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All I ever want to be is what
you want of me, Lord. I give my life to you. And all my hopes and dreams and
plans I place within your hands, Lord, and give my life to you. Here am I, Lord, use me. Take my life and mold me. All I ever want to be is what
you want of me, Lord. I give my life to you. And all my hopes and dreams and
plans I place within your hands, Lord. And give my life to you. you give me grace, I find my
strength in you. Lord, I give my life to you. And though it seems that I will
fail, through you I will prevail. Lord, I give my life to you. Take my life and mold me. All I ever want to be is what
you want of me, Lord. I give my life to you, and all
my hopes and dreams and plans I place within your hands, Lord. In my life, Lord, be glorified,
be glorified. In my life, Lord, be glorified
today. All I ever want to be is what
you want of me, Lord. I give my life to you. I give my life to you. You've already heard from Brother
Hess by way of testimony this week, but he's a seasoned man
of God as far as the Word of God. And he is a former Bible
time evangelist. And so both of him have some
common ground there. Many years ago, we traveled.
and got into the work of evangelism. We were talking this week that
really those early years, we're talking 21, 22 years old, when
we were out in churches all over the country, there was something
that stirred in our hearts for souls and God has never let that
go. And I know that He is burdened
for the area, burdened for the area where he's pastoring up
in Northwestern Pennsylvania, and also burdened over in Ukraine.
If you heard his prayer request the other night, for the people
over in Ukraine, that God would strengthen their soul-winning
efforts over there. You see a little bit of this
heart for souls. He's preaching for us tonight. Brother Hess,
you come and preach with us. It's been a blessing for him
to be a part of our missionary family for many, many years,
and it's good to have him this week. Well, I tell ya, I am pickled. Pickled tink? No, I'm tickled
pink. How about that one? Does that make more sense? To
be with you guys. You gotta break the ice, okay?
So it might best be with just messing up my speech a little
bit, all right? Somebody said, switching over from y'all to
you guys, since I've been working in Pennsylvania, northwestern
Pennsylvania, but I don't think you're gonna get much of the
West Virginia out of me, okay? I am born and bred, and one day
I'll be West Virginia dead, okay? So. It's just the way it is. But did you guys hear that singing?
I mean, do you guys travel around with this youth group, young
people? Can y'all come up to Wattsburg and sing for us? I
mean, I had these guys over here singing in this harmony and stuff,
and I'm thinking, yes, that's better than my main choir. I
mean, we'll take it. You guys come on up, get on,
get a bus and drive up there, just five hours and 20 minutes
or so. to the chimney of Pennsylvania
and we're right up there and we'd love to have you guys. This
church, as I said the other night, has just been such an encouragement
and really a profound influence on our life. and our ministry
and I think I kind of said it in the wrong way, perhaps last
night, but what I was really trying to say is that you guys
have just your faithfulness, faithfulness, faithfulness, faithfulness
in attending and in giving and the This the whole entire ministry
here is just such a blessing. You don't realize what you got
I'll tell you what I told the lady at Dollar General. Yeah Dollar
General today I said you got one of the best churches in Pennsylvania
and in my knowledge this whole side of the country in reality
right down the street from you I said make sure you go visit
those folks and and so we're just a We're a Mount Zion supporter,
kinda, you know. And so it's just a real blessing,
real blessing to be here. Mrs. Hess says hello to everyone. And I want to say as well, before
I forget, and that's a big, we say greetings. You know, you're
reading the Bible about the greetings from this church or this church
or this brother and so forth. Our people are very, very big
on that. And every time I'm preaching out, always tells me on Sunday
morning, brother, don't forget, or he says, make sure you tell
the people that, That we said greetings and we said hello and
they just get it right out of the Bible matter of fact They
don't call going to church to church the church building Yet
that we go to service and they call the building the house of
prayer where they get it They get it right out of the Bible.
Okay, so the Russians have helped me a lot And we're just trying
to be a good a a good ministry overseas and be faithful and
reach our community as well as now in Western Pennsylvania,
or Northwestern Pennsylvania. And I just want to say again,
I appreciate everybody's hospitality. You guys have been so good, so
good to us, so hospitable, kind, encouraging, and adjectives can
go on and on. We love you guys, and it's just,
you have, it's been the best October for me in many years,
and I just, I really just wanna praise the Lord for you guys.
Make sure we express our gratitude this evening. Take your Bible,
please and turn to the book of Matthew so, you know, I I Don't
mind talking about the work but i would far rather just do it
okay that's why i'd rather just do the work and talk about it
but you know as a missionary sometimes you need to go around and talk
about a little bit uh and i appreciate you guys and during my all this
uh sickness and stuff this week uh when i arrived here i didn't
feel too good okay and uh i didn't think i had covid But I had been
around some COVID people, and I was tested just before I came
up. But I knew I was really fighting the bad sickness. And I've got
a lot more voice now. And just grateful for everybody's
patience, because I know, you know, when a preacher loses voice,
It's serious. I mean serious. So my wife would
have been kind of happy hanging out this week with me. She'd said, oh, and there's more
time for me to talk a little bit. Of the two, she always says
I do the most talking. But anyway, I appreciate you
guys putting up with all my coughs and everything this week. It's
just been good to be here. We're grateful that we do have
tomorrow And then we have Saturday Sunday morning as well to be
with you guys and I got someone to fill in my church It's hard
for me to get away on Sunday from our church up in northwestern,
Pennsylvania And of course, pastor needs to be there on Sunday,
okay? And Wednesday and every service and so forth. But they
made some exceptions for me to come here. I told them you guys
had supported us for over 20 years. And we love you guys and
mean so much to us. And so they were okay with us
coming down. And we had, Kriston and I had
just gone away on our anniversary getaway too. And they might be
thinking, this preacher guy, he's leaving town a lot. So I'm
trying to balance that out. But we wanted to be here for
Sunday morning. And then we have to leave right after Sunday morning
to skedad and get back up the highway for our Sunday night
service up there. And so that's kind of what's
going on for us. But Matthew chapter nine, Matthew
chapter nine, we're gonna read verse 37 and 38. And if you wouldn't
mind, if you're able to, stand with me out of respect for God's
word right there. Matthew chapter nine, verse 37. he and his disciples,
the harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few. Pray ye therefore, the Lord of
the harvest, that he will send forth laborers into his harvest. Let's pray together. Father in
heaven, I thank you for your great love.
Lord, I thank you for your word that you've given us. I thank
you for the testimony this church, the impact this church has all
over the world. It truly can be said of this
ministry that the sun never sets on the ministry of Mount Zion.
And thank you for that, Lord. Thank you for so many faithful
witnesses here, servants of you. and those giving for world evangelism. Father, would you bless our meeting
tonight? We're gathered around this text. We're gathered around
your word. And Lord, it's not a profound thought that I'm gonna
share with your church this evening, but it's something we all gotta
get into our hearts. So help us this evening, Lord.
Would you do that? Would you transform us? Would
you motivate us? Would you move us from where
we're at to at least one step closer in fulfilling the Great
Commission for each one of us. Help us, Father. Use us. We will
trust you for it. Hide me behind the cross. We're
trusting you for all this. In Jesus' precious name we pray.
Amen. Amen. Be seated, please. And
there's water. And there's water. And it's open. And if I say it, I think it sometimes,
okay? So, very transparent kind of guy. Sometimes too transparent
as a pastor. What is the mission, what is
the purpose of of the church. Well, you guys, I'm talking to
some seasoned saints, I believe, folks that are at church on a
Friday night, and there might be some visitors here, and there
might be some folks that are not seasoned in the doctrines
of the Bible really well, but I really have a simple thought
for you guys this evening. But the purpose of the church,
I never forget. My preacher used to put it pretty simple, and
he loved to alliterate, to magnify the Lord Jesus Move people to
Jesus he'd always say and to make much of Jesus All right,
glorifying him in all we do and in all we say preaching worshiping
in moving people to Jesus and salvation and discipleship and
that that's the purpose that's the mission of the church and
We had church when I lived overseas. And we, the people took a while
to get there. Okay, so they weren't in a hurry
to leave. And I know we had a lady visit our church not too long
ago. And she was visiting, visiting, visiting. And I was out there
mowing the grass one day and she came by and somebody was
walking down the street. And she said, hey, let me introduce
you to my pastor. And she had only visited maybe three or four
times. And so I was like, oh, wow, I'm her pastor. I didn't
know I was her pastor. But anyway, And so she was just
bragging about our church and bragging about our church. And
then it wasn't too long after that, I was preaching and we
had a little bit longer Sunday. And so then I didn't see her
for a while. So I stopped by her house to
visit her on Thursday evening. And she said, oh, she said, no, you
preach too long. So I'm not gonna, we're kind
of frank up in, in the other side of Pennsylvania. So she
said, yeah, you preach too long. She said, I like churches just
an hour, about an hour, and then I'm done. I said, oh, okay. Well, anyway, overseas, I'll
tell you, the Russians, it takes them a while to get there, and
they're not in a hurry to leave. We have about 30 to 45 minutes
of testimonies every week. And afterwards, for however long
the service went, they're gonna sit down and have chai and coffee
and cookies and so forth. They're gonna have all that for
another hour or two afterwards. So nobody's in a hurry to go
home. I tell you, the work of the Lord is worthy of our time,
but I don't have a long message for you guys this morning, or
this evening. I don't have a long message.
It's really, really a simple thought. It would be impossible
to read the Bible and not realize that God is interested in the
whole world. Genesis chapter 1 verse 28 says,
and he said to Adam and Eve there, be fruitful and multiply and
replenish the earth. This command he reiterated to
Noah in Genesis 9, 1 saying, be fruitful and multiply and
replenish the earth. God's promise to Abraham we find
these words. He said in thee shall all families
of the earth Be blessed Genesis chapter 12 verse 3 in the Great
Commission It's given in each of the gospel accounts and when
he said to go into all the world It's interesting that he said
that, you know, you think about it, he didn't say, go into the neighborhood,
go into your county, go into your city. I mean, that's kind
of logical, because that's something we can easier do, am I right? But to go into all the world,
sometimes I'm thinking, going to all the world, well, I've
never been to China. I don't know how I'm going to
get to China, okay? And I've been privileged to travel a lot
of different places in the world, okay? But the average person,
the average believer, you're not going to get to go to China.
You're not going to get to go to India, okay? You're not going to get to go
to Iran, some of these places, all these other missionaries.
And you guys have had some mission trips and so forth, I realize. But for
most of us, we're not going to have that opportunity, are we?
But the gospel says, Jesus said right here, the great commission,
go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature,
every creature. This message has got to go everywhere. Jesus did everything that was
necessary in order for men to be saved. And his last words
before his death was it finished that's right John chapter
19 verse 30 after his death he committed into the hands of his
disciples the opportunity and the responsibility to take the
good news it's good news isn't it to take the good news into
all the world it's good news and I know some believers you
know that Live up in our territory. I'm having a hard time getting
the church motivated. We don't have near as many Outreach ministers
as you guys do but I'm having a hard time getting them motivated
and I keep asking the question Don't you believe it's good news. Why are we so shy to share good
news? Am I right? I mean if you really
believe it's the good news, then why are you afraid to share with
your neighbor? I mean, right it's good news and and somebody
said well, they don't want to hear it. Hey, wait, wait, wait,
don't be a hypocrite you wanted to hear it You heard it someone shared it
with you You listened you believed on
the Lord Jesus Christ What's good for the goose good for the
gander? I mean, you know I'm saying And so we can't just run
away as, ah, people don't want to hear. I tell you what, if
you live like a Christian, you will get the ear and you'll get
the attention of people because they will want to know what you've
got. I've said it before. There's a couple things the world
cannot argue with, okay? They'll try to argue some of
our Baptist doctrine and so forth, this, that, and the other, okay?
Atheists might. But I'll tell you what, they
can't argue with a family that has respectful and obedient children. Everybody I know wants respectful,
obedient children. And if you're leading your family
right and you have respectful, obedient children, everybody in the world
has to just, they just have to say, wow, there's something right
about that family. They're doing something right.
The other thing you can't argue with is your joy. The joy of the Lord. The joy that is real through
trials and difficulties and challenges. And instead of complaining and
negative like everybody else, the Christian says, no, God has
a reason. In everything give thanks for
this is the will of God in Christ Jesus. Give him all my burdens. Okay, you know cast all your
care upon him and and and the scripture says be careful for
nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with
Thanksgiving let your request be known unto God and So we give
those burdens to him and he gives us the resilience and the ability
to press on through The trials and he gives us joy. That's Jesus
Christ in our life That's him. The fruit of the Spirit is love
and joy and peace and the world can't argue with that joy and
And so when you're real, when you're a spirit-filled Christian,
doors come open. Man, ever since I surrendered
to be a missionary, ever since I surrendered to be a missionary,
witnessing has gotten so much easier. Because as soon as I
tell somebody I'm going to, you know, I'm a missionary, and I'm
going out to tell the good news, And so that, oh, well, what are
you doing that for? Okay. You know, when you're doing
that, a missionary, wow. I tell you, it just opens, makes
it easier. I mean, I went over to overseas, lived overseas.
Then, you know, I start talking a little bit, and they hear my
really thick accent, and they say, ah, if it's not a secret,
tell me where you're from. And I say, well, I'm, you know,
I'm from America. Oh, America, America, wow. Okay,
so they're really kind of taken back with, what are you doing
here? They always say, all of us want to go there. And you
came here. We can't fit. There's something
wrong with you. What's wrong with you? You know, what did you come here
for? I'm glad you asked. I'm glad
you asked. Let me tell you about it. Okay, there's an open door
right away Some folks have a hard time getting that door open to
transcend to the gospel I'm telling you what just live for Jesus
Christ be spirit-filled God. God will fill your mouth one
one neat thing I mean, I'm a I am not nothing at all Okay, just
a little bit of West Virginia dirt or with Jesus Christ inside.
Okay, but I'll say this one thing about me is I If God can use
me he can use any of you Okay, and you spend a little time getting
to know me if you'd realize that guy is just a simple West Virginia
guy Okay, and that's me. That's just me. I'm nothing special.
Okay. It's the told my wife I said, you know what? I don't think
you like Tony has so much you just like Jesus Christ inside
of Tony hits. Okay, cuz he's the good guy Okay,
I'm not such a good guy, but he's a good guy Okay, and and
you know, that's what all of us are. Okay, we just be real
and God will open the doors God will open the doors so after
his resurrection He committed under his hand and his disciples
that opportunity and responsibility to share the good news with everybody
his the most famous verse in the Bible, you know it John 3
16 for God so loved the world and that he gave his only begotten
Son that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish but have
everlasting life. The word world there and whosoever cover all
people. And so there are three great
truths that compel us to go unto all people with the gospel. And again, not anything profound
or something you haven't even heard of necessarily this evening,
okay? But I'm gonna get right with it. Number one is the universal
problem of sin that compels us. We are sinners by birth, we are
sinners by practice, and we are sinners by choice. This sin to
sin thing, this is a universal condition. And just as clearly
as God tells us we're sinners, he tells us the penalty for sin,
and the penalty for sin is separation from God forever. That's a problem. That's a problem. You know what, folks? We don't
have a bigger problem in the world. Did you know that? You
and your neighbors, nobody, none of us have a bigger problem than
that problem right there. Sometimes we get concerned if
we don't have much money in the bank. Now, I do too, okay? But that's
not the biggest problem. I went over to Russia, and the
Russians have this common phrase, If you don't have, it's basic,
I'll just give it to you. In English they say, if you don't
have your health, you don't have anything. And you know, I first went there
and I, you know, just kind of be congenial and going along
and I'd shake my head and so forth and try to agree with them
and so forth. And the Holy Spirit said to me one day, what are
you doing? That's not true. How can you agree with him about
that? Okay. Cause you can lose your health
and go to heaven forever. It's a long time. Okay. It's
a long time. You might actually forget that
you got sick when you're in heaven. You know what I'm saying? You
might you might actually forget that you had cancer one day you
might After a billion trillion quadrillion years you might Okay,
and so you say well, you know you lose your health you if you
don't have your health You don't have anything, you know, if you don't have Jesus
Christ if you lose him you lose everything if you don't have
salvation There's nothing more important than the eternal soul. Separation from God forever,
that is a big problem. And so the universal problem,
and I tried to alliterate a little bit here, universal problem of
sin, or really a problem that's not strong enough, it's more
of the curse of sin, that compels us. infallible promise of The
Bible that compels us the infallible promise. How do we know about
God? How do we know about the reality
of sin the punishment for sin the gospel the answer for sin
man? Really only has three problems.
Check it out Okay, sin sorrow and death and we only have three
problems and you can challenge that but you know and people
say I know it's way more complicated than that Go ahead and think
through it you go ahead and think it through a little bit. Man
doesn't have any more than really just three problems, and this
is the only book that tells us how to solve all three. Sin,
sorrow, and death. Okay, how do we know? the source
of the information our information this information I'm giving you
and Thousands of other great truths is in God's Holy Word
the Apostle Paul said this in 2nd Timothy chapter 3 verse 16
all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and it's profitable for
doctrine for a proof for correction for instruction in righteousness
that the man of God may be perfect thoroughly furnished unto all
good works." My preacher used to say this, I love it. He said,
there are only three kinds of people in the world. He said,
there are those who are afraid and there are those who don't
know enough to be afraid. And there are those who know
their Bible. I had to say amen, okay? And
I love another thing my preacher used to say, is he used to say,
I read other books, but the Bible reads me. Oh, that's good, that's really
good, okay. And so, to briefly state it, we have a God-breathed,
verbally inspired, eternally authoritative final word from
the living God. That's good enough to say amen
right there, isn't it? Amen, okay. And so, what it says about
sin is true. What it says about salvation
is true. We must get these truths to all
the world. That's why missions is so important. The third reason that compels
us to go in all the world is the uniqueness or the person
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Write it down big, straight,
and bold. Jesus is not one of many saviors. He is the only savior. 1st John chapter 2 verse 2 says
this and he is the propitiation for our sins and not for our
sins only but for the sins of the whole world Jesus is the
sacrifice that pleases God The only sacrifice Okay, that pleases
God his blood and only his blood is sufficient to save all men
What did he say in John chapter 4 verse John chapter 14 verse
6? He said I am the way The truth and the life. No man cometh unto
the Father but by me. Notice the articles, the there,
okay? Not a way, not the, not a life,
but the. Jesus is unique. He's unique. I repeat there is no other Savior
Acts chapter 4 verse 12 says neither is there salvation in
any other For there is none other name under heaven given among
men whereby we must be saved right there is black words on
white paper Amen Okay, Jesus is unique in his birth You know
anybody else born of a virgin Don't think so. Okay He's unique
in his perfect life Know anybody else that walked on water? Know
anybody else that gave sight to the blind? Raised the dead? You know anybody else that lived
like Jesus? They come to hear him teach,
they were supposed to arrest him and so forth, and they went
back to the leaders and said, they said, what'd you do, you
didn't get him? He said, oh, nobody ever taught like that man. Nobody
ever taught like him. Oh, his perfect life, his perfect
life. He was unique in his death. When you see a cross, You think
of one person that died on that cross, and that's a symbol that's
all over the world. He's so unique in his death,
and then he's unique, praise the Lord, he's unique in his
resurrection. Throughout history, there have
been countless religious leaders, okay? Many religious leaders,
but only one empty grave, amen? Only one empty grave. That's
almost enough to make a Baptist shout right there. I'm just telling
you, okay? The whole world needs to hear this message. The whole
world. And so, as for the Hesses, our
ministry up there, and the same thing's true for you guys, but
we decided, because of these truths, we decided to have a
missions conference. We decide to have a day a day
on a pops up regularly on our calendar called ITT day invite
the town We publish tracks. We hand them out. We knock doors.
We put our money into it We put our time into it. We invest our
talents into it. And you know what? I the pastors
challenges and I'm challenging you again We've been challenged
every night to get involved in world evangelism Get involved
in getting the gospel across the street and get involved in
getting the gospel across the ocean. And so many of you are involved.
And the challenge tonight is, does God want you to step up? Because it's a worthy cause,
there's nothing more important. There's nothing more important.
And so the lostness of mankind, the infallibility of the Bible,
and the uniqueness of Christ are the great basis, okay? It's the great basis for worldwide
evangelism. What a privilege, a privilege. I always tell our church, you
know, thank you, Lord, when we pray, we're starting our church,
I'm praying, Lord, thank you for the desire, thank you for
the privilege that we have to come to church. What a privilege
we have as born-again Christians to be working with God. Key words right there, to be
working with God in this great endeavor of global outreach. Because I can't do it. I can't
do it on my own. You guys got a great pastor and great staff
and wonderful men here, wonderful servants of the Lord, okay? But
they'd be the first ones to tell you, they can't do it without
Jesus. In reality, it's just Jesus Christ through us. And
you're gonna ask yourself, hey, how can I step up? How can I
do more than I'm doing? How can I give more than I'm
giving? You know what? God will do it through you. I told our
church this past weekend God will give through you what he
won't give to you. We're already spoiled, folks. I've lived overseas, I'm just
telling you. You saw some of those pictures, all right? We
have it good. And for whom much is given, much
more shall be required, the Bible says. But God will give through
you what he won't give to you. And we have this privilege. And
so, there's one more point I have, and for this last point of my
message, I really appreciate your patience. But I had to,
I had to bring, I had to bring an illustration out of retirement.
Okay. And I retired this illustration
about 20 years ago, because I preached it at a place or two in America.
And so several, and so I, well, excuse me. And so I brought my
old red tops back here. And I need my six volunteers. Hey, you six volunteers. Come
on, guys. Okay. So just line up, we'll need to
be over there, all the way to this side, over here. I think
we're right. So someone come on over here.
You're my anchor man. Spread out. Grab. Let's go. Hold on. There you go. It's coming your
way. You got this. You're gonna have
to keep walking around there, I think, a little bit. I need
you guys. You guys are doing a great job.
Hold on there, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. There you go, 92 hands. Okay,
so anybody ever seen this number before? Y'all never seen this
number before? Are you serious? I thought I
taught this here when I... Oh, okay, I'm glad we brought
it out of retirement. Okay, this is the longest number,
to my knowledge, that's ever been officially named twice. Okay, you can say it twice, really.
It's called 10 duotrigontillion, 10 duotrigontillion. Okay, so
it's 10 to the hundredth power. And so years ago, I wanted, you
know, eternity is hard to picture. We can talk about eternity left
and right and all day long, but it's like, we just don't get
it. It's like plugging 220 into your
120 voltage over here. A breaker blows, you don't get
it, we can't understand it. So I said, Lord, as a fifth and
sixth grade teacher many years ago, I said, Lord, how can I
communicate eternity to my class and to my church? And eventually
I took it across the country. God used this in my life. in
a profound way. I think today it's called 10
Googleplex or something. I don't know, you can look it
up, okay? But, here's the number, and let's look at it together,
okay? There's 10, and then there's 10, that's what I need you to
say, sorry. 10, 10, thousand, 10, million,
10, billion, it'll get a little louder here, 10, that always
helps, that for some reason always helps. Okay, and then we have
10, quadrillion, 10, quintillion, 10, Sextillion, okay, and there's
a star right there because that star right there represents that
there are, that is the number of estimated electrons in the
known universe. And we're just kind of getting
started. So in other words, There's not 10 duo trigonillion of any
thing in the entire universe. There's just one application
for a number this big. And that is, you and I, everybody
here and everybody out there, will be somewhere thinking, feeling,
experiencing something in a very real way. 10 duotrigontillion
years from right now. And now for the believer, for
the Christian, that's the most wonderful thought that can ever
enter your mind, that you'll be forever and ever and ever
with the Lord Jesus Christ. But before I ever became a missionary,
when God showed me this about my family, about my friends,
about the people I run into, about the lady down here at the
Dollar General? That they're gonna be forever
and ever and ever and ever somewhere, and the majority on the broad
road that leads to destruction. And I know it's not the most
positive message, but it's the gospel truth. It's the gospel
truth. And if we don't believe it, and
if we don't live and let it impact our life, what are they gonna
do? How can we ever let the unbelief of the world be more powerful
than our belief? We've gotta believe more than
they don't believe. And so we go. We go in season
and out of season. And we go across the street and
we go to every one of these nations. Because they've got to hear.
And not just hear, but we want them to believe. And when they
see Jesus Christ in you, and they see the reality of Christianity,
that they see you serve a risen Savior, there's something deep
inside, they say, you know what, I just need what they got. I
need that, I want that. And we become salt and light. And that's God's will for you.
That's God's will for me. And you don't have to be an evangelist,
you don't have to be a pastor, you don't have to be ordained. That's
God's will for every single one of us. And if your Christian
life is a little boring, it's because you haven't got on board
with the mission. That's when Christianity gets
exciting. It's when you get wrapped up in the mission of eternal
souls. Somebody was talking to me the
other day about fishing. I said, I don't know much fishing overseas. I don't know
much fishing in Kentucky. You know what? Because a long
time ago, God called me to be a fisher of men. And oh, it's
so much more exciting. It's so much more exciting. And
so this, this motivated me. This challenged me. And I hope that this number right
here, is something the Lord can get into your mind, get into
your heart. And next time you say, I just,
I'm kind of busy or I don't feel so good today. I don't know if
I'm gonna do my ministry or if I'm gonna go out or if I'm gonna
hand out that track or if I'm gonna, you know, money's a little
tight right now and so forth. I don't know, man, I'm gonna
have to cut back on my missions giving or something. I want you
to remember. I want you to remember the cost. I want you to remember and think
about what is at stake. because David said it well, is
there not a cause? Is there not a cause? And so
before we look at our text, again, I'm going to let these gentlemen
go. There's a little secret to this. It used to be at least 20 years
ago. And so you just kind of set it on the ground. And we're
going to hold it. Don't let go just yet. And slide
it over. We're going to roll it underneath this row. And I
hate to just let go and see what happens. OK. Grab it and just
let it roll over there, OK? So it'll move in a way. All right.
Thank you, gentlemen. You all be seated. And so look here, our
text. And I'm wrapping up. OK. And
I'm wrapping up. The question. This evening, for every one of
us, and I appreciate your attention, y'all have listened very well,
the question this evening is, shall we lose the harvest? Matthew chapter 9, verse 37,
38, the harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are Pray ye therefore the Lord of
the harvest that he will send forth labors into his harvest. And that's the most thrilling
adventure you'll ever get involved in, getting out into the harvest
and helping the missionaries get into the harvest and supporting.
And you guys are a missions church, and we are so thrilled to be
a part of this church mission program. But what's God wants
you to do right now? What's He calling you to do tonight? Not just to be hearers of the
Word, He's calling us all to be doers. And so let's step forward,
let's step forth in obedience to the Lord. Amen? Amen. Let's stand for a word of prayer,
please. Father in heaven, thank You for
Your holy Word. Thank You, Lord, for the uniqueness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. We serve a risen Savior. And
everybody needs to know about him. Everybody. And there's folks that seem hard
to the gospel, not interested, and maybe in the beginning they
aren't. But help us not give up on them. Help us, Lord, to
keep going. There's too much at stake. There's
just too much at stake. Help us not, Lord, just to give
up, give in, let our heart get apathetic, get cold to the gospel. Oh, Father, may it always be
tender to us, may always realize every single person on the broad
road, where they're headed, help us, Lord. Burden our hearts this
evening. I'm praying, Father, that you'll
give faith and courage, folks to obey you, to step up in their
obedience to the Great Commission. Lord, raise us up, missionaries,
and preachers, men of God, raise them up, Father. Raise up faithful
deacons. Raise up church planners. Oh,
Lord, would you do that this evening right here? Oh, God,
I pray. Get the glory. Continue to use this church and
help us, Father. We're trusting you for it. With
your heads bowed and your eyes closed, she's gonna play a hymn
of invitation. I don't know how God's spoken
to you, but this altar is wide open And however, he's spoken
to you. Let me encourage just be obedient.
Just say I'm gonna I'm talking to the Lord about this I'm still
in this decision right now. He might be calling you to missions.
He might be calling you To be a preacher. He might be calling
you to give more in missions. I Don't know. I don't know how
he's spoken to you. But however, he spoke to you.
Just say yes to him right now Just say yes to the Lord Is there
not a cause? Oh, certainly there is. There
is a cause. We've got to do all we can, all
we can, to bring them in. However God spoke to your heart,
just say yes to Him. Be obedient. So, So, Say, Preacher, what's a conference
about? A conference is about motivation. That's what it's about. Tonight
was motivation. Motivation. I read today this thought. It goes along with the message
in this specific area of witnessing. that repentance in our lives,
change of mind about something, will completely obliterate and
destroy apathy. And if you're apathetic tonight,
and you have been apathetic about witnessing and carrying the gospel
message, then what God's using His word how God's using his
word tonight is to change somebody's mind and to destroy apathy. And that happens in conferences
under the preaching of God's word like tonight. The truth
is God calls people. He changes their mind. He puts
a burden on their soul that they did not previously have. That
is the work of God. That is what God wants to accomplish
in our hearts through this week. Would you take your songbooks,
turn to hymn number 636 as we close the service tonight. Very important question. Ponder it as we leave the service
this evening. Hymn number 636, Have I Done
My Best for Jesus. To think of His sacrifice and
Calvary I know my Lord expects the best from me How many are
the lost that I have lifted? How many are the chained I've
helped to free? One of the words you've heard
a couple of times this week is the word creative. I think from
Brother Sharp, maybe Brother Gearmie. And certainly we have
outreach ministries here and there. As a church, we need to
be on point as far as reaching people. But, you know, there
are personal creative opportunities that you can go after. You could
go after a visitor at church and say, I'm going to have them
for a meal. And I'm going to invest in that couple. I don't
know if they're saved or not, but we're going to invest. You
could get a phone number from somebody at your work or somebody
that you met and begin to text them every day and share a word
of encouragement or gospel scripture with them. You could do like
Tabitha Rogers is doing tomorrow and meeting somebody for coffee
for the purpose of the gospel. What I'm saying is this, it's
not particularly, it doesn't have to be structure. Let God
work on your heart how you can better witness of the gospel.
There are opportunities all over the place. We have people that
are witnessing to people across the world through Skypes and
texts because they have a passion to witness. God's given them
those opportunities. Pray for those opportunities.
Pray about what God would have you to do. And maybe he lays
something unique on your heart to begin investing in someone. All right. God bless you. We'll
see you on Sunday. Have a restful day tomorrow.
If you have a need, please, please don't hesitate to reach out to
us. All right. Good to have all of you here tonight, our visitors.
And we do ask our missionaries to go back to the back and you
greet them. on your way out, and as pastor said, Sunday morning,
back here at 9.30 for Sunday school, and we're excited about
that. Nothing going on tomorrow. Any
other last minute announcements before we're dismissed? All right,
Jordan Hillegas, would you please dismiss us in prayer? Thank you for joining us by way
of the internet today. We're so glad that you were able
to be with us and we pray that the service was a blessing to
your heart. Even though the sermon is over, our service is not over.
At the end of our service, we give an opportunity for people
to respond and come to an altar and pray over what God dealt
with them about. Sometimes people come to call
upon Christ and to be saved. Others come to make a decision
for Christ regarding their Christian lives. Others come to call out
to the Lord about special needs and situations in their lives.
Maybe God has dealt with you today about some specific area
of your life. I invite you to make an altar
right there in your home, a quiet time before the Lord where you
pray to Him and respond to Him about what He has spoken to you
about. If you made a decision for the Lord today, we would
be glad to hear about that decision and or answer any questions you
have today about the message that was preached. You can contact
us by way of email at info at mountziononline.org or by way
of phone at 717-927-9227. Again, we thank you for joining
us today and we look forward to you joining us again for our
live stream. weekly on Sundays at 1045 a.m. and on Sunday evenings
at 645 p.m. If we can meet a need in your
life, please do not hesitate to contact us. Thank you and
God bless you.
2024 Missions Conference - Friday
Series 2024 Missions Conference
| Sermon ID | 10252423274429 |
| Duration | 51:27 |
| Date | |
| Category | Conference |
| Bible Text | Matthew 9:37-38 |
| Language | English |
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