In Mala Chindongo's sermon on 'The Role of the Holy Spirit in Missions,' the focus is on the text from Acts 12:25 to 13:5, where Barnabas and Saul are set apart by the Holy Spirit for missionary work. The sermon emphasizes the Holy Spirit's role in guiding, empowering, and setting apart individuals for missions. Chindongo highlights the importance of the church at Antioch, a diverse congregation that, through fasting and prayer, became a hub for sending missionaries. The sermon outlines three requirements for successful missions: the mission itself, the senders, and the goal. The Holy Spirit initiates the mission, prompts the senders to act, and sets apart the goers, ensuring that missions are rooted in the local church. This process demonstrates that missions are a communal effort, with the local church playing a vital role in sending and supporting missionaries. The sermon calls for believers to pray for the advancement of the Gospel, to be willing senders or goers, and to align their mission with Christ's mission. Chindongo encourages the congregation to ensure their church is a welcoming and supportive base for missionaries, sharing in the joy of seeing the Gospel spread worldwide.

The servant text is Acts chapter 12 verse 25 through chapter 13 verse 5. Please follow along as we read. And Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem when they had fulfilled their ministry, and they also took with them John, whose surname was Mark. Now in the church that was at Antioch there were certain prophets and teachers Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manan who had been brought up with Herod the Tetrarch and Saul. As they ministered to the Lord and fasted the Holy Spirit said, Now separate to me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.

14 Then having fasted and prayed and laid hands on them, they sent them away. 15 So being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia, And from there they sailed to Cyprus. And when they had arrived in Salamis, they preached the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews. They also had John as their assistant. Let's pray.

Lord, we pray that you will bless the preaching of your word, Lord, that You'll send your spirit upon us to open up our hearts. Let us receive this message that you'll speak through Mala and Pour out your spirit on him as he preaches your word and we pray this in Jesus name. Amen Let's just take a moment to pray Father want to thank you for my brothers and sisters and their desire to see your name magnified, not only here, O God, in their home country, but to the ends of the earth that your name would be glorified I thank you that Lord you are faithful God and blessing holy desires We know this is a holy desire, O Lord. Thank you, Father, for how they have extended a hand of fellowship and partnership with us, O God, to preach the gospel, to encourage and strengthen one another. Thank you for the things we've been able to do, O God, together.

And thank you for what you have for us in store. To labor together, O Lord, to preach Christ and to bring the name of Christ to those who do not know Him, O God, neither worship Him. Lord, as we consider Acts chapter 13, you've given us a clear account, O God, of what missions looks like, O Lord. Especially when it comes to the place of your Spirit. We pray that He may lead us, he may guide us, that he may teach us this morning.

Open our eyes, open the eyes of our hearts, O God, that we may behold the wonderful things in your word. We ask In Jesus' name, Amen. We've just come out of a weekend celebrating the legacy of the Reformation at 500 years that began with Martin Luther. We're truly grateful and I always encourage our church that our consideration of the study of church history helps us to appreciate what the Holy Spirit has been doing over the years. But I want us to go back in time a little bit this morning and consider Acts chapter 13 as Paul and Barnabas are being set apart for the work of missions.

And probably much as we celebrate the Reformation, here is a place that calls for rejoicing because it is in this place where God began to send the Gospel, not just in Jerusalem among the Jews, but to the ends of the earth. It is from this text and from what happened in this text that the gospel ended up in Asia Minor and throughout that region and extended all the way into Europe. And God began to transform the gentle world. What started in Acts chapter 13 in our text today, is the very reason why we are here worshipping today. When God sent the gospel set apart, Paul and Bonaparte to begin to preach the gospel and to send them far into Asia Minor and Europe is the same gospel that has come to us today.

The world will never be the same. It started with a small church fasting and praying as we see in the text. And we'll look at more of the details. A faithful local church at Antioch preaching the gospel, ministering before the Lord, praying and preaching the gospel faithfully to the believers there. And God uses that church to send the gospel to the rest of the world.

The passage that we have in front of us shows us clearly the work of the Spirit. Jesus had taught earlier on in John chapter 16, and I want you to turn with me to John chapter 16. We'll be looking at verse 4 and also verse 13 to 15. John chapter 16. And Jesus began to give us what looks like to be the main, the primary ministry of the Spirit of God.

And so in verse 4 He says, but these things I have told you, that when the time comes you may remember that I told you of them. And these things I did not say to you at the beginning because I was with you. But now I go away to him who sent me and none of you asked me where are you going but because I've said these things to you to you sorrow has filled your heart. And then in verse 8 it says and when he has come talking about the Holy Spirit the helper He will convict the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. And as you follow along in that passage in verse 13, he says, However, when he, the Spirit of Truth has come, he will guide you into all truth.

For He will not speak on His own authority but whatever He hears He will speak and He will tell you things to come. He will glorify me for He will take of what is mine and declare it to you. All things that the Father has are mine. Therefore I say that he will take all of mine and declare it to you." So this is the primary minister of the Holy Spirit is that he would come taking that which Christ has done and applying it upon our hearts, applying it upon the world, convicting the world of sin, righteousness and judgment. The work of missions is really taking the gospel to the rest of the world and seeing the Spirit of God work and convict the world of sin and righteousness and the coming judgment.

That's what missions is all about. God came to us and came to you, if you are a believer this morning, that God came to you in the power of His Spirit, convicting you of your sin and showing you the righteousness of God as is seen in the gospel and even in the midst of that bringing before you the coming judgment of God because of sin. It is in that that we begin to embrace this alien righteousness and begin to believe in Jesus and ourselves and are made the children of God. This is what the Holy Spirit does in life. And so This is what I continually say even to our church, that we don't want to be a church that is consumed with talking about the Holy Spirit, but not seeing the power of it.

There are many groups today in the church that claim to be filled with the Spirit, but lack the power of the Spirit. We don't want to be such kind of churches. And so as we consider the role of the Holy Spirit in missions, we want the Holy Spirit to work in us, to give us desires, holy desires, to give us desires for missions. Not only talking about Him, not only saying, God give us the Spirit and fill us with your Holy Spirit, but we have no power, no desire for the things that he is passionate about. We see the same thing in Acts chapter 1 and verse 8 and verse 10 there.

But the Lord Jesus Christ tells the disciples, he says, you wait here until the Holy Spirit comes and when he comes you shall be witnesses. We shall be witnesses. Luke gives us a faithful account. It begins in chapter 11 of the book of Acts. Soon after the martyrdom of Stephen, a massive persecution arose and Saul had been a witness who is Paul now, had been a witness to the martyrdom of Stephen.

In chapter 9 we see Paul's conversion, that the Spirit of God Christ meets Paul on the road to Damascus and Paul is converted. But those who are fleeing persecution after the martyrdom of Stephen are preaching the gospel wherever they would find people, especially Jews. If you go back a little bit to chapter 11 and verse 19, the Bible tells us, now those who were scattered after the persecution that arose over Stephen traveled as far as for Anishinaabemowin, Cyprus and Antioch, preaching the word to no one but the Jews only. It is these events that establishes the church at Antioch with Bannabas there, and eventually Bannabas takes off to bring Paul to come to Antioch so they can preach the gospel there and continue to disciple men and women in that church. This is the same Antioch that was known as the Queen of the East, the capital city of the province in Syria, was one of the provinces there.

Not only was Antioch a capital city, but also was the largest city in the Roman Empire. So it was a very important place for God to begin to work to do something there, especially in the area of missions. It became the hub of missions as we see later on in the book of Acts. If you are sitting down and just reading chapter 13 of the book of Acts, you begin to see that this place became the center of missions. The guard began not only sending out Paul, but Paul and Bonobos would come back to this place as their missions base.

I want to point out three requirements for successful missions as we see it in this text. In Acts chapter 13 and verse 1. Now in the church that was at Antioch, there were certain prophets and teachers. The word prophets should not be confused with just foretelling. It also means that they were proclaiming the word of God.

Barnabas, Simeon, who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manain who had been brought up with Herod the Tentrock and Saul. As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, now separate to me Banabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them. Then having fasted and prayed, laid hands on them, they sent them away." What are the requirements of successful gospel missions? These men are in the church. It looks like a very diverse church.

There are prophets there. There are teachers there. Barnabas is one of them. Simeon, Lucius from Cyrene who is from Egypt, Alexandria in that part of the world. Mennaen who had been brought up with Herod the Tentrarch and this was a high profile man and soul.

So these men are there preaching and they're teaching and they're discipling people for a good over one year. In verse 2 the Bible tells us that as they minister to the Lord and fasted, And so when he says as they minister to the Lord could mean a number of things either they were just engaged in preaching Either they were actually praying and fasted and that could could also mean that these men were just engaged with the things of God on a typical Lord's day. The Bible tells us they minister to the Lord and fasted and the Holy Spirit said, Now separate to me Bonobos and Saul. And I want you to follow what is happening in the text because it is the Spirit of God who is speaking to this church, to this men, to these leaders, to these teachers. He says, now separate to me Barnabas and Saul, set them apart for their work to which I have called them.

And so whether the Holy Spirit had already spoken to Paul in Barnabas, whether he had already placed a burden upon their hearts, whether when whatever for me had already set them apart, the Bible tells us that he is the one who picked the two. It also tells us that He is the one who had the mission. It also tells us that He had already picked out the goals. We need three things to successful missions. We need the mission.

We need the sender. We need the goal. There will be no mission if there is no mission. If the Holy Spirit doesn't give us a mission, doesn't give us something to go out with and to a burden, something we need to address in the world which when we take the gospel we are out addressing sin, we are out bringing the righteousness of God in Christ in the gospel, we are out warning the world concerning the judgment that is to come. That is our mission.

And in all of that, in the preaching of the gospel, God, Christ is glorified. But we need senders. We need senders. Someone, badly, someone must go. It's not enough to have a mission and not be able to send.

It's not enough to have a mission to say we are senders but have no one willing to go. Let's begin. The Spirit of God creates the mission. He says for the work which I have called them. Looks like the Spirit of God had already stirred Paul's heart and Bonapaces and he had already been speaking and preparing them for the work that he had for them.

In Acts chapter 1 and verse 6, therefore when they had come together they asked Him, saying, Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? And He said to them, It is not for you to know times and seasons which the Father has put in His own authority, But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth." The Spirit had the mission and Jesus acknowledges that when the Spirit comes, He will give you the mission. He creates the mission. One of the things we see out there is the number of missionaries from the West who are coming in without a mission. No mission at all.

Then what are you doing here? He creates the mission and He gives us that mission. Number two, the Spirit of God prompts the senders, speaks to the senders. Listen to the way Luke puts words together to help us see what is happening as they minister to the Lord and fasted the Holy Spirit said now separate to me a bonobos and soul for the work which I have called them. It is the Spirit of God who prompts the senders.

See, there are a number of things that I see in life that are very interesting to watch. Number one is to watch God place a burden upon somebody's heart to actually take the gospel somewhere. Just God being able to begin to work in somebody's life. I've watched and seen people live good jobs, a comfortable life and you might want to even ask them and say what are you doing? Are you out of your mind?

But God just begins to work in their hearts and they go back and say, you know what, I'm resigning. Where are you going? I'm going to that country. But they will kill you there. This way I'm going to preach the Gospel.

And God just begins to work in their lives. And placing that burden and leading them and directing them. Here's another interesting scenario that I also find very interesting almost all the time in my life to watch. It's also the beginnings of a marriage. A young man, a young woman, they begin to be attracted to each other, and they begin to think about marriage together, and you watch the whole thing, and they get to a place where they actually come together and get married.

Just the whole process is interesting, like how do you end up with that person? How do you end up with that person? How do you end up? It's just interesting to hear stories of how people ended up together. It is the Spirit of God.

He works in amazing ways. He creates the mission. He prompts the senders. In this text, Luke is very clear. He says, the Spirit of God say to them.

I don't know how he spoke to them. Whether it was an audible voice. Whether it was the Spirit of God placing a burden upon people's hearts in the church within that leadership. But we know that whatever was said by the Spirit of God was very clear that it was going to be Barnabas and Saul for their work which I have called them. And there are many ways in which the Spirit of God has led us before, all of us, especially those of you who are believers, where the Spirit of God has led you and you were sure, you were absolutely sure this is the Spirit of God and you went ahead and you did something.

Thirdly, the Spirit of God sets apart the goers. As they ministered to the Lord and fasted the Holy Spirit said, Now separate to me Bonobos and Saul for the work to which I have called them." He is the one who sets apart those who should go. Biblical missions is the work of the Spirit of God. Biblical missions is the work of the Spirit of God. He's the one who does everything, setting apart, creating a mission and sending, but it's rooted, as we can see, it's rooted in the local assembly, in the local church.

It's not apart from the local church look at verse 4 in our takes the Bible tells us so being sent out by the Holy Spirit who sent poor and banabars the church sent poor and banabars who sent poor and banabars the Spirit of God sent poor and banabars It's one of those dilemmas in the Bible where the Bible tells us that the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart. But the Bible also tells us that Pharaoh hardened his own heart. And so God, the Spirit of God, sent Paul and Barnabas. But the way he did it was through and rooted in the local church. Missions and we need to understand missions as we think of missions we need to understand that biblical missions belong to the Holy Spirit.

It is the work of the Holy Spirit. When He has come He will convict the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. That is His mission And John tells us that he will glorify Christ. When we say we want to be doing missions, we want to honor God, we want to obey Him, we want to be part of what God is doing in the Great Commission, it means that we want to see God, we want to see Him glorified among the nations. That is the heartbeat of the Holy Spirit, it's His work.

Notice that the Spirit of God addresses the church elders about certain church members for certain work of the Spirit. He speaks to the leaders about certain people within the church for the work he had for them. Notice that the actual sitting apart of Paul in Bonobos is also left, the actual sitting apart, the Spirit of God lifts it to the leaders in that church. Think of Paul who had been, God had already set him apart, had commissioned him, had called him, saved him, set him apart and told him what his mission was. At this point if Paul had come in this church at Antioch and said, you know I strongly believe that the Spirit of God is speaking to me, that I need to go to the Gentiles and preach the gospel.

Do you think anyone would have objected? He's an apostle. At this point Paul has already been involved in ministry. No one would have objected. He's Paul.

This is Barnabas. We know Barnabas. God has already been doing amazing things with his men. But the Spirit of God does not bypass the local church. Does not bypass the leaders in that church.

Here's a number of things that I want us as a church to take home. Number one, as we think about missions and what the spirit of God in missions, here's the first thing we need to take home with us. God will not do missions without sovereign redeemer community church. Now you begin to think about that and you say, you know, but he doesn't need us. Amen.

That's true. He doesn't need us. He doesn't need me. He doesn't need you, but God will not do it without you. The Spirit of God could have come to Paul and Barnabas and said, you know what, there's a mission and I'm sending you right now.

Go and change the world. He could have done that. But he speaks to the church and he commands the church to set apart these two men that he has already spoken to. Missions is a community project, a man, Missions is a community project, especially a sovereign community. So God will not do missions, he will not do it without you.

Not because he cannot do it without us. God can do all things without us. He doesn't need our help. But because God loves his people, because God loves his people, he as Sovereign Redeemer, God will not do it without you because He wants us, His children, to participate in the joy that missions bring to the church. So He will not do it without us.

Several times I've thought about myself in ministry and I've thought about how almost every time I think about preparation for ministry, I always think that I came into the ministry through a back door. I always feel like I need to go back and come in through the main door, the main entrance. But as I think about it all the time, I'm like God can do it, He can do it without me, by His purpose not to do it. His purpose to do it with me. Because God wants us to share in the joy.

As we see the gospel advance, as we see Christ build His church in the world, as we see His victories, We are being encouraged in our own challenges here. We're being built in our own struggles here. We are being encouraged to continue to try out things we've never done before Because God wants us to share in the joy that missions bring to the church. We see in this text that God did not bypass or overlook the church there. God will not overlook you.

The reason why some of you maybe have a desire and you want to talk about missions, you want to consider missions, God will not overlook those desires. Can He do it without you? He can do it without us. But He will not overlook your labor. He will not overlook your desires.

He will not overlook our need for joy as we see our King of Kings triumph in the world. He will not overlook us. You see what God has done? God has hidden the joys of the Christian life. He's weaved these things together.

Our labor, our hardships as we desire to obey Him, as we take more and more steps of obedience, God has weaved these two together. That as we live and strive, we are also being filled with joy. The reason why God would say, the Holy Spirit would come to Antioch and say, separate to me poor and one of us, you do it, you do it. It's because God loved the church at Antioch. He wanted them to be filled with joy as we're going to see you later.

God will not overlook you and your work and your desires. Listen to what the Bible says in Acts chapter 14 and verse 26. From there they sailed to Antioch where they had been commended to the grace of God for the work which they had completed. And so, a poet in Bonavest had a tendency where they would go back to Antioch and report and share with the church what God was doing among the Jews and Gentiles who were scattered in that part of the world. Now when they had come and gathered the church together they reported all that God had done with them, and that He had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles.

So they stayed there a long time with the disciples. Listen to Acts chapter 15 and verse 3 as God uses missions and the stories and missions to encourage his church. So being sent on their way by the church, they passed through for an Easter in Samaria, describing the conversion of the Gentiles. What are they doing? Describing the conversion of the Gentiles.

And they caused great joy to all the brethren. What excites us in this world, brothers and sisters? What are the stories that when you hear, You want to hear more? How many of us do spend more time wanting to hear stories of Christ and his victories in the world? We spend so much time browsing through junk in our feeds, looking for encouragement, searching for something that would interest us, and at the end of that thread, zero joy or entirety.

They were describing the conversion of the Gentiles and they caused great joy to all the brethren. Listen to how Luke carefully explains this, that they caused great joy among the brethren. Where does our joy come from? And the Bible tells us, and when they had come to Jerusalem, they were received by the church and the apostles and the elders. What happened next?

And they reported all things that God had done with them. Churches that are being filled with true joy and the joy of the Spirit, they want to hear such stories. Our King of Kings is triumphant among the Gentiles. Those are the kind of stories they want to be hearing. In Acts 21 verse 17 to 20 the Bible tells us, and when we had come to Jerusalem, the brethren received us gladly.

On the following day, Paul went in with us to James, and all the elders were present. To do what? Verse 19, when he had greeted them, he told in detail those things which God had done among the Gentiles through his ministry. What happened? And when they heard it, they glorified the Lord.

What is the reason? We meet and we say we want to glorify God. What is the reason? For what? What has He done that we want to glorify Him?

We want to glorify Him because we see His power. We're hearing reports of God at work in this world. And part of this is how our faith is built because we see Him working till today. That God is at work today in the world. And as we hear such stories, we're even encouraged in the way we pray that God is at work.

He's not dead. I'm always amazed when I sit down with people and especially those who have been in the faith for a long time and I sit down and I listen to them share stories and it's always about 10 years ago, 15 years ago, 10 years ago, 15 years ago and I'm like no those are good stories but is God still at work in your life today? We also want to hear yesterday God converted someone. We want to hear that two days ago God did something. We also want to hear such stories.

Yes, He did something during the Reformation. But what is He doing today? We want to hear those stories. And Paul and one of us would go back and report to the churches what God was doing among the Gentiles. And the Bible tells us that they glorified the Lord.

They were filled with joy. And so God will not deny you the joy that comes with missions. If I were to ask you this morning, what is your mission in life? What is your mission in life? What is your mission in life?

Does it align with the mission of Christ? Is it the same mission that Christ is on today? It's easy for us to be busy with our daily routine of life and years seeking to honor God and to glorify God in all these things, but we need to come to this place where we hunger and desire to see Christ being glorified among the nations. We need to come to this place. Let's not make our little missions a priority.

And these are the same things I share with our church. That let's not make our little missions a priority over the mission of Christ. Yes, He wants us to glorify Him in the way we raise our children, in the way we conduct ourselves in marriage, and in all those areas. But there is also a place where Christ wants us to be burdened for the nations. To see Him glorified among the nations.

One of the things I've been sharing while I've been here is that the truth is that there are no better movements in this world that I know or have heard about that are a step ahead in missions than family integrated churches. What do I mean by that? Do we think that those who are out there on the ground doing missions but have no husbands, do not care about their wives, do not care about their families, do not care about their children. Do you think those families will do anything helpful on the field, on the mission field? No.

They will not benefit anyone on the mission field. Actually, these are the things that we look at on the mission field and begin to think that, hey, what is this missionary doing here on the ground? So What Satan does is to keep us consumed with the family. And forget missions. Forget the mission field.

Be consumed with the family. Isn't it true That God has made us good and all these things, at the moment we touch them with our hands, we defile them. As good as the families, as good as disciplining children and all these good things we need to be doing if we make them the end, not the means, we've missed out on the mission of Christ. And so what the world needs today is well-ordered families on the mission field. What the world needs to see today is examples of what the gospel can do within a family.

If you've spent time maybe in this church or maybe somewhere else where there was a clear emphasis on family life and God was really doing a great work which I believe God has done that and he's doing that within our circles. But if you've been around long enough we need to begin to be burdened for the nations. Listen to what the Bible says in Matthew chapter 5-15, nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lamp stand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. We need to find the most remotest darkest place and put a family integrated church there.

Amen. Our voice thought about our churches that it is true what Luke says in Chapter 12, 48, for everyone to whom much is given from Him, much will be required. And to whom much has been committed of Him, they will ask them all. With all the things that God has given us, in the way we understand families, and where we understand church life, there is a Lord that's required from us. Here's two things we need to start doing.

Number one, pray, we should be praying for the advancement of the kingdom. Let's pray that the gospel would advance. Whether through us, whether God sending someone from here, or God sending someone from other churches, we need to be burdened praying that the gospel would advance. Both here in your country and also among the nations that the gospel would advance. How much do we pray for the advancement of the gospel?

These men when the Spirit of God spoke to them, they were in the midst of praying and ministering and they were in the midst of fasting. They were busy serving the Lord and the Spirit of God begins to minister to speak to them and to steer the hearts of different ones within the church and eventually commanding them to send and they sent these two men, including John Mack. It does show when a church is burdened for missions, it does show in their prayers. It shows in our prayers. Pray that we should be senders.

Pray that we should be gods. A missionary one time told me that he was praying to God and saying, God, I don't want to be converted because if I'm converted, you'll send me to Africa and I don't want to go there. A few years later he got converted and God began to stir his heart and he started inquiring about Africa. Ended up in Africa for 17 years and God used him mightily and powerfully. Pray that your church would be ascending church.

Pray that your church would have people who are willing to go. You as a person who is a member of a church, be burdened about going yourself. It doesn't mean every single member of a church will end up going, it doesn't mean that. But at least you have a desire to see your church, to see you being a sinner. Pray that God would place upon your heart the mission of God, which is the salvation of the nations.

Pray that God would place that burden upon your heart. Pray that you would be one of the people that are holding the hands of those who are willing to go. The old missionaries would talk about holding the rope, that as others go, we are back here working so hard to make life manageable and easier for them on the ground. What they meant by that was that on both ends people will be hurt. As much as they are experiencing the joy, but they will be suffering on both ends.

So pray that God would make your church a sending church. Pray that God would raise up people who are waiting to go. Pray that God would burden you with a mission to see the gospel spread among the nations. Let's not pray small prayers, amen? Let's not pray small prayers.

Let's come together and be able to say, God I want to continually pray that our church would be burdened about sending missionaries. That our church would be burdened about not just us thinking about being senders, but if, Lord, if you allow it, I want to go. I pray that every Christian will be at this place where he says Lord wherever you want to send me I will go. This is where Christians ought to be in terms of submission this is where we need to be. Wherever you send me, I will go.

The time I've been here, there are two things I've heard. And the people that have told me have actually been laughing and joking about it. And one time someone told me that you know us Americans, we are proud and laughing and joking. And I looked at him and I said, that's not a laughing matter. That's not something to laugh about.

You should be ashamed that you are proud. The second thing he said, was a different person, he says, you know us, we are too comfortable here. I don't know that you are too comfortable. But also that's not a nice thing to say. And so We should be at a place in terms of our submission to Christ.

We should be saying, Christ, wherever you want to send me, I'll go. Am I comfortable? Maybe I am. Am I proud? I testify that I am.

Wherever you want to send me, I will go. And so I encourage you my brothers and sisters, let's not rejoice in things that the Bible condemns. Let's rejoice in the things the Bible wants us to rejoice in. And one of them is that we are saying, God, I am submitting my life to you. I am giving my life to you.

Wherever you want me to go, I will go. Let's end with this. Let's end with this. They ministered to the Lord and fasted, And then the Holy Spirit spoke to them, and very clear time separated to me, Bonobos and Saul, for the work to which I have called them. Then they are having fasted and prayed, laid hands on them, then they sent them away.

It is clear that when this church had sent out Paul and Bonobos, especially when you see Bonobos and Paul having a desire to go back to this place, to this base, to this sending church, and report to them the things that God had been doing among the nations, it is very clear that they were so connected to this church, that they considered this church as their operating base. No matter how long it took them to get back, they considered this is home for them. Here's my prayer for us as a church in Malawi and you as a church here in Yangsville, is that we would be saying that, God, maybe I'm not the one who's going, but I want to ensure that our church is home for missionaries. I want to ensure that this is the place where missionaries come and are comfortable. This is a place where missionaries come and are supported in whatever way, whether it's financial, in whatever way as you consider supporting a missionary.

That missionaries come here to be encouraged. This is home, this is base, this is their operating space. Paul would go back and they would encourage the church. And these are the stories that we want to hear within our churches being encouraged as we see our Lord triumph among the nations. Let's pray.

Father, we thank you that you have a mission for us. We pray that You may burden us, O God, to go. We pray that You may speak to us, O Lord, As we save, as we seek to do the things You have commanded us within our local assemblies, O God, daily ministering before You, we pray that You would stir our hearts, O God, and you would send some of us, O God. I pray for my brothers and sisters in this church, O God, as they consider missions, that Lord, you would be gracious enough to make them a sending church, O God. I pray for wisdom.

I pray that you would fill them with your knowledge. I pray, O God, that you would Cause each heart, O God, in this church to be stared up, to be concerned, to be gripped by what Christ is doing in the world. I pray that our being filled with the Spirit would be evidenced with the work of missions and how involved we are, O God, in the preaching of the gospel. Not only here, O God, in our neighborhood, O Lord, but also among the nations. May you bless your church, O God.

I thank you that you have purposed to not overlook us, O Lord, to not despise our desires. I pray that Lord you would bless us to really be engaged in the preaching of the Gospel among the nations. Bless us, we do pray this morning in Jesus' name, Amen.