SPEAKER_00: Hello and welcome to the FBC El Doredo Sermon Podcast.
SPEAKER_00: My name is Taylor Guerrera and I have the privilege of being the pastor here at First Baptist.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to thank you for listening into our sermon this week.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to tell you this if you're in our area and you don't have a church home, we would love to see you any Sunday morning at First Baptist El Doredo.
SPEAKER_00: Will you join me now in listening to our sermon from this week?
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: You'll open your Bibles this morning to Romans chapter 15.
SPEAKER_00: That's where we will be today.
SPEAKER_00: We'll make a couple stops elsewhere, but Romans 15 is home based today.
SPEAKER_00: As we've been walking through the book of Romans, there are 16 chapters, and we're nearing the end of our year in Romans and what a year it has been.
SPEAKER_00: Let me pray for us and we will begin.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, by your spirit, would you speak?
SPEAKER_00: Would you move?
SPEAKER_00: Would you transform?
SPEAKER_00: Would you teach us today what it means to truly be on mission with you and for you through your spirit with your word?
SPEAKER_00: Lord, teach us this morning, even now, we ask in Christ's name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: If you grew up in church, and and maybe you didn't, and that's quite all right, but if you grew up in church, particularly maybe in a Baptist or even Southern Baptist church, you may remember uh being part of an activity uh we used to call uh Bible drill.
SPEAKER_00: If you remember what Bible drill is, it is basically this: you line up a group of kids, you give a scripture reference chapter and verse, and it's just who can find it the fastest, who can get there the quickest.
SPEAKER_00: You need a good quality Bible, or pages will be ripped out in the shuffling, but who can find it the quickest?
SPEAKER_00: I'm sorry to tell you this morning, but we're gonna have to play a little Bible drill as we begin because I want to go about three different places very quick before we land at Romans chapter 15.
SPEAKER_00: And so if you will join me, now if you don't want to participate, I will tell you, it'll be on the screen, I believe, but Matthew chapter 28.
SPEAKER_00: Matthew chapter 28, verse 18 through 20.
SPEAKER_00: It's Jesus giving the Great Commission, and it says this.
SPEAKER_00: I love hearing these pages turn.
SPEAKER_00: That's exciting.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus came and said to them, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
SPEAKER_00: Go therefore 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 that I have commanded you, and behold, I am with you always to the end of the age.
SPEAKER_00: This is on the other side, this side of the resurrection of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: He has died for sin, he has risen from the grave, and now he is giving really the marching orders to his disciples, not just the, at the time, eleven disciples that were there with him, but really disciples throughout the generations.
SPEAKER_00: To you and I, uh, this is our task.
SPEAKER_00: These are the marching orders.
SPEAKER_00: Go and make disciples.
SPEAKER_00: Now, if you'll turn with me to Acts 1.8.
SPEAKER_00: Acts 1.8, we see somewhat of a continuation of that uh commission that we're we've been given.
SPEAKER_00: And Acts 1.8 says this But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.
SPEAKER_00: If you take Matthew 28 and Acts chapter 1, what you really see here is we could call it the starting line of the church.
SPEAKER_00: This is where it begins.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus sending out the disciples, putting them on mission.
SPEAKER_00: This is the starting line.
SPEAKER_00: Now, the question we have is will this be successful?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus has spent three years with these disciples, has now sent them out to do the work of ministry.
SPEAKER_00: He is ascending into heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Will the disciples uh get the job done, or at least get the job started?
SPEAKER_00: Well, now, uh, your last Bible drill of the day, uh, Revelation chapter 7.
SPEAKER_00: Let's uh take a sneak peek at the end of the story.
SPEAKER_00: I love that God sets his word up in such a way that we can uh get a sneak peek at how all of this ends.
SPEAKER_00: In Acts, uh excuse me, Revelation chapter 7, we read this in verse 9.
SPEAKER_00: This is uh in the heavenly places uh at the end of all things, as we see how the story ends.
SPEAKER_00: After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb.
SPEAKER_00: Now think about this this morning, because we saw the starting line.
SPEAKER_00: Go make disciples.
SPEAKER_00: You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, the ends of the earth.
SPEAKER_00: So the calling for the gospel to go forward.
SPEAKER_00: And then we see the results, the finish line, where before the throne of God, you have coming into that heavenly place, people of every tongue, tribe, and nation.
SPEAKER_00: And so, what do I take from this?
SPEAKER_00: From starting line to finish line, I learned this about the great commission that God gave.
SPEAKER_00: It works.
SPEAKER_00: It works that that God's mission for saving souls and using disciples like you and me to go out and and share the word of God and help people hear about Jesus, it works.
SPEAKER_00: Because in Revelation, we see just how beautifully it works as many come before the throne of God, not just from El Dorado, Arkansas, but from every tribe, tongue, and nation.
SPEAKER_00: It works.
SPEAKER_00: So my question this morning is this we see the starting line, we see the results at the finish line.
SPEAKER_00: The question is now, how do we get there?
SPEAKER_00: And in Romans chapter 15, Paul gives us just a little picture, really, through his own ministry, of how we get there.
SPEAKER_00: How do we, as individuals and as a church, get there?
SPEAKER_00: Get to Revelation chapter 7.
SPEAKER_00: Well, I believe it starts with this by the church understanding the call.
SPEAKER_00: That's number one, the church understanding the call.
SPEAKER_00: Look with me as I begin in verse 14 of Romans 15.
SPEAKER_00: I myself am satisfied about you, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, and able to instruct one another.
SPEAKER_00: Uh again, we're halfway through chapter 15.
SPEAKER_00: Romans is 16 chapters, so you can kind of get a feel, starting right here, that Paul is about to land the plane.
SPEAKER_00: And it's been a beautiful plane ride throughout the year, uh, but now we're about to land this plane.
SPEAKER_00: He he looks at this church, uh, these believers in Rome, and he's just filled with love for them.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't plant the church, uh, but but he just knows how uh beautiful in Christ this church is, and how capable this church is of taking the gospel forward.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 15.
SPEAKER_00: But on some points I have written to you very boldly by way of reminder.
SPEAKER_00: Paul, you're exactly right.
SPEAKER_00: Throughout this letter, you have been very bold at times.
SPEAKER_00: Uh chapters 1, 2, and 3, Paul had to let believers know just how broken we are outside of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: But that boldness led to the goodness of the gospel, that in Christ we have hope.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul says this, because of the grace given by God to be a minister of Christ Jesus, look at this, to the Gentiles in the priestly service of the gospel of God, so that the offering of the Gentiles may be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: So even in these moments, as we seek to understand the call here, Paul wants to show us his call.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul's call is this a call placed on his life, not by Paul himself, not by any any human authority.
SPEAKER_00: This was a call placed on Paul by God.
SPEAKER_00: Paul, who is a Jew of all Jews, a call by God to be a minister to non-Jews, a minister to the Gentiles, to take the gospel forward, to see to it that the gospel goes out and goes forward, as we'll see in a moment, to places it has never been, and that so many Gentiles come to know the gospel for themselves.
SPEAKER_00: That is Paul's call.
SPEAKER_00: And really, it starts very early on.
SPEAKER_00: In Acts chapter 9, we see the very beginning of this call.
SPEAKER_00: In the first half of Acts chapter 9, we see Paul, who before this moment was the greatest enemy of the church.
SPEAKER_00: His life gets turned upside down on the road to Damascus by Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: He comes to know the Lord personally, then the Lord reaches out to a man named Ananias and says, I want you to go take care of Paul, help train him up in the faith.
SPEAKER_00: Ananias really says what you and I would say is that I think you've got the wrong guy here.
SPEAKER_00: Uh you want me to go help train Paul in the faith.
SPEAKER_00: God, can I remind you of the fact that uh, you know, a week and a half ago, Paul was hunting me down, and now you want me to be his Sunday school teacher.
SPEAKER_00: I don't think uh this is gonna work out.
SPEAKER_00: But then the Lord says these beautiful words, verse 15, he says this go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine.
SPEAKER_00: How beautiful is that the greatest enemy of the church, go, he's a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name, look at this now, before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: I like where the Lord goes first in this moment to carry my name before the Gentiles.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, this is the very chapter where Paul is converted, and from the start, uh, he wants Ananias to know, and really wants Paul to know, that you are on mission now, and your call, your mission is to take the gospel to many, but certainly to these Gentiles, a place where the gospel has not gone before.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 17.
SPEAKER_00: In Christ Jesus, then I have reason to be proud of my work for God.
SPEAKER_00: Now, this is a boast, but it is a humble boast.
SPEAKER_00: It is a boast in the right place, a boast in the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Notice he says, I am proud in Christ Jesus, and really it's what Christ has done, but I'm I'm proud of what God has done even through me.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 18, for I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me to bring the Gentiles to obedience by word and deed, by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God, so that from Jerusalem all the way around to Illyricum, I have fulfilled the ministry of the gospel of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 20 and 21, what is that uh ministry?
SPEAKER_00: And thus I make it my ambition, here it is, to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been named, lest I build on someone else's foundation.
SPEAKER_00: But as it is written, those who have never been told of him will see, and those who have never heard will understand.
SPEAKER_00: What is Paul saying throughout this?
SPEAKER_00: That here is my ministry.
SPEAKER_00: I boast in Christ of what he's done through this ministry to take the gospel forward.
SPEAKER_00: Now, you saw a couple places here, from Jerusalem to Illyricum.
SPEAKER_00: I want to put my first map up on the screen, and you see three locations here.
SPEAKER_00: The bottom right, you see that first location is Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: Right there in Israel, there, uh Jerusalem, where we could say the gospel began.
SPEAKER_00: That's where Christ Jesus rose from the grave.
SPEAKER_00: That's where our life began.
SPEAKER_00: The gospel ministry began.
SPEAKER_00: Around there is where Jesus gave that great commission.
SPEAKER_00: If you go all the way to the top, that is uh pointed to the region of Illyricum.
SPEAKER_00: Just below that is obviously Rome, there in Italy.
SPEAKER_00: So what Paul is saying is that the gospel has gone forth.
SPEAKER_00: You look where it started in Jerusalem, all the way up the coast to this region of Illyricum.
SPEAKER_00: He's about to let them know that it's going even further than that, but you look at the ground that the gospel has already gone, has already made progress in.
SPEAKER_00: When you think about the fact this is written some 30 years after the resurrection of Jesus, you see the fact that the disciples have already been at work and the gospel is already going forward.
SPEAKER_00: Now, Paul says this term that I want to preach the gospel where it has not been preached before, lest I build on someone else's foundation.
SPEAKER_00: What does he mean by that?
SPEAKER_00: That sounds a little territorial, doesn't it?
SPEAKER_00: That sounds a little maybe even uh prideful.
SPEAKER_00: I sure don't want to preach the gospel where you've been.
SPEAKER_00: I, you know, I want to do my own thing at a new place.
SPEAKER_00: That's not how Paul means this.
SPEAKER_00: What Paul wants is to see the gospel go as far as it can, as quick as it as it can.
SPEAKER_00: And he says, all the way up this coast in this region, we are seeing believers, we are seeing churches planted, we are seeing capable leaders that can carry the gospel further into these regions.
SPEAKER_00: And so here's what I want to do now: expand the region even for uh even further, where it's never been before.
SPEAKER_00: Now we know that, and we're gonna see in a minute that he's gonna do this with the help of the church at Rome, but I just want us to think about as we seek to understand the call, that if Paul's call and the second half of Romans 15, as it has been in the entire life of Paul, is to take the gospel where it has not been preached before, I just want to tell you that call to the Apostle Paul is the same call that you and I have today.
SPEAKER_00: Matthew 28, the great commission that wasn't simply given to these disciples way back when it was given to you and I.
SPEAKER_00: The call of Acts 1.8 to take the gospel forward even to the ends of the earth, that was not just given to disciples back in the day, that was given to you and I.
SPEAKER_00: That our call is to take the gospel where it has not been preached, and that may look on the other side of the globe where there are even, as we sit here this morning, there are people groups, and I mean this, people groups that to this point have never heard the name of Jesus, that are still in absolute darkness, that don't have the word of God translated in their own language.
SPEAKER_00: There are people right now for whom that is the case.
SPEAKER_00: So we want to go there, but also it means this in all of our lives, and we'll talk about this more in a moment, that it means taking the gospel to places within our own sphere of influence where there are people that don't know the Lord Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just gonna confess something to you, and I don't I don't know if you'll even believe me.
SPEAKER_00: Do you know your senior pastor has two people living in his own home that don't know Jesus Christ?
SPEAKER_00: Would you believe that if I told you?
SPEAKER_00: It's just the truth.
SPEAKER_00: One of them's close.
SPEAKER_00: But every day I think he's close.
SPEAKER_00: But in my own home, do you know I have a task to do?
SPEAKER_00: I've got a five-year-old and uh and an almost two-year-old that as they continue to grow, my wife and I are gonna continue to work to make sure the name of Jesus every day, day in and day out, is shared with these two uh sweet little, uh, the sweet little boy and girl every day so that one day they would come to know the name of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you have someone in your home, a child, a brother, a sister that doesn't yet know the name of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You have a task as well.
SPEAKER_00: I know you've got someone at work.
SPEAKER_00: I know you've got someone on your sports team, I know there's someone there for whom the gospel has not penetrated their heart yet.
SPEAKER_00: And the call that was given to Paul is the call that's given to you and given to me to take the gospel where it has not been taken before.
SPEAKER_00: But not only do we need to understand the call, second is this how do we get from Matthew 28, the starting line, to the finish line of Rev Revelation chapter 7?
SPEAKER_00: By supporting the call.
SPEAKER_00: As believers, we give our support to the call of ministry that has been placed on all of our lives.
SPEAKER_00: Look with me in verse 22.
SPEAKER_00: This is the reason why I have so often been hindered from coming to you.
SPEAKER_00: But now, since I no longer have any room for work in these regions, and since I have longed for many years to come to you, I hope to see you in passing as I go to Spain, and to be helped on my journey there by you, once I have enjoyed your company for a while.
SPEAKER_00: Let's stop there for a moment.
SPEAKER_00: We can put that second map up on the screen with one more location right there in Spain.
SPEAKER_00: What we've said multiple times throughout this year as we've walked through Romans is that one of Paul's reasons for writing to the Church at Rome is because Paul believes that the church at Rome can be a headquarters for further ministry.
SPEAKER_00: Obviously, geographically, as we look to take the gospel into Spain here in the first generation, uh the first century, geographically it makes sense.
SPEAKER_00: But also, uh, Paul doesn't apologize for this.
SPEAKER_00: He he desires that they would be a financial headquarters, that they could help, the believers at Rome could help financially send Paul and other missionaries forward so that the church could lay the groundwork in Spain for the sake of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: He wants Roman help in this endeavor to take the gospel forward.
SPEAKER_00: Now, what we see here is the fact that Paul is living out this very idea, the fact that the church can help support the call in any number of ways, but certainly as we see here financially, what we see here in verse 25 is that Paul is doing it.
SPEAKER_00: At present, however, I'm going to Jerusalem, bringing aid to the saints.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 26 and 27, he describes the fact that there's these two churches that took up a collection for these believers in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 28, what therefore I've come I've completed this and have delivered to them what has been collected, I will leave for Spain by way of you, with your support.
SPEAKER_00: I know that when I come to you, I will come in the fullness of the blessing of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Paul has no doubt that this church at Rome is ready and willing to step up to the plate in every way to make sure that the gospel is able to go forward to Rome.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the call of the church in the first century and the call of the church in 2025.
SPEAKER_00: I'm talking about the global church, and I'm certainly talking about First Baptist Church of El Doredado.
SPEAKER_00: That our call is this by any means possible to support the work of ministry, to support the call.
SPEAKER_00: Now, we do that in any number of ways.
SPEAKER_00: We'll talk in a minute through our prayer, through our going, through all kinds of ways, but even financially, as Brian came up earlier, he talked about our global missions offering.
SPEAKER_00: In November, we kicked off our global missions offering emphasis month.
SPEAKER_00: It has been unbelievable to see this church work.
SPEAKER_00: The fact that last year we we set a goal of$100,000 for this offering, and you went right past that.
SPEAKER_00: The fact that by faith our missions team said, let's raise it to$110,000, and I've got no doubt in the Lord that one year from now we'll be sitting in this room seeing what God has done through that.
SPEAKER_00: But but Brian listed some of these things that that that global missions offering helps.
SPEAKER_00: Certainly local partners like Hannah Center, Interfaith Help Services, Eagle Foundation, Hope Landing, Magdalene House, so many local partnerships, but it also helps in this way.
SPEAKER_00: If you grew up Southern Baptist, there's probably some names that you always grew up hearing in church.
SPEAKER_00: Somehow they went to every Baptist church you've ever been to, names like Lottie Moon, Annie Armstrong, and Dixie Jackson.
SPEAKER_00: And maybe you've wondered from time to time throughout the year why those names don't get brought up as much.
SPEAKER_00: And it's simply for this reason they do get brought up, but really all at once here in November as we talk about our global missions offering.
SPEAKER_00: Because a few years back, we we kind of made one singular emphasis that throughout the year we collect into this global missions emphasis, but that helps support all three of those offerings.
SPEAKER_00: The Lottie Moon Christmas offering, named after a missionary that supports the International Mission Board, this offering that sends missionaries all across the globe, trains missionaries, sends them out for the work of ministry to take the gospel where it's never been before.
SPEAKER_00: So let me tell you, when you give towards the global missions offering, you are literally sending missionaries out and sending them forward.
SPEAKER_00: The Annie Armstrong offering, which is for the North American Mission Board, same kind of thing.
SPEAKER_00: Missionaries right here in our nation.
SPEAKER_00: The Dixie Jackson offering, which uh helps the state of Arkansas, so uh missionaries and ministries right here in our home state.
SPEAKER_00: That's all part of that global missions offering.
SPEAKER_00: And this church has been so faithful in any number of ways to give and support the work of ministry.
SPEAKER_00: Even now, there are, and we'll pray for them in a moment, there are uh missionaries that grew up in this church, helped supported by this church, that are doing great ministry right now, uh, all over the globe, planting a church in our own state.
SPEAKER_00: There are uh ministries and missionaries going forward because this church supports the call and you take that seriously, and and and I'm just so grateful.
SPEAKER_00: This isn't in the notes, I'm just getting personal because I just love you so much.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just I want you to know I'm just grateful for you that this is a church that that your your hands are just open to the work of ministry, like the church at uh uh at Acts that we've read about over the last few weeks.
SPEAKER_00: You don't you don't consider your possession possessions your own, but you you just ask the question how can with what the Lord has given me make much of Jesus here and around the world?
SPEAKER_00: So I just say thank you.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
SPEAKER_00: The way you give is unbelievable.
SPEAKER_00: So understanding the call, supporting the call, and lastly, I just want to see this praying for the called.
SPEAKER_00: That's our role as well as a church, praying for the called.
SPEAKER_00: Look at with me in verses 30 through 33.
SPEAKER_00: I appeal to you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to strive together with me in your prayers to God on my behalf, that I may be delivered from the unbelievers in Judea, and that my service for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints, so that by God's will I may come to you with joy and be refreshed in your company, and may the God of peace be with you all.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: What does Paul do in these last few verses of chapter 15?
SPEAKER_00: He he just writes to the church at Rome and says this, I just need your prayers.
SPEAKER_00: I I praise God for your understanding of the ministry, I praise God for your financial support.
SPEAKER_00: But but let me tell you more than anything, Paul just says this, I just need you praying for me.
SPEAKER_00: You know, sometimes we're tempted to discount what is possible through the prayers of the people of God.
SPEAKER_00: If we're not careful, we can just offer up that phrase, I'm I'm praying for you.
SPEAKER_00: And how often have we said that?
SPEAKER_00: And if we were honest with ourselves, we we we we may have done it once quickly, but we may have made it sound like a more continual thing, and life got in the way.
SPEAKER_00: We're tempted to just discount the possibility of prayer.
SPEAKER_00: But think about what's going on as we pray to our Father that you and I have the opportunity through the work of Christ, that he has died and risen from the grave to forgive us of our sins and invite us into his presence.
SPEAKER_00: We now have the opportunity to come before the Father, the God of the universe, the God who holds planets in place and intercede on behalf of many, and certainly those who are going forth in ministry, certainly before uh interceding for those who are sharing the gospel, and we have an opportunity to go before the father and pray on their behalf that the ministry could go forward.
SPEAKER_00: And I just gotta wonder what our Father in Heaven thinks when he hears the prayers of his people praying for uh other children of his for the work of the gospel to go forward.
SPEAKER_00: I I can't imagine how much that delights the Father in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: And you and I have that opportunity every single day, every single moment to pray for those who are taking the gospel forward.
SPEAKER_00: Now you could almost say I'm talking out of both sides of my mouth, and I am because we are praying for the called, and I don't want to discount that in any way because I want to uh very much pay special attention to those who are called, those right now who gotta have that we talk about spiritual gifts, that apostleship call to go forward, to plant churches, to be missionaries here close to home or the other side of the globe.
SPEAKER_00: I I want to lift those up in prayer, and I want to be very uh specially uh intentional about doing that.
SPEAKER_00: I also on the other side want us to realize now that every one of us, in a sense, has a call to take the gospel forward.
SPEAKER_00: What I mean by that is that as we pray for the called, we're not allowed to forget that we too are called.
SPEAKER_00: As we pray for those going forward, we don't just get to sit on the sidelines and and and act as if we're not called to go forward.
SPEAKER_00: Because as we talked about a few moments ago, we all have those in our lives that need the gospel, and you and I, every one of us, we are called to take the gospel forward.
SPEAKER_00: I won't name names, but I'll say this.
SPEAKER_00: I got an email this week from a church member, and uh he the Lord has just convicted his heart in the most beautiful way that he wants to uh take the gospel forward to some people that he works with.
SPEAKER_00: And he's been burdened for these uh uh men that he works with, and he wants to take the gospel forward, and so he he called me and just sent me an email with just a a document that he he wrote uh just kind of regarding how he'd like to kind of share the gospel in a very uh methodical, beautiful way, scripture wrapped up throughout it, and and he just wanted me to look it over for him.
SPEAKER_00: The reality is I'm I was so thankful.
SPEAKER_00: I'll tell you it was so good he didn't need me to look it over, but I did look it over, and and and I just love it.
SPEAKER_00: And I've been praying for him and praying for these conversations, and I just want you to know this isn't some far-off thing.
SPEAKER_00: There are people on your pew right now, uh, there are people in this room right now that that just capture a little vision of the gospel going forward, and then they realize I don't have to wait for someone else.
SPEAKER_00: I can be the missionary to my my work, that I can be the missionary to my school, that that I know the gospel and I can take the gospel forward.
SPEAKER_00: And so, even now, maybe even this week, there are uh gospel conversations going on at a certain workplace, and I am praying and can't wait to hear more about how it goes.
SPEAKER_00: But this is what this calling looks like that God has called.
SPEAKER_00: Called you right where you're at, right where he has placed you.
SPEAKER_00: That we understand the call, that we support the call, that we are praying for the called, all the while realizing that that we too are uh in a sense called ones, called to take the gospel forward.
SPEAKER_00: In Charlottesville, Virginia, in the mid-1800s, a young girl set in church, Charlotte Moon, at the first Baptist Church, Park Street, and she responded to the gospel one day.
SPEAKER_00: She came to know the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: She was baptized there about twenty-five years later with her sister at the age of 33.
SPEAKER_00: Lottie Moon went across the country to China to live there, to serve there, to really give her entire life for the sake of more and more uh in her context in China to come to know the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: You gotta think in the mid-1800s, uh uh, you know, she went first with her sister, but certainly uh later on, just Lottie Moon, uh uh a young single woman in the mid-1800s going across the globe to minister in China.
SPEAKER_00: There's probably plenty of people there at the First Baptist Church Park Street that meant well, that I'm sure loved her and and maybe told her, maybe this is for someone else.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe there's there's someone else who can go.
SPEAKER_00: And Lottie Moon just said this.
SPEAKER_00: Actually, maybe God is just calling me.
SPEAKER_00: And she gave her entire life to those people in that place.
SPEAKER_00: And what happened there, many came to know the Lord, and still uh these many, many years later, we still see the impact of her ministry, not just there in China, but certainly as her name is remembered and this offering is is given as we think about her incredible ministry, the gospel is still going forward.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because this 33-year-old uh woman many, many years ago, just said this.
SPEAKER_00: I'll go.
SPEAKER_00: And I just wonder this morning, and y'all can call me silly, and you can, and maybe I am, but I just wonder if the next Lottie Moon is not right here, right now, at First Baptist Church at El Dorado.
SPEAKER_00: I mean it.
SPEAKER_00: Call me silly, I just mean it.
SPEAKER_00: That right now there's some little boy or little girl over in the preschool at this moment getting a diaper changed, or I don't know, but but they're just over there, and and and we've got no idea, but they're gonna grow up in this church and grow up in the faith, and they're gonna go to the other side of the globe and just make a whole lot of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Or that there's some uh elementary school student in this room right now, and they've got a busybag in hand, and they may be playing around of tic-tac-toe as we speak.
SPEAKER_00: And and maybe dad is not listening to the sermon but playing tic-tac-toe with them.
SPEAKER_00: But right now, that little boy or little girl, they don't know it, or maybe they do know it.
SPEAKER_00: They've already got a passion for someone in their class that doesn't know Jesus, but that will lead to someone on the other side of the globe one day.
SPEAKER_00: There's someone in the room, maybe a family that just says one day, we're called to go.
SPEAKER_00: And I don't know what it all means.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know what it all looked like.
SPEAKER_00: I don't I don't know what the next steps are, but I know this the Lord has called us.
SPEAKER_00: There's someone maybe reaching retirement age that says this.
SPEAKER_00: I may be retiring, but God's not even close to done with me.
SPEAKER_00: And you are gonna go to the nations and you are gonna make much of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You can call me silly if you want, but I just wonder if that next Lottie Moon is not right here among us.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because more and more would we be, Lord, a church that understands the call, that supports the call, that prays for the call, that when those among us feel the call, we do nothing but support.
SPEAKER_00: We do nothing but encourage that.
SPEAKER_00: And we as a church come together and say, if you feel called, we are gonna help you explore that call in every way.
SPEAKER_00: And if you want to go to the ends of the earth, we will help get you there.
SPEAKER_00: That we would be that kind of church.
SPEAKER_00: That's what Paul had in mind for the church at Rome.
SPEAKER_00: I believe that's what God has in mind for First Baptist Church of El Dorado.
SPEAKER_00: A church that is ready to make much of Jesus right here and around the world.
SPEAKER_00: Will you bow your heads with me now?
SPEAKER_00: And I think it'd be uh wrong for us not to take a few minutes to pray together as we think about that last point that we are called to pray for those who are called.
SPEAKER_00: Would you right now, where you're seated, I I want to pray for just a few things, but certainly I want to pray for about three different groups, individuals that really are from among us.
SPEAKER_00: And I won't, for a couple of them, I won't even use last names, but would you just take time right now to pray for Jamie in North Africa?
SPEAKER_00: Pray for Jamie, pray for the gospel ministry to expand, pray for her encouragement, pray for what the Lord is doing with Jamie in North Africa.
SPEAKER_00: Would you pray for Kevin and Barbara?
SPEAKER_00: They're in the Middle East and their ministry, and many of you know Kevin and Barbara, and certainly over the last uh six or eight months, know a lot of what Barbara's walking through as well, and and just as a family, um personally for them, but certainly their ministry, that the gospel would continue to go forward.
SPEAKER_00: Pray for Kevin and Barbara now.
SPEAKER_00: For someone who grew up in this church and now is just making so much of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Will you pray for Landon Norman?
SPEAKER_00: Pray for Landon, pray for his family there as they've recently planted a church in Northwest Arkansas and they have already baptized a few.
SPEAKER_00: They are already seeing just incredible fruit from that ministry.
SPEAKER_00: But will you pray for another one of our own, Landon Norman, with this church in Northwest Arkansas?
SPEAKER_00: Lord Jesus, we do lift these up to you.
SPEAKER_00: We lift up uh even more today, uh, all around the globe, uh, missionaries, uh, those who are taking the gospel forward just like these that we've named, church planters across the globe.
SPEAKER_00: Uh Lord, we we we lift up these this morning, and we just first say thank you.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for the call you've placed on their lives, thank you for their willingness to say yes, to put that blank check on the table and just say, Lord, you you fill in the blanks.
SPEAKER_00: Wherever you lead, I'll go.
SPEAKER_00: And so, Lord, I just give you praise for this, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: I just pray for their encouragement even now.
SPEAKER_00: I am certain there are beautiful and joyful days, and I am certain there are some tough days.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, but throughout every day, would you give them the encouragement needed?
SPEAKER_00: Give them the strength to carry on, Lord, as a church, would we help strengthen them in any and every way?
SPEAKER_00: Would we help answer the call when they call, Lord?
SPEAKER_00: And Lord, would your name go forward?
SPEAKER_00: Just as Paul said this morning, to places it's never been before, through these that we've named, and through the many around the globe, and through even these right here in this room, uh whether it's right here in El Dorado, in our state, in our country, in our world, Lord, let the gospel go forward.
SPEAKER_00: And Lord, would you use us?
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we thank you, and Lord, we continue to worship now through this invitation.
SPEAKER_00: If there's any this morning, Lord, that feel called to come be a part of this church, that feel called to maybe for the first time put faith in you for the first time to make you Lord of their lives, to say, Lord Jesus, you died for me, you rose again, you've forgiven me, and you are Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, would today be the day?
SPEAKER_00: Lord, however we need to respond, let us do it now as we worship you in Christ's name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Would you stand now as we worship?
SPEAKER_00: If you have any decision, I'll be right down front.
SPEAKER_00: Would love to talk with you.