Your Sons & Daughters | Sent | Missions Month Week One | John Easter | 10/5/25

Welcome to Calvary Christian Church's podcast. We're located on the north shore of Boston and are committed to being a balanced ministry with a personal touch. Each week, one of our pastors will deliver biblical encouragement and practical application tips for everyday faith living. Thanks for tuning in. We hope you enjoy the message. What an honor it is to be here today to be able to just have a moment to connect with you. And at Calvary Christian, we're just thrilled because you have such a great reputation and the way that you're conscientious and thoughtful, intentional, and so generous to be able to ensure that generation to generation that we're supporting the work of God, not only locally but around the world. And we should care deeply about what concerns the heart of God. Can you say amen? Pastor Jamie, I want to say thank you. It's so good to be with you and Pastor Ben and the rest of your team and what an incredible thing that's happening here. We just rejoice at what's transpiring. I want to say thank you this morning. And it's so good to have my wife with me because most of the time she's with me, but sometimes not. But if she's with me, I'm in a better mood. And so it's great that she's here today. And so I'm so glad that Cheryl's with me. I'm going to do two things this morning. The first thing I want to do is I want to give you a 30,000 foot view of what's transpiring today. How is it that your prayers and your generosity of giving and also your commitment to send missionaries, how is it having an effect today? And I think that data is important. And so I think one of the things is that we find out that as you see what is transpiring, I think it will inspire your heart as we continue to be able to commit ourselves to the future. And the second thing then I want to pivot. I want to talk to you about God's mission in the local church and why it's so important that a local church have a continued understanding scripturally of what God calls us to do as a community of faith, not only locally, but looking at the fields of the harvest around the world. And so here's what I want to do. I want to go ahead and I want us to pivot to some vital stats and let's look at a little bit of what's happening around the world today. So if we were to look at what's transpiring, do you know in just 111 years that we've been a fellowship and the Assemblies of God World missions has been advancing the cause of Christ around the world? We now have, and this data needs to be updated just a little bit, we now have about 2,600 missionaries in 157 nations of the world. Can you say man, isn't that amazing? And that does not include our 1,500 and as of this morning 1,532 missionary kids. So we have over 4,000 personnel in 157 nations of the world. And we actually have a little bit more than that, but sometimes the sensitive countries are places that we have to be so careful of that we don't always talk about those personnel in those places. What's interesting about this is though, is that in 111 years we now have seen over 400 and as of this month 452,400 plus churches. And so we've actually even risen among this number and we're very excited about what that means. Can you imagine with that, the impact of that around communities in the world today? And if you were able to look at those that have adherence or attend one of our churches around the world, we're almost at 89 million individuals that somewhere even around the world today prior to us gathering or right now in our time zone, and I think we ought to say thank you Jesus, isn't that just amazing that we see that kind of growth around the world today? It really is amazing. Right now on the last average on the decade, and I just had this looked at by our research team and wanted to make sure it was right. So I sent it back second time then a third time. It looks like right now that every 17 seconds by the work of our ministries around the world, someone comes to faith for the very first time and accepts Christ as their Lord and Savior. And that's what it's all about. That's why we do what we do. And every 81 minutes, a new church is a planted or established where it did not exist before. And so for those of you, amen, absolutely, for those of you who are regular and giving and praying and caring for our mission work and supporting projects that hold up their arms around the world, this matters. And these data points speak to more than just information. It allows us to understand that what we're doing continues to move the needle, to see people come to Christ and open up new doors in communities around the world where Christ has not yet been named. And for us as AGWM, that really matters. And it's something in which we continue to focus on. In fact, just about two months ago, I called our entire national movement to the largest, probably the largest step that we've taken in the last 72 years. And that is, is that over the next decade, we looked at another 1,400 missionaries to our roles, to go up to 4,000 adults, and to open up new fields of over 2,000 unengaged peoples in the world where today, there's absolutely no evangelical work at all among them, no mission teams, no known believers. And because we've grown to the way we are today, we felt as though this is a mountain that someone needs to tackle. We have the capacity, and the only thing that would keep us from doing it is just whether we're willing to do it. And if we say yes, that's where we're headed. And already, it's amazing what's happening across this nation and churches like yours. I was just with over 200 world leaders last week in a three-day meeting preparing them for what we would be doing together, not just the U.S. church. And it looks like if we get this done, that by the response of the other churches around the world as well within our fellowship, we could end up with about 15,000 missionaries worldwide. And it would take every single one of them to be able to evangelize the communities that we need. But my view is, look, if God's putting the ability in our hands, why would we not do it? Amen? Why would we not stand up and say, hey, there's so much of our world that still needs to know Christ, and we're poised to do this? Did you know that this year alone, three other major denominations closed their mission arms? They called their missionaries home, and they had forced retirement. We are the only one that continues to grow at the rate that we are, but with three others that continue to do what they're doing. Even though there are other denominations, we've linked arms and said, hey, there's still a mountain of spiritual lostness out there. God's called us to do that. Let's make sure we're faithful in our generation. Amen? And I think that's where we're headed. Hallelujah. Others may retreat. I don't see anything in Scripture where God asked us to retreat. I think we move forward in our world. Amen? Without the church, this would be a much darker place, and it's already fractured. And so the hope of Jesus Christ is the only message that I am aware of that can actually restore people's dreams and take brokenness and fracturedness and woundedness and bring healing. This is the greatest message that we know of on planet earth. Why would we not do everything to share it with people who have not yet received it? Can anyone say amen? So let me pivot, and I want to talk to you about God's mission in the local church. What is it that we should be concerned about when it comes to God's mission and the local church? You see, oftentimes because we are such a large mission's entity, our world is missionaries. We love them. We cheer for them. Sheryl and I, we served on the field for many, many years, about 24 years on the continent of Africa. We raised our children there. And today, overseeing nearly 2600 adults, what we find is, is that this is something we care about deeply. Technology is very important to what we do today, and we're harnessing it in new ways that I think are going to be a blessing. The radio waves continue to help, television continues to help, print press continues to help. But let me tell you what, there is no substitute to flesh and blood moving into communities, living there for years, learning language, crossing culture where they can share one on one the good news of Jesus Christ. And there's nothing in Scripture that says there's a substitute for that as well. There's nothing like the role of missionaries. But the question comes, where do missionaries come from, and who sends them? There is a role that the local church has in God's economy that's very special and very unique. And so I want us to consider that for a few moments this morning, because in my view, you're not called just to cheer from the sidelines. You're not called just the right to check, and that's important. And you're not called just to simply pray. All of those areas are instrumental, and we couldn't do the task without them. But there's something that comes before all of that. And I want to speak to that for just a moment. There's a passage of Scripture that's always something that resonates in my heart in the kind of role that I have. And I hope it resonates in yours, and I want to read this text from the NIV out of Romans. In Romans, the Apostle Paul wrote to that early church, and he says the following. So listen to this. He says, "How then can they call on the one they have never heard of? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone sharing with them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news?" Here is this concept in Scripture that theologians often refer to in Latin. It's the Missionei's ace day. And it means the sentness of God, the sentness of God. And so profound is this concept in Scripture that you can find it threaded from Genesis to Revelation. And it often, most notably, emerges with this power and force as we read about it in different redemptive eras as God calls His people to action in the world. It's meaningful for several reasons, but one may be that it doesn't begin with the church and it doesn't begin with God's people. It actually begins with God Himself. You see, what we find is that this concept about God's sentness, the sentness of God, starts first within His nature and His activity. You see, it was God the Father who sent God the Son, and God the Son who was being sent. And God the Father and God the Son who sends God the Holy Spirit. And it was God the Father and Son who sent the Spirit and the Spirit who was being sent. And what's amazing about this is, is that we begin to see that two modes begin to emerge in Scripture that allow us, as His people who become part of His church, understand how we participate and align ourselves with His redemptive nature and activity. And in those two modes, you see, of sending and being sent, what transpires is, is we begin to emulate God's own nature and activity in His redemptive work as well. You see, as the Father sent the Son, we begin to see that as the Father and Son then sends the Spirit, it is the Spirit as we read like in Acts 2, where we had our Scripture reading this morning, that the Spirit now comes upon the church, and what does the church now do? It emulates His nature and activity, and it begins to send its own into the world as well. To introduce Christ to those places as ambassadors, emissaries, to be a missionary, which means to be a sent one. A missionary is a sent one, but what's interesting about this is, is that we find out that that activity originates within a certain area, a context, and that is the church. And what's powerful about this is, is that we began to see this move forward very quickly in the early history of the church, and one of those areas is in Acts 13, in what we call Antioch and the first apostolic team, meaning the first missionary team. You see, in Acts 13, something transpires that informs us here today. What took place is, is that we recognize that Luke is recording the early life of a local church. That church is in the city of Antioch. Look at this map with me. In this map, what you find is, is that in the city of Antioch, which today would be located not in Syria, not that Antioch, but the Antioch in lower part of Turkey, modern day Turkey. You see, what we see is, is that the Gospel found its way to Antioch. It came from the Acts 2/4 moment that we read about today, where the Holy Spirit, as Jesus had foretold, would come and empower the church to be witnesses, first in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and then to the rest of the world. And that's exactly what took place. You see, the Gospel moved from Israel to the South, where you see Antioch, and the, the, the witness of Christ began to have impact in that community. We read in the early church how thousands of people began to open their heart, receive the Gospel. All of a sudden, we see those disciples coming together. It formed the first church in Jerusalem, but the Gospel was not restrained and limited to that location. It began to pour out just like Jesus anticipated. It moved into Judea, it moved into Samaria, and then it began to go to the rest of the world as we see it go down to the South, and what we see is North Africa. Then it went into Sub-Saharan Africa, even to the horn of Ethiopia in Africa. But then it turned over to the, to the North again and went to the Near East, the Middle East. We began to see it move to the trajectory of Syria. And finally before it goes to the East and back to the West, we see it comes to Turkey in this city of Antioch. And you know what happened there? What happened there is what had transpired before it arrived. People went out in Christ's name, sit by the early church, and they simply began to just share the good news, the good news that we read about in Romans chapter 10. And as they did, people came to faith. They opened their heart, they were receptive to the Gospel, and they would take those one by one by one, group them into small groups, then they would plant a church, a local church. And this is what happened in Antioch. And in Acts 13 Luke records in that volume that the Spirit was animating and giving life to this local church. Just like we were worshiping this morning, we can sense the Spirit's presence. It's here among us. We can hear from leadership. And even in the congregation, how the Lord is speaking to us. We're growing and developing and being discipled. Well, that's what was happening in this city. People were coming to Christ. But something else transpires that's very unusual about the story in Acts 13. You see, we learned that the Spirit was not satisfied. And you have to ask, well, why wasn't the Holy Spirit satisfied? I mean, after all, they were winning Antioch to the Lord. People were coming to faith. Pastor Jamie, the church was growing. They were evangelizing. People were being discipled. We see that the operation of the gifts of the Spirit were at work in this church. This was a healthy church. But the Spirit was not satisfied. So all of a sudden we begin to read and Luke records it. And he says that in the midst of a prayer meeting, the Holy Spirit begins to speak. But who's he speaking to? Well, clearly he's speaking to the leadership and the congregation. That's what the text says. And what does he say? He says, separate into me Barnabas and Saul, who becomes the apostle Paul, for the work that I have called them to. Now, what's interesting about this is, is all of a sudden we learn a very important principle. We learn that the Holy Spirit doesn't just limit his voice to individuals and send them out for work. No, he does that in the context of a local church, a community of faith. And the leadership and the congregation recognizes and identifies that God is indeed stirring and working in the life and even calling individuals from among them. And in this case, it was Barnabas and Saul who become the first recorded missionary team in scripture that sent out by a church to evangelize beyond the social political realm of Antioch. And they are sent out. And what do they do? This first missionary team goes to the West of Cyprus. And on the island of Cyprus, they do the same thing that happened when the gospel came to Antioch. They share their faith. People are receptive. They accept Jesus Christ in the community. They bring them together as disciples. And they plant a church. And after maturing it, raising up leaders, they move on to the next frontier, another village, another township, another city. And finally, after they leave leaders behind, they move on to another province way up as you see the arrows in the province of what we know today is Turkey. And this is what we call Galatia. This is how we got the letter to the Galatians. It was Paul the apostle, the first missionary with Barnabas writing the letter to all of these churches that had just been planted there. These newly formed congregations about how to live out the faith and how to continue embodying the values of the kingdom in that area of Galatia. And notice that after they do the same work, they finally go back through Cyprus, then back to Antioch to give a report of the church that had sent them out on their first missionary assignment. Does that sound familiar to you? You see, even this morning, what you heard is from one of our own missionaries in the Philippines comes and he shared with you a report of what's transpiring there from what you were supporting. You see, what's amazing about this is, is the reason we do this today is not because it's a denominational model. It's not an assemblies of God model. The reason we do this today is because this is the scriptural model. Can you say amen? And we continue to follow the New Testament model. Amen. I think we should say praise the Lord for that. Because people ask all the time, why do we do it this way? Why do we do it that way? You see, what we continue to do is part of something that we've been tethered to not just for a hundred years in our fellowship, but over 2,000 years of Christianity. And as you saw the vital stats today, even though we're only one part of the larger body of Christ around the world, we do want to be obedient to what God has called us to be as part of his body. And what's powerful about this is, is that God gave us a model. Why is this model important? Let's go back to that map for a moment, team. What's interesting is, is if you look to this map, you'll see something. What's interesting is, is we could say, well, it's interesting that God did not call everyone in that local church to take their children out of school, sell everything they have, go ahead and turn over their homes, walk away from their vocations, and be a Bedouin tribe just going throughout the world as a local church evangelizing everywhere. No, what he did is, is he said it's still important to reach Antioch. We still need a generational witness in Antioch. But from among you, I want to be able to call individuals that the local church continues to participate in, and in the economy of God, we're able to support and celebrate as we recognize his call as the spirit from among us sins others, and both home and abroad, we continue to evangelize the world. Amen? Now, why is this important? There's one word, continuity. Continuity with the New Testament example. You see, what's here is that we're 111 years old in the assemblies of God. Now, some of you have a background with the AG and some of you are new to the AG because you've just come to this church. And again, we're not the only part of God's body, and we recognize that. We're just one of it. But when God calls us within a fellowship, we want to be faithful to that. And what's interesting is, is that this is important because in 111 years, we have seen God use us in a way that is, well, it is quite amazing. And it's not because we're smarter than others. It's not because we're more gifted or have more resources than others. I think it's because we have remained sensitive in our fellowship that first and foremost, we see ourselves as an evangelistic missionary fellowship. We've been committed to that from our beginning. We felt as though when God called us out, it was to see those places in the world evangelized that still are waiting for the hope of the gospel. And because of that, God has blessed us both home and abroad. But what's interesting is, is not only do we have 100 years of continuity. I want you to think about this because this affects every single one of you and those watching online. You see, from 2000 years, God provided a model for us to follow both his nature and his activity in sending and being sent. And the church was faithful early to do that. And generation upon generation upon generation upon generation and generation upon generation to generation continues to be tethered to that call. That we want people to know Christ. And until he comes again, we will be faithful. So we pray and we give and we send and we pray and we give and we send so that in every single generation, the gospel continues to advance around the world. And in this room, you're not just sitting on the sidelines. You are on the game of field. You are on the field of play. You are there. So you're not just sitting watching, hoping things work out. We all together have a part to play and we hold a string in our period and time, our era of the continuity. This spiritual chain, you see, doesn't just reach back a hundred years. What you're a part of literally reaches back for 2000 years because every single local church in the assemblies of God should, if it's spiritually mature, see itself as an Antioch. And any mature church that is not acting that way actually is still lacking something. You see, because all of us should say, are we continuing to show the characteristics of an Antioch? And one of the things that I think is so powerful about Calvary Christian is that you have been embodying what an Antioch looks like for many, many, many years for generations in this church. And what I'm excited about is, is right here this morning, you continue to align your hearts. You continue to align your treasure. You continue to align your energy to ensure that in this generation, you're still holding on to the string that keeps us tethered to the 2000 years until Jesus comes again, amen? And the question though is, are we ready to pass the next baton for another part of that continuity to be stretched out? You see, the local church is critical to this task. Why? Because it's only in the local church that sons and daughters of each generation called by His name to advance the gospel are birthed. Where do missionaries come from? Do they grow on trees? Do they fall out of the sky? Do they just appear? No. You see, missionaries only come from local churches. Where do you think Pastor Jamie came from as a pastor? We're spiritually birthed in the context of a church. We are discipled in the context of a church. We grow, and it's in the context of a church that becomes a spiritual laboratory for us to be sensitive enough to hear the voice of the Spirit as we watch, observe, learn, pray, become part of the community of faith in its culture that perhaps our lives are open to that call and where others are cheering that process forward. At five years old, I remember a cute memory. I ended up walking in my neighborhood in the darkness of night coming to a seven o'clock PM Royal Rangers class. Anybody have Royal Rangers here? Oh, you do. Interesting. At five years old, they used to have something in Royal Rangers called straight arrows for those that were five and six, and I sat in this little chair. I can see the lighting even in my mind's eye right now. I can see it. I can see the formations of how the churches were, the chairs were around, the little other children sitting beside me, and I could see the paint. I remember that the door was over here to my right and a commander stood in front and there was this poster on the wall that was the Royal Rangers model ready, ready for anything, ready to work, play, serve, obey, worship, live, and it had an ETC, et cetera, and we used to say et cetera. And that evening, something changed my life. The commander in front simply shared the story of Jesus, and I remember being dismissed that night and because it was a different day than what it is today, a bit more safe. I walked home in my neighborhood and under that sky, those stars were shining as I looked up, and I made my way into the house where my mother was waiting for me. And in my little heart, I was just pondering everything that man had shared. And I walked in and my mother immediately met me and said, "Son, John, you need to go to bed now. You have school the next morning." And here I was, I was pleading with my mother to say, "Don't send me to bed. I need to talk with my father." My father was still at the church locking it up, waiting to come home, helping. And so all of a sudden, we began to kind of go back and forth in this argument, and finally my mother gave in to her persistent son and she allowed me to sit on that couch and she said to me, "Well, you sit there, wait for your father, but as soon as he gets home, you've got to get in bed." So I sat on the couch and here it is. I can remember the color, I remember the fabric, I can see the front window and the shades were drawn back and here it is. The front door is right over here to the right and I waited there looking for that front door and it was too dark to see outside, but finally my father, he walked in and when he did, his first words to me were, "John, son, why are you still up? You should be in bed." And all of a sudden in my nervousness, in my shy nature, I tried to do the best I could to share what was happening in my heart and I was stumbling and I was nervous and I felt pressure and all of a sudden thank God that my father had the patience to sit down beside me and allow me to get out the questions that I had and he began to discern that his little five-year-old boy was being touched by the heart of God and in that moment and through my questions, he opened up more about the story of Jesus and now on that evening I accepted Christ as my Lord and Savior. Hallelujah. Amen. And it was in that moment you see that my life has truly changed. Three years later, I find myself at a camp for children. Four nights, Monday night, Tuesday night, Wednesday night, Thursday night. And on Thursday night, I was just primed wide because in my shyness, I had watched all the children go to the altars for salvation and to be filled with the Holy Spirit but I kept holding back. But on that fourth night, knowing we were going back home on Friday morning, I decided to follow those children to the front in that altar and boy they came and there were hundreds of them and I found my little place to pray and as I did, the Holy Spirit filled me so powerfully that night and something happened in my life. You see because at the end of the service, the memory I have is that a worker was kneeling down, shaking me and saying, "John, you really need to get up and go back to the dormitory. We need to turn the lights out. All the other kids have left." And once again in the darkness, I found myself walking under a sky. The stars were shining and in my heart, I could sense God just speaking to me. And do you know what I wanted to do? I wanted to share Jesus with someone else. That was the prompting. What kind of eight year old wants to share anything with anyone? But that is the work of the Spirit and here's what happened. Listen carefully. This is for you. You see as the executive director of the third largest mission sending agency in the western world today, I would not be here nor would I have served on the field of mission if what transpired earlier had not occurred. You see, I was raised in a small little church much smaller than yours, 75 people in good times maybe 100. And in that little church, I remember I began to grow in my faith. Sometimes I would be wayward. Sometimes I would be tempted. Sometimes I struggled in my faith but God kept wooing me back. And as I began to develop and grow and be discipled in that church, here's what would transpire. I would be in a class and all of a sudden someone would speak into my life and they would say, "John, we see what God's doing in your life. We're praying that God will use you." All of a sudden I would be in a church service praying around the altar like in this sanctuary and all of a sudden a spiritual auntie, a spiritual grandmother, a spiritual father, grandfather, a brother or sister in the faith. Their hand would be on their shoulder and all of a sudden what happened is the seeds of faith began to happen in the environment of that local church. "Oh God, we see you working in John's life. Lord, would you keep working in his life? Lord, would you use John? Lord, would you let John understand how you want to use his life for your purposes? And what happened is, is little by little in the accumulation, not once, not twice, not three times, but the accumulation of being in an environment of a local church like this, I was raised around an incredible sense of people who were intentional to pour into me because I was a spiritual son of that Antioch. And before long, even though I was training for another career and my parents were sacrificially giving, who didn't have a lot of money, but were pouring into that career because it was promising for me, I began to consider maybe, just maybe, God was calling me to vocational ministry and I began to entertain that. And what transpired is, is all of a sudden, I believe that God perhaps could use me. And before long, I noticed something. That little church encouraged an environment of faith for sons and daughters of that congregation to be able to start learning God's voice, walking in faith, and they nurtured it, they cultivated it, they celebrated it, and then they supported it and released me. And that little church sent over 27 different people into pastoral and missionary ministry in just a 20 year period. Amen. Powerful. You see, Jesus foretold what would took place through the instrumentality of the church as the spirit came upon it, but it was the prophet Joel, if you remember, who before the coming of the spirit upon the church said that I will pour my spirit, says God, upon all people. And your sons and your daughters will prophesy so that, remember the text, everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. There's only one context in God's economy that ensures the next generation of gospel advancement. And that's through sons and daughters of the local church. And every single one of you in this room, you do have a responsibility to pray and a responsibility to give generously. But if we pray and give generously, but we do not release our sons and daughters, then we still have not been everything God's called us to be as an Antioch. We live among a world where the unfinished task still remains. And listen to me. We dare not measure ourselves by what we've accomplished, but only the unfinished task. For you and for me in this room, this is what matters, but you cannot get there. You cannot fulfill the task without the economy of spiritual sons and daughters that are birthed and sent out of Antiochs like you. How many of you believe that? How many of you in this room may be a candidate? I want you to stand with me right now, and if you're watching online, I want you to participate as well. Would you stand across this room, across this sanctuary? And as you stand, I want to see the hands of anyone, anyone who's under the age of 40. Would you raise your hand? If you're under the age of 40, let me see you. Oh my goodness. This is a young church. Pastor Jamie, good job. If you're under the age of 40, and if you're married to someone who's 41, you bring them with you. I need you to come down to the front. Would you come as quickly as you can? I want you to make your way to the front. Come on. As quickly as you can. Come on. Come on down. Don't be shy. Come on down quickly. Come on down here to the front. As quickly as you can. Awesome. All the way in the balcony. Come on down. You guys look beautiful. Come on down here close. I'm not going to bite you. I'm not going to spit on you. Come on. Come on down here. Come on. Come up close. Come on up close. You guys look great. Can we just show our appreciation? Come on over here. Powerful. Boy, you guys look great, and there's more coming. This is beautiful. This is a sign of a healthy church. Amen. Amen. Are we glad for this? This is wonderful. Okay. I'm going to give you a principle. I have three. I'm going to give you one because of time. I'm going to give you one, and this is really important. If you have your phones, you can take a picture of it. If not, we'll make sure Pastor Ben or someone passes this on to you. But this is a really guiding principle. I wish I could give you three, but I'm going to give you one. Here it is. Only in God's economy can you plant seed in someone else's field and reap a harvest in your own. Jesus said, "If you want to save your life, what do you do?" Now you give it away. You lose it. Sheryl and I started in ministry when we were quite young. This is what we've known for so long, but there were decisions in our life along the way that led us in a certain trajectory that we couldn't have imagined. I often say to people, "You may not know if God's really calling you to Gospel ministry today vocationally. You're all called by God. He's going to use you no matter who you are. If you love Him and follow Him, He'll use your life and for everyone who's here in this sanctuary." That responsibility is on all of us, but there are individuals out of an Antioch, out of this church, that God will call to full-time ministry to be pastors, to be teachers, to be missionaries. My question to you is one. Here it is, right? I'm not asking right now if you know for sure God's calling you. I'm asking you this. If God were to call you, would you say yes? Do you love Him enough to say, "Lord, my life belongs to you"? Do you love Jesus enough that if He were to call you with joy you would say, "Lord, I'm going to follow you in that calling"? I would imagine right now that not only are there some that are here, maybe not all, but some that God is calling. I would even imagine there's some of you, there are over 40 that God is calling. So before we pray, I want to say a couple of things very, very, very clearly. How many of you out there have been parents or perhaps even here, because you could be? How many of you are parents that dedicated your children to the Lord in this church when they were young? Would you raise your hand? Why would we be willing to dedicate our children as infants, only when they turn 20, 22, 25, 30? We kind of want to negotiate with God. Lord, they're yours, just don't send them somewhere else. Lord, they're yours, but for every one of you that are here and those that are listening in this Sanctuary and online, the only way we win the world for Jesus is that in every generation God raises up spiritual sons and daughters in this church. And you never know. You never know how God may use your life, because He wants to use you. And the world's waiting, and God's only given the church this mandate. See, there are tens of thousands of NGOs that do a lot of good work, and they do, but only the church is concerned about spreading the good news of Jesus Christ. So why would we abdicate the one thing that God's called us to do? So I want you in this room, if you would, and online if you're watching, could we take just a moment, and I want us to lift our hands and assign a surrenderance to His Lordship, and write down here in front, and we're just going to pray a simple prayer for all of us in this room. Lord, in the name of Jesus, I thank you that you are the God who calls, and you are the God who sins. And in this amazing congregation at Calvary Christian, year after year for generations, you have been using this church to advance your work both locally and globally. But Lord, today another generation stands in front of me right here in this altar, and Lord, for those who are supporting this that are in this sanctuary and watching online, and I pray, oh God, that you would use this congregation again in a way that, Lord, helps us to go beyond anything we could have imagined. I pray, Lord, that there are those that are standing in this altar area that, God, their hearts would say, Lord, if you were to call me, Lord, would you help me to discern your voice? Lord, that I could easily be able to discern the nudging of your spirit, the prompting of your spirit, that, Lord, that you are working in their lives, that you're touching them, that you're speaking in them, and the experiences, and the gifts, and the heart of God that shows up in their life, that, Lord, that you would allow them to know that they are yours and they are candidates to receive your call, and how many are here right now that may just step up and end up seeing many come into the kingdom because of this very moment today, this right moment right now. I pray that your Holy Spirit would speak deeply in their heart. I pray that they would not have apprehension or fear. I pray that they would lean into you if they sense your Holy Spirit. I pray that they would know that, God, these are moments that redefine our lives and set us in a new direction. I pray, Lord, that you would give them the gift of faith. And I pray for the sanctuary here across it with everyone that's here, that they will become part of the economy of God that says, Lord, for our spiritual sons and daughters, we will give our best. They are yours. They belong to you. We will encourage it. We will speak words of life. We will be intentional that we will lean in. I pray, God, that you will use this church in a way that we have never seen in all of its generations. I pray, God, that there will be an army of young men and women, sons and daughters, who are called out of this church. We pray, Lord, to evangelize not only this nation, but the world. We pray for that in Jesus' name. Now, congregation, would you extend your hand towards these as representatives of the larger church? And I want you to lift your voice now as spiritual grandfathers, fathers, mothers, aunties, brothers, sisters, and I want you to say... Thanks for joining us this week on Calvary's podcast. Be sure to visit our website, CalvaryChristian.Church, to stay up to date with events, sermons, and ways you and your family can get connected within our community. We hope to see you in person or online at one of our weekend services. Once again, thanks for listening in today, and we look forward to having you join us next time. [BLANK_AUDIO]