Where are we majoring on minors and minoring on majors? Where have we mixed up our stuff? And that's why we're in the book of Acts. And so we we get to chapter three, we see Peter and John have gone out, and they're in Jerusalem. They're they're ministering, and they've received the power of the Holy Spirit to to heal, to teach, to do the things that Jesus has commissioned them to do. And right off the bat, they're faced with their first task. There's a man in the gate. He's been crippled since birth. We talked about him last week, and they heal him in the name of Jesus. And so this morning, we get to verse 11 of chapter three, and we see Peter has to explain to the crowd what just happened, but they're astonished what has happened here. And so he's explaining the meaning of this miracle to the crowd. Who, who want to know is, is this Peter and John that did this, or is this something else? Is this a even a demonic force that has done this? What's going on here? And so what this what these passages do, Chad, we're going to be in verses 11 through 16, but what it does is their message to the crowd is the same message that we can still apply to our hearts today, and it provides the proof that Christ Message, the church's message, which is synonymous that God raised Jesus from the dead as Lord and King. He is the true Messiah of Israel and of the world today. That's the message. That's what they wanted them to hear so that they would not be confused on anything. May we never go about anything on our own merit, on our own terms. Let it be through the power of the Holy Spirit and Jesus Christ that we accomplish things. And when people say, Well, look at what Brian's doing at that church. No, no, no, no. Look at how the Lord is working through this church. I'm just a vessel. I heard, I heard a guy, Heidi, and I had the opportunity to go to the cooperative program, 100 year banquet for the state of Mississippi this past Friday night. And Doctor Jeff orange, who is the Executive Director of the Southern Baptist Convention. He was talking about how this one man was criticizing and saying, you know, the cooperative program, by the way, the cooperative program is where, how we send our missionaries out churches give to the cooperative program. We don't have to. We choose to. We choose to cooperate, and that money goes to send missionaries all over the world, all over the United States. And so he was listening to a man who was talking about this being an antiquated system and not worth the time, and we need to figure out something else. He said, you you have a method that is a model a car in a Tesla world, long story short, Doctor orange looked at him and said, what we do is not a model whatsoever, but it is the vehicle to get it done church. That's what we are here for. We don't change on the biblical principles. What we change on is our methodology and approach to getting the message out. Today, we have more resources than ever before in times in history to communicate the gospel, and we're failing at a rate more than any other time in history at communicating the gospel. We have a job to do. So the title of today's message is the church speaks. So we first see the church speaking out in Acts chapter three, and somewhere along the way, we have forgotten our voice. We've neglected our voice. We have a job to do to rekindle that voice and tell people about the saving power of Jesus Christ, so the church speaks once again. So if you would turn in your Bibles to Acts chapter three, we're going to be in verses 11 through 16. And will you stand with me as we honor God by the reading of His Holy Word. Now this takes place we'll see in verse 11 at Solomon's portico. This is a shaded area along the eastern wall of the what they would call the Court of the Gentiles. It was used for commerce. It was used for teaching conversation. When we get to Acts chapter five, specifically verse 12, we're going to see that this is later a major gathering place for Christians. So this is where this conversation is taking place. After the healing of this man, Peter and John are going to explain to the people what just happened you. Chapter three, verse 11 says this, while he, the crippled man, clung to Peter and John, all the people utterly astound, ran together to them in the portico called Solomon's. And when Peter saw it, he addressed the people, men of Israel. Why do you wonder at this? Or Why do you stare at us as though, by our own power or piety we made him walk the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified his servant, Jesus, whom you delivered over and denied in the presence of Pilate when he had decided to release Him, but you denied the Holy and Righteous One and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, and you killed the author of life, whom God raised from the dead to this we are witnesses, and his name, by the faith in His name has made this man strong whom you see and know, and the faith that is through Jesus has given this man this perfect health. In the presence of you all, Father God, may we be readily able to testify to the great and wonderful things that you are doing to hide us behind your cross, to give glory to your name and your name alone. And it's in Jesus's name that we pray. Amen. You may be seated as we look at these verses, these 11 verses, 11 through 16, it's easy to point out what was going on. Here is just an explanation of what Peter and John did through the power of the Holy Spirit. But when we apply this to us today, and what is the message for the church today, in this explanation, there are quickly three privileges that Christians have even today. So this morning, as we look at these three privileges for all Christians, you're going to see that you have a task to do and something to follow through with. And I hope that this is challenging to you as you see that we have, we have to, we gotta get busy. We gotta get out of these four walls and tell these people about Jesus Christ. So the first privilege that we have is that we are privileged to be receivers. We received the message of the gospel. We received the Holy Spirit when we said yes to Jesus. You see, Christians, believers, many of you in this room, we are receivers, but we're not manufacturers. From from the moment of our conversion to the instant we have glorified bodies, we depend on the Lord to give us what He has promised, from the moment we say yes to Jesus and become a Christian to the moment we look at Jesus face to face, when we have passed out of this world, we know and depend on what the Lord has given us, what he has promised. You see, we do not manufacture our ministry. We don't manufacture the things that we want to do. We don't dictate how people are saved. God has already done that. We receive the details we we receive the directions from the Lord, God Almighty, through His Holy Word that we call the Bible, that is inerrant, infallible and true for every aspect You see, God's people, us Christians, we've gotta wait on the Lord until he opens our eyes, opens the way and empowers us for service, church, family, We've sat on that long enough, God has opened our eyes. We know that there is a world that needs to be reached, but we've sat on our tails for way too long. God has opened our eyes. He's opened the way, our communication, methodology, our physical well being, the ability for us to have conversations with people even closest to us. And the other thing is that God has empowered us for service. Jesus said in Matthew 2819 and 20 right there at the end, and he said, and I am with you always, even until the end of the age. He empowers you. He is with you. So the first church tarried in prayer for for 10 days, knowing that God would keep His promise and and send the Holy Spirit. And he did, so, do God's people. Today, do you and I today set aside time for prayer and wait on the Lord to send his blessing. And what's your prayer life like? Are you praying for gospel opportunities? Are you praying that someone else will take care of that? I fear we are so busy manufacturing counterfeit Christianity that we miss the blessing of the Lord completely. We we're really good at church. We're really good at making sure that we sing a song, we do a special, we do the welcome we didn't today, did we? And then when we when something doesn't go as planned or as normal or as routine or as we expect it to go, as tradition would hold, makes us a little uncomfortable, doesn't it? If I were to end this service today, and we'd have the invitation. And I walked out the doors and got in my car and didn't stand at the back and greet anybody, or I just decided I wasn't going to show up at the office tomorrow, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, let's just say for the next two weeks. You You didn't see Brian's face during office hours, not because I was neglecting my job, but because I was maybe sitting at Starbucks meeting people, or I was sitting somewhere else, talking to people, or I was actually using office hours to go and visit people. You as the church, as the people that your pastor supposed to take care of, to an extent, would get a little aggravated, wouldn't? You can't get in touch with him. He's never in the office. We don't like things to get out of the norm, do we? But I fear that we are so busy manufacturing counterfeit Christianity, Christianity that we we miss the blessing of the Lord completely. Doctor AW Tozer said it like this. He said, If God were to take the Holy Spirit out of this world, most of what the church is doing today would go right on, and nobody would know the difference, right? We got it down to a science, so the Holy Spirit were gone, and we never felt or saw the Holy Spirit again. We could still sing three or four songs, have a choir anthem, listen to me speak and go home at the end of the day and come back and do it again, maybe Wednesday, if you feel like it, but Sunday, if God were to take the Holy Spirit out of this world, most of what the church is doing today would go right on, and noone would know the difference church, we are receivers. We have received a message. We've received a blessing. So that brings us to number two, what do we do with what we have received? You're supposed to transmit it. We are privileged to be transmitters. God could use this mic stand right here to communicate the gospel if he so wanted to, but he he wants you to do it. He wants you to be part of his mission and vision and plan. He's called you to do it, to go to be a transmitter. You know what this thing is on the back of my belt right here, this is a transmitter. You know, what happens if I so that you can hear me a lot better friends, when we unplug from the Holy Spirit, when we unplug from the from the Lord of what He has blessed us with, and and we refuse to be transmitters of what He has given us, we're useless. It's pointless. It's pointless for me to have two$300 microphone if I'm not going to use it. What's the point? We see in verse 12, it says, And when Peter saw it, he addressed the people, men of Israel. Why do you wonder at this? Or Why do you stare at us as though, by our own power or piety we we made him walk like Don't, don't look at us. You've they've probably known Peter and John for a while now, and probably have never seen them issue a miracle. And now that they've seen them do it, they're like, why are you looking at us? You know it wasn't us. You ever seen us do this before. And so what Peter does is he focuses on the power and the authority of Jesus Christ, not, not on any supernatural abilities that may be attributed to the apostles or the disciples? No, he focuses on the power and authority of Jesus. You see the blessings that we receive from God, the things that we receive from God must be shared with others, because God blesses us so that we might be a blessing in today's crumbling world. It. Think about what the world would look like if the church didn't step up, if the church didn't care, if the church was lethargic, what would the world look like? But what would the world look like if we actually stepped it up a notch or two? You see the blessings we receive from God must be shared with others. Yet, yes, we're we're receivers. But what Acts 2035 says that we'll get to in a couple of years. Acts 2035 says It is more blessed to give than to receive. And we have got a giving church. You you give financially. You give of your time, many of you, but there's, there's the 20 80% rule, 20% of the people do 80% of the work. 20% of the people do 80% of the giving. 20% of the people do 80% of the fill in the blank, which means there's 20% of y'all that maybe doing a little but let me ask you this, what would it look like in your life to honor God and take it to the next level, in your giving, in your prayer life, in your Bible study, In your attendance, in your serving, what would it look like if you took it to the Next level? And so as Christians, we're, we're not just reservoirs for people to admire us, but But we, we are the springs of living water that that bring encouragement and enablement to others. Today when you when you go and you knock on a door, those of you who are going on teams today to to talk to people. When you knock on that door and someone actually answers the door, you're there to be an encouragement. You're there to build a relationship with them. And just think about how it would make you feel if you were on the other side of that door, and then all of a sudden, the person that's talking to you, they don't want money, they don't want you to buy anything. They don't they don't want to sell you anything. They just want to how are you doing? We're a church in the neighborhood. God has blessed us, and we want to love you, just as Jesus Christ loved us, so as Christian, we're not the reservoirs for people to admire us, but we're the springs of living water that bring this encouragement and enablement for others today. In verse 13, it says the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorify His servant, Jesus. And so what Peter is doing here is he is reminding specifically the Jewish people that are listening to him of God's covenant promises to Abraham and his faithfulness to Israel, including making Israel a great nation. And don't miss this. Don't miss this church and blessing the entire world. It wasn't enough for God just to bless Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and Israel, but they were to be a blessing for the entire world. Don't miss that. And God says to us today what he said to Abraham centuries and centuries ago in Genesis, 12, two, I will bless you so that you can be a blessing. I will bless you so you can be a blessing. Church, one of the greatest joys of the Christmas Christian life is to be a transmitter and to help others become transmitters as well. That's what the discipleship process looks like. It starts with evangelism and and sharing the message of the gospel with people so that they can put their faith in Jesus Christ, and then they grow in their faith, and then take that message out and be a transmitter. They receive, they transmit. They receive, they transmit. It's a process. It's a continuum. And so Jesus said in Matthew 25 verse 40 verse 45 assuredly, I say to you whatever you did to one of the least of these people, you did it for me. So when you come in contact with people, whether they know the gospel or not, you you have a message to bring them the hope of Jesus Christ and the gospel if they have not heard it or responded to it or the the message that you need to take it to the next level. So we speak when we serve others, we are serving Jesus and glorifying Him. You know, it's a good thing when local churches send out missionaries, but it's a good thing when every member of the local church is a missionary, right in his or her own backyard. Imma say that one more time, just because I think some of you may have missed it. It's a good thing when we send out missionaries, and we're planning on doing that. We already support three missionary families, and as we start making local, national and international partnerships, we're going to send teams to be short term missionaries to these places. And that's a wonderful thing. But what's even more wonderful is when every. Member of this church, of that church, of that church, of that church, and every member, every person who calls themselves a Christian that's been saved by the blood of Jesus Christ, when they are a missionary, right in his or her own world, in your own backyard. Now, I've been in church buildings. Whereas you enter, you see a sign that that reads, enter to worship. You may have been too walk in the back doors. It says, Enter into worship. And then as you leave, right above the back doors, it may say something like, now, depart and serve, or perhaps you are now entering the mission field. Friends, that is true. As you leave this place, you're entering the mission field, and what you do glorifies or dis glorifies, God. Be faithful to the call that He has for you in your own mission field, it's the Holy Spirit who sends forth the gospel acts 13 four, and it's the Holy Spirit that empowers us to tell people how to get to heaven, how to get to God. Lastly, number three, we are privileged to be trailblazers. Now I'm not talking about the Chevrolet SUV. I used to have one, until teenagers at one of my former churches spun circles in it, behind the church, and next thing I know, I'm riding down the road, and the CV boot, or whatever it is, goes my tires, both of em front tires. I'm not bitter, but we're we're privileged to be spiritual trailblazers. You see an elderly member of one of the churches that that I served in once asked me, son, just remember, no matter what, they tell you, the good old days weren't all that good. We love the good old days, don't we? Some churches think that they're conservative when they're actually preservative you ever thought about that we're conservative congregation. We believe in the inerrancy of the Word of God. We believe that Jesus is the Way, the Truth, the life the Bible is, doesn't contain error. It's infallible and it's true. We're conservative congregation. But when you when you go in your closets, when you look at your methodologies, when you look at the stuff that you cling tight to, programming things like that, you're not conservative, you're preservative. And there are things to be to be preserved, and there are things that you just gotta let go, so like the lazy servant in the parable people in these churches, they they've carefully guarded what God committed to them, but have done nothing with it. No, I've been, I've been blessed reading about those days, but to try to duplicate them today may not be God's will. First Baptist Byron has done some amazing things in its past 201 years. This is April. It's your anniversary. 201 years this church has been in existence, done some amazing things the people that have gone before us phenomenal wouldn't change it for the world. But as I read about those days, some of those things are not meant to be duplicated. This doesn't mean that we should abandon the past. It means that we should remember the history, and remember that our history as First Baptist Church of Byram, whether you were here or not, or whether I've only been here a year and a month or two, that history is nothing but a rudder to guide us. It's not an anchor to hold us back. Let me say it louder for those in the past, our history is not a rudder to guide us. It is a it is a rudder to guide us. It is not an anchor to hold us to the past. You agree, so let's quit. Let's quit anchoring in the past, live from what we've learned, live from those who have gone before us, but let's not anchor in the past. Let's use it as a rudder to continue to set sail to that which the Lord has pointed out for us. And so our if any of you have ever heard of the ministry Youth for Christ. I think their slogan says it best, and here's what it says, geared to the times, anchored to the rock, geared to the times, anchored to the rock. Church family to ignore. The past is to to silence one of our most important teachers, but to try to duplicate the past is to attempt the impossible. Okay, so the the Lord sent the Holy Spirit to an upper room in Jerusalem filled with His people with wisdom and power, and they opened the doors and they went out to spread the good news of the gospel to a lost world, that that's what happened. And in verse 15, Peter says, But you killed the author of life. You killed the one whom authored life, who originated life. In your version may say something different, but he goes on, and he says, whom God raised from the dead. But then he says this to this, we are witness. We witnessed all of this. We know it. So now we take it forth. We don't dwell. Dwell in the past. When all of this happened. We move forward. You see the the the apostles and the broader Christian community are commissioned by Jesus to testify continually to his resurrection and its implications. You tell others that I died, was buried and that I was raised again, and this is what it means. You compare that to what Jesus said in Acts Eight, one, you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and to the ends of the earth. And so today, we're prone to to close the doors as a spiritual elite. We close the doors because we got this spiritual eliteness going on so that we can enjoy the fellowship inside while people outside perish, one of the things that is a telltale sign of churches that are dying and doing this, who think they're the spiritual elite, is looking at the budget. How much of your budget is external, how much of it is internal, and so often times a church that's dying, a church that's struggling, a church that thinks they're the spiritual elite that doesn't want to have anything to do with ministry and gospel, evangelism and discipleship, the majority of their budget is focused on themselves. May that never be our case. And so these churches, they're prone to close the doors to this and operate as a spiritual elite, enjoying the fellowship inside while people outside perish. You know, we we've mapped out the old trails and and we love to walk on them, but we desperately, desperately, desperately, church, need to blaze new trails. And I think most of you are on board with that. Now there's, there's been some minor things that have happened here in the in in the recent months of us moving some Sunday school classes and working with with daycare and and let me tell you, I have only heard throughout this entire process one hateful comment. Now I've heard some negative comments in the terms of, I don't know if this is a good idea or that is and I I don't put those and classify them as hateful. But the comments that I classify as hateful are those who are just stuck, who don't who don't want to change. You know, I've been in this I've been in this class for 42 years, and I'm not going anywhere. My great, great grandmother sat in that chair right there. And I'm not, I'm not moving. Well, that's fine. What time is your funeral? I'm kidding. But some of that, that, like, what we're doing now, is just minor stuff. I mean, I it's going to save the church money so that we can be faithful in operating evangelistically, I believe, and it doesn't. It's not major on the wide scheme of things. But as I, as I take a step back and I look at some of these minor changes that we have made in the last year, six months. It encourages me, because we have a church who is not only just okay, yeah, I think this is best. We pray through this. I think this is good. Wherever we need to go, whatever we need to do, let's do it. But I also have people coming to me, one, one of our deacons, has been the one that has been coming to me for month after month after month, saying, We gotta reach people. We gotta reach people. We gotta go we gotta knock on doors. Let's do it. Let's do it. Let's do it. That's encouraging, because when, when you, when you look at a church, when you're a young person, and you look at a a church that the the average. Age, maybe 6065, 70, I don't know. You're thinking, well, they're tired. They've done their job. How long is it going to be before they have to sell their sanctuary because they can't afford it? Can't afford to pay the light bill. And I'm going to be honest with you when, when the search committee was interviewing me that that worried me, like, what? What does the future of this church look like? Being an a predominantly older congregation? But the Lord assured me, I got this. Just wait till you meet these people and Imma tell you what. We've got some go getters in this congregation. We got some people that love the Lord, that love this church, and that are working hard to reach the next generation. And I don't foresee these doors closing anytime soon. We've got people to reach. Yeah, we can't forsake it, but we got a job to do, and that is encouraging to me, that you got my back and I got your back. That's what it means to be brothers and sisters in Christ. That's what it means. So we gotta grow in the grace and the knowledge and understand that if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old things have passed away. And behold, all things have become new. Second Corinthians, 517, early in verse 15, Peter tells them, You killed, the author of life perversion, like I said, may say, originator, source of life. What this means, in all simplicity, is that Jesus is not only the servant of God, but He is the master of life, from whom everyone receives their meaning, to whom we owe allegiance. So the the master of life, the source of life, the originator of life, the author of life, Jesus, All to Him we owe. All to Him we owe so first, Baptist by room, saddle up your horses. You know, there was a song many to many, many years ago, 1992 by name of Stephen Curtis Chapman. I was a fan boy, not afraid to admit it. It's where I was at one of his concerts when I held the hand of a girl for the first time. Wasn't Heidi? Sorry? She Yeah. We didn't know each other back then. But here's what this song says, Hold on tight, ready. Started out this morning in the usual way, chasing thoughts inside my head that I thought I had to do today another time around the circle I was trying to make it better than the last but I opened up the Bible and I read about me, it said, I've been a prisoner, and God's Grace had set me free. And somewhere between the pages, it hit me like a lightning bolt. I saw a big frontier in front of me, and I heard a voice that said, let's go. Verse two says, Come on, get ready for the ride of your life. We're going to leave long faced religion in a cloud of dust behind. We're going to discover all the New Horizons just waiting to be explored. Church. This is what we were created for, and here's the course. Saddle up your horses. We've got a trail to blaze through the wild blue yonder of God's amazing grace. Let's follow our leader into the glorious unknown. This is a life like no other. This is the great adventure. Are you ready to speak up church? Are you ready for a great adventure to exercise what you have received through transmitting it and blazing new trails so that we can partner with God in reaching the lost the early church, they knew they had a job to do, and that was their message. And the 2025 church, we know we've got a job to do, and that's gotta be our message. And.