Day 1 of 6 — Glow in the Dark. About 3 minutes.
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
An orchestra does not begin with music. Before a concert the oboe plays one note and holds it, and every other instrument on the stage bends toward that sound. The strings turn their pegs. The brass pull their slides. Eighty people who have each practised alone for years spend a minute doing nothing but matching one note. It looks like a delay and it is the opposite of one. A violin that is a hair sharp is not wrong by itself. It is only wrong next to everything else. Skip that minute and every piece afterward is spoiled no matter how well anyone plays. The sound the audience came for depends entirely on a minute nobody applauds.
Luke tells us what the church at Antioch was doing when God moved. 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. Read the order of it. The sending came second. The word behind ministered was used of priests serving in the temple, a sacred public service, and here it describes a church giving itself to God before it gave anything to the world.
They were not holding a planning meeting. There is no committee in that verse, no map, no budget, no list of candidates. There is a church on its face before God, and God speaking into the middle of it. Antioch had people worth sending because Antioch was a church worth being in. A cold church sends nobody, and not for want of ideas. It sends nobody because it has quietly stopped caring about what God cares about.
Which puts the question to your week rather than to the church. Most of us are not short of good intentions about the lost. We are short of time with God, and the two are tied together more tightly than we like to admit. You will not develop a burden for people you never pray about, and you will not pray much about anything while the first twenty minutes of every morning belong to a phone. Before you plan one thing for God this week, give Him the front of a day. Open the Bible, say nothing clever, and stay there long enough to stop hurrying.
Growth principle: Worship comes before work, and a church that has gone cold toward God will be cold toward the lost.
Take it with you: Give God the first part of tomorrow morning, before you plan anything else for Him.
Pause and pray: Lord, I have been busy for You and distant from You. Draw me back first. Make me someone who ministers to You before trying to do anything for anybody else. Amen.
From Sunday’s message: A Church That Sends (Acts 13 and Philippians 4) · Sunday, October 11, 2026
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