Rockwell North Carolina (NC)

Houston Texas (TX)

Tampa Florida (FL)

Providing support to our 8 Pastoral Partners who oversee children's homes, schools and support local pastors and missionaries as well as provide food and shelter for for over 105 children in 3 countries.

Gospel singer

Need: Bi-Vocational, Self-Supported, or Missionary Pastor

Need: Bi-Vocational, Self-Supported, or Missionary Pastor

Seeking a bi-vocational pastor

Circulated by Victory Baptist Press, Milton, FL 32572-0766

Chapter 5 – 30 Minutes

Sunday School - Missionary Ethan Azwar - 2/18/24.

Temple Baptist Church - 3-17-20242 Timothy 4:7? Introduction:? A.? March 22nd? will mark 37 years? that Barbara and I have been at Temple Baptist Church.? ? 1.? That is almost half of my lifetime!? ? Our children grew up here!? Laurens is our home!? Every day is a special day for this pastor when I walk through those doors and see our church family.? I often stop by the church while out visiting and many times just sit on the back pew where I can see the whole church or sit on the platform and look over the church.? I love to come here and sit and pray.? 2.? There has never been the slightest doubt? that this is where the Lord has placed me and never a time when I considered leaving or looking for another pastorate.? I am satisfied with God's amazing grace and providence that brought my family here so long ago.? I can still say that I love you better than Butter Pecan Ice Cream!? B.? We laughed and we cried!? Two special men went home to be with the Lord last year, Bro. Harold and Bro. Carroll!? What a loss for our church but what a gain for our heavenly home.? We will see them again soon.? C.? This last year, Barbara and I stood with you, and you have stayed with us.? ? I could ask for no more!? There have been good times and bad times.? There has been sickness and there has been health.? There have been fat times and there have been lean times.? There has been spring, summer, fall, and winter with times of growth and times of pruning.? Temple Baptist Church, you have proven yourself true and have positively affected this county and the world for Christ.? D.? Temple started right physically!? ? 1.? We started small but right!? Our faith was in the Lord and our foundation was in God's Word.? We were happy!? My family moved into the little house by the church, and it was home.? ? 2.? Today, we will eat? in a beautiful Fellowship Hall.? Then, we fellowshipped in the “hall!”? We were happy because we were in the perfect will of God, and we could lay our heads on our pillows at night knowing that what we were doing and had done was scriptural.? ? God blessed.? We began to take on missionary families and made this church a safe haven for them.? We have always taken good care of these special people and God has blessed us for it.? I have not tallied the numbers, but my estimate would be that we have put 3 million dollars or more on the mission field.? ? 3.? We chose to stay? in our building and remodel it as needed instead of building a larger one and allowing our debt to dictate our missions giving.? I am not knocking churches that build when they need to build but the bible says to be content with such things as you have.? In God's time, we paved our parking lot.? Remember the days when we had to push cars out of the red mud when we outgrew our graveled lot?? Those were special days.? ? 4.? When it was time,? God gave us a Fellowship Hall with SS classrooms.? When it was time, God gave us one of the most beautiful Prophet's Chambers that missionaries and evangelists have ever stayed in.? Now we also have a beautiful, cozy, feel right at home Mission House for God's special people.? E.? We started doctrinally right!? 1.? We taught our Sunday School? from the King James Bible; we filled our pulpit with the King James Bible; our people treated this property with respect; our people treated the pulpit with respect; our people have treated this pastor with respect.? We got rid of the Church Constitution and voted in the King James Bible as our authority for faith and practice.? 2.? We maintained the Old Paths? of doctrinal purity and separation.? We believed the Word of God and honored its doctrines.? We culled out the preachers and missionaries who compromised the bible and held the ones that we supported to the same standard that the church had.? We have never been “in your face” with who we are but we also have never apologized or capitulated.? ? "The New Testament Church did not depend on a moral majority, but rather on the holy minority. The Church right now has more fashion than passion, is more pathetic than prophetic, is more superficial than supernatural. The Church the Apostles ministered in was a suffering Church; today we have a sufficient Church. Events in the Spirit-controlled Church were amazing; in this day the Church is often just amusing. The New Testament Church was identified with persecutions; today many of us are identified with prosperity, popularity, and personalities.""Why Revival Tarries", Leonard Ravenhill? F.? I have preached from this verse? over the years but want to make a spiritual application on Homecoming Day, 2024.? Paul is ending his race and is summing it up in three aspects: he fought a good fight, he finished his course, and he kept the faith.? That is all God expected from this great man of God and that is all that God expects from Temple Baptist Church!? 1. We must Fight!? ? The Fight is not over!? We have had to fight from the very beginning and have continued to fight through these years.? Their faces have changed but the fight is the same.? As a church, we have weapons:? ? a.? ? The weapon of unity.? We must fight together.? When the enemies of God's Word begin their work of division, we must band together.? We are a “Band of Brothers and Sisters” here.? Too many churches have failed because people will not “answer the bell” for each round.? Most people do not like to fight and, unfortunately, most heretics or religious devils love to fight.? b.? ? The weapon of prayer.? The Lord is on our side because He loves the church more than we love it.? The church is His and we need to saturate our problems in prayer.? Pray and fight.? ? c.? ? The weapon of righteousness.? ? Our cause is just!? We war to keep our church right with the Lord.? We war to keep our church a nest in which to raise our young.? We war to keep our church's mission's outreach vibrant.? ? 2.? We must Finish!? We started right but it is possible to finish wrong or not to finish at all.? The bible does not say to finish “big” or to finish “popular.”? We are to finish our race with our spiritual integrity intact!? Today's mentality is “bigger” means that God is blessing, but many churches are “bigger” because they have allowed their churches to be worldly places for worldly people.? Starting right is great but finishing right is even greater.? 3.? We must keep the Faith!? We do so by maintaining or contending for:? ? a.? The Word of God.? ? The unending battle for Truth will continue as liberal theologians constantly undermine the foundation of our faith.? If the foundations can be destroyed, then what can the righteous do?? b.? The Old Paths.? The old ways are now being forsaken and mocked as liberal churches contend for our young people with the straw man of bridging the generation gap.? I find no place in the bible for a generation gap as the youth are to walk in the paths of their fathers!? ? c.? Separation from the world.? Church needs to be treated like church.? I, as a pastor, never come to this pulpit without a coat and tie on.? Do I wear a coat and tie all week?? I am a denim shirt and blue jeans man!? I believe it is right for the pastor to follow the old ways instead of the open shirt, casual dress of many.? When the church becomes casual, the worship will become casual!? The respect for God's house will be gone and it just becomes another building.? Conclusion:? Temple, we started right—we have remained right—let us finish the task that God has given us right!

Four Keys for Raising Up a New Generation of MissionariesDr. Paul ChappellFri, 11/10/2023 - 16:24 One of the highlights to me of World Impact Missions Conference at Lancaster Baptist Church is seeing missionaries who grew up at Lancaster Baptist and/or graduated from West Coast Baptist College and and are now serving the Lord on mission fields around the world. (The picture above is of WCBC alumni who were here for Missions Conference '23 earlier this week and are now planting churches around the world.)? The Lord has allowed us to see many young people from our own church family—kids who grew up right here in our Sunday school classes and, in many cases, whose parents trusted Christ through the outreach ministry of our church—who are now preaching the gospel in foreign countries. Additionally, there are hundreds of WCBC alumni serving the Lord on over forty foreign fields.? One of the trends that concerns me, however, is a decline of young people across America surrendering their lives to missions. The world population is growing, but fewer American young people seem burdened to reach the world with the gospel.? Certainly God is still calling young people to surrender their lives to preach the gospel. Why then does it seem that fewer are responding?There are certainly many contributing factors we could cite to answer that question. But I believe there are four simple areas of emphasis that could change the trend. And when these four are working together, they can bring a monumental shift.? What is needed to raise up a new generation of missionaries?? 1. Parents who believe it would be a privilege if God calls their childChildren are the gift of God and entrusted by God to parents to raise for God's honor and glory.Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate. (Psalm 127:3–5)Yet, too often Christian parents raise their children with goals of personal satisfaction. These parents are measuring by the world's goals of financial security and career success.? It's good for young people to grow up knowing that their parents' greatest goal for their lives is that they would serve God in whatever way He calls them—including the foreign field.? 2. Churches that emphasize missionsIn Acts 13–14, we read of the first organized program for missions in the New Testament. It began as the church at Antioch sent out Paul and Barnabas on their first missionary journey. After preaching the gospel through many cities and establishing churches, Paul and Barnabas returned to report on all that God had done.? And when they were come, and had gathered the church together, they rehearsed all that God had done with them, and how he had opened the door of faith unto the Gentiles. (Acts 14:27)Can you picture what it was like for the children and young people listening to this first missionary report? They heard about the hardships and the blessings, and I can imagine the sense of wonder and even adventure that Paul's stories stirred in their hearts. No doubt some of them eventually became missionaries themselves.? One of the great strengths of the independent Baptist model of missions, based on Acts 13–14, in which a church sends out missionaries who then come back and report of all God has done on the field, is that young people are exposed to missionaries on a regular basis.? To raise up a new generation of missionaries, churches need to keep the Great Commission of Christ—“Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15)—before young people. Encourage children to pray for missionaries. Host regular missions conferences. And highlight the need for laborers in spiritually-dark places around the world.? 3. Christian schools with vibrant chapel services, emphasizing a life of surrender to JesusIn Acts 13, it was the Holy Spirit who called Paul and Barnabas to the work of missions.? As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them. (Acts 13:2)But this calling happened in an environment of total dedication to Christ and service for the Lord. These were people who were already ministering to the Lord and fasting.? Effective Christian schools are not just a place to keep your children from the harmful influences of secular education and cultural brainwashing. They are places that proactively encourage a life of surrender to the Lord and are filled with teachers who model the joy of serving Christ.4. Bible colleges led by soulwinning pastors and instructors who teach missions and bring missionaries to campusIt was striking to hear how many of our West Coast Baptist College alumni who came as missionaries to this year's conference mentioned that they had sensed God's call to missions during their time at WCBC. Several even mentioned that it was during one of the Lancaster Baptist Church missions conferences.? Many young people who have surrendered to serve the Lord in full time ministry do not know right after high school in what capacity God would have them serve. Whether or not they ultimately serve as missionaries, being in a Bible college environment where missions is emphasized will strengthen their understanding of and commitment to being part of the Great Commission of Christ to go into all nations with the gospel.? Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen. (Matthew 28:19–20)About a year and a half ago, while hosting Spiritual Leadership Conference Egypt, I had the opportunity to visit the gravesite of William Borden in Cairo. Borden was a young American missionary living in Egypt to learn Arabic while preparing to preach the gospel to Muslim people in China. While still in Egypt, he contracted meningitis and died at age twenty-five.? As Terrie and I walked through the American cemetery there in Cairo, I was stirred to see the gravesites of other missionaries as well, many who, like Borden, gave their lives for the sake of the gospel on foreign soil. I couldn't help but pray that God will raise up a new generation of men and women who will fully and freely surrender their lives to the spread of the gospel around the world.Whether you are a parent, pastor, Sunday school teacher, Christian educator, or someone with any other influence in young people's lives, I challenge you consider how you can be part of helping young people obey the instruction of Christ to “Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest” (John 4:35). Category Christian Living

I Thessalonians 4: 9-10INTRODUCTION:One of the characteristics of a church that is to separate it from any other organization on earth is the love that her members are to have for one another. The love her members are to have for one another is to come from the shared relationship we have with Jesus Christ. We may be different in many ways but in one thing we are to be the same. We are all to have a love relationship with Jesus Christ. If we have a growing and loving relationship with Jesus, that relationship will cause us to love other believers. I John 4: 21 says, "And this is the commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also." John also goes on to state that if a person says he loves God but hates his brother, he is a liar. If we love God, we will love what God loves, and Jesus loved His church and gave His life for it. Jesus also stated that the world would know that we are of Him if we love one another. The world knows that believers, church members, are to act toward one another differently than the world treats one another. The world may treat one another harshly and with a total disrespect for one another, but those same people will look to see if church members love one another. A lost world wants to see if we are real before they will listen to what we have to say. Paul's admonition to this church was for them to love one another. WHAT BROTHERLY LOVE PRODUCES IN A CHURCHBrotherly love produces fellowship and unity within a church. Unity and fellowship within the church body is important to God. When Jesus prayed in John 17, His request to the Father was that we be one even as He and the Father are one. Jesus' desire is that there be unity in the church. A unity of mind, heart and purpose. Unity for the Corinthian church was so important to Paul that he wrote in I Corinthians 1: 10, "I plead with you brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment." Even the Psalmist wrote in Psalm 133: 1, "Behold, how good and pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!" Unity can only be achieved if we have a fellowship that is characterized by brotherly love. To achieve that kind of brotherly love, we must esteem others better than self. The biggest obstacle to unity in the church is the pride and ego of its members. Pride and ego will seek to have its way even if it has to hurt another or disrupt the unity of the church. That pride and ego can be seen in III John in Diotrophes. He loved to have the pre-eminence (he loved to be noticed and have his way) and used malicious words and even the threat of excluding others to get his way. Such sinful behavior will never be seen when we esteem others better than self. Unity will be seen when we esteem others better than self. Unity is also seen when we have a Godly brotherly love that will forgive. From time to time, even Godly people will disagree and maybe even hurt one another's feelings. Paul and Barnabas, two Godly men, disagreed over whether to take John mark with them on their second missionary journey. That disagreement was so intense that it eventually split the team. Paul took Silas and went one direction and Barnabas took mark and went in another. Such disagreements don't have to leave us with life long bitterness and animosity toward one another. Brothers in Christ can forgive one another. Paul forgave Mark and eventually sent for him to work with him. We must learn how to forgive for Jesus' sake. It is in forgiving one another that we reveal that we belong to Christ. The love that forgives will unify a church. Brotherly love will also make us sympathetic toward others in need. That kind of sympathy will enable us to do as Paul says in Romans 12: 15, "weep with those ho weep." Brotherly love will also give us the motivation to help those in need. Brotherly love will help us to not just love in word but in deed. Brotherly love will help us to encourage those who are hurting. And, there are people all around us who are hurting. Brotherly love can also cause us to give to those in need. "But whoever has this world's goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him?" Brotherly love does not make us hard hearted. BROTHERLY LOVE IS ALSO A TRAIT THAT SHOULD BE GROWING AMONG BELIEVERS V. 10Brotherly love should grow in a believer's life simply by its nature. You don't have to teach someone to do what comes naturally. Fish don't take swimming lessons. Birds don't go to flight school. Lost people don't have to take sin lessons. These things come naturally. Believers should not have to take love lessons. Loving another believer should come naturally. Because Jesus lives inside us, it should be our nature to love one another. The deeper our relationship with Christ grows, the more we should be able to love others. Loving believers will come naturally to that one who is growing in Christ. Brotherly love also grows as God puts us in positions to where that love must be modeled. God will often put unlovable people in our path just to teach us how to love. God will also allow us to be offended in order to teach us how to forgive and how to love. What others would call difficulties are really opportunities for us to exhibit the love of God. CONCLUSION:God wants his people to demonstrate the characteristics that make God God. That characteristic is love. If we can't love others, we can not truthfully say that we love God. Love is not just a feeling. It is an act of the will. Make the decision. I am going to love others-- even the unlovable.