Hey everybody, this is Pastor John Ewart from Inglewood
Baptist Church in Rocky Mountain, North Carolina.
Thank you so much for tuning into our podcast.
You're going to hear from God today as we share from his word
about important issues facing your life that can guide you
according to the Bible. Well, good morning, Inglewood.
Let me offer my apologies. I am a I'm under the weather, so
my voice may be odd. I may be entering puberty this
morning. So if if you miss me hugging you
today, don't worry, I'll hug you twice next week.
Really hard. There you go.
So take your Bibles, turn to Acts 28 and appreciate so much
for being here this morning. This is Missions month and we've
been celebrating our our missions experiences and
opportunities together. If you're still interested in
learning more about one of our many trips for 2026, when you
leave here, if you go out the welcome center hook a right,
you'll see some glass cases right there by them as a poster.
You can hit AQR code and still get information.
Doesn't obligate you to anything, but we're going all
around the world in 2026. Love to have you join us.
So you sign up for that. I also want to give you an
update on a couple of things. One is Thanksgiving is around
the corner. Don't know if you know they're
not. And today, starting today,
there's some of these at the tables in the back.
You can also pick these up next week, but we've put together a
family Thanksgiving worship guide for you to use around the
table. This will lead you through some
scripture and prayer together. It's a wonderful thing.
Our family does this and so you'll enjoy that.
Pick one of these up in the back.
I think we'll put it online too before it's over.
But thank you so much for being here for that.
Also, just want to give you an update on our friends overseas
for those who've been tracking that story.
And I'm just going to keep eating the halls and sniffling
and coughing and sipping my water and you all listen hard
and I'll preach hard. Made it through the 1st service
I believe God's going to and our weakness make us strong, right?
So our friends overseas have a court date.
It's been moved again, which is no surprise.
Probably be moved again. But anyway, right now it's
Wednesday and so just lift them up.
They're going to appear before High Court who can drop all
charges and hopefully end the whole thing or at least give
them the next steps. So we pray for them.
So let me pray for them again. I want to repeat our thanks for
the veterans. My father was a a World War 2
veteran and I've always appreciated in fact, yesterday,
no Friday, I've lost track of time.
I'm delirious on Friday we had to go out of town and we anyways
the hassle we needed my truck to get inspected.
Long story, I had some veterans who are going to close their
shop veteran run gas station and that they I got to talking to
them and shared with them about you all and and bless their
hearts. They stayed open late just to
help me out. So I really appreciated veterans
on Friday. Let's pray father, we thank you
so much for today. Just pray, Father, that you'll
bless our time together. Give me the voice You want me to
have. More importantly, Father, just
help us to hear the words you want us to hear from You.
We do lift up our friends overseas, Father.
We're very thankful for the way that you have allowed them to be
out on bail. Pray, Father, that you'll be
with this court date. That you would give great
wisdom. That, Lord, the only way we know
how to pray is that everything that they've had against them
would be dropped and that, Father, they would be free to
minister in your name again. Father, we again thank you so
much for our veterans. We thank you for the opportunity
of worshiping. Father, I do thank you for the
freedom. And it's not something we take
lightly in Christ's name, Amen. In fact, next week we have
guests coming for the next two Sundays.
So bless your heart. You don't have to listen to me
for two weeks, say Amen, thank you.
But you're going to be so blessed next Sunday talking
about freedom. The the, the fastest growing
church in the Muslim world is the Iranian church, believe it
or not. And part of what my work was in
the seminary world is we've been training leaders inside of Iran
for many years. And the leader of that ministry
is going to be coming and sharing with you next week.
And he's going to talk to you about a place where there is no
freedom. And, and the way that he went
from a radical Muslim to a pastor to being arrested, being
threatened with his life and God sets him free.
And so you want to come here, come bees next week.
It's a powerful, powerful testimony he shared in front of
the UN as well. And he's just powerful guy.
Then two weeks, Sam James, doctor Sam James, who's a legend
in international missions at 93 is going to come.
He preached me under a table and probably walk me under a table
too. I could never keep up with him
when we were in Vietnam together.
And so he's going to be with us. You're going to enjoy that very,
very much. You know, when I travelled
overseas all the time last year, I did about 11 trips overseas
and before I came and joined you all here and sometimes because
of where I was, it would take me as long as 40 hours non-stop to
get home. That's not just, that's not a
hotel overnight thing. That's from the time I got in
the car to leave where I was to where I got home non-stop could
be 40 hours because I'd have to take a Jeep down that jungle
road and get to the Bush plane and take off on the dirt runway
and then finally get to another place where there's another
plane and another plane and another plane.
And you know, when you get off of that nonstop 16 hour flight
and you're almost home, there's a lot of excitement.
There's a lot of anticipation about getting home.
Well, Inglewood, our next journey is so important and so
are the intended destinations that God has for us on that
journey. We need to talk about that with
intentionality and passion. We need to reach God's
destinations for us. And how we get there is going to
reveal a whole lot about us. And so we're just getting
started on this. So where are we headed and why
and how are we going to get there?
Now, if you're a church member, you should have received an
e-mail this week where you got a copy of the proposed budget for
2026. Don't worry, I'm not going to
talk about this, but a second. If you're a guest, just ignore
this for a second. And you also got some
information about her happy birthday Jesus offering.
And if you looked at it, it was totally different.
What you've seen before. That's on purpose.
And so on December the 7th at 6:00, I'm having a town hall
meeting in here for church members.
And I want to talk about that. An annual budget simply needs to
be the church's vision on paper in terms of money.
That's what it's supposed to be. And that's what we've tried to
make it this year. And we're going to talk about a
strategy for stewardship for 2026.
You need to hear more about the Cooperative Program and about
how in Southern Baptist churches, we network together to
support 10s of thousands of missionaries all around the
world. In North America, we joined
together to support disaster relief.
Southern Baptists are the top three, top 2, sometimes top one
disaster relief agency in the world in terms of feeding people
when a natural disaster happens. You also support theological
education. Every time you give to the
offering here, that part of that goes to the Cooperative program.
And so we want to talk about that.
You need to know who Lottie Moon is.
You need to know who Annie Armstrong is.
You need to know some of these names.
So we're going to do a little education as well as I want to
talk to you about stewardship. The Happy Birthday Jesus
offering goes $185,000 now that that that's more than what we
need, but that gives us a buffer from for some new partnerships
that we need to have in 2026. You're the highest you all ever
gave according to Diana, so I'll blame her if it's wrong.
I'm kidding. She's never wrong, by the way,
and don't ever tell her I even said anything.
But the highest I believe you all ever, ever collected was
$258,000. So I'd be really happy with
$260,000 this year. So you all start planning.
No, you can clap over that, blow that away.
Inglewood. No reason not to, the way we're
growing. So we've been joining Paul on
these two missionary journeys that he was on.
He follows that with a third where he plants more churches,
makes more disciples, trains more leaders, and writes letters
of instruction and encouragement.
Now we know these letters because we read the epistles of
Paul. We read these letters right to
these churches. So we know these letters and
these trips take over a decade. Sometimes in the book of Acts,
time frames get all mixed up. He went thousands of miles, and
he shares the gospel and at least four major provinces of
the Roman Empire. And so finally, he's on this
next journey. He's persecuted, he's attacked,
He's almost killed. Finally, he's persecuted and
arrested in Jerusalem. They beat him some more.
And after multiple trials, he finally appeals to Caesar as a
Roman citizen. Paul wanted to go to Rome, the
center of his universe, to share the gospel.
So they ship him off. And Paul demonstrates who we're
supposed to be, his disciples along the way who joined the
King's mission, who who live out the church's vision and who go
fulfill the Great Commission. So he's shipwrecked and he's
snake bit. You ever had a day like that?
Some days like that, you know what I'm saying?
Some days kind of feel that way, kind of like a shipwreck and a
snake bite, you know what I mean?
But he finally gets to Italy where he's trying to get, he
reaches his proper destination. And I pray we reach ours.
This whole time has been kind of an introduction to what I
believe God has for us next and to be who we need to be and
where God wants us to be. To join Him in redeeming this
city, but also to join Him in redeeming the nation's and to be
100% all in to the end. And so that's what we're going
to talk about in Acts 28 verse 14.
Here we go, sniffle. Here we go.
I spent last night and I was going to say I slept, but I
spent last night in my recliner. I think I slept 15 minutes.
But you ever have anybody else have to sleep in the recliner
last night? I know this stuff's going on,
going around, so sorry, I I'm not going to be hugging you and
shaking hands with you because I also know this is contagious.
So there we go. I'd lick the pulpit, but that
would be a little crude. So here we go.
Thank you very much. Acts 2814.
If you're a guest today, it's always like this.
Verse 14. There we found brothers and
we're invited to stay with him for seven days.
And so we came to Rome, and the brothers there, when they heard
about us, came as far as the form of Appius and three Taverns
to meet us. On seeing them, Paul thanked God
and took courage. And when we came into Rome, Paul
was allowed to stay by himself with the soldier who guarded
him. So we're going to leave it right
there for a minute, and we're going to talk about how we need
to go forward. How are we going forward?
But one of the ways we go forward is with Thanksgiving and
courage. Paul needed, let's, let's not
rush through this because Paul needed the encouragement of
these brothers. Let's, let's not slip by that he
needed courage for what he would face.
I mean, even the great apostle Paul needed to be strengthened.
And so the care of these brothers, these believers
actually encouraged him greatly. You know, leaders need
encouragement too. I mean, they need your support
too. Your, your staff and your your
pastors love you dearly. And and I appreciate so much the
support that this church gives us and the love that you show
us. We're having a great time.
We love you now. Let's not pretend like that's
ever, ever going to change. We all right, We're good.
See, we actually love each other, right?
Yeah, we really do. And we're having a great time.
And and, and your team, your leaders need that love and they
need plenty of it. I mean, what a great team you
all have here with your staff and your pastors.
Amen. Clap form.
Not for me, but for them. Yeah, they deserve that.
They're working hard. So we're on a journey with you,
though also we we're on the journey to our discipleship.
Still in process. It's always in process.
So we're walking, walking alongside of you in this.
And we need to be strengthened by you just like you want to be
strengthened by us. So we want to serve together in
the same way these brothers did for Paul, even with his
incredible face, faith, even with the strong faith that Paul
had, it must have been unnerving to think about the unknown stuff
that he was going to face in Rome.
I mean, it had to be a little scary.
So don't attempt this journey by yourself.
You're you're not designed, you're not equipped for that.
You were never designed to be alone.
You were designed to be interdependent from creation
forward. And so part of the reason the
church exists is for that that reason.
So don't, don't attempt to face the unknowns of your future by
yourself. Don't attempt this future, this
journey by yourself. Allow the church to be a family
for you. So be intensely engaged.
And guess what a what I wonder about.
Yeah, I know 100%. That's good.
That was the one guess. You got 2 guesses.
That's so funny, y'all, y'all, y'all getting it, aren't you?
So 100% in a connect group? Sure.
I mean, there's a reason why we keep harping on it because this
is where your relationships of support and accountability need
to take place. You need these communities of
encouragement to to do this together.
So if the apostle Paul needed courage, if he needed this help,
so will you. So draw strength from one
another, pray for one another, encourage one another, love one
another, be thankful with one another so that we can reach
God's destination together. So Paul's eventually there.
They place him under guard. He's chained to a guard.
And during this time, he actually writes to some of the
churches that he helped start. Now I've shared this verse with
you, I don't know 100 times, but but this is when he writes this
passage in Ephesians chapter 6 to think about what he says
here. So praying at all times in the
Spirit with all prayer and supplication to that or to that
end, keep alert with all perseverance, making
supplication for all the Saints and also for me, that words may
be given to me, and opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the
mystery of the gospel for which I'm ambassador in chains, that I
may declare it boldly as I ought to speak.
So Paul asked for the church to pray for him, that he'd have the
words to speak with boldness, not release.
Notice what he doesn't pray. He's not asking to get out.
He's not asking for relief. He's not at not some kind of woe
is me prayer, not for comfort, but for boldness.
He needed boldness. So how must we pray for one
another? This church, Englewood Baptist
Church, needs to be the headquarters of encouragement.
Our core small groups, our age graded family ministries must
serve in this way for every single age level.
That for which is one reason why you hear me harp on you about
the 100% because we all need to be engaged.
We need this. That's not an attendance goal,
that's a discipleship goal where every one of us are impacted by
this. So be in these ministries.
Be in this ministry is where the word of God is is systematically
taught, where where love for one another shared, where prayers
for one another are commonplace, where we we can come with all of
our pain. We can come with all of our
discouragement. We can come with all of our
issues and find hope and define courage.
Paul needed these brothers at that moment in time.
He needed these brothers to come all the way for them.
They went out of their way. This was not easy.
This wasn't next door, this wasn't in the neighborhood.
They made a trip to go see him, to meet him.
They went out of their way to try to help him.
And we're on a journey, Inglewood, and God wants us to
go out of our way sometimes to help other people, to reach him
and to get to the ultimate destination.
So the real journey, the real work is just beginning, and we
need to be thankful and we need to be bold for God because this
journey is going to make us stronger.
This journey is going to make us closer.
And so we need to be courageous. We need to encourage one
another. Look at verse 17.
After three days he called together the local leaders of
the Jews, and when they had gathered he said to them,
Brothers, though I had done nothing against our people or
the customs of our Father, yet I was delivered as a prisoner from
Jerusalem into the hands of the Romans.
When they had examined me, they wished to set me at liberty
because there was no reason for the death penalty in my case.
But because the Jews objected, I was compelled to appeal to
seizure, though I had no charge to bring against my nation.
For this reason, therefore, I have asked to see you and speak
with you, since it's because of the hope of Israel that I'm
wearing this chain. And they said to him, We have
received no letters from Judea about you, and none of the
brothers coming here have reported or spoken any evil
about you. But we desire to hear from you
what your views are for with regard to this sect.
We know that everywhere it is spoken against my nose has
gotten athletic on me. First service held up a little
better. Sorry about this.
So we go forward with Thanksgiving and courage, but we
also go forward with hope and passion because of the hope of
Israel. I'm wearing this chain.
So Paul the prisoner becomes Paul the preacher.
Here he is chained up. And although he was a missionary
to the Gentiles, his people were always right there in his heart.
He never left him. So he calls for the leaders of
the of the Jewish community and he wanted to share his testimony
with him. He wanted to share the gospel
with them. And, and they wanted to hear
about Christianity. You got to understand that in
their minds, all they're hearing about this thing is that this is
some subset of Judaism. And so they want to hear about
this and all that. All they've heard about it is
negative. And and Paul always wanted his
people to be saved. In fact, you got to remember
that verse I've shared with you before also.
And you got to remember to whom he was writing.
He was writing to the church at Rome when he writes Romans 10/1
where he says, brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God
for them, for the Hebrews is that they would be saved.
So he would not have had that opportunity.
He wouldn't have had the opportunity to share the gospel
with the Jewish people in Rome had he not gone through all the
struggles of the journey. Sometimes the struggles are what
bring us to the place where God wants us to be.
God's perfect plan perfects us, but it can also perfect others.
And we see Paul zeal, it's flowing out of his passion for
this plan of God. He never survived his salvation.
The old Saul died and this new guy that he never survived.
That and with a single minded focus, he's intentional with a
hope and a passion to lead others to the gospel.
So what if this church, what if? What if our connect groups, what
if our student and kids ministry, became the places to
not only be gathered, to be strengthened, to be encouraged?
To be emboldened by God's word. But what if they were also
places where we invited all the people outside to come and join
us so that they could hear the truth as well?
Well, welcome to REACH. Welcome to the REACH strategy,
where every week our connect groups are trying to invite
people to come. Now here's something you need to
understand. At the end of this month, we
have our first H week. It's a fifth Sunday.
It's the first time we've done this.
Now I know it's Thanksgiving weekend, but you all come and
you come here, Sam James. And then for the a few weeks
after that, we're going to be handing out over 1000 contacts.
Go how you can do better than that gives me time to sniff.
We're going to reach out to every inactive church member and
we're going to reach out to our visitors from events for the
last two years. They were going to make contact.
Now, if everybody were here and everybody participated, you
wouldn't have to take but one or two of those contacts.
So, so everybody needs to participate.
Now, these people came to hear Paul describe true Christianity.
They wanted to hear about this thing that they'd heard nothing
but negative things about. You all know folks who speak
nothing but the negative. Anybody know anybody like that?
All they do, everything's bad, bad, bad.
Everything's bad, right? You have people in your life
like that. Maybe you're that person looking
in the mirror. Listen, some of you laughing.
I don't know if that was good or bad.
So some people, we can't, they can't seem to find anything
positive to say at all. Well, listen, we need to share
good news with them. Think about what the gospel
means. We need to share the good news
with them. You'll tell them the good news
of the gospel and defend against the negatives that they're
hearing out there. This city, this country, this
world must hear the good news of Christianity and not just the
hearsay of the bad. Listen, there going to be enough
people out there who talk about hypocritical Christians and
hypocritical churches. There going to be enough people
out there who say the Bible's full of errors and, and, and not
true. There going to be enough people
out there who teach that there's not a sovereign Creator, right?
Well, who's going to stand up and who's going to tell them the
truth? Who's going to testify of a
risen savior who can save them and transform their lives, just
like Danielle did this morning in the earlier service?
Now I heard, and I hope it's true that her family was able to
watch and to listen from Africa. And I hope it was a testimony to
them. I hope they were able to do
that. I heard they were going to try
Where, when, How Inglewood. Well, let's find Outlook at
verse 23. And when they had appointed a
day for him, they came to him at his lodging in greater numbers
from morning till evening. You can tell these weren't
Baptists. From morning till evening he
expounded to them, testifying to the Kingdom of God and trying to
convince them about Jesus, both from the law of Moses, from the
prophets. And some were convinced by what
he said, but others disbelieved and disagreeing among
themselves. They departed after Paul had
made one statement. The Holy Spirit was right.
And saying to your Father's through Isaiah the prophet, Go
to this people and say, You will indeed hear, but never
understand, and you will indeed see, but never perceive.
For this people's hearts have grown dull, and with their ears
they can barely hear, and their eyes and their eyes they have
closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with
their ears, and understand what their heart and turn.
And I would heal them. Therefore, let it be known to
you that this salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles,
and they will listen. And some manuscripts at verse
29. And when he had said these
words, the Jews departed, having much dispute among themselves.
Some of your Bibles, I have that as a footnote.
Don't worry about that. Starting in January, on
Wednesday nights, I'm going to talk about how do we get our
Bible, Where'd it come from? What do we do with it?
We're going to talk about things like that right there.
So right now, we go forward with Thanksgiving.
We go forward with courage. We go forward with hope and
passion, but also #3 we go forward with opportunity in the
Gospel. So Paul recognized this king was
on mission. He knew he had to go fulfill the
Great Commission. And God provided him this
opportunity to do that. So Rome, Rome held him, but the
crowds came to him from dawn until dusk in great numbers.
I mean, what a prayer for us. What a prayer for today.
Now, last Thursday night, I had the privilege of attending the
Prime Timers Thanksgiving dinner.
You all probably made me sick, Thanks.
And I was told it was the largest senior adult
Thanksgiving dinner we'd had in over 20 years.
Just thank you all for being there Yesterday.
You had a large women's event right here in this room.
And then the men, a good group of men, got together and ate a
pig yesterday. Now I'm hated missing that part.
And I just want to say thank you all for showing up.
Thank you all for being engaged from dawn until dusk.
And I pray they keep coming and from dawn until dusk in huge
numbers. The other thing I think is funny
about these passages, I always wonder, what do you think those
guards thought? I mean, here you are strapped to
Paul. I mean, those poor guys never
stood a chance, did they? I mean, day in and day out,
they're hearing the gospel and they would rotate these guards.
So the next guy would come in and hear the gospel.
Then the next guy would come in and hear the gospel.
And just think about the fact now, I don't know.
We don't have a record of it. My assumption is some of them
were probably saved. One day we're going to meet him
in heaven. I mean, think about how God can
work such a plan to where Roman soldiers are getting saved.
So all day he taught about Jesus from the Old Testament.
He showed how Jesus fulfilled the promises of God.
He taught Jesus himself, by the way, taught the same thing
himself after the resurrection. He taught the same things to his
disciples. Remember Luke 24.
Remember Luke 2427? It says in the and beginning
with Moses and all and the prophets, he interpreted to them
and all the scriptures of things concerning himself.
Then he said to them, These are my words that I spoke to you
while I was still with you, that everything written about me in
the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms must be
fulfilled. Then he opened their minds to
understand the Scriptures. I mean, gang, you got to
understand the whole story is his.
This whole book is his. Some believed, others disagreed.
Some will never get on board. Some would rather argue than
understand. Some would rather debate than
discover. Some would rather accuse than
ask. That's always the way.
I can't make people believe you can't either.
I wish we could, but we can't. All I can do is intentionally
prepare for and pursue opportunities to personally
share the gospel of Jesus Christ to those who don't know Him and
the power of the Holy Spirit, and leave the results to God.
That's what I can do and that's what we're learning about on
Wednesday nights right now. You, if you're not coming to
midweek, that's another place I want 100% of you.
You're missing it. Hundreds of people are showing
up every Wednesday night at 6:30 and we're studying about how to
share our faith. This Wednesday night we're going
to have a personal testimony workshop.
Don't worry, I'm not going to stand you up here and make you
share. We're not going to pass the
microphone around and make you share, but we are going to talk
about how do I actually tell my personal story in this world out
here in a real and relevant authentic way and you need to
come and be here. Peter talks about all this.
Listen to what Peter says in first Peter chapter 1.
He says concerning the salvation.
The prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be
your searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person
or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he
predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent
glories. It was revealed to them that
they were serving not themselves, but you in the
things that have now been announced to you through those
who preach the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from
heaven things into which angels long to look.
The prophets were empowered by the Holy Spirit telling a story
that led to Jesus and, and I love that phrase at the end.
Angels longing to look into this, we're empowered by the
Holy Spirit to have opportunities to share this
incredible story and see somebody say before our very
eyes, I mean, there's no greater miracle in the universe than to
watch somebody be saved. I love what Chuck Swindoll says
about that Peter passage. He says so profound is the
fulfilment of those expectations that even angels long to listen
in on our songs of redemption, to look over the shoulder of a
Sinner praying for forgiveness, and to linger as believers
endure temporary suffering for the sake of eternal glory.
If angels marvel at the hope we have in Christ, shouldn't we?
Paul's actually quoting Isaiah 6A passage I preached on about
worship weeks ago and and how God knew they wouldn't listen.
But he never gave up. Look at verse 30.
He lived there two whole years at his own expense and welcomed
all who came to him, proclaiming the Kingdom of God and teaching
about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without
hindrance. Interesting how the book ends.
Now listen to its prayer request again from this time of house
arrest. He writes to another church.
He writes to the church at Colossae.
And listen to this prayer request in Colossians 4.
He says, continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it
with Thanksgiving at the same time.
Pray also for us that God may open to us a door for the Word
to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am
in prison, that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to
speak. Again, not a prayer for a
release, not a woe as me, but a prayer for evangelistic
opportunity and effectiveness. Pastor Tony Marita.
Dr. Marita, in his commentary about this passage, says this.
He's exhorting the believers not to think about him, but to make
the best use of their time, living with evangelistic
sensitivity toward unbelievers. So he demonstrated to us, for
us, how to make the best use of our time, turn obstacles and
opportunities, doubters into the livers, cynics into the saved.
And it just never ends. And Acts stops right there with
Paul, sharing and teaching. I mean, if you want a complete
closure to this book, you intentionally don't get it.
This isn't like one of those Christmas movies where she
decides to stay in the little hometown with her high school
boyfriend instead of going back to the big city to take the job.
I know what y'all are listening to.
I know what y'all are watching. Some of you got shirts and
sweatshirts, you know, dedicated to it.
I know what you're doing. I mean, we don't hear about the
trial before Caesar. We don't hear about how long he
lived. We don't hear about if he was
able to keep ministering. We don't hear whether or not he
ever made it to Spain. We don't get to hear in this
stuff. Now, what can be pieced together
from church history and the testimony of others later is
this, that that he, he is is released from this imprisonment,
that he continues his ministry for a while.
He writes to Timothy and he writes to Titus.
And then eventually, he's rearrested and eventually
beheaded by Nero somewhere between 65 and 67 AD.
And that's how his ministry and life ends.
Paul finally made it to God's ultimate destination for him.
He made it home. I can't wait to get home.
I can't wait to meet Paul one day.
But for now, we have a journey to do.
We have a journey that needs to be completed.
And So what a perfect intentional ending to this great
book. Paul busy about the Lord's
calling in his life, no matter the circumstance, no matter the
obstacle. He was on mission, seeking to
make disciples, fulfilling the Great Commission.
But what's interesting is Paul's not even the star of the story.
God is, the Holy Spirit is. It's the story of the ministry
of Jesus that continues after Jesus ascends to the Father and
the Holy Spirit comes. It's the story of our king.
It's the story of his mission. It's the story of Acts 18 where
he says you'll 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 end of the earth you will to the end.
The Holy Spirit, the star of the story, continues on his mission.
Absolutely nothing can stop him. The Gospel reached the center of
their universe, Rome, and and it was proclaimed boldly there and
people were transformed, lives were changed.
That same mission continues today.
That's why we're having missions month, because we're still
involved in this same mission. It moves forward.
We've inherited it and there's absolutely nothing that will
stop it if we'll surrender our will to the King.
His mission has to 1st reach the center of our lives, the center
of our hearts, the center of our beings, before it'll ever reach
the center of Rocky Mount. So we need to be transformed.
I have a quote in my office hangs on the wall by Jonathan
Edwards talking about preaching. He says I go out, I go out to
preach with two propositions in mind.
First, that every person ought to give his life to Christ.
Second, whether or not anyone else gives him his life, I'll
give him mine. Will you give him yours, All of
yours? Will you give him everything
that you are? Will you share about him to
others? What role in the mission are you
going to play? I've mentioned his name before.
He's just one of my favorite missionaries from history.
His name? CT Stud.
I mean, how can you not like a guy named CT Stud?
He was a very famous British cricket player.
Think of the Michael Jordan of the cricket world back in the
day. And he gave it all up and he
went to be a missionary on multiple continents.
Eventually dies on the mission field.
Here's a great quote from CT Stud.
How could I spend the best years of my life in living for the
honors of this world when thousands of souls are perishing
every day? Some want to live within the
sound of church, church or Chapel bell.
I want to run a rescue shop within a yard of hell.
There's an old song that was written about it.
I won't share those lyrics with you now, but it talks about
running to the battle. I'm praying for salvation.
I'm praying for harvest. I'm praying for revival.
We're going to start sharing in the book of Nehemiah in January
because we're going to talk about how do we build God's
future together. And then after Nehemiah, we're
going to study the book of Romans in 2026.
That's where we're going to spend most of the next year on
Sunday mornings, walking through the Bible, praying for revival,
praying for harvest. I'm praying for a united, loving
church ready to continue to go on this new journey and to
attack her new future with the gospel.
I'm praying for us to run to the battle.
Verse 31 again says, proclaiming the Kingdom of God and teaching
about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without
hindrance. What are we going to do here?
Inglewood in the battle for Rocky Mount.
Thank you, Paul, for being an example.
Thank you, Jesus, for being our king.
Thank you, Lord, for the privilege of joining your
mission of living the Church's vision of fulfilling the Great
Commission. Thank you, Inglewood, for the
way you're going to continue to surrender to Him and be sent out
as his workers in the great harvest of Rocky Mount.
I believe in it with all my heart.
The introduction's over. It's time for us to actually
begin. It's time for the real journey
to start. There's an old preacher who's
passed away. He pastored in California,
Greatest name of all time. His full name was Shadrach
Meshach Lockridge, SM Lockridge. You can go online and look this
up and you can listen to this. He does it far better than I
ever would. He wrote this for a sermon
called That's My King. Some of you have heard this.
Some of you may have listened to it yesterday.
It won't hurt you to hear it again because here's our king.
Here's our king of mission. I pray I can get through this.
The Bible says my king is a seven way king.
He's the king of the Jews. That's a racial king.
He's the king of Israel. That's a national king.
He's the king of righteousness, He's the king of the ages, he's
the king of heaven, he's the king of glory, he's the king of
kings, and he's the Lord of Lords.
That's my king. Well, I wonder if you know him?
David said the heavens declare the glory of God in the
firmament. Shows his handiwork.
My king is a sovereign king. No means of measure can define
his limitless love. No far seeing telescope can
bring into visibility the coastline of his shoreless
supply. No barrier can hinder him from
pouring out his blessings. He's enduringly strong.
He's entirely sincere. He's eternally steadfast.
He's immortally graceful. He's imperially powerful.
He's impartially merciful. Do you know him?
He's the greatest phenomenon that has ever crossed the
horizon of this world. He's God's son.
He's a Sinner savior. He's the centerpiece of
civilization. He stands in the solitude of
himself. He's awesome.
He's unique. He's unparalleled.
He's unprecedented. He's the loftiest idea in
literature. He's the highest personality in
philosophy. He's the supreme problem and
higher criticism. He's the fundamental doctrine of
truth theology. He's the cardinal necessity of
spiritual religion. He's the miracle of the age.
He's a superlative of everything good that you could choose to
call him. He's the only one qualified to
be an all sufficient savior. I wonder if you know him today.
He supplies strength for the weak.
He's available for the tempted and the tried.
He sympathizes and he saves. He strengthens and sustains.
He guards and he guides. He heals the sick, He cleanses
lepers. He forgives sinners.
He discharges debtors. He delivers captives.
He defends the feeble, He blesses the young, He serves the
unfortunate. He regards the aged He requires.
He rewards the diligent, and he beautifies the meek.
I wonder if you really know him well, my King.
He is the King. He's the key to knowledge.
He's the wellspring to wisdom. He's the doorway of deliverance.
He's the pathway of peace. He's the roadway of
righteousness. He's the highway of holiness.
He's the gateway of glory. Do you know him well?
His office is manifold, His promise is sure.
His light is matchless, His goodness is limitless, His mercy
is everlasting. His love never changes.
His word is enough, His grace is sufficient.
His reign is righteous. And his yoke is easy.
And his burden is light. I wish I could describe him to
you, but he's indescribable. He's he's incomprehensible.
He's invincible. He's irresistible.
Well, you can't get him out of your mind.
But you can't get him off of your hand.
You can't outlive him and you can't live without him.
The Pharisees couldn't stand him, but they found that he
couldn't stop him. Pilate couldn't find any fault
in him. The witnesses couldn't get their
testimonies to agree. Herod couldn't kill him, Death
couldn't handle him, and the grave couldn't hold him.
Yeah, that's my king. That's my king and Father.
Yours is the Kingdom and the power and the glory.
Forever and ever and ever and ever.
And how long is that? Well, when you're done with all
the Evers, just say Amen and Amen.
Father, we're thankful that you are our King, that this isn't up
to us. We can't do this by our power.
We can't do this by our strength.
We're not wise enough. We're not good enough.
Father, we need your direction, we need your Holy Spirit, we
need your strength, we need your guidance.
Now, Father, for some in this room, what they need is
salvation. Father, you need to perform a
miracle in front of our eyes and save somebody right now.
If there's somebody here this morning who doesn't know you,
Father, I pray right now they have no doubt about your reality
and that, Father, they would surrender to you, believing that
Jesus died on the cross for them and rose again.
He's the only way to salvation, only way to forgiveness.
Father, they'd see the example of Danielle and say, I need to
be baptized or I need to join this church.
Others need to recommit their lives in revival and
restoration. So Father, whatever it is, in
just a moment when we stand, I pray people would come take a
pastor by the hand or kneel at these steps, or go to our next
steps room and talk to one of our counselors and say this is
what God is saying to me. This is what the King wants.
I pray we'd surrender, that we'd give in.
We wouldn't walk away. Not just another Sunday, not
just another day, but a day of new commitment.
We're just getting started. Father, thank you for allowing
us to be used. Thank you for blessing us.
I pray, Father, you'll continue to do that right now as we sing
and honor you and bless you in Christ's name, Amen.
I'm going to ask you to stand. There'll be some pastors
standing up here. You can talk to one of them or
you can go right into that room over there.
The next steps room. You don't.
You can just go straight in there.
There are people would love to have a private conversation with
you about what God's saying to you.
You can come and kneel with these steps.
Now here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to go sit down before
I fall down because I don't want to give you what I have, but I
just hope you'll come this morning.
Surrender to Him. You come right now.
Thank you so much for listening today, and I also hope that
you'll go to ourwebsite@englewoodbaptist.com
as well as our app and find many other resources that will bless
you and your families. Thank you once again.