FBC Daily Devotional – December 7, 2021

Faith Baptist Church

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Well a good Tuesday morning to you. Today we're in Acts chapter 13, and this is the passage that records for us the beginning of missions.

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And you know when Jesus, just before Jesus ascended to heaven, recorded for us in each of the

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Gospels, but particularly in Matthew 28, you have what we call the Great Commission. He told the disciples to go into all the world and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the

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Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that he has commanded, and so forth. All right now so far in the book of Acts that going into all the world has been prompted by persecution.

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So persecution arises, the you know followers of Jesus they scatter, and wherever they go they take the gospel.

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But now the the movement of missions is more divinely directed.

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Now surely the Lord is sovereignly behind the persecution and all the rest of that. But here the Holy Spirit gets directly involved and sends forth the first couple of missionaries.

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A couple of things I want to bring out in that sending forth of these first missionaries.

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One of them is that it's the Lord who in his sovereign authority and for his sovereign purposes he sets apart certain individuals for ministry in unique ways.

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Now the Holy Spirit came and said set apart Barnabas and Saul, we read this in verse 2, for the work to which

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I have called them. Now there were others there and they were just as they were equally as much in leadership in that church in in Antioch.

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And yet the Holy Spirit specified two individuals Barnabas and Saul and they were the ones chosen to go do this particular work.

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Now that why did he choose them? There's no indication whatsoever that it was on the basis of any merit on their part.

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I'm sure that the other individuals in that assembly who were gathered there and they were they were fasting and they were praying they were godly individuals.

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They were just as worthy of being called to this task as were

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Barnabas and Saul. But that's not what God's purpose was for those individuals.

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It was God's purpose for Barnabas and Saul. So this is the act of the sovereign

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God in his authority choosing whom he will for these particular tasks.

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And the other thing I want you to notice about this is that that calling to this task was a long time in coming.

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And here's what I mean by that. Remember in the conversion of Saul, it's recorded in Acts chapter 9, the

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Lord made it clear that Saul, who had been persecuting believers, was going to testify of Christ before the nations, before Gentiles, before rulers and so forth.

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But yet that was a while ago. That was quite a while ago. I mean, I'm not talking just a couple weeks ago.

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That was quite a long time ago. From the time that conversion of Saul until now this calling and sending him forth to do this task of missions.

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So what I take from that is we have to be patient with what we are convinced

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God would have us to do. I remember in college, you know, sophomore year of college, you know, and how old was

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I? 19 years old. And, you know, you get kind of you're planning to go into ministry.

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I sensed that calling and I was with a bunch of men and guys that also felt called to the ministry.

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And we're just we're chomping at the bit to get to get on with the work, to get to the work.

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Yeah, you know, there's still three years of school, of undergraduate work, and then if you're gonna go on to get to seminary and graduate work, you've got more beyond that.

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And I remember a lot of guys feeling really impatient, feeling like, you know, there's too much to do.

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There's too many in the world who are perishing and, you know, we've just got to get out and get to the work. We, you know, we shouldn't be wasting our time, you know, going to these classes and learning about all these things that really, you know, don't matter in the long run.

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And this is the attitude of many. And I remember also, on more than one occasion, one professor or teacher after another saying, men, this is where God has you now.

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This is the stage of preparation. When God wants you out in the work, he will lead you out in the work, but now you give yourselves to this.

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That was wise advice. Because, yes, God can lay a ministry on a person's heart, lay a calling, if you will, on a man's heart.

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But that doesn't mean he's to drop everything and leave and go do that right away.

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There can be a time, and often, most of the time, I would say, there is a time of preparation before that commencement of the work to which he's called.

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So this is the case with Saul. The other thing I would have us to notice here is that verse 2 tells us that the

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Holy Spirit said to them, said to them, separate me

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Barnabas and Paul. And I wondered, how did he do that? How did the

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Holy Spirit communicate that message? We don't really know, do we?

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Was it an audible voice, you know, as they were all gathered together? It says they ministered to the

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Lord and fasted. They were worshiping the Lord. They were fasting, these group of men together. And then the

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Holy Spirit spoke this and said this. Was it an audible voice they heard? Did he speak through one of the individuals as, you know, like in Acts chapter 2, the

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Holy Spirit descended upon the believers and the apostles and on the day of Pentecost and then he spoke through them and they spoke in languages that they didn't know.

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How did the Holy Spirit do this? We don't really know for sure. All we know is that it was the message of the

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Holy Spirit. So we haven't written down for us in infallible scripture this this record of that divine call.

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The Holy Spirit doesn't always call in these remarkable ways today.

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I think most of the men I know, for example in the ministry, missionaries, pastors and so forth, they would not testify to hearing an audible voice saying, you need to go into the ministry.

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It is instead a series of impressions and even using the word to speak to the heart and draw attention to passages and so forth that lead them to this compulsion, this inescapable compulsion that I must do this work.

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Well, however, the Holy Spirit did it, the message got across, the point got across and right away upon getting that message the church obeyed and they sent forth

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Barnabas and Saul who would later become Paul to this important important work.

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What a wonderful ministry the Holy Spirit to to sovereignly work in the hearts and lives of individuals whom

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God would have do certain things for his purposes in his glory. Let's thank the

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Lord for how he works. We are grateful Father for the way you work often behind the scenes in ways that are not audible and visible, but yet nevertheless unmistakable.

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Thank you for your sovereign grace. Thank you for your sovereign work and I pray that we would be attentive and obedient to that leading of your gracious spirit.

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We pray in Jesus name. Amen. All right. Well, have a wonderful Tuesday, and I trust