Guest Andy Whitman

Thank you, Stacy Vuanasafiwe Canisa, praise the Lord Church

in Swahili. We are the Whitmans, as Stacy

said, and been doing ministry for 30 years.

Umm, they're getting the PowerPoint ready, but we started

out in 1994 and I went to Albania even before we were

buried as a missionary intern out of Bible school.

So we can go ahead to the next slide.

This Is Us through the years. We have two kids, Madison and

Spencer. Madison's 25 now.

She's a nurse and Spencer's 22. He does electronic media.

But you'll notice behind us the minaret of a mosque.

So many people in Eastern Europe like this is in Macedonia, 1/3

of the country is Albanian Muslims and the other 2/3 are

Eastern Orthodox, which sounds like they might be Christian,

but most of them are just going through a ritual, the motions of

Christianity. It's something they inherited

from their parents and there's there's no real faith there for

the typical Orthodox believer. So we got there in time, just in

time for two wars, the war in Kosovo, just 20 miles to the

north of us, and also a civil war that broke out in Macedonia

between the Albanians and the Macedonians.

We did refugee work for a while because we weren't, and this had

been part of communist Yugoslavia, so we weren't

allowed to go there as missionaries, but we were

allowed to be humanitarian workers.

And there was, we did that for a while.

There were very few churches. Most of them were just meeting

in a house, really, really tiny. And on a typical Sunday, the

kids would be running around outside playing.

I'm glad to see the kids in here.

And you kids, you're behaving very well, too.

Thank you. The kids would be running around

outside playing and I asked the pastor, what are they doing out

there? Because, you know, I was raised

in the in the church in Fredericksburg.

I had Sunday school teachers, children's church leaders and

youth group people that invested in me, taught me God's word

until I believed and accepted Jesus.

And they said, well, they're small, they're squirmy, they

can't sit still. They disrupt the adults.

Church is really for the adults, you know, is what they're

telling me. And I said, how are they going

to learn about Jesus? And they said, well, may I?

We think when they're older and they settle down, they'll just

kind of understand like the rest of us and become Christians.

And so I said, you've got to have children's ministry.

The devil's out there ready to snatch them up.

And they said, well, you're the missionary, you do it, You

started. So God LED us to start Royal

Rangers over there, which is a lot of people compare it to

Christian Scouts. You it's full of activities,

scouting type activities, but it's got a heavy duty Bible

curriculum. The disciple kids from 5 up to

18 and the US it's for boys and I was in the program as a boy.

So I thought, well, what are we going to do about the girls?

Well, I found out overseas Royal Rangers is for boys and girls

together. So we were able to start that.

We got the first religious visa ever granted in Macedonia.

They recognized it as a program. They said we actually want this

for our children. God did a miracle there and we

were able to introduce it in Macedonia and later into

Bulgaria and it became the children's ministry for the

church. Well, after a time we felt like

God saying, you're done in Macedonia, they can do it for

themselves, hand over. So we did.

We had no idea where we were going next.

And then we were asked to go to Africa to base in Nairobi, Kenya

and from there coordinate Royal Rangers across all of sub sub

Sahara Africa. So there were nations that had

never had it. There were nations that it was

just beginning that needed to develop it.

So we got to base in Kenya and go all over Africa.

And the next slide, I did stuff like this.

What do you see behind me? I hope you see a lot of boys and

girls, a lot of kids in Kenya. For example, 50% of the

population of Kenya is 18 or younger That that is the perfect

royal Ranger age, right? Half the population you can be

reaching with this great curriculum.

So that's a friend of mine, Commander Stephen, giving him

the stuff he needs to teach all those boys and girls and bring

them up in the gospel. And I'm wearing a jacket because

it gets cold in Kenya. We were at something like 8000

feet there in July, which July is scorching hot here.

They're below the equator, so the seasons are flipped.

That's winter. And it was like 40° up there on

that mountain that day. But I got to do that for a long

time and launch Rangers in places like Malawi, Madagascar,

helping Ghana and all over Africa, 10 different nations.

Well, it came to a point where we were having a conference for

all these leaders, and we're doing our business and

fellowshipping and strategizing and all kinds of great stuff.

And in the middle of that conference, I felt led to say,

if we're just doing this for the boys and girls of the church,

then we're not really doing it right because we should be

evangelistic. God's given us a great ministry,

a great tool. There's lots of kids out there

that will never come to one of our churches, but they might

come to Royal Rangers and we can get them into Royal Rangers.

They can hear about the gospel and maybe we'll eventually get

the whole family, which which actually happens.

So I just shared that and I went on with the program, went back

to Kenya, and about a month later a missionary from

Madagascar found me in Kenya. And he said what happened in

that conference. And Pastor, I was a little

nervous when somebody says what happened.

I was like, what kind of rumors are being spread about us?

So I just tried to do the smart thing.

And I said, what do you mean? And he said our guys from

Madagascar came back and they have a fire lit under them.

He said, do you know what they're doing?

He said they're taking the Ranger boys and girls, they're

going door to door, knocking on doors and telling people about

Jesus and doing evangelism. And then they decided to pick

unreached villages on our island, the 4th largest island

in the world. Madagascar isn't just a silly

movie, kids. It's a real place off the coast

of Africa. And he said, they're going,

they're setting up their tents, they're building their fires,

they're doing all their Ranger activities, and they're drawing

huge crowds. And my pastor in Fredericksburg

used to say, when you get a crowd, what do you do?

You preach. And they're preaching to them.

And he said, in some cases, we think they've LED every man,

woman and child to Jesus in the village.

He said we cannot find pastors, enough pastors coming out of the

Bible college to go to all these churches that the Rangers are

starting to this day. We think they've started at

least 20 churches in Madagascar. And that enthusiasm spread to

Kenya where we were, and they began planting churches.

I got to go back in November, dedicate a brand new church

started and more are popping up. Well, Malawi, the Rangers in

Malawi said we want to do this too, but before we take the boys

and girls to the village, we're going to create a missions

emphasis camp, take them for a whole weekend, study what God's

word says about evangelism and pray and make sure we're

spiritually ready. So they did that.

They had 700 kids in their first camp and at the end of it, they

hired a bus that's they had the money for one bus, which would

only hold 50 people. So they picked 50 boys and girls

that they thought were that were ready.

They next slide, they put them on a bus.

They began driving to a village that was known for witchcraft,

for perversion, abuse. Everything wrong you could think

of was there. And on the way, they stopped and

they visited the tombs of the missionaries that had died,

bringing the gospel to Malawi. And then they prayed.

And then they said, God has passed the torch to us.

We carry on the work now. And they got back on the bus and

they began heading to the village and they were praising

God, worshipping, singing songs. And the Holy Spirit fell on that

little bus. And every boy and girl that

wasn't already filled with the Holy Spirit was suddenly filled.

And they all began speaking in tongues.

When they arrived in the village, they began began

getting off the bus and finding people and talking to them and

finding sick people and praying for them.

And God and his great power who takes the Kingdom of Satan head

on, and great power and authority to demonstrate that

deliverance, forgiveness, salvation has come, began

healing people. And people all over the place

were getting healed. They prayed for a lame man that

was sitting begging, and he got up and he stood and he was

healed. They found another homeless man

sitting by the side of the road. They laid hands on him.

They prayed and he suddenly got up and said God has healed my

mind. He said for two years I haven't

been home to my family. Tonight I'm going home to them.

I'm sleeping in my own bed because God just healed me.

And they began to draw a huge crowd and they began witnessing

the people. They even witnessed to the

police. And if you've traveled overseas

to other countries, there's many places you'll find out the

police are not your friend. But they were brave enough to

witness to the police. And then people began receiving

Jesus. 250 people in that village received Christ that

day, including the village chief.

And he gave them a piece of land and said, come and build us a

church, Praise God, Amen. And you guys are supporting us.

So we're we're all partners in these things because when you

give the missionaries, you make things like this possible.

It's a great thing that God has done in the Kingdom.

And they totally among themselves raised enough money

to build themselves a little church, all indigenous.

They did all the evangelism and the planting and the building of

the church themselves. And that's in Malawi today.

And it's amazing what God has done it.

Some of you nodded your head when I talked about Royal

Rangers. You seem to know what what it

is. This was never part of Royal

Rangers. This is something that the Holy

Spirit did. This was even part of our vision

as missionaries. God breathed us into them and

and created just new ideas and new ways of sharing a gospel.

It's amazing what he's doing. So that that's just a little

snapshot we handed over in Africa.

Eventually we did some work for Rd.

Rangers USA from Springfield, MO, for a while now.

We just transitioned to global university.

We're a little older now, and we feel at this stage in our life

that God wants us to teach the next generation of pastors and

missionaries coming up. And we have a lot of Bible

schools all over the world that need professors to come in and

teach. They don't.

They have a great building, but a lot of them don't have a full

time staff. They depend on outside

professors. So and then where we go to

church in Missouri, this is a guy from Nepal named Mohan and

he is planning churches so fast. And Nepal, which is Buddhist and

Hindu territory, the gospel's exploding.

And he says, I'm starting churches so fast, I don't have

anybody to come behind me and disciple all these new

believers. And that's something Global

University does as well that we're part of.

Stacey and I can go to Nepal and disciple new believers.

In some contexts, they need a man to be with the men and a

woman to be with the women. And so that's one of the places

we believe God's taking us. We also believe we're going to

Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan very soon.

Pray for us that we can pick up Russian.

Macedonian is a lot like Russian.

We use the same Cyrillic alphabet.

We can kind of read Russian, but when we hear it, we're like, I

don't know what they're saying. It's a little hard.

I'm like, OK, I understood that and that, but not all this.

So please pray for us. And we're excited about where

God's taking us. And thank you for being a part

of it. And that reminds me, I want to

put something in too. So let's go ahead now and pause

a moment and pray and we'll get into God's work.

Heavenly Father, just thank you for this precious church.

I thank you for Pastor Clark and his family and Salt Church.

Lord, we thank you for everyone that's represented here today.

Lord, may all of us be your missionaries and your evangelist

and your preachers of the Word to the people around us.

Lord, use us for your glory and your honor.

Lord, speak to us by your Spirit through your Word today and

change us a little bit more and make us a little bit more like

your son. Jesus I pray and the name of

Jesus we have prayed, Amen. Well, this message this morning

comes from Acts. It's about divine appointments.

God has given us some great divine appointments in this this

book that are models for us as believers to follow.

And I'm going to start first in Acts 1/8 and lay a little bit of

background, because this is the foundation for witnessing that

Jesus gave in Acts 1/8. He says, But you will receive

power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my

witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the

ends of the earth. So notice that witnesses is

followed by power. Power is given to be a witness,

to be an effective witnesses. One of the reasons for the gift

of the Holy Spirit. And there's a pattern there.

Jesus told them to start in Jerusalem, right where they

were. Wherever you are, you start

there. Then you spread out to Judea and

Samaria. Kind of like when you throw a

rock into a pond and you get these concentric rings, these

ripple effects spread out and from there take it to the whole

world. So he tells them that he ascends

into heaven. They're standing there looking

what has happened. The Angel says, OK, stop looking

into heaven, get busy. But unfortunately, they don't

really get busy for eight chapters of Acts.

They're not they, they start in Jerusalem, but they get stuck in

Jerusalem and they're not going out from there.

And Acts, interestingly, Acts 18 is not fulfilled until Acts 8-1

after the stoning of Stephen. And after the stoning of

Stephen, it says on that day, Acts 8, in the middle of Acts

eight, one on that day, a great persecution broke out against

the church where in Jerusalem and all except the apostles were

scattered throughout, where Judea and Samaria, precisely

where Jesus had told them that they needed to go next.

And then I'm jumping down to verse four.

Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they

went. Philip.

And let's stop a moment and moment.

Philip is we find him earlier in Acts.

He's one of the deacons of the church when the church was

growing so big and the disciples said, you know, we don't have

time to wait on tables. We need to appoint some deacons.

First time deacons are ever created.

He's one of the seven chosen to serve in the church.

So this, this servant Philip went down to a city and city in

Samaria and proclaimed the Christ or the Messiah to them.

The crowds gave their undivided attention to Philip's message

and to the signs they saw him perform.

Perform. Because here's the gospel going

forth in power, confronting the Kingdom of darkness, verse seven

with loud shrieks, unclean spirits came out of many who

were possessed, and many of the paralyzed and lame were healed.

So there was great joy in that city.

Why was there great joy? Because salvation had come to

them. The message had reached them and

people were being saved. And it's like a great revival

breaks out in in Samaria. Now jumping down to verse 14,

when the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted

the word of God, they sent Peter and John to Samaria.

Who are Peter and John, two of the leaders of the early church?

And in fact, Jesus named Peter as the rock upon the foundation

that he was going to build his church.

And that has double meanings because Peter had just confessed

that Jesus was the Son of God. That is the foundation that the

church is going to be built on. These are leaders of the early

church, and it's like they come to take charge of what's

happening there. Which is which is very biblical.

Philip humbly sets aside let's the leaders come in.

In fact, in first Corinthians 37 it says he who plants and he who

waters are one in purpose and each will be rewarded according

to his own labor. So they've come to take over the

next step to begin discipling and organizing this community of

new believers. And this, I believe, this very

humble man that I see in the Scriptures, steps aside and lets

them take over. But God wasn't finished with

him. He had another purpose.

And I think it's just amazing what unfolds now.

And Acts 826 now an Angel of the Lord said to Philip, go South to

the road. It's important note here, the

desert Rd. that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza, it's a desert

Rd. It shouldn't be anything out

there. I mean, what's the definition of

a desert devoid of life and towns and and everything?

But this man obeys. In verse 27, he started out and

on his way he met an Ethiopian eunuch, an important official in

charge of all the treasury of Candace, queen of The

Ethiopians, or some versions say Candace, which is another form

of Candace. She was the queen of The

Ethiopians. This man had gone to Jerusalem

to worship and on his way home was sitting in his chariot

reading the book of Isaiah the prophet.

And at that time it's really a scroll of Isaiah the prophet.

The Spirit told Philip, go to that chariot and stay near to

it. The Spirit told him, So he's

being led by the Spirit. And when he gets near to the

chariot, then Philip, verse 30, Philip ran up to the chariot and

heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet.

Do you understand what you're reading?

Philip asked. And look at verse 31.

This always amazes me. How can I?

He said, unless someone explains it to me.

So invited to Philip to come up and sit with him.

Look at this, look at what is happening here.

This man, this precious African man, has been to Jerusalem.

He has a scroll of Isaiah. He's interested in God.

He's clearly interested in God. He has a copy of God's word, a

piece of it, which was very rare in his day.

In order to have a piece of God's word, that meant some

scribe had labored for hours and days and weeks to copy it down

by hand. Very few individuals had a piece

of God's Word. He has his own piece of God's

word and he's reading it and yet he doesn't understand it.

He needs help. And God has seen this man in his

moment and his seeking and his searching and in his his that

moment where he's ready and he paired him up with a servant.

God had a servant that obeyed the voice of the Spirit, did

something very strange, went into the desert and met this

man. So, uh, he's reading words of

and, and I'll add here that his words, how can I, unless someone

explains it to me, unless someone helps me.

Those words are reflected in Romans chapter 10 when Paul

Romans 10 · chapter mention

writes in verse 14 and 15. How can they they out there?

How can they call on the one in whom they have not believed?

And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard?

And how can they hear without someone to preach?

And how can they preach unless they are sent as it is written?

How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news.

How are they going to hear unless you and I who know tell

them? And all of us have been sent.

Jesus commissioned every one of us to go into the world and

bring this message. So I'm in verse 32.

Now this is the passage of Scripture the eunuch was

reading, and it's from Isaiah 53, very familiar to us.

He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, as a lamb before its

shearers are silent. So he did not open his mouth.

In his humiliation, he was deprived of justice.

Who can speak of his descendants?

For his life was taken from the earth.

The eunuch asked Philip, Please tell me, who is the prophet

talking about? Himself or someone else?

Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told

him the good news about Jesus. And I think we all know the rest

of the story. As Philip is talking to him,

faith begins to rise up in this man's heart to the point where

he recognizes who Jesus is, that he is the Son of God.

He confesses, he believes, he receives, he even gets baptized

there by the side of the road because he's a brand new

believer and God made this happen.

It was actually pretty easy for Philip.

It was almost like it was handed to him.

It wasn't hard. God orchestrated this moment.

It's a divine appointment. And there's another very similar

one that happens two chapters later and Acts chapter 10.

Acts 10 · chapter mention

This is Cornelius, the Roman centurion at Caesarea.

There was a man named Cornelius in verse one, a centurion in

what was known as the Italian regiment.

He and all his family were devout and God fearing.

He gave generously to those in need and prayed to God

regularly. So this man that's come from

Italy, this Roman soldier stationed and occupied Israel

has obviously been influenced by the Jews and the Jewish

religion. He's become what was called a, a

proselyte, like a convert or at least a step on the way to being

a convert to Judaism. And look at look at his list of

deeds. These are incredibly good

things. Devout, God fearing.

This whole list, Many pastors in the church and a lot of churches

I visited would be very happy if their people in the church were

devout and praying regularly and giving generously.

We would say that is a sign of a very, very healthy church.

We all want to be there. Many Americans would look at

this list and equate this list with salvation.

They would say, wow, look at these deeds, He's got a stack of

good deeds in his favor. Surely that merits salvation.

Yet something very important was lacking.

Think about that for a moment. What was lacking?

One day, I'm in verse three now. One day at about 3:00 in the

afternoon, he had a vision. He distinctly saw an Angel of

God who came to him and said, Cornelius.

Cornelius stared at him in fear. What is it, Lord?

He asked. The Angel answered, Your prayers

and gifts to the poor have come up as a memorial offering before

God. And then again, at this point, a

lot of Americans might say, wow, he's captured God's attention.

Yet at this point, you might expect the Angel to say,

congratulations, God just granted you eternal life, you've

earned it. However, despite all the good he

did, he was lacking in knowledge of Jesus.

He understood a lot about Judaism and what God required of

him, but he had no knowledge of Jesus Christ, Acts 412 tells us

neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none

other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be

saved, and that's to King James. That's how I learned it and I

like how it's worded. There no other name under

heaven, no other way to God except through Jesus.

He needed to know that and it's very interesting at this point.

The Angel says, now send men to Joppa and bring back a man named

Simon who is called Peter in verse six.

He is staying with Simon the Tanner whose house is by the

sea. The Angel does not share.

Tell this man about Jesus. He doesn't preach and evangelize

and do what we would do. He sends him to Peter to a

person to hear the message, and this is amazing because God

desires the people to learn about Him through His Word and

from other people, not through angels.

Angels do not appear to share this message.

Now in Revelation, there's going to be an Angel that's going to

be preaching and declaring the gospel in the Book of Revelation

during the Tribulation period. And where will we be?

We'll be out of here. We'll be raptured.

We'll be gone. But right now, it's the

privilege of people to take and share the gospel.

Not a chore. It's a privilege to share the

gospel. And so he sends men to find

Peter. They bring back Peter.

And I'm jumping ahead a bit of the story.

And Peter preaches to them a little miniature version of the

gospel. It's a really nice short version

of the gospel that we could all study and use.

And while he is preaching, what happens?

He's preaching to Cornelius and his whole family.

And faith begins to rise up in their hearts until the point

where they suddenly begin speaking in tongues.

And Peter is shocked. And also they have believed and

received the message, accepted Christ in their hearts.

And they've jumped over all these steps that we think is

necessary. They've jumped over this, this

coming forward to the altar and the sinner's prayer.

They've jumped over like a discipleship program and baptism

and membership in the church. And maybe later, you know, I

think you're ready. You need to come and pray to get

filled with the Holy Spirit. God in his wisdom jumped over

all that. Peter has to backtrack and say,

well now that you're filled with the Holy Spirit, we better

baptize you. It's a big shock, but again,

what has happened? God saw this precious man that

wanted to know him, wanted to know the truth was seeking, and

he paired him up with a believer, someone who knew

someone who had been with Jesus, someone that had a testimony, a

witness, and he brought them together and he made it possible

for Peter to lead this man and his entire family to Christ.

And I tell you, these things are still happening to this day,

that God does not change. Things like acts are happening.

When we were in Macedonia, one of the churches we worked with

put together an evangelism team and they trained them and they

got them ready. And then they sent them to the

western part of the nation where all the Albanians lived.

And when they arrived in this one particular town, an old man,

an old Muslim man, came up to them and said, are you the Jesus

people? And they're like, well, that's

that name. We don't use that name typically

for ourselves, but yes, that fits us.

You can call us the Jesus people.

And he said a few weeks ago, I was sitting at the table in my

kitchen and thinking about my life.

And he said in my mind, I was talking to God, saying I have

been a devout Muslim all my life.

I've done everything that the Quran tells me to do and I've

been faithful and yet I don't feel like I even know you, God,

who you are. And he said as I was thinking

this in my heart and saying it, he said at the other end of the

of the table, an Angel appeared and the Angel said, get ready.

The Jesus people are coming to your town and when they come, go

and find them and they will tell you everything you need to know.

So when he saw this group of people and they said yes, we're

to Jesus people. He said, here I am, tell me what

is it that I need to know? And they led that man to Christ

that day. And there are people all over, I

can guarantee you just based on statistics that there are people

here right now in Deltaville and the surrounding areas that are

have are at the end of themselves.

They are desperate, they are in despair.

They're considering horrible things because they don't think

there's any hope there's any answer.

And some of them are at the point where they're ready to cry

out to God or listen to a Christian.

And God knows and God has people right here in this church.

Everyone of you has a unique testimony.

You have unique experiences, you have special gifts and talents

that God has given to you. And if you haven't been filled

with the Holy Spirit, I pray that you will seek that and be

filled with the Holy Spirit because the Holy Spirit will

lead you to people just like these examples of the Bible at

the right time, at the right moment in their lives.

You won't have to force it. It won't have to be something

unnatural. The Holy Spirit will reveal to

you that the door is opening and that there's an opportunity

here. And when you trust the Holy

Spirit, he will even drop words into your mind and into your

heart to speak directly to the words of life from the

scriptures, from God to speak into their situation and lead to

the, to the, to the, to the saving knowledge of Jesus.

That's the kind of God we have. We can depend on him and trust

him. So I just like to ask everyone

here to take a moment and start thinking now about some people

that you know, friends, colleagues, students, neighbors

that don't know Jesus, and then start asking God and believe in

God for divine appointments this week.

That God will will make special things happen that you can share

the gospel and trust God and depend on him.

And I'm going to pray for all of us and then I'll hand it back

over to Pastor Clark. Heavenly Father, we, we just

thank you again for every precious person in this room.

Lord, may all of us receive you as Lord and Savior, and may all

of us be used for your glory and Your honor.

Lord, we're praying specifically now, very specific for divine

appointments for everyone in this church.

I, I pray that you will fill them to overflowing with your

spirit. Fill them up again, Lord, and

lead them. May they be led by your spirit.

May they feel the presence of your spirit.

May they recognize divine appointments as they're

happening. Lord, we believe you're going to

give us opportunities this week to share the gospel.

Lord, speak through US. May we be conduits and vessels

to speak your words to others. And Lord, we're just praying and

believing that people will be saved.

Lord, it's your will. We're praying according to your

will. And Lord, prepare our hearts to

receive and do to be doers of your word.

And it's in the name of Jesus we pray.

Amen. Thank you, pastor.

Thank you brother. I just want to continue to pray

right now in that same vein that Andy was just leaving us.

Heavenly Father, that is our desire.

That is our request that you would give us even more desire,

give us even more hunger, give us even more compassion for the

world around us that we would be led to.

Pray that your appointments would happen.

Give us supernatural appointments this week.

I pray that you would open up the eyes of our hearts to see

and to notice, to get our eyes off of ourselves, to get our

eyes up, to look around, to be available when that chariot

comes, when there's the knock at our door, whatever the

circumstance may be, in the middle of our schedule, in the

middle of our plans, in the middle of our busyness.

God, this is our purpose. This is the work that we are to

do, greater than that of our career, greater than that even

of the work of our household. You have a way of working all

things together for your good. So we pray that you would

connect us to those persons of peace, whether it's Cornelius or

whether it's the man in the the Ethiopian eunuch who's in his

travels, whether it's the family member.

God, we pray that you would use us as workers in the harvest

this week and give us that opportunity.

Not the thing that we had to force or that we had to muscle

our way into, but Holy Spirit where you would just pave the

way by your power, by your presence God, by your sovereign

will. Lead us with clarity, lead us

with wisdom, and we trust you for the words.

We trust you for everything that we need.

Guide us, even prepare us more and more as the week goes on.

Lead us through your word that we would be equipped for

everything you've called us to, to do the work of the ministry.

We thank you for it all in Jesus name, Amen.

I just want to encourage you with what Andy was saying.

About the passage there in Acts where Peter gives a, he gives

that nugget of the gospel young, I don't know what I would say

for the gospel. Well, Ephesians chapter 2, you

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

can go right there and say what is the gospel, what is the

simple truth? And it's the whole thing.

It's not just one thing or the other thing, it's the whole

thing. It's the whole truth.

So you got multiple places. If you would say I don't know

the gospel, you have no excuse to ever say that again.

I'm saying that with sternness to you.

If you would say I don't know what that is, then you have 0

excuse to repeat that after 10:00 tonight.

How could you dare ever say that?

So open up your Bible and go read the Scriptures and say this

is what it is. Well, I forgot what it was.

Write it down. Stick it on your bathroom

mirror. This is what growth looks like.

This is what a practical this isn't.

Remember we talked recently about legalism, right?

And what a Pharisee would do and say this is the rule.

And yet they're also wise practices, aren't there?

There's also some wise helpful disciplines, aren't there?

So this would be a good thing for us to do and go, I'm well

equipped. I can tell you what the Word of

God says. I can tell you what his Kingdom

is like. So be prepared.

If you're going to pray that way, expect the opportunity to

come and then also be prepared and be suited for it isn't.

It's not complicated, it's simple.

It's good you get to share the best news ever.

Heavenly Father, I thank you so much for your precious people.

God, we thank you for Andy and Stacy and the work you're doing

in them and through them. And as you continue to equip

them for your work. God, we pray that you would send

in resources that you would use us other churches, that you

would send other ministries and other people and other believers

to support the work that you're doing throughout the earth.

And even as they equip, even as they go into a season of

equipping others to continue to do the work to equip others, so

that this thing becomes this beautiful virtuous cycle where

the Kingdom expands in an exponential way.

God, I ask that this will be a sweet season for them.

I said it would be a season of powerful anointing that they

would be so blessed in their marriage, that they would be

blessed in their family, that their children, their adult

children would still receive the benefits of his godly household

and the work that their parents have done and instilled in them.

God, we pray for your highest and your best and all that they

would have fruitful ministry so that the Kingdom would be

impacted. And God, these are just the

stories that they know of that their ministry has done.

How much more have you done that that will never reach their ears

until they reach the other side. We thank you, God, we ask you to

continue to glorify your name through your faithful Saints.

And now God, as you look upon your people, would you bless

them? I know you do according to your

word. So it's in the name of Jesus

that I bless you, the Lord bless you, the Lord keep you, the Lord

make his face Shinedown upon you, and be gracious to you.

The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you great

peace in Jesus name, Amen.