Do you have a pioneer spirit, an ability to start something and go with it? Are we willing to look ahead? Are we willing to prepare for what God can do? Are we willing to blaze a trail? It's very important that Christian people have this kind of spirit, this kind of vision, this kind of attitude, if they're really going to effectively be able to do something for the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible says that the gospel of Christ is the power of God unto salvation. Welcome to Pulpit Power, featuring Pastor Tony Skeving, Senior Pastor of Fargo Baptist Church in Fargo, North Dakota. Today's message was previously preached before a church audience. And now, here's Pastor Skeving. Well, let's take our Bibles, please, at this time and turn to the very last book of the Bible, the Revelation, and the third chapter, Revelation chapter 3, if you would. We've heard many times the story, I've told it as illustrations, others have as well, about the salesman who went over to Africa to sell shoes. Remember that one? And, of course, he was kind of a pessimist, and really a sluggard and a slackard, and got over there and whined about the fact that nobody wore shoes, and so they wouldn't buy his shoes. And so he wired back to his company to bring them home. Well, they sent another salesman over there, and he had a positive, upbeat, optimistic-type attitude, and he saw all these bare feet, and he started selling everybody shoes, and he wired his company, said, send more shoes over here. Nobody's wearing them. And it's really the difference in the spirit of the individual. We've been in a series here, I've entitled it Tools for the Trade, and these have been things that I believe Christian people really need to effectively serve the Lord. I'm going to be talking today about this one, a pioneer spirit. A pioneer spirit. Do you have a pioneer spirit? A spirit like that shoe salesman that said, let's build something, let's grow something. Let's take something from the ground floor and move it up from that point. It's very important that Christian people have this kind of spirit, this kind of vision, this kind of attitude, if they're really going to effectively be able to do something for the Lord Jesus Christ. In Revelation chapter 3, Just the beginning, really, of verse number 8, it's Jesus Christ talking to a local church. And notice what He says. He says, "...I know thy works. Behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it. I like that. He mentions here an open door. To me, that screams in neon lights, opportunity, opportunity, an availability to start something and go with it. And to do that, it requires a pioneer spirit. Do you and I have a pioneer spirit? I'd like us to examine ourselves as we talk about this subject today. Let's ask the Lord to bless first, shall we? Father, we ask You, dear Lord, now to meet with us here at this hour. We pray that You'd let the Scriptures speak to us. And Father, I pray that we would apply it personally. And dear Lord, I pray that we'd be thinking of how this pertains to us and not somebody else. And Father, I pray that we would desire, yea, even covet something in a right way called a pioneer spirit. And by your grace, you'd help us to have it. We pray now and ask these things in Jesus' name, amen. If you're like me, you've thought perhaps in the past of those who came and settled this country. And I've been to New York several times. I've seen the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island and thought about those immigrants who came over from Europe primarily over 100 years ago to settle this land. And they came from Norway. Some of you have ancestors that came from Norway and Sweden and others from Germany and others from Ireland and France and other countries like that. And you think about the chance they took. I mean, to really get in this boat and to leave the motherland and to come over here, this vast land of opportunity, really no house, no job waiting for them, just a lot of hope. but they came nonetheless, and they came with a pioneer spirit. But you know, if you go back further than that, to September of 1620, you really find those who had the pioneer spirit, that hundred and some who boarded the Mayflower as we know it, and they came over here, Christian people for the most part, into this new world as they called it. Not just a new land, but a new world. And they were intending to land there in Virginia, but they messed up and kind of went too far north and landed in Massachusetts. And we know all the problems they had that first and second winter there. And they had that pioneer spirit. But they soon lost it. And a little known fact of history is that some years after that, that colony passed some law or enacted some law to build a road five miles west. And there were many who complained about this huge waste of money to build this land way, way, way out there where they had never ever settled. Imagine if they had stopped five miles from the east coast. Now we've gone from coast to coast. But it's so easy to lose that pioneer spirit. As they were developing New York City, they were laying out the streets. And they laid out First Street. And they carefully said, we got to make them wider than we're used to over in London and in Europe. So they made wider streets and bigger blocks. And they got Second Street and Third Street. And they got really creative, they thought in their imagination, in taking it way out, way out to 19th Street. And they called it Boundary Street. They said, we'll never get this far, but we're kind of dreaming big. And so they planned out to 19th Street, when today New York. city has 284th Street which ends at the water and they just can't go any further. But they were lacking even in those days the vision necessary. I told an illustration years ago about, I believe it was around the mid-1800s, where the patent office, the U.S. patent office was considering shutting its doors because they said there couldn't possibly be anything else to invent at this point. Can you imagine what's been invented since the 1800s? Can you imagine what's been invented since last year and is continually being invented? But you see, we can lose our pioneer spirit. Jesus Christ here talks to a local church, the church at Philadelphia. And in our text of Revelation 3, notice what he says at the beginning of verse number 8. He says, I know thy works. Behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it." I don't know exactly what works he was talking about here, but I think he looked at that church, and he recognized a pioneer spirit within them, and he said, try this one. And he shows them this open door, and he says, go for it. Do you have a pioneer spirit? Do I have a pioneer spirit? And what does it take to have a pioneer spirit? Well, three things. First of all, a prudent attitude. A prudent attitude. Would you turn to Hebrews chapter 11, please? What kind of an attitude do we have when it comes to a pioneer spirit? Are we looking for things to grow? There's a landscaper horticulturist. In fact, he was in my home church years ago, the one I got saved in. Big man. You shake hands with him, your hand disappears. He's a great guy. I love this guy. And we're both tree huggers, closet ones, but we are tree huggers. And anyway, he's got this little saying, when him and I are talking trees, and he talks about his customers, he says, you know, they want to take the trees and plant them like three feet apart. And I have to continually remind them, those things grow, you know, and that's kind of his motto. Those things grow, you know, in a kind of a sarcastic way. Well, God made things to grow, and that's normal, that's natural, that's what we ought to want. Well, in Hebrews 11.1, it tells us the prudent attitude we ought to have if we're gonna have a pioneer spirit and watch things grow. It says, now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. And of course, that's old hat to us. We have that memorized, don't we? Most of us have it memorized. But really, when you pertain it to a pioneer spirit, I want you to think about what it's saying here. Faith is the substance of things hoped for. That word hoped, it's the Greek word alpidzo. And I'm not a Greek scholar nor the son of one, but alpidzo basically speaks of expectation. And so faith is the substance of things expected. Do you have expectation? I mean, when you look at life, do you look at ministry? Do you look at the spiritual realm with great expectation, like an open door, with a prudent attitude? Because that's the attitude we ought to have. Faith is the substance of things hoped for. My wife knows more about the Land Act of 1870 or 1865 or whatever it was, I don't know the date exactly, but I do know that this was an area that was a very exciting area at least to some people out east at one time. And they came here in their covered wagons and they had this Land Act that granted them so many acres of land and they got out here maybe underestimating a tad our winters, our extreme winters. And through those first winters, I mean, they took the covered wagon and they turned it over and they lived under that. And when spring finally arrived, they busted sod. Have you ever seen a sod buster? I mean, an actual one-bottom plow that's turning over virgin soil for the first time, really. I've seen that. It's very exciting to see. But that's what they did. They turned the sod over for the first time. They built sod huts. And, I mean, a piece of glass was a luxury back in those days. If you could put a window in your sod hut, that was something. But those folks were pioneers, and they came to this area, and we wouldn't be here today if they hadn't. But where's that spirit? That's the spirit I'm talking about, the pioneer spirit. Here we are as a church looking for our 25th anniversary now. And this is an exciting year for us as we count it down here. And there's many times I'll find myself reflecting back to those early days of the church here and thinking about those first services. And there was really a handful of people here, but we were living in the church basement. We'd hold church upstairs. And after the service, there was a restaurant in town called Racks. Some of you who were here in those early days, you remember going to Racks after the church services in those days? I'm telling you, there were nights I would just walk up in the sanctuary when, I say everyone had gone home, the few people had gone home that we'd had on a Sunday night service. And I would just, I would walk that sanctuary in the dark. The exit lights, the red hue of the lights was the only thing up there. And I would pray and I would beg God and I'd dream, really, about what God could do in the FM area one day. And I had a hope, anyway, at the very least. I remember those early days. I was thinking about the Feast of Charity recently. And back in those days, you know, Joel and Cheryl were there, and Danny, and Rachelle, and Karen, and a few people like that. But we had such a good time. It was just a handful of people and it was in its infancy stage, the embryonic stage even. And we were hopeful at that time, at least we had that prudent attitude, that God was going to do something with this, that God was going to grow this thing. You know, may I say while I'm speaking about the old pillar, sometimes those of you who have been around a while, could feel abandoned. Honestly, I know how the devil works. And you say, well, man, I was there in those early days. I was a pillar, but I've kind of been forgotten. I guarantee you, you haven't been forgotten. Obviously, as the church grows, there's just more people to minister to. But you know, when I was a kid in grade school, and I don't know how many of you sung this song, but the song said, make new friends, but keep the old. One is silver and the other is gold. Remember that song? Now I'm dating myself. But you know, if you've been here as a pillar, you're gold, you really are. And I want you to know that. And you'll never be underappreciated, that's for sure. You'll never be forgotten, I'll guarantee you that. Don't take yourself out of commission, okay? Don't get that feeling like, well, I should just be in the background, now there's others to do the work. Don't ever do that. Keep serving. Don't lose that pioneer spirit. Get that prudent attitude if you've had it in the past. If you've never had it, get it. That pioneer spirit. Look in Genesis chapter 12 if you would. If you were to go over to modern day Iraq today, you would find what they say are the quarters of Abraham, the old patriarch from the early pages here of Genesis. In fact, we have a GI in the church here. He served over in Iraq and actually got to tour the ancient ruins of what they say is the house of Abraham. That was Ur of the Chaldees. I want you to think of the pioneer spirit that Abraham had. If you consider, as you read here in Genesis chapter 12, what he actually was willing to do. Notice in verse 1, it says, Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will show thee. And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great, and thou shalt be a blessing. And I will bless them that bless thee and curse him that curse at thee. And in these shall all the families of the earth be blessed. Of course, he's talking about the Messiah there. Now notice verse four. So Abram departed as the Lord had spoken unto him, and Lot went with him. And Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran. Now I want you to think about this. We would credit him with unofficially or not technically being the first Jew, but I would call him that. Here He is, God picking one man to start what's still around today, Israel, the Jewish race. You can't pick up the paper or go online any day of the week without hearing something about this nation. It's special, obviously. It's supernaturally been protected by God through all these years. But here's where it started. And it started because of one man's sacrifice, because one fellow was willing to obey God and step up by faith with expectation, and he left Ur of the Chaldees and settled in the region of what is known today as Palestine there. He had that pioneer spirit. Many years ago, a fellow by the name of F.W. Woolworth, how many of you remember the old Woolworth stores and the old Woolworth five and dime or five and ten cent stores? When he came on the scene and said, I'm going to have a store and everything in it is five cents or ten cents, they yucked him to scorn. But when he died, he was worth millions and millions. And you could talk about Ray Kroc and the 15 cent hamburger at McDonald's and and so many others that had a vision that nobody else had. And they went with it. They ran with it. When Robert Fulton came up with the steamboat or the steamship, it was called Fulton's Folly. I mean, he was scorned, laughed to scorn. This will never work. But it did. And we could talk about Henry Ford, who had a vision of coming up with a cheaper car, a lighter car, and the assembly line to get the job done. And with his pioneer spirit, he did what nobody else had ever done. Years later, the Ford company would be headed up by a man by the name of Lee Iacocca. born back in the mid-1920s, and son of an immigrant, and grew up in a rough part of town, and was self-made, and went from there to head up the Ford Corporation until he clashed with the grandson of Henry. And at the same time, Chrysler was about done. I mean, they were deep in debt. And old Lee Iacocca took that thing over and came up with the K-car and the minivan and borrowed a governmental loan, something that had never been done at that time for a car company. And he had this vision, I'm telling you. I'll never forget the cover of an old Newsweek or Time magazine where it showed a headstone and a car roaring up and splitting the dirt as it came out. And it said, up from the ground, Chrysler Corporation. And today we still credit Lee Iacocca for doing that. He had a pioneer spirit. He had a saying, what it takes to have a pioneer spirit, and they all started with C's. He didn't get this from me, but he said it takes curiosity. It takes creativity. It takes communication. It takes character. It takes courage. It takes conviction. It takes competence. It takes common sense. That'd make a good outline, wouldn't it? A lot of C's there, but he's right. But may I add, it also takes an attitude, a prudent attitude of a pioneer spirit and somebody with foresight. Do you have foresight? Years ago Michelangelo was walking down a back alley of a Florence alley there in Italy and he saw a very shiny piece of marble half buried in the mud. He was walking with a friend and he stopped and he started digging that thing out of the mud and his friend said, what in the world are you doing? He said, well there's an angel in there. There's an angel in there. He took it back to his studio and chiseled out, yep, a beautiful angel. And he saw it sitting in a dirty back alley in the mud. He had foresight. God give us foresight. Bible says in Isaiah 33, 17, Thine eye shall see the king and his beauty, and they shall behold the land. that is very far off. Do you have that ability to behold a land, or whatever it might be, very far off? Way out yonder, but you see the potential there. England has had many great men down through the years, but the Brits have voted Winston Churchill the greatest Englishman of all time. I guess I'd have to agree with that. Churchill was called the man who prophesied history, made history, obviously, and recorded history. He was an unusual man, he really was. I've been to the Parliament where he sat. I've seen the big statue erected to him there in Parliament Square. And when Nazi Germany was flexing its muscles in 1930, nobody else was taking alarm except Churchill. They called him an alarmist. He said, watch Germany. They said, whatever. And he warned and he warned and he warned, but nobody would listen to him. He also warned about the Soviet menace at that time. Churchill was called basically a prophet. Of course, we know he wasn't in the biblical sense, but for 65 years he sat in Parliament and he named one thing after another coming down the pike because he had that pioneer spirit. He had that foresight. A lack of foresight, by the way, with the English people was disastrous. And a lack of foresight at any age, with anybody, can be disastrous. We find back here in Genesis, we're in chapter 12, look over in chapter 13. In verse 10, it says, "...And Lot lifted up his eyes and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere, before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah." Uh-oh! Here's a guy with a lack of foresight. All he sees is dollar signs. All he sees is green money. Ching-ching! Notice in verse 12. It says, So Abram dwelled in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelled in the cities of the plain, and pitched his tent toward Sodom. But the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the Lord exceedingly. And here we have a fellow with no foresight. And by the way, no pioneer spirit. We have a guy here that's riding on the shirt tails of Uncle Abraham, basically. Never built anything in his life. Just under the umbrella of blessings and taking it in and not appreciating it. And now he's living for the moment. And by the way, that's what most people do. If you're going to have a pioneer spirit, you're going to have to be unlike most people. Most people are like a teenager with a new credit card, and it's like, worry about it later! And that was Lot. I'll just worry about this thing later. We find out without foresight, he makes a mess. We could talk about Achan, we could talk about a lot of people. They lacked that foresight, and it was disastrous. So if you're going to have a pioneer spirit, first of all, there must be that prudent attitude. Secondly, there must be that perceptive appreciation, I call it. Now, look in Acts chapter 8. Let me explain what I mean by a perceptive appreciation. In other words, a discernment that sees what somebody else built, a price that somebody else paid, and appreciates it. Are you appreciative of somebody else who built something and now you're enjoying the blessings of it? Dr. Larry Clayton, I guess I consider him one of my utmost mentors, gave me an expression I'd never heard before here a few years ago. We were talking and he mentioned this expression, Simon the Sorcerer Syndrome. The Simon the Sorcerer Syndrome. What is the Simon the Sorcerer Syndrome? Well, let's read about it here in Acts chapter 8, beginning in verse 9. It says, But there was a certain man called Simon, which before time in the same city used sorcery, and bewitched the people of Samaria, giving out that he himself was some great one, to whom they all gave heed from the least to the greatest, saying, This man is the great power of God. And to him they had a long regard because of that of a long time he had bewitched them with sorceries. But when they believed Philip preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. Then Simon himself believed, you could probably put quotes around believed also, and when he was baptized he continued with Philip and wondered beholding the miracles and signs which were done. Now when the apostles which were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God they sent unto them Peter and John who when they were come down prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Ghost for as yet he was fallen upon none of them only they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus then laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Ghost. And when Simon saw that through laying on of the apostles' hands the Holy Ghost was given, he offered them money saying, Give me also this power, that on whomsoever I lay hands, he may receive the Holy Ghost. I've underlined in my Bible those two words, give me. Verse 19, give me. What nerve. Give me this power. What had Simon done to earn such power? Think about that. Give me. He never earned a stripe. He'd never done anything. He hadn't been on the ground floor of Christianity. He hadn't walked with Christ. He hadn't wondered where his next meal would come from. He hadn't had to sleep out there under the stars in the open air like the other twelve. He hadn't put in those long days. He hadn't experienced storms at sea. Here he is saying, give me, and he hadn't even been there through the agony of Calvary. He hadn't felt the wrath of the Sanhedrin. He hadn't been beaten like the rest of them in Acts chapter 5. All he knows is, I want that power. That's the Simon the Sorcerer syndrome. Give me that power. No appreciation for it. Never had to have the pioneer spirit. Somebody else had to. Somebody else had to build it, and he just comes along after the fact. It's a common mistake to those who come after the fact, not to appreciate what somebody has done before them. And somebody has paid the price for a Johnny-come-lately, and it always works that way. But here's the thing, we need a perceptive appreciation for that. That's all I'm saying. You know, when King Saul died, The country was in shambles. You remember the story? I mean, when King Saul was dead, there's his body, decapitated, spiked to the wall of Bashan. That's how he makes his exit, and that's the kingdom David inherits. What a mess! The country is in shambles, and David takes the thing over. He's the one who had to fight all the battles. He's the one who had to make all the mistakes. He's the one who had to prepare for the temple. And then Solomon comes along, and to his credit, he's a worker. He's a workaholic, really, is what he was. And so, I mean, he's working round the clock, and he's building this temple, he's building up the kingdom that his dad had given to him. I mean, this thing becomes a world power, I think the richest empire of all time. And then Solomon passes off the scene, and guess who comes along? If there's a bigger loser in the Bible beside him, I don't know who he is. Here he comes on the scene, and he sits on the throne there and thinks he's Mr. Big, and they come into him and say, you know, could you back off a little bit? And he says, oh yeah, you think Dad was tough? Where do you see me? And here's this little spoiled brat raised on the silver spoon, never built anything in his life, and he has no appreciation for the price that somebody had paid before him. What a mess. Back in, I think it was 1976, the spring of 1976, the church in Grand Forks sent out my pastor over to Crookston with a handful of people. They let those people go. I mean, you had tithers, piano players, you had some pillars there, and they let them go and start a new church over there. And there they were, and they rented this old academy for a while. I wasn't there. I was at Johnny Come Lately. And they rented this academy for a while, And then in, I think, 75 or so, they bought some land. And then in 76, no, no, it was later than that. It was 78, 79, I think it was around 1980, they started building this building. And when I got saved in 1981, guess what? This nice building is sitting there. I was looking at the pictures with the pastor some years afterwards and it didn't dawn on me until that time, wow, somebody paid a price for me to walk into this building on March 5th, 1981 and sit in that soft chair and have this preacher cross from this desk and somebody to win me to Christ. It had never dawned on me. I looked at these pictures of these people, and there they were scraping the land. There they were laying the foundation. There they were erecting walls and standing them up. There were late nights with the ladies out there staining wood. And the winter, they were working through the winter getting that thing. And I got under conviction looking at all these pictures, and finally realizing for the first time in my life, somebody paid a price. I had the Simon the Sorcerer syndrome. It was like, when I came there, I'm here, you know. And we can get that attitude. Hey everybody, I'm God's gift to this church. I'm here, you know, kind of thing. And I wasn't. I wasn't the guy who paid the price. I was the Johnny come lately. Now, my chance came when we came to Fargo here. And that changed in 1986. I had the privilege of selling a lucrative business and giving the proceeds to God along with our life savings and hopping in the back of a pickup truck and my son was a baby at the time and we traveled the country raising support to come here. There were nights where we had ended up in a cold area with a little space heater in there, and basically woke up with snow around the truck, and the baby covered up with blankets to try and keep him warm. We came to town here penniless, literally, and lived in the first church basement there, and went to work knocking doors, and taking up the first offering, which was $12, and little by little watching God work. You know, it's easy for people to saunter into here now and say, I'm here! That's the Simon the Sorcerer syndrome. See what I'm saying by that? And there can be such a lack of appreciation, and not intentionally. We can get new staff coming in continually with the attitude, I'm here! And it's so easy to get young men or young ladies out of Bible college all across this land who come on staffs and in churches like this where a pastor has basically paid the price and say, I'm here! I want the salary, I want the health benefits, I want the life insurance and the health insurance, you know, all these kind of things, and have the Simon the Sorcerer attitude, instead of the pioneer spirit. May I say that at this church, and I thank God for this, there are never-ending opportunities to get in on the ground floor of something. whatever it might be. And this Bible College dormitory we're building now, you have the opportunity, if you have the foresight, to say, wow, this is exciting. This is something that's on the ground floor that I can be part of, whether it's building it, whether it's part of teaching in it, or adopting the students who'll be coming here, but to be in on something and build it and grow it. I don't want to be somebody who continually sits under trees that somebody else planted. Do you? And, you know, guys like Johnny Appleseed, hundreds of years ago, went through the region of Indiana, and Ohio, and Illinois, planting trees that are being enjoyed by others today. You know that Captain Cook, when he went to the South Sea Islands, was continually reaching in his pocket, and they didn't know what he was doing, but he was dropping something on the ground, and walking a little further, and kind of mushing it in. It was corn. And that area of the world today still has corn because Captain Cook had the foresight and the pioneer spirit enough to start something that others later on would follow and enjoy. And that's alright if you come on board later on. I thank God for you. But there needs to be that perceptive appreciation. May none of us ever have that Simon the Sorcerer syndrome in our lives. A pioneer spirit is going to need a prudent attitude, it's going to need a perceptive appreciation, and finally, it's going to need passionate action. David had the ability and the attitude to take something, a country that was in shambles, and make it a world power. Because he had action. It's one thing to have a passion, but to put some feet to it, and it won't be easy. When we get an open door, like Brother Lang was just talking about, there's gonna be adversaries. In fact, in 1 Corinthians 16.9, Paul said, for a great door and affection is opened unto me. There's that open door again, he said, and there are many adversaries, and there always will be. But will we have passionate action? So much so that it'll affect others. When I mention names like Hudson Taylor, we go, yeah, I know him, or Murray McShane, I know him. But if I mention a name like William Burns, you go, who? William Burns was a young Scots lad of 17 when his mother took him into Glasgow. I've been there. And she lost him there in town someplace and a few hours passed and she got worried. Finally, she was looking down a back alley and she found him there slumped against the building, sobbing uncontrollably. She said, William, what's wrong? And he said, Mother, can't you hear the sound of those Christless feet thudding on the pavement on their way to hell? I mean, imagine a 17-year-old with that kind of burden. That's inspiring, it really is. It's no wonder that he went on and he impacted Scotland, and he impacted China. He had a passion for souls. By the way, that and a pioneer spirit need to go together. A passion for souls and a pioneer spirit, that's a dynamic combo. And you don't have to have an IQ that's off the charts. I don't claim to, certainly. In fact, I would rather have a pioneer spirit or a passion for souls than that. The Bible, you know what, it doesn't speak real highly about intellectualism. And I'm not putting a premium on ignorance, but I'm saying I'd rather have a pioneer spirit, I really would. I can hire brains, all right? I can hire talent. We can bring talent in. But will they have a passion for souls? You know, some Christians sit around, they split hairs over minor things, they'll study doctrine to death, but they seldom witness, they seldom invite anyone to church, they never take anyone through the seven steps to God, they're not soul winners, and they don't have any pioneer spirit. I have others, they'll bring to me ideas, that's great. I'm long on ideas myself, I'm just short on time. If God gives you an idea, maybe He's given you the pioneer spirit to follow up on it. You know, when Joseph, when Pharaoh said, you know, we need a wise man to oversee this deal. He said, Joseph, you came up with the idea. You're the guy. And honestly, there are people I want to tell that. You came up with the idea. I don't need more work to do, all right? I got enough on my plate. Why don't you run with it? Why don't you build it? Why don't you grow it? Why don't you have a pioneer spirit? There are all kinds of ministries in this church. Really, anyone could get involved in those and build them up. Do you have to have a fire built under you? I'm coming up on my 30th anniversary, by the way. 30 years of being saved. I don't think my pastor ever had to light a fire under me. If anything, he had to put reins on, whoa, you know, and he'd tell you that if he's standing here right now. Do you need a fire lit under you? Or can you see the potential? Can you see what God can do? Back in 1990, I think it was about May of 1990, Brother Dennis and I took some steaks And we walked off what was going to be the very first church building we built over there in the corner of 18th Street and 25th Avenue. I'll never forget that. Where is he? Is he in here someplace? I'll never forget doing that. That building still sits there today and every time I drive by it, I thank God for it. But when we got done building it, I thought, how in the world are we going to fill this thing? We were running about 70 people at the time. But you know, the Bible speaks to the ant and it says, she provided her meat in the summer and gathered her food in the harvest. In other words, she's looking ahead. She's looking ahead. Are we willing to look ahead? Are we willing to prepare for what God can do? Are we willing to blaze a trail? You know, we don't have time, but I was gonna turn to Genesis chapter eight and talk about Noah. What a pioneer he was. Think about him stepping off that boat and there was nothing. There was no I-94, there was no McDonald's, there was no Walmart, there was nothing there. He was starting from absolute scratch. You know, we're part of right now what was originally the Louisiana Purchase. Between 1762 and about 1800, Napoleon and Spain were kind of hashing out some kind of treaty because that was, from Canada to the Gulf, Mexico was really all Spanish territory. And they hashed this thing out and France ended up with it. And Thomas Jefferson had the foresight to approach France and say, would you want to sell that land? They said, well yeah, I guess so. And they arrived at a price of 15 million dollars. Imagine how much money that was back then. But you know what? It ended up being about 3 cents an acre. It's been called the deal of all time. If you can imagine 3 cents an acre for that land at that time. Why? Because somebody had foresight. When opportunity knocks, do we have that pioneer spirit? Paul had that spirit. In 2 Corinthians 2.12, he says, I came to Troas to preach Christ's gospel, and a door was opened unto me of the Lord. There's that open door. There's that pioneer spirit. But the question for us in the 21st century is, do we have it here? Is that pioneer spirit in the Fargo Baptist Church? Because history in heaven will remember those like Paul and Noah and Abraham and others who had a pioneer spirit. I think of Moses. Bible says in Hebrews 11.27, by faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible. And we still talk about him to this day. History and heaven will remember those who had a pioneer spirit. Many years ago there was a missionary by the name of Robert Moffat. He was home on furlough from Africa. He was talking about Africa to the English people. He was in a small church, and he said on any given morning, you can rise up early and go up to the top of the hill, and from that vantage point, you can see the smoke of a thousand villages out there who've never once heard the gospel, who've never once had a Christian missionary in their village. Guess who was there listening one night when he said that? David Livingston. David Livingston. Of course he went over there where nobody had really gone before and he took a nothing ministry and he made a big deal out of it. I'll never forget years ago watching the Flintstones. Remember the Flintstones? And that prehistoric family and all that. And I remember a scene from a Flintstone episode where Wilma and Barney and the whole bunch were going to the Grand Canyon. I don't know if you remember this. I still smile when I talk about it. And they got to the Grand Canyon and the next scene shows this little tiny stream going by. And, of course, if you're zillions BC, that's what it's supposed to be. It was evolution, really, is what it was. But it was just a little stream at that point. And I remember Barney going, huh, that's all it is? And Fred going, well, they say it's going to be a big deal one day. You know, folks, let's take something and say, it's going to be a big deal one day. That's what a pioneer spirit takes. It was George Bernard Shaw who said, some men see things as they are and ask why. And others dream things that never have been and say, why not? Why not? You know, Napoleon saw Italy. He didn't pay any attention to the Alps that were in his way. And Washington basically saw Trenton, and he wasn't concerned with the Delaware choked with ice at that time. He saw the objective. The majority of people really see obstacles, and there are very few who see the objective. And again, history records the success of those who see the objective. The rest get lost in oblivion. There are some Christians, I think they need to dream a little bit. I think they need to pray a little bit. Our text said, I know thy works. Behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it. You say, well, I don't really have much of a pioneer spirit. Well, you can ask the Lord to give you one. You say, I used to have one. Well, you can get it back. Someone said the poorest man is not the one without a cent, but without a dream. Without a dream. Do you have a dream? If we're going to have the tools for the trade necessary to effectively serve the Lord, we need this one. Simply put, a pioneer spirit. God help us to seek that one. Amen. You've been listening to Pastor Tony Skeving of the Fargo Baptist Church in Fargo, North Dakota. If you would like a CD of today's message, you can obtain one by sending a gift of $2 to Fargo Baptist Church, 3303 23rd Avenue South, Fargo, North Dakota, 58103. That address again, Fargo Baptist Church, 3303 23rd Avenue South Fargo, North Dakota 58103. We hope you'll join Pastor Skeving next time right here on Pulpit Power. Pulpit Power is a production of Heaven 88.7.