so I followed his advice. So for two years we were in Monterey with a pastor, veteran, and then 18 years ago we started our church there in Guadalajara. Okay, let's turn our Bibles to Lamentations chapter 1. Lamentations chapter 1. Oh, Pastor, what time does this go to? Okay, all right. Lamentations chapter one. And we're gonna read verses 12 through 16. Lamentations one, verses 12 through 16. And y'all are comfortable, just stay there in your places. You can just sit there and listen along while I read out loud. I'll read out loud. You can just sit there and listen with your heart. Lamentations one, verses 12 through 16. Lamentations chapter one. 12 through 16, and just follow me along in your Bible while I read out loud. Verse 12. Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? Behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow which is done unto me. Wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger. From above he hath sent fire unto my bones, and it prevailed against them. He hath spread a net for my feet. He hath turned me back. He hath made me desolate and faint all the day. The yoke of my transgressions is bound by his hand. They are wreathed and come up upon my neck. He hath made my strength to fail, to fall. The Lord hath delivered me into their hands from whom I am not able to rise up. The Lord hath trodden underfoot all my mighty men in the midst of me. He hath called the assembly against me to crush my young men. The Lord hath trodden the virgin, the daughter of Judah, as in a winepress. Verse 16 is the text. For these things I weep, mine eye, Mine eye runneth down with water, because the comforter that should relieve my soul is far from me. My children are desolate because the enemy prevailed. And one more time, verse 16. For these things I weep, mine eye runneth down with water, because the comforter that should relieve my soul is far from me. My children are desolate because the enemy prevailed. And let us pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we're here in your presence tonight, in your house, with your people, And we're blessed to be in a place where we don't have to worry about temptations or bad music or profanity. A place where we're surrounded by friends and people that care about us and love us. And Jesus, it's my sincere desire to be a blessing to your people tonight. But of course, I'm not capable of that. I am nothing, I know that. I realize that without the Holy Spirit that I can do nothing. And I know that the people cannot be blessed with just mere words. mere human words. So God, I pray that through your word, you would speak to your people, that you would just use me as a voice tonight. Holy Spirit, I yield myself to you to take control. Anything I might be planning to say that you'd like to change or whatever you'd like to do. And afterwards, anybody that's blessed, anybody that's fulfilled spiritually in any way, Jesus, you will receive all the glory. and not me and not anybody but you. In the name of Jesus we ask, amen. Amen. Lamentations chapter one, here we have the personification of the city of Jerusalem. The personification of the city of Jerusalem. Here, Jeremiah is comparing the city to a broken and battered woman. A broken and battered woman. And it's very wise, he's being a master of symbolism here. Because when you think about it, who wouldn't help a lady out on the street like that? Imagine you're walking by some alley, you hear a faint voice. Help, help me, help me. And you turn aside and you see some lady there laying there battered and beaten, bloody, maybe at the point of death. Who here wouldn't help her? Who wouldn't? Anybody would. Maybe you'd cast your coat over her, call the police, call an ambulance, try to help her. If you know some basic remedies for her, you'd do what you could to help her. But here what Jeremiah's doing, He's saying anybody would help just one person out on the street, one person battered and broken. And then Jeremiah says, but what about an entire city? What about an entire city? Would you be willing to help one person who's bloody and broken and battered? Well, Jeremiah says, here we have a whole city that needs help. I think in a way here, Jeremiah is calling for help. Calling for more people to help him as you know that pastors. We're always looking for help We're looking for someone to help out and the ministry we have, you know Sunday school classes and then we have the adult church and maybe a teen church and maybe bus routes But we're always looking for more help But here is a cry for help for Jeremiah, to help the city, to help the city. And that's what it says in verse 12, is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? That of course, one person that's bloody and broken in the street, anybody would help her. But entire cities, we just leave them, we pass over them. Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? Going back to the text, verse 16. It says, for these things I weep, the city crying out. For these things I weep, mine eye, mine eye runneth down with water, because the comforter that should relieve my soul is far from me. Where is the comforter? And that's the title of my sermon tonight. Where is the comforter? Where is the comforter? What happened? Why isn't the comforter in his place? Why is the woman without help? It says the comforter that should relieve my soul, the person that should be here, is not here. Okay, maybe we're asking, who is the comforter? Who's it talking about? Well, there's a lot of applications. Of course, in my case, I'd apply to myself as a missionary that I'm not where I should be. I mean, of course, I'm here with the church, but I mean, the missionary leaves the field and leaves the people suffering, leaves the people helpless for a while. It could apply to a church or a church member. Somebody that's supposed to be out in the ministry or out in the work and they're not going. Maybe it applies to some city here in America where God's called somebody to go and preach to be a pastor and the person refused to go. Maybe someone was called but they were not sent. Maybe it was a missionary looking for support. Maybe it was someone trying to raise the money to go to the place where God called them. But we know it says here, the comforter that should relieve my soul is far from me. The comforter that should relieve my soul is far from me. God hears the cries of a world that's battered and beaten, and God calls comforters to relieve the cities. God calls comforters to relieve those cries. God hears the cries and calls someone to go and relieve them. In 1st Samuel, it talks about the Philistines. It says the cry of the city went up to heaven. Here we have the pagan Philistines that weren't even God's people, but God heard their cry, crying out in pain, crying out in judgment. And the truth is they probably weren't even calling out to Jehovah God, but God heard them crying out and God sent them relief. God gave them the knowledge to relieve their pain. God answered. We think about Exodus, what God says, you shall not afflict any widow or fatherless child. If they afflict them in any wise, and they cry it all unto me, I will surely hear their cry. God hears the cries of a world crying out for help, and God calls for someone to go. God calls for someone to answer. God heard the cries of the people there in Guadalajara, and God called our family, and we went, we obeyed God. Can you imagine people all over the world crying out for a comforter, crying out for some relief? And here we have the answer. We have what they need. We have what they're looking for. The Word of God, the Son of God, we have it. Will we go to the world that's crying out? God hears the cries of a world looking for problems. I think about the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. You can imagine the cries that went up from that city to God. And the city became so corrupt that when the angels came, it said that the men and the children were looking for them to do unholy things with them. The men, it says, the children too, great and small, went to look for them. But you can imagine the suffering in cities like Sodom and Gomorrah. Sodom and Gomorrah, how they suffered. But I wanna show you something about that story. Let's go to Genesis 18, the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. You know, you read the Bible and you read the same text several times, and then you read it one more time, and something just jumps out at you, something just grabs you that you didn't notice before. Genesis chapter 18, the tragic story here, Sodom and Gomorrah. Verse 20 and 21, Genesis 18, 20 and 21. Before God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, it looks like he had some hope. The truth is, God doesn't want to destroy nations. God doesn't want any to perish. God does not believe that any should perish, but that all should come to what? To repentance. So God was hoping that they would be spared, just like God was gonna destroy Nineveh, but then he spared Nineveh. God was gonna destroy Simon and Gomorrah, but let's go to the text. I want you to read it with me. You'll see what I'm talking about here. It seems like God had some hope. You know that God works through human instruments. God wants to save cities and God wants to save families, but God works through human instruments. Genesis chapter 18, verse 20. And God said, because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, children, families, wives battered, and because their sin is very grievous, I will go down now and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it, which is coming to me, and if not, I will know. And reading this, I noticed what it says, what did they have done according to the cry of it? What did they have done? And I got thinking, who was they? Who was supposed to do something? Who was there that was supposed to do their job to save the city? You know, the Bible says later on, in the same chapter, that God would have spared the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah for ten righteous people. For ten righteous people. God didn't want to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. And the New Testament says that it would have remained until this day if the mighty works were done in the city. If someone would have preached in the city, if someone would have done their job in the city, who was supposed to go? Who were they here in the verse? It says, I will go down and see whether they have done all together according to the cry of it. They cried to me for help, they're crying to me. Someone's got to do something. Let's see if they did it. Let's see if they fulfilled their work. Let's see if they did something. If they didn't, I will know. It might've been Lot. We know that Lot was saved in the New Testament in 2 Peter chapter two. It says, and delivered just Lot. Lot was saved, he was just. He was just and that he was justified. He was a saved person, Lot was saved. We know in chapter 12 of Genesis, the Bible says that Abraham called upon the name of the Lord. In chapter 15 of Genesis, it says that Abraham believed God and was counted unto him for righteousness. Lot, who was traveling with him and his nephew, Shirley heard the gospel from his uncle Abraham, and Lot was a just person, Lot was a safe person. And it says in 2 Peter 2, and the Lord, just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation, or lifestyle, of the wicked. vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked. For that righteous man dwelling among them, the Sodomites, they're in Sodom and Gomorrah, and seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds. Lot was bothered by the people around him, but Lot did nothing. Lot did nothing. Lot could have saved the city. Or maybe it was Abraham. Maybe God was counting on Abraham. If you're still there in Genesis 18, look at verses 17 on. And the Lord said, Shall I hide from Abraham the thing which I should do? And God revealed to Abraham, I'll spare the city for ten people. After bargaining with Abraham, he got out of ten people, saying to Abraham, verse 18, saying that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all nations of the earth shall be blessed in him. For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him. Hear God say, maybe Abraham will do something. I know he's a godly man. He'll command his children and his household. Maybe he'll go preach to his nephew or wake his nephew up. Hey, we've got to do something in this city before God destroys it. We can save the city. His house will answer him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord to do justice and judgment, that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which has spoken of him. But what did Abraham do? Did Abraham go? Did Abraham go preach? And the thing is, in chapter 14 of Genesis, we have the story how the Bible says that the kings around Sodom and Gomorrah attacked them. And the Bible says that the king of Sodom and Gomorrah, the kings, fell into the slime pits, and that the enemy kings took all their goods. And the Bible says that Abraham rounded up over 300 of his servants. Abraham rounded up over 300 of his servants and went down and fought against the kings that had spoiled Sodom and Gomorrah and defeated them and recovered all the goods of the kings and obviously rescued the kings from the slime pits. And it says that the king of Sodom was so thankful that he offered to give from the spoils to Abraham. And Abraham said, no, just give me what the young men have taken. That's fine. So in a way, I believe that Sodom would have listened to Abraham after the great deliverance. If Abraham would have gone, and would have preached, or would have tried to turn people righteous, they would have listened to him, or someone would have. Lot, what did Lot do? Did Lot try to save the people? The angels came, just like Jonah had the message that Nineveh would be destroyed. but then God spared it. Maybe Lot was supposed to preach something. Let's go to chapter 19, if you're still there in Genesis, Genesis 19. Abraham, 10 people in the city will be saved. What are you gonna do, Abraham? Later on it says, Abraham just watched as the smoke from the city went up. Abraham, why didn't you go? God said, let's see what they've done. Let's see if they went. Let's see if they finished their job there in Sodom and Gomorrah. Let's see if they did it, if they did something. If not, I will know. Abraham apparently didn't do anything. Lot, at the end, tried to save his son-in-law, but it was too late. With his bad lifestyle, they just mocked him. But over here in Genesis chapter 19, Verse 10, But the men put forth their head, and pulled Lot into the house to them, and shut to the door. And they smote the men that were at the door of the house with blindness, both small and great, so that they wear themselves to find the door. And the men, the two angels, said unto Lot, Hast thou here any besides son-in-law, and thy sons, and thy daughters, and whatsoever thou hast in the city, bring them out of this place? And I read that, thy sons and thy daughters. Now, usually when you hear the story of Lot, you hear about his daughters. He had four daughters, two that were unmarried and two that were married. But here, the angel said, thy sons and thy daughters. Now, some commentaries that you'll read, they'll talk about his sons. Others don't mention his sons. But it appears here that the angel said, your sons and your daughters, apart from your sons-in-law, sons and daughters. In Spanish it says, sons-in-law, son-in-law. But it has the name besides son-in-law, sons and thy daughters, thy sons and thy daughters. So it appears like Lot had some sons. But they were probably so corrupted that he thought they were beyond any kind of salvation. But Lot's family, if he did have the two sons, would have had ten people. Lot, his wife, his four daughters, his two son-in-laws, and at least two sons, as is plural here. Lot could have saved the city. Lot could have prevented destruction. Or if he thought that some of his family was too corrupt, he could have found someone else. Lot sat in the gate of the city. Lot was a big man in Sodom. Lot, what are you going to do? Are you going to preach? Are you going to try to turn some people righteous? Lot, what are you going to do? Maybe Lot was the comforter. Maybe Abraham. We'll never know. Why? Because the cities were destroyed. The cities were destroyed. God said later, if the mighty works would have been done in thee, they would have lasted until this day, the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. But no, they were destroyed. God destroyed the cities. Why? Because the comforter never went. I wonder what city in this world today, what country, is waiting for the comforter, but the comforter won't go. Or the comforter is not sent, and the comforter never arrives. Us pastors talk about divine appointments. You know the famous verses, Ephesians 2, 8, 9, For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, but it's the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. But the next verse says, For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus on two good works, the four that God has called that we should walk in them, that God has good works set for us, God has good works planned for us, people in our road that we will meet in the path of life, people that need us. That's why we have to stay in the path. That's why young people present, it's important that you don't get out of the will of God, that you stay in the will of God for your life, that you don't leave it. Why? Because you're gonna miss some of the people. In fact, there's two types of people you'll miss. First of all, people that need you. People that God has planned for you to save them or to help them on your road. If you get out of the path, you won't meet them. And also people that will help you. If you follow God's path and stay in the path, God will put people in the path to help you, to mold you, to make what you ought to be. But if you get out of the path, if you don't do God's will, those people will never be found. The people that would have helped you and the people that you could have helped. Sadly, Matthew 11, 23, and now Capernaum, which are exalted into heaven, shall be brought down to hell. For if the mighty works which had been done in thee had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed. Why? The comforter never went. God said, I'm going to go down. I'm going to see if they did their job, if they did what they're supposed to do. If not, I will know. Abraham, maybe Lot, maybe somebody else. No one went, and the cities were destroyed. You say, Pastor, well, look at our nation. Look how it's getting. Like Sodom and Gomorrah? I'd say in some ways, we left Sodom in the rearview mirror, the iniquity of our nation. But thank God for some godly people that are keeping America afloat still. And we need more people to get on board and help. God hears the cries of the people. The great heart of God is moved by the cries of the afflicted. God sends a pastor, a missionary, a soul winner, a bus worker, somebody. God heard the cries of Nineveh and God sent Jonah. I believe the truth is that Jonah was just one of many Old Testament prophets. Some people say that in the Old Testament God wasn't as interested in foreign missions. I don't think it was God, I think it was more the people that didn't respond. I think that Jonah is just one story of many people that God called to the pagan nations, and God showed us through Jonah how much trouble he had to finally get him to the capital of Assyria, to finally get him to Nineveh, how much trouble it took to get Jonah to Nineveh. And I wonder, There in Tarshish, how many missionaries there were hiding? Maybe Tarshish was a haven for missionaries running from God in that time. We don't know, but God sends people around the world. God sends people out to save people. I was in a conference, a youth conference there in Mexico City, and I was talking to a missionary, a missionary in Ecuador. He works with the Indians down there out in the jungles, in the jungles of Ecuador. And he was saying, he said, I'm going to places, villages, to reach people, preach the gospel in villages. And he said, I'll go to a place and I'll preach where no one's heard the gospel, no one's seen a Bible, no one's heard about Jesus Christ. And he said, Brother Robert, there's a lot of villages, just like mine, that aren't reached. There are more villages. And he's training pastors, he's doing a great job. He said, there's more villages that no one's gone to. He said, there's more villages that nobody's reached yet. There's untouched areas of the world where we can still preach where no one's gone. And I said to myself, I'd go tonight. I know it's not what God wants me to do, but if God called me to do it, I'd be on a plane tonight to go to Ecuador. I'd get on the plane. I'd go to JFK, find a plane, call another, and I'd go. But my calling, election's very sure, God put me in Guadalajara, Mexico. But what am I saying? God calls people all around the world to go. Who will answer? Who will be the comforter? Who will say, I will go? Jeremiah compared Jerusalem to a woman that was beaten and battered and crying for help. And Jeremiah says, what a shame that people just pass by and no one wants to help her. Talking about a city, how many cities just like that? We heard the cries of the Mexican people. We answered, we went, we're there. God, here's the cries. God, here's the cries of the children. God, here's the cries of the children. It's the same that children suffer. The parents make bad decisions. The parents make horrible decisions, and the innocent children suffer. The children suffer for the mistakes of the parents. I want you to see another passage. Let's go to Lamentations 3. Let's go back to Lamentations 3. God, here's the children. God hears the children, and God sends a comforter. God wants them to be saved. The beautiful thing about the children is their whole life's ahead of them. They're a blank page, the children. Lamentations chapter three, verse 48. Lamentations 3, 48, God hears the children. Lamentations 3, 48. Mine eye runneth down with rivers of water for the destruction of the daughter of my people. Mine eye trickleth down and ceaseth not without any intermission till the Lord look down and behold from heaven. Mine eye affecteth my heart because of all the daughters of my city. Children with emotional scars, mental scars. What do they hear? What do they see? Children crying out. God cries to comfort the children. You know, they're in our church, they're in Guadalajara. We also support missionaries. We have our missions conference, we have our missions board of missionaries up there. And sometimes a missionary will come in and preach for us, maybe on a Sunday morning. We'll have a missionary, maybe an evangelist preaching Sunday morning. So what I'll do, sometimes when the missionaries are there, the evangelists are there, Sunday morning service, I say, well, I'm going to go up to the Sunday school class. I'll see what's going on in Sunday school. While the missionaries are here, I want to see what's going on in the Sunday school class. And I'll go upstairs. And you know how the children's church is? You know how the children are in the church? Just singing with all their might and singing about Jesus and singing with love for Jesus. You know, the little kids just love Jesus. Little kids just love Jesus. Like Jesus said, suffer the little children to come to me. Just let them come. They'll come. And little kids, just sing with all their might how much they love Jesus. That's what we see, just the children. And I'll say, we got them at a good time. We came at a good time. We came just in time to get these little kids in church. But another scenario, a mother come to me about her teenage son and say, pastor, pray for my son, my 16 year old son, that he's getting involved with the narcos, he's getting involved with drugs, he's getting involved with the wrong crowd, pray for him. And I said, I'll pray for him, but I'll say to myself, they might as well ask me to part the Red Sea. It's just such a miracle, just to be such a miracle to be able to change that boy at this point. Proverbs 19, 18 says, chasing thy son while there is hope. Chasing thy son while there is hope. God hears the children. And God calls someone to save the children, to answer the cry of the children. But we're like in a race against the clock. We're in a race against the clock to save these kids before they get destroyed, before they go to the wrong crowd, before they get in that school with that crowd, that popular crowd that will destroy them. We have to get there before that. It's like in our passage we saw, my children are destitute because the enemy prevailed. We have to get there before they're destroyed. God hears the children. Let's go to another passage, Isaiah 54, about the children. God hears them, and God wants to help them. God calls us to help them. You say, Pastor, I'm not really good working with people, talking to people. Start with the children. Work with the children in the church. Isaiah 54, let's go to verse 11. Here we have a parent with all their problems with their life that's a mess. And the workers know how it is that the adults come to us with their lives and a million pieces. And as a pastor, we'll take their life and we'll try to put the pieces back together and try to bind it all up and make them a useful vessel. But the children, you know, we start from scratch, we start from anew. But here, Isaiah 54, 11, here we have an adult. O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted! Behold, I will lay thy stones with fair colors, and lay thy foundations with sapphires. I will make thy windows of agates, and thy gates of carbuncles, and all thy borders of pleasant stones. And all thy children shall be taught of the Lord, and great shall be the peace of thy children. Great shall be the peace of thy children. And don't misunderstand me, of course, adults come to us with their battered lives and their twisted lives and all their problems, and we'll do the best we can to work it all out, get them straight, get them married if they're unmarried, and try to work out their problems, try to work through their problems. But they bring along those little kids. And we said, we're going to start from scratch here. We're going to start from square one. We're going to raise them upright. Your kids are going to have a chance that you never had. I think about my mom. My mom, there in Chicago, I grew up in Chicago. My mom, she was in a lot of problems, got into a lot of trouble, doing a lot of bad things that she shouldn't have been doing. And my mom was just lost. She was saved, but just discouraged. Didn't know what to do. Trying to raise kids there in Chicago. My older brothers and sisters were already getting into a lot of problems. And one day, two young ladies came to our door. Two young ladies. Two, I imagine, teenagers came. And we're college students, and they invited our family to church. And my mom said, well, I don't know. I'm not really comfortable going to church, going a long way to church. But my mom said, you can take my teenage daughter. My sister was in a lot of problems. My sister was getting mixed up with a lot of bad stuff. I was just a five-year-old kid. But my mom said, you can take my daughter. Take my daughter to church with you. Take her to the church, the Baptist church. So those two young ladies came and picked up my sister. She started taking her to church. And my sister changed completely. My sister started changing. She started wanting to go soul winning. She started getting my family saved, trying to get my cousins involved in church. And my mom said, there's something real about this thing. This is real, what they're doing at the church, at the Baptist church. So one day, my mom said, I'll go, too. I'll go along with the group, with the route. So my mom said, one day, OK, you know what? I'll take my son, too. I'll take him to church. So I started riding the church bus when I was five years old, going to church as a little five-year-old boy. And I got saved. And God spared me. Now, if you ask my mom her testimony, my mom's testimony, dark and grim and bad. If you ask me my testimony, I've never smoked, drunk, used drugs, none of that. Never involved with the gangs, although I grew up right there in the middle of Chicago. Why? Because my mom, we were reached, I was reached when I was really young. I was reached as a little child. And like it says here, verse 11, all the afflicted tossed with tempest and not comforted. How many parents like that? Their life tossed with tempests, not comforted, but their children can be taught of the Lord. God hears the children, and God sends someone to answer the cries of the children. Who will go? Who will help the children? I showed in our video. We needed a junior church, so what we did was we built On our auditorium, we put on the roof a children's church. Our children's church is there on the roof. It's a beautiful thing there on the roof. We put the children's church so the children have their meeting place. But God hears the children. God hears the teenagers. Let's go to Genesis 21. A casual reader of the Bible might think here that Ishmael was a little baby, but the truth here in Genesis 21, Ishmael was a teenager. Genesis 21, 16, a story of Hagar and Ishmael. Genesis 21, 16, back to Genesis. Genesis 21, God hears the children and God calls a comforter. The great heart of God is moved for children that are suffering and God calls someone to go. And the good thing is to reach them at a young age so they can grow up in the ministry, grow up in the church. It's like when the disciples came to Jesus saying, who's the best? Which one of us is the greatest? And of course, John thought it's going to be me. Peter thought, well, it's going to be me. I'm the leader. And Jesus put in the midst, what? A little child. A little child. Said, this is the greatest. Why? Because a little child, the apostle reached as grown men. They'd already lived sinful lives, had a lot of problems. They're just trying to straighten out. But Jesus said the future of the church are these little kids that are gonna grow up, and the church grow up to be strong Christians, grow up without all the problems that the adults have. God hears the children, God hears the teenagers. Genesis chapter 21. Hear the story of Hagar and Ishmael. Hagar and Ishmael, Genesis chapter 21. Look at verse 15. And remember here, Ishmael's a teenager. And the water was spinning in the bottom, and she cast the child into one of the shoves. And she went and sat her down over against him a good way off, as it were a bow shopper. She said, let me not see the death of the child. And she sat over against him and lifted up her voice and wept. And God heard the voice of the lad. And the angel of God called the Hagar out of heaven and said unto her, what aideth thee, Hagar? Fear not, for God hath heard the voice of the lad where he is. It says that God heard the voice of the lad, this teenage boy crying out about to die. He wasn't even crying out for salvation, just crying to be saved from his troubles. And the Bible says that God heard him and God called to his mom. God called down to his mom. God called for a comforter. God relieved him from his pain. When I was a 17-year-old boy there in Chicago, one night, I was having my devotions. I was just in my room, having my personal devotions, there on by my bed, kneeling, praying. And God spoke to my heart to go to Mexico. I don't know how to explain it. And some people say, well, God doesn't work that way. Well, I've been there for 20 years now. I was just there praying. I wasn't even thinking about being a missionary, the thought of being a missionary, a pastor, none of that ever entered my mind. It just never dawned on me. I just never considered it. But God spoke to my heart, Robert, you need to go to Mexico to be a missionary. Sometimes I wonder if maybe that night, some young boy, some teenager in Mexico crying out, and just like it says here that God heard Ismael and God called to heaven, to Hagar, maybe God heard someone there and called out to me from heaven. I don't know. But here it says that God heard Ismael and God called to his mom. It says, I've heard him, I'm calling out. God hears the teens. God calls for a comforter. Reaching the teenagers, young people, The beautiful thing about teenagers is they bring all their friends. They bring all their cousins. They bring their friends. Get the teenagers excited. God hears the teenagers. God hears the teenagers. And lastly, God hears the adults. Let's go to Acts chapter 10. God hears the adults, Acts 10. He hears the children, hears the teens, hears the adults. The Bible says the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah went to heaven. And God said, I'm gonna see if they did what they were supposed to do. I'm gonna go down now and see if they did their job. If someone did some preaching, if someone did some preaching there in the city, 10 people could have saved the city. Lot, what are you gonna do? Abraham, what are you gonna do? What's somebody gonna do to save the city? Pearson, nobody did anything. God hears the adults. Beautiful story here, Acts chapter 10. Cornelius, an Italian man, Acts chapter 10, a Gentile, wasn't even saved, didn't even know the Lord. Verse one, there was a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius, a centurion of the band called the Italian Band, a devout man and one that feared God with all his house and gave much alms to the poor and prayed to God always. Well, imagine this, was he even a saved man? But prayed to God, didn't even know God, but prayed to God, gave alms to the people. Fear the God with all his house, but he wasn't saved. Verse 3. He saw in a vision, evidently, about the ninth hour of the day, an angel of God coming unto him and saying unto him, Cornelius. And when he looked on him, he was afraid and said, what is it, Lord? And he said unto him, thy prayers and thine alms are come up for memorial before God. God heard the cries of Cornelius, an unsaved man. And God sent Peter, and Peter went and saved his family. It's a beautiful story that later Cornelius gathered all his family, his friends together, and Peter came and preached to them and got them all saved. God heard his voice of the man Cornelius. God hears the children, God hears the teens, God hears the adults, and God sends a comforter. God sends someone to reach them. Someone to save them. As I said, it's a race against the clock. Saving the people before they're destroyed, before the families are destroyed. We're gonna end where we started. Let's go back to Lamentations chapter one. This is where we're gonna end. Lamentations one. God hears the children, God hears the teens, God hears the adults, and God calls a comforter, God calls someone to go, to do what he would do if he was here. Lamentations 1, verse 16. And if the comforter doesn't go, what happens? What happens if the comforter doesn't respond? What if he's not sent? Or what if he doesn't feel like it? Or what if he thinks he has better things to do? What happens? The answer here, Lamentations 1, 16, for these things I weep, mine eye, mine eye runneth down with water, because the comforter that should relieve my soul far from me. My children are desolate because the enemy prevailed. The children will be destroyed, the families destroyed, and the enemy, the devil, will reign. The devil will win if we don't do our job. I'm going to finish with this illustration. You've probably heard the metaphor of the church compared to a hospital. You know what they say? They say the church isn't a museum. It's not where the relics all gather to see who's the most polished and the most pretty. No, the church is a spiritual hospital. The church is a spiritual hospital. We bring in the sinners to be attended to, to be saved, to be bound up, bind up their wounds, like Isaiah 61 says, give them joy for mourning. It's a spiritual hospital. The vans are ambulances. The pastors were doctors, and the workers are the nurses. Well, using that metaphor, in this case, our hospital is severely overrun and drastically understaffed. Our hospital is severely overrun and drastically understaffed. I am the only doctor. I am the only doctor there. And you can imagine when I have to leave, when I have to leave, that all the patients we're tending on and trying to tend on the best we can, and I have to leave. Doc, you cannot go. Missionary, you cannot leave us here. You cannot leave us. I have to go. The funds are low. We need more funds to attend on you. I have to leave for your own good. Don't leave us. Don't leave us. Last month we were in California. My family went to California to try to raise more funds for our ministry, try to raise more support. And I came back, I came back and one of my ladies was shaking her head. And she said, Pastor, tu eres el señalado para aquí. Tu eres el señalado. And I left someone in charge. But she's like, Pastor, it wasn't the same without you. We need you here with us. We need you here with us, Pastor. We need you here. Of course, I feel bad. I've got to go again. We've got to go back out. We've got to get more funds for the ministry. Pastor, doctor, don't leave the hospital. Don't leave the hospital behind. But sometimes we have to, for the ministry, replenishing support. Why is the comforter not there? Maybe he needed support. Why is the comforter not there? Maybe he didn't want to go. Maybe tonight you're the comforter. Maybe God's calling you to go to some area, maybe here in the city, maybe to help more of the pastor, maybe some country. But we do know this, one day we'll stand before God and give account for what we did or didn't do for Him. And God will judge us one by one. And in that day, what a blessing if you are the comforter. Let us pray. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you so much for your word. And thank you so much that in our lives, you did send a comforter. You did send somebody to help us in our time of trouble. You sent somebody to help us in our time of need. And God, let us to also be comforters for many people that are suffering in this world. Pastor, it's time to pray with you. Amen. For just a moment, we can in the quiet of our seats here have a time of prayer. Our hearts sort of burn that there are needy people all around us, needy countries and cities that don't have a gospel witness. And we need to be aware and not so self centered and cold and callous. May God prompt our hearts to pray for these areas. Pray for these folks. but also sometimes God wants to send us. It doesn't always have to be going to Mexico, it could be going to your coworker, it could be going in our own neighborhoods here. It may be going to Mexico, it may be going to a foreign field, but do we have the willingness to obey what the Spirit's prompting us to do? As our pianist just plays through a hymn of invitation, let's have a time of prayer tonight. Maybe tonight you're here, And you don't need to go, you yourself need to respond to the gospel for salvation. Maybe you're unclear about where you stand with God, your eternity, whether your sins are forgiven. If you're here tonight and say, Pastor, I'm not sure that I'm saved, God's spoken to you, you can raise your hand. We want to pray for you as well tonight. We want to get that settled. so