Jim Passetti 8-13-2023

Foreign [Music] thank you [Music] it's nice [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] thank you [Music] organization [Music] well good morning church it's a good day to be in the house of the Lord amen well if you don't know me which I think most students do I'm Austin Bryant I'm the youth and worship Minister here and our mission at First Baptist Church is to love God love each other and love our community and our world just a couple of quick announcements for on August 18th make sure to Mark your calendars we are having family game night now the word family there is to show you that for those of you with children you can bring them all along but it's also to remind us that we are a family as the body of Christ amen we are all a family so come on young old middle come play some games it says 5 30 to 10 you have to stay the whole time no I'm kidding that's I think that's to allow Cody to bring out some of his really long board games from his closet so come on we'll have bring a snack to share bring your favorite board games we did this a little while ago and we had a blast so it'll be a good time also I just wanted to make it clear that the next couple of weeks we do not have Wednesday night youth group we have canceled that so that we can get ready for our fall kickoff it's in our weekly calendar there but youth if you show up on Wednesday you'll be

Locked out the lights will be off it just won't be good also coming up is the joy group fish fry it says that tickets will be ten dollars you need to do that ahead of time make sure that you sign up for that and another big thing is our bulletin pictures are going to be taken soon what are those dates anyone have those dates on them yeah the weekend of September 16th I believe you have to sign up for a time slot and we'd love it if you actually do sign up and go that'll allow us to actually have a printed physical bulletin which I know a lot of you have been missing do what I said bulletin many times it's directory thank you so much I'm I'm looking at a bulletin yes a directory printed directory that's what those pictures are for so please sign up you can do that right this second actually and now is usually our time for meet and greet just yes perfect the directory people will be in there after church I think the table's empty right now so that makes it hard to sign up but as we are saying good morning to one another I'd invite you to go find someone that you haven't said good morning to and also take a moment Meander back in there and look at some of the areas that we need help in we need volunteers and people who are passionate about Ministry and we've got all sorts of opportunities in fact when you walked in you should have gotten a little piece of paper that lists out all of the different Ministry opportunities that we have in our church so take a moment go Meander in there say hi to someone and tell them you love them [Music]

Thank you [Music] thank you [Music] thank you [Music] very much [Music] thank you foreign [Music] guys around here [Music] finishes [Music] that's this [Music] okay well good morning I hope you got a chance to say hi to all the people that you wanted to ah well we've come to the part of our service where we like to just take a moment to prepare our hearts and our minds for corporate worship so I'd invite you now to Bow your heads and close your eyes and just take a moment between you and God to ask him to prepare you for what we're about to do which is to worship him through song and through hearing of his word preached to worship him because he's worthy so take a moment and so Lord we come before you this morning as people who we know on our own we are broken we are full of sin we're in need of a Savior but Lord we also know that you have provided a way for us Lord we know that you that the blood of Jesus has reconciled us if only we'll believe Lord because he lived the perfect life we couldn't live and died the death that we deserved and rose again on the third day Lord I pray that you would help us to rejoice in that not just today but

Always Lord that you would help us help us to Proclaim your Mighty works Lord I pray that this morning you would help us to worship as one body unified unified by the Holy Spirit which we're given in your great grace and it's in Jesus name we pray amen I'd like to read to you a passage from the 145th psalm says this all your work shall Give Thanks To You O Lord and all your Saints shall bless you they shall speak of the glory of your kingdom and tell of your power to make known to the children of man your Mighty deeds and the Glorious Splendor of your kingdom your kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom and your Dominion endures throughout all generations the Lord is faithful in all his words and kind in all his Works I'd invite you to stand and join me as we praise this God the creator of the universe [Music] All Creatures of our God indeed lift up your voice and with us [Music] Hallelujah [Music] let all things their creator bless and worship him in humbleness [Music] Oh Praise Him Oh Praise Him Hallelujah [Music] all the redeemed Washed by his blood and rejoice in his great love oh Christ has defeated everything cast all your burdens [Music] all praise Him Hallelujah [Music] coming back he shall return to say Oh Praise Him hallelujah hallelujah

[Music] Hallelujah [Music] praise God from whom our blessings praise him all creatures [Music] foreign [Music] amen he's worthy of Our Praise this morning [Music] my soul finds rest in God alone my rock and my salvation a fortress strong against my throes [Music] and hearts may pass [Music] me I'll fix my heart on righteousness [Music] Oh Praise Him Hallelujah [Music] find rest my soul in God alone amid the world's Temptations when evil cease no riches come and reaches go don't set your heart upon them the fields of Hope in which I sow our heart is [Music] the last thing never failing My Redeemer [Music] I'll set my days [Music] Oh Praise Him Hallelujah [Music] Praise Him Oh Praise Him hallelujah hallelujah Hallelujah [Music] you are Everlasting never fail my redeem [Music] okay you may be seated but for ushers to come forward we just sang about praising him and there's many ways to praise God I mean that's why we're here today is to praise God but another way to do that is through our

Giving so we have an opportunity to sing praises and also an opportunity to praise him through our giving so let's just have a word of prayer before we do that praising God to follow we just thank you for the day you've given us to be here we thank you for the people that come here to worship you and Lord may that be in our hearts and Minds every day thank you for the people that give that give cheerfully and as you desire them to give that the furtherance of the Gospel may be proclaimed in this area and throughout the world we pray this in Christ's name amen [Music] thank you How Deep The Father's Love For Us [Music] that he should give his only son [Music] the father turns his face [Music] please [Music] hold the man up on a cross my sin upon his shoulders the shame to hear my walking horse [Music] good [Music] Ness I will not boast in anything [Music] and Resurrection why should I gain from his reward I cannot live [Music] but this is [Music] his words [Music] thank you [Music] for Rock of Ages [Applause] [Music] thank you

Not the labors [Music] my hand oh Christ I bring simply too I cross [Music] when my eyes shall close in death when I Rise Against [Music] Lord I pray that you would help us to remember the cross every day every moment Lord help us to rejoice in our Salvation through Jesus Christ and Lord for those of us here that may not believe that may not be able to claim that salvation I pray Lord that today would be the day that you would pull them to draw them unto yourself Lord to reveal to them Who You Are that they might know you and count themselves Among Us the brothers and sisters gathered here United in the body of Christ it's in Jesus name we pray amen well at this time we have a short video for you from the Idaho mission trip team they left a few weeks ago some of them and just got back last week and we're there partnering with a church plant that has connected to us I'll let them explain but here's a video [Music] [Applause] [Music] thank you [Applause] [Music] thank you foreign [Music] okay so that gives you a little bit of an overview of what we did and I love serving with this team and I want to say on behalf of all of us thank you for sending us to Idaho I think it's really good to have a mission-minded church and that is what we mean when we say loving our world so we went to help exalt David and Ally

Who Ellie's dad was on the team and she kind of came of age of this church and David served here David Pryor so I thought you might want to know a little bit about why we went and what we accomplished so I decided to format my comments in the form of the exalt 3es so the first e is exalt God I believe that God's love language is obedience so when God calls us to go I believe we should go and I also believe that it was exalting to God for us to worship with other believers and personally on a trip like this it brings you close for sure you learn things about people you never knew you didn't know too their second e is equipped disciples so for them I think we encourage them we came alongside them and we helped them accomplish their goals and I think and now we as a team and going forward as a church we can pray more effectively for them having been in Ministry with them for us I think it helped us to reach inside of ourselves to sort of broaden our narrow worldview and grow as Christ followers and become Mission minded whether we are going to Idaho or around the world or whether we're staying right here in Camdenton and their third e is to extend the Gospel so during the admission trip we did have the opportunity to show Christ's love and to have several Gospel conversations which may draw people close to Christ we don't know exactly how God will use our efforts but we know that he will so I just want to assure you that I believe that we were obedient in going that God will be faithful to accomplish his purposes in exalt in Idaho and for all of us maybe I think is going to share the Idaho mission trip was great

We started out getting set up in the classrooms that we stayed in the first day we did a lot of canvassing at the classrooms that oh sorry the park or the VBS we were doing was going to be at I got to speak with some we got to speak with some of the people during canvassing time and they seemed positive about what we were doing we prepared for 200 kids for the VBS but we didn't have many people attend I didn't see how God used that until later that evening at VBS God used it by giving us time to talk with some people who knew about God but we're having a difficult time with their lives and weren't fully involved with him we wouldn't have been able to have deep conversations with those people if we'd had the number of kids we were expecting we had the pleasure of having Joe a cow farmer from Oklahoma on our team who was humorous and kind toward the end of the trip we helped clean out David and Ali's garage it was really fun getting to help watch their kids for them during the week I think that God used this trip in two ways for me for one God works in mysterious ways and two the trip helped expose me to missions thank you I when we were asked to go and then ultimately to lead the team I was not really like okay it took me a while it took the Lord you know just to prod and just opened my heart to that and we got on that plane Heather and I pretty tired just from a busy summer busy Ministry season and we saw God show up in amazing ways not just for us but for all of us first of all I want to ReSound thank you so much for allowing us to go and sending us as an extension of FBC Camdenton yeah we're just hitting high points there was

So much besides that we could share but as a father as the dad of Valley and David it was kind of a unique experience to be on a mission strip serving our kids and their Ministry but also being a representative of FBC it was just really cool I want to hit some highlights we did devotion team devotions sometimes in the morning sometimes in the evening when we got back but one of the topics that Diana LED was on spiritual warfare which was very fitting we looked at Ephesians 6 and some Psalms and we looked at the pieces of armor and we just were really just trying to prepare our hearts and make sure that we before we stepped out that we were properly equipped with what God has given us and even leading up to the trip spiritual warfare was all over the place on our way like as we were in the airport at our layover in Phoenix we learned that the rooms that are that Ali prepared for us to sleep in she had everything all set up with air mattresses had to be totally changed at the last minute we were there simultaneously with another church planning team who was working with a church planner and they're they're planning a church in Boise and their team had teenagers and because of child protection obviously we want children to be safe they had a lot of young women on that team so we had to do men and women separated and so the ladies had the children's Wing the men education Wing or whatever so we learned to be flexible very quickly at the last minute the week before we were in Idaho David was he knew about he found out about this a few weeks before that but he was asked to be the camp director for their Association and so he led Youth Camp

Two hour I think it was two hours away North further north and he got back on Friday before we got there and he was sick with the flu at the same time this was all going down there was some trauma family trauma with their family with his family there in Idaho and he was he had to step up late at night to deal with a situation and Ali even before we got there had the Lion's Share of the work the logistics of making things happen she has two small children and we just saw how God infused her with strength you know helped David to recover and to have the exact measure of strength he needed for each day some other highlights beyond the spiritual warfare Nampa Idaho where they're planting this church was an interesting little town the old part of town is very small but the surrounding area is booming and by booming I mean everywhere you look there's a new Housing Development and the park where we positioned ourselves to do the ministry of VBS everywhere you look around the park 360 degrees was housing we learned that every day there's 36 people moving to that Community from the West Coast we observed as we were traveling around that the retail space there's nothing empty everything is just expanding in significant proportion but the other thing we noticed there was very few churches we also heard from one of the pastors of the host church that or even from David we heard this that if everyone chose to go to church there's not enough capacity

To facilitate the hap that to happen just some really cool things that we saw and then finally the last thing that I want to highlight and with this there's a resounding praise God but a lot of family oh my goodness they were amazing we just saw how God equipped them and shined they were just incredible Tim blessed us every morning with eggs and sausage or eggs and bacon but then just seeing them in the park so ease I was actually a little bit envious because they so easily connected with the young parents the young the parents in that community and had some amazing conversations and when those conversations were happening other team members were stepping up to do other things to just make everything work together Heather she is always magnetized towards children she got to sign the job of the Bible story The Bible lesson in VBS and had her little tent and little kids migrated to her even on the path around the playground they migrated to Heather Diana I'm just going to say that without her this would have never happened her organizational skills and servant heart shined before during and after this trip we had another team member Joe from Tulsa Oklahoma join us and he was he was like having a grandfather on the team he was just a seasoned believer a farmer from my a firefighter slash farmer from Oklahoma and he was just a rich blessing to have on our team he was passionate about Jesus and sharing that with these kids

Takeaways that I took away from this we observe I grew up on a farm in a farming community in New Jersey Southern New Jersey and we observed technology in the farms in that area and one thing that stood out we saw a lot of is drip irrigation there would be trenches around the field with these little Hoops of pipe and it had drip irrigation down the rows of the crops and it's a desert so without water nothing is going to grow in that area and we observed on the spiritual level or side of things exalt is struggling we had ideas I had ideas as a dad and as a team member I was like oh man maybe you guys could try this and we all talked about it and we really desperately want people of Nampa to know Jesus and it was really hard to hear Ellie and David talk about background and talk about how difficult it's been and is but I was so encouraged by the support support base of David and Ally the church Central Valley the pastor of that church Clint discipled David for one year and launched and then launched him this church has a lot this Central Valley has launched over 12 churches in that surrounding area and it's just really cool the ministry there I learned that it's very easy to want to suggest and maybe you see some things that are obvious and like hey maybe we could do this or maybe this would be better if we do that and I've Come Away realizing that we just need to step up and trust God

We need to earnestly pray for David and Ali they are partners with us as FBC we support them they're a part of us they're in Idaho and the end goal is to reach Nampa and to get a Gospel presence there it's a very heavily Mormon influenced area as well we noticed and we saw we observed their hearts are so burdened for these people but we're going to believe God to give them direction for how he wants them to proceed like the drip irrigation analogy or metaphor that I used some plant some water but it's God that gives the increase and that's what we're that he is who our hope is in so thank you so much [Applause] thank you group that was a great report report and we're really encouraged and thankful that you went on behalf of the church to Nampa thank you for doing that for stepping up to the plate okay the Cody has decided to do two weeks of engage Sunday between Esther and first Peter and engage is focused on getting people involved so I asked myself the question let's see if I can get it I asked myself the question why are people not engaged what keeps the average Believer from engaging in evangelism and engaging in discipleship and so rather than just coming up with the answer myself I did a little bit of research and I checked out there we go I checked out the center for Biblical engagement and they did a survey on 40 000 Americans from ages eight to eighty so they have a pretty good sampling that got us all covered there and what they were looking at is they

Were looking at what factor is the most important factor at predicting whether people will be successful against these behaviors which they're calling risk behaviors getting drunk sex outside marriage pornography gambling so what they wanted to do is isolate what one factor is there that makes the biggest impact on these four things so they looked at if I identify myself as a Believer as a Christian as a Believer does that change whether or not I get involved in these things and that one factor alone identifying as a born-again Believer did lower some of those behaviors 37 percent getting drunk 28 pornography that lowered it when you looked at the factor of those who attend church once a month you can see that also lowered it and when I'm saying looking at these factors that's all they did they didn't do any of the other factors they just attended church once a month that lowered it then for people who pray at least once a day interestingly that one to my surprise showed that made little effect if they didn't attend church they just prayed once a day that had little effect on their behaviors in these areas and now we get to the blue section which is what I wanted to focus on at this particular Point those who read or listen to the Bible four days four or more a week had the largest drop in their involvement in these four behaviors that was the biggest significant factor in reducing these four behaviors and another surprising piece of data is the last line there for those who read it three days or less there was no change on any of those behaviors so they called this the power of four

Because something happens with people who are in God's word at least four days a week that doesn't happen with people that are in there three days or less so more related to the engagement this morning they this same study also found that reading your Bible four days a week resulted in a 228 percent higher likelihood that you would be involved in evangelism sharing your faith a 231 percent higher likelihood that you were going to be involved in discipling others reading your Bible four days a week so that's pretty important factor and one of the main reasons why people aren't engaged in evangelism and discipleship is some people just are not in God's word and that results in people not being engaged now I can't make anyone be in God's word but I can make everyone aware that there's a the strongest correlation that you're going to be involved in Outreach and Ministry is are you in God's word four days a week or more I can't explain why it happens but that's what the numbers are saying that's what's happening the second factor that they discovered in their studies is overall 86 percent of all adults that's Believers and unbelievers 86 percent of everyone believe that there's a universal purpose in life so the question then becomes what do what is that Universal purpose and if you look at the numbers 23 basically a one out of four think happiness is our purpose of life well we all know that's not our main purpose in life another one out of five 18 believe that evolving into our full potential is the universal purpose of man and unfortunately number three on the list knowing loving and serving God

Which is the right answer only 18 percent less than one out of five Believers so if we were to pull the audience here today statistics are saying that less than one out of five believers actually believe that knowing loving and serving God is our purpose without that as your purpose engagement in evangelism discipleship in Ministry in general is not going to be a really high priority for us so reason number two is some do not believe that the purpose of life the universal purpose is loving God knowing him and serving him and then lastly and this is the one that I wanted to focus on in Scripture today is this idea that this is a survey of 1643 adults and they're all believers and these are all believers and adults that are not involved in discipleship so they went to them and said why are we not involved in discipleship and the number one answer almost four out of ten said we don't feel equipped or prepared qualified four out of 10 are feeling like they're not qualified and for that reason they're not involved another quarter of them said hey no one suggested it well I want to dispel that one I'm suggesting it this week well no 22 percent said just haven't thought about it once again that one's shot we've now have thought about the fact that the universal well that we do need to be prepared and then had a bad experience with it or other was another 17 combined okay so reason number three some feel unqualified or ill-equipped okay so there's your three reasons number one some aren't reading Scripture more than four times a week number two I have the wrong purpose in life or number three feeling unqualified or

Ill-equipped to this morning I want to go to Paul's if you turn in Acts chapter 22 or you can read up here with me let's all stand for the reading of God's word in honor of his word here as we read through acts 22 just to give you a little context this is Paul recounting his Damascus Road experience and he was blinded by a light he's on the ground there he has to be led by a hand back to Damascus and this is his recounting of the story and one in IAS a devout man according to the law well spoken by all of the Jews who lived there came to me and standing by me said to me brother Saul receive your sight and at that very hour I receive my sight and saw him and he said the God of our fathers appointed you to know his will to see the righteous one and to hear a voice from his mouth four and here's the purpose Clause this is why God appeared to Paul for you will be a witness for him to everyone of what you have seen and heard you may be seated so what's going through Paul's mind at this point he's blinded he sees God tells him that he's been persecuting him what do you think is going through Paul's mind perhaps he was thinking something like well if I only had a little bit more education or if I only had a little bit more experience or if I only had a little bit more energy getting up there in years or a little bit more money then I would get engaged if I only had a little bit more it was at this point when he's in Damascus that ananias asks him the following question and now Paul why do you wait that's a pretty phenomenal question and one that I want to ask ourselves here this morning and now Jim and now

Insert name why do you wait it seems that God is expecting Believers from the moment that they get saved to get engaged that's the expectation that he's given to Paul he doesn't say Okay lay back kick back enjoy yourself and as you get a chance mention me every now and then no that's not what he tells Paul why do you wait get up get baptized and get to work that where that was the instructions that Paul was given and that's God's expectation of Believers when they get saved so since we moved here 15 years ago Lisa and I moved here 15 years ago we're noticing a trend and it's not a very it's a scary trend this is the past 30 years of weekly Church attendance in the United States and there's an overall 15 16 drop in church attendance in the United States and it's not just a United States thing at the Missionary Training Center out there at ethnos we've seen our numbers go from more than a hundred per semester to less than 30 per semester coming in with a new class what's happening another LifeWay research has shown in this the latest date I could find was 2019 but in 2019 more churches are closing than opening 4 500 Church closures 3 000 openings churches are not gaining in the church planting Department we're losing that little battle and for the churches that are remaining open they're struggling to get volunteers Awana is not being filled VBS having a hard time getting people come alongside this I'm talking about my home church that sent me in Pennsylvania is struggling with this churches all around the country are struggling with this and

That's what I want to deal with one factor and it's this bottom Factor right here we've talked about Scripture reading four times a week or more you get to know God when you're reading his word that results in service having the understood the purpose of that God wants us to get involved finally feeling ill-equipped or unprepared that was the number one reason four out of ten people sitting here according to the survey would feel ill-equipped or unprepared to disciple someone else and that's the part that I want to tackle this morning and I want to encourage every one of you in that let's look at some Scriptures how God has encouraged us to get prepared let's look at Moses what did Moses have in his hand a staff okay if you turn in Exodus to chapter four Exodus chapter 4 starting in verse 1. We're going to take a look at what Moses had in his hand Exodus 4 verses 1 and 2 say this then Moses answered but behold they will not believe me or listen to me my voice he's talking about the Israelites for they will say the Lord did not appear to you the Lord said to him Moses Moses what's that in your hand did God really not know what was in Moses's hand is he I mean he might have had it behind his back you never know did God not no of course he knew so what's the purpose of that question what's in your hand Moses well God wanted Moses to understand that simple Shepherd staff that he held in his hand could be used in Ministry now Shepherd's staff is not a cruise missile it's not a patriot missile battery

It's not in M1 Abram's tank it's a shepherd's staff we're not expecting a lot humanly speaking out of a shepherd's staff but as we continue on he said Moses says a staff and God he God says throw it on the ground so Moses threw it on the ground and it became a serpent and Moses ran from it great choice Moses I think we'd all would do that we'd run from that but the Lord said to Moses put out your hand and catch it by the tail okay God we are we going to draw the line here can do you think Moses was a little bit afraid to do that do you think so he put out his hand and he caught it and it became a staff in his hand that they talking about the Israelites there the Israelites May believe that the Lord the God of their fathers the God of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob has appeared to you so do you think Abraham was a pre-felt prepared when God told him grab that the tail of that snake you think he felt some fear I don't know about you but every time I've seen a documentary or a TV video of someone grabbing a snake they don't go for the tail they go for the business end right behind the neck so telling them to grab the tail telling Moses to grab the tail was forcing him to depend on God do you trust me grab the tail so fear didn't keep him from grabbing it he obeyed and look what God did with that staff he turned the Nile to blood he brought frogs up out of the Nile with that staff to turn dust into gnats with the staff to bring down fire Thunder and hail with the staff

To bring locusts up on the land to divide the Red Sea with the staff to get water from a rock with the staff and then you remember the story where they held it above his hand during the battle and they to get Victory they prevailed in battle when the staff was above above his head that simple Shepherd staff it's not a tank it's not a missile battery cruise missile anything like that simple staff was used Moses started where he was he used what he had he did what he could and then God made it work he made it enough the shepherd staff was enough to do that whole list there started where he was he used what he had and he did what he could and then God made it enough so the question becomes what do you have in your hand do you have something that looks insignificant something that we really wouldn't expect much out of God wants you to think about what he has placed in your hand and what potential that has when you give it to God to use so what do you have in your hand all right let's look at another story turn over to Judges chapter 15 Judges chapter 15. And we're going to look at Samson just to give you a little bit of back history on Samson at this point in Samson light life right before these verses his arms are tied up his hands are in bonds don't know if they're metal chains or shackles or what it is but it took 3 000 Israelites to tie up his arms and bind his hands and take him to turn him over to the Philistines if you're looking for an excuse to be

Afraid I would think having your hands tied and Shackled and turned over to your enemies by your own people would give you a few reasons to balk or to think what can I do here so judges 15 14 and 15 says the following when Samson arrived in Leahy the Philistines came shouting against him in the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him the ropes on his arms became like burnt flax and the bonds broke loose from his hands now what's in his hand right at this moment there's nothing he found a fresh Jawbone of a donkey he reached out his hand and took it and struck down a thousand men once again you don't go into battle normally with a fresh donkey Jawbone it's not and even in his time there was there were swords there were Shields there was armor there were helmets at that at his time he had none of it was he fearing was he feeling prepared probably didn't feel like the most comfortable I'm sure he would have rather had a spear in his hand but he used what he had he started where he was he had nothing he looked around he finds a Jawbone of a donkey he used what he had he did what he could and God made that donkey Jawbone enough so what do you have in your hand what has God placed in your hand let's look at another example turn over to judges 3. We're going to look at shamgar and at this time the Philistines had taken over Israel they gathered up all this metal swords and Spears so there's no swords there's no helmets there's no breastplates nothing left defensive or offensive in terms of weapon so shamgar didn't have much to fight with no sword no spear and Scripture says regarding shamgar

In Judges 3 31 after ehood came shamgar son of anath so he wasn't really from a an important Israelite family God was using someone who had unbelievers in his background he too saved Israel striking down 600 Philistines with an ox goad an AUX code is normally like an eight foot long wooden stick sometimes it was pointed on the end of it sometimes it had a metal head affixed to the end of it and it was used to with oxen to in your in the plowing process so shamgar was likely a farmer and he was he probably didn't have a business degree or a doctorate in Waging War or anything like that he was a just a simple farmer and yet Farmers he had an ox goat in his hand and shamgar had the opportunity to start where he was as a farmer to use what he had the ox code to do what he could attack the Philistines and God blessed that and made that enough an ox goad was enough when it was given over to the Lord let's switch gears now and look at another familiar story that so that's shamgar's Ox go there what is in your hand now we'll go to first Samuel chapter 17 first Samuel chapter 17 starting in verse 38. Familiar story here everyone knows about this story let's read in first Samuel 17 verse starting in 38. Then Saul clothed David in his own tunic he put on a broaden's helmet on his head and dressed him in armor David strapped on his sword over the tunic and tried to walk but he was not accustomed to them I cannot walk in these David said to Saul I'm not accustomed to accustomed to them so David took them off and David took his staff in his hand

Shepherd tool selected five smooth Stones so staff and Stones put them in a pouch of his Shepherd bag staff stones and Shepherd bag and with his sling staff Stone Shepherd bag sling still nothing there that's gonna scare me right with those things that he had in his hand Shepherd stuff he approached a giant there's no mixed martial arts training there was no sparring with Mike Tyson and Muhammad Ali to prepare him he had a Shepherd staff in his hand what has God put in your hand God expects us to be involved and he has put something in our hand next let's move to Second Kings chapter four second Kings chapter four this is the story of the Widow second Kings chapter four begin beginning in verse 1 going through verse seven a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets cried out to Elisha saying your servant my husband is dead and you know that your servant feared the Lord in the cree creditor is coming to take away my two sons to be his slaves so Elisha said to her what shall I do for you tell me what do you have in the house and she said your maidserving has nothing in the house but a jar of oil what did she have in her hand a jar of oil that's what she had nothing more nothing less then she said go or he said go borrow vessels everywhere from all of your neighbors empty vessels do not gather just a few and when you have come in you shall shut the door behind you and your sons and pour it into those vessels and set aside the full ones

So she went in from him and shut the door behind her and her sons who brought the vessel to her and she poured it out and it came to pass when the vessels were full that she said to her son bring me another vessel and he said to her there is not another vessel also at that point all the oils ceased then she came and told the man of God and he said go sell the oil and pay your debt and you and your sons live on the rest single mom one jar of oil we have single moms here in the church are they disqualified from being able to serve the Lord because they don't have a lot what do you have in your cupboards God can take what you have in your cupboards and use it in a mighty way to minister to other people so this lady started where she was she used what she had a jar of oil and she did what she could and God made that jar of oil enough can God use something in your cloth in your storage in your pantry in the ministry the next story is of the boys lunch familiar story in John 6. Boy brought his sack lunch John 6 verse 8. It says one of the disciples Andrew Simon Peter's brother said to him there is a boy here with five barley Loaves and two small fish but what are they for so many aren't we all just like Andrew what are they among so many realistically speaking what can this little lunch do for 5 000 men sitting out there with not to mention all the women and children are also out there we look at the human situation that's

Just a sack lunch but that's sack lunch when given to God he was able to make it enough over and over we see this same pattern the boy started where he was used what he had he did what he could and God made it enough and that's the pattern we're seeing over and over in these we see also this same pattern with Mary only in her case she had spikenard now spikenard or nard is a very expensive ointment so she had something in her hand that was very valuable but she turned it over to the Lord and God used that to teach us of lesson and worship and then we have the Widow the Widow with the two small mites Jesus was sitting in the temple one day and he saw her go over those two small mites two tiny coins is what she had in her hand and she like all the others started where she was she used what she had she did what she could and God made those two coins enough to teach all of us a lesson in giving imagine what God can do with some of the Small Things the insignificant things that we have what kinds of things do we have in our hands that God can use so it might be something tangible it could be like sticks like a staff or an ox code sticks or stocks could be finances those are tangible things that you may have in your hand or it might be something like job experiences and we think of David and Moses those guys were shepherds and shamgar was a farmer so your occupation might be something that you have that you could be used in the ministry it might be some personal relationships or connections that you have with other

People that make it key that God can leverage and use those in the ministry it could be like Daniel he had knowledge and understanding we just went through the Book of Daniel and God what did he have in his hand he had a knowledge and understanding that God could leverage and use with the King to reach people there in Babylon or it might be skills or talents or something else that you have in your hand first Peter 4 we just finished this up first the book of Peter but first Peter 4 10 says this each of you should use whatever you have received to serve others as faithful stewards of God's grace in its various forms there's not a lot of wiggle room to say that doesn't apply to me each of you should use whatever you have received to serve others as faithful stewards of God's grace in its various forms there's nobody that has everything they need for Ministry service and engagement but everybody has something that you can that you can turn over to God and that he can make enough so we go back to that similar or that question that ananias posed to Saul on the road to Damascus if we all have something in our hands that when given to God will be enough then the question becomes and now why do you wait what are we what are we waiting for we have something in our hands that God's ready and able to leverage and use in his ministry and ananias's question is a great question and now why do we wait so head if you want to go through head Heart and Hand head it would be God gives us he gives us something that we have that we can use in the

Ministry I want God wants us to know that it doesn't take something gigantic something small and insignificant can be used by him in an amazing way and God wants us to believe that he can use whatever we have when given to him so the hand is this week I want you to take inventory and figure out what is in your hand it could be something small and insignificant could be something big and expensive it could be a talent a skill a relationship something that you have that if you are willing to let God use he can make that enough okay Spencer would you come up and close us in prayer okay thank you Jim quite a challenge there isn't it and it's kind of interesting you know we're going to be going into Esther and God put this verse in my heart and I had to look it up exactly I didn't know where it was but it's in Acts Esther chapter four and it's if you're familiar with Esther and familiar with Queen Esther and Mordecai if not read the book of Esther before we start going through it but anyway chapter 4 and Mordecai says to Esther Queen Esther and who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this and that'll make more sense if you read Esther or know that story but listening to Jim and I apply that to our lives and goes this way and who knows whether you have not come to Camdenton who knows whether you have not come to First Baptist for such a time as this and what shall we do let's pray father God as we go out this these doors

Remember that's our mission field every day we will be faced with challenges tests and temptations but we know we are here for a reason and you are there with us to help us to support us and to lead us through all things and we just ask Lord that we'll be faithful to you we pray this in Christ's name amen