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[0:00] I'm going to have great testimonies. As they prepare to sing a song that says, let it start with me and the ushers will come and I'll pray for the offering. I would just like to challenge you if you'd like to give your faith promise card at this time.

[0:14] Where does faith promise contribution goes? It goes to helping families like the Canadiens live and serve in New York City. And that's something that you can read our prayer letters about. It's very open information.

[0:25] It lets you see what we get to be involved in. And that every one of us has a decision. God does not make a decision like planting a church in New York by only speaking to a couple and asking them to say yes. He speaks to an entire church and he asks something out of all of us and all of us need to be faithful to say yes to God and say, God, we want to do what you called us to do in regards to seeing a church planted in New York and the different parts around the world.

[0:48] Faith promise is one of those places where a question has to be answered. It's one of those areas of life where we say, God, you are the Lord of our lives and we want to say yes to you. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, I pray for all my brothers and sisters that they'll make decisions concerning their faith promise giving.

[1:04] Lord, as they make decisions in other areas, Lord, about their involvement and your mission around this world, I pray that they would always give you a yes and an amen to anything that you would ask. In Jesus' name I pray.

[1:14] Amen. That was beautiful. Jens, I didn't know you were singing. I said the ladies would be singing. I didn't know that was you. But you did a fantastic job. And what a great song. And I know that you live it out.

[1:26] Let our heart be filled with compassion. That's a beautiful thought, one that we want. But let my mind be free of distraction. That's hard work and that's a difficult task. It's less poetic, but it's very much important to the work that we're being called to do.

[1:39] I'm going to speak to John just for a moment. Then Mother Clark will give the charge to the church, which I believe may be the most important thing that happens right now. John, because the Cannavans have been charged for some time. We've talked a lot about what their responsibility is to plant a church.

[1:52] It doesn't just happen in 15 minutes or 10 minutes right now. I can only remind John if things have already been taught. But there's been a lot of discussions about what he will do in New York and what his plans are.

[2:03] But it's really important that you listen to Brother Clark or Brother Smith or whoever he wants to be today as he comes up here and he shares with us our responsibility to them. But John, let me encourage you in this.

[2:15] 1 Peter 4, verse 11. I'd ask that you would mark that in your Bible. But before I get to it, 1 Corinthians 4, 6 tells us that we learn not to think of any men above that which is written, that not one of us be puffed up for one against another.

[2:30] In simple words, we are to limit our thinking to which God authorizes in His Word. We should only think about ourselves and other people in this world based upon what the Word of God says.

[2:43] And in doing that, that keeps our mind free of distraction so that in word or deed, we can do all unto the name of the Lord. The same lines the Apostle Peter commands us to speak. And as we speak, 1 Peter 4, 11, And if any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God.

[3:01] John gets up on the busy streets of New York and they say, What are you here to do? And he says, I have brought to you the oracles of God. All right? We might get to see him on the news pretty quickly. All right? It would spread.

[3:12] That's not a way in which people often think. But he is most certainly going to speak with an authority as the oracles of God. And if any man minister, let him do it as the ability which God giveth, that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion forever and ever.

[3:32] Amen. So this is not a religion based upon God's Word. I mean, not on man's Word, but it's God's Word. The most important thing that you're taking with you, you have your family, your relationship with Christ, but the most earthly possession that you have, which is more than an earthly possession, is going to be the Word of God.

[3:50] And you need to hide in it. You need to go up there, get your apartment, whatever square footage you can get up there in New York. But inside of that home, an even smaller space, you need to draw a circle and say, I'm going to live my life according to God's Word.

[4:03] I'm not going to think of myself or anybody else outside of the Scriptures of God's Word. I'm not going to fight vain philosophy of man, which is an abundance in New York, with good moral philosophy.

[4:15] I'm going to say, thus saith the Lord. I'm going to say, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation. It is only the Word of God that will awaken dead people.

[4:27] Paul, when he goes to Mars Hill, we know that he speaks to them and he likens them. He says, you know the poets of the day, and he can compare sin with sin. But when it came time to give truth, he turned to God's Word, because it's not going to be found in anything else.

[4:42] And so how are you going to do that? John, you're going to study to show yourself approved unto God. That time in study is not going to be time wasted. Your time in the morning, your time preparing, it doesn't matter if there's two people in the service, or if there's 200 people in the service, that when you preach the Word of God, you must rightly divide the Word of God.

[4:59] The day that we choose to not rightly divide the Word of God, to teach something that's similar to Scripture, but not Scripture, is the day that we stop building a church, and we build something that they have in abundance, which is man-made structures to man-made philosophies.

[5:14] So preach the Word. Handle it accurately. Do it in such a way that it will, as you handle it, it will cut straight, and that you will know it. 2 Peter 3.16, and also in all his epistles, speaking of them and these things, which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable rest, and they do also the other Scriptures unto their own destruction.

[5:36] Let us rely on God to teach us how to handle His Word through careful study of the Scriptures. Such a study whereby we learn to handle God's Word, which is the authority in which you are going to have.

[5:50] There is no difference that in New York, another person in New York is going to make no difference for them. Another person wanting to do good is not going to make a difference to them. But a person that can say, Thus saith the Lord, can change families by the power as a testimony of your family that is there.

[6:06] Just like your brother has done in India and others in your family, you have to go and you've got to draw a circle. And you say, It doesn't matter what this whole city does. It doesn't matter what they think. It doesn't matter what areas they pressure me in.

[6:17] As me and my family, we will serve the Lord. We will live according to this book. I feel for you, even here in what we would call the South and the Bible Belt, we are a bunch of radicals in this room that are living very counter-cultural with ideas that we have.

[6:32] Now you are going 20 years ahead of us to another place, and you're constantly going to be pressured to move away from God's Word. And you're going to be pushed away. And there's some areas about creation and evolution that don't seem too hard because the argument is there.

[6:45] But when they push on you and they say that you're unloving because you hold a different view or that you're uncaring, that's where it's very likely for you to compromise. And you're going to say, I'm going to keep my hand on God's Word, and I'm going to say what God says is best for mankind is what is best, and I will not compromise to these things.

[7:02] Beware, John, lest any man spoil you through vain philosophy or philosophy and vain deceit after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of this world, not after Christ.

[7:13] Beware, John. It's going to come. It's going to come through books that you can read. It can come through discouraging conversations. Beware, lest it would come for me in a conversation with you where I did not believe that God was big enough to do something, and I told you to rely upon your flesh.

[7:28] Keep your heart committed to say, I'm only going to serve God and listen to Him. But sanctify the Lord God in your heart, 1 Peter 15, and be ready always to give and answer a reason of hope.

[7:41] This always be ready for somebody to bump into you in New York. And so I close with this, and I'll pray, and Brother Clark will come up here. But if any man speak in New York City or any other place, let him speak as the oracles of God.

[7:54] And if any man minister, which you will in so many ways, can't even imagine all the different ways God will lead you in Amber to meet the needs of those people and to serve them. But let him do it as of the ability which God giveth.

[8:07] Not the natural ability, not the kind of ability that other people could have, but the one that says, God, if you don't work through me, it's not going to be done. That in me there's no good thing. Say that I'm only going to minister to this city through your power.

[8:18] I'm only going to speak to this city with your word, that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him be praise and glory forever and ever.

[8:28] Amen. And so when it comes to discussing the truth, speak as the oracle of God, showing the people what God says in this world, which is the power of God and the salvation. Heavenly Father, I ask that you be with us now.

[8:40] Lord, as John and Amber have made big decisions about the calling in their lives, I pray that John and Amber will be people that speak the oracles of God and only minister in your strength. But Lord, now we're going to be challenged to make a decision as a church.

[8:53] So I pray that you'll help us respond in a way that is glorifying. As in the verse, Lord, all of this will be done to glorify your name. That is our heart's desire. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.

[9:03] Amen. The Bible is open to Acts chapter 13, the obvious passage of Scripture. I was asked to give a charge to the church and I look out at the church and I see what this church is doing and I said, how do you charge a church that's already charging?

[9:23] This thing to do is go to the Scriptures. Acts chapter 13, verse number 1. Now there was in the church that was at Antioch. I want you to understand something.

[9:34] The responsibility to reach the gospel is a local church responsibility. I have a saying that I do oftentimes, we'll read a little bit more in a minute, when I do a missions conference I usually try to put it in some sort of order what I do.

[9:53] I'm a guy that likes order. Order helps us keep focus, helps us keep in direction. And so generally when I think of missions I think of these three thoughts.

[10:06] Number one, missions is the heartbeat of Christ. This is his heartbeat. Luke 19.10 says this, that the Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost.

[10:18] His whole purpose was to save a world from their sins. So missions is the heartbeat of Christ. What you do in missions is what God wants us to do.

[10:29] It's his heartbeat. Number two, missions is the hope of the condemned. John 3, verse number 18 says, he that believeth on him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already.

[10:48] You know those folks in New York City stand condemned. There's only one way out of that condemnation is that is through the Lord Jesus Christ through the gospel.

[11:00] Acts chapter 4, verse 12, a part of it says, there's none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. Then the third point is this, missions is the high calling of the church.

[11:21] The gospel was preached first in Jerusalem and from there 3,000 folks were saved. From that, as they established a body of Christ, as they established a church, it became a functioning church with the teaching and preaching of the word of God, with the ministry, with the election, the selection of deacons, you have a functioning church and they functioned there and then the Holy Spirit had to get involved and allow persecution to come to spread them out, to fulfill the great commission, to be witnesses both in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and to the uttermost parts of the world.

[12:03] Added daily. such as to be saved. Churches scattered abroad and they began preaching the gospel and from that group that was scattered abroad came the folks that established the church at Antioch.

[12:18] That's the church we're talking about here in Acts chapter 13. And again, it became a functioning body of Christ, a local church that began to have a ministry of teaching and preaching the word of God and you find that in verse number one you find those that were there teaching and preaching and they're going along in their day-to-day service and their day-to-day teaching and helping others to grow in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and all of a sudden the Holy Spirit intercedes again and the Holy Spirit says to the church that's you.

[12:59] The church is not this building. The church is the body of Christ the people that are born again saved, established here in this place.

[13:10] And he says to the church verse number two as they ministered to the Lord and fasted and the Holy Ghost said separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work or unto I have called them they have already been called and to a work they are already doing work and of course we know that Paul's focus was to be on the Gentile world.

[13:35] God had told him that. So he says to the church you're to separate that idea of separate means to set apart to set off it's the church's job if you want to call it a job.

[13:50] It's a church's job to separate those that God has called to do the work. I want you to notice something else in here.

[14:01] The church is an active church a praying church a church that is fasting laying the and and ministering to God and understand this idea of fasting is not always not doing without food.

[14:16] the idea of fasting is to focus our attention entirely on God. Forget everything else and focus entirely on God and what God wants us to do.

[14:30] Verse number three and when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them I believe that's going to take place here. You know what you're doing here is the biblical pattern for missions.

[14:45] Okay? There's a lot of things that we do in our circles that don't really follow a biblical pattern. It's something that man made up and we do it but this is the biblical pattern.

[14:57] What is going to take place here in just a few moments follows a biblical pattern. I believe you're going to have them come and I believe the church is going to gather around them.

[15:09] I believe the leaders of the church are going to lay hands on them and I believe the leaders of the church are going to co-labor with the Holy Spirit of God and send this couple out to New York City to the place that God has called to the people God has called them to minister the gospel to.

[15:30] The local church, every work of God, and I'm going to make this statement, understand Roma is out of a local church. Every work of God ought to find its roots and its authority in and from a local church.

[15:46] Chapter 4, the church, the local, ought to recognize that it is a co-laborer with God. You'll see, he said, separate me, Paul and Barnabas, for the work, send them out.

[16:01] And then it says in verse number 4, they're sent out by the Holy Spirit. So you're co-laboring, you're joining with the Holy Spirit of God. You know, every work of God ought to be a spiritual work.

[16:14] There's no room in the ministry for man-made work. There's no room in the ministry for work of the arm of the flesh. It all ought to be spiritual work.

[16:29] The church ought to recognize its co-labor with God and ought to be careful not to labor apart from God's direction. You know, it's interesting, brother, you have known you were going to New York City for how long?

[16:45] Ten years. And now we're at that point. Why? Because now is the time.

[16:57] It says it right there. Brother Smith can read. Now is the time. And now is the time the church needs to recognize that this is God's plan for this couple.

[17:14] This is God's plan for this church. To join with God's plan and become a part of God's plan. Someone has said this, that the resources for missions, men and material, come from the hand of God, through the church, to the world.

[17:37] This church, Vision Baptist Church, has been, and I pray and challenge that you would continue to be a vehicle used by God to impact the world for Jesus Christ.

[17:54] Father, I pray for this church. A church like this will find itself under attack.

[18:06] Our adversary, the devil, and we'll address him tomorrow some, our adversary, the devil, does not like what's happening here today. And he will do anything he can to stop it.

[18:19] But I pray, Father, you'd strengthen this church, that you'd strengthen the resolve to be a New Testament Bible-believing, Bible-practicing church that is involved in getting the gospel around the world to the point where they're willing to take those that are members and active in their church and send them somewhere else.

[18:42] It is their responsibility. responsibility. And I pray, Father, you'd strengthen and encourage this church to not only send this couple out, but other couples as their time comes.

[18:57]  Bless now, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Pastor. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.