The Church Planting Church

By Alex Montoya on January 12, 2025

Acts 13:1-4

AUDIO

The Church Planting Church

By Alex Montoya on January 12, 2025

Acts 13:1-4

Well, Dearly Beloved, what a special joy it is for me to be here tonight to share on this very, very special occasion. My brother Bruce asked me to come and be a part of this great event. I love my brother so much, and I am indebted to him for so many times that we spent time together just exhorting each other and being good friends. We just thank God for the ministry of the of the Blakey across time, and for you, with Pastor Bobby and the staff and all of you embarking on this very, very special, special, special time of planting a church. You need to know that this is a remarkable event. Very, very few churches ever do this. They can spend all their whole lifetimes of ministry, hundred years sometimes, and never, never plant a church. So, what you're doing is remarkable. You need to be commended, from Pastor Bobby to all of you, commended for this wonderful step you're taking of starting a church in the city of Long Beach. We need churches in Southern California. California, as a whole, is a state in need of churches. Southern California in particular. We need churches everywhere. We have churches that are closing their doors by the thousands all across America, and so we are in desperate need for all of us to be involved in planting churches. So, I commend you for this great step that you taking in starting a church in a very needy city, the city of Long Beach. So, we want to thank God and thank you for allowing me to come and be a part of this event. I believe church planting, you know, I just love it. I'd love to see souls get saved. I love to see things get burned and to see churches planted. So, I'm excited tonight, not just to be here to preach, but excited to see what you're doing over the next few weeks and months and years, as the Lord allows you to get this thing established.
I'd like to bring a special challenge to you from the Word of God. You'll open your Bibles to the book of Acts. Chapter 13. There is a church in the book of Acts that resembles Compass Bible Church here in Huntington Beach. It is the church called Antioch. There are two outstanding churches in the book of Acts that stand out, the church in Jerusalem, which is the mother church, and then thirteen or eleven chapters later, was introduced to another church by the name of Antioch. And Antioch and Compass Bible Church have a lot in common. A lot in common. So, when I was asked to come and bring the challenge, I thought this would be a great text for us tonight, for you and I together to look at the church at Antioch and know that it's a model church for us. It's a model Church of what a church is supposed to be, and it also a model church when it comes to planting churches. It is the ideal model of a church, of a church that has planted other churches in the book of Acts we’re introduced to in chapter 13, verse 1.
Now there were in the church at Antioch prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen a lifelong friend of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off. So, being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia, and from there they sailed to Cyprus.
We're introduced to a powerful church and introduced to this great church, the church at Antioch. It is a unique church in many, many ways, a unique, unique ministry. And we need to stop for a few moments and examine this church and its uniqueness. It goes down as one of the church that has a number of firsts for them. They were the first to do a number of things.
Go to Acts 11 with me. In chapter 11, we’re introduced earlier to the church as it was formed and established. And in Acts 11:19, we’re introduced to the church in its birth. “Now those who were scattered because of the persecution that arose over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the word to no one except Jews. But there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who on coming to Antioch spoke to the Hellenists also, preaching the Lord Jesus. And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number who believed turned to the Lord. The report of this came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. When he came and saw the grace of God, he was glad, and he exhorted them all to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose, for he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And a great many people were added to the Lord. So Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. For a whole year they met with the church and taught a great many people. And in Antioch the disciples were first called Christians. Now in these days prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch. And one of them named Agabus stood up and foretold by the Spirit that there would be a great famine over all the world (this took place in the days of Claudius). So the disciples determined, every one according to his ability, to send relief to the brothers living in Judea. And they did so, sending it to the elders by the hand of Barnabas and Saul.”
Now, as you read this paragraph, you stand back and you're astonished by this church, by the church at Antioch. It is unique in so many ways. Let me just identify seven of these unique characteristics of the church at Antioch. First of all, it was a Church founded by laymen. And laymen were the ones responsible for the planting of this church. In Acts 8, it says that after Stephen was put to death, that the church was persecuted and they were scattered. They were always scattered, except the apostles. The apostles stayed in Jerusalem, where the lay people were scattered and left because of the persecution. And some of them came down, as we read earlier, came down to this region and came down to Antioch.
And this church was not established by apostles or by learned disciples. These were just lay people. You need to know that, across the globe and around the world, the majority of church planting is done by non-seminary trained people all over the globe, of the thousands and hundreds of thousands of churches plant that are planted around the globe, but the majority of them are done by non-seminary trained people. That is just people, just getting out and loving God and reaching their neighbors and going to another city and preaching Christ and letting people come to Christ and forming assemblies. And so, we understand that this is a unique thing that's done, that's being done here in the book of Acts. Now, we are pleased because we have heavy duties here that are going out to plant the church in Long Beach. These are like trained individuals learned we have tonight, Barnabas and Saul that'll be commissioned in a few moments to God and go to the city of Long Beach. Notice also that this is the first Gentile church up to now. The church has been primarily Jewish. Jewish converts in Jerusalem and Judea, they were the first to be reached for Christ. And so, the church was primarily Jewish. When you come to this chapter, it follows the 10th chapter of the book of Acts, where Peter leads Cornelius, a Gentile, to Christ. And there, all of a sudden, the curtain is open, drawn back, and we find then the gospel of Jesus Christ going to non-Jews, and that God's plan was Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria, and the remotest parts of the earth, which included the Gentile world. And so, this church is primarily the Gentile community.
Notice also, it is one of the first churches to receive discipleship. We read the text when Jerusalem got God, when the miracles taking place there in Antioch, they sent Barnabas to check it out and to more than check it out, to be there as an assistant to help them be discipled and to grow. And Barnabas was so excited, he went to find his friend that he had met earlier, a great persecutor of God's people, converted by the Lord Jesus Christ, made a disciple, was shipped off to Tarsus to avoid being put to death. And he went over to find him. He said, you know, you need to come and help me. And here these two men, learned men, who knew the Word and knew the gospel, spent a whole year with these new disciples, Gentile believers, strengthening them and helping them grow in the things of God. See, a church plant needs involvement. We need an interaction with others. Fifty years ago, when I came to First Fundamental Bible Church, there in East LA, we had a great conversion of people who came to Christ. Hunters came to Christ, and I was not equipped. And the Navigator ministry, who were key on discipleship, offered to come and help us. And for three years, every summer, they sent a team of twenty to thirty people to come and disciple our young people. And they were just a great boon to us. They were there to strengthen us and help us.
And that leads me to say that you may not be of the one hundred and thirty that go to Long Beach, but it's possible that you will commit yourself for a month or six months, or even a year, just to go and help disciple people that are there, to go door knocking and win people to Christ, and meet with new Christians, and help disciple them and grow in the things of Christ. This will still be your home church, but you'll be like Barnabas and Saul. You'll be there to help and assist. And that is something I would like to challenge you with, that you might want to be committed like Barnabas and Saul did, to become involved in discipleship.
You notice also that the disciples were first called Christians in what city? Talk to me. In Antioch. There are only three references to the word Christian in the Bible, two in the book of Acts, and one in 1 Peter. And so, these disciples earned the special privilege to be called Christians. Those individuals devoted to a man called Christ, who loved him and imitated him. They were like Christ, and so they were called Christians, because a Christian is a person that loves the Lord Jesus Christ and is devoted to Christ, and he resembles Christ. We look at him, and we look at them, we say, you know what? You remind me of Jesus Christ. You look like Christ, and so you're a Christian. And so, they were first called Christians in Antioch. These were also another first.
They were also the first to share with the Jewish church. The Prophets came down and said, you know, there's going to be a great famine in all the land of Palestine, it’s not going to rain, etcetera, and the church in Jerusalem is going to go through some really hard times. And they proposed in Antioch, to take an offering, and send this offering. Now these are Gentiles sending an offering to Jewish people. The Jewish people were responsible for them coming to Christ, and they reciprocated, and they wanted to invest and share also a thanksgiving offering, share with them that they might also be relieved. In regards to that, listen, friends, when it comes to church planting, we're simply paying it forward. We're paying it forward. The reason why we are in Long Beach, and we're paying it forward, is because somebody invested in Huntington Beach. Yes or no? Somebody put it in for us. Yes or no? And so, we need to put it in for them as well. We are simply paying it forward. And these folks at Antioch imagine that they're doing what Paul mentioned in Romans 15, where those that receive the Word have an obligation to share with those that share with them.
And so, they were the first church that practiced this issue of paying it forward. Now, if you read carefully, also, this was a church that was the first to provoke a Church Council. These are Gentiles, and they were not being circumcised. They were eating like, pork ribs. You know what I'm saying? They were like having shrimp. You know, fried shrimp, you know, they were like, Gideon. They were going at it. You know what I'm saying? And they were like, what's going on here? And these Jews were having a fetch. You know you can't be doing that. You’ve got to be circumcised, you know, and you can't be having hot dogs, you know. They’ve got to be kosher and, etcetera. And so, they had a huge Council, provoked by this church, because they belonged. There's no such thing as an independent church all by itself, uncommitted, unrelated, uninvolved with other churches; that just doesn't exist, that doesn't exist. Were all interdependent, interrelated. We need each other. And they displayed that because they were Gentile, they were not going to stay out of it. No, they were part of the fellowship. They were part of the Apostolic Church. And they reveal this by going to the council and sharing their needs and sharing their testimony. And all of a sudden, we realize that, yes, the Church of Jesus Christ is composed of Jews and Gentiles, and you don't need to change your culture to become a Christian, to change your heart. God transforms your life, but it doesn't necessarily change your culture. You don't need to become a Jew to become a Christian. And so, we see that in this great church that provoked this.
And then the seventh uniqueness is that this is the first official missionary-sending church in the Bible. This is the first official missionary-sending church in the Bible. It becomes a model, a model of a church that is involved in planting other churches. That's why I chose this as our example for tonight. It is our model, how a church can be involved in planting other churches. So go now to Acts 13. The little paragraph there introduces them, the official missionaries sent out. See, prior to that, Antioch was started by lay people, just scattered. These are folks that just went out every place and started churches, but Antioch was going to make something official, and God was going to use this a church to make an official missionary program.
And so, they were the first of these churches to become an official church-planting ministry. And again, to remind ourselves that most of these churches that are planted fail. We mention of over ninety percent of all church planting endeavors fail. They fail. They fail, obviously because of the difficulty in planting churches. They fail obviously because most of these are known by non-seminary trained people. We're saying, sending neophytes, people that are just not trained in it. And so high percentage of people that fail. And most of all, and most understand that church planting is the most difficult of all the ministries. Church planting is the most difficult thing to do, to invade a territory that is controlled by Satan and then to retake that territory and plant a family of God, a church of God in that terrain, is an ominous, ominous effort. And so, we are doing frontline ministry. And so, we need them. We need a little bit of insight and how to do it. We need at least some insight, and Antioch is here to help us in regards to that. We can have, then, a model, that we can utilize, so that all of us can understand that we are part of this, and we are going to then be involved in in the planting of a church. We want this church to succeed and not to be another statistic. We did it and it failed. We don't want that to be. We want to say we did it and we succeeded. Difficult as it was, we succeeded in planting this particular church.
Now, as you look at this paragraph, just for tonight, just for the sake of tonight, the simplicity of the church planting, church called Antioch, there are three outstanding characteristics that I want you to see here that allow this church to be a successful church-planting ministry. Three outstanding characteristics. Number one, it was a spiritual church. It was a spiritual church. Now, God is condensing in these three verses; the whole life of this church just condenses it. And we need to stop and look at it and realize that the Lord is reminding us here of the three outstanding traits.
Number one, it is a spiritual church. In other words, it is a healthy church. We have a saying, healthy churches plant churches. Say it. And the only reason you are involved in this is because, by nature, you are a healthy church. You've had years and years of training. You've had great leadership here, if great men of God that have come and been a part of the of the response. Responsibility. And so, you, in essence, are a healthy church. And we see it. We see it. For example, here, where Barnabas and Saul spent a whole year discipling these people training, I mean, you, they were trained by the experts in the Gospel. Barnabas, as far as character, he was unsurpassed. Saul, as far as zeal and knowledge, unsurpassed. These twin giants of the faith came and established this great church. They were organized. I mean, the Lord tells us that there were prophets and teachers here in this church. And he names some of them, Barnabas, Simeon, and Lucius, and Manaen, and then and Saul again. They were a great organized leadership. And you notice that they were multicultural. They were Judeans. There were those, they were from Tarsus, up in the northern area. And they were not all Jewish. They were like a multicultural crowd here that formed this leadership of the church at Antioch. And they were ministering to the Lord and fasting. Those two words, ministering the Lord and fasting is really saying that a mouthful. They were ministers in church. There were a church that was involved in all that it takes, to be a great church of the living God. They were committed to exalting God.
The word fasting has to do with prayer, dedication to God, like tonight, we spent time in worship, exalting God. It was in playing games. It was in entertainment. The focus of our union tonight is God, exalting God and praising God. So, that’s what a healthy church does. It can be a mega church and be a sick church. It can be a mega church and be as sick as sick could be, because it's not about God, it's about you. It's about people. And it's never about people, it's always about God. And so, they were doing that. They were also ministering. They were serving God in all the different capacities. Was the Apostle Paul himself that explained to us the purpose of the church in Colossians, chapter 1, in Ephesians, chapter Four. The whole purpose of the church is you and I exist not only to worship God. We exist for the ministry of one another. We are here to serve one another. We are here to help each other grow and become more Christ-like, and that is our job. That is our job, my dear friend. If you come to this church just to sit in that comfortable seat and do nothing to help anybody else, you have missed it entirely. You're out of it. The purpose for your existence as a Christian is to be involved in ministry towards one another, to helping other people grow in the things of God. It's for you and me to use our spiritual gifts and find the purpose for our lives and be involved in ministry and doing things for others. If all you do is come and sit, I can tell you, friend, that you will not sit for long. Eventually, you will leave and not come back, because you will have lost your purpose. That's why you and I are called to be involved in service. And they were ministering to the Lord.
Now, you notice the names are few. There's only five. This is a great church. Obviously, the bulk of the work was not being done by the pastoral staff, by these prophets and teachers. It was the people that were involved in serving one another, in helping each other. They were also obviously involved in witnessing to the lost. The Word of God tells us that considerable numbers were being brought to the Lord. There was an outpouring of the gospel of Jesus Christ. They had a passion for lost people. A passion for lost people. What I love about this church is, you have a passion for the lost. This begins with your pastor, who has a passion for lost people. And then across the board, we're concerned for those that need Christ. And it's the passion, it's the passion for lost people, that allows us then to be concerned about planting other churches in other communities.
And so, this church was, for all practical purposes, a very healthy church. Now follow me. Follow me. You don't need to be a great church. To plant a church, you don't need to be wealthy, to plant a church, you don't even need to be very knowledgeable; to plant a church, you just need to be a healthy church. It is interesting. Isn't in today's culture we are in; we are in a demographic decline. Demographic decline. Fewer and fewer people are getting married, and fewer and fewer people are having children. Interesting. We have couples now that don't want to have kids, not because they don't have the money. They have the money. Not because they don't have the time. They have the time, not because they don't know how to raise children. They can. They can. Some of them are educators. They just have no desire, no desire and no dependence on God, and no delight, and all of that. See, you don't need to be big. You need to want, to need to want it. Can be a church of hundred of hundreds of people and be reproducing yourself every two or three or four or five years.
We planted another church, like a young, young family that has five or six kids, a young couple has five or six kids. Say, wow. What's wrong with you? No? What's wrong with you? We love our children. We prayed for all of them. Yeah, but so many? Yeah. We love them all. We're one big, happy family. I come from a family of six kids. I would have had it no other way, no other way. There was never a dull moment in our home. And we loved you to this day. We love each other. In other words, it's not the size, it's not the money, it's not the know-how. It's the love you have for God and dependence upon God. It is God that builds the church.
Notice, secondly, this church also had a great sensitivity to God's will. They were sensitive to God's will, because you notice, twice, it says in verse 2, while they were ministering to the Lord in fasting, the Holy Spirit said, set apart from me, Barnabas and Saul, for the work to which I have called him. It is Spirit of God that was speaking to this church. Notice also in verse 4, “so being sent out by the church they went down.” Yes or no, yes or no, no. Who sent them out in verse 4? Who sent them out? Talk to me now. No, I know that you were the very sophisticated pastor here. Pastor Bobby, I'm not you. Better talk to me now. Okay, so verse 4 says, who sent them out? Spirit of God. See, they were sensitive to the Spirit of God. They were a church that there was key to obeying the very Word of God and sensing they were sensitive to the Spirit of God.
Every church has a great commission. It's not a great suggestion; it's a great commission. Every pastor has it. All of us. If you're in a pastoral staff, every pastor has it. If you're on a board, every Elder, Deacon, you have it. You're a Christian. We all have it. Our commission that the Lord gave us was to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. You know what that means? If it looks human, evangelize it. That's what it means. If it's a mannequin, try and bring it to Christ, that's what it's talking about. We're under obligation. And this church realized that they were a great commission church. They were sensitive to the Spirit of God, and so they obeyed. They obeyed God's great commission. When he called them, they were ready. They're ready.
I want you to be involved in missions. Yes, yes, Lord, we are ready. We're at your disposal. We're obedient to you. We're sensing you speaking to us, and that's when God calls and this is in the Great Commission. The Great Commission is a preaching of the gospel to the lost, and the establishment of a church, of an indigenous, independent, reproducing church that is evangelism, that is World Missions. You cannot have great commission without church planting. Follow the apostle Paul in his three missionary journeys. It's all about planting churches. It's not about crusades. It's not about just passion literature. It's not just about talking. It's always about, did I plant a church? Was there a church in Corinth? Was there a church in Ephesus? Was there a church in Philippi? Was a church in, and you go on and on the planting of churches. That's the element of success in evangelism. And the Great Commission, it involves then the planting of churches. And notice that they obey because they sent their best set apart from me, Barnabas and Saul to the work that I have called them God was very specific. I want him and I want you to send me the best. Send me the best. Not follow me. People follow me. The reason why we have so many churches fail is that we don't send the best. You know who we send? We send the rejects, like this guy. Now, let's send him to Long Beach. We don't need him. You know, we don't want, well, why don't you send? Well, how about Bruce? Oh, no, Bruce is like our spiritual father. He's like, I mean, he's the pastor's dad. We need him. See, if you send the Dirty Dozen, you follow me, you've seen the film. You send the Dirty Dozen. You know, the chances of you making it, Contra the film, you're not going to make it. God says, I want you to send me the best. Give me the best. And that's what they did. They obeyed and gave him the best. Because some of you could, some of you sitting there. So, you know what? We need these guys here. We need them. Here, go, Friend, friend.
You need to understand that when God speaks, we need to be sensitive to God. And if God is calling Josh and Bruce and God is calling them, Amen or not, you see sensitive to the Spirit of God. Now, always in that regard, you know, we've always had people in seminary. We've had men in seminary that come to our church, and they work for us, etc. And I tell many of the guys, I tell the guys, don't unpack your bags. Don't unpack your bag, because you're not staying here. You're going. Don't get comfortable here. Don't think they're going to be standing first, because you're not. We are planting churches, and you're going to be a church planter, and we're going to send you out eventually. So don't get comfortable. Yeah, I'd love to have you here. I'd love to keep you here, I would, but they need you better out there. We want you to be involved in the heavy-duty ministry of church planting and doing what we cannot do here. And so, you understand, they were willing to send the best and committed to the task. They made it official. They laid their hands on them. To lay hands on someone is an official commissioning in obedience to God, or we are committing ourselves to this task. We're not just doing it because, you know what? No, we are committing ourselves to this task. We're making it part of our purpose, part of our purpose. And they did that. Antioch made the Apostle Paul and Barnabas, and Paul especially, as their main man, and were committed to this man. And so, understand that they were very sensitive to the will of God, and they were a great commission church. And we want to thank God. Thank God for the leadership of this ministry, and for you that are sensing God's will for Compass Bible Church here in Huntington Beach. And to be obedient to that, and therefore willing to sacrifice the best that you have to go out and win the lost to Christ, and we commend you for that.
And so, we've seen that this church has three special qualities, a spiritual church, a sensitive church, and then notice, thirdly, a supportive church. Now, Aegis, they use one word here. Look at verse 3, chapter 13. “When they had fasted and prayed, they laid their hands on them.” They what? Talk to me now. They sent them off. They sent them off. They didn't say they kicked them out. It means they sent them out, fully equipped, fully equipped. They went out fully equipped. They went out with airplane tickets. You know what I'm saying? They went out with vouchers. They went out with a promise of support. They went out. And so, this church was committed to these men as they went out to do the ministry of winning souls to Christ. Now, you notice in this very brief description, they were supported. They were dedicated to their church planters. And I want you to be dedicated to these men and these people that are going out to plant this church.
Number one, they prayed, you need to pray. It is prayer that always accompanies missions. And these disciples prayed. They prayed for them with fasting. They really entrusted God to be with them. What do you pray for when you pray for. Right? Missionaries. When you pray for church planters, well, you pray for open doors. You pray for open doors. That is for opportunities to share Christ, when you go door, door to door, when you're given an invitation, it comes some place, you pray for an open door, for God, then is going to take us to people that need Christ, and they're going to preach Christ to them. You need to pray for boldness. The apostle Paul is as fired up as a preacher he was. When he wrote to the churches, he said, and pray for me that I may preach with boldness. And you know, Paul was like you and like me. He was also afraid. I came to you with fear and trembling, he said to the people. And so, they need boldness. It's easy to be bold here, but when you're out there, all by yourself now, it's a different story. You need boldness when it comes to that. And so pray that they would have boldness, that they would have clarity as they preach.
We're preaching cross culturally. When you go to Long Beach, you're preaching cross culturally. And I'm not talking about ethnically, I'm talking about whole different culture. I mean Long Beach is as this is lost as you're going to find it. It is not an Orange County city. This is Orange County. This is LA County. This is the armpit of California. Okay, and so they need clarity, for them to understand what are you talking about. We've never heard of this. We've never heard of this Jesus, or this Bible or this Christ, they need to have clarity as they declare the message of the gospel that the recipient understands what's being said. And so, they need that. They need also protection from harm, from danger. Read Paul's testimony of all the different threats that he had and all the times that his life was in danger, it'll happen. It'll happen. It's not a safe place to be. It's not like America is entirely friendly now to Christianity, because there's certain pockets that are not antagonistic. They'll take your life if they need to, and so they need protection. They need protection. They need for God to put a bubble of protection. We're talking earlier in one of the prayer rooms. When our church was planted, it was planted in the heart of East LA, in the ghetto, surrounded by four major street gangs, and that's where our church began. It's a converted Courthouse with a jail attached to it. We converted people that used to be in jail and were judged in that particular courthouse. And, you know, and over the years, nothing ever happened. We never got mugged. There was never a car stolen. None of that happened in the middle of the armpit of East LA, with all these gangs around us, with a protection of God over us, and so we need to pray.
We need to also provide for their needs. Provide for their needs. You know, like the missionaries said, you know, I'll go down the well to rescue this kid, if you hold the ropes. And they're going down to rescue the lost in Long Beach. If we hold the ropes, yes or no, and we need to then support them with our finances. Make sure that you're giving to the church. Make sure that you are giving your due to the body of Christ. Yes or no? Don't be a blood sucking leech in this church. You know what I'm saying? I want you to be involved in supporting the ministry of these people, and so provide for them. You'll also notice that, and we don't have time to develop this, but the church at Antioch held the missionaries accountable. They didn't just send them off and say, well, they're gone. Now may the Lord bless you, get the way of the end, etc.
And now we're going to be back to our little thing here. Oh no, no. They were in tune. They were in tune because they needed encouragement, encouragement. It says in a few verses later that Barnabas and Saul took along this young man called John Mark. John Mark, and a few weeks later, John Mark quit, took the first return flight back to Jerusalem and said, this is not for me. In other words, it's easy. It'll be easy, if you're not careful, for Josh to say, you know what, I think you made a mistake. I don't think it's for me. We don't want to have that, and they won't have it as long as you are there, supporting them and encouraging them, with your prayers, with your words, with your letters, etc., even with your presence. You may not go to Long Beach, but every now and then, just show up. You know, sit in the front. Show up and say and just sit there attentively. And when Josh is preaching, say, Amen, that's right, preacher, park it there. You know what I'm saying? Whatever you do, the issue is so that they know that and because they need encouragement, we need to also keep them honest ethics. Well, we could get off on that, but we won't. But to ensure success, we'll hold them accountable. Because people of God, follow me. Follow me. Failure is not an option. Say it is not an option, not an option. We don't quit church planting just because it doesn't happen. No, Paul went to Athens. There was no church planted in Athens. Did he quit? No, he crossed the little sea and went to Corinth, and there he planted a powerful church. Doesn't always happen, but you don't quit. You keep doing it again and again and again, and you're going to find that one of the greatest joys of planting churches is that you, the sending church, gets inspired. Inspired. You know, it's like parents having children. You get inspired by them. When our kids were born, boy, joy of our lives, to see our children walking. And you're going to be inspired when you hear the reports of souls being converted and things being done there. What a marvelous, marvelous trip that's going to be, you see.
And so, we are supporting them. And they were committed to following the book of Acts, and Antioch was there. They came back to Antioch a couple of times of the missionary journey, they were there to help them and support them. Now follow me. I want you all to look at me. Now look at me. Even if you didn't think I was talking to you. Now you look at me. Why are we going to Long Beach to save souls? And, friend, you may be here this morning, and you are not a Christian; you come, but you're not a Christian yet. And we are going to Long Beach because Jesus Christ sent his Son to die on the cross for sinners, die for them And God sent his Son, and we're sending sons to preach Christ to them. So, friend, listen to me. We're going there, but you're here. You need Christ. You need him. And we want you to understand that how weighty this matter is, that a man will spend his life to bring someone, someone else, to Christ. And so, friend, Jesus died for you. And I want you to think about it seriously, because I want you to repent of your sins and give your heart to God, give your heart to Christ, and do it today. Do it tonight. That is the message that God has for you.
Father, we want to thank you so much. Thank you so much for this great, great church. Thank you so much for the blessings that we have seen over the years. And now, Lord, we together, we sit and we respond to your Word. We want to be part of the Great Commission, and to see people won to Christ. Lord, if there are some here tonight, may you speak to them, cause them to repent right. And Lord, we thank you most of all for saving us from our sins and now helping us to be a help to others. As we plant this church, we ask in all and thank you in Jesus, precious name. Amen, God bless you. Amen.

Let's give it up for Dr. Montoya.

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