Revitalizing Faith: Restoring Dwindling Churches in America

That was awesome. One of the other important things that churches do and should be doing is helping to revitalize churches.

We see in America, in Texas and around the states, churches that have dwindled down to nothing. And a lot of that, many of them have been really affected by Covid. And. And we're doing that with Brother Wiggins, right?

So Brother Wiggins took the church there in Mobile, Alabama, running about 20, 25, but, you know, five acres with a building and paid for. Why would we as Baptists just say, okay, we'll just shut down and let that five acres and that building be.

No, no, no, there's five acres there in a building. And so we want to go in and revitalize these churches. And that's what we're doing with Brother Wiggins. We're doing that in Roanoke. Not Roanoke.

We're doing that in Rockwall with Brother Tony Roa. Some of y' all know, Ms. Roa is on our staff here at the school.

And there, that church that he took is needing to be revived, and he's doing a great job over there. And I could name off several others of churches that had dwindled down. I believe Brother Martinez, they were down to two there in Portland. And so.

So these are churches that need. And I could tell you a lot of other cliches that I won't do tonight. It's harder to raise the dead than he probably knows all of them.

And sometimes it is easier to do things like we're doing in the Kona, where you just say, okay, it's good. Let's dissolve it and start brand new. But be in prayer for projects like this. And. And we treat them.

We pretty well treat them as we should, as church planters when you have two people left.

But one of the things we have learned and our church has learned over the years is the hump of getting a building and getting a place permanently to meet in. It's a mountain. And for you to already have a building and already have the land and it's paid for, and if people cooperate, man, what God can do.

So he's done that with Brother Martinez, and we're excited about that. I met Brother Martinez at the same place, at the same meeting that I met Brother James, who preached Monday night.

And we started supporting him about two and a half years ago, some around there. And so Brother Martinez, you come on and he's got a presentation that he's going to preach for us.

I was going to let the video first, please. Thank you. Heritage Baptist Church for the Opportunity to be here. It's a blessing.

I rejoice what the Lord is doing in our church and our ministry there and Grace Baptist Church. My wife here, my family, if you can just stand real quick, Mariah. And this is Mariah. We've been married 11 years.

And this is Noah, the oldest, and then Elia, the middle. And then I have a two year old, Annalee, in the nursery where she belongs there. And so I rejoice, Pastor Crawford, to see what God is doing.

And whenever I get discouraged, I see what the Lord is doing in others and what the Lord is doing and people getting saved, people getting baptized. And that's what God shows me, how to keep going because of other people. And so, as you can see there in the video, that's brother Charlie.

And he was all about rock and roll, dressed in black and just all this craziness, bad words and loud music. And he didn't want nothing to do with like Christians and church and all that.

Actually, I was told that the previous pastor visited him like maybe one time. And so he said, no, I don't want nothing to do. And he said, go, go away, you know.

And so after some time we, because they first came to church and then we went to his home and then I talked to him about salvation. And so after that he understood. And it took a little while, but he was ready. He was kind of like I would say, all broken.

And so he was ready to serve the Lord. And he's been there, faithful for all this year and 10 months. And so we see that family just being there. His kids been going there.

They went so many with us last week. And so we just see the growth in their family, we see the blessing of God and we have many stories there. But I want to get with you.

There's many things that I could say about our church that, that the Lord is doing. We got two weeks ago, we got about one baptism and we got about five, six visitors.

And then my wife was able to witness a girl, young girl, 16 year old, she got saved. She's been coming for three weeks. And so we see the blessing of God that the call of God.

And just to keep the thing, the main thing, we want to be soul winners wherever we at. And we just want to. I talk to pastors, I talk to missionaries, I talk to anyone I can about how to grow the church. And it's always the same thing.

Just go and find someone to share the gospel, to share Jesus, because that is where is the change, the difference in our lives. And so I just want to encourage you, if you're kind of discouraged, just go and knock someone else door or just go give a gospel tract.

And they will tell you their lies, they will tell you their testimony, and you will be like, what I'm going through is nothing compared to what others are going through. We have a lady that has three tumors in her body. And so just a month ago, she surrendered her life to give it to the Lord. She's been going.

Now she works harder than me now because she's there like four or five days through the week. And so she is there. I'm like, mariah, we need to be there before she gets there. And she just giving her life to God and just want to serve the Lord.

And so we are excited that God is touching his heart and touching people's lives. And it is a blessing. And so I'm just going to go to the Bible. If you could open the Bible with me. And the Gospel of Mark, chapter five.

Mark, chapter five. Another funny story I will mention right now is about my kids. I go tell everybody about this because I think it's funny.

I think maybe some of your kids are the same. I see many kids here, so I'm just gonna go ahead and say it.

So a couple months ago, we were just inside the house, and my wife and I were talking about some things, and all of a sudden we hear some noises on the roof. And we're like, what is that? What's going on? You know, it's like, squirrel. No, that sounds like someone is on top of the roof. So what's going on?

And so I got up and I went outside. I started looking around. I look at the roof and it's my kids, Elijah, Noah, on the roof, running and just jumping into the trampoline.

Just like, nothing. And then I was just. They didn't see me yet.

And they were going back through a pole and climbing like this and on the roof all the way to the pitch and running with everything they could use, like a flip into the trampoline. I said, babe, come here, come here. Look at this. We were always looking. They didn't see. When they saw us, they were like.

And they just went, like, down slowly went down. And they knew they were in trouble. They went back inside. And I was just like. I didn't know if I should get upset.

Pastor Crawford, I don't know if I should just tell them, but they knew they were in trouble. So I said, just go to your room and wait. And I was like, what should I do? And so I'm like, I didn't tell him.

I explained afterwards, I tell them, you know, guys, that's dangerous, you know, you couldn't get hurt. And so we. But I don't know, it's just pray for me as I have my ministry, my family, my kids there.

Annalee, the little girl, 2 year old, is just, you know, giving us all these type of lessons in life. And so pray for us as we continue serving the Lord and have our team there with our family.

By the way, they go with us every time we can two, three days out of the week. So winning. Noah and Eli go by themselves. And so sometimes we can't talk to the kids, right, because whatever law is going on.

So went in, but they go and talk to them. And so they go by themselves and knock. Of course we're in the next house looking at them, but they go and talk.

And I can't tell you how many times they invited someone to go to church. And so we're going to use our children as arrows for the Lord. Amen. And mark chapter five, verse 25. And we're going to go all the way to verse 36, 30.

If you can read with me. I don't know if you guys stand or you can stay seated. I don't know how you do it here in your church, but if you just can read with me together.

Verse 25 all the way to verse 30. The Bible says, read with me.

And a certain woman, which had an issue of blood 12 years and had suffered many things of many physicians, had spent all that she had and was nothing better, but rather grew worse when she had heard of Jesus, came in the press behind and touched his garment. For she said, if I may touch by his clothes, I should be whole.

And straightway the fountain of her blood was dried up and she fell on her body that she was healed the plague. And Jesus, immediately knowing in himself that virtue had gone out of him, turned him about in the press and said, who touched my clothes?

And then in verse 34, Bible says, if you read with me. And he said unto her, daughter, thy faith had made thee whole. Go in peace and be whole of the plague. Let's pray for Father.

I pray that you bless this time. Bless your word, Lord. I pray that help me to be a blessing, help me to encourage, help me to support, help me to just give your word, Lord.

There's power in your word. There's power in you, Lord. And I am nothing. I'm nobody, Lord, and you are everything. So I want to give back the glory to you.

I pray that anyone here tonight that maybe is going through discouragement, maybe they're going through anxiety, maybe going through a situation in their lives. Lord, I pray that through your word and through you, maybe someone that does not know you, Lord, and you are not their Savior, you're not their Lord.

I pray that you would touch their heart. Holy Spirit, I ask you to help me in this moment. I yield myself to you and use me in Jesus name. Amen.

So we have here this lady that comes to a situation and verse, verse 25, we see that this woman at the end of the verse says, but rather grew worse. And so she had a problem. She had a situation like you and I. She was going through something that no one could help.

If you keep reading a couple more verses, it says that she spent money on it. She was trying to find a solution in her life. She was trying to just find a way to overcome her problem.

I don't know about you this evening, but all of us are going through something. We all battling something, we all facing a giant. We all been in the hospital or we are in the hospital, I don't know.

We are going through different situations. And the more that I serve the Lord as a pastor, I find out that people have a lot of problems.

And so this evening, if I could get a little bit of your attention, my brothers and sisters, I just want to show you through this, the word of God, that whatever you're going through tonight, the solution is in Jesus Christ. I've been a pastor for almost two years and I can tell you right now about five testimonies what Jesus has done in people's lives.

One of them, I'm going to tell you tonight that she shot herself a couple years ago. And so she came in a wheelchair the first time to our church. She was not open to anything. She just came because her daughter came first.

And then her daughter brought her to church. So she had this face, like close. And no connection with nobody. No smiling, no singing, no opening the Bible, no nothing. Just close to everything.

After about five months, six months praying and just doing what the Lord says in his Word. And we shared Jesus. We did what we have to do. We pray, we fast, we just did as a church does, being a lie to others. She began to smile.

She began to open up. She began and finally she accepted the Lord. Now she comes with the Bible, now she sits, now she sings. Now she's even inviting people.

Believe me or not, now she gives gospel tracts. Who gives gospel tracts? The one who have Them. So if you have some gospel tracts, you're going to give them.

So this lady, we went to eat with her husband and she opened her purse and said, look, Pastor, I have gospel tracts. And she began giving the restaurant gospel tracts. My friend, my brother, my sister this evening, Jesus is real. There's power in Jesus.

If you believe and in this woman, in this story in the Bible says that she believed. You can find there in verse 28 that says, for she said, if I may touch by his clothes, I shall be whole.

I know that all of us, we are kind of looking to the American dream. Some of you, you already are there, you are established financially, you are settled in some of the goals, your life seems pretty good.

But let me tell you, my brother and sister, there is no satisfaction without Jesus. You can't be complete without the Lord Jesus. I have in our church some of the people that are very professional, they are very successful.

But how they came to our church, they began to talk to me and they say all their problems. And I can tell that money is not a solution. My brother and sister having a successful job is not a solution.

Everything else in our life is not a solution. Jesus is the solution. And that's why God, our Lord, keeps calling us to do his will, to keep being alive wherever we are.

John teenager this evening, I want to tell you right now to you, Jesus and God is looking for someone that has a heart for him. And if God's speaking to you, God's been showing you a way. Don't say no to God. God is calling.

Especially in our time that we don't know when Jesus is going to come back. Jesus is calling, is still looking. And so in our story here in the Bible, we find this lady, that she had a problem situation.

And though she everything seems that it was going worse.

I don't know if you've been there, my brother and sister, that you look at the bills, you look at the family, you see your wife, you see your husband and. And then you cry when nobody's around. You go to sleep, you can't sleep. You probably had nightmares about the situation.

And then the morning comes and you don't know what to do. And it seems that things are getting worse and worse. Let me tell you this evening, it doesn't have to be like that.

Believe in the Lord, believe that Jesus will give us a solution, will help us. Look what it says in the Bible in verse right there. 33.

The Bible says, but the woman, fearing and trembling, knowing what was done in her, came and fell down before him. Let me tell you real quick. We can't understand nothing about God and Jesus if first we don't fall down before him. Let me say that again.

You cannot understand the Lord Jesus and his ways if you don't fell down before him. This woman understood that there was something different about this man. It was something different about this preacher or prophet.

There was something real. And she decided to honor him as someone beyond a man. So she fell down right away, all the way.

And according to the scholars, they said they fell down all the way to her, face down. And so, my brother and sister, God cannot work in our lives if we don't humble ourselves before him. We have to give it all 100%.

Look at the Lord and say, this is what's going on, Lord, let me talk to you.

And then after that, verse 34, it says, and he said unto her, daughter, I don't know if your Bible, but my Bible is read because Jesus is speaking now. And so you can connect, understand God's way or the Lord's way, if you're not falling down and allow him to speak to you, open up your heart.

And also, you will not understand anything if you are not a child of God. Jesus said, daughter, what? Why? Because she already believed. She already accepted him.

Many of us, I don't know in this church right now and Heritage Baptist Church, I don't know. All of us, we have Jesus in our hearts. I hope you do. But if you don't have Jesus in your heart, you are not a child of God.

You have to have Jesus in your heart. You have to believe that you're a sinner. You have to believe that there is a consequence for the sin.

You have to accept the Lord as Savior, as Lord as king, in your life and your personal life. It's not just Jesus for the whole world of this church, but it's my Jesus, it's my God, it's my King, it's mine.

And so it begins in our hearts with salvation. And so God can come, the Lord can come to you and say, my daughter, my child, my son.

So tonight God is speaking to you and to me and is saying, daughter, son, daughter, son, what is your need? What is your problem? What are you Going through. Daughter, son, son, daughter. What is going on? Have you talked to me?

When was the last time we went to our room or closet or wherever? You have a spot there and you cry before God, before Jesus, and you spoke with them and you said, lord, I don't understand.

I don't know, the hospital, the veil, this burden, this weight.

I'm tired, I don't have energy, this sickness, Lord, when was the last time we opened up, we went, came to the Lord, and our Lord said, daughter, son. And then after that we see that Jesus says in verse 34, thy faith had made thee whole. Oh, by the way, that's what I want to talk about tonight.

It says verse 34, Thy faith had made thee whole. Thy faith had made thee whole.

Thy faith, your faith, my faith, brothers and sisters, my faith towards God, towards Jesus, to our Lord is what is going to make us whole, is what is going to make us complete. It's going to make us satisfied. There's nothing else in this life. Then allow our Lord, Fulfill our soul and our physical body.

Look what it says in verse 34. After that it says, go in peace. Go in peace and be whole of the plague.

Whatever is your need tonight, whatever is your problem, whatever is the situation you're going through tonight, I just want to tell you this verse, and you were in the Bible that the Lord is saying to you, your faith that you have towards Jesus is going to make you whole, it's going to make you complete. And then God is going to say to you, go in peace. You're going to have the peace of God. Let me tell you this example about what the Bible says.

I was in my office about two months ago. I was just talking to a family, a couple there, a team. And so they were just sitting there.

We're talking about the church and we're gonna do this ministry, the ministry, we're kind of like planification. Every Wednesday we have a meeting at 5, getting together about what else we're gonna do better. And so all.

Suddenly someone comes and knocks on my door. They didn't knock, like just a little bit. They were like at my office. And I was like, okay. I opened the door, there was this mom crying.

And then the son was crying. Both of them were crying, like with tears everywhere. And she was just like, pastor, can you help me? And then the son, he didn't want to look at me.

He was just like down like this, just with a lot of tears. And I'm like, yeah, yeah, I can help you guys. Can you give me the room, please.

They came in and they began to tell me all their problems, how this son got into a fight with his dad and were just fist punching each other, grabbing stuff and throwing to each other. A couple months ago, not just that, but they found that this son has been, he was doing drugs for a year and they didn't even know.

They found out that the police had to come one of those days and they had to take him to jail because he was fighting again. They were paying about $100, $200 for session so they can take him to the, to the counseling with someone. And so all these problems.

But the last thing before they came to my office was that he said he was done with his life. And he said, I'm gonna end my life today. So he went and grabbed a knife, went to his room and he's about to just do, do something with the knife.

So his older brother was there. He, he saw what he was doing, he intervened, grabbing the knife.

So he went and grabbed a capsule or a lot of pills that he was taking because of an accident he had. And so he wanted to take all that in his mouth. And so the brother also stopped him to do that. And they were fighting again.

So after that they rushed to the church and said, the mom said, pastor, I tried everything. I went with the police, I went with juvenile, I've been with the counseling, I've been everywhere, the hospital, I don't know anymore.

I don't know what else to do. I don't understand, I don't know. Can you help me, please?

So I sat down with this young teenager, 16 year old, and I allowed him to just tell me also everything he had to say. He said, that's true, that's true, Pastor. I don't know. I don't understand. I'm angry all the time. I'm mad. I don't care for nobody.

I'm just so full of angry. I just want to, I don't know, I start crying. And he said, I didn't believe in God before. I have done a lot of sins in my life.

And so he said, I don't know what else to do. So I began to talk to him about Jesus. And I can tell he is broken. He's ready to accept Jesus. We talked there for an hour and so crying.

We were sitting on a chair, both of us. He said, pastor, I understood what I had to do now. Can I bow myself? And he bowed himself.

He said, all the way like this and crying and tears going down. He accepted the Lord Jesus it's been two months. He's been there in church, every service. He brought three visitors to our church.

Two of them got saved. One of them, he went two times already to soul winning. He's been going soul winning.

The other week he called me and said, pastor, I don't feel like going to soul winning because I'm tired. I have school, I have all these things. But I feel that the Lord is telling me to go, so I'm coming.

He came all tired from school, when did some sports and he came and he was just tired once or winning with me. Brothers and sisters, I don't know. I don't know about you, but that there is a miracle of God.

This kid with drugs, with all these problems, with violence and all that stuff, and his mom tried everything. It didn't work. If you believe that Jesus is the way.

If you believe that Jesus is Lord, then my brother and sisters, we're going to do something about it. We're going to believe in him and talk to him and just do something about it. So reading again.

Verse 34, it says, and he said unto her, daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole. Go in peace and be whole of the plague. I would like to tell you three things real quick. Number one, Persist. Persist through your pain.

Persist in the Lord through your pain or the situation that you're going through. Persist. Keep going. Keep believing. Knowing that the Lord, he give us eternal life. He can help us with our problem. Act and bold and faith. Act.

Being bold, having boldness to do something in our faith. Maybe for you is being bold to come to the altar to give a gospel tract, to talk to someone about Jesus. I don't know.

Whatever the Lord will put in your heart. Then number three, seek a personal encounter with Jesus. Seek a personal encounter and experience something that you would do with the Lord.

Persist, act and seek. Someone said the beginning of the anxiety as the end of fate. The beginning of the anxiety is the end of faith.

And the beginning of faith is the end of anxiety. Brothers and sisters, the word of God is real. I have other stories. I have like three or four more to give you. God is real. Do you believe?

Do you follow? The Lord is God, your Lord, that you say, I love you, God. But are we showing? Are we doing something with the Lord?

And if you are, then you and I should keep doing the things that we please, our God.

If you can bow your head and close your eyes this evening if you would like to make a decision about this verse, whatever the Lord is calling you, whatever the Lord is saying to you, whatever Jesus is saying to you through that trouble problem struggle you having tonight, believe in the Lord. Remembering this, Jesus said, daughter, son, thy faith shall make you whole. Your faith towards me is going to make you complete satisfied.

I'm going to fulfill you with my spirit. Go in peace. I don't know what you're going through. Will you talk to the Lord? Will you pray? Will you make a decision? Will you just surrender?

Humble yourself before Almighty God. He will lead us and guide us. Salvation, restoration, dealing with sin, whatever it is, God is there. Pastor Crawford.

Faith is such a big subject in the Bible. It's faith by which we are saved. It's faith by which we should live. And again, I'll never forget again what you think of God.

What you believe about God is the most important thing about you. Aw tells her. And when our faith in God is like this lady who came to just a touch, if I could just touch the hem of his garment.

Just that kind of faith that no matter what you're going through, that if you just get to Jesus, if you'll just trust him, you'll just put your faith in Him. He'll take care of that problem. We've been dealing with a lot of problems this week here at the church.

And again, families and people as this brother Martinez deals with too.

As a pastor, I just think as I met with a family yesterday and one today, I'm so thankful that I have a Savior who can overcome any problem in my life. It's such a pointed message. Tonight I needed it. Let's all stand, we'll have a first invitation.

Lord spoke to your heart you come Israel on the altar hymn 156.