Acts 20:1

And after the uproar had ceased, Paul called unto him the disciples, embraced them, and departed to go into Macedonia. When he had gone over those parts and had given them much exhortation, he came into Greece. There he abode for three months. When the Jews laid in wait for him as he was about to sail to Syria, he purposed to return through Macedonia. Accompanying him into Asia were Sopater of Berea, Aristarchus and Secundus of the Thessalonians, Gaius of Derbe, Timothy, Tychicus, and Trophimus of Asia. These going before us tarried for us at Troas. We sailed away from Philippi after the days of unleavened bread and came unto them in Troas in five days, where we abode for seven days.

Father, we pray that you would stir our hearts as we look at this passage of Scripture. As we consider the great things that you have done, the great things that you have promised to do, and the things you are doing right now, Lord, stir our hearts to be a part of the mission and the work. Help us to extend your glory to our county, our country, and to the uttermost parts of the earth. Unify us with one purpose of heart and mind to exalt your name among the nations. So lift your word high. We ask this in Jesus' name, and all God's people agreed, saying, Amen.

You can be seated. It really is a great blessing every year when Luke comes and shares with us about what God is doing. We love to hear the great stories and see the passion that God has placed in his heart, as well as the cool things that the Lord is doing with this ministry, Cross Connection Outreach.

It has been a great blessing to become acquainted with them and their mission over the last several years and to really partner with them as a church. Over the last six months, our church has had more opportunities to spend time with Luke. I joined the board of Cross Connection Outreach in September, and our church has taken over many of the administrative aspects of Cross Connection Outreach. Pastor Richard and Kelly Kirstead are overseeing a lot of the back-office workings of Cross Connection Outreach.

What this has done is free Luke and Kristen up to further the vision and expand this ministry. A vision to reach the 30 nations of the world that have 50% or more illiteracy rates is a pretty dynamic and huge vision, especially for a couple in Southern California. But with God, all things are possible, right? We want to set out to do great things for God, expecting Him to do great things on our behalf.

It has been really neat to have Luke at the church office quite a bit throughout the week and to see the development of this vision. Just a couple of weeks ago, Luke went with some of the team from the church to the Calvary Chapel Missions Conference in Marietta. He had a table for Cross Connection Outreach in their exhibit hall area and was able to meet another ministry called GALCOM, which is based in Canada. They make solar-powered radios that they take into other nations, along with the broadcasting equipment needed to reach people for Christ.

We will see how the Lord develops this connection with Luke and GALCOM. They will probably help us create this new unit as we move forward with this whole initiative. It is truly awesome to see what God is doing throughout the world.

Next Sunday, we will have another missionary couple here from the Philippines, Pat and Sherry Bailey. They have been part of our church for quite a while, ministering in Mindanao, primarily among Muslims, seeking to bring the gospel. God has opened doors for them to minister in Pakistan as well, and they will share a little bit about that. I am excited to see what the Lord will open up for us with them.

Last year, we sent Eddie Martinez from our church to Mozambique for the summer, and he...

I worked with Cross Connection Outreach, and God did some great things. We were able to send Sergio from our Spanish ministry down to Panama for the summer, where he served with a Calvary ministry. We also sent Shane Nelson to China. Although we didn't intend for him to stay there for five months, he ended up staying for that duration. Kelly, Josh, and I met with him about a week ago, and God has stirred his heart to return to China. In just a month or so, we will be sending him out there for a year to a year and a half. He will continue teaching English to the Chinese and will also be learning Chinese more fully. He has actually done pretty well with his Chinese, so God is really doing some awesome things.

We have seen the ministry here at Escondido sending people out for a very long time, and there is a great history behind it. This year, 2012, this church will be 31 years old. In that time, we have witnessed God do amazing things, and we expect that He will continue to do amazing things in the future. There is no way that we are going to slow down what we are doing. Last year, we sent teams to Mozambique and China. We also sent a team to Israel that engaged in both ministry and touring.

Almost every month, Dave Bossy takes people down to Tecate to work in the orphanage we have been involved with for nearly 20 years, Rancho San Juan Bosco. Last year, we sent mission teams to Phoenix. You may wonder what mission teams to Phoenix entail. It involves cross-cultural ministry as we work with Jeff Jackson's ministry, 1040 Interface. This ministry has a dual-component approach: one side focuses on missions training, while the other provides practical service to refugees who have been brought to our nation from Burma, Bhutan, Iraq, and Afghanistan.

All over the world, people are being repatriated here and dropped into a culture they do not understand. Imagine if you were taken today, flown to Burma, and just dropped in the middle of the jungle. You would probably struggle to survive. Unless you are like the survival experts on the Discovery Channel, you would likely find it very difficult. These refugees are brought here and left to navigate a new life. Ministries like 1040 Interface and others come alongside them to help them learn English and teach them basic skills, such as how to turn on a light, flush a toilet, and take care of themselves in this nation.

It's just phenomenal. We have sent teams to Phoenix to be involved with 1040 Interface, and we will do that again this year. Josh led a team to Dinuba, California, to work with Gleanings for the Hungry, and some of you have been a part of that. God is using our church to be involved globally, nationally, and locally.

We have been involved in nursing home ministry for 18 years. I was looking through some of the old minutes from our board meetings back in the early 90s, and it was some really interesting reading. I came across one report from Pastor Mark Turner, which mentioned that the Lord had been stirring his heart to reach out to the elderly in our community. We see how God has developed that ministry and continues to further it. There are far more nursing homes and care facilities in our town than we are currently ministering in, but we are seeking to regularly train more people to bring the gospel into those elder care facilities. That is why Pastor Mark will be having a training on the 21st.

God opens up great doors for us. About 15 years ago, maybe a little more, one of the members of our church, Tim Tompkins, came to Pastor Pat at the time. Tim had a video production company and suggested that they could get our services onto cable TV on the Public Access channel for really cheap. Pat agreed, saying they didn't have a budget for it, so Tim had to figure out how to do it. He did, and for over 15 years, we have been broadcast throughout San Diego County on public access on both Cox Cable and Time Warner Cable. We have the ability to reach three million homes a week. Now, I know three million people aren't watching each week, but we have the opportunity to bring the messages from our church into those homes.

God has brought many people to our church and connected them with the gospel through that ministry. Some of you who are here today were first introduced to the ministry of CCSGO in this way. We are continuing to further that ministry, which is why we have installed the new equipment we have. Our video team, Brett and Dave, have been planning new initiatives for this year, especially focusing on getting more content on the internet. The cable companies will soon become just a utility that provides access to internet content, so we want to be ahead of the curve and have as much content available as possible.

They are planning to develop projects beyond just the services here on Sundays, including working with a group of people to create a documentary about cross-connection outreach.

We connected them. Our church was used to connect them with New Tribes Missions and some missionaries that we've been involved with in the Philippines for a number of years. Bill and Donna Davis have been translating the New Testament into the Palawano language in the Philippines, and they're nearing the end of their work. For 25 years, they've been translating this Bible, and now they're going to be connected with Cross-Connection Outreach. We are going to be documenting this whole process as they finish the translation and Cross-Connection Outreach comes in to do the recording. Our church and other churches are involved in bringing these Bibles, these audio scriptures, to a group of people who don't read. God is just doing awesome things.

About a year and a half ago, we received a call, actually an email, from 88.9 FM radio station, KSDW, which is associated with K-Wave. They said they had some time slots open, and it turned out that it was relatively cheap to be on the radio in Southern Riverside in North County, San Diego. For the last year and a half, we've been on the radio. Terry Moody produces our broadcast every single week and gets it all set up. When I first met with Terry and asked if he could do this, he said he had never done anything like it before. I sat down with him with a Macintosh computer and GarageBand, a little microphone, and he records it, gets it all ready, and puts it on the radio, making sure it's cut to 26 minutes. It’s just amazing what God is doing through our church.

We are not a huge church, but we have a huge vision. The things that God is doing through our church are not things that just one person or even a small team of people could do. It takes the whole body of Christ to extend this work. The things I’ve just shared with you don’t even mention what is happening right here on the campus: the School of Discipleship, the men’s and women’s ministry, the youth ministry, and the college and career or young adults ministry. All these different things are happening right here. Beyond that, there is so much happening in our community and beyond. It’s just amazing to see what is going on.

There are more than 150 people here at our church who are regularly involved in serving in some capacity, whether it’s children’s ministry, men’s ministry, the worship team, the sound team, walking the parking lot, or recording radio and TV broadcasts and helping plan for mission trips. It’s just phenomenal. When I step back and see the things we want to do and are planning to do, it continues to blow my mind that the Lord has allowed me to be a part of it and to be involved in the position I have here at the church. A lot of times, I’m in all these different meetings with various groups, so I get to see the larger picture of what’s happening.

It just boggles my mind. It blows my mind. As we're planning trips this year to China, and perhaps the Philippines, and maybe even a small team to Africa to help with the recording, we're meeting next month with another ministry called the American European Bethel Mission. They have ministry bases in northern Israel, Haifa, and southern Israel. We are hoping to plan a youth missions trip to China or to Israel this summer to work in Haifa. It’s just amazing to see what God is doing there.

I received an email a couple of weeks ago from Dr. Varghese, also known as Dr. TV, who developed our School of Discipleship materials. He extended an invitation to us to take a group of people to Dubai, Nepal, and India to continue the discipleship ministry he has been doing for more than 30 years. It is phenomenal to see these things happening and coming together. We may not be a huge church, but we have a huge vision, and we are very excited about what God is doing.

To give you a little insight into this, Kelly and a team of people have been putting together a ministry fair that we will have next Sunday over in the Youth Center. This fair will provide an idea of what some of these ministries are here at our church and through our church. It was really cool because when we were at the Calvary Chapel Missions Conference in Marietta a couple of weeks ago, they had an exhibit hall for different ministries. Four or five of those ministries are connected to our church; they are a part of our church.

Pastor Richard had a little table for Calvary Admin Services, which is a ministry that our church offers to help other churches with the administrative tasks of getting planted. We also started a ministry last year called the Logos Retirement Plan, which offers retirement plans appropriate for churches and ministerial staff members. Doug Eagle is the one who set this up for us. He was part of our church about ten years ago until he and his family relocated to northern Los Angeles. We connected with him and developed this program.

He was at a conference in Indiana a few months ago, and Bob Coy, the pastor from Calvary Chapel Fort Lauderdale, which is the tenth largest church in America with 17,000 members and 805 staff members, approached Doug. He said he had heard about this program and wanted Doug to set it up for his church. So, please pray for Doug because this week, today, Richard and Doug are flying to Florida.

They have a conference that they will be a part of this week in Florida. On Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, Doug is meeting with Pastor Bob Coy and his executive team to develop a program for their church. Doug is kind of stressing out a little bit; I don't think he expected it to take off like this. So, this Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, please write down on your bulletin: "Doug Eagle, pray!" He would be blessed if you would pray for him.

A little more than a year ago, we started a high school here at our church. Now, it's not a physical brick-and-mortar building high school, but it's a regular Christian private high school online called Calvary Online High School. You can even look at the website, calvaryonlinehighschool.org. Jared Beck, right over here, would you raise your hand? Jared is the administrator of our school. He came to our board about a year and a half ago and shared this vision with us. Many people are moving from public education and public schools into charter schools, and from there, there is this whole new space of online high schools. A lot of colleges and universities have been doing this for a while, and now God has opened the doors for us to be involved. We have students all over the world. Right now, we have 25 students, is that right?

This month, in January, we will find out if our WASC accreditation is going through. We had a meeting with WASC back in November, and they shared with us at that time that we would not be denied. So, we are just waiting to find out what kind of accreditation we will have. Our belief is that when we receive that accreditation, which will be this month, it will begin to open the door for many more students to be a part of our school. Last June, we graduated two students. One of them was living in China, finishing her high school career while working with the underground church as a missionary there. She was able to be a part of our school, finish her education, and then step out from that.

It is just an awesome thing to see what God is doing. He is branching us out in so many different directions; it completely blows my mind. When I think about what God is doing and how He is developing this vision, it really is a blessing to be a part of it. We may not be a huge church, but we have a huge vision. We want to continue to share with you a little more about what our vision is, and a big part of that vision will be shared in a church meeting that we are planning.

We are going to have a meeting on January 29th, Sunday, at 5:30 p.m. here at the church. We will be sharing some of the things that we are planning for 2012 that go beyond what we've talked about here this morning. If you count this church as your home church, I encourage you to come out on the 29th. We made sure it wasn't Super Bowl weekend, and there will be no playoff game on that day. So, January 29th at 5:30 p.m. here in the sanctuary. There may be 20 people, or it may be standing room only; I don't know. We want to share with you some of the things that God is bringing together for our church.

All of these things that we are doing, our elder board, our staff, and our pastoral team are convinced that this is what God would have us be doing as a church. In Matthew 28, Jesus commissioned His church, saying, "Go into all the world and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Until the end of the world, we have a commission.

Now, there is a whole group of people that believe 2012 is the end of the world. I don't believe so. The Lord could return this year, and that would be great. How many of you would say, "Amen, praise the Lord, let's go"? That would be wonderful. If He doesn't, we know for certain that He is with us until the end of the world and that He has given us a commission to go into all the world, teach all nations, baptizing them, and teaching them to observe.

When we talk about teaching all nations and baptizing them, this is about planting churches. This is about making assemblies, gatherings of disciples. That's what it means when you're baptizing people; you're bringing them together as a congregation, a church. If you really want to know what Jesus meant when He said that, just look at what His disciples did for the next 30 years after that point in the Book of Acts. They went throughout all the world and planted churches, which is exactly what we see in this passage here in Acts 20 that we read from today.

We see that Paul, after an uproar in Ephesus, gathered together the disciples, embraced them, and departed for Macedonia. So, let's picture for a moment where we are in the Book of Acts. Last week, we saw that Paul is in the city of Ephesus, and he has been there for nearly three years. Two of those years, he has been teaching at a school in the city and preaching.

Paul was teaching the gospel, and people were coming to him from the city of Ephesus and from all around that area of Asia to hear and learn from him. The gospel, as it was going forth, is transformative. As I said last week and as Luke said this morning, the gospel is powerful. Paul was preaching the gospel, and the power of the gospel was shaking the pagan occultic practices of the city of Ephesus. There was a great stir in the city, almost a riot, as we saw in our study last week.

When we come to verse one, we see that after that uproar, after the whole incident in the theater at Ephesus, Paul called the disciples to him. This indicates that Paul had planted a church in the city of Ephesus because there was a gathering of disciples. Disciples are learners, students. Jesus said to go into all the world and teach, and here Paul is teaching, with students, or disciples, gathered together.

A disciple, as we see in this verse, is not just someone who receives a whole bunch of information. Paul was not merely a giant orb of information trying to download his knowledge into the heads of those under him. Notice that when he called the disciples to him, he embraced them. There is a relational aspect to discipleship; it is not just about information, but also about relationship. Paul had a gathering of believers, a group of disciples to whom his heart was connected. In 1 Thessalonians chapter 2, Paul says it wasn't just their goal to give the gospel, but to impart their very souls to the people. He was connected with this group in Asia, in the city of Ephesus, where a church was planted.

After they had some form of fellowship together, Paul went from there to Macedonia. If you look at a map, you probably have one in the back of your Bible showing Paul's journeys. This is Paul's third missionary journey, and he is in the city of Ephesus, which is in modern-day Turkey, modern-day Asia Minor. After preparing to depart, he traveled west across the Aegean Sea to northern Greece, or Macedonia. It is very likely that he came to the city of Philippi, as that was one of the chief cities of Macedonia.

This is the city that Paul, on his second missionary journey, had planted a church in. Paul had a dream while he was in the city of Troas, which is just north of Ephesus in Asia. In this dream, he saw a man of Macedonia who said, "Come help us." So, Paul gathered his team—Luke, Silas, Timothy, and whoever else was with him, as noted in Acts chapter 16—and they traveled to Philippi. There, they spent a period of time planting a church, but an uproar occurred. Paul and Silas were beaten and put in prison, and then they were kicked out of the city.

Now, Paul is returning to visit the church in Philippi, and from there, he will continue to visit some of the other churches. Look at verse 2 of chapter 20. When he had gone over those parts and had given them much exhortation, he came to Greece. Imagine, if you will, that he is in Ephesus, traveling northwest across the Aegean Sea to Philippi. He is exhorting, encouraging, and strengthening the church. He goes through these churches, teaching and equipping them more fully than he had before.

He probably stopped in Philippi and then traveled south, likely stopping in Thessalonica, another place where he planted a church, and then Berea, another location of his ministry. He continues south into Greece, near Athens. We don't know if he visited Athens again; he may have, as he had started a work there in Acts chapter 17. In verse 3, it says that he abode there for three months.

When he is staying in Greece for three months, he is likely in the city of Corinth. Just prior to this, a few months earlier, Paul had sent the first letter to the Corinthians. He sent that letter because the church was having all kinds of problems—issues with pride, stubbornness, and spiritual showiness that wasn't truly of God. Immorality and carnality were rampant in that church. Paul sent a heavy letter, essentially telling them to stop their behavior and get their act together. He sought to strengthen them, and now he returns to Corinth for a period of three months, where he continues to exhort them.

The word "exhort" is a Greek word, parakaleo, and it means to come alongside with a call. It's the idea of running in a race and seeing someone stumble. You recognize them as your own teammate, so you come alongside and say, "Come on, let's get up. Let's continue to run the race. Let's do this. Let's press through. Let's finish well."

Paul comes to Corinth, and he's exhorting them to press on and continue. He spends three months there, and then we read in the middle of verse three, "When the Jews laid wait for him as he was about to sail to Syria, he purposed to return through Macedonia." Paul has a plan to stay in this region for a while, and then he intends to board a ship and go to Syria, traveling east on the Mediterranean. Paul's home church, where he and Silas were from, was in the city of Antioch of Syria.

He has been on the mission field for several years, more than three years, because he spent three years in Ephesus. So, he has been out on the field for three, four, maybe four and a half years, and now he says, "Okay, I want to go back to my home church." Ultimately, his plan, as we will see later on in the book of Acts, is to go to Jerusalem for the feast of Pentecost. The Christian church celebrated the feast of Pentecost because it was on Pentecost that a great event happened for the church: the Spirit of God was poured out in Acts chapter two, and the church was basically established on that day.

Paul wants to get to Jerusalem for the feast of Pentecost, but he is very far away in Corinth. He says, "Well, we're going to take a ship from here to Syria." However, somehow word gets to him that there is a plot against him from a group of Jews, and it would not be good for him to go on this boat. Who knows? Maybe this group was going to travel on the boat as well, and Paul was going to have an unfortunate mishap on the deck of the boat on his way back to Syria. We don't know the details, but he caught wind of it and decided to return through Macedonia.

Now, I want to consider a couple of things in verse three that I think are really important. Paul used wisdom. It's important that we seek the Lord for wisdom. Wisdom is different from knowledge. Knowledge is information; it is knowing something. Someone comes and gives him some information: there is a group of people plotting to take you out.

Wisdom is knowing how to rightly use knowledge. Here, Paul had this knowledge, and he used wisdom to say, "Well, we should change our plan."

The second thing I want you to notice is that he had a plan. There are people in the church who sometimes think that having a plan is unspiritual. They believe that if you really want to be led of the Lord, you should never plan anything and just go with it to see where you end up. Some people think that this is how Paul worked. However, when you go through the Book of Acts, you see that this is not the case at all. Oftentimes, he had a plan.

The third thing we need to recognize is that he was willing to change his plan. He was flexible. We should exercise wisdom, seek the Lord for a plan, and be flexible in our plans because man plans his ways, but God directs his steps. Sometimes, God directs our steps in ways we didn't plan, so we must be open to how the Lord might lead us. We should seek the Lord for a plan.

I want you to know that although you are not often privy to the meetings that happen here at our church, there are many different things occurring with our elder board, our missions board, and the various committees we have. We are seeking the Lord for a plan, asking Him to help us know what He wants us to do. We seek Him to be the one who directs our church. I am not the CEO of CCESCO; God is the CEO of this church. He is the one we seek to direct our plans.

That being said, we do not just haphazardly stumble into things. We are asking the Lord to help us know the direction we should go and how to effectively carry this out. This is what we see in verse three with the Apostle Paul. He had a plan, he was flexible in his plan, and he used wisdom to guide his plan.

In verse four, we see that he was accompanied into Asia by Sopater of Berea. Remember, Paul started in Ephesus in verse one, then traveled northwest to Macedonia, to Philippi, Berea, and Thessalonica. How do we know he was in Berea and Thessalonica? I believe we know from this verse because, as he was going, he was picking up companions. He now had a team of guys with him: Sopater of Berea and Aristarchus and Secundus of the Thessalonians. He was going to each of these cities and saying, "Hey, I want this guy. Come with me. I want these two guys."

Come with me. He had it. So, Patter, Aristarchus, and Secundus—guys with really cool names. I'm sure these are going to become hip again soon. Gaius of Derby was in Galatia, the region where Paul planted his first churches with Barnabas. He has Gaius from Derby and Timothy, who is from Lystra, also in Galatia.

Where Paul is going, he's recruiting a team. He's looking around for people to be a part of the work that God is doing. That's what we're doing here at our church as well. As we go about the mission, the work that God has called us to, we're looking for people who say, "I want to do that."

Remember in Isaiah chapter six, Isaiah hears God say, "Who will go for us, and who shall we send?" Isaiah responds, "Here am I, send me." God is looking for people who are willing to step out and say, "I'll do that. I don't know how to do it, but I'll do it."

I remember when I was a senior in high school, I would come down here to the church. This building wasn't finished yet; it was being built, and the offices were under construction. I would come down because I had half days every day during my senior year block schedule at Orangeland High School. I'd help fold bulletins and do whatever needed to be done.

One day, Pastor Richard came to me and said, "Hey, listen, we're finishing up this building. We need someone to wire the phones and the network for the building." I said, "Wow, that's interesting. I don't know how to do that. I'll help, but I don't know how to do that." He replied, "Well, here, this guy will show you how to do it, and then you do it."

Now, here we are, 16 years later, and it still works. It's a phenomenal thing. It's amazing. Every time the phone rings and I pick it up, I think, "That's amazing, it still works." But I had no clue what I was doing.

I'm sure when God began to call Todd Kent to go to the Philippines, he probably didn't say, "Yeah, I got this in the bag, no problem." There was probably a part of him that said, "I don't know what I'm going to do. I don't know how that's going to work, but here am I, send me."

When Rick and Kelly went to Minsk, Belarus, in '93 to plant a church there, I'm sure they weren't saying, "Oh, yeah, it's no problem. I do this all the time; it's no big deal." No, there were certainly aspects in their hearts that said, "We don't feel like we can do this, but here we go."

That's what it means to take a step of faith. That's when you're walking by faith and not by sight. Walking by sight is one of those things where you think, "I got this in the bag." Most of the time, when you think you have it in the bag, that's when you fall, and God shows you that you really don't know what you're talking about. That happens to me like 15 times a day.

Paul is traveling on a mission. Jesus said to go into all the world, teach, make churches, baptize them, and continue to teach. He is on this mission, and he is inviting others to join him. God has gifted each of us with talents and abilities, and he needs our help.

Every single believer in this room today is gifted by God through His Holy Spirit. The natural abilities and talents you possess are not merely natural; they are supernatural. God gave them to you. He created you with these gifts so that you could glorify Him. You can glorify Him by being a good employee in the business where you work and by taking care of your family. After all, if you do not take care of your family, you are worse than an infidel. Additionally, you can glorify Him by extending the glory of His kingdom.

God has given you incredible talents and gifts. For example, if you know how to engineer plastics, it is because Cross Connection Outreach needs you. If you have a knack for recording and learning how to use computers, it is so you can produce Line Upon Line Radio here in Escondido. If you have a desire to make videos or movies, you can use that talent for your business, recording weddings and providing for your family. You can also say, "I am using this for the kingdom of God," in whatever capacity you serve.

There are over 150 people here at our church who are involved in regular service to the kingdom of God each week. This includes those in children's ministry, the worship team, youth ministry, ushers, greeters, and those recording videos or audio, or managing websites. God has called us to be on mission.

While Paul was on his mission, he was gathering a team. Why? Because he was just one person who could not fulfill the enormous vision that God had given him. It was much bigger than simply planting churches throughout the known world. What we will see with the Apostle Paul in the rest of the book of Acts is his commitment to this mission.

Paul is going to bring a team of guys together, train them, and then send them out. He will also write letters of encouragement to them. For example, he tells Titus, "You're on the island of Crete. I left you there to establish a church. Let me encourage you on what you need to do." He also addresses Timothy, saying, "I've left you in the city of Philippi. This is what you do." To the church at Colossae and those who are meeting there, he offers encouragement as well.

Paul has a team that includes Patter, Aristarchus, Secundus, Gaius, Timothy, Tychicus, and Trophimus. These names are going to become popular again. Paul is in Corinth, where he has been collecting this team. He stayed for three months in Corinth, and now he is going to go back north through Macedonia to Philippi. From there, he will cross the Aegean Sea east back to Troas, then down to Ephesus, and ultimately back to Syria, Antioch, and then down to Jerusalem. That is the route they are taking.

In verse five, we see that Patter, Secundus, and Aristarchus go ahead of Paul to Troas. It is important to note the word "us" in this context. The author of the book of Acts, a man named Luke, who also wrote the Gospel of Luke, is now with Paul again. Paul is in the city of Philippi because he had left Luke there in Acts chapter 16. Luke was essentially the overseer, the pastor of the church in Philippi, and now Paul has him back with the team.

In verse six, we read that Paul, along with Luke, sailed away from Philippi. Notice that this happened after the days of unleavened bread, indicating that Paul spent time in Philippi for the feast of Passover. This means Paul spent three months in the winter in Corinth. He was a smart guy, spending the winter in southern Greece, which was a good plan. Afterward, he went up in early spring to Philippi, stayed there for the feast of Passover, and now with Luke, they sailed to Troas.

They stayed for a few days, seven days there, and then, as we will see as we continue through the Book of Acts, Paul is going to move from there down to Ephesus, from Ephesus to Syria, and from Syria to Jerusalem. In Jerusalem, Paul will face a major confrontation when a group of Jews sets themselves to kill him, declaring that they will not eat anything until Paul is dead.

Paul is taken captive, partially for his protection by the Roman government. Because he is a Roman citizen, he appeals to the highest authority in Rome, which is Caesar. From that point, it will be his journey from Jerusalem down to Caesarea by the sea, and then ultimately on his way to Rome, because he must see Rome. It is an awesome thing.

In all of this, we see that Paul was on mission. That is our goal and our desire: that we would be on mission as well. We should be, if you will, missional. What I mean by that is that we, the church, the gathering of disciples here in Escondido at 1675 Seven Oaks Road, should recognize that we are missionaries here in North County, California.

We should see that we didn't just grow up here, go to school here, or get transplanted here because of the military or work. God placed us here to be missionaries to the culture of this place. We are called to be missionaries in nursing homes, as chaplains in our companies, and at the street fair in May or October to extend the gospel to people. We are missionaries at Cruzan Grand from April to September on Friday nights, and we are missionaries wherever the Lord plants us to extend the glory of God to our culture.

Perhaps, as you are doing that work, God will come and knock on your door one day and say, "Hey, I'd really like you to come with me to China." You might think, "I can't do that," but you can respond, "Here am I, send me." Then you go to China and do the same thing there that you are doing here. You are a missionary wherever you are.

This is what the church needs to recognize: that we are called by God and commissioned by Him. It is not just the people we pray for up here, like Luke, Shane, or Eddie. They are not the only ones we are sending out; they are not the only ones doing the Great Commission.

We're all doing the Great Commission. We have enjoyed His grace through salvation, and we're enjoying His grace as He makes us righteous through sanctification. Now, we need to extend His glory wherever we are.

What I desire to do, with the time that I have remaining, is to bring you the exhortation to engage in the mission. Be a part of the mission, however that might look. Maybe it is in a nursing home, or in the children's ministry, equipping future missionaries. Perhaps it is in the men's or women's ministry, strengthening the body of Christ. It could even be at the street fair. Whatever it may be, engage in the mission with the gifts that God has given you, with the talents that God has given you, with the time that He has given you, and with the money that He has given you.

This is the greatest mission in the world—the mission of the King of Kings. It is the only mission that will continue into eternity. Every other mission, every other endeavor that we might be involved with, will be done when Jesus comes back and says, "Okay, we're out of here." This is the mission of His kingdom. It is an awesome mission, and it is a mission possible.

Let's stand and pray.

Father, I pray that You would unite our hearts together to accomplish the work that You have set before us as a church. Accomplish the work in and through us that You desire to do. Glorify Yourself in us to our culture. Open greater doors for us. Lord, help us to see and heed those Macedonian calls when they come. We lay our plan before You and ask You to direct our steps. For we ask it in Jesus' name, Amen.