Oh my. I'm like Dr. J.B. Williams used to say, if I didn't know my Bible, I'd be a Baptist pastor. But I appreciate that. That's the old-fashioned Revival Hour type thing. Young people, when I got saved in 1952, every Sunday at 2 o'clock after we had come home from church had lunch, or we call it dinner down here, but I'll make it clear for everybody. We had lunch. I would get there on the old couch and an old tube radio and listen to the old-fashioned revival hour out of, what was it, Long Beach? Yeah, Pasadena, California. Old Dr. Charles Fuller. Honey, would you bring those letters and read the letters, please? And his wife would stand up in that sweet voice and read letters from sailors and marines that were somewhere around the world that had gotten saved there. Rudy Atwood was playing the piano. Oh, my, my, my. Those were the good old days. Then at 3 o'clock, back in those old days, Billy Graham was preaching. on the radio, and then that night at nine o'clock, I'd listen to Revival Time from Springfield, Missouri, CM Ward, and Brother McClellan lead us in another song. Cyril McClellan was a Canadian, but oh, could he lead a choir. Make your hair stand up. That's why my hair's in the condition it is now. Never been able to get it back in place. In fact, I wrote or called the headquarters of the Assembly of God out in Springfield. I said, do you have any of the old Revival Time music? They said, no, we don't. But we'll give you the name of the archives, the number, and the lady that's in charge. I called her. I said, do you have any of those old fifties revival time choir records? She said, Mr. Heath, we've got a few left. She said, we'd like to keep one for the archives, but she said, I'm willing to sell you the rest. I said, well, lady, how much you want for them? She said, I really don't know. Is $0.50 a piece too much? And she sent them to me, and I relived the past. So young people, find you some good programs. FBN Radio Network, Fundamental Baptist Network out of Newport, North Carolina. You can pick them up on your internet anywhere in the world. Good singing and preaching you can trust on that network. And so get something to fill in where you're putting out. You're getting rid of some things. Now put something back in. Don't the old spirits gonna come back with seven more spirits worse than the first one. So you be sure and put something in there. Now many of you asked me or said to me last night, I never heard the story of David Livingston's son being buried in Salisbury, North Carolina. If you take the North Carolina State Magazine, which my wife and I do, they had an article in there back in... I don't see my wife. Yes, she's way back. I think it was March, and they stated in there that Robert Livingston, the most notable prisoner buried there, was the son of Robert Livingston. But you can go online and Google Robert Livingston, the son of David Livingston. Now you'll get several reports. Wikipedia, is that the way you pronounce it? Wiki-pedia? They have a long section on it, on David Livingston's life, which includes Robert. So go on there and look that part. There are a couple of other good websites. One of them, I believe, says he went to Angola. The other one said he went to South Africa. Of course, Angola is down towards South Africa. But if you're interested, Google it, see what you come up with. Turn in your Bible to the book of Proverbs, chapter 24. I want us to look at verses 11 and 12. And while you're turning there, Proverbs 327 says, withhold not good from them to whom it is due, when it is in the power of thy hand to do it. If you have the wherewithal to meet the needs of someone. Something that's good is in your hand, or you have the wherewithal to deliver that good thing. Withhold it not from them to whom it is due. You say, well, preacher, what's good? I think the gospel is good. The word of God is good. I think giving is good. Did you know that I have been involved in Faith Promise and I'm a missionary that lives by Faith Promise? But I love to give. I really do. I'm a part of the team program here. You know, where you join up and you give so much a month to the school to help out. I mentioned here one time, I look at it as a fishing license. Because I've come here fishing for recruits, and so I'm willing to pay my license to fish. If I go down on the coast, they charge me. If I fish in the rivers, they charge me. So they're not charging me, but I joined up just so that I can pay my license fee. So young people get involved in giving. You say, well, they don't have a lot of money. I'm not giving hundreds of dollars a month. but I'm giving consistently what I'm giving. I tithe. I give offerings. And I participate in faith promise. Now, don't tell me you don't have any money, because I'll talk to the snack shop later. Now, you've been in your mama's pocketbook, or you got some money from somewhere. Many of you are working. Odd jobs, some of you are McDonald workers or Burger King or whatever. So learn to tithe and give. I love to give. I really do. How many of you have been to the mission field? Let me see your hands. Put them up high now. OK, there's two, three, four, five, six. All right, how many of you have been more than one time? Oh, my. How many of you have been as much as four times? Goodness. Isn't that great? Thank you. Put your hands down. Would you go back again? Brother Dietrich was here the other night, has a pretty little girl. just as pretty as a little beagle puppy. And there's nothing any prettier than a beagle puppy. And she has just gotten back from Mexico, spending seven weeks down there. Now she's glad to get back because the service is not as long here as it was in Mexico, but she still enjoyed the trip. Every single one of you ought to do your best to go and visit a mission field for no other reason than to look back and see America from the outside. One of the sweetest sounds you'll ever hear is when you give your passport to the immigration official, when you're coming back into the United States, he slides it through the machine and looks at you and says, welcome back, Mr. Heath. Man, that's a good feeling. But you ought to go to the mission field. You ought to go and see how other people are living. In fact, 94% of the world has 6% of the world's preachers. And here in America with 6% of the world's population, We have 94% of all the world's preachers. God help us. Our Father, please bless this morning. We've enjoyed these young folks so much. Brings back a lot of memories. But I can't relive in them what we've experienced over the years. But Lord, help me to impart to them this morning some things that we've experienced in the past 45 years in missions. And I do pray that there would be someone here today that you might call to go to the mission field. I know not every one of these young people are potential missionaries or that it's your plan for them to be a missionary. I know that, Lord. But those that you are dealing with, please, dear Lord, don't let me spoil that calling, but help me this morning, by your grace, goodness, love, unction, and power to be able to get across to them, keep on keeping on in that direction. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. In Proverbs 24, verses 11 and 12, if thou forebear to deliver them that are drawn unto death and those that are ready to be slain, If, by the way, what does that if tell us? What do we call an if? A conditional, right? If thou sayest, in verse number 12, if thou sayest, behold, we knew it not, doth not he that pondereth the heart consider it? And he that keepeth thy soul, doth not he know it? And shall not he render to every man according to his works? My, my, my. You know, so many times God is dealing with us to do something and we drag our feet. We forbear. That means we delay. We procrastinate. That's a big word, but it's a biblical word. We procrastinate in the things of God. We hold back. We keep back. We refrain. When God is trying to move us, our heart's pounding away inside. But rather than listening to what he's saying, we're looking from side to side and seeing what the response of somebody else is who is our peer. We don't want to be different. The reason I wear my hair the way I do is because years ago, everybody was wearing their hair way down on their shoulders. I wanted to look different. I didn't want to look like everybody. Now everybody's got a haircut like mine, so I'm going to let mine grow out. Not down on my shoulders. No, I'm going to leave it like it is. I don't want to look like everybody else. I don't want to be like everybody else. I want to be the me that God created to be used by Him for His glory. So young people, if we forbear, that means it's based on my attitude. If I, if thou forbear, not my preacher nor my deacon, but it's me, oh Lord. standing in the need of prayer. It's me that's forbearing. I'm the one that's dragging my feet. I don't care if anybody else doesn't make a decision or not. The day I was saved, I was seated over on that side by the window in a little old wooden church down in eastern North Carolina. The windows were open. It was springtime. The pine trees, you could hear the wind rustling through the pines. And I am sitting there beside the window, a whole row of my friends to my right. And when the invitation was given, God got a hold of my heart. I walked in front of them. I could hear them giggling and laughing. And I went down to the altar. Not another single one of them moved. I was the only one. My brother and I are the only two preachers. except for one more boy, and he quit, that came out of that church in almost 200 years. I didn't want to be like everybody else. When God got a hold of my heart, I began to move. And so it's my personal attitude, if thou forebear, If God has put the burden on my heart, has convicted me, and I forbear, I drag my feet. It's based on my foreknowledge. If I forbear, that means I already foreknew what the problem was. I've always had the conviction that people were lost. since I got saved. In fact, shortly after I got saved, God began to deal with me about witnessing. I remember distinctly one day, my dad was a carpenter, a builder, as I mentioned the other night, and his first cousin and I were working, nailing asbestos siding on the house that my first cousin was building, and I looked at him. In fact, in my hometown, there were three drunkards. Jerry, that was my dad. Bruce, that was his first cousin. And C.D., which was another Heath, but he was not related. He was a different set of puppers. And so, as we were working that day, I turned to Bruce. I said, Bruce, when are you going to give your heart to the Lord? And you could smell the alcohol. And they called me Dalton down there, not Dalton. He said, Dalton, I plan to join the church and straighten up before I die. I said, Bruce, it's not a matter of joining the church. It's a matter of giving your heart to Christ. Well, whatever it is, I'm going to do it before I die. That's on Friday afternoon. Monday morning, we came to work. Bruce didn't show up. About 10 o'clock, his sister came around the bottom of the building. My dad and I and another fellow were nailing shingles on top of the house. And she called to my dad, Jerry, I want to talk to you. And dad went down. And I saw her break down and began to cry. And she left. And my dad said, boy, get the tools and come on down. As soon as I hit the ground, I said, Daddy, what in the world happened? He said, C.D. just shot and killed Bruce up the road. I've witnessed to five people in my life that I was the last person to ever speak to them about the Lord. And all five of them died and went to hell by their own testimony. I was working at Easley Baptist Hospital in Easley, South Carolina. My degree is in medical technology from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. My wife and I had gone back down to Easley, South Carolina so that I could attend Bob Jones University and take missionary medical courses under Dr. John Drisbach. I was working there at the Easley Baptist Hospital one weekend. I was on call, and I had the telephone call, Mr. Heath, can you get to the hospital quickly? Dr. Gadlock wants you to run a prothombrine time on Mr. So-and-so in room 103. And I'm the kind of fella that I looked at it as if it was I, or me, there in the bed. waiting for a test. I jumped in my car, I ran to the hospital, threw my coat off, put on my lab jacket, went to room 103. As I walked in the door, there was an oxygen tent over the bed. Back in these days, they just give you oxygen through your nostril. I reached down and started pulling the plastic out. I said, Mr. So-and-so, and I'll not call his name, Could you slip your arm out, please, sir? He read my name tag. He said, Mr. Higgins, I've never hurt like this. His face was a dirty gray. Beads of sweat were running off of him almost as big as my thumb. He said, I'm scared. I don't know what to do. I said, Mr. So-and-so, let me get this blood test run, and I'll come back up. I want to talk to you. Just give me a few minutes. I race back to the lab. I put the tube in the centrifuge. It's supposed to spin for five minutes. I'm going to let it go for three. And as I reach to take it out of the centrifuge, I heard over the intercom, Dr. Gadlock, ABC, Dr. Gadlock, ABC, Room 103. Nobody had to tell me. I knew that this Mr. So-and-so had just expired. I took the tube of blood threw it into the trash can, walked over next to the wall, put my elbow up and my head on my arm. I said, oh God, forgive me. I've let a man slip through my fingers. By his own testimony, he's scared to die. Oh, you say, Mr. Heath, you won't ever see him again. What do you mean? Where'd you get that from? Brother Mike has been doing a tremendous job from the book of Revelation, chapter 20. Death and hell will give up its dead. And they'll come stumbling and staggering before the great white throne of God Almighty. By the way, nowhere in the Bible does it say that the unbeliever's body will ever be changed. Oh, the believer is going to get a new body, one like unto his body. But that body that the unbeliever believes in, I believe with all of my heart, he'll come up out of the pits of hell with that same emaciated, twisted, grotesquely mangled. Ever how he died, he'll come out of hell with that same body. And the books will be open. 66 of them. And the book will be open, the book of life. Mr. So-and-so, I don't find your name, sir. But Mr. Heath told me he was coming back. He told me he'd be back in a few minutes. I was pastoring in Anderson, Indiana. That's where I met my wife there at Anderson College. Now I wasn't studying theology. I was working on medical technology. Yes, we were there when the Gaithers, before they got married, Bill and Gloria were the camper sweethearts and laughing all the way at the bank every Monday morning after going out on the weekend with Danny and Gloria and Bill singing. But there was a young man. and his girlfriend that were in an automobile accident. Almost killed. The mother and daddy said, Mr. Heath, can you go talk to our daughter? And I go in, and I could see that she was convicted. And I began to witness to and talk to her. And she said, if my boyfriend will make the decision, I will. I said, what room is he in? She told me. I went to the room, witnessed to him. He said, I'm not interested. I don't believe in that stuff. I said, son, you need to be careful how you're talking because God's listening. I don't care who's listening. I said, all right. I'll pray for you. You don't even need to do that. I'll do it anyway. And I left. They got out of the hospital. And one month later, almost to the day, he was killed in an automobile accident. I've witnessed to five people in my life. I was on the island of Pohnpei. out in Micronesia where the Bolstons are. I led a fellow to the Lord that was a Roman Catholic. He was an American boy from Boston. Had been there with the Peace Corps, was now working for the Navy. He was an engineer. He got saved and married one of our Micronesian girls. And He'd say, Brother Heath, would you come up to my office and let me ask you some questions about the Bible and you get started talking. I want my friend Ted to get saved. I said, sure. So I'd go by the office and he'd say, Mr. Heath, what do you think about this? We'd talk about it. What do you think of it? And we'd talk about it. Finally, Ted said one day, Mr. Heath, what do you think about the end time? So I explained my view on eschatology, which is very limited, simple. Of course, I could just go by what the Bible says. And then I said to him, Ted, you know, it's not important about the end time. The big thing here today is, are you going to be ready when the end time comes? He said, well, what do you mean? And then I began to witness to him about his soul. And as I took him through the plan of salvation, I could see the expression on his face kind of becoming one of interest. And I said to him, as I finished, Ted, what do you think? He said, Mr. Heath, I understand what you're saying, but I'm not ready to make a decision yet. I said, Ted, do you know what you're saying, son? You're not ready to make a decision? How about if God gets ready to take you into eternity before you get ready to make your decision? Well, that's just a chance I'll have to take. I said, Ted, you don't have a chance, sir. You've got a choice, but you don't have a chance. Why don't you receive Christ as your personal Savior? He said, not today. That's on Monday. Wednesday night, I got a call from Jack. the engineer, the one that Ted's working for, and Jack said, did you hear the news? I said, what news, Jack? He said they found Ted dead today out on the coral reef. He was down about 20 feet diving. When the Micronesian boys looked around for him, couldn't find him. He had been gone for a long time. He didn't have a scoop of tank. They went down looking for him and found him seated on a coral head with his head on his hand. They pushed him and he just fell over. And they brought him out. The autopsy said there was no water in his lungs. So he didn't die from drowning. He had a heart attack. Young man. I said, Jack, when is the funeral? He said, tomorrow. You see out there, you have to bury him within 24 hours because there's no embalming. He said, tomorrow at 1 o'clock. I said, Jack, I'd like to go to the funeral with you. He said, Mr. Teeth, I want you to preach the funeral. I said, Jack, I'm not going to do it. I know too much about him. I'm not going to preach the funeral. I'll go with you, but I'm not going to preach. We got up there. There's just a mob of people everywhere. Come out of the jungle for the funeral because he had married a Micronesian girl. Jack goes into the house to talk to the wife and the family. I stay outside. I don't know any of the family, didn't even know his wife. And Jack comes back out. He said, Mr. Heath, they don't have anybody to preach the funeral, and I told them you would. I said, Jack, If I preach the funeral, I'm going to tell the folks the last words that came out of Ted's mouth and tell them where Ted went by his own testimony. That's what I want you to do, Mr. Heath. That's why I ask you to preach the funeral. As Brother Mike and Brother Harper have been preaching, you can do your own thing. Go ahead. But if you've ever made a profession of faith that was real, God's not marked you off yet. You're playing with fire. In fact, you're playing with death. The soul that sent it. it shall die. To him that knoweth to do right, and doeth it not, to him it is sin. He that believeth is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already. That's why the Lord Jesus didn't come into the world to condemn the world. but that through him the world might be saved. The world was already condemned. He didn't come with the judgment. He came with the redemption. And that's what we need to take to the field. When we see someone that is drawn unto death, I love the mission field. I loved Africa. Man, did I love Africa. But my wife contracted malaria and could not take the medication that she had to get rid of the malaria with. She'd been taking a prophylactic to keep from getting it. But if you get it, then you have to take something else to get rid of it. And the one that we had at that time was chloroquine. And she was allergic to quinine. sent her out into the twilight zone, scared me and her even more. And when we came home, she looked at me one day and said, I've destroyed your ministry. I said, honey, you've not destroyed my ministry. We're going to have a ministry wherever we are. And I traveled doing deputation for Baptist Med for years, Then finally had to get off the field because every time, or out of deputation, every time I left home, I left her crying, my only child, my daughter crying, and I'd cry halfway to where I was going. That was back in the days when if a missionary had a travel trailer, he was misappropriating God's funds. But then God opened up the opportunity to go to Micronesia. You say, where in the world is Micronesia? I told you the other day, if you'll go to Honolulu and turn left and go 2,350 miles southwest to the Marshall Islands, and then in the Marshall Islands take a sharp right and go 935 miles due west, you'll come to the Micronesian Islands. In fact, the Micronesian Islands, if a map of the United States were to be overlaid over the map of the Central Pacific, the Micronesian Islands would cover an area from Elizabeth City, North Carolina, Majuro in the Marshalls, in Elizabeth City, all the way to San Diego, California, where Yap and Palau in the far western part of the Pacific is located. Man, 2,500 miles across that Central Pacific. Thousands of islands. with people that are dying and going to hell. Young people, I hope you'll consider. Consider mission. Even if you're not called to mission, make a visit. You say, well, Mr. Heath, you're nothing to brag about because you told us in the special time on Tuesday afternoon, you said that you didn't even go to missionary prayer band in college. Do you want to be like me? Old sorry, wretched, foot dragging, forebearing. God spoke to me years ago before those prayer bands when I heard a quartet. that came from the Bible College in Nashville, Tennessee. One of the fellows was Benito, and let me see if I can roll my tongue, Rodriguez. And through his testimony, God began to deal with me as a little boy. And then one day when I was listening to the radio waiting for the old-fashioned revival hour to come on, ABC News broke in and said, four missionaries have been killed in Ecuador. And I was glued to the radio every time they said anything about those four missionaries. I remember Jim Elliott's name and Nate Sink. Nate was the pilot. And then as a young fella began to dream about flying on the mission field. But, as some of you are doing right here this week, God's trying to get you to put your name on the piece of paper. and you're making out your resume. Lord, if you'll do this and if you'll do this in my life and give me this person to be my husband or to be my wife, and Lord, if you can guarantee this kind of income and retirement and so forth, then I'll serve you. You're not looking for the perfect will of God. You're just looking for the permissive will of God. And God's going to say to some of you, OK, I'll sign the paper. You're not going to be happy. Call that old captain of the football team is going to drop you. He's going to go get somebody else. You're going to be left with the children. And no job. But he's not going to tell you that up front. And he's going to sign his name, your heavenly father, and give you your paper back. You're signed up. Go ahead. You say, oh, preacher, what can I do? The best thing to do is to get you a blank piece of paper. Put your name on the bottom of it. And if you want to get it notarized, that's all right. He doesn't require that. But put your name on the bottom, hand it to him, and say, Lord, now you fill in my resume. If you want to be happy. Now, I'm not saying this all honey and no bees. All life has its ups and downs. But I'm going to tell you something. You'll be the happiest couple or single person that you've ever known surrendered to the will of God. Lord, here I am. As Livingston said, take me anywhere. but you go with me, and God will bless you. Our father, when we look back on those times that we have been on the field, Lord, we're not complaining. You knew that there would be health problems and so forth, and some of them have been now to where they have to be taken care of here in the States. But Lord, those were days that we loved. And we've got the memories and pictures, and we keep in touch. But there are some young people here today that I believe you have spoken to. And like myself, they are responsible to heed your calling that you keep quietly convicting them with through the Holy Spirit. Please help them to surrender in Jesus' name. Amen.