As the Advent season unfolds, Jamie Naramore brings warmth to First Baptist with tales of the pure-hearted wonder children possess, especially at Christmastime. Their perspectives, honest and unfiltered, remind us of the profound beauty found in nurturing young minds with stories from the Bible. In an intimate conversation, we traverse the highs and lows of parenting during the bustling holiday period, reflecting on the anticipation of Jesus's return and how the inspiring mission work of figures like Lottie Moon interweaves with the global celebration of Christmas.
With a heart for service, I take you on a journey through my calling to minister in New York City's melting pot, serving particularly within the Muslim community. The cultural richness of traditions like Guatemalan Christmas adds vibrant threads to the tapestry of our discussion. The narrative of Acts 17 serves as an anchor, revealing how the birth of Christ catalyzed the spread of the gospel, a beacon of God's unceasing presence and benevolence across generations and nations.
As we prepare our hearts for Christmas, join us in contemplating the transformative power of sharing the gospel. Stirring accounts of faith in action—from a former Bible study persecutor now seeking truth to outreach among Hindu roommates—illustrate the profound effect of living out one's faith. In this season of expectancy, we invite you to take inspiration from these narratives to convey the love of God to those around you, embracing the potential for the gospel to change lives and affirm our role in God's extraordinary plan for humanity.
As the Advent season unfolds, Jamie Naramore brings warmth to First Baptist with tales of the pure-hearted wonder children possess, especially at Christmastime. Their perspectives, honest and unfiltered, remind us of the profound beauty found in nurturing young minds with stories from the Bible. In an intimate conversation, we traverse the highs and lows of parenting during the bustling holiday period, reflecting on the anticipation of Jesus's return and how the inspiring mission work of figures like Lottie Moon interweaves with the global celebration of Christmas.
With a heart for service, I take you on a journey through my calling to minister in New York City's melting pot, serving particularly within the Muslim community. The cultural richness of traditions like Guatemalan Christmas adds vibrant threads to the tapestry of our discussion. The narrative of Acts 17 serves as an anchor, revealing how the birth of Christ catalyzed the spread of the gospel, a beacon of God's unceasing presence and benevolence across generations and nations.
As we prepare our hearts for Christmas, join us in contemplating the transformative power of sharing the gospel. Stirring accounts of faith in action—from a former Bible study persecutor now seeking truth to outreach among Hindu roommates—illustrate the profound effect of living out one's faith. In this season of expectancy, we invite you to take inspiration from these narratives to convey the love of God to those around you, embracing the potential for the gospel to change lives and affirm our role in God's extraordinary plan for humanity.
Hi and welcome to the FBC Eldorado Sermon Podcast. We hope God will use this week's message to both inspire and challenge you as you seek to walk closer with the Lord. Now join me as we listen into this week's sermon.
Speaker 2:Our speaker today is Jamie Nairmore. Jamie serves as the cross-cultural strategist on the church planting and mission teams of the Arkansas Baptist State Convention. He's been here before he's family. He and his wife, Jessica, have four children and we're grateful to have him back at First Baptist this week. So, Jamie, thank you for being here today.
Speaker 1:Boy. I love the sound of feet pitter pattering at the Children's Church. A couple of weeks ago, at one of our last small group gatherings for this semester back in Benton the adults I'm not going to lie we were exhausted, we were tired. We have about 20 kids in our small group. That's about four or five families, so we're a little outnumbered. So at the very beginning of the year we kind of told everybody listen, we're going to lower the expectation on adult conversation. When we get together we're really going to cater to the kids and try to infuse some biblical truths and community in them. And one of my favorite memories of that time was we were kind of casting vision for this semester and what this was all about. And we said you know, why do you guys think we're gathering on Sunday evenings? And one of the little kids said to practice church. And I thought that was a beautiful way of seeing it. It just wasn't something in addition to what we normally do but it really was a part of how we incorporate them as the body of Christ. So I love kids church. But a couple of weeks ago when we were exhausted, one of the little girls came up to me and said Mr Jamie, when do we have our Bible story time? I said, oh sweetie, you're going to have to let your daddy do the Bible story time tonight when you go to bed and we just like we're tired, everybody needs to get home. And those eyes, they were big, they were blue and guilt swept over me. Okay, I didn't know that any of the kids loved our Bible story time so much and we didn't hear it. We heard about it every day for the rest of the week, getting text messages from the parents. I don't think we should cut Bible story out for the kids anymore. I think there's some lessons in the Bible where Jesus says you know, receive the little children and stuff like that. We're going to start practicing that a little bit better.
Speaker 1:But I'm grateful to be here this morning. I'm grateful for Brian and Dustin and Kobe. You guys are doing a fantastic job leading and planning and taking care of things right now during a hectic Christmas season, no doubt so thankful for the opportunity to come and share. I'm grateful for you church family. I'm grateful for your support of missions in particular, and I celebrate that this morning because we actually I think we've miked up children's church. This is great. We're going to get a little insight into what they're doing. This is good, all right. This is the last Sunday of the Lottie Moon week of prayer for international missions.
Speaker 1:Does anybody know that we keep up with Lottie Moon in my house? Because, as you see on this screen, I've got four kids and the oldest daughter of them is named Lottie, so I don't know if you got a picture of them, okay. So there, lottie is the one in kind of the floral outfit. She is small, she is tiny, she is ferocious. Okay, if you know anything about Lottie Moon, I feel like my Lottie exemplifies a lot of that lady, and so we keep up with Lottie Moon.
Speaker 1:We love Christmas time. Christmas time reminds our family of the great commission, of God's work around the world among the nations, and so this is the second week of that, and I think it's fitting, it's appropriate. Lottie herself even wrote letters back to the states that the Christmas season was the perfect time to bring attention to God's work among the nations. I don't know if any of you like to watch Christmas movies and stuff like that, but I love the ones that bring attention to like the Magi coming from the east. You know it's fulfilling this prophecy that the nations, the nations, would come to God through this Messiah, and we celebrate that at Christmas time.
Speaker 1:Advent, the coming of Jesus, is a beautiful time to remind us not only of his first coming as a baby boy in Bethlehem, but also really to turn our eyes towards his second coming again. Do you believe that this morning? Do you believe that Jesus is coming again? And if so, that's part of what the season of Advent is all about. In the midst of this hectic cycle of the year that we find ourselves in, we need to be reminded, year after year, that Jesus sits on the throne and he is returning, and we're going to look at that a little bit this morning. We're going to be in Acts, chapter 17. If you have a Bible, I invite you to turn there, and, as you do, I want to just remind us that this season of waiting, of preparation yes, it's about preparing for the coming of Jesus as a baby, but for many of us in this room, you've been waiting for the end of school Some of you that are in school, right, you've been waiting for the end of semester.
Speaker 1:Tests are over, the Christmas parties are wrapping up and, believe it or not, you're going to get a pretty good break, right, and parents we sing songs about that. How the parents are excited for the kids to go back to school. We homeschool our kids, okay, we don't get a break. We're taking them all the way up to the day before Christmas. Those poor kids have taken too many breaks this year. They're going to be studying right until the last second. Okay, but the wait is almost over for many of us.
Speaker 1:Brian mentioned, if you haven't been paying attention, christmas is coming just around the corner. You need to get those gifts wrapped in under the tree. My dog has been unwrapping all the gifts this last week and so we're trying to rewrap these gifts. We thought we were ahead of the game and now we're behind again. I look at this picture of my family and I won't make you stare at them all morning, I promise, okay, but one of my co-workers he reminds me anytime we have a hard day or a hard week with the kids, or just schedules and stuff like that. He's always reminding me. Hey, the days are long, but the years go fast, right? Doesn't life feel like that, right? You have these seasons where things just oh, it feels so slow and then you look back and you realize that flew by right. We're in a season of preparation. Brian mentioned it.
Speaker 1:I've had the privilege for the last six and a half years to serve as one of your cooperative program missionaries, working and helping with churches to reach international groups around the state doing I tell everybody, I get to do international missions and be home by dinner. It's a dream job. I got to serve as one of your Lottie Moon-supported cooperative programs-supported international mission board missionaries for a few years and it was a joy. And to be able to do this for the last six years has been a joy. And God a few years ago said Jamie, I want you and your family to put your yes on the table and I'm going to put it on the map.
Speaker 1:And, for all honesty, I thought for about a year and a half we were preparing to go to North Africa and the Middle East. We were preparing to go work with Muslim people around the world. We were looking at different places where we thought we were going to land and, as the Lord so often does and in a way that only he can, he really redirected us to New York City. Over a million and a half Muslims in New York City, majority of them from North Africa and the Middle East, and so, as we prayed this morning for people that you know serving in that part of the world, our aim is to really kind of move there and connect those dots, if you will, to reach North Africa and the Middle East in our own backyard, and God has opened a door for us to do that. We're excited about that. But, man, we're probably not gonna get there until June. So there's a lot of waiting happening right now in our family, a lot of kind of looming transition and preparation, okay, and so it's good, I think, during this season, to pull back and to look at the story of scripture and to say Jesus, he's on the throne and he's coming again, and one day that wait is going to be over.
Speaker 1:Brother, I appreciate you sharing about your heritage and some of your traditions. We got to live on the Southern Texas border for a few years and we loved those tamale traditions with our friends around Christmas time. Last night we got to celebrate a Guatemalan Christmas with one of our church planters and there was tamales galore. Okay, it was everywhere. It was awesome. I also learned that in Guatemala, a flauta is called a taco, and I got corrected a few times I said these flautas are so good. No, these are tacos in Guatemala, right.
Speaker 1:And at this Christmas party, my little girl, madeline she's the little one being held, right. She struggles with this whole waiting thing Because the minute that Christmas tree went up, what did she think was happening? Christmas has got to be tomorrow morning, right? And then when you put a Christmas present under there, christmas is surely coming. Looks like tomorrow afternoon we're going to be done with this thing wrapped up for New Year's. She's waiting, waiting, waiting, was she heard? We were going to a Christmas party last night. She said was that being Christmas is tomorrow? No, sweetie, you still got like two and a half weeks. It's killing her Sam. He's got some deep roots so far in Arkansas, some close friendships, and so waiting for him looks a little bit differently. It's not this eager expectation that maybe is for some of us. He's not anti, but it just looks different. He's going to be starting over in a lot of ways, livy, she's just kind of the life of the party, so she's up for anything. She's the easy one, she's rolling with it. Before I left this morning, as I was hopping in the truck, she said daddy, don't forget, pray and tell them about Jesus. They're ready, they're waiting. But the season of waiting is a time for us to recalibrate.
Speaker 1:Some of us, we look at the coming of Jesus and we're concerned with timetables. I don't know if any of you have kids that you give them a timer if you really want something done. Does anybody try that strategy? You know you set a timer. You got 10 minutes to get this done. When the beeper goes off, there's a consequence, right? Sometimes that's a motivator for kids to set a timer One of our kids. They like to-do list. If I just spell it out and list it and they have their own kind of free reign to work through it, they'll get it done.
Speaker 1:And a lot of times we look at the coming of Jesus in a similar way. We're mining the scripture for this timetable right? Well, jesus says only the Father knows when Others of us we're real missional about it. You know Matthew 24 says that this gospel of the kingdom, it will be proclaimed to all the world as a testimony and then the end will come right, almost like a to-do list. If we could just get the gospel to everybody, then Jesus will come back. There's probably truth to both of those motivators. But at the end of the day we know this, in the tension of this broken world, there is a coming king. So we wanna look at that this morning in Acts 17.
Speaker 1:How does the advent of Jesus inspire the advance of the gospel? And I think Acts 17, though it's kind of right in the middle of the New Testament era, it's on one of the missionary journeys of Paul. I think it gives us some insight into how the advent of Jesus actually inspires the advance of the gospel. And the first thing I want us to see this morning is this the advent reminds us that the Father has always been at work among the nations for their good and his glory. The Father has always been at work among the nations for their good and his glory. Look at what happens in Acts, chapter 17, verse 22. It says so.
Speaker 1:Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said men of Athens. I perceive that in every way you are very religious, for as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription to the unknown God. What, therefore, you worship as unknown? This I proclaim to you the God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined a lot of periods in the boundaries of their dwelling place so that they should seek God in the hope that they might feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he's actually not far from each one of us, for in him we live and move and have our being, as even some of your own poets have said, for we are indeed his offspring. Why don't you pause there for a second? What Paul is doing here in the middle of Athens, at this place called the Areopagus, a place where court rulings would happen, where the people would gather, where multitudes could hear someone speak, he is reminding the people that, though they are very religious in a lot of ways they have totally missed the object of their worship.
Speaker 1:I think at Christmas time that's a perfect analogy for a lot of us. There's so many reminders around us of our religiosity. Even people who aren't religious during Christmas time find themselves religious, people who have no religious background, no faith that they have subscribed to. During the Christmas season, they find themselves caught up in all these traditions and all this celebration, something that celebrates the mark of probably the most prominent figure of all of history the Son of God. They literally reorient their entire calendar around the birth of this one baby, even if they don't believe in him or celebrate him or care about him.
Speaker 1:In Athens, at the time that Paul was speaking to them, you had multiple groups of philosophers and religious ideas and all these people sharing new things. You had the scripture mentions earlier in the chapter that there were Epicureans and there were Stoics. There were people who believed that if a God existed, he's so distant and other than you and I that he has no dealings in our world. It's kind of like the old watchmaker analogy, where if there is such a thing as a God, he just kind of wound up this world and lets it go on its own and he doesn't get involved in it and so he doesn't impact your life in any way. You could probably think of people in your life that have a similar viewpoint. Right, they just act as if God doesn't exist at all. You know, half of Arkansas actually believes that no God exists. That's a sobering thought, isn't it? Half of all the people that you probably interact with have no religious affiliation, no belief in God, any God whatsoever. That's not counting the Hindus, buddhists or Muslims, nothing. They're called the nuns. Those people were represented in Athens when Paul shows up. Likewise, there was this other group of people that said no, no, no, no, no, no.
Speaker 1:God's not distant at all. In fact, he's so close that if you will just look closely close enough inside yourself, you will actually find him. He's actually almost like a mirror right in front of your face. If you seek him, you will find him deep inside of you because you're part of him. He looks a lot like you. Do you know people like that that God has just kind of created in their own image? He's the vending machine, god, right, he's whatever you want him to be, whatever you need him to be in that moment. You're kind of the God of your own making, of your own choosing.
Speaker 1:You see, scripture's not so distant from our present reality, is it you can imagine? On that end of the spectrum, there's everything in between that we face today, and so Paul's message to them is incredibly relevant. I think it's like he's speaking to our culture. He says let me share with you what this God is really like. He's not made in your image at all. In fact you're made in his. He wasn't made to serve you, but actually you were made to serve him and in fact he's very active in this world. He's so active in this world that Scripture even says he orchestrates the movement of the nations so they might have an opportunity to hear about him. He doesn't just know where people live and when people live there, but he actually moves people around and is active in their life so that they have access and opportunity to hear the gospel. He knows the where's and the when's of your life and he's working in it and he's always been doing this. It's that he made from one man all the nations of mankind.
Speaker 1:Paul stretches all the way back to Genesis. He pulls from stories of Adam and Eve. He pulls from the, the recreation of Noah and the flood. He even pulls from the story of Abraham, one family chosen out of all the families of the earth, who would be a blessing to all the families through one of his offspring. We celebrate that offspring at Christmas time. But part of that, part of the purpose of that was to bring all these nations into the blessing of knowing this God.
Speaker 1:It's almost as if when God started out with humanity, he had two train tracks going in the same direction. On the one, he's working behind the seeds and center stage in the life of the nations to bring them to a point where they would be ready to hear the gospel. And on the other lane, he's bringing about this one man from this one family, from this one people that is going to be the one who blesses the nations. See, in Genesis, chapter one, god told the first man and woman to be fruitful, to multiply and do what Fill the earth. At the tower of Babel, everyone was doing what, standing still in one place, not obeying the great commission of God. So what does he do? He fills the earth on his own. Now it's almost like I filled the earth. You need to go after him with the gospel. And so he has these two tracks of his redemptive story, and the one he's working in the nations to ready them to receive it, and on the other he's bringing through one nation, the one who's going to save everyone.
Speaker 1:I think Advent reminds us that the father has always been at work. He is the great missionary. There was nothing in us that went seeking after him on our own, but in our brokenness, in our lostness, in our death and trespasses, he came looking for us. God the father is a missionary. God, did you know that? God, baptism, come up with missions? The mission didn't start when Jesus commissioned his disciples. God has always been a missionary, god creating for himself a missionary people to go after the people that he wants to redeem, and he wants to redeem you and me. And because God has always had a heart for the nations, I think it's safe to say he has a heart for you. Most of us in this room represent the nations.
Speaker 1:My uncle, a couple years ago for Christmas, got one of those 23 and me DNA kits. Do you know what I'm talking about? Where you send it off and you get all the? You know how much percentage of you is German and Russian and all this kind of stuff? My last name originally is not Narmor, by the way, that's English. It stands for those people that come from the northern Moors of Great Britain. My last name is actually geezer. Okay, it's German for geese herder. Now, I got messed up when they got to Staten Island or where Ellis Island at some point right.
Speaker 1:But we were always curious like what's our family heritage? We knew there's German, we knew there's French, we knew there's Russian. He took this 23 and me test and it said that I was 1% North African. As one who has served in North Africa, I was really excited about that. But it reminded me and I think it should remind us. Most of us in this room are Gentiles. We were aliens and strangers to the promises of God. But at some point in your history and your family lineage the gospel broke through through a witness that declared to you that Jesus came to seek and to serve that which was lost and that included you. God's heart for the nations includes you. So I think Advent is a great time to remind us that we should have a heart for the nations as well.
Speaker 1:You know, last May we took our family up to New York to just kind of give them a sense of what we were getting ourselves into. We've been several times, but we wanted all the kids to come together. A couple of them have been on mission trips there and seen things, but we wanted all the kids to get there and see it together, to pray through some of the neighborhoods that we might end up living in, to see some of the ethnic enclaves, some of the ethnic neighborhoods where a large majority of people from Egypt and Syria and Lebanon and Palestine and places like that where they live right, and so we take them up there and we didn't want the whole trip to just be, hey, this is where we're moving to, kind of thing, but we wanted them to experience fun aspects of the city. So we took them to the one world observatory. Has anybody been there before? The one world observatory where the Twin Towers used to stand. It's the tallest observation deck in North America and from it most people will look down and they'll see the pools there commemorating what happened on 9-11.
Speaker 1:But the thing that strikes me the most is that when you get up to the top of that building, you feel like you can see forever. In fact, that's the slogan of the whole experience is you can see forever from this. It's worth every penny of it. Okay, it's an incredible experience. You look out of this building. You can almost see four states from the top of it on a clear day. But you know what? I can't see beyond. I can't see beyond the horizon. There is a point at which my seeing is limited and finite.
Speaker 1:In verses 27, 26 and 27, it says that God determined a lot of periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place. That word determined comes from the Greek word for horizon, and it illustrates this idea that you and I, we can see up to the horizon, but we can't see beyond it. God, on the other hand, he not only knows what's beyond the horizon, he put it there and he's working over there. He knows that between where I'm standing in one world observatory and where I can see, there's one and a half million Muslims from all around the world. There's every ethnic group, every people group almost represented between here and that horizon in that big city. 22 million people. The majority of them do not believe in Jesus, but they do believe in Him. They do not believe in Jesus and a vast majority of them have not heard a clear gospel presentation of Jesus.
Speaker 1:But sobering to me is the fact that beyond the horizon, god knows every single person. He doesn't just know them, but he put them there. He didn't just put them there, but he is working in their lives in hopes that they will have access to the gospel, and in your life and my life. The same is true. He doesn't just see where you are when you're there. He doesn't just know where you are when you're there. He is working where you are at exactly this moment for some purpose related to the good news of Jesus. He is working in your life and in the tension that we find ourselves in this world with everything that's going on, but also in our individual lives and maybe even this morning, the brokenness of your life and for all of us at some point in our life, that realization that we are dead in our trespasses. Advent reminds us of this that Jesus was, is and always will be the only way of salvation. Jesus was, is and always will be the only way of salvation.
Speaker 1:I mentioned Genesis, chapter one. You want to know a fun fact. Some of the early church fathers would read Genesis chapter one and they would insert the word son in verse one. We typically read it as in the beginning, god created the heavens and the earth, right? Some of the early church fathers, after reading John one and looking at some of the Hebrew language of Genesis one, would actually reread that verse as in the sun, god created the heavens and the earth, and they would see all sorts of illusion in the evening, in the morning of each day, as a dying and a rising of this one who was to come. They learned to read Genesis one with Jesus eyes, looking for the one that created everything and who will complete everything.
Speaker 1:Colossians 1 says as much that he's the image of the invisible God. He's the preeminent one. He's the first born among all creation. He's the first born from among the dead. He always has been the only way of salvation. He is today the only way of salvation.
Speaker 1:Look at what Paul says. It says being then God's offspring. We ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. No, verse 30, the times of ignorance, god overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead. In this passage, it that's not just true that God sees the horizon and he works people. He's working in people's lives to get them where they need to be so they might have access to the gospel that he's working among the nations. No, it actually says that he's also horizoned the day that Jesus will return to judge the living in the dead. There is a day that he has fixed, that the man whom he has appointed and determined, the one who was appointed as Lord over all, in his resurrection, that man Jesus, will come back again in the second advent of all things and he will be the judge of the living and the dead.
Speaker 1:Advent reminds us that Jesus is the only way of salvation and that one day he will return as the coming King. The good news of his return for the believer brings a lot of joy, it brings a lot of hope, it brings a lot of peace, but for the unbeliever it brings judgment. And Advent reminds us that because God has fixed a day, the clock is ticking. You and I can celebrate with joy the good news of Jesus this morning if we have placed our faith in him. But sadly for a majority of the world, if they were to die today, they would enter eternity separated from God.
Speaker 1:Carl Henry said the good news is only good if it arrives on time, and so Advent inspires us into action, to remind us that in the fullness of time, at just the right time. God sent forth his son right to save sinners. But there is a day coming where he will come to judge sinners and all who have not repented and placed our faith on him will be judged. They will receive eternal death, you and I eternal life, but them, they will be lost for all of eternity. So this is the only moment we have today. In fact, says Second Corinthians, today is the day of salvation for every one of us in this room. Today is the only moment we have to preach the gospel. You don't have tomorrow and you've already lost yesterday. Oh, today is the day of salvation. Advent reminds us that God is a God of time. He cares about it, he fixes it, he works within it and one day it'll end. And it's not just for those that we want to preach the gospel to, I believe for someone in this room it's, it's true. For you today the clock is ticking, and that's not manipulation. That is a hard truth to know that we are finite, mortal and condemned, but in Christ there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ, jesus. I want to celebrate some things that you've been involved in and your support for missions around this state.
Speaker 1:Last year I spent a good chunk of time pulp pits supplying down in southeast Arkansas. I got to see cotton season, I got to see rice season, I got to see all the seasons. I got to meet a lot of farmers and it was wonderful, it was glorious. But I'm not going to lie, my favorite memories of last year were meeting South Africans, all these South African laborers that have come to Arkansas over the last couple years to work on our farms, and it's just been a fun thing to get to meet them and to know them. And then to see little churches, little country churches, out in the middle of nowhere, out in the middle of fields that I've accidentally torn up by getting lost in my truck, embracing and loving and serving these South Africans. In fact, some of our cowboy churches, some of the cowboy churches that churches like yours have helped to start in prayer and giving and sending. They've started these barbecues In South African it's called a bri Right and they have these big barbecues. Well, they invite all these South African farmers to come join in. They've started doing Bible studies and worship services and now it has networked from Southeast Arkansas all the way up to farms in Pennsylvania, this network of barbecues and Bible studies that started in the Mississippi Delta.
Speaker 1:Well, I got to meet one of these South Africans a few months ago. His name was Peter. Peter grew up thinking, because he went to church, that surely he found favor with God. But in conversation with him and one of my friends, we realized Peter didn't have a clue about the gospel. He literally drove from Elay in Arkansas to Litterock to spend three and a half hours with me and one of my coworkers to ask us questions about the gospel. He left that day and we were burdened for him. We prayed for him and, all honestly, we knew that his time was ticking on his visa and his stay in America, so we didn't know what was going to happen with Peter. He didn't make a decision that day. About a month ago we got a little text message with a video in it from that church down in South Arkansas. Do you know what the video was? Peter getting baptized. That church hadn't seen a baptism in 15 years and their first baptism about 15 years with the South African farmer. The 15 years ago no one ever thought that the nations would come to a place like Elayne. It actually wasn't in Elayne. That's too big of a town for them. They were south of Elayne, about 30 minutes.
Speaker 1:Don't ever shortchange what God can do and how he can change a life. I remember when Peter and disciples asked Jesus, after that story with the kids and the guy who was so rich they couldn't give it up to follow after him. And the disciples came to Jesus and said well, what if it's impossible for a rich man to enter through the eye of a needle? It's impossible for a camel to go through an eye of a needle. It's even more impossible for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. How can anybody be saved? And what did Jesus say? Says with man it is impossible, but with God all things are possible. You and I, and not a single person in this world, can save themselves. Oh for the blood of Jesus. He did it by sacrificing his son, the one that he sent as a little baby that we sing cute songs about at Christmas time, hung on a cross for you and I. And then, finally, advent reminds us that the Spirit works in us and through us to accomplish God's mission, to ultimately know him and to make him known. Look how the story ends.
Speaker 1:Says now in verse 32, when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, which Paul had been preaching, some people mocked. That happens every Sunday. There's somebody that's mocking the preaching of the gospel. When you're out in the community or sharing with a coworker or a classmate, there's someone who's going to mock the preaching of the gospel. It's going to happen. Another said we'll hear you again about this. So Paul went out from their midst. They weren't ready to go all in yet, they weren't ready to commit just yet, but they wanted to hear more. So Paul went out from their midst. And then it says in verse 34, but some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the areopagite and a woman named de Maris and others with them.
Speaker 1:I think the admin reminds us that the spirit is working in us to know God more and he's working through us to make him known. And here you have three responses to the gospel preaching. You have those who mock it, we have those that maybe they need some more questions answered, and that certainly is the case a lot of times. And then there's those that jump in, and I like how Luke, writing this story, presents it. There's no such thing as a Christian just sitting on the pew in his mindset. Everyone is in the game, if you will. He doesn't say they just believed kind of, kind of acutely and gently in Jesus. Right, it says they believed and they joined him.
Speaker 1:I don't know about you. Joining him meaning joining Paul. That's an adventure in the waiting. That's a risky undertaking. I mean, this is the guy who a chapter ago was being run out of Thessalonica and Berea. He winds up in Athens because he's about to be stoned to death. It's gotten so bad that Silas and Timothy say hey, paul, you need to get on a boat and go down to another city and we're going to catch up with you later. Lay low, stay quiet, don't get in any more trouble. And he doesn't. He can't hold it in. He keeps preaching the gospel in the marketplace, even when he's all alone. That's the guy that you join when you believe in Jesus. That's the kind of team that you become a part of when you become a member of the local church. You don't just sit back idly and have nothing to do with the advance of the gospel. Know, the advent of Jesus inspires the advance of the gospel and it inspires in each and every one of us.
Speaker 1:There's not a lot of name dropping in the New Testament, not nearly as much as Genesis and the lineages right or the beginning of Matthew, you know, where you can't pronounce anybody for like 30 generations. Okay. There's just not a lot of that happening later on in the New Testament, but when it does happen, I feel like it's significant For the letter writers and the gospel writers to put a name down. I think it's significant and it's usually done in the spirit of 1 Corinthians 15, you know, when Paul, paul, that guy who's joined in that risky adventure Paul says oh, by the way, if you don't believe me, there's 500 people who are alive, that all saw Jesus resurrected. You should go ask them. Don't just throw the stones at me. Go check with these other people as well. I'll give you their name, phone number, address, email address. They can't run from you. Go hunt them down. I know exactly where they live. I once hunted them down too. If you really want to know about Jesus, here's a list of witnesses. So it's in that spirit that Luke records two names of two people that joined in the mission of God that day Dionysius the Areopagite we don't know much about him.
Speaker 1:We know that he was an Areopagite. What is that? He was like a court official, maybe like a judge in the Areopagus. He was a big deal. He made court rulings. What did he do when he heard the preaching of the gospel? He believed. Do you know what? He became afterwards One of the first overseers of the church of Athens. He didn't just sit on the pew. This man went from a pagan idolatry to one of the first overseers of the church in Athens. And then there's a woman named Demaris. We don't know what Demaris was doing there. It wasn't appropriate for a woman to be in the court at the time, so she either had a pretty lucrative side business going on or she might have had some relation to Dionysius himself. Some people actually speculate that she might have been his wife. Nonetheless, we know that through these two people the gospel spread to multitudes, and I would venture to say God wants it to spread through you as well.
Speaker 1:I've been the first El Dorado a couple of times and it has always been a privilege, and I think each time I've kept record. I've shared the story of an Indian church in Littoroc. The first time I came, I shared about a young man named Pernay who found himself in Arkansas as an international student. God called him to be a church planner among Indians in Littoroc. Last time I came, I think, I shared about a guy named Marlon. He used to be a Buddhist but an Indian believer in Kansas led him to faith and by some providence of God he ended up working in Littoroc. He didn't understand why until he joined up with this Indian church there and they started seeing things happen. So now you have Pernay from India and Marlon from Sri Lanka, both reached with the gospel and now reaching others with the gospel. Can I update you on this story this morning?
Speaker 1:A few years in, marlon, trained by Pernay, started a Bible study a few months ago in an apartment where five Hindu girls lived and they started with probably about 10 or 11 or so people from a Hindu background from India and Sri Lanka and Bangladesh and other places, and one young lady really started to ask a lot of questions. She was really getting curious in the gospel. They eventually led her to a gospel conversation where she was ready to jump in. But she said there's one hang up. I'm scared to get baptized because I know when I do then it's public, it's out there and I know the persecutions that's coming. And just as she was about to take that step of faith.
Speaker 1:One of her Hindu roommates literally set up an idol and an altar of worship to it in the living room while they were having the Bible study. So she's offering incense and she's banging symbols and she's offering her prayers while the Bible study is happening. They don't miss a beat, they keep going with it. It's going on in the background and it just kind of increases week after week. So this young lady says listen, this is too much. Every time I walk in my home and it's like this heaviness, this darkness, this weightiness comes over me. So God works through Pernay to train Marlin how to walk this young lady through spiritual warfare. He works with her and they have some good, fruitful conversations and about a month later she gets baptized, invites her friends, even the one who set up the altar with the idols In the Hindu gods.
Speaker 1:A couple of weeks ago we got an update from Marlin. Do you know who started joining the Bible study, in reading and praying and asking questions? The one who was trying to persecute it just a couple of months ago? Because the spirit wants to work in us, not just to know God but to make him known, just as he did in Pernay's life, in Marlin's life and now this young lady's life and, through her, reaching her Hindu roommates with the gospel of Jesus.
Speaker 1:Friends, when you are celebrating Christmas in just a couple of weeks, I pray that it's stories like that that God births in your heart, and it doesn't have to be in Little Rock, it doesn't have to be with people from other people groups, it doesn't have to be around the world or a New York city or anywhere else. I'm praying for your family, I'm praying for your friends. I'm praying that through you, god's heart would reach into the lives of other people, because that is ultimately what Christmas is all about and that is what Advent wants to inspire each and every one of us. So I invite you to respond today in that spirit. Would you come forward this morning If you have never placed your faith in Jesus?
Speaker 1:The scripture says that God used to overlook the times of ignorance, but I don't know if you can be ignorant this morning. I don't know how you can hear the words of Jesus and read the New Testament and be ignorant of his plan for you and the solution to your problem of sin. Would you come forward, grab Brian's hand and say I need to know Jesus this morning and he'll walk you through that For the rest of us. I invite you to respond on mission. Lay it down, say God, my yes is on the table. What does that look like in this? Season of my life.
Speaker 1:Can we do that, father God? Thank you for your kindness and generosity towards us in the gospel. Would you help us to respond in faith to what you want to do in us and what you want to do through us, that many would come to receive in repentance the free gift of eternal life? In Jesus name, I pray Amen.