads, reach your homes. My goodness, you

know why Christianity is failing in the West?

We're not doing our job. We have to disciple

our children. It's a must. You will stand before

God. Dads, you are responsible. Lead your family.

That's the way you're going to grow the kingdom

of God. I've told you this before, and I say

it again. My prayer is that my greatest contribution

to the kingdom of God will not be through a pulpit,

but will be through the four children that Sandy

and I raised together that will go out and serve

Christ. That's my greatest desire, and I pray

that's your greatest desire as well. As we're

going to prepare for the table, I want to think

about this for just a moment. You know, we look

at these different nations, different language

groups, you know, different cultures, and we

think they're so foreign, right? It just seems

so different from American way. But there's something

that makes us all one. There's a common meal

that Christians around the globe on this Lord's

Day share that makes us one. The many become

one. And that's at the communion table. It'll

be done in a different language. It'll be done

in a different culture. It'll be done in a different

setting. And it's certainly a different type

of building. But there'll be a meal that's shared

by the people of God where we come together and

we remember the access into God was through the

flesh of the Lord Jesus Christ. We remember his

broken body and his shed blood. And that Peruvian

Christian, that's our brother. That Persian or

Iranian Christian, that's our brother. That North

Korean, some of these are maybe political enemies,

but they're our brothers and sisters in Christ.

This is what's so fantastic about the Christian

faith. All around the world, God has his people

that he has purchased with the blood of his son.

And we remember that and we commune koinonia,

participation in the body and blood of Christ,

with the risen Christ this morning in the meal

that he has prescribed. So let's prepare our

hearts. Let's just take a moment and pray. Would

you bow your heads? Let's just pray as we get

ready to go to the table and ask God to prepare

your heart. Father, before we ever come to the

table, Lord, we want to bow and we recognize,

Lord, your sovereign authority. We are here because

of your grace. Lord, you sent a Jewish man into

Europe, into Greece, where the gospel spread.

And it continued to spread throughout Europe.

And you made some unsettled pilgrims decide to

leave that continent and come to North America.

And, Lord, where the gospel would find a route

here. And where it would spread. And you raised

up believers out of this. particular country

to go into other ethnic groups and preach the

gospel. And the gospel continues to spread. The

kingdom continues to grow. And so much so that,

Lord, what started out as just a little seed

is a full tree today in flourishing blossoms.

And we thank you for that, Lord. And we have

been brought in. Lord, we were those pagans,

Lord, those Gentiles without hope and without

Christ. And Lord God, you brought the gospel

to us. And just as you did with Lydia, Lord,

you had to open our heart. You opened our heart

to believe these things. Lord, you gave us faith,

and we thank you for that. Lord, we praise you

for your grace. Lord God, we are a blessed people.

And Lord, now as we head to the communion table,

not only do we give you thanks, Father, but we

remember the broken body of Christ, the shed

blood of Christ that makes us one. Lord, I believe,

Lord, today is a true communion. We commune with

him. We spiritually... Feast upon Christ, his

body and his blood, Lord, that's given to us

and we're reminded of the way that we came into

the fold. Lord, thank you so very much for your

grace. Lord, would you help us, Lord, as Mamre

Baptist Church to catch a vision of what you

would have us to do, Lord. Those who are not

giving or, Lord, are apathetic or perhaps aren't

even thinking about ways they can use their life,

Lord, would you stir in them, do a stirring by

your spirit to cause them want to participate

in some fashion, some form, in international

missions of taking Jesus to the nations. And,

Lord, we pray this in the name of the one who

died and rose again. It's in the name of Jesus

we pray. Amen. Moessa Deacons, if you would come.

distribute the elements at this time, please.