The Word of God Keeps Going Forward First B Jackson 2025-04-06 Automatically transcribed. Where this and the recording disagree, the recording is the record. ---- I mean, that's That's your wheelhouse, That's good. Good to see you this morning. And this guy hey. How are you? All is well? It looks good. Everybody's bright eyed and bushy tailed. Hey. Good morning. Good to be here. Welcome back. Thank you. Yeah. It's fun. I'm gonna we'll to talk about it. Okay. Awesome. Really? That's awesome. That's wonderful. Very cool. Hey. What's up, mister? How are you? I'm good. How are Good to see you. All is well. Uh-huh. All is well. This guy's here. There's plenty of love in the room. Plenty of love in the room. Lots of love. And lots of affirmation. Hey. How are you? How are y'all? Good. How are you? All is well. Yeah. Good. It's a wild time. Yeah. It's gonna be fun. Let's see how it goes. No g free? Well, no. They're gluten free. They are still. Okay. I got you. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yeah. But the the juice is is the same for everybody. Just the same for Common cup. I love that. Yeah. Was a cup. It was different. Just so you know Okay. Thank you very much. Okay. You. We'll see what happens. Hey. Good morning. Good morning. I missed you. Your your write up the other day was fantastic. Oh, I stole a lot of cliff notes from you. Good for you. Thank you for telling me that. I was too. The day before, I was too for Pascal. Yes. And I felt like all I did was retell the story without as many hey. Good morning. Without as many details. Letter Bible for this one. Good. Short notes. Okay. Hey. How are you? Good. Good to see. Something on your feet. That's alright. I'll do it all the time. I do it all the time. Good. Massive. I still got a minute and twenty two seconds to say howdy howdy do. Good morning. Your write up was wonderful. And I didn't have your number. Like tried to text you to say, hey. That was awesome. It was good though. Practice player. I just showed up two notes before the end of practice and Carl said, hey. It's just practice. That's right. That's exactly right. You tell him for me. Yeah. Oh. Good morning. Well, good morning, everybody. I'm thrilled to see you this morning. Would you stand with me? I'd love to to join together in song and worship. And, I've got a, encouraging word here from Hebrews four to lead us in the worship. It says church. Let's come boldly boldly boldly before the throne of our gracious God. There we reserve receive his mercy and we find his grace to help us when we need it most. Thank you, God, for your mercy. Thank you for your grace. Thank you for meeting with us right here, God. We want to to meet with you in in a joyful in a joyful way. In Jesus' name. Amen. Alright. Who breaks the power? Who breaks the power of sin and darkness? Whose love is mighty and so much stronger, the king of glory, the king above all people. Who shakes the whole Who brings us? Who brings our chaos back into order? Who makes the orphan, a son all kings. King This is amazing grace. This is a family love that you Jesus, I sing for all that you've done for me. And let's sing to him. How worthy worthy is the lamb who slayed. Worthy is Y'all can have a seat. I I have a is the microphone on? It is. Indeed. Okay. Let's see what's happening. Welcome back. Welcome back to everybody else. I did actually show up during spring break last week and I was surprised to find a full room. I really was. It was amazing, and it's good to be back. I think my brain caught up with me around Wednesday, maybe. The clicky clicker is not working, but there are things going on. Awana is on. It is. Awana is on tomorrow, and it's hero night. So dress like pastor Ray. Oh, come on. Thank you, Aaron. Good grief. VBS twenty twenty five is road trip. My favorite thing. This is a pretty neat pretty neat thing. Road trip is the theme that kinda gets us from where we are to where we're going. In VBS twenty twenty five, June twenty third through twenty '6, nine to twelve. Preparations are already underway. So that ought to be fun. Mark your calendars now. And you can sign up with a QR code it looks like, that's kind of fun. If you have more questions, Amy Jordan is the person to ask about that. Missions moment. Eric and Becky Watt are missionaries this morning. Is somebody doing a missions moment? We've been doing it. Hey. Put Hey. They're awesome. Pray for them. So Run ministries, reaching unreached nations. If you wanna be a part of their ongoing texts and emails and whatnot, amazing stuff is going on in the world. Their ministry is run reaching unreached nations, but one of the networks the main network of churches that they use, they call it the Antioch family of churches. And you'll see why today in the sermon. But Antioch was a very diverse church and a beautiful beautiful representation of Christ's body on earth. And Eric and Becky come to church here every time they have an opportunity. He was a pastor in Chesapeake, Virginia for the last, I don't know how many, twenty something years probably. But they're some my favorite people on earth and if you think, I wanna know those people, wanna know more about them, I'll connect you with them. They're great. I didn't expect that but that's my word on Eric and Becky Watt. They are fantastic, some of the most encouraging people I've ever met and encouraging the word of the Lord's going forward. And that's what we're looking for. If you want any other information, you can do that QR code. These things are pretty convenient. Or you can just go to firstbjackson.org and make sure you're in 1st B Jackson Of Wyoming and not Mississippi or other places. Jackson Home Men's Alliance is meeting this week. It'll be this week in the Fellowship Hall at 06:30AM Wednesday morning, and that ought to be a good time. Usually, we have a meal, somebody does a quick testimony, and this week is gonna be Nick, which I love. I'm looking forward to that. And that sounds fun and stand in your love. Hey, how about we stand in the love of God and sing his praises. Thank you, Jesus. Amen. When darkness tries, darkness tries to roll over my boat. Sorrow comes to steal the joy I yawn. Brokenness and pain is all I know. I won't be shaken. I won't be shaken. My feet doesn't stand the chance when I stand in your in your love. There's power. Let's sing it. It's power that can break off every chain. In your love. My fear doesn't stand a chance when I stand in your love. This is from Psalm 27. It says this, the Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid? God, thank you for being our light and our salvation that you go before us and behind us, above and below. Thank you God for your presence with us right now. Thank you that we don't have to be afraid. Lord, there are a lot of things that can induce fear. But Lord, as we turn to you, you are our comfort. You are our strength. Thank you. Amen. A thousand generations falling down in worship to sing a song of ages to the land. And all who've gone in the four nights, and all who will believe will sing a song of ages to the land. Jesus, your name is the highest, and your name is the greatest, and your name stands above them all. All throats and dominions and all powers and positions. Your name stands above them all, and the angels cry. Holy forever. Or if you've been forgiven, if you've been redeemed, sing a song forever to the land. If you all have the freedom, if you bear his name, sing a song forever to the lamb. We'll sing. Sing a song forever and a man and the angels cry. Holy, holy, holy forever. And hear your people sing to the king of kings. Holy, you will always be holy, a holy forever. And Jesus, your name. In Jesus, your name is the highest. Your name is the greatest. Your name stands above them all. And all throats and dominions is all powers and positions your name stands above to the king of kings and you will always be holy forever. And you will always be and you will always be Daily, daily, I surrender. Rest for time when I'm overwhelmed. Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow. Awaken my souls same. Awaken my souls in. And I will trust where you lead. And I will trust when I can see. Morning by morning, great is your faithfulness to me. And I will trust with all my heart and you are good. You always every word. All fear be reminded my future is secure. Oh, my father has spoken, and he keeps every word. So I will trust. I will trust you. Morning by morning. Morning by morning. I will trust morning to me. Morning by morning. Oh, morning by morning. Praise your You can have a seat here for a moment. This is the worship through giving part of the the service, and I'll invite the ushers to come on forward. And I love that we dedicate this this part of the the this the this part of worship just to to simply giving thanks. And before we sing, Ray, may I ask you to pray? God, thank you so much for all that you've done, Lord. Our my heart is full, Lord. My heart is full and it's it's overflowing and with gratitude. I'm amazed by what you do, how you do it, who you bring into our spheres of influence, Lord, and the way that you work. If we'll just let you. So in Jesus' name, I pray that we would be a humble people that that stand or sit ready to do your will, that we hold firm to what we know to be true, and we walk forward together. In Jesus name, I ask you to bless this offering Lord that it would do your work. Whatever it is that you want done, we we wanna get out of the way or at least be employed in your way. So would you show us what you would have us to do in your way, Lord, your will done in your way. In Jesus name, we are overwhelmed with gratitude. Amen. Because I know who you are. A cross on salvation was only the start. Now I can choose in free and forgiven. I have a future. It's worth living. Because I was made to be tending the grave. I was called by name, born and raised back to life again. I was made for more. My past. I'm not going back. Born and raised back to life again. I was made for more. So why would I make Amen. It's time for children's church downstairs. And there they go. Full of energy. Alright. That song that made for more, I have not heard that before. Of course, I didn't show up for practice this morning. Boo hoo. I'm your hero. Right, Carl? Oh, funny. No. He I'm sure he played it for me before at some point, but it got a hold of me about six weeks before the first mission trip I ever took to Mexico. Tanya and I had an argument, discussion, It means argument. We were in the car, and it was such a heated debate that we stayed in the car and finished the argument. And then six weeks later, I ended up on the first trip to Mexico, and my halfway through the trip, I'm calling Tanya and saying, I think God wants us to move to Mexico. And she said, you remember that argument we had six weeks ago in the car? And I said, no. I don't remember it. I don't remember anything about it. She said the argument was this, We were made for more. Golly. And I thought I was doing everything that I could do honestly. In the argument, that was my point in the argument. But then six weeks later, I'm on a foreign soil. She wasn't able to go for a different reason, you know, for reasons. And I'm there and I'm feeling completely like this is what this is what God wants us to do. I called her and I said, feel like I gotta stay. And she said, stay. And I said, I'm ready to turn in my return trip ticket to get you a ticket to come down here. And she said, don't do that. She said, stay as long as you need to and when you get home, we'll figure out how to get back down there. I get back home, there's a message on the machine that says, hey, we want you to come back. If your wife feels the same way you do, we want you. And so two weeks later, Tanya and I go to Mexico on a mission trip for a week and get down there, finish what needed to be finished in that week. She felt the same way I did. Eight months later, we're living in Mexico. This is twenty five years ago. I hadn't heard that song. I'm glad I hadn't heard it till just now. That wasn't part of the sermon. That's free. Alright. This this clicking right here is not clicking. Here it goes. Acts 13 is Paul's first missionary journey and when I look at this, it's not really his first missionary journey. We just saw Paul and Barnabas go from Antioch to Jerusalem to carry relief, aid, money to Jerusalem and they just got back. But Acts 13 is where most people consider Paul's first missionary journey. That's the title. But man, I'm thinking of my first little missionary journey. I mean, there were other there were other things. There were other things that happened, and they'll come out in the next few weeks. I'm reminiscing a lot right now on people in the past that had great influence on me or ones that I worked alongside of in ministry and admissions. It's because I'm seeing people's names in this and I'm seeing places. So the first half of this sermon is gonna be from Acts, and the second half is gonna be just kind of a bit of a report from part of what we did in Africa. Acts twelve twenty four is a summary statement that was we talked about it last week. Herod was killed. And so and then because it pleased the Jews, he arrested Peter, but Peter was delivered. Herod's killed. Peter's delivered. Before the end of the chapter, Herod is killed. God kills Herod for taking on glory that is due to God alone. Right? And then in James's death, in Peter's deliverance, in Herod's death, God's word keeps on going forward because this is going to happen. Nothing will for the advance of the gospel. Are you gonna be a part of it or you're be a part of holding it back? The word of the Lord continued to grow and to be multiplied. And then the last verse of chapter 12 says, and Barnabas and Saul returned back to Antioch from Jerusalem when they had fulfilled their mission, short term mission trip. And they took along with them John, who was also called Mark. John, Mark. We'll see him again today and then we'll see him in a few weeks, and he'll become a point of contention between those two guys. And it happens. Missionary implosion happens. When you undertake to do a great work for the Lord, whether it is churches, hospitals, schools, whatever it is. If you undertake to do a great work for the Lord, there will be external and internal pressure against that happening. So we need to recognize that it's not flesh and blood that we're struggling against. Anyway, here we go. Acts thirteen one starts this way. Now there were prophets and teachers. It's prophets and teachers. If you look at Ephesians four given to the church, there are these four classifications of folks. Prophets and teachers, two of those, and they are the people who pronounce thus saith the Lord. Yes, it's not necessarily foretelling the future, can be and it is in some cases, but it's foretelling thus has God said. This is the word of the Lord. So there were prophets there and there were teachers there, and they were at Antioch. Antioch let's give you a map. Antioch is right up there along the Eastern Mediterranean Sea up and it's inland a little bit. That is Syrian, Antioch. We will hit next week, Pisidian Antioch, different place, but I'll give you a map for that too. So Antioch, and then it goes into describing the prophets and teachers at Antioch in the church that was there at Antioch. That's a pretty far flung from Jerusalem by the way. If you're keeping up with Jesus's statement of you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts. This is getting towards uttermost parts. It's heading that direction. It's outside of Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria. So Antioch is there and there is a church established. And if you remember back when Carl was preaching, Barnabas thought what needs to happen is they need somebody who can teach them well. And he went in search of, found Saul and brought Saul back. He Barnabas was a super encourager. His name means sort of encouragement. And he brought Saul back to be a teacher there and to say, thus saith the Lord. So that's Barnabas. He's the first guy, and he is from Cyprus. Barnabas is from Cyprus, which is the closest island in the Mediterranean to Antioch. So Barnabas is a prophet teacher elder at the church in Antioch. I want you to see that this church is not monolithic. It is diverse. And I know that's a bad word and I know half of y'all are gonna be upset even hearing DEI on the news all the time. It makes people so angry. Get that out of your noggin. Please, before Revelation five nine comes to pass. Every tribe, tongue, and nation is to be represented around the throne. I cannot stamp my foot hard enough about this. Revolution Revelation, not revolution. Sorry. I don't want step my feet for revolution. Revelation five nine, revolution seven nine, all of the tribes, tongues, and peoples are represented around God's throne. They're all singing with one voice, holy holy holy. Back to off my soapbox. Back to the text. Barnabas. Barnabas was from Cyprus, so he's a Cypriot. Simeon who was called Niger. Niger is the word for black in Latin. Simeon who was called black. Most likely, Simeon was black. That makes the most sense. Could have been like Carol Black was one of our long term members, has been here forever. I ended up doing her funeral. Carol Black was not black. She's a very white white woman, but her name was Carol Black. It could be that Simeon's name was just black, but no. Most everybody agrees. Barnabas the Cypriot, Simeon who was called Niger the black, Niger, Lucius of Cyrene. Lucius of Cyrene, this is a long way away. I mean, if you're looking at Africa, you can recognize Egypt, the Delta Of Egypt right here, Sinai Peninsula, all that. You go to Northern Africa, the bump at the top on this side before you get all over into Morocco and Algeria and Tunisia and all that. Cyrene is right there. That's a pretty good ways away. Lucius was already a missionary. This isn't the first missionary journey. Lucius was serving from Cyrene all the way over in Antioch, prophet or teacher or prophet and teacher. And Manaan. Manaan who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch. If you just read that brought up with like time wise, he was brought up Oh yeah, he's he's brought up with Herod. This is Herod Antipas, the one who had John the Baptist killed. The one who was present but somewhat indifferent at Jesus' trial. He is son of Herod the Great, not Herod Agrippa, was grandson of Herod the Great. We talked about him last week. Herod Antipas was the guy in Jesus Christ Superstar, if you're a Broadway person. He's a weird dude. Manaen was brought up like his foster brother in the same household, royal household. So Manaan, we've got Barnabas who sold land and gave of his proceeds to the group early early in the church. And he knew that they needed a teacher, so he went and found Saul, brought Saul from, you know, Saul of Tarsus, brought him back to Antioch. We've got Simeon, a black guy. We've got Lucius, a North African. It's a Latin name most likely. It is a Latin Roman guy. And then we've got Manaan who came up in the household of Herod, like a foster brother to Herod Antipas, son of Herod the Great. This guy was royalty. We've got a very diverse church here. As far as socioeconomic background, I'm sure we do and we do by the way. And it's interesting that he leads off with this and Saul. So Saul is the last one in the list and Saul, we know. I won't go on and on about Saul. Saul's a smart guy. Really, really smart guy. Now while they were serving the Lord and fasting, they were serving the Lord in the church there at Antioch doing whatever it was that prophets and teachers do, which is kind of what I do, what Carl does, what some a lot of y'all actually do. I see prophets and teachers out there. Teachers, prophets. While they were serving the Lord and they were fasting, this was not just missing a meal because you're so interested in your study. This was concerted effort. What is it that you want us to do, Lord? We're gonna forego food for a time to concentrate our energies in spiritual things rather than the physical things. We want to know what it is that you want us to do. Every prayer for the offering every week, always say, we wanna do your will in your way, and I mean it. I don't know what that is. One week to the next week, I understand the gospel needs to go forward, I understand that people need to be clothed and fed, and I understand somewhat what it is, but I don't know specifically what it is. So Lord, would you show us specifically what it is? They were serving the Lord and they're fasting, and the Holy Spirit said, don't let that pass by. The Holy Spirit said, set Barnabas and Saul apart from me for the work to which I have called them. Take of actually probably the best teacher he's got maybe is Saul. Barnabas thought so, and maybe the best encourager, which is a big role in the church. Barnabas and Saul book into that list. Right? And they're taking two of their five that they listed. That might not be an exhaustive list. There could have been lots of other folks that were elder worthy, you know, quality, whatever. But set Barnabas and Saul apart from me for the work to which I've called them. And then when they had fasted, they agreed on the direction that they needed to go and sending out Saul and Barnabas later. It's chapter 14 before they're called apostles, but apostle means one who is sent out. So it's by this. When they had fasted, when they had prayed, they laid their hands on them. If you're here last week, we laid our hands on Anders and Brook and sent them off to Zambia. When they had fasted and prayed, they laid their hands on them, they sent them away, sent them out. Apostolos, they sent them out. And so being sent out by the Holy Spirit, the people of the church did lay their hands on them, but ultimately, it was the Holy Spirit who sent them out. And that's something to recognize too that this plan a is that God reaches the world through human agency. And so the Holy Spirit sends people. We've we've seen him send Philip down to talk to that Ethiopian eunuch. We've send him seen him send Peter to talk to Cornelius. We've seen a lot of people being sent out already, and it'll continue all throughout acts. So being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia, and from there, they sailed to Cyprus. If you are looking at your map, Cyprus, where Barnabas is from Cyprus, by the way, when we sent out Florin and Violetta, we sent them out to their home country, right? Sometimes that's a really effective way of doing things. Sometimes the weirdo factor is really nice. Me in Mexico is an odd duck, right? I stand out. But and that's helpful. Why are you here? That doesn't make any sense. That starts a conversation. Antioch to Cyprus is where they're going. And when they sail, they sail from Seleucia. I'll give you a little better map. Antioch, Seleucia is a coastal town near Antioch, not far away. And then they sailed to it's not Salamis, okay? It's Salamis. Salamis is a port, sort of a place of peaceful from the storm Salamis. And when they reached Salamis, they began to proclaim the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews. That's where they started. Now, think about this, when Jesus when Jesus struck Saul on the road to Damascus, he said, you're gonna be my guy to the Gentiles. You're gonna be the one that I sent to the Gentiles, and then you know, blindness and then Ananias go see Saul. I already told him you're coming. You can't get out of this. I'm not sending anybody else. Saul receives him and he's going to be, but it's been years. It's been years since his conversion on that Damascus Road. It's been like fourteen years. And he's not been the guy to the Gentiles necessarily. I mean, maybe if you if you look at it, say, well, Lucius probably, Simeon maybe. Yeah. He's in he's in a church with him, but he hadn't really done the work. I'm sure that he was thinking there's gonna be more for me. There's more. Golly, that song hit me hard, Carl. When they reached Salamis, they began to proclaim the word of God. That's the prophetic right there. The prophetic. I know that you hear it is like, oh, prophetic is when you have a new word from the Lord and sometimes it is. But it is also saying, listen, the scriptures make sense. And let me show you from Genesis up through Malachi, how Jesus is the answer to all of this. He is the Messiah. They proclaim the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews who know the Old Testament. So that's how he starts out. And they also had John as their helpless. John Mark comes up again. Yeah. They took along John Mark, brought him back from Jerusalem, brought him to Antioch, and now they're taking him on their first missionary journey. And when they had gone through the whole island as far as Paphos, here we go, Salamis, the whole island. There are other cities on that island. There are mountains and other things, two trails. I just kind of went squigglies. But they work their way from the east to the west, and they get to the other end of the island, that's Paphos down here in the lower corner. And it says, there they found a magician. Now, we've already hit one magician in Acts. Right? We hit Simon Magus, Simon the Great, Simon the Magnificent, the one who wanted to buy the power of the Holy Spirit to be able to use it the way he wanted to use it. It's an interesting thing that Simon Magus tried to buy the power, not the per the third person, you know, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He's not understanding that it is a part that that that the Holy Spirit is God cannot be bought. And you know, Peter has a a he blessed. He puts him on blast. He goes for it at Simon. You can look back a few chapters and find that. They found a magician, a sorcerer. He was Jewish. Oh, that's really that's really weird. To be a Jewish sorcerer, that's something that they were not supposed to do. One of the main things that Saul the king did was consult a seer or a sorcerer, and it was like God is saying, you have left me. You've completely turned your heart away from me. Jews should not have been false prophets. They knew better. It was drummed into them, but it was a Jewish false prophet whose name was Bar Jesus. Bar Jesus, son of Jesus. Now, for us reading that today and we go, son of Jesus, man, what gall this guy has to take on the name. And when we were reading through this, Tanya and I were reading through this last week, this this past week, yesterday and the day before mainly. She said, was he picking up Jesus's name? Well, Jesus actually means he will save their people. Right? Salvation is what Jesus means. And so he's saying, I'm the son of salvation. I know better. Simon Magus the same way, lifted himself up. Every time we see pride in acts, God's gonna resist it. And when we see humility, God is gonna flow through it. So they found a magician, a Jewish false prophet whose name was Bar Jesus. He went by that name, there's another name that's gonna be given. Who was with the proconsul? He was like right hand man, or at least he was a hanger on to the proconsul Sergius Paulus. If you look back through your history and you see, oh, Cyprus, wait a second now. That was ruled by an imperial legate. Not at this time, it wasn't. It was proconsul from twenty two BC forward. And Luke is a good historian. He can be trusted. I promise you. You can do the research if you want to. It's been done. You can find it. But a proconsul was the man on this island. He was the guy. If you were going to do anything on this island, this is the guy that was really kind of in charge as far as Rome was concerned. So Rome sets Cyprus under this guy's supervision, Sergius Paulus, and he was Luke says, a man of intelligence, a smart guy. So we've got a false prophet, magician, son of salvation is what he's calling himself, or son of Jesus is what he's calling himself, and he may have been taking the notoriety of Jesus. That's a that's a real possibility. But since they're there and they're witnessing on this missionary journey, Jesus may not have been known well enough to be really what he was claiming. But he was with the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, a man of intelligence, a straight up Roman pagan. He doesn't have In Cornelius' background, we see that he was a god fearer, we see that he has some interaction with the Jews, so he knows some of the way, and he was a God fearer. This doesn't say that. But Sergius Paulus was a man of intelligence. Luke, the physician, Gentile, tells us this is a smart guy. Now this man summoned Barnabas and Saul, and he sought to hear the word of God. That's great. When you get an invitation like that, it's like, hey, I wanna hear what it is that you have to say. That's a great thing as a missionary. Come and share with us, tell us what all this is about. I I don't quite understand. So he summoned Barnabas who was a Cypriot, makes sense his name is first, and Saul sought to hear the word of God, but but Elymas, the magician, that's the guy, Bar Jesus, he's Elymas, that's his name, wise magician. Magicians always call themselves stuff like that, don't they? Byron the great, Byron the magnificent, whatever. Elymas the magician, for so his name is translated. He was opposing them. He was opposing Barnabas and Saul from the start. He was seeking to turn the proconsul away from the truth. If you think about it like this, most of the time, not all the time, but most of the time, it's slight of hand, it's illusion, it is deception that magicians are using to fool your eye and to fool you into thinking that they're more powerful than they are most of the time. Do not eliminate the possibility this guy was demonically possessed, that he was demonically being used to do supernatural type stuff. And so the last thing that he wants to do, if he's the right hand man of the proconsul on the island of Cyprus, and he's right there and he's got Sergius Paulus' ear, and maybe he's one of the one of the augurs who says, you ought to do this, you ought not do that. He's enriching himself by getting himself close to the government official, seeking to turn the proconsul away from the truth is what he was doing because he doesn't want to be found out. He doesn't want to be marginalized. He doesn't want to be sidelined. If this guy comes to know something else and he Bar Jesus, Elymas is not going for the gospel. He's not going for it at this point at least. Hope he did, but not at this point. But Saul, I put this all in green highlighted, but Saul who's also known as Paul. We get to finally start calling him Paul. Thank you. Because we all know him as Paul, this is the place where it swaps over. Saul was a Jewish household name. Paul was his name. Paul was always his name, but it's his home name. And if you're from the South, you probably you might have a home name. I'm very familiar with a lot of families who have home names. But Saul, he was going by his Jewish name, and now that he's on this missionary journey, Luke mentioned, he's also known as Paul. He was filled with the Holy Spirit. Filled with the Holy Spirit. I y'all know I have a soft touch like I'm not a hard guy to talk to. Do y'all know that? Went Tanya and I went this weekend. So we left Friday and we came back yesterday to Sheridan. It's seven hours. We went over because Daryl Bach was doing symposium or seminar Friday night, Saturday morning on engaging culture. And it's a Daryl Bach is Tiny's best friend by the way. She read his 2,000 page volume on the book of Luke, every word, everything. She just she always referred to him, this is my best best friend. This is my best friend. When we heard he was gonna be there, we were in Sheridan for hospice care and a funeral recently. They shared that Tanya said something, I wonder what my best friend would think of this. And the pastor said, who's her best friend? I said, Daryl Bach. We've never met the guy. He'll be here in April. And Tanya looked at me and said, we're doing that. So we did. We got home at 2AM. This is this is so contrary to the way that I'm wired, but I want you to pay attention to why Paul did what he did, where he did it, when he did it. Paul was filled with the Holy Spirit. He was overflowing with the spirit of God when he stared at this guy. That's the that is the most aggressive thing you can do is just stare at somebody. He stared at him and he said, you who are full of all deceit and fraud. You son of the devil. You're not the son of Jesus. You're the son of the opposite. Son of the devil. You enemy of all righteousness. In the name of all that is good and holy, basically. Will you not stop making crooked the straight ways of the Lord? You're Jewish, you should know this, you have stepped off of the path and you're leading others off the path, you're doing it to enrich yourself, you are so wrong that you must be called out. You who are full of all deceit and fraud, you're a magician, you're trying to fool people, son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, will you not stop making crooked the straight ways of the Lord? Now behold, the hand of the Lord is upon you and you will be blind, and you will not see the sun for some time. That's judgment. Paul is proclaiming judgment, filled with the Holy Spirit. Like I said, this is not my way. This is not the logical way that I would do this. I would engage them in conversation, ask lots of questions. But as the Thursday study said, you warn a man once, you warn him twice, and then you got to just it's wasting time to keep on. With this guy, it was. Behold, the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you will be blind and not see the sun for time. I do want to say this, Paul knows what it's like to be blinded by the Lord. He knows exactly what it's like. And for Paul, was a really good thing. It was a really good thing because he had time to think about his way and what his savior said. Why are you persecuting me? By him persecuting the church, he was persecuting Jesus straight up. Now behold, the hand of the Lord is upon you, you will be blind, you'll not see the sun for time. And immediately, a mist of darkness fell upon him and he went about seeking those who would lead him by the hand. This guy who's super confident and great is now groping and looking for somebody to be able to lead him so he doesn't just fall down. And then, the proconsul, Sergius Paulus believed when he saw what happened. And Luke adds something to this. It could be that you read this and you go, okay, Elymas has this magic and then Paul just uses better magic and he's converted. But Luke is very specific to say, he was amazed at the teaching of the Lord. The miracles accompany and affirm the message. So the message was there and the miracle helped to encourage and affirm that message. So that's 12 verses, the first 12 in Acts 13. And I thought that would take a lot less time than it did. These are the first guys that we saw off the plane when we got to Africa. We flew. Actually, I drove from here to Georgia. Tanya flew from here to Georgia. We did two ministry events in Georgia and then we took off. It was family related stuff, but good stuff. This is Mahindra and Bob. I met Mahindra and Bob when I was a steward in 2010 at the Lausanne World Congress on Evangelization. My seminary sent me as a steward, they were sent as stewards, and we got to be friends. We ate together after our double shifts every day, and we just got to be great friends. Both of them are ethnically Indian, both of them were born Hindu. Bob, sounds like not a very Hindu name. Krishna Naidu was his name and when he converted to Christianity, he changed his name to Bob. Skipped Robert altogether. It's just straight up Bob. Bob and Mahindra. Mahindra Singh, his family were the family in Durban. So Bob's from they're both from Durban, But Bob works in Cape Town and Mahindra works in Durban. And they were were there at this Lausanne conference. And that's the only two people that I know from South Africa. That's it. When I got here, when we got here in 2012, we had a missionary that was serving in around 2012, 2013, 2014 in that area. Melissa Landis was serving in South Africa, in Durban. She lived less than ten minutes from Mahindra. I know two people in Africa. Now I know three people in Africa by extension because I know Stephen Sandy. It's amazing that when she was having a difficult time as missionaries do, implosions happen, missionary meltdowns happen. I'm not saying anything against. I've had mine. Tanya's had hers. We've all had the, why Lord? Why'd you send me here? When there was a time when we needed to go down there and just help out. And so I I was sent by this church to go kind of help out in the situation. And I called my buddy and said, can you give this gal a soft place to land? He said, yes. Tell me more about her. She ended up working for him for how long, Steve? Five years? Three years? Three years. Mahindra is great. Crossroads is the name of the ministry that he runs. They took us around Cape Town. Bob now works for Mahindra and Crossroads and they're expanding from just Durban to being Durban and Johannesburg and Cape Town. These are goat heads. You have to do this with every missionary moment. You have to have the weird food that you go by. They call them walkie talkies. They are the head of the goat. It is the grossest thing I saw the whole time I was in Africa. But in the neighborhood, that's what the people ate because it's the cheapest part of the goat. This is Mavis. Right before the picture, like we always do is say, act like you like each other. And my Mavis reached up to grab my hand. Yeah. Sweet. That's Bob. Mavis started school in an informal settlement, and she's starting a second school in an informal settlement. It's just beautiful. Tanya, one over two out of three of those kids. Guy in the red shirt was not a big fan. I will I will let Tanya tell the stories in Kenya, but I want to tell the stories in South Africa. This is a poster for Scripture Union, is a lot like young life. Scripture is our emphasis is it's on getting scripture into the hearts and minds of kids. So it's older kids than Awana, but it's not exactly young life, but it's kinda like it. Scripture Union, we stopped by Crossroads helps out with Scripture Union. They help out with Mavis. That's what they're doing in Cape Town among other things, but moving on from there, there's the Durban Airport. And it's funny, that's me and my two friends I've known since 2010. Saw one of them in 2014 briefly for that trip down there with Melissa. And right before right when Tanya took this picture, she said, act like you like each other, and so they started holding my hands. And they're just great guys. That's Mahindra. He's an elder in his church. There are four elders in a 3,000 member church, 3,000 attenders at Umhlanga. Umhlanga. Grace Church in Umhlanga Rocks, South Africa. We have a family that went there for spring break, and we have a family that usually comes to the second service that live here part of the time and live there part of the time and they go to this church. God is connecting people all over the place and it's a diverse group of people. So that's Mahindra and Tanya at Gresham Flanga. That is the largest mosque in the Southern Hemisphere. It's in Durban, South Africa. It is right next door to the Islamic propaganda center for the propagation, the spreading of Islam International. This is one of the schools where they they do education and they feed kids who are going to school. That's Tanya's friend, this is my friend. This is the Hope Center. When I was there in I think it's 2014. When I was there in 2014, the rains were coming and they had dug the foundation for this building and the rains were headed that way. And they had already silted in one time. There's nothing worse than construction than digging the foundations on something and then have the rains come and silted in and then you have to dig them again. And so that was the state it was in when I was there and I called home and I said, hey, Steve, can you talk to the missions committee? Do we have any money that we can help put some concrete in these holes so it doesn't silt in again? He said, yes. We gave money for the foundation of that house right there and for the foundation that's up underneath that trailer, and the foundation that's up underneath that center back there, this center, it's a church kinda now. It's called the Hope Center and they do this lady, TD does Bible studies there and she is very knowledgeable. This lady is HIV positive. She came to Mahindra and said, I need to spread the word of God. And he said, we don't have anything to pay you. This was like eleven years ago, twelve years ago, something. And she said, I don't need money to spread the word of God. And for after six or seven months, he said, you know what? I think we're gonna start paying you. You're very effective. She's very effective. And so we sat in on one these Bible studies and when she'd asked for a testimony, the ladies would get up and they would sing a song that was on the theme that they and they hadn't as far as I know, they hadn't planned to do this. They would sing a song and we'd all join with them and then they would do a short testimony and then they go to the next person. They'd stand up, sing a song and go to the next. TD would translate for us, thankfully. They're go gos, grandmothers. These grandmothers are gathering and there's kind of a lost generation. Age has had a very very very profound effect on South Africa, and so the grandmother sometimes are the only parents that the kids have, and they gather and they have different needs, and what this one needed was they needed to know how to read and they needed to know needed to know the word of God. So that's why they gather and it was a barrel of monkeys. We had a fantastic time there. It was so much fun being with them. That is where TD is living, the hope center, that house right there. Donated land and then first be helped to build that. There is next door, just it's a very small space, but there's an an oven and these same ladies who meet there for Bible study also bake. This is the road to get there. This is Madoni. Madoni is a one that Steve and Sandy will recognize because Melissa did a lot of work there. It's just a beautiful little community of people. It's one of the hardest places. Yes, ma'am? Yes. Tanya raised her hand in the back row and she said, and they still remember her and everything that she did there and they wanted us to send hugs and love to Melissa. Yes, so sweet. Madonia is a type of tree. They started meeting and Melissa started instructing in the word of God under this Madonia tree. And they named the community community after the place where the church started. This is in Wedway, I think it's what this place is called. This is a different Bible study, a little further down, but it's a similar arrangement. This is an arrondoval, a roundhouse, and these ladies gather and he said, God is helping them to learn to read and to walk away from ancestor worship. Three of the ladies in this gathering were Shinbei prophetesses and some of them were Sangoma's healers. Take that as you will. Maybe magicians according to the text. It was not the power of God with which they were healing. TD teaches, she plans the Bible studies out and it's it's a lot like the Thursday men's study. It's a lot like that. It's not quite as involved as the Wednesday women's study, but it's still pretty awesome. This lady was one of those who is a practice practitioner of Shinbei and she got up and she had not said one word the whole time. She sang the song sitting down. She had not said one word the whole time. When she got up, it's one of the most powerful things I've ever heard. I have no idea what she said the first time around. I know what TD's translation was, and she said, she has taken the word of God. It has replaced everything else that she ever believed about the way the spiritual world works. It's transformed her life. It's transformed the life of her kids and her grandkids, and she is so thankful that God sent TD into that neighborhood. Afterwards, this is is actually bread, pizza bread, pizza dough from a pizza company and it says d o u g h n a t o r, Donator. They donated and Mahindra is kind of the yes guy for getting companies and needs, resources and needs putting those two together, crossroads. Another road, Next place. What these ladies needed was secure housing. They did not have secure housing which leads to bad stuff. If people can break in and steal and assault, they do. And so secure housing is what these ladies need. There are about 20 of them. Two of them had secure housing, but they wanted to help. And while we were there, they were making blocks. This is a pile of concrete and that is a concrete block mold. And they're gathered together to make blocks and they let them dry. That's a nice shot for Crossroads with their vehicle in the background. But they let them dry, and then they build homes out of them, and they are on home 17 and 18 right now. This is one of the ladies, and one of the babies, and this one was scared to death of Tanya. That was that was just what Mahindra said anyway. I'm not sure. It could have been me. I'm the giant, but I don't know. He was he was not having it. There's Tanya and TD. I didn't ask permission for that, so I'll skip past it quickly. This is their nondescript little location crossroads. We didn't see that until we had done everything else. Every these are all in chronological order. Everything else you've seen we saw before we ever saw their office because they're out kicking up dust. That's what beacon means by the way. Somebody who kicks up dust and just gets things done. They're constantly doing that sort of thing. This is from 2014. This guy is the pro console for a little neighborhood where there was trouble, and the trouble in the neighborhood that brought me there in the first place, That guy is the Nduna. He's the chief of the tribe in Olatheini. And I don't know the culture there, but Mahindra is from there. Barnabas and Paul, right? Barnabas and Saul. Barnabas was he knew the culture there. He knew what needed to happen there. I didn't know it. Saul was there. He can teach. He can say whatever. Well, Mahindra starts saying he he knows the spiritual landscape of what's going on. He says, he goes, you're so great to call. Call and to to tell us what's going on and what you want is peace. He said, I think that before and you have to on the way into the neighborhood, you have to stop and talk to the chief before you get to go into the neighborhood. On the way out, you let him know you're gone. And so Mahindra knows the culture, knows what's going on. He's outside of that culture though. He's he's ethnically Indian. He's not Zulu. And this guy, I did that's not I'm praying with him, but he accepted Christ. You read the stories in Acts and you go, yeah, that used to happen. The word of God goes forward. And if you will be about proclaiming the word of God, you'll get the same thing Paul got in Athens. Someone someone will accept it, someone will reject it, and someone say, I gotta hear more from this guy later. The proconsul believed when he saw what happened being amazed at the teaching of the Lord. I I think that the teaching of the Lord is a blessing for all peoples. That's the mission of God. A blessing for all peoples. The envision narrative. The envision is every tribe, tongue, and nation standing around the throne. We've got two more countries to discuss. That was just the stuff in South Africa, but we'll do that on into the future. This is the latest I've ever started communion, here we are. Lord God Almighty, will you do your work in us? We pray that. I also pray that as the ushers come forward, the elders come forward, that you would bless each of us, Lord, as we look at our lives and we avail ourselves to be used by you. First of all, Lord, by humbling ourselves in your presence and asking for cleansing from all known sin and thankful for the promise in first John one nine that if we will just agree with you about our sin, lord, that you will cleanse us from all unrighteousness. I ask that you do that, lord. We're gonna go through and at first take the bread and then we'll come back for the cup. In Jesus name, I pray that you'd bless as we distribute this little cracker that is representative of the body of Christ. Amen. Without you, I fall apart. You're the one who guides my heart. My one, dear friends, my righteousness. Oh, God, how I need you. Where sin bonds deal, your grace is more. Where grace is found is where you are. And where you are, righteousness. Oh, God, how I need you. So teach my song to rise When temptation comes my way, and when I cannot stand, I fall on here. Justice. Oh God, how I am. Yeah. Amen. On the same night that he was betrayed, Jesus took bread after supper and after he had given thanks, he blessed it. And he said to his disciples who were there, the whole band and us today. This is my body which is given for you. This is my perfect record given for you. Take this in, eat of it At all as often as you will in remembrance of me. Thank you, Jesus, that you walked out in submission to the spirit. You walked out the father's will. Thank you. You had the unique position of being the only sinless one and you have shared that sinlessness with everyone who would believe. Now Lord, I pray your blessing over this little plastic cup of grape juice that's representative of the innocent blood that was shed. In Jesus name, I ask that we would, as we distribute it, ponder it, Lord, and think about what it means, the difference in our eternity because you did what you did. Worthy is the lamb who slain. Amen. Amen. There's a place where mercy never dies. There's a place where streams of grace flow deep and wide. Jesus. There's a place where sin and shame are power where my heart has peace with God and forget life I'm in I'm in where you're red and my sins are washed white I owe it all to you. I owe it all to you, Jesus. In the same manner that he had taken the So took the cup. The same way that he took the bread, he also took the cup. It was very different from the way we're doing this right now, but it was exactly the same. He said, this is my blood of the new covenant. They knew the old covenant, and they had looked forward to the new covenant. The old covenant says, it's on you. If you will do this, then I will do that. All the while, knowing that he was gonna make the provision in this new covenant. Jesus said, this is the new covenant in my blood. Take this, take it in, and do it as often as you will to remember me. Amen. Paul says as often as we do this together, we proclaim the Lord's death and his concrete of sin until he comes again. Would you stand with me? Let's play what we're gonna play. Okay. Amen. Y'all can have a seat. We believe in God the father. We believe in Jesus Christ. We believe in the poor Spirit, and he's given us new life. We believe in the crucifixion. We believe that he conquered death. We believe in the resurrection, and he's coming back again. We believe. We believe. And let's end with the doxology. Praise God from all blessings flow. Praise him all creatures Amen. Amen. Thank you, Connor. Y'all go in peace. May the Lord bless. Yes, Yvonne. Say something. I just wanna wanna thank all for for their prayers while Russ was laid up. Wanna thank everybody for the prayers for while Russ was laid up. After four, after the four weeks, we had our first doctor's appointment. Doctor. Leithart gave Russ the go ahead to be able to go back to walking kids. Fantastic. So after after the Tomorrow? Tomorrow, he starts back. After spring break, Russ gets to be the walking school bus again because the surgery work. Amen. That's a good testimony and a good blessing out the door. May he be at work in us all week long. Amen.