A People With A Purpose

Thank you. We are celebrating here at Cross Connection Church the Feast of Pentecost because the Feast of Pentecost is the day that the church was born. So, we are celebrating the birthday of the church—not just this church, but the global Church of Jesus Christ. Today, we are celebrating and looking at what the Bible has to say about the Church of Jesus Christ, what their task and mission is in the world, and also some prophetic hope about the fact that it will one day be finished.

Join with us and open your Bible. We are going to start in the Book of Matthew, chapter 16. Like I said, I’m going to have you stand up because we stand for the reading of God's Word. Open your Bibles to the Gospel of Matthew. Today, we are going to take a slight detour in Matthew chapter 16. If you don’t have a Bible, you can raise your hand, and one of our ushers will bring you one.

We will pick it up at verse 13. This gives us a little idea of where we are going. Matthew 16, verse 13 says, "When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying, 'Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?'" So they said, "Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, others Jeremiah, or one of the prophets." He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?"

Father, we pray that You would speak to us. This is such a cool passage of Scripture, and no doubt You have something You want to say to us. So, God, would You ready our hearts for Your Word? Lord, we believe that Your Word is living and powerful, that it is sharper than any two-edged sword, and that it is useful for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness. We, Your people, would be ready, thoroughly equipped for the good works that You prepared beforehand that we should walk in tomorrow, Tuesday, and throughout the rest of this week.

There are things that You have already pinpointed on our schedule, on our calendar, that You want us to walk in. So, would You give us the grace, the ability, and the application from Your Word to be ready for those things as we study to show ourselves approved today? For we ask this in Jesus' name, and all God's people agreed, saying, "Amen." You can be seated. As I said, and as Pastor Josh alluded to...

We're taking a little bit of a detour from our study in Paul's trials. We've been in Acts chapter 25, going into Acts 26. Thank you, Randy Broberg, for sharing last week while I was taking care of my kids while my wife was at the women's retreat. Next week, we'll get back into Acts chapter 26, but today, as Josh mentioned, is a special day in the calendar—a Jewish feast.

You may be wondering why we would be celebrating a Jewish feast, and I want to give a little bit of background and information to set the stage for what we're doing here. The nation of Israel was commanded by God to observe three convocations and seven feasts. You may ask, what in the world is a convocation? It was three times that they were to convene together in Jerusalem each year. The people would gather for a big reunion, a time of feasting and festivities in Jerusalem at the beginning of spring, at the end of spring, and in the fall.

When they would come for the first convocation at the beginning of spring, they would celebrate three feasts: Passover, the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and the Feast of First Fruits. Then, 50 days later, at the end of spring, they would celebrate the Feast of Pentecost. At the end of the fall harvest, when the harvest would come in, they would gather a third time to celebrate the Feast of Trumpets (Rosh Hashanah), the Feast of Atonement (Yom Kippur), and the Feast of Tabernacles. This was something they did every single year.

Now, there are some Christians who think that we should delve into these things and celebrate each one. If you can get your employer to give you seven holidays, more power to you! That's awesome. We do think that these things are important, but their greatest importance is that they point to Jesus. Everything in the Old Testament points to Jesus; the law and the prophets are fulfilled in Him.

This holiday at the end of spring, called Pentecost or Shavuot, is important to the church because something great happened on this day, we believe around AD 33, which would make it 1,981 years ago today. God did something great on the Lord's Day, the first day of the week, when the church was gathered together, and God birthed the church. So, this literally is the birthday of the church.

Years after that, they were still celebrating Pentecost. We know that Paul, in the Book of Acts, as we've been studying, wanted to get back to Jerusalem for the Feast of Pentecost. It was still a big deal, and I still think it is, in some ways, a big deal because we are celebrating what God did to start the church, to begin this great movement and this great region.

I think it's fitting that the beginning of the church, the birth of the church, happened on the day when they were celebrating the harvest, celebrating the bringing in of the fruitfulness of the spring planting time. This is important because, a number of times, both in Jesus's teaching and in other New Testament writings, we see that the giving forth of the gospel and the bringing in of people who believe is illustrated by the sowing of seed and the reaping of a harvest.

There are a number of times where that is seen. Jesus's first parable, that he tells in Matthew Chapter 13, is the parable of the sower who goes forth to sow seed. He explains that that seed is the Word of God and that the ground the seed goes upon are the hearts of men. There is coming a time when it is gathered in, and the harvest comes in. It is so fitting that the birth of the church would take place at the time of the festival for the harvest.

In the Gospel of John, Chapter 4, we read that Jesus was heading back to Galilee from Jerusalem. It was right around the springtime of the year, and he passed through a region called Samaria. Many Jews would try to stay away from that region, but Jesus went through because he had an appointment there. As he came near a city called Sychar, John Chapter 4 describes this. He waited at a well outside of the city while his disciples went into the Samaritan city of Sychar to buy provisions, to buy food.

He waited there in the middle of the day; it was noon. A woman came out to draw water, and you may remember that Jesus had quite a conversation with her there at the well. At the end of that conversation, she went back into the city to take a new word to the people of that city, believing that she had met, and in fact she did meet, the Messiah. As she was going back in, his disciples came back to him, and now there was a gathering of men coming out of the city of Sychar. Jesus said something awesome in John.

Chapter 4, verse 35, I believe it is, says, "Behold," or "Do not say, 'Four months, and then comes the harvest.'" For behold, the harvest is white; it is ready to be brought in. Then He says, "Pray the Lord of the harvest that He would send forth workers." There were these guys coming out; they were ready. The harvest is ready to be brought in, and so the church begins at the time of the harvest.

We have seen for the last 1,981 years that God has been plowing, preparing, and planting seed in the hearts of people. Then He brings in the harvest, and many times we get the opportunity to be a part of that harvesting, bringing in the people who put their faith in Jesus for salvation. It was there, 1,981 years ago, on the Feast of Pentecost, when it had fully come, that God poured out His Spirit upon His gathered believers—about 120 of them—there in the city of Jerusalem. We will see it in a little while in Acts chapter 2. The church was birthed; it was born right there, and it will continue on into eternity. This is an awesome truth that we find in the Scriptures.

Now, when we talk about these things, one of the things we have to do is define what exactly is church. What exactly is church? You will hear some people today say that when you get together at Starbucks with another Christian and have a coffee, that is church. That may or may not be the case. There are a lot of different definitions of church, but the word that is translated in the Bible as "church" is the Greek word "Ecclesia." It is a Greek word that just means a gathering—a gathering together of an assembly, a group of people gathered under one common thing, one common faith.

One of the other definitions of the word that you will find is any gathering or throng of men assembled by chance or tumultuously. Under that definition, a flash mob would be a church. In the Koine Greek language construct, the definition is just a gathering of people. But what is different about the gathering of people who are under the heading of Christ? You see, if you fast forward nearly 2,000 years later, people think of church, and when they hear the word "church," they think of a building. They will say things like, "I'm going to church," and then, "I'm at church." When you get home, your neighbor might ask, "Where you been?" and you would say, "Well, I went to church."

We have this mindset that it's all about some place that we go to, and that's a very temple-driven Old Testament mindset. However, that's not the reality we find in the New Testament. What we find in the New Testament is that the church is the called-out people of God, saved by His grace and for His purpose. The church is not just a building; it is a people. The people are the church.

You remember that old little rhyme: "Here is the church, here is the steeple, open the door, see all the people." That whole thing emphasizes that the people, not the building, are the church. We need to keep that mental framework when we look at these things. If you have put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ for salvation, then we are the people of God, saved by His grace. But we are not only saved to be saved; we are saved for a purpose.

We are saved for a reason, by the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We are saved to a task. This whole concept is not the invention of man. It is in the makeup of humanity to gather together in tribes, to congregate in groups. We are always coming together with people who look like us, talk like us, smell like us, think like us, have the same school they graduated from, or support the same team. Whatever it may be, people want to congregate together and be in groups.

There are many different fraternities, clubs, and foundations that people align themselves with, but those are all constructs of men. The reality is that the church is God's plan, not man's. The church is God's plan; it's not ours. It's not something we came up with; it's something He decided upon. We know this because the very first time the word "church" is used in the Scriptures is found in the passage we began with in Matthew chapter 16.

Let's go back there for a moment. In Matthew chapter 16, we already have the setting established. Jesus is with His disciples in a place called Caesarea Philippi. For many of you, that may not mean much, but Caesarea Philippi was in the northernmost part of the nation of Israel. If you go with us to Israel next year, we're planning a trip, and we will visit this significant location.

On November 2nd, I believe, of 2015, our team went to Caesarea Philippi. This is one of the places that sticks out in my mind; it is one of the places that I really enjoy visiting. When you go to Caesarea Philippi, located in the northernmost part of the nation just below Mount Hermon, there is a red rock cliff. For many hundreds of years, people would gather there. There was a cave that went down into the cliff, and a spring that brought water up from underneath the cliff. This spring was one of the headwaters of the Jordan River.

In that cave, there was a place of worship dedicated to the false god Pan. Over time, many other places of worship emerged. There were numerous churches and gatherings for different deities and false gods, where people would go to worship carved images. They would offer sacrifices of animals, fruits, and various other items. They would worship a rock that was carved to resemble something, and they would kill a goat to offer it in that place.

It is in this context that Jesus goes with His disciples, probably just the twelve, and they are observing this scene. Jesus asks His disciples, "Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?" They respond, "Some say you are John the Baptist." By this time, John the Baptist had already been beheaded. Others say, "You are Elijah the prophet," referencing the prophecy given by Malachi that Elijah would come before the Messiah. Some were saying Jeremiah or one of the other prophets, coming in the spirit and power of these figures.

In the midst of this, Jesus asks them, "But who do you say that I am?" This is such an important question that every person needs to answer individually. The church is a corporate entity, but it is built around people who have answered that question individually. Simon Peter, always the one to speak up, answers, "You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God." Would you underline that word "Living"? There they are, watching people worship rocks carved to look like images, and they are worshiping them in very sacrificial and devoted ways.

Jesus, you are the Christ. That means the Anointed One, the fulfillment of all the prophecies of the Old Testament. You are the Anointed One, and you are the Son of the Living God. This means you have come with the authority and the power of the God who is alive, not like these images that people are bowing down to. You have come with the authority and the power of God Himself.

Well, if that was a test, Peter got an A. Jesus answered and said to him, "Blessed are you, Simon Peter." I imagine he had a big smile on his face. "Blessed are you, Simon bar Jonah," looking at John and going, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven." He says, "God just spoke through you." That's exciting! How awesome would that be to have Jesus say, "God just spoke through you"? You would feel like one of the prophets.

Flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. Now notice this in verse 18: "And I also say to you that you are Peter." The Greek word "Petros" means little pebble, and on this rock, a great rock, this great foundational stone, I will build my church, and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it. Notice there, "On this rock I will build my church." God is the one; Jesus is the one who will build this gathering.

How will He build them? Upon what will He build them? Upon this truth that we all hold in common: He is the Anointed One, the incarnate Son of God, with all authority and power. Upon that statement, the church is built. Believe nothing else, but if you believe that, you are a part of that gathering. He is the Christ, the Son of the Living God.

So He says, "I'm going to build my church upon that foundation." Now, that's not all the belief, but that is the core. That is the foundation, the important thing upon which the church shall be built. This is God's plan, and it's not ours. Not only did Jesus say that He would build His church upon this crystal-clear statement that He is the Anointed One, the one with all authority and power, the Living God, but He is going to call forth this group.

Of people, rescue them by His death, burial, and Resurrection. In the very next words, Jesus would say, "I'm going to Jerusalem, and I'm going to be betrayed and delivered into the hands of the Gentiles. They are going to crucify me, and I will rise again the third day." That's what He says, and the very next words after Peter says, "You're the Christ, the Son of the Living God," are about going to Jerusalem. He says that is the place where He'll be crucified and rise.

But then, He adds that He is going to redeem a people, call them forth, and give them a purpose. He will send them forth to do something, a task. Well, what is that? Turning your Bibles to Matthew 28, you probably know where I'm going already. We commonly refer to this passage, Matthew 28:18-20, as the Great Commission.

Matthew 28:18 says, "And Jesus spoke to them, the same group of people, the disciples, saying, 'All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.'" Why? Because He is the Son of the Living God. "All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go and make disciples of 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 that I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, even till the end of the age. Amen."

That is referred to as the Great Commission, but it's not the only commission. There's another one in Mark 16. Would you turn there? Matthew, then Mark. Mark chapter 16, again, this is the same sort of scenario. Jesus is with His disciples after His death, burial, and Resurrection.

Mark 16:15 says, "And He said to them, 'Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized will be saved.'" Go into all the world and preach to every creature. What are they preaching? That Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God. Those who believe and are baptized shall be saved.

But that's not the only commission. Let's look at Luke's Gospel. Matthew, Mark, Luke 24. Luke 24:46.

Now, as you're turning there, a tiny bit of background: Luke 24 is after the resurrection. Before the resurrection, when Jesus was with Peter, James, John, Bartholomew, Thomas, and the twelve, He was with them at Caesarea Philippi back in Matthew chapter 16. After Peter had said, "You’re the Christ, the Son of the Living God," Jesus said to His disciples, "We’re going to Jerusalem. I’m going to be delivered over to the Gentiles. I will be crucified and rise again the third day."

The same Peter who declared Jesus as the Christ then said, "Wait a minute, that will not happen to You! Far be it from You that will not happen!" The same Peter who heard Jesus say, "Flesh and blood has not revealed that to you, but My Father who’s in heaven," just seconds later heard Jesus say, "Get thee behind Me, Satan." How many of you have felt your life be like that from time to time? You have a big win for Jesus, and then, in just twelve seconds, you’re completely down. Peter said, "No, that’s not going to happen. You’re not going to die."

Look at this: after the resurrection, Jesus says to the same disciples in Luke 24:46, "Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day." It was necessary, Peter, even though at that point in time you said no. It was necessary to suffer, to die, and to rise again the third day. Why? "That repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem."

Not ending, beginning at Jerusalem.

Number two on your outline: the church is God's plan to accomplish His mission. The church is God's plan to accomplish His mission. It is not God's plan to accomplish our ideas or our visions. The church needs to get in line with His vision, His calling, and what He wants the church to do. The church is God's plan to accomplish His mission: to go and make disciples, to go and baptize those who believe, to go and teach them, to go and preach the gospel, and to go and deliver the message of repentance and remission of sins to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.

We are the people of God, saved by His grace, and we are on a mission.

Mission for God is not something that we have made up; it is not the plan of man, but the plan of God to fulfill His task and His mission. The interesting thing is that in this very same breath, when Jesus says that we are to go, He slips something in. In Acts chapter 1, which is the continuation of Luke chapter 24, Acts is the sequel to Luke.

So, turn to Acts chapter 1 briefly and look at verse 4. It says, "And being assembled together with them..." What is that called when Jesus is assembled together with His people? Church. Being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem.

Well, wait a minute. I'm confused. You said to go preach the gospel to all creatures. You said to go make disciples of all nations. You said to begin in Jerusalem, but now you said not to depart from Jerusalem. Why? Because we are unable, in our own ability, to accomplish the task given to us. It is too big for us by ourselves.

So, He says to wait for the promise of the Father, which He said you have heard from Me. For John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now. Jesus said to go, but wait until you receive this power from God's Spirit.

Therefore, in verse 6, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, "Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?" You see, it is the temptation of the church to be inordinately focused on the coming of Jesus and the establishing of His kingdom, always for 1981 years. But Jesus says something to us, just as He said to them, who were inordinately focused on those things of the end times. He said to them, "It is not for you to know the times or the seasons which the Father has put under His own authority. But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and then to Judea, and then to Samaria, and to the end of the earth."

The church. Point number three on your...

The outline is called "Empowered and Equipped by God." The church is called "Empowered and Equipped by God." Turn to Acts chapter 2, verse 1.

When the day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. What’s that? The church, about 120 of them, all in one accord in one place. Suddenly, there came a sound from heaven like a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. There appeared unto them divided tongues as of fire that sat upon each of them. I don't know exactly what that is; it's amazing and interesting. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.

So God, by great power, ten days after He said to wait in Jerusalem and ascended into heaven, poured out His Spirit on this gathered group of people in Jerusalem. There were, in verse 5, dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. When this sound occurred, the multitude came together and were confused because everyone heard them speaking in his own language. They were all amazed and marveled, saying to one another, "Look, are not these who speak Galileans? How is it that we each hear them in our own language in which we were born?"

Then there’s a list of languages and nations mentioned in the next couple of verses. At the end of verse 11, we hear them speaking in our own tongues the wonderful works of God. Now, this is prophetic. Would you put an exclamation point next to this in your Bibles? Listen, the task, the mission that God has given us to fulfill will not be fulfilled until all languages hear the wonderful word of God in their language.

That’s what started the church. We hear them speaking the wonderful works of God in our languages, and it should inspire us, the church, to say that’s what we need to be about: people hearing of the wonderful works of God in their language. We hear them speaking the wonderful works of God in our own tongue. They were perplexed and amazed, saying to one another, "Whatever could this mean?"

This means others mock, saying these guys are full of new wine. But then Peter, the same guy who fifty days before had denied that he knew Jesus, stands up and begins to speak. He preaches for the next several verses, and in the middle of his message, in Acts chapter 2, verse 36, he says, "Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God, the Living God in heaven, has made this Jesus whom you crucified both Lord and Christ."

Now Peter stands before this group of people who are marveling at the miracle that has taken place. He says, "Listen, you need to know that the Living God has made this Jesus whom you crucified both Lord, that is, the one who has all authority and power from heaven, and Christ, that is, He is the Anointed One."

When they heard this, in verse 37, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, "Men and brethren, what shall we do?" Then Peter said to them, "Repent." In Luke 24:46-47, it states that repentance and remission of sins shall be preached, beginning at Jerusalem. There it is: "Repent. Let every one of you be baptized." In Matthew 28, we are commanded to go into all the world and baptize them. Let each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, as stated in Luke 24:47, and you shall receive the Holy Spirit.

Then, those who gladly received his word were baptized. In that day, about three thousand souls were harvested, and the church began; it was birthed. Here we are, 1981 years later, and we celebrate the birth of the Church.

Point number four in your outline is so important. We need to grasp this as the people of God, the Church of God: the church will not fail. In Matthew 16:18, Jesus said the gates of hell will not prevail against the church. For 1981 years, the church has continued, and I would suggest to you that it continues to grow and be strengthened. Though there are people with a perspective that say that's not true, I can give you the stats to prove it. I heard a pastor recently, a pastor I respect and think is a great teacher. I heard him on the radio, and he made a comment that I think I even wrote about in one of the emails I sent out recently.

In the midst of all this, someone commented while bemoaning the terrible things happening in our nation. He said that the church is one generation away from extinction. While that may be a great sound bite, it is bad theology. Why? Because Jesus said the gates of Hell will not prevail against the church.

Not only do we have what He said in the past, but we also have a prophetic promise that something awesome is coming in the future. Turn in your Bibles to the last book of the Bible, Revelation, chapter 7. I believe, and I think most who are here today believe, that Revelation chapter 7 is still in the future and has not happened yet.

Revelation 7, verse 9 states, "After these things, I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues." Where were they standing? Before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes with palm branches in their hands, crying out with a loud voice, saying, "Salvation belongs to our God who sits upon the throne and to the Lamb."

That is our future: representatives from every tribe, nation, people, and tongue standing before the throne of God, proclaiming that salvation belongs to our God. So when someone says that the church is going to fall apart, that it is going to be extinct, and that everything is grim, we must remember that the gates of Hell will not prevail against the church.

There are 7.2 billion people in the world today, and we can confidently say that 2.3 billion of those people stand under the banner of Christ, declaring that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God. This number is growing. However, there are still, at this very moment, people who have not heard the Gospel. There are still nations, tribes, and linguistic groups that do not have the Word of God or any missionaries reaching out to them.

Even in the year 2014, there are still 2,000 distinct ethno-linguistic groups—2,000 distinct language groups—that do not have anybody reaching out to them with the gospel. The Word of God is not in their language. I always had a missions gathering on Wednesday, about 500 people, big movers and shakers in missions throughout the world. They were reporting what is happening through Wycliffe, the Seed Company, and all these different groups that are reaching out to these people.

Right now, there is such an escalation in the Church's efforts to reach the unreached that, by their own measurements, they say that by the year 2030, there will be people reaching out to every single one of those 2,000 people groups. That is in your lifetime. The Church will not fail. I know that there are all kinds of pessimistic prophecy updates out there today about darkened suns, blood moons, and all that sort of stuff. Let me tell you something: the Church will not fail because it is not a move of man; it is a move of God. He will finish the mission through His Church because it is not dependent upon you or me; it is dependent upon His Spirit at work in us. We ultimately have an optimistic vision of the future. The Church will not fail.

Let me give you some stats just to hammer this home. How many of you have this thing called the YouVersion Bible app? How many of you have that on your device? Many of you do. Let me just tell you about this app for a moment. In 2008, Life Church here in America built this app and gave it away for free. To date, it has been downloaded 143 million times. It is nearing the point where it is the most downloaded app on smartphones in the world. Since 2008, when they started with just a few languages and a few translations, there are now 628 different languages in which you can get the Bible on that app, along with 924 different versions.

Since it went live, it has been read— they record how many minutes it is opened and read— a total of 94 billion minutes. This is phenomenal. If you calculate that out to years, it amounts to 183,000 years of reading time, and it is increasing by 4 billion minutes a month. Let me tell you something: how many of you have heard that it is hard to get Bibles into certain places?

Apple, Motorola, and various other companies aim to distribute smartphones to unreached places because it increases their bottom line. Interestingly, they also become Bible distributors for us. Since 2008, there have been 186,453 years logged in Bible reading times on that one app for free.

When you meet someone who speaks Farsi, you can easily pull up John 3:16 on your iPhone and say, "Here, read this." If they give you a name of a language you've never heard of, you can still bring it up and say, "Well, here, read this: John 3:16." There are 628 languages available, and they are adding ten languages a month to their app for free.

The Church of God, the gathering of His people saved by His grace and for His purpose, is the unstoppable force in the world today. No blood moon will stop that. That's my prophecy update. Things look good; God is doing good things, and we praise the Lord for that. He will continue to do good things, which is why today we are celebrating the birth of the church.

When we go out, you can get a hot dog. They are kosher, and I know if you're really into that sort of thing, you might wonder how we can celebrate a Jewish feast and have pork hot dogs. You can't; it would be a problem. So, we have cake. You might ask, "Why are we eating cake?" Well, let them eat cake; it's good!

We also have a gift for you if you want one. You can get one that says "Cross Connection Church" on it; they are free in the park area.

Let's stand together and pray. The church is the unstoppable force in the world today. You will hear people say that Islam is the fastest-growing religion in the world, but that is not true. There are people with political interests who make such claims. Let there be light! There are those who do not like the Church of Jesus Christ, but the church will continue to grow and thrive.

Father God, we thank You for the fact that the church is not our movement; it's Your movement. It's not our work; it's Your work. You said You would build the church, and the gates of Hell will not prevail against it.

Lord Gamaliel said if this was a work of men, it would fail, but if it's a work of God, You can't fight against it. We know it's a work of God because for the last 1,981 years, this has gone from 120 to 2.3 billion. 2.3 billion! God, we are thankful for each soul that comes to salvation and is added to the billions. Someday, we'll stand before the throne, and there will be an innumerable number of people worshiping You from every tribe, tongue, and nation of the world.

Lord, help us to be a part of that work of bringing the good news. We thank You so much for our team that's going out to Mozambique to bring Your word to people who cannot read. They will read it for them. What an awesome, awesome task!

Lord, bless Your church; You already have. Use us to be Your mouthpiece, for how shall they hear without a preacher? How shall they preach unless they be sent? How beautiful are the feet of those who bring glad tidings of good things! We know that faith comes by hearing and hearing by Your Word. Help us to be those who give forth Your word.

In Jesus' name, amen.