[0:00] They turned the world upside down. I'm going to go through the book of Acts with you. And we're going to look at that about how these young people can leave here and turn the world upside down.
[0:14] Kind of like that. You realize this world has a whole philosophy and everything else. What's interesting, today Eric Elrod and I were talking, and we discovered that in the year 200, they think the world population was about 190 million.
[0:38] That means today India is about seven times that big by itself. China is over seven times that big by itself.
[0:49] The book of Acts is an exciting book because as they go through this book of Acts, they are going to start out with a small little gathering of people. Only 120 people are going to be there.
[1:02] And then God is going to start to move and do things like we never could have imagined. 3,000 people will get saved and baptized in one day.
[1:13] And I don't think they were bus kids. And I don't think they didn't come back. And then the church just kept multiplying. It starts off talking about thousands of people getting saved and baptized and being added to the church.
[1:27] Then it talks about people getting added every day. And finally it says so many we couldn't count on them. They're getting added every day. There's a world dying and going to hell out there.
[1:39] And it needs to be turned upside down. I can't make people get saved and you can't make people get saved. But we can make sure they hear the gospel. Not to be the heart of every one of the students, every missionary and every church member here, that we would do that.
[1:53] How do you go turn the world upside down? Number one, go to Acts chapter 1 and verse 6 with me. We have, these students have a clear biblical mandate and they have an example.
[2:04] A clear biblical mandate and they have an example. Book of Acts is like all the doctrine put to work. It's like all the doctrine put to work.
[2:14] It's like all the philosophy put to work. Starts off in Acts chapter 1 and verse 6. And they're standing there and Jesus is about to ascend into heaven.
[2:27] And they say, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? I mean, you know, good night. You have really done the stuff. You came and you worked among us for a little over three years.
[2:39] You died and you were buried and you rose again. I mean, nobody can deny who you are. Is it time? Are we going to be restored? Are we going to get all of that for us?
[2:50] And he said, it's not for you to know. Verse 7, the times or the seasons the Father has in his own power. God will do what he wants when he wants. That's not on you.
[3:01] That's not your choice. That's not your decision. You don't even need to know about that. Stop asking questions and get to work. So he says in verse 8, you shall receive power.
[3:13] After that, the Holy Ghost has come upon you and you shall be witnesses unto me and both in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria and under the uttermost part of the earth. I just want you to imagine what it must have been like to be 120 people and hear that command.
[3:29] 120 people because we're not yet to the 3,000 and he's standing with 120 people. We have 241 here tonight. And he looks out at 120 people.
[3:39] There's no internet. There's no fast mode of transportation. If you want to take the luxury route, you get a camel and go a little faster maybe than you do on a donkey. And there's no way to get around the world.
[3:52] And there's some boats, but they always cling real close to the coast. And he says, hey, guys, I'll give you the power. Now get out of here and get the gospel around the world. Verse 10 is the cloud.
[4:04] Verse 9, the cloud receives him and he goes up out of their sight. They're standing there looking dumbfounded with their mouths open as he goes up and they look steadfast into heaven. And verse 10 and verse 11, the angel said, what are you guys doing standing here gazing up into heaven?
[4:19] Time to get to work. We have a clear biblical mandate. Now here's what we know. I say this to the students. I say it to our church. There is no salvation except through Jesus Christ.
[4:32] That's called the exclusivity of Christ. In Acts chapter 4 and verse 12, neither is there salvation in any other. There is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.
[4:48] You know what? Buddha doesn't have an answer. Mohammed doesn't have an answer. Confucianism doesn't have an answer. Nobody has an answer. So as a church, as young men and women that graduated, as missionaries and as church people in this room, we are clearly given a mandate.
[5:08] Take the gospel to the world. When you read the book of Acts, you're not reading. When you read Ephesians, you're reading doctrine and they're trying to tell us what to believe and a little bit about how to act.
[5:19] So he says, now y'all believe this and do this. And in Galatians, he says, y'all believe this and do this. But in Acts, he just says, just sit down and watch us. We'll show you how to do this. You ever think about that?
[5:30] The book of Acts is a church moving, buddy. And the church is going to go crazy. And they're going to take the gospel around the world. Number one, we have a biblical mandate. Number two, we have Holy Spirit power.
[5:43] Acts 1.8 said it. You shall receive power. How is it that a church could go from one small place in Jerusalem and start spreading all across the world before 28 chapters is finished?
[5:59] How could they do all of that? It wasn't technology. It wasn't their smarts. It was the power of God. It was the power of God.
[6:10] And that's what we want to work on. Look in your Bible in Acts chapter 4 and verse 13. I love this. In Acts chapter 4 and verse 13, there is room for all of us. In Acts 4.13, the Bible says, now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, they figured out that they were unlearned.
[6:31] They perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant. They started talking and they said, that sounds like a Galilean accent. That's not from any of the schools. That guy didn't go to Harvard.
[6:42] That guy didn't go to Yale. That's not a Bostonian accent. That sounds like a Tennessee hooligan. That sounds like a redneck talking up there. That sounds like somebody else. They said, so how in the world do these nobodies do it?
[6:54] And they thought about it and they said, they had been with Jesus. They had been with Jesus. This power of God was so important that in Luke chapter 24 and verse 49, he actually told them, don't start yet.
[7:12] Don't start yet. Don't start yet. You wait until you have been endued with power from on high. That will happen on the day of Pentecost. God has given us his power.
[7:23] But I just want you to understand, there's a biblical principle and you need the filling and the power of the Holy Spirit. That's the key to getting a job done because it'll never be how well you learn the language, never be how well you speak, never be how well you're, how educated you are.
[7:39] It'll be that God does the work. That God does the work in you and God helps you through it. Number three. Third thing we need is to prove your commitment.
[7:53] Prove your commitment. Here's the key. And I wish you'd mark it in your Bibles if you got them open with me. In Acts chapter 2 and verse 42, they continued steadfastly.
[8:06] There's an entire message in this word, steadfastly. You know who gets the job done? The guy who just keeps on keeping on.
[8:16] It's not about that. I mean, you're going to need the power of God. You're going to need God to work in and through you. But you get the idea here into chapter 2 and verse 42. They continued steadfastly.
[8:28] And what did they continue in? I challenge you to look at it and mark it in your Bible. The apostles' doctrine. They learned what the word of God said. And when they knew what the word of God said, 20 years later, 30 years later, 40 years later, they weren't backing up and saying, well, maybe he doesn't love everybody.
[8:46] And maybe this doesn't work. They weren't doing it. They were saying, 50 years later, I hadn't moved on yet. I'm still stuck in what the Bible says, the apostles' doctrine.
[8:59] In verse 46, it says, they continued daily with one accord. They continued with one accord and with gladness and singleness of heart. You know what the key word is?
[9:10] Continue. You know what the key word is? Continue. The key word is be steadfast. The key word is stick at it. When you get to the mission field, you young guys, or when you start deputation, churches may not take you on.
[9:24] The language may come hard. But if you stick at it, you'll win. You just got to get up every morning and face it again and do it again. And you have got to be willing to endure whatever comes your way.
[9:38] You got to endure whatever comes your way. If that means bad stuff happens to your family, you deal with it. If that means sometimes the money's not there, you deal with it.
[9:49] But you make up your mind, I am going to continue. I will prove my commitment. In Acts chapter 4, verses 18 and 19, and a little bit further down, they were commanded not to preach and teach.
[10:03] They were told not to, and they were threatened, and they were warned that they would be punished. And they said, we don't care what you do. We know who we are.
[10:13] We know what we've been sent to do, and we will not be backing up. We will not be backing up. You want to hear another wild one? In Acts chapter 4 and verse 32, they just invested it all.
[10:24] That's the verse that the socialists love, but they held everything common. They didn't come in there and say, I'll give it all if you give it all. The guy just came in and said, I'll just give it all.
[10:35] We've got to get the job done. We've got to get the job done. I'll just give it all. Favorite verse to look at. Acts chapter 15. Did I sound that bad?
[10:46] I didn't know. Am I sounding that bad? I'm being warned. I didn't mean to sound that bad. Hey, that tube out of my throat will help sooner or later.
[10:58] Acts 15, 26. They hazarded their lives. They hazarded their lives for the name of our Lord and Jesus Christ. You know what they did? They said, I'll just risk it.
[11:10] When you think about the places you're going to go and the places you're going to work, I mean, you're going to risk yourself. But you know when you risk yourself? You risk yourself now.
[11:20] In the moment, you've already done that. You've already said, God, I give you my life. Take me where you want and do what you want to do with me.
[11:33] Let me give you, if I could, go with me to Acts chapter 5 and verse 28. You need to preach Jesus boldly wherever you go. Preach Jesus boldly wherever you go.
[11:49] There are verses here that thrill my heart. Verse 28 says, you have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine. These guys, it's a small number of people.
[12:03] It was 120. Then it's 3,120. I don't know how big the city of Jerusalem was, but much bigger than what the church was. But in just three chapters, they say, you have people talking about this Jesus on every street corner.
[12:22] Everywhere we go, all we do is hear about Jesus. They may like him. They may dislike him. But everybody's talking about Jesus. You can't get people to get saved.
[12:34] That's not your job, but you can fill the place for the doctrine. I'd like them to go to hell. If they want to go to hell, I want them to go to hell over the doctrine. I want them to go to hell after hearing the gospel and not wanting to accept the gospel.
[12:47] That's where we want them to go. That's how we want them to go to hell. We want them to go to hell because they want to. They heard and they rejected, not because they didn't hear. So fill Jerusalem with your doctrine.
[13:00] Acts chapter 8 and verse 4. They went everywhere preaching the word. I'll say to all of you young students that what they're going to need where you're going is the word of God.
[13:16] They don't need anything American. They don't need anything American. They don't need to know about the Constitution. They don't need to know about the Declaration of Independence. They don't need to know about the Civil War. They don't need to know about anything that's going on here.
[13:28] They don't need to know about any social injustice. What they preached to them was the word. They went and said, open the book and tell them what God had to say.
[13:40] Now their book wasn't as big as our book. They only had 39 books. But they went and they preached everywhere the word. You should circle that. The word.
[13:50] They need to know what God said. In Acts chapter 14 and verse 3. Long time therefore abode day speaking boldly in the Lord.
[14:04] Long time abode day speaking boldly in the Lord. You know, you're going to have to exercise some boldness. And if you know it's hard to be bold in America, it can be a lot harder overseas.
[14:18] But you're going to have because you don't speak the language. You don't know the culture. You feel intimidated by everything around you. But you have to speak boldly. I was getting a haircut in Hunter.
[14:30] Oh, good night. 20 something years ago. This girl was cutting my hair. And I said, hey, while I'm here, have you ever trusted Jesus? And I was trying to talk to her and she was sloughing me off.
[14:42] And I said, well, I want to invite you to Hunter Baptist Church. She said, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I am not going there. And I said, well, why wouldn't you go there? She said, I heard all about that church. I said, what's wrong with that church?
[14:54] She said, they wash your brain up there. That's a brainwashing place. And I said, no, no, no, no. They're totally wrong. We're a heartwashing place.
[15:05] And she was, what? So I got to give her a little bit more gospel. Preach boldly. Talk about Jesus. Talk about him everywhere you go.
[15:16] Give out the gospel tracks. Share with them that Jesus changed you and saved your life. If I could take you, please look this one up. Students, at least. Acts 24, 5.
[15:27] There are three things I challenge you to be when you get to the mission field. This is the example of Paul. You want to talk about preaching boldly. When they give Paul's testimony, when they write him up in the, when they write him up in the, in the newspaper, they write three wonderful things about him.
[15:46] Number one, he was a pest. Number two, he caused uprisings. He was a mover of sedition. And number three, he was a ringleader.
[15:58] That's pretty good stuff. See, number one thing you want to do, if you understand, we, we used to give out tracks in Hunter, where the church was only about 50,000 people lived there.
[16:10] And every Saturday, about 30 of us would just go out and flood the place. I'd go down the street. Sometimes, sometimes this, sometimes this guy would say, I'd say, I reach eight.
[16:20] I don't need that. And I said, well, you don't know what it is. He's always, I know. Y'all do it every week. Had one kid one time say, I'll take all you give me. He said, we're out of toilet paper.
[16:32] I'll take some. That was a really nice one. Amen. And then, and then this one guy, he said, let me look them over. He said, I keep a collection of all y'all give out. And let me see if it's one that's already in my collection.
[16:44] I said, well, you need to do something with it. Well, we ought to be passed. And I know you don't want to do that. We don't want to, we don't want anybody to know we're saved. We don't want anybody to know we go to church because we want to fit it in society.
[16:58] But the apostle Paul was like, I love Jesus. Oh, did I tell y'all I love Jesus? Oh, by the way, I love Jesus. Hey, I'd like to invite you to church. Oh, brother, here he comes. That guy gets on my nerves.
[17:11] Most people are going to go to hell. No one ever got on their nerves. No one ever talked to them. The second thing I love, he's a mover of sedition. He is raising up an underground movement.
[17:23] He is causing a rebellion that goes against everything that goes on in their society. You know, when you get to the mission field, it ought to be your goal. Hey, I want to teach you how Jesus does things.
[17:35] And it ought to be that, and that'll go against everything in their society. But you're going to be a ringleader. The number 30 thing. You're going to be a ringleader. You're going to say, I'm getting together a whole group of people that do this.
[17:49] In the very beginning, when Betty and I landed in Atikipa, they got the entire church together, all the churches in Atikipa, and there weren't 15 people to meet us. When we left, there were thousands.
[18:01] You can be a ringleader. Let me, let me give you the last thing. Everything needs to be bathed in prayer. Acts 4 31.
[18:13] And when they had prayed, they were filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness. When they had prayed.
[18:27] When Peter goes to jail, they prayed without ceasing. When they sent out the missionaries, they prayed, and they fasted. So if I could challenge you, let's go turn the world upside down.
[18:43] And if I was you, man, I'd go to my country with one thing in mind. They said about one guy that went to a South Seas island, they said when he got here, there were no Christians, and then when he left, there were no pagans. And I don't know that we'll ever have that kind of success, but you have a clear biblical mandate.
[18:59] You know that. You have the power of the Holy Spirit of God. Just prove your commitment. Put your hand to the plow. Don't look back. Don't think about quitting.
[19:10] Preach Jesus everywhere you go, and bathe everything you do in prayer that God would use you to make a difference around the world. I am very proud of you guys.
[19:21] I'm excited every time somebody graduates, and the three men that graduate are already on deputation. That's a great thing. That's a wonderful thing.
[19:32] There's a lot of mysteries in here, and we are allowed to do the most wonderful thing in the world. Tell people about Jesus. Let's go turn the world upside down.
[19:45] Father in heaven, please touch these graduates. Please do something in their hearts and in their lives. I pray, and I pray, dear God, that you would show yourself in them. I pray, God, that there would be dozens of churches started.
[20:00] I pray, dear God, that there would be many young men trained to go into the ministry. I pray, dear God, that Bible colleges will be springing up everywhere where they're taught the word of God. And I pray, God, for multiple churches, multiple leaders, training multiple leaders, planning multiple churches, that that would be taking place all over the world.
[20:18] God, I am asking you to let us be like that early group that when we walk into town, they'll say, those that have turned the world upside down are come hither also.
[20:32] Thank you, Lord, for what you're doing. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.