July 19, 2026 | The Spirit Sends
The Spirit Sends: A Week of Open Hands

Anton Brown • Senior Pastor
July 19, 2026

5 Minute Read

Dear Mayflower family,

This morning we sat down together in Acts 13:1-3, three quiet verses with no miracle anyone could see. A handful of church leaders in a big pagan city were worshiping the Lord, praying, and fasting, and into that ordinary gathering the Holy Spirit spoke: "Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them." For the first time in Acts, a local church deliberately sends its own people to carry the gospel to the nations. And it does not happen at headquarters in Jerusalem or at a council of apostles. It happens in a congregation, a church much like this one, gathered and seeking God.

Now that you have heard the sermon, the week ahead is a chance to live inside what those verses opened up. The risen Christ sends His church by His Spirit. Antioch did not invent Paul's call; it heard it in worship, recognized it, and confirmed it. And then it did the hardest thing, the thing the whole text turns on: it opened its hands and let its two best men go. The readings below do not re-walk Sunday's passage. They walk around it, one thread each day, so that by Friday your own hands are a little more open than they were on Monday. Take five minutes a day, or sit with the whole week at once. There is no wrong way to use them.

Before you begin, would you do one thing for me? Pick one name from the work of sending: a missionary this church supports, a believer you know who has been called somewhere costly, or simply someone you would hate to lose. Carry that name through the week, and pray that God would send laborers and that you would have the faith to let them go. We are not an Antioch because we feel brave. We are an Antioch when we worship God and hold nothing back from Him.

In Christ,

Pastor Anton

Five-Day Devotional

Monday: The promise with faces

Read: Genesis 12:1-3

Two thousand years before Antioch, God promised Abraham that in his offspring all the families of the earth would be blessed. Paul says that promise was the gospel preached ahead of time, and the offspring is Christ. On Sunday we read a list of five names in one congregation, a Levite from Cyprus, two Africans, a nobleman from Herod's court, and a Pharisee from Jerusalem, and that ancient promise was taking on faces. Before God asked this church for anything, He had already filled it with living proof of what the blood of His Son can do: make one family out of strangers.

Father, thank You that the church beside me on Sunday is the proof of a promise older than the world; let me see grace in faces unlike my own.

Tuesday: A person, not a force

Read: John 16:7-15

The Spirit of God speaks in Acts 13. He commands, He says "for me," He claims two men as His own, because He is not an influence or an energy but God Himself, with the Father and the Son. Jesus had promised exactly this Spirit, the Helper who would come, guide, and glorify the Son. And that changes how you treat Him: a force can only be used, but a person can be obeyed, or grieved. Antioch obeyed.

Holy Spirit, You are God; teach me to listen for You and obey You, and keep me from ever grieving the One who was sent to lead me home.

Wednesday: The call comes from outside you

Read: Acts 9:10-16

Long before the meeting in Antioch, the Lord had already named Saul His chosen instrument to carry His name before the Gentiles. The church did not create that call; it heard it, recognized it, and confirmed it. Our culture tells you to look inside yourself, find your passion, and build your life out of it, and then leaves you terrified of choosing wrong. Acts hands you a better grammar: the call comes from outside you, it is heard in worship, and it is given for service, not for self-fulfillment.

Lord, free me from the exhausting search inside myself, and set me in the worshiping church where Your call is heard.

Thursday: He did not spare His own Son

Read: Romans 8:31-39

How does a church open its hands and let its best people go? There is only one answer deep enough. The Father did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, to a manger, to a cross, to a tomb, for the nations and for you. The Son rose, and now He sends. A church that has received Christ can release anything, because open hands are not a loss of security; for a people kept by God, open hands are worship.

Father, You opened Your hands first and gave Your Son for me; loosen my closed fists and make my open hands an act of worship.

Friday: Pray the Lord of the harvest

Read: Matthew 9:35-38

Jesus saw the crowds, had compassion on them, and told His people to pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers. That is the prayer Antioch was living when the Spirit spoke, and it is the prayer this church can pray now, with expectancy, for the people in these very pews. The first missionary journey began the way the modern missionary movement began, in a prayer meeting. Carry that prayer into next Sunday's gathering, and bring the name you have been praying all week.

Lord of the harvest, speak to us the way You spoke to Antioch, and give us the faith to let our laborers go.

The Spirit sends; the church lets go. Open your hands this week.

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August 23, 2026 • 5 Minute Read
August 23, 2026 | The Kingdom Road
Dear Mayflower family, This morning we sat down together in Acts 14:19-23 and watched Paul get stoned at Lystra, dragged out of the city for dead, and then rise and walk back through the same gate. He went on to strengthen the young churches with one sentence the whole passage turns on. Through many tribulations. Not around them. Through them. He was pulling up by the roots the quiet lie that if following Jesus is costing us, something has gone wrong. Now that you have heard the sermon, this week is a chance to live inside that one truth from every side. The readings below do not re-walk Sunday's passage. They walk around it, one thread each day. Monday we stand at the foot of the King's own road, the suffering He passed through into glory. Tuesday and Wednesday we sit with what it means to suffer with Christ and to be kept by Him. Thursday we learn to run the race with endurance, eyes on Jesus. And Friday we come back from the far side of the sermon to the promise that the One who began a good work in you will finish it. Take five minutes a day, or sit with the whole week at once. There is no wrong way to use them. One more thing before you begin. Somewhere in this church, a believer is walking a hard road right now, tired and half-afraid they will not make it to the end. Carry them before God this week, and if the Lord brings a name to mind, go and help them carry it. No one was ever meant to walk the kingdom road alone. In Christ, Pastor Anton Five-Day Devotional Monday: The road the King walked Read: Luke 24:25-27 On the Emmaus road the risen Jesus asks two heartbroken disciples, "Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?" The same small word "necessary" that Paul laid over your road in Acts 14, Jesus laid first over His own. Cross, then crown; He did not send you down a road He refused to walk Himself. Pray: Lord Jesus, thank You that You walked the road of suffering into glory ahead of me, and that I only ever follow where You have already gone. Tuesday: Suffering with Him Read: Romans 8:16-18 Paul calls believers heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, "provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him." Suffering is not the fine you pay to sneak into the kingdom; it is the fellowship of walking your King's own road, step for step, behind Him. And the glory ahead is not worth comparing to it. Pray: Father, when the cost of following You feels heavy, remind me it is fellowship with Christ, and that the glory coming is greater than all of it. Wednesday: Kept by the Lord Read: John 10:27-30 Jesus says of His sheep, "I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand." Paul and Barnabas committed the young churches to that same Lord for safekeeping. Your standing at the end of the hard road will never rest on the strength of your grip on Him; it rests on the strength of His grip on you. Pray: Lord Jesus, thank You that I am held in Your hand, and that nothing, not even my own weakness, can snatch me out of it. Thursday: Run with endurance Read: Hebrews 12:1-3 The writer tells a tired church to run the race set before them with endurance, "looking to Jesus," who endured the cross for the joy set before Him. You continue not by staring at your own strength but by fixing your eyes on the One who already finished the course. Consider Him, so that you will not grow weary or fainthearted. Father, when I am tempted to quit, lift my eyes off myself and fix them on Jesus, who ran the whole road ahead of me and finished it. Friday: He will finish it Read: Philippians 1:3-6 Coming home from the far side of Sunday's sermon, hear Paul's confidence: "he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ." Verse 22 charged you to continue, and this is why you will. The work was His to start, and it is His to finish. Carry that settled rest into next Sunday's gathering. Pray: Father, thank You that the good work You began in me is Yours to complete, and that You have never once dropped what was placed in Your hands. Through many tribulations. Not around them. Through them. The King went first, and He will keep you all the way home.

Anton Brown

Senior Pastor

August 9, 2026 • 5 Minute Read
August 9, 2026 | He Bears Witness
Dear Mayflower family, Sunday morning we sat down together in Acts 14:1-7 and watched two men, Paul and Barnabas, walk into a city that did not want their message. Instead of going quiet as the room turned cold, they grew bolder and stayed a long time. Why? Verse 3 tells us. They were speaking for the Lord, who bore witness to the word of his grace. The One who sent the message stood up in that hostile city and put his own name behind it. By the end of the chapter the city had split in two, a plot to stone them had formed, and they simply fled to the next town and preached the same word all over again. Now that you have heard the sermon, the week ahead is a chance to live inside that one comfort from every side: you do not speak about Jesus alone. The readings below do not re-walk Sunday’s passage. They walk around it, one thread each day, so that by Friday you are standing more firmly on the courage the sermon opened up. Monday we watch the Lord confirm his own word. Tuesday we see him open a closed heart. Wednesday we hear him promise to give us the words when we are afraid. Thursday we remember that the word of God cannot be chained. And Friday we go to the church at prayer, asking for the same boldness Paul and Barnabas were given. Take five minutes a day, or sit with the whole week at once. There is no wrong way to use them. Before you begin, would you do one thing for me? Somewhere God has already put a person in front of you, someone who admires Jesus from a distance and has never crossed over: a neighbor, a coworker, someone in your own family. Carry that person before God all week, and ask him for one open door and the courage to walk through it. Remember that you are not the guarantor of the gospel. He is. The Lord vouches for his own word of grace, and he will back the word he sends through you. In Christ, Pastor Anton Five-Day Devotional Monday: He bears witness Read: Hebrews 2:1-4 The signs and wonders in Acts 14 were never proof of how gifted Paul and Barnabas were. Hebrews tells us plainly what they were: God himself bearing witness to the great salvation first declared by the Lord. When you speak the gospel, that same God stands behind it, confirming his own word of grace long after the miracles have gone quiet. Father, thank You that You never leave Your gospel to stand on its own, but bear witness to it Yourself. Tuesday: The Lord opened her heart Read: Acts 16:11-15 A great number believed at Iconium, and Luke never credits the preacher’s skill. Here is why. When Lydia believed, it was because the Lord opened her heart to pay attention. Faith is God’s own work underneath the words we speak. That is why we can open our mouths with hope and leave the results to him. Lord, open hearts this week that I could never open, and let me be faithful to speak while You do the work only You can do. Wednesday: I will give you words Read: Luke 12:4-12 Most of us go quiet because we are secretly carrying the whole weight ourselves: what if I say it wrong, what if they ask what I cannot answer? Jesus lifts that weight. Do not be anxious how you will speak, he says, for the Spirit will teach you in that very hour. Your job is faithfulness. His job is the witness. Holy Spirit, take away my fear of saying it wrong, and give me the words when the moment comes. Thursday: The word is not bound Read: 2 Timothy 2:8-13 They ran Paul out of Iconium, and the word simply moved to the next town and kept preaching. Paul later sat in a prison cell and wrote the reason down: the word of God is not bound. You can chain the messenger. You cannot chain the message. It has run for two thousand years, and it ran all the way to you. Father, thank You that nothing can stop Your word, and that it reached even me. Friday: Boldness to speak Read: Acts 4:23-31 When the first Christians were threatened for preaching Christ, they did not ask God to make the threats stop. They asked him for boldness to keep speaking, and he shook the room and filled them with the Spirit. Come back from the other side of Sunday’s sermon and pray that same prayer, and carry the boldness into next Sunday’s gathering. Lord, do not let a little discomfort silence me, but grant me boldness to speak Your word of grace. The Lord vouches for his own word of grace. So speak the word he puts in front of you, and leave the witness to him.

Anton Brown

Senior Pastor

August 2, 2026 • 6 Minute Read
August 2, 2026 | What the Law Could Never Do
Dear Mayflower family, Sunday morning, we sat down together in Acts 13:13-52, in a synagogue in Antioch of Pisidia, where Paul stood up among people who had the holiest, truest document in the world, the law of Moses, and told them plainly what that good law could never do. It could read them their sentence. It could not lift it. By the end of his sermon the room had split down the middle: some begged to hear more, and some folded their arms and walked away. The whole thing turned on two verses, 38 and 39, where Paul says that everyone who believes is freed from everything the law of Moses could never free them from. Now that you have heard the sermon, the week ahead is a chance to live inside that one promise from every side. The readings below do not re-walk Sunday's passage. They walk around it, one thread each day, so that by Friday you are standing more firmly on the gospel you heard preached. Monday we go back to the promise God made to David. Tuesday and Wednesday we sit with what it means to be freed and justified by faith and not by our record. Thursday we follow the light out to the nations, which is the only reason it ever reached us. And Friday we come back from the other side of the sermon and look squarely at Christ, where assurance is actually found. Take five minutes a day, or sit with the whole week at once. There is no wrong way to use them. Before you begin, would you do one thing for me? Somewhere in this church there is a person exactly like those God-fearers in that synagogue: someone who loves this church, respects the Bible, believes there is a God, and has never actually crossed over and trusted Christ. It may be a friend, a coworker, a member of your own family. Carry that person before God all week, and pray that this would be the week they look at Jesus and believe. Grace ran wider than anyone in that room expected, and it can run that wide again. In Christ, Pastor Anton Five-Day Devotional Monday: As He promised Read: 2 Samuel 7:12-16 Centuries before Paul stood up in that synagogue, God made a promise to David that one of his sons would have a kingdom that lasts forever. On Sunday we heard Paul say of Jesus, "as he promised," and this is the promise he meant. The Savior was not God's afterthought or plan B; He was named and pledged long before He was born. Your salvation does not rest on how strongly you can believe today. It rests on a promise God made in history and a promise God kept. Father, thank You that my hope rests on a promise You made and kept, and not on the strength of my own faith. Tuesday: What the law could never do Read: Romans 3:19-24 The law is holy, true in every word, and it does one thing perfectly: it stops every mouth and shows the whole world to be accountable to God. What it cannot do is take the guilt away. Paul says it plainly here, the same thing he said in the synagogue: no one is justified by keeping the law, but we are justified freely by grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. The law is the truest diagnosis ever written, and Christ is the cure. Lord, keep me from ever trusting my own record, and teach me to rest entirely on the righteousness You give me as a gift. Wednesday: Everyone who believes Read: Romans 4:4-8 To be justified is to have God the Judge look at you and declare you to be in the right. Not improving, not trying hard, not on the right track, but acquitted, the case against you closed. Paul says the blessing comes to the one who does not work but believes, and he calls back to David, who spoke of the man whose sins the Lord will never count against him. That is the offer Paul made to everyone in the room: everyone who believes is freed, from everything, no matter their record. Father, thank You that You count me righteous not because of what I have done, but because of what Christ has done for me. Thursday: A light for the nations Read: Isaiah 49:5-6 When the synagogue pushed the gospel away, Paul and Barnabas turned to the Gentiles, and they grounded that turn in a promise God had made in Isaiah hundreds of years before. The going-out to the nations was never a backup plan cobbled together after rejection; it was written into Scripture from the start. "I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth." The light was never meant to stay in one synagogue, and the proof it reached the end of the earth is that it reached you. Lord, thank You that Your light traveled all the way to me, and make me one who carries it to the next person who needs it. Friday: Look to Christ Read: John 6:37-40 Acts 13 says that as many as were appointed to eternal life believed, and a tender heart can tie itself in knots wondering, "Am I one of them?" Scripture never sends you to climb into heaven and read some hidden book. It sends you to Christ. Jesus says here that whoever comes to Him He will never cast out, and that it is the Father's will that everyone who looks to the Son and believes should have eternal life. Coming home from the other side of Sunday's sermon, do not stare inward hunting for proof. Look at Jesus, believe, and carry that settled rest into next Sunday's gathering. Father, when I am tempted to search my own heart for assurance, turn my face to Christ, where it is actually found. The law can read you your sentence. Only Christ can lift it. So look at Him, and believe, and be free.

Anton Brown

Senior Pastor

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July 19, 2026 • 5 Minute Read
July 19, 2026 | The Spirit Sends
Dear Mayflower family, This morning we sat down together in Acts 13:1-3, three quiet verses with no miracle anyone could see. A handful of church leaders in a big pagan city were worshiping the Lord, praying, and fasting, and into that ordinary gathering the Holy Spirit spoke: "Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them." For the first time in Acts, a local church deliberately sends its own people to carry the gospel to the nations. And it does not happen at headquarters in Jerusalem or at a council of apostles. It happens in a congregation, a church much like this one, gathered and seeking God. Now that you have heard the sermon, the week ahead is a chance to live inside what those verses opened up. The risen Christ sends His church by His Spirit. Antioch did not invent Paul's call; it heard it in worship, recognized it, and confirmed it. And then it did the hardest thing, the thing the whole text turns on: it opened its hands and let its two best men go. The readings below do not re-walk Sunday's passage. They walk around it, one thread each day, so that by Friday your own hands are a little more open than they were on Monday. Take five minutes a day, or sit with the whole week at once. There is no wrong way to use them. Before you begin, would you do one thing for me? Pick one name from the work of sending: a missionary this church supports, a believer you know who has been called somewhere costly, or simply someone you would hate to lose. Carry that name through the week, and pray that God would send laborers and that you would have the faith to let them go. We are not an Antioch because we feel brave. We are an Antioch when we worship God and hold nothing back from Him. In Christ, Pastor Anton Five-Day Devotional Monday: The promise with faces Read: Genesis 12:1-3 Two thousand years before Antioch, God promised Abraham that in his offspring all the families of the earth would be blessed. Paul says that promise was the gospel preached ahead of time, and the offspring is Christ. On Sunday we read a list of five names in one congregation, a Levite from Cyprus, two Africans, a nobleman from Herod's court, and a Pharisee from Jerusalem, and that ancient promise was taking on faces. Before God asked this church for anything, He had already filled it with living proof of what the blood of His Son can do: make one family out of strangers. Father, thank You that the church beside me on Sunday is the proof of a promise older than the world; let me see grace in faces unlike my own. Tuesday: A person, not a force Read: John 16:7-15 The Spirit of God speaks in Acts 13. He commands, He says "for me," He claims two men as His own, because He is not an influence or an energy but God Himself, with the Father and the Son. Jesus had promised exactly this Spirit, the Helper who would come, guide, and glorify the Son. And that changes how you treat Him: a force can only be used, but a person can be obeyed, or grieved. Antioch obeyed. Holy Spirit, You are God; teach me to listen for You and obey You, and keep me from ever grieving the One who was sent to lead me home. Wednesday: The call comes from outside you Read: Acts 9:10-16 Long before the meeting in Antioch, the Lord had already named Saul His chosen instrument to carry His name before the Gentiles. The church did not create that call; it heard it, recognized it, and confirmed it. Our culture tells you to look inside yourself, find your passion, and build your life out of it, and then leaves you terrified of choosing wrong. Acts hands you a better grammar: the call comes from outside you, it is heard in worship, and it is given for service, not for self-fulfillment. Lord, free me from the exhausting search inside myself, and set me in the worshiping church where Your call is heard. Thursday: He did not spare His own Son Read: Romans 8:31-39 How does a church open its hands and let its best people go? There is only one answer deep enough. The Father did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, to a manger, to a cross, to a tomb, for the nations and for you. The Son rose, and now He sends. A church that has received Christ can release anything, because open hands are not a loss of security; for a people kept by God, open hands are worship. Father, You opened Your hands first and gave Your Son for me; loosen my closed fists and make my open hands an act of worship. Friday: Pray the Lord of the harvest Read: Matthew 9:35-38 Jesus saw the crowds, had compassion on them, and told His people to pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers. That is the prayer Antioch was living when the Spirit spoke, and it is the prayer this church can pray now, with expectancy, for the people in these very pews. The first missionary journey began the way the modern missionary movement began, in a prayer meeting. Carry that prayer into next Sunday's gathering, and bring the name you have been praying all week. Lord of the harvest, speak to us the way You spoke to Antioch, and give us the faith to let our laborers go. The Spirit sends; the church lets go. Open your hands this week.

Anton Brown

Senior Pastor

July 12, 2026 • 5 Minute Read
July 12, 2026 | Glory Withheld
On Sunday morning, we finished Acts 12 together, standing in the theater at Caesarea where a king put on a silver robe, took his throne, and let a crowd call him a god. Acts 12:20-25 turns on one verdict, struck down in a single sentence: the angel of the Lord felled Herod "because he did not give God the glory." He never claimed to be a god. He simply stood there in the borrowed shine and soaked it in. And reality answered. The chapter that opened with a king triumphing closes with the king dead, Peter free, and the word of God increasing and multiplying. Now that you have heard the sermon, the week ahead is a chance to sit with the question that burned over that throne and burns over every one of us: who gets the glory? Every one of us lives in front of some audience whose shout we crave, and every one of us knows the quiet trade of keeping a little of the credit that belongs to God. The readings below do not re-walk Sunday's passage. They walk around it, one thread each day, so that by Friday you have somewhere firm to stand. Take five minutes a day, or sit with the whole week at once. There is no wrong way to use them. Before you begin, would you do one thing for me? Name your own theater. Pick the audience whose praise has quietly become your daily bread, the room or the screen or the person whose approval you replay at night. Carry that one honest admission through the week, and each day hand the glory back where it belongs. We are not freed from chasing the shout because we try harder. We are freed when we take refuge in the King who was struck in our place. In Christ, Pastor Anton Five-Day Devotional Monday: The bread that costs you no shout Read: John 6:1-14 The kings of this world hold the bread to harvest worship, and Herod was no different: the cities flattered him because their food came through his hand. Then watch another King with bread in His hands, five loaves for five thousand hungry people. He did not make them grovel for it. He gave thanks, and He gave it away. The next day He refused their crown and offered them Himself instead: "I am the bread of life." Christ feeds you without needing a purchased shout, because He has no hunger your praise could fill. Lord Jesus, feed me Yourself this week, and free me from performing for the bread You give so freely. Tuesday: The glory He will not share Read: Isaiah 42:5-9 God says it plainly: "I am the LORD; that is my name; my glory I give to no other." On Sunday we learned that glory is not a compliment God enjoys. Glory is the truth about who He is, the God who has all life and blessedness in and of Himself and draws none of it from us. So a creature who soaks up that glory is publishing a lie about reality itself, and on the appointed day reality answered Herod. Let the verdict search you: where have you been soaking in a shine that belongs to God alone? Father, expose the glory I have quietly kept for myself, and teach me to hand it back to You. Wednesday: The patience that means to lead you home Read: Romans 2:1-11 If God strikes glory-thieves, why is the world still full of proud men shining on their stages? Because Herod's sudden fall is the exception God wrote down so that no one would misread the ordinary delay. The everyday sight of the proud going unpunished is not God looking away; it is His kindness, and Paul tells us what that kindness is for: it "is meant to lead you to repentance." Judgment delayed is not judgment canceled. So do not envy the shining. Pity it, and pray for it. Father, turn my envy of the proud into prayer for them, and lead me by Your kindness deeper into repentance. Thursday: The King who emptied Himself Read: Philippians 2:5-11 Run the contrast to its end, because the gospel hangs on it. Herod was a man who let a crowd call him a god, and he was struck down. Jesus Christ is God who became a man, who "did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself." He refused every stolen shout, even the devil's offer of all the kingdoms of the world. And then, at another Passover, the strike that glory-thieves deserve fell on Him, not for His own glory-theft, for He had none, but for yours and for mine. Lord Jesus, thank You that the strike I earned fell on You, and that God has exalted You above every name. Friday: The word that outlives every king Read: Isaiah 55:6-11 Luke set the quietest, mightiest "but" in Acts directly against a corpse: the king stopped, but the word of God increased and multiplied. Isaiah saw it long before, the word that goes out from God's mouth and "shall not return to me empty." Kill an apostle, the word grows; bury a tyrant, the word grows, because the King who speaks it is alive and still speaking. So measure your hope by the Word, not by the weather, and refuse to be the crowd in the theater. Carry that into next Sunday's gathering, and send the glory past every man to the throne. Father, let Your Word grow in me this week, no matter what the news says, and keep my hope fixed on the King who still speaks. God shares many things. Glory is not one of them. Give it to Him this week, and live.

Anton Brown

Senior Pastor