Welcome to the Potter's House Salmon Arm Podcast.
We are a Bible -believing church located in beautiful
British Columbia, Canada. We are proudly part
of the Christian Fellowship Ministries with 3
,000 churches around the world. We are a church
focused on world evangelism, discipleship, and
church planting. Here we will share recent sermons
from PHSA Church and other sermons from throughout
our fellowship. I'm Pastor David Bickford, and
I will be your host for this podcast. I thank
you for listening today, and we hope these messages
are a blessing to you and bring you closer to
God. Well, hello and welcome back to the Potter's
House Seminar and Podcast. Again, my name is
David Bickford, and I'm the pastor here in town,
and I want to apologize for the delay in the
early the continuity, I guess, in this podcast
series. We've been going through a lot of technological
changes within the group here. And one of the
things we've done is we've started live streaming
on YouTube. So you can take a look at that on
our YouTube page, which the links for that are
in the podcast notes. And you can follow along
with us there. As I go through, I've got a few
messages I want to throw up here just specifically
on the podcast to kind of catch us up to where
we're at in the live stream. And then eventually
I will just be switching over to... populating
this podcast with basically taking what is preached
on Sundays and putting it into the podcast format.
So that's basically what we're doing, and that's
the reason for the delay. But today I have a
message entitled, Pack Your Coffin, One -Way
Missionaries, No Turning Back. And the text that
we'll use as a jumping off point is Acts 4, 17
through 20. So if you're in your Bibles, you're
following along, you can just go ahead there
and turn in Acts 4. Again, I want to thank you
for joining me here on the podcast. I hopefully
there will be no further delays as I've gotten
a little bit better with the technology and with
using certain AI features to be able to self
-populate this stuff online and make it so that
it takes a little less work to get it done. It's
always a learning experience, and it's always
just a journey to be a little bit more productive
and to be able to help bring you guys the Word
of God in a more succinct and regular pattern.
So again, let's jump in. I have a quick illustration
here. It pulls from Luke a little bit. So Luke
9 .33 says, And he said to all of them, If any
man will come after me, let him deny himself
and take up his cross daily and follow me. A
century ago, a band of brave souls became known
as the one -way missionaries. They purchased
a single ticket to the mission field without
a return half. And instead of suitcases, they
packed coffins. As they sailed out of port, they
waved goodbye to everyone they loved and everything
they knew. They knew they'd never return. A .W.
Milne was one of those missionaries, and he set
sail for the New Hebrides in the South Pacific,
knowing full and well that the headhunters who
lived there had martyred every missionary before
him. Milne did not fear for his life because
he had already died to himself. His coffin was
packed. For 35 years, he lived among the tribe
and loved them. And when he died, tribe members
buried him in the middle of their village and
inscribed this epitaph on his tombstone. When
he came, there was no light. When he left, there
was no darkness. So when did we start believing
that God wants to send us to safe place to do
easy things? That faithfulness is holding the
fort. That playing it safe is safe. That there
is any greater sacrifice than true sacrifice.
The radical is anything but the normal. Jesus
didn't die to keep us safe. He died to make us
dangerous. Faithfulness is not holding the fort.
It's storming the gates of hell. The will of
God is not an insurance plan. It is a daring
plan. The will of God is meant for that in our
lives. The complete surrender of your life to
the cause of Christ isn't radical. It is normal.
It's time to quit living. As if the purpose of
life is to arrive safely at death. Let's look
at our text, Acts 4, 17 through 20. But in order
that it may spread no further among the people,
let us warn them to speak no more to anyone in
his name. So they called them and charged them
not to speak or to teach at all in the name of
Jesus. But Peter and John answered them, whether
it is right in the sight of God to listen to
you rather than to God, you must judge. For we
cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard.
Amen. Let's pray. Dear Lord, I just pray that
this message will infect people's hearts, that
the spirit of conviction will overcome people's
fear, and that they will give their lives wholly
over to you, picking up their cross and taking
the gospel out to the streets, taking the gospel
to the dangerous places, so that they might share
the gospel with the lost and bring light to the
darkness. Say amen. So I've decided to follow
Jesus as a Christian hymn originating from India,
and the lyrics are based on the last words of
a man in Garo, Assam. I have decided to follow
Jesus. I have decided to follow Jesus, it reads.
I have decided to follow Jesus, no turning back,
no turning back. Now, I apologize. I'm not the
best of singers, so I'm reading you the lyrics,
not singing them. It continues on, the world
behind me, the cross before me, the world behind
me, the cross before me. What's powerful about
lyrics like this is that it continually hits
home, much to the way that Jesus asked Peter
to feed his sheep. And he asked him three times,
and it says a third time here, the world behind
me, the cross before me. Because we are supposed
to think of ourselves as looking back behind
ourselves about the world and looking towards
the cross that Christ has picked up or told us
to pick up. There is no turning back. No, there
is no turning back. It continues on, though none
go with me, still I will follow three times in
repetition. No turning back, no turning back.
My cross I'll carry till I see Jesus. My cross
I'll carry till I see Jesus. My cross I'll carry
till I see Jesus. No turning back. No turning
back. The song concludes with, will you decide
now to follow Jesus three times again? And that
final call of no turning back, no turning back.
So today we're going to look at being called.
We're also going to look at Being qualified.
And finally, we're going to finish with the idea
of being full of regret or being ready to enter
into salvation or into eternity, rather. So being
called in Deuteronomy 31, 23, it says, and the
Lord commissioned Joshua, the son of Nun and
said, be strong and courageous. For you shall
bring the people of Israel into the land that
I swore to give them. And I will be with you.
About 150 years ago, there was a great revival
in Wales. As a result of this, many missionaries
came to the Northeast India to spread the gospel,
the region known as Assam or Assam. was comprised
of hundreds of tribes who were primitive and
aggressive headhunters. Into these hostile and
aggressive communities came a group of missionaries
from the American Baptist missions, spreading
the message of love, peace, and hope in Jesus
Christ. Naturally, they were not welcomed. One
missionary succeeded in converting a man, his
wife, and two children. This man's faith proved
contagious, and many villagers began to accept
Christianity. Angry, the village chief summoned
all the villagers, he called the family who had
first converted to renounce their faith in public
or face execution. Moved by the Holy Spirit,
the man said, I have decided to follow Jesus.
Enraged at the refusal of the man, the chief
ordered his archers to arrow down the two children.
As both boys lay twitching on the floor, the
chief asked, will you deny your faith? You have
lost both your children. You will lose your wife
too. So this tragedy, this horrible story, is
a picture for us in the world today. I admit
that it's a hard story to listen to. It nonetheless
is a critical thing for us to understand when
we consider the power of our Lord and the purpose
of our faith in Him. As Christians, we look past
this life with an expectation for the next. Part
of that expectation is the realization that the
gift of grace is more important than anything.
Evangelism is more important than anything because
it is what makes us truly Christian and truly
striving to be Christ -like. We are not to fear
physical death as Christians because we have
eternal life in our Lord Jesus. The prophet says,
I am slow to speech. And God says he will uplift
and help him. So often we'll try to make excuses
when God calls us to speak on his half, just
like Moses did. He struggled with speaking for
God, but fortunately for Moses, God was not willing
to let him go free from his calling, but made
a way for him to fulfill that calling. Even today,
we cannot get away from our calling. We can either
accept it or reject it, but we can never truly
get rid of the call on our lives. In Exodus 4,
10, we're going to look at a few different verses
here. Verse 10, verse 14, verse 16, it says,
So here's the initial petition. Hey, Lord. You
got the wrong guy. This isn't my skill set. How
often do we as Christians or even just people
in general wander around saying, that's not my
forte. That's not something I'm good at. So therefore,
you can't ask that of me. There's no understanding
or expectation that maybe the ask is so that
you can be stretched and so that you can grow
in your faith or grow in your relationship. with
Christ or grow if it's at work and your boss
is asking you to do something you're not, you
know, really suited to do. Maybe he's asking
because he sees some sort of potential in you
and he's trying to stretch you so that you could
grow to greater heights. So in verse 14, it says,
moses that you're not going to get away with
making an excuse for your calling you could see
a similar thing in this in that work picture
that i gave whereas you might deny like i don't
have the skill set for this so then your boss
says that's great i've got a mentor for you who's
going to help you to grow so then in verse 16
it says he shall speak for you to the people
and he shall be your mouth and you shall be as
a god to him so this picture again is You're
going to get trained, you're going to get educated,
you're going to get supported, but you're still
going to have to deal with this call on your
life. You're still going to have to deal with
the responsibility that I'm laying in your hands.
So we start traveling through the Old Testament,
we see the prophets of God constantly commanded
to speak to the people on God's behalf. Why is
it important to speak? Why can't we just... write
down letters on Instagram or put Instagram posts
out. Because the word of God and the gospel of
Jesus Christ is meant to be heard. Let us look
at just a few times where the prophets were told
by God to speak, keeping in mind that the phrase
speak to shows up in the Bible over 250 times.
In Exodus 25, one to two, it says, the Lord said
to Moses, speak to the people of Israel that
they... take for me a contribution. For every
man whose heart moves him, you shall receive
the contribution for me. Leviticus has 22 instances
where God tells Moses to speak to the children
of Israel. In Jeremiah 11, one through two, it
says, the word came to Jeremiah from the Lord,
hear the words of this covenant and speak to
the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
God's word was meant to be spoken. In all of
the Old Testament, it was expected that you would
have a large portion of the entirety of the Torah
memorized so that you could draw from the word
and speak with authority. When prophets were
called by the Lord, it was to speak to the people
of Israel. In the New Testament, the pattern
is the same. When Jesus would heal, he expected
those who had their lives changed to become vocal
testimonies. So let's look now at being qualified.
We are always worried about a lack of qualifications
in our life. When you go out to look for your
first job, the question of qualifications is
top of mind. I have two kids that are just coming
out into the world into their first jobs or the
difficulties of... getting close to full -time
employment, finishing up some additional education
so they can hopefully gain full -time employment.
And when you come to these job interviews, that's
the biggest thing they ask for is what's your
qualifications and why do you want to work here?
But as we get older, you'd think this seems to
fade away, but it never really does. The world
is hung up. on this idea of qualifications in
somewhat of an unhealthy way. Qualifications
are important, but godly qualifications are what
we should be focusing on, and they are far simpler
to understand and to achieve. In Titus 1, 5 through
8, we see the qualifications of the elders. It
says, this is why I left you in Crete, so that
you might put what remained in order and appoint
elders in every town as I directed you. If anyone
is above reproach, the husband of one wife and
has children are believers and not open to the
charge of just debauchery or insubordination.
For an overseer is God's steward must be above
reproach. He must not be arrogant or quick tempered
or a drunkard or violent or greedy for gain,
but hospitable, a lover of good, self -controlled,
upright, holy, and disciplined. This sounds simple
enough, but when we put it into action, this
requires intestinal fortitude. When we stand
against a fallen world, we have to be able to
stand in the face of lions and even under the
threat of the fiery furnace. So when we look
back at our story that we started off with, we
pick up the man from Assam and he replies, though
no one joins me, still I will follow. The chief
was beside himself with fury and ordered his
wife to be arrowed down. In a moment, she joined
her two children in death. Now he asked for the
last time, I will give you one more opportunity
to deny your faith and live. In the face of death,
the man said the final memorable lines, the cross
before me, the world behind me, no turning back.
He was shot dead like the rest of his family.
But with their deaths, a miracle took place.
The chief, who had ordered the killings, was
moved by the faith of the man. He wondered, why
should this man, his wife, and two children die
for a man who lived in a faraway land on another
continent some 2 ,000 years ago? There must be
some remarkable power behind the family's faith.
And I, too, want to taste that faith. The man
in our story had no high -flying qualifications,
but he had had all the qualifications that he
needed to make a difference. He was upright and
stood in his faith. In the end, Jesus was glorified.
And Titus Paul was concerned for the newborn
church on Crete, and he wrote to Titus to encourage
him. And to instruct him on how he should go
about building the church, he tells Titus to
look for those who meet the qualifications in
Titus 1, 9 -11. He must hold firm to the trustworthy
word as taught, so that he may be able to give
instruction in sound doctrine and also rebuke
those who contradict it. For there are many who
are insubordinate, empty talkers and deceivers,
especially those of the circumcision party. They
must be silenced since they are upsetting whole
families by teaching for shameful gain what they
ought not to teach. There are two points to look
at here. The first is the standards are important.
How you live is the example that you set. The
second point is that it would be a test for Titus.
It is not easy to silence those who oppose you.
And it is even more difficult to hold the standards
in a world that does not even believe in the
truth like we do today. They battle against the
circumcision party, which is the back to the
Jewish roots party, which is saying that as a
Christian, you have to first be a Jew and you
have to follow the law in order to be a Christian
under the law of Judaism. But we know as part
of the new covenant that we do not have to do
that. And Paul has taught us so much and Peter
as well. But the reality is, is this was a battle
he was fighting, but today's battle is different.
Today we fight a battle of a world that says
that what we believe is irrelevant. And they
want to, you know, some would even claim that
there is no God. But I would argue that many
more. have a much more treacherous belief where
they can include Jesus into what they believe,
but only if they diminish the divinity of God
and Jesus incarnate, Jesus who is God. This is
something I preached on last week, and you can
see it on the live stream, is just the sense
that it's funny how all these other faiths in
the world are so willing to accept Jesus as long
as he's accepted in a limited or lesser capacity
than his divinity requires. We have to hold to
that truth. We also, within our own Christian
world, we battle with people who say that if
you're not of this church, you're not saved.
If you're not of this church, you're not, or
that church, you're not saved. But we hold to
the old creeds, the belief that Jesus Christ
is the Son of God, but he is God as well. He's
part of the triune nature of the Father, the
Son, and the Holy Ghost. So that makes him very
God. That makes him eternal, like God, not a
created being. And that only through Jesus can
we come to the Father. So there is no need for
intermediary. We are directly tapping into God
through the Son who is part of that triune nature
of God. So anybody who differs from this is not
of the same faith. These are the critical points
that allow us to be able to link arms with other
churches, other peoples who believe the core
belief that we do. That there is no way to salvation
except by the freely given grace from our God
through Jesus Christ. And that works come because
of salvation. And salvation doesn't come because
of works. Both of these points that I touched
on earlier show how important it is for us to
live with a spirit of action. Our lives must
always be pointed towards the end goal, the destination
of heaven. We are not on a conveyor belt or an
escalator to heaven. We are at the base of a
mountain. We must ever endeavor to climb to new
heights in our salvation. It is not that faith
plus works equals salvation. It's rather that
faith equals salvation and then works come as
a sign of fruit. James 2 .26 says, apart from
the Spirit, is dead, so also faith apart from
works is dead. The crux of this idea is that
your faith will bring you salvation and a desire
to serve others in Christ. The fruit that comes
from those works will show you as qualified for
greater service in the kingdom of God. This is
not where we end, though. This is only the beginning.
We need to now turn to the doctrine because this
is how you will likely be able to serve and edify
or build up the church and the gospel of Jesus
Christ. So will you have a life full of regret
or will you be ready? The weight of regret is
heavy. And this is from a poem that I found online.
And it says, too many of you are afraid of wrong
things. Stop asking yourself, is it all going
to be worth it? Start asking yourself, what kind
of crap show is my life going to become if I
don't do it? Because I promise you, even if you
do fall short of your goals, that life will be
a thousand times better than the life you could
end up with as a result of your willingness to
do the work. The weight of regret is heavy. So
the end of the story was not one of regret, but
of victory. The chief of the tribe was convicted
by this show of faith. In a spontaneous confession
of faith, he declared, I too belong to Jesus
Christ. When the crowd heard this from the mouth
of their chief, the whole village accepted Christ
as their Lord and their Savior. The song is based
on the last words of Naksing, a man from the
Garo tribe of Assam, now Manghala and some in
Assam, India. It is today the song of the Garrow
people. The final chapter of Titus is all about
being ready. It touches on the mission drift
and avoiding distractions and staying true to
our purpose. All too often, we allow ourselves
to get wrapped up in controversy or should I
say politics. But here in the scripture, it tells
us to avoid these things and remain for our purpose.
If we are not ready for action, then we cannot
execute our mission. Titus chapter 3 verses 9
through 11 say, But foolish controversies, genealogies,
dissensions, and quarrels about law, for they
are unprofitable and worthless. As for a person
who stirs up division after warning him once
and then twice, having nothing more to do with
him, knowing that such a person is warped and
sinful, he is self -condemned. So here's an excerpt
from a business article relating to strategy
versus execution. Strategy is choices. Execution
is actions. How to take the right execution actions.
If strategy is about making the right choices,
then the execution is about taking those right
actions. Strategy focuses on thinking. Execution
centers on the doing. And many leaders struggle
with identifying the right actions their organization
needs to take. This is partially because they
have been taught how to plan and not how to execute.
Achieving excellence in execution requires cultivating
a bias towards action across an organization.
So I find the contrast between strategy and execution
and action to be one of the most interesting
things that I deal with in my life. I've spent
many of the years of my life academically and
professionally and personally trying to gain
an understanding of the need of execution above
the need of perfect strategy. So here at the
Potter's House, we are Christians and we're very
fortunate because we have a clear pattern, a
strategy laid out for us in the gospel. The book
of Titus, as well as others, provides us with
the strategy necessary to live a Christian life.
We just need to be ready to execute that strategy.
So as a part of our Statement of Faith Fellowship,
we believe in this pattern of evangelism, taking
the gospel outside the four walls of the church.
And we're acting in obedience to Mark 16, where
he says, go into all the world and preach the
gospel to every creature. We emphasize personal
evangelism in a large variety of outreaches to
share the gospel. You might see us if you're
in Salmon Arm. We stand with a sign. with signs
out in front of the farmer's market on Saturday
mornings. And I'm blessed to be able to do that
with a couple other people who are from other
churches as well who've started to come because
they've been convicted to share the gospel more
and more. We believe in conversion. the gospel
that has a power to transform lives. In 1 Peter
1 .23, it says, having been born again, not of
corruptible seed, but incorruptible through the
word of God, which lives and abides forever.
How would they be converted that they haven't
heard, which is why evangelism leads to conversion.
But we also have a strong focus on the local
church. God has placed everything necessary to
accomplish his will within that local church.
That's why we don't proselytize as well. We don't
seek out to try to grab other Christians from
other churches. If they're preaching the gospel
in that church, then they should be rooted in
that place and they should fulfill their call
of God in that place. And I emphasize that if
they're following the word of God, if they're
a Bible -believing church, which I believe there
are many that are, then you should be rooted
in there and you should grow in your faith there.
In Ephesians 1, 22 through 23, it says, and he
put all things under his feet and he gave him
a head over all things to the church, which is
his body, the fullness of him who fills all in
all. God's will is accomplished in us and through
us as we connect and commit ourselves to the
local church. We are a discipleship -based fellowship,
training and equipping. is something that is
best done within the setting of the local church.
And we believe that because the relationships
are built there. That conversion is supposed
to have happened there, within that group, within
that body of believers. And therefore, the highest
calling of a pastor in a congregation is to obey
God's command in Matthew 28, 19 through 20, when
he says, These are the words of Jesus, the last
words to command. his people to go out and witness
and testify and evangelize. We also believe in
a pattern of church planting. The result of discipleship
should be that people are raised up and being
able to be released out into the harvest fields
to start the pattern again. And part of that
is the world that, you know, part of that world
makes us focus on world evangelism. From the
earliest Bible record, God's vision is a worldwide
testimony and impact. The gospel message is relevant
in every nation and culture in the world. Our
job as believers in the local church is to pray,
train, invest, send, and support workers to go
into all of the world. So with the strategy set,
with the pattern set, the only thing left is
to decide if you will be ready for action. We
are called to be a people of action because there
is work to do. The fields are white for harvest,
as it says in John 4 .35. Will you be ready or
will you be filled with regret? So if I could
have every head bowed, every eye closed, wherever
you are listening to this, as long as it's safe
and you're not driving and you're not listening
to this double speed like I do. I just want to
take a quick moment as we close. I always give
an invitation. Whether I'm preaching in person,
whether I'm doing something like this just physically
online. I want you to know that you have a choice.
Maybe you're listening to this and you don't
even know why, but your heart's not right with
God. And you want to get it right with God. I
want you to know you can do that. I want you
to signify that with an uplifted hand wherever
you are. Because even though I can't see it,
I believe God can see it. And it's just one step
in you making a choice. through your own free
will to say, I need God in my life. If you did
that, I want you to then repeat a quick prayer
with me. It's just something simple like this.
It says, Dear Lord, I know that I'm a sinner,
that I'm not perfect, but I know that you sent
your son, Jesus Christ, to die for me, to die
for my sins, and that he rose again. I accept
him as my Lord and my Savior, and I turn away
from the sins of my past. I turn away and I repent.
In Jesus' name, amen. That simple prayer is just
a recognition of what you should be feeling in
your heart already. I need God. And I accept
him. And I accept the gospel message that Jesus
came as God to earth and he returned to be God
to set me free from my sin and to broker that
relationship with the Father. I want to thank
you for listening to me. Hopefully this will
be the continuation of regular weekly podcasts
without any interruption outside of maybe when
I'm gone at conference, but I will try to make
sure that that doesn't happen anymore either.
And then I probably will shake it up and have
additional podcasts interspersed in here, maybe
with some, you know, just my perspective from
our biblical perspective on news and events.
I'm thinking about doing something like that.
It's not going to be what you're going to expect.
I'm not going to pontificate about politicians
or people, but rather how we should take what's
going on in the world today and focus our eyes
on the cross and on Jesus and what he would want
us to do with the times that we're living in.
So again, thank you for listening and just God
bless. And I hope you have a great rest of your
day. Thank you. for listening to the PHSA Potter's
House Salmon Arm podcast. Be sure to follow us
on Instagram at pottershouse underscore salmon
arm to keep up to date on what we are doing.
Join the conversation and discover how Jesus
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