I need the mic here. There we go. Good morning. It's, it's good to see you all out this morning. Welcome to our faith, annual Faith Promise Missions Conference.

We are going to start with a song here this morning on the screen. I'm sure some of you probably do not recognize it. Hark the master calleth. It's to the tune of Onward Christian Soldiers. So if you know Onward Christian Soldiers, that is the same tune.

So if you'll stand with me and we'll sing it together. Hark the master calleth. And let's sing this chorus together. While there's time, while there's time, we must tell the world of Jesus. Brother Rick, would you brother Rick Interline, would you open our service in prayer?

Lord Jesus, there is still time. You've given us today. We don't know about tomorrow. We thank you for this day. We ask that you will help us to be alert to opportunities to be your witnesses, alert to opportunities to bring a message of hope and everlasting life to those around us who are walking in darkness.

Please bless this service and the one again this evening, the final two services for this mission's conference. We ask these things in Jesus' name, amen. Amen. You may be seated. Again, this is our annual Faith Promise Missions Conference.

It started last night, with our International Supper. If you missed our International Supper, then you missed a really good time. We had more than plenty of wonderful food to eat, but also we got to hear from Joe and Bonnie and Valentin, their ministry, and and a message from Joe yesterday evening. And it was a blessing to hear about what Bibles International has been able to do in getting several entire translation. Say is it six entire Bibles?

And then how many New Testaments? Remember? There are quite a few. Over 30 New Testaments that they've now translated and then many other portions of scripture, and you have 47 projects currently. That's a lot.

And praise the Lord for the opportunity that they have had to get the word of God into the hands of people in a language that they understand and can read and come to know the Lord Jesus Christ and and be able to teach others also. So so vital. And so we we really enjoyed hearing about what the Lord is doing in their ministry. Have we you we supported you for ten years now? Has it been almost that long?

Wow. That it it doesn't it all seem like ten years have gone by. But, anyway, so they have a display back here on the right side. And if you wanna stop and chat with them after the service, I know they'd like love to talk with you. There are several, samples of, translations, the Bible back there that they have, it's interesting to look at the different languages.

Some of them you look at and go, is this a language? I mean, chicken, you know. Anyway, it's it's a lot different, incredibly different than our language and vitally important. So stop by and see them. Anyway, it was good to hear from them, yesterday evening.

If you missed Sunday school, you missed a good presentation from brother Rick Interline, and got to hear what the Lord is doing, particularly in The Philippines through Grace Dillon Medical Missions. Continue to keep them, in your prayers. On the back corner back here, I mentioned it last night, but there is a new missions display. There's a map back there. There are prayer cards for all of our missionaries.

There is string that goes to, where they are, based, in their mission. Hopefully, that will you'll take notice of that. I'll walk over, look at it, pray for those, missionaries. Maybe you could pick a special one, to sort of adopt, to pray for on a regular basis, as your missionary. And, I know, Rick's string goes from his card to here in Florida where they live, but probably should have another string that goes from there over to The Philippines because that's where he is spending majority of his missions work over in The Philippines now.

And it was good to hear what the Lord is doing there and for the needs that they have as well. So thank you, brother Rick and Becky, and keep them in your prayers if you would. So this morning, we're gonna hear from brother John Lehman. He's the fellow up here on the front row. And, anyway, he's gonna share with us about his ministry.

It's a little bit different. Hopefully, it'll be an encouragement to you and, important one in several areas. So he'll be up. We'll have a video to show here in a few minutes, and then he'll be bringing the message this morning. And then I beg of you, please come back tonight.

Okay? We do have a 06:00 service, and we have another missionary, Jimmy Pierre. Alright. Wave your hand, Jim. Alright.

Jimmy is gonna be speaking in the service this evening. He is gonna be sharing, his love for the people of Haiti and the ministry that God has called him and his wife Rachel to there. She would be with him this morning, but they have a two week old baby. And so so she couldn't come with him today. And John's wife would be here too, but he had to fly in.

He had other stuff going on. He managed to squeeze a flight in to make it in yesterday, and so we're so glad of that. But but, anyway, please come back tonight and hear what the Lord has laid on, Jimmy's heart and, the ministry that he's been called to. He has a display back there. If you see him and you see the display, you know the two go together.

So that's you can't miss the big picture of him and his wife, Rachel, back there on the display. It's a beautiful display. So, but, so take time to to visit those, if you would, this morning. So let's see. Other announcements.

I have several this morning. I'm gonna have to take a few minutes. You have an insert in your bulletin. Okay? So if you have grabbed a bulletin, which I hope you did, you have an insert in the bulletin.

If you didn't grab a bulletin, please grab one on your way out. The insert inside the bulletin says the top, Missouri Avenue Baptist Church. No big surprise there. Under that, it says faith promise missions ministry for 2023 and '24. Okay?

So this explains how we do worldwide missions at Missouri Avenue Baptist Church. We do something called faith promise, And that is our missions giving is separate from our general offering to the church. We keep it separate and our missionaries are supported solely from the offerings that come into our missions fund. Okay? So when you give, on Sunday or whenever, you need to designate on your check or on the envelope what amount of that will go to missions so that we know to put that to designate that for our missionaries.

Okay? So at the bottom of the backside of that pamphlet that I told you about, the bottom backside it says on the bottom there, this this was what we used to be. We handed out as a faith promise card, but we don't do that anymore and we don't take those up. We base our goal on what comes in in the month of May. However, I wanted to still put this in the pamphlet, so to encourage you to pray and to ask the Lord for what he would have you to give to missions this coming year at Missouri Avenue Baptist Church.

So it says here, my faith promised personal pledge. Second Corinthians nine seven, every man according to his purpose within his heart, so let him give, not grudgingly nor of necessity for God loveth a cheerful giver. Independence upon God, I will pray for and give to world evangelism through Missouri Avenue Baptist Church so much each month or week. Now again, we don't we don't take this up. We don't know what you put on there, if you wrote anything on there.

All I ask is that you pray and ask the Lord what he would have you to give each month to the missions program of Missouri Avenue Baptist Church so that we can support continue to support all those missionaries on that mission board back there that the Lord has given us and maybe others that we have the opportunity to do so if we continue to see the funds come in and maybe even more, come in. Over the past several years, we have seen our missions budget grow a little bit, every year. Every year, we have either met our goal or come extremely close to meeting our goal. This little thing that looks like a clock up here keeps track of how we're doing and reaching our mission's goal. That is if I remember to move it along, sometimes I forget for three months and it makes a big jump.

But but we made our goal actually a month early this past year for our missions ministry. And I do appreciate very much the giving of our church. I think for the size of our church, we give a considerable amount to to missions to be able to support these missionaries. And I hope that also represents prayer support as well because they don't just need our money. They need our prayers.

They need our prayers because it is the Lord that changes hearts. It's the Lord that opens doors. And it is the holy spirit that works in people's lives through the preaching of the word of God. And so so please pray and ask the Lord what he would have you to give. Maybe you might be able to give a little bit more this year.

We personally have upped ours a little bit here and a little bit there, and the Lord has continued to bless us personally and as a family. And, the Lord, says, seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be, what, added unto you. The kingdom of God is made up of people who come to know Christ as savior. And part of seeking first the kingdom of God is seeking souls for Jesus Christ. This this ministry is part of that.

Also, those tracks on the back table back there are part of that. Please take them. Hand them out. Share with others what Jesus has done for you because they need him just as much as you needed him and still do. So we have a mission here, and we have privilege to partner with others around the world represented by these flags up here in the countries that they're in as they minister as well this morning.

So now please consider that prayerfully. Also, on the back of this is a list of all our current missionaries so that you can take that home. Maybe put it somewhere where you'll see it so you can pray for them. Also, their email addresses, so and our new directory has all of the birthdays and all of the missionaries and kids and and all of that. And I'm sure they would love to get an email saying, birthday.

We're praying for you at Missouri Avenue Baptist Church. I'm sure it would make their day. Alright. So let's see. What else?

Love offering. There's a plate on the back table back there. There's a sign that says love offering for the missions conference. If, if you have received a blessing this weekend, I'm sure you have. Please be a blessing to, our missionaries and their ministry to help provide for their needs by leaving a love offering in the plate back there.

It'll be divided up between the four missionaries that we have with us here this this week. So let's see. I have gift bags. Our ladies put, particularly Cheryl Vogt headed up, put some gift bags together for the missionaries this morning. The ladies got together back a month ago and made a bunch of, homemade cards, and, they they actually do a pretty good job.

And, so they're in the bag along with some other stuff, that was brought. And so I'm gonna hand these out at this time before I forget. So alright. So this says Rick and Becky, enter. Right.

It says Joe and Bonnie Valentin. Jimmy and Rachel here. And let's see, who does that leave? Alright. And thank you all for who have pitched in for that as well.

So let's see. Am I missing anything that was vitally important? I don't think so. Alright. Off if I didn't, I'll I'll come up with it later.

Alright. Let's let's sing another song. It's O Zion Haste. It's 430 in your hymn book or you can look up here on the screen. If you can, please stand and sing with us.

O Zion Haste. And this chorus. Lord, lay some soul upon my heart. Amen. You may be seated.

At this time, brother Lehman, would you do you want me to introduce your video? I'd be glad to. Okay. Alright. Come on.

Well, it's a privilege to be with you all. Thank you so much for this kind invitation. I've been privileged to have served in Greenville, South Carolina Indianapolis, Indiana and Lansdale, Pennsylvania. And then you'll be hearing a little bit more about that progression here in a four minute and fifty one second video. So, if you'd be willing to share that now and then I'll come afterwards and flesh out a few more details, but thank you so much.

Alright. Let me see if I can take this back. There we go. Alright. We're gonna get to hear from brother Lehman a little more.

He have a PowerPoint presentation, and he'll be bringing the message in just a few minutes. And I've enjoyed, haven't got to spend a whole lot of time with him, but I've enjoyed what little we've had, picking him up at the airport and, and such. And I'm looking forward to what the Lord lays on his heart. But before we do that, let's sing another song. You can remain seated.

This is entitled, To the Regions Beyond. You probably can't see it too much, but words by a b Simpson. Most of you probably don't know who a b Simpson is. Miss Barbara, do you know who a b Simpson is? He's the founder of Christian Missionary Alliance, the denomination that is miss Barbara was, grew up in and, similar to to Baptist.

But he was a a preacher and, back, several, like, a hundred years ago, several decades ago. And he wrote the words to this song that you're probably not that familiar with, but he was particularly strong in the area of missions and the need to get support missionaries and worked very hard to get missionaries out of the world to preach the gospel. And so this the words of this song was written by him and Margaret May Simpson wrote the music, so I'm guessing maybe that was his wife. I don't know. But it's entitled to the regions beyond.

So let's sing it together. Amen. Amen. The children can be dismissed for Children's Church at well, we don't have any this morning, do we? Alright.

We do have a little one in the nursery, I'm guessing, don't we? Damian's little girl's in the nursery this morning. I I assume that because Jules is not sitting. She abandoned you, Dennis. But I think she's back in the nursery with Amira this morning.

So we're glad to see that. At this time, brother Lehman, if you wanna come on back up and share with us more about your ministry and what the Lord has laid on your heart today. I do have a prayer card for my wife and I, and I'll be standing at the back the back table there where there's a globe and some cards. If you'd like to stop by, I'd love to visit with you, and just the privilege of being part of this conference has been really a blessing. You're raising your hand.

Okay. Oh, thanks. Okay. There we go. Thank you guys for saying that.

I know that watching that little video must have seemed like taking a drink out of a fire hose. I'd like to flesh out two of the trips if I could. First is from Australia. Last summer, we were there for a marriage and parenting seminar. And while there, in speaking with one of the Aussie leaders, he mentioned a very staggering statistic.

There are a 140 gospel preaching churches, but only 40 of them have pastors. And so, the thought that we share as we talked about that was that we would travel over there perhaps once a year and host pastoral training for them. And of course, Australia is a very large country, a large island, and it might be one city this year and then another city the next year. We let these 140 churches know of that occurring and then tell them what city we're gonna be at if they're able to come. And we hope it can get into a rhythm where it's always the same week of the same month every year.

The second I'd like to flesh out is the counseling training that's gonna, Lord willing, take place in Norway. I've been part of an organization here in America called the Association of Certified Biblical Counselors. And during my part of that, we have been trained to train others in counseling. Well, of course, for the longest time that's been here in America. We've been training different ones in different sites.

And now the thought and the plan is to be part of an organization called OIC. It stands for Overseas Instruction and Counseling. And with that organization, we would be able to go into countries and train nationals to then counsel and or even train their own folks. And so, in Norway, the idea would be the same plan is that we could go in one week of the same month each year and annually have that counseling training there or we might move around. And as you can tell, we're praying about this and pursuing it.

We've been given the open door right now to get into Norway, which was a pretty big deal. And several other Eastern European countries will allow us to come in and train. So, those are the two thoughts I just wanted to clarify a little bit out of the the video that you saw. Other than that, what you have seen is what we really believe the Lord's directing us to do. And you heard the plans that we had and we just appreciate you praying for us.

I appreciate how you said we need your prayers more than we need your money. It really is a blessing to know that God's people are behind us. And even in this trip, I've seen the Lord's hand in our life specifically getting us here and Lord willing getting us home. I have a 06:30 breakfast meeting I'm speaking at Monday morning in Greenville. So, as long as that flight that leaves tonight at 09:07 can get delayed as long as it wants to.

As long as I get home by 06:00, I should be fine. But Lord willing, that'll all occur. Everything's worked out so beautifully up to this point and I just really believe the Lord will will culminate that. I thought I'd introduce my wife to you. Susie and I are on our forty second year of marriage.

Susie herself is from Ohio and I'm from Indiana. Although as you heard, spent fifteen of my first eighteen years in Taiwan. We both graduated high school in 1977, met six months later in our freshman year at Bob Jones University, dated for three and a half years and have been married since 1981. We enjoy motorcycling together. My first licensed vehicle being in Taiwan was a motorcycle.

So, as the saying goes, you can take the boy out of Taiwan, but you can't take Taiwan out of the boy. And so, enjoy doing that on occasions. Also, the Lord's granted us the privilege over these last seven years really to do quite a few mission trips. And we enjoy that doing that together. And then the third, we enjoy snow skiing.

Realize there are not too many mountains down here in Florida. But this is very interesting statistic. She teaches at a mountain in North Carolina. She's done that for twenty two years and it's called Cataloochee. It's in Maggie Valley, North Carolina and they claim that they are the closest ski slope to Florida.

So, how many of you have been up there and skied in North Carolina at all? Yes, sir. Look at you. Cataloochee? No.

Okay. Yeah. There's several. There's Boone and there's Wolf Laurel and some of these other things. Yeah.

Look at you. Yeah. Well well, if you haven't been, you have an invitation. She'll be there next winter until we start leaving on these trips and love to meet you and teach you in that way. I always say, she's the artistic one and I'm the athletic one.

I just try to keep up, but she really enjoys doing that. God has gifted us with four children who are now married and we have 12 grandchildren. When you come into a missions conference, when you have anyone speak about missions, when you have anyone talk about, sing about, think about, what's one word or one phrase that you often think of? Go. Yes, ma'am.

Go. When we think about the New Testament, the first four books of the New Testament, the Gospels, Jesus throughout those four books was often saying, come. Come into me all you you that are laden with guilt, laden with sin and I will give you rest. He was often calling his disciples. I want you to come and join me.

But then, of course, we know that when he was ascending into heaven, his last words, as you see on the map here, his last words to his disciples were, go. Go into all the world. So, of course, that was a very broad statement to his 12 and it continues throughout these years. All the world. Acts one eight.

We won't go into a huge theological discussion here, but the Greek word for go I thought at least we could have one word that we walk out of here knowing and you can say this to each other as you leave. I get to look at my notes here to make sure I say it correctly. No. But I would know this word, Go. And let's see how God specifically has encouraged three different people in the book of Acts.

We'll look at Acts eight, Acts nine and Acts 10, where he uses this word porevu. Go. Now, of course, depending on which translation you're reading, you might read go, you might read advance, you might mean go forward. But nonetheless, the point is go. It's personal.

So, let's look now, if you would, in your bibles at Acts chapter eight. And if you would, go ahead and bring yourself down to verse 26. But in Acts eight, I'll just give a little bit of a talk, discussion, dialogue about that book. So, Philip is the man that we're reading about. And he had actually, at one point in time in his life, and one point in time of his ministry, been all the way to Samaria.

Now, Samaria is almost a 100 miles away from Jerusalem. And in this day and age, you can fly 600 and some miles in less than an hour and twenty five minutes. Walking at a four I'm I'm sorry. Walking at yeah, four miles an hour, fifteen minute mile, it would take him twenty five hours to get that far. Camels, donkeys, caravans, it would be quite a quite a journey for him.

Well, he had been in Samaria and he had been preaching and teaching. And the implication here is that he had influenced and impacted an Ethiopian. Now, get down to verse 26. And here we read, the angel of the Lord spake unto Philip saying, Poreivu, arise and go toward the South under the way that goes down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert. And he arose and went and behold a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under Candace, queen of the Ethiopians who had the charge of all her treasure and had come to Jerusalem for to worship.

So he'd come to Jesus. Then he had thought, well, I need to come and worship where Jesus is being talked about. Verse 29, the spirit said unto Philip, go, go near and join thyself to his chariot. And we read, and Philip ran thither to him and heard him read the prophet Isaiahs. So, think about this first setting here.

We have this Ethiopian of high ranking authority who wants to learn about Jesus. And, the only way he is gonna learn about Jesus is for someone to go and tell him. And, here we read that God tells him to go, as in to Philip, to go find this man. But, I thought it was really interesting. He tells him to go, but he never told him he was gonna meet this Ethiopian.

He never said what he was going to do. He just simply said, I want you to go. And, right away, Philip says, okay. God told me, go get on this road going south to Gaza. I'm on my way.

And then, along the way, which is the way the Lord works so many times, isn't it? Along the way, he begins to say, okay now. Now that you're going, I want you to go speak to this man who's sitting in this chariot. And it says he ran. I thought that is so neat.

He was eager to fulfill God's mission. He wasn't just complacent like, oh, brother, I'm talking to people all the time. I don't have enough energy anymore. I had to walk all the way to Samaria. Now, gotta walk all the way around to Gaza.

No. He runs to him and then he reads, listen to this, in his humiliation he's talking about he was led to a he was led as a sheep to the slaughter and like a lamb dumb before his shearer, so open he not his mouth. And the fellow goes, I don't understand this. I wish I had someone that could explain that. And Peter Philip goes, I'm glad you asked.

I have come here to talk to you. So, Philip here begins explaining to him and just think about this. He begins explaining to him the entire gospel, Which of course starts all the back in Genesis. And we won't spend the whole time bringing us to that point. But along the way, man was created, man fell, man separated from God, God makes a way to escape.

Jesus dies for our sins and then to show his identification with his father, he is baptized publicly. Well, along the way, Philip is saying that, the Ethiopian and he are driving in his chariot and he goes, hey, there's some water. What's keeping me from getting baptized? I mean, he was that willing, this Ethiopian, to do what God had told him to do. And Philip was that willing to say, well, let's just get in the water.

Let's fulfill this. His going meant he met a man who needed Jesus, brought him to full clarification and the baptism. And then it's very interesting at the end of that little section of scripture you read, and then Philip departed. I mean, was gone. God took him away.

That was his only time to be there. Until we get to heaven, we probably won't know where Philip ended up coming after he was taken away from this Ethiopian. Might have been back in Jerusalem. Might have been back in Samaria. I don't know.

But Philip was willing to go. I thought that was a very interesting dynamic. And then, when he has gone, he's gone. Your job's done Philip. Alright.

I'll take you somewhere else. Now, you would go to chapter nine. We read in chapter nine and I'll start out reading here, and Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord went under the high priest and desired of him letters to Damascus, to the synagogues that if he found any of his way whether they were men or women he might bring them bound into Jerusalem. So he's heading out to bring these captives. And then of course we read, as he journeyed he came near Damascus and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven.

And of course, we know the rest of that story. It wasn't the light that blinded him because he had two other men with him. It was God blinding him and saying, you know what? You have gone far enough. You think you're serving me by killing my people, but I'm not gonna let you do that anymore.

So, he blinds him. These friends of him take him to Damascus and put him in a room. Now, to Saul he couldn't see anything. So I can't say it was light room or a dark room, but it was a room. To him it was dark.

And he sits there for three days. Verse 10, and there was a certain disciple. Remember verse one, Saul is seeking disciples to kill them. Verse 10, there was a certain disciple at Damascus named Ananias and to him said the Lord in the vision, Ananias. And he said, behold here I am.

And the Lord said unto him, Poreivu arise and go and inquire at the house of Judas for one called Saul of Tarsus for behold he prayeth. Can you imagine what Ananias' first thought was? Verse one, Saul breathing out threatenings against the disciples. Ananias verse 10, a disciple of the Lord. I'm gonna go into Saul's presence and you want me to help him?

And yet, what does he do? He says here specifically, and has seen in a vision a man named Ananias coming in and putting his hand on him. So, Saul who had been blinded knew that someone was gonna come help him. Ananias answers and said, Lord, I have heard by many of this man how much evil he had done to the saints at Jerusalem. Like, Lord, I think there's someone else you should be sending.

Verse thirteen, fourteen, and and and there he has authority from the chief priest to blind all that call on thy name. But the Lord said unto him, go, pouravu, go thy way for he is a chosen vessel unto me. So what does Ananias do? He does exactly what God told him to do. He went.

Ananias, you read, he departed and went and laid his hand on him and immediately Saul could see. And you can imagine you put yourselves into Ananias' shoes. Yeah, God might have told me to come here and he might have had a vision that I was coming and he might say that he's really gonna worship God, but how did he used to worship God? He killed people like me. But his eyes open, we then read further that the people were astonished that wasn't this the man who was persecuting them.

Later he goes back to Jerusalem and the disciples wanted to bring him specifically closer to his relationship with God. The command was to go. He did and look at the result. If you think about it, of course, would not have let this happen. He would have done it his way.

But, here Saul becomes Paul and wrote so much of the New Testament. He knew his persecution. He knew who he persecuted. Then he knew how God stopped him from that. And now I need to go help him.

So, have go, go, and then the third one is in chapter 10. If you want to jump then to chapter 10. This is a very lengthy passage. I won't read the whole thing, kind of do like I've done before. But I love to put the context out for us to see how these people responded.

There was a certain man in Caesarea now called Cornelius, a centurion of the band called the Italian band. Notice it says he was a devout man. Well, think about a centurion. That would not have been a Jew. That would have been more than likely you could say a Greek or a Roman.

Someone who had grown up in the way of carnality and sin, and yet he had been impacted by the gospel. He had come to Jesus and he wanted to follow him. He sees in a vision, verse three, about the ninth hour of the day an angel of God coming and saying, Cornelius. And when he looked on him he was afraid and said, what is it? Thy prayer and thine alms are come up for memorial for God.

And now he says, verse five, send me, or send men to Joppa and call for one Simon whose name is Peter. So, here he's having to go to speak to a Jew. To them, that is really hard. Of course, you know what Jesus says. I'm supposed to do it.

I'm supposed to love others like I love me. I'm supposed to love others like Christ loved me. And yet, in that whole context, here we see the matter that Cornelius is doubting, but so too was, in this case here, you could say Peter. Verse 13, all these four footed beasts, verse 14, Peter says to the Lord, no, I'm not supposed to eat things that are unclean. I'm not supposed have this kind of meat.

And what does the voice say? What God has cleansed, don't call it common. What he's wanting Peter to now do is go speak to the centurion. A Jew speaking to a Greek or a Roman. You could have said, well, maybe that's unclean.

I'm just supposed to evangelize all the Jews. And Jesus said, wait, I came to die for both. And so, read on, if you read on the whole chapter there, you see that he specifically is telling him to go. So, Peter sees this vision that there's this clean and this unclean. And God's saying, I said it was clean, it's clean.

So, what does he do? He goes to verse 20. We read again that the Lord says, arise and go down. And so, course, Peter goes down, goes to Cornelius and explains that God says, what you need is the God of heaven. The God that's gonna worship, that you're gonna worship.

Verse 44 goes on and says that the Holy Spirit falls on the Gentiles and many are converted. The Cornelius, I'm sorry, the centurion's whole process here, this Cornelius result was for him to come to Jesus. In each case, these men went without knowing of their exact ministry outcome, but notice if they wouldn't have gone, there would have been no promotion of God and his word in his way. Go, verse eight, chapter eight. Go in verse nine and go in verse 10.

Now, what does that mean for us? We love to know people are going. We love to know that there are people serving. And we can at times almost perhaps be a little like, well, I'm not called. I'm not going to Hong Kong.

I'm not going to Japan. I'm not going to so how do I go? Well, the first thing we need to remember and realize is when God says go, we don't have to know what the cost is. We don't have to know exactly what our role is gonna be. I I don't know.

I mean, I'm you want me to go talk to that person? Well, let me evaluate that a little bit. Let me think about that a while. No. Don't know what the cost is.

I don't know what your role is. I must be willing to go. I mean, how many how many times have we heard, I must go and then I'm so glad he's going. And I'm not talking about the mission field here as far as a country mission field. I'm talking about in just a second, I'm gonna show a few more ideas.

But I must trust God in all things. So, let's think about that for a moment. You go to work on a regular basis. That is a mission field that you have that I do not have. It's a mission field that you do not have.

You have made acquaintances. You have made friends. You have noted people who have undoubtedly said, how can you be how can you be happy during 2020? How can you be happy when things are going tough in your family? Well, I'm glad you asked.

And that gives you a platform that none of us have. You have your credentials. You have your abilities. I would encourage you to consider that a fabulous mission field. You have neighbors that you have great impact on.

I know you don't have to shovel their snow, but you can mow their lawn, rake their leaves, be nice to them when they get out of their car, encourage them, any projects you want on Saturday, can I help you with? Plate of cookies, whatever. You haven't inroads with those neighbors that I don't have. That none of the rest of us have, except those that live in that neighborhood. Let me encourage you to use that as a great mission field.

Your family. Many of you have families that have at least one individual, if not many, who aren't very close to Jesus. That is a wonderful mission field. You have the same last name or you're related to their wife, or their husband, or their son, or their daughter. And you can impact them in a great way.

I often think, in our lives, we're always every time we come in contact with someone, we're supposed to help them come closer to Jesus. If they don't know him, in my testimony, I help them get one step closer. Maybe some plant, some water, God gets the increase. Or then, secondly, the believers that you come in contact with. Some have backslidden.

Some have strayed. Some have intentionally redirected their thoughts. Help them become closer to Jesus. And then, finally, you have the privilege of discipling your children. That can seem like so much work.

But what a, what a thought. Your disciple is two months old. Your disciple is six months old. Your disciple is now 10. Your disciple is now 12.

You're helping them come closer to Jesus. When you think of missions, you think of going. I would encourage us all today to realize and be refreshed in where can I go? What can I do to impact someone else to be closer to Jesus as a result of my life? I found this little statement.

They actually misspelled the word, so don't get caught up in that. But it says, God is faithful. But it says, God is not faithful to fulfill your calling. You need to be faithful to fulfill your calling. First Thessalonians five twenty four.

We heard it in the little presentation. But faithful is he that calleth you who also will do it. If he has a plan for you, he will give you the strength to do it. He will give you the encouragement to do it. He'll give you the fortitude to do it.

And he will be with you all the way. Lord bless you as you continue to faithfully serve him here or there in your various mission fields. Pastor, thank you. Amen. Thank you, brother Lehman.

Just a moment. We're gonna close our service this morning by singing 398 if you wanna find it in your hymn book. It's called follow on. And the Lord isn't asking us to go anywhere he hasn't gone. He left heaven to come to earth in order to save our souls, in order to do what for humanity, what we could not do for ourselves.

The his father asked him to go, and he left. He came, and he died for us on the cross. And he said, as the father has sent me, so what? Send I you. And the Lord has sent us.

When I was thinking about while he was preaching, a couple things popped into my mind. You don't have to know the cost and you don't have to know what was that second thing? I'm looking at it. Alright. No.

I got I got it right here on your yeah. Here we go. Yeah. You don't have to know your responsibilities. I was a junior in high school, and I was at camp.

And, somebody preached a message on on full time service. And, I I just could not get away from that message. Two messages that that that I remember I don't I say I remember I don't remember the messages. I just remember what God did during the messages. The one was when I was nine years old and I trusted Christ as savior.

The other one was when I was a junior in high school at camp, and, he asked all those to come forward. And and I wasn't one to come forward just for the sake of it, you know, and, who felt the Lord calling them into full time Christian service. And that night, I just couldn't get away from it, and I I went forward and I said, Lord, I I I this is I believe this is what you want. And then I argued with him for the next three and a half years on what that meant Because, certainly, I, who was scared to death to be up in front of people, could never get up in front of people and preach or teach or be a pastor or a missionary or anything like that. But, you know, the Lord knows what he's doing, and the Lord isn't gonna ask you to do anything that he won't be there to help you do.

He calls us to go to our neighbors, to our coworkers, to the other side of the world. He is sending us and he will go with us and he will help us. What does he need? He needs us to trust him and to be willing to what? And to be willing to go.

And I don't know who the Lord may ask you to go to this week or next or where he may ask you to go. I certainly wasn't looking to come to Georgia when I graduated from college, and I certainly wasn't coming, planning to come to Florida when I left Georgia. I wanted to go back towards Virginia where I'm from. But the Lord's will is perfect, and we just need we just need to to trust in him. And so the Lord may be calling you today.

Maybe put someone or some place or or some calling on your heart. Don't don't push him. Don't push him away. Respond. Follow him.

Let him do have his way, in your life and in your heart, today. So if you stand with me and let's sing together, 398. Follow on. The Lord spoke to your heart. You don't have to sing.

You can just pray or I'll meet you up here if you want me to pray with you. Amen. Three three, please, before you leave this morning. Number one, don't forget about the love offering for the missionaries who have come some quite a distance to be with us. Secondly, stop by and look at their displays.

Take a prayer card that you might be reminded to pray for them or chat with them a minute before you go. Number three, come back tonight at 06:00 and you'll get to hear about brother Pierre's ministry and what the Lord has laid upon his heart. Brother Harry Poole, would you dismiss us in a word of prayer? Amen.