Think of preacher Sunday night in the house of the Lord with a blessing Monday nights better If you enjoy being here Sunday night come back for Monday night and Tuesday night and Wednesday night and Thursday night then join us Friday night at your Mission Church there then take a break on Saturday and we'll do it all over again on next Sunday morning You know, they say you can't get too much of a good thing. I want to get in on that study. I really do. And being together with God's people is a good thing. Now, I like, I'm a techie type person, I like high tech stuff, and when computers first came out in the late 70s and became more popular in the 80s, and some of us could remember the old Radio Shack TRS-80 computer there, you know, and just we thought it was really great. You could play a little pong game and the ball goes back and forth and hit it back and forth. You've come a long way since those days. And a lot of good high-tech technology we're using in our churches. I think it's great. Your live streaming worked out well for us. As I mentioned this morning, we were over in Rome and you had an international ministry. There to Rome Italy as we sat there and worshipped with you and we're blessed by all that God is doing here, but what sometimes there's a drawback and you know It's this thing right over here. I don't know. We've got it around here somewhere there this thing right over here and you know, I Got my glasses to go make your I I have my hearing aid, they go in my ear. These things go on my ear. Folks, there's just so much real estate up there. And sometimes it gets bouncing around and it falls off or something like that, you know. I don't think I had this a couple of years ago when I was here. I think you just had the lapel clip on there and I used to have problems with those too. I'd knock them off and they'd dangle by my knee or something, you know. But I remember the first time I wore one of these things, and I wasn't used to it. And God clipped it on my ear, and there it was. And it's this little thing. I'm not looking at it, but I could see it. You know what I mean? And I forgot it was up there. And I was away preaching, and I thought it was a bug flying around my mouth. And I just took my hat, I go whack to whack it away, and the thing goes flying off. But I'm glad we have the technology. With glasses, I could see. With hearing aids, I could hear. And with this, you can hear. And so we're all blessed by the Lord. Now, missions. Some of you just say, oh, here we go again. Money. Missions. Here we go again. Commitment. The heart of God is in missions. And what is missus? Missus isn't just these flags in these countries. Missus is across the street, down the road, your neighbor. Missus is a soul, that's what it is. It doesn't make any difference the color of their skin. It doesn't make any difference what language they speak. It doesn't make any difference their culture. A soul is a soul in the eyes of God, perishing. A song a few moments ago. Rescue the perishing, its missions. Invest, I like that. You don't give up anything when you invest. You get a return. And what greater return can there be than the return of souls in glory? I guess in our digital world we have the GoFundMe things, you know, on the computers, and that's alright, that's okay. You know, somebody has a need and they start a GoFundMe and help somebody meet funeral expenses or medical expenses. But this goes beyond the physical. Not only binding and mending homes, not only helping young people to grow up in a Christian home that doesn't promote drugs and immorality, but serving the Lord. It's an investment in lives, but it's an investment in eternity as well. This card, you have it? It's in your hand. I want you to bring it every service. If you don't have one, we're gonna give you a new one. Bring it with you. Keep it where you keep your Bible, where you have your personal time and prayer time. Keep it in front of you. And daily ask God, God, what is your will for me in this matter of faith promise missions? And you place your hand upon it and say, God, this is my contact between you and my faith. in giving to this much needed cause, the cause of souls. You have your card? Hold it up. Let me see it. Everyone should have one. Let's hold it up. God bless you. Hold it up as I pray. Father, we lift this card up before you tonight. Lord, it's more than ink on a piece of paper, but Lord, it represents something tonight. of our love, our commitment, our desire to see souls saved. Lord, somebody was concerned about our soul. Now it's our turn to be concerned about somebody else's soul. And Lord, as we lift them up to you, we lift them up with a heartfelt desire that we will know your will and rejoice to do it. In the name of Jesus and amen. Thank you. God bless you. Take your Bibles tonight and turn to Matthew, the fourth chapter. Pastor made mention tonight, have a good faith promise missions, but he says if revival comes, we'll take that too. There's not much difference really between a missions conference and revival. There really isn't. It all has to do with the heart. When God owns your heart, he owns your wallet. And sometimes we have to have a personal revival in our heart before we can have a revival in faith-promised missions. And so while we're talking about missions, and some night this week, I'm not exactly sure, we'll talk about the mechanics of how this really, what's the difference between faith promise and tithe, and why do we do this, and what's God's plan? And God has everything outlined in the Bible. We don't have to have ice cream socials, and chicken dinners, and backyard sales to raise money for God. God has his plan, and his plan involves you. And God has left nothing to our imagination, but has taught us in the scriptures tonight. It's not easy for me to preach about money sometime and talk about it, but it's necessary. It's necessary for me to obey God, and it's necessary for you to hear what God wants you to hear. The music was wonderful. Wasn't that a beautiful song just now? Oh, I can get it. Well, praise God. I can get it. Yeah, through the blood of Jesus. Thank God the veil has been ripped. The entrance to the Holy of Holies has been made by the blood of the Lamb of God slain from the foundation of the world. Folks, if that doesn't grip your heart tonight, something's wrong. I'm not judging you, but I can't help but to think of Calvary. and the price as we made mention this morning that was paid for our souls and what was sung tonight. More precious than gold or silver. Can we ever put a price on that tonight? But before God touches our wallet, he's gotta touch our heart. In Matthew chapter four, what a familiar passage of scripture tonight. Jesus is with his disciples And verse 18, and Jesus, walking by the Sea of Galilee, saw two brethren, Simon, called Peter, and Andrew, his brother, casting a net into the sea for their fishers. And he said unto them, follow me. Follow me. Follow me. What a simple command. Two words. Follow me. Can you say that with me tonight? Let's say, what was the command of Christ? Follow me. Say it a little louder, folks. What was it? Follow me. Simple. What's complicated about that? What part of follow me don't we understand tonight? He said, follow me. And he goes on with that verse. And he gives the conclusion that if we follow him, something's going to happen. He says, follow me. And then he says, and I will make you. Fisher's a man. Follow me, and I will make you. They were not what God wanted them to be at this point. They needed to go through some life experiences and some testings and some lessons. But Jesus gave a simple command. He said, follow me. He had a plan for them. He had a job for them. He had a life for them. And the same with you tonight. God has a plan for your life. God has a plan for your family. God has a plan for this church. God has a plan for you. But so does the devil tonight. two different plans going dramatically different directions tonight. But Jesus said, follow me. His plan is that we will follow him and the promises he will make us tonight with a simple command. I want to look tonight into various passages of scripture and to see which way does God make us tonight. You know, God has, as I mentioned, God has a plan for all of us. No matter what your age, I don't care if you're a young girl here tonight, young man here tonight, middle-aged, or us more mature folks, God has a plan. You say, well, preacher, what can I do? I'm not young anymore. I can't do what I used to. God still has a plan for you. God's not done with you yet. by the simple fact that you're breathing God's air on this earth is telling me God is not done with you yet. How simple a thought. You work in a store. Maybe you work in a factory. And the hour comes for you to end your shift and end your time. And so you either punch the clock or sign out or do whatever you need to do. And when your work is done, where do you go? You go home. See, you're not home yet. Your shift's not done yet. Your job is not done yet. Now, some of us may be in overtime, but God still has a job for us to do. All right, maybe we all can't drive a bus. We all can't sing in the choir. I was watching folks go up, just sitting up in the choir. Man, I had a temptation. I go up there, sit up there, man. You wouldn't want that. But God has a plan for each and every one of us tonight. And all we have to do is follow him. It's as simple as that. And he says, if you will follow me, I will make you fishers of men. Western Pennsylvania, I was preaching in a Baptist church out there. Preacher said, Brother Sue, we're going to go visit Miss So-and-so. She's not been in church for about maybe 10 years because she's bedridden. She would love to be here. She would have a desire to be here. But she can't leave her home. She's homebound. and we want to pay her a visit. I said, I'd like that picture. We got to the house and her daughter showed us in. Brought us into the bedroom with his dear sister. Couldn't get out of bed for at least 10 years. Can you imagine that? Maybe you know someone like that or knew someone. What good might a God? Might be the thought. We walked in that room, and I thought, Lord, give me some words and a Bible verse to kind of encourage her, you know, and lift up her spirits. I never got to it. She beat me to it. She turned to me with the biggest smile, with the biggest glow on her face, and just welcomed us in there. And I was the one that was encouraged. I'm going to tell you something. You have nursing home ministry? If you've never been on nursing home ministry, I'm going to tell you something. You don't know what a blessing that is. I've gone so many times to nursing homes to encourage somebody and maybe make them lighten their load and make them have some joy in life. And all of a sudden, they start lifting my heart and lifting my soul, and I leave more refreshed than when I went in. And she laid there, and we talked for a while and fellowshiped. And she said to me, she says, Brother, I can't do much. I'm bedridden, but I know God's not done with me yet. What an attitude. What she had requested was, over her bed, they built a little platform, and they put cork on the bottom. They made a billboard out of it, actually, is what it was. And they would pin up prayer letters from missionaries. They would put prayer cards under there, and all day long, she'd sit there, she'd read those letters, and she would pray for those missionaries. She looked at those prayer cards, and she'd pray for that one in faraway country. She couldn't go to church, and she couldn't do what she did, but she did what she could do, and she could pray, and my, did she pray. Just before I left, she grabbed my arm, And she said, Brother Sousa? I said, yes, ma'am. She said, would you allow me to put you at my prayer ceiling? What an honor it was. I tell you, God has a plan for you. Many of us can do more than that today. And all we have to do is follow Jesus. It's as simple as that. So in which way? Jesus said, follow me and I will make you. The most important thing about your life is if you let Christ make you. The most important thing about your life, if you follow Jesus, not how good you are in the brain department, and not how smart you are in book learning that you might have, but what you can do to follow Jesus and Let him make you. That's what I want to preach about these next few moments this evening. In what ways does God want to make us? Now, folks, can we agree that you should never stop growing in your Christian life? Do we agree to that? You should never reach a plateau where I'm as spiritual as I'm ever going to get. No, no, no, no. You lost your vision. You lost your purpose. You get the feeling that way. It's kind of like, and I'm sure I told you I'm not going into detail, but when I married my wife, standing at that altar, looking into her face, I didn't think I could love her any more than I did at that moment. She had all of my heart. She had all of my love, all of my desire, all of my hopes, all of my dreams. I couldn't love you anymore. You got it all. But I was wrong. Some of you know what I'm talking about. You got us beat 49 years. Some of you got us beat 49 years later. I love him more today than I did back then. And that's how I ought to be with Jesus. You love him more today than you did yesterday. And you love him more tomorrow than you do today. And if that love isn't growing, there's something wrong. And folks, that's what we're talking about in missions, growing. our Christian life by following Jesus. Well, how does God make us? And I want God to make me. I met a man one time. He was pretty proud of himself. He said, I built this business from ground up. I tell you, there's my first dollar I made there. It's on the wall. And he's bragging and bragging and bragging. And he said, I want you to know something. I am a self-made man. I looked and I said, it looked like unskilled labor to me. No, I don't want to be self-made. I want God to make me. Now, sometimes when you make things, you got to break things. Sometimes when you make things, you got to cut things. Sometimes when you make things, you got to sand and go across the grain, you see. How is God going to make us? Number one, Job chapter 13. We're all familiar with the life and the circumstances of Job, of course. And Job in the 13th chapter has these words to say in verse number 23. How many are my iniquities and sins? Oh, he says, Lord, how much sin do I have in my life? How many of my iniquities? How many of my sins? You ever sing the song around here? I'm sure you have count your blessings. Name them one by one. Job is saying, I can't count my sins. We're talking about a man that was close to God, whom God trusted, whose God's hand was upon him. And he cries out to God, he says, how many are mine iniquities and sins? And then what are the next two words? Read them and say them out loud. What are they? Make me. Say it again. Make me. Make me what? Make me to know my transgression and my sin. When was the last time? How long has it been since you came to an altar sincerely before God and said, God, show me my sin? You think you know it? Oh, you do not. Your heart is deceitful and desperately wicked. You don't know the nicotine of your heart and your soul. You gloss over it. You avoid it. But Job cried out and says, make me to know my transgression and my sin. You will never grow mature. I'm not talking about get old. That's just time. But I'm talking about mature as a Christian until you let God show you your sin and what's wrong in your life. And folks, that's not a pretty picture. But it is an honest one. Job says, how many are my iniquities? Have you ever felt weight of your sin or we just gloss it off? One of the things I don't say a whole lot about today is true repentance. Repentance over sin. I'm not just saying, oh, I'm sorry I got caught. Oh, I messed up. I'm talking about a remorse. That's when Peter denied Christ. And he looked into the eyes of Jesus. And what happened? He went out and what did he do? He wept. How? Bitterly. Those weren't just big old crocodile tears in the eyes. David said, I make my bed to swim at night because of his tears. When you feel the weight of your sin and iniquity, it ought to bring us to a place of repentance. Job knew there was wrong in his life, and he asked the Lord to show him his sin. Now, that's not easy to admit. We all like to think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think, but aren't we warned about that in the Bible? I've often think of that when, and I've done it, and I was wrong. I didn't know. I didn't realize it. I do now. As many times a preacher, and I'm as guilty as anyone else would say, now folks, search your heart tonight. Search your life. See if there'll be something that's displeasing to God. Job said, that doesn't count for me. David didn't say, I'm going to search my heart, but he said, search me, oh God. We know the areas to stay away from. We know those sensitive areas we don't want to get involved with. And it's like a man that robs a bank. And he's running down the street with money in his pocket that he's stolen from the teller. And the police catch up to him and says, freeze. And the man wisely obeys the policeman and freezes. And the policeman says, search yourself. See if you have any money on you that you stole. Nope, none, your honor. No, sir. No, officer. No problem. Nope, none. He says, OK, then go home and see if there's anything in your house that you have stolen. If so, bring it down to the police department so we could arrest you and lock you up and put you in jail. Yes, sir, officer, I'm going to do that. You know it doesn't work that way. What happens? He searches you. He puts you up against the wall, and he searches you, and he gets the warrant to go to your house, and he searches in all the cupboards, and in the closets, and under the bed, and between the mattresses. He searches you because you won't do an honest search yourself. That's why tonight, at the invitation time, it would do my heart good and yours to come to an altar and say, God, show me what's wrong in my life. Now, don't you look at me so piously like there's nothing wrong. Ask God to show you. Lord, show me my sin. Make me to know my sin tonight. We're never going to have revival, and we're never going to have a successful faith promise investment if our hearts are not right with God. And quite frankly, I hope pastor would understand this, I think he will. I'm not concerned about the figure number as I am about the heartbeat. Because God will honor the heartbeat far above sometime a figure number. Make me to know my sin. But then in Psalm 39, Jesus said, follow me and I will make you. make you to know your sin. Psalm 39 and found your way to verse number four. I'll read the first word, you read the next two words. Lord, Lord, to know mine end and the measure of my days, what it is that I may know how frail am. Yes, we need to know our sin and to hate it, despise it, repent of it, and turn from it. But there's other areas of our life. And the psalmist brings this out here in verse 4 when he says, Lord make me to know mine end to measure my days what it is that I may know how frail I am. Folks, there are things in our life that may not be sin, but they're weaknesses. They're not necessarily bad things, but they're weaknesses and hindrances, and they hold you back from doing your best for Jesus. And this is what the psalmist said, I don't even know how free I am, how weak I am. Now, we all have different weaknesses. We understand that. And you may be strong in one area, and you're weak in another. And you may be strong in one area, and you're weak in another. We're all different, but we all have strengths, and we all have weaknesses. And as I said this morning, the devil knows where you're weak, and that's where he's going to come after you. You've heard me give this illustration. I think it points out well what I'm talking about. There are some things you cannot tempt me with. I am not weak in certain areas. You could put Can a beer in front of me? You can't tempt me with that. I just, I have no, nothing, no inclination. Now for some, that would be a battleground. You could put a pack of cigarettes in front of me. I just had a doctor's appointment, and they asked us, were you ever a smoker? I said, well, when I was a kid, I took two puffs of a cigarette and said, not for me. You can't tempt me with that. For some, that's a battle. It's hard. Now, I will say this. You put a cup of Dunkin' Donuts coffee up here, and we got a problem. See, we all have strengths, we all have weaknesses. And we need to ask God tonight, make me to know God where I'm weak so I can get strong in those areas. I need to know my weaknesses that I could bring them before God and strengthen those weaknesses. When a team is playing in sports, another team, maybe basketball, you studied the other opponent. You learn their plays, you learn they're weak on the inside. So what do you do? You play to the inside. Baseball catcher learns every batter's weaknesses and strengths. He has a hard time hitting low and inside. So he signals the picture low and inside. And that's where the picture wants to place the ball because that's where he's weak. You don't want to put a dead over the plate where he's strong and can knock it out of the park. Ask God to show you your weakness tonight. And God wants to help you when you're weak. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 12, 10, when I am weak, then am I strong. but you have to know where you're weak so you can get the strength of the Lord in that place. And the Lord wants to help you. In Psalm 51, just go over just a little bit more. David's penitent Psalm after his sin with Bathsheba. verse 6, Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts, and the hidden part thou shalt, next two words, again, make me, to know wisdom. Folks, and it was brought out in a Sunday school class this morning, in the Adele Auditorium group here. There's a big difference between being smart and being wise. You could be smart and do dumb things. You ever know some smart people have done some dumb things? But they're so smart, because there's a difference between being smart and intelligent and having wisdom. I have not found in the Bible where it says, be smart. But I find over and over and over again, get understanding, get wisdom in the Scriptures. Solomon made the wise choice when he asked God for an understanding, asked God for wisdom, not to be smart to know a bunch of things. The Jews were smart in the Scriptures. They knew the law, but they missed Messiah because they did not have wisdom to apply that truth. when they came into the ministry of the Lord, the Messiah himself, to make wise choices in life. One of the greatest choices you can make is to invest in souls. The greatest choice is my money. We all looked at, well, let me see. We're going to put some money in retirement. We have 401k, and we have our IRA, and maybe a traditional, or a Roth. And we have some stocks, and maybe some bonds, or something like that. And we made those investments, and hopefully you made them wisely. What greater investment can we have than the salvation of souls? which pays in eternity tremendous dividends. Ask God for wisdom as to the amount. Ask God to give you an understanding of what His will is to be involved in faith, promise. Now you say, well, I'm only one person. What can I do? times you get snow down here right once in a while you get some snow you lucky folks just like us up north we get snow remember a girl from Brazil came to Bible College up in Binghamton New York way up there and so in the northern tier and she never saw snow before she saw pictures of it but never saw snow and the first time of snow she stand out and it I A lot of snowflakes coming down. And she says, this is how it snows? Says, yeah. How did you think it snowed? I just thought it came down in one big clump. Four inches of snow tonight, folks. And she's standing out there and snowflakes are all on her hand and melting. She says, how can this amount to anything? Just watch. One snowflake by itself may mean nothing, but when it starts cooperating with other snowflakes, it can shut down a city. You may only be one, but I tell you, we start cooperating together. And let God make us to have wisdom and understanding. You'd be surprised what can be done for the cause of Christ. But then something else, and lastly tonight, in Luke chapter 15. Every time I preach from Luke 15, I always preface my remarks by saying this. To me, Luke 15 is the lost chapter of the Bible. It's the lost chapter. So preacher, what do you mean? There are more things lost in Luke 15 than any other chapter of the Bible. We have the lost sheep, we have the lost coin, and we have the lost son. But praise God, all of them were found. We come to that familiar part of this chapter of what we call in our terms, the prodigal son. Do you know what the word prodigal really means? Well, it means to go astray and that, no. No, no. You know what the word prodigal really means? You'd be surprised. It means wasteful. Wasteful. Doesn't that picture that young man? Wasteful. Not just going astray and coming. No. Look what he wasted. You know the account. He wasted his money, his inheritance. He wasted his life. I mean, just wasted. I'm so glad that when I invest in the things of God, it's never a waste. Things given to God always return a great benefit. Well, you know the account. He went out, had a good time. Money ran out. He was hungry. Folks, you have to understand this from a Jewish point of view. The worst animal in the world, disdain to a Jew was swine, pigs. Nothing was more disgusting, despicable to them than swine. So much so that in World War II, that many times when the Muslims were fighting the Allied forces, they said rumors out, when we kill you, if you don't surrender, we kill you. We're going to bury you with a pig. And boy, they didn't like that. And many of them would rather surrender than to die. And here was a young Jewish boy, was forced to get a job doing what? Feeding pigs. What a job. Feeding swine. But that's not the worst of it. The Bible says he was so hungry, he feigned, would have filled his, verse 16, he would have feigned and filled his belly with the husk that the swine did eat. And no man gave it to him. They said, you're not even fit to eat with the pigs. You think pigs are that low? You think swine is that low? You're not even fit to eat their food. You talk about hitting bottom? There he was. But what happened? Thank God for verse 17. And when he came to himself, he woke up and says, what in the world have I done? Folks, when you come to that point, you say, what have I done? How did I get there? What did I do? Oh, what a mistake I have made. He came to himself and he says, I'm gonna do something about this. I got myself in this mess, then I'm gonna do something to get myself out of this mess. And he says in verse 18, I'm gonna go home to daddy. I will arise and go to my father and will say unto him, father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee. I am no more worthy to be called thy son. Oh, those two words again, make me as one of thy hired servants. He didn't come back and said, dad, reinstall me as your son. His attitude was, I'm not worthy. I have messed up so bad. But if you make me a servant, I'll be a good one. Because your servants are treated better than what I had out in that far country. When are you going to learn, folks? And when am I going to learn that what God has for us is a whole lot better than what this world offers to us? As a servant of God, I have so many more blessings than I would as a prince of the devil. And he said, Daddy, I'll come home. Now notice his attitude. He said, make me a servant. He didn't come and say, Father, I've sinned, but I'll come home, but I need my space. Uh-uh. He said, Daddy, I'll come home, but I don't want to live under all those old rules that you have in the house. No, he came home and said, Dad, you call the shots. You tell me what to do, and I do it. That's real repentance before tonight, before God tonight. to come to the Lord and you don't make deals with him, you say, God, you call the shots in my life. And he says, make me a servant. That's what God wants from you and me tonight, to be a servant. To be a servant, to give our best to the master tonight. Jesus said, do you remember the command of the Lord tonight? Do you remember what it was? It was very simple, the two words. What was the command of Jesus? Say it. That's right. And I will make you. Sister, would you come to the piano, please? Would you obey that one simple command tonight? Follow me. That's all. Follow me and you will have God's promise. He will make you. He will make you. He'll make you to know your sin. He'll make you to know your weaknesses. He'll make you to know wisdom. He'll make you a servant tonight.