Cool. Okay. Yeah. Well, good evening, everyone. If you would please stand and grab a handbook. Let's turn to page 109. This has been our song for the month, Send the Light. We're gonna sing that starting off our services tonight. Send the Light. We'll sing the first, second, and last verse. There's a call comes ringing o'er the restless waves Send the light, send the light There are souls to rescue, there are souls to save Send the light, send the light, send the light blessed gospel light, let it shine from shore to shore. Send the light, the blessed gospel light, let it shine forevermore. We have heard the Macedonian call today, Send the light, send the light. And a golden offering at the cross we lay, Send the light, send the light. Send the light, the blessed gospel light, let it shine from shore to shore. Send the light, the blessed gospel light, let it shine forevermore. On the last let us not grow weary in the work of love send the light Send the light Let us gather jewels for a crown above send the light Send the light Send the light the blessed gospel light let it shine from shore to shore Send the light, the blessed gospel light. Let it shine forevermore. Amen. Good singing. If you would, turn over to 105. We'll keep the singing going with Rescue the Perishing. Let's sing the first and last verse. Rescue the perishing, care for the dying, snatch them in pity from sin and the grave. Weep o'er the erring one, lift up the fallen, tell them of Jesus, the mighty to save. Rescue the perishing, care for the dying, Jesus is merciful. us will save. On the fourth. Rescue the perishing, duty demands it. Strength for but the labor the Lord will provide. Back to the narrow way, patiently win them. Tell the poor wanderer Savior has died. Rescue the perishing, care for the dying. Jesus is merciful. Jesus will save. Amen. Well it is good to see tonight Appreciate everybody coming out tonight for our first night of our missions conference. And I trust that the Lord's gonna bless in a special way this evening. I did have a couple things I wanted to share with you before we get too far along. Back on the welcome center in the foyer, there is the new missions directory. Please avail yourself of one of those. And until we make sure everybody, all the families get one, if you'd just take one to a family for now and any that are, you know, after Sunday, extra ones, you can sure take those. There's also a booklet back here. Where are those? Do you have those, Alan? Are they in the back? Okay, there's, for the kids, there's their Passport to Missions book here. And if you complete this, I am told you get an all-expense-paid trip to Lake Worth, Texas. And so you can be looking forward to that young people. Uh, you'll take that up with Alan, but, uh, I think he's already handed out some of those to the, to young people, but also in the morning, of course, in the morning, we'll be having our, our morning sessions tomorrow and Friday. at nine, and then the second one will be after our break at 10. But during that time, during the morning sessions, we will be having a children's missions class, and that's from, I guess, pre-K through sixth grade. So any of the young ones here, pre-K to sixth grade, they can be part of that. And right now, I think they're planning to meet in the kindergarten classroom. So they'll figure that out from there. So young people, you have a part in this week as well. Looking forward both to the evening times, but always to the morning sessions as well. We're privileged to have Brother Bruce Martin preaching for us in a little bit this evening. And I guess we're kind of kicking off with Martins of three generations here. In the morning, we're honored to have Missionary Milton Martin with us. I'm just thankful he could be with us this week. He's going to, uh, have the first session at nine o'clock in the morning. And then after break, uh, David Martin will speak for us and then we'll get all those Martins out of the way and we'll have some others, but, uh, no, we're honored to have it, have the Martins with us and, uh, uh, What I'm going to ask now is Brother Pittman to go ahead and come and he's going to share his burden, his field of calling to the country of Chile. So I'm looking forward to that, Brother. Well, good evening. I just want to thank you for allowing me and my family to come and present the country of Chile to you. My name is James Pittman. I have with me my wife, Jennifer. We have Rebecca, Seth, Nathan, and Isaiah. And we're missionaries to the country of Chile. We're sent out of Calvary Baptist Church in Knob Noster, Missouri. And just to tell you just a little bit about our church. The men of the church went to Chile, I guess in 2009 or 2008, and our church got a vision for planting churches in the country of Chile. And so the funny part about what happened was they started praying about it. And they started specifically praying for the Pittman family, and they never told us. And so we, they were praying behind our back. It's almost like talking behind your back. So it's, you know, but it's, it's, it's the good, the good part about it. And so they started praying about this. And when we, my family and I, when we answered a call to be foreign missionaries, uh, my pastor asked me one thing, he said, why don't you pray about the country of Chile? And so I said, okay. And I started researching the country and praying, seeking the Lord. And, uh, you know, uh, after, after a while, you know, the Lord made it very obvious that's where he wanted to be in my family. And when I went before our church and I told them, you know, God's called us to be missionaries in Chile, there was amen, amen, amen. And these men were praying about this, but never telling us. And my pastor said, hey, afterwards, he said, let me tell you a little story. He says, when we were in Chile, you couldn't imagine how many times you came up in conversation and how the Holy Spirit of God just laid it on our heart to pray. not only for our church to plant churches here, but also for God to use you all. And God did that, and we're called to be missionaries in Chile. You know, we're going to be working with a national pastor. And I'm going to have you go ahead and show the video, and I've got a few things I want to say afterwards, but there's a lot of information on the video, but you're going to meet the national pastor, and his name's Carlos Cifuentes, and this is where we're going to be ministering in Chile, and he'll tell you the needs of his country also, so go ahead. I remember the testimony of the Apostle Paul when he heard the Macedonian man saying, come over and help us. I believe Chile is like that Macedonian man. It needs preachers. It needs people that will give themselves to this people to come and preach the gospel and win these people to the Lord. Hello, my name is James Pittman. This is my wife, Jennifer, our daughter, Rebecca, and our sons, Seth, Nathan, and Isaiah, and we're members of Calvary Baptist Church in Knob-Noster, Missouri. My wife and I were saved back in February of 2008 as lost church members. This happened under the ministry of Pastor Jeff Merrick. We were saved, called, and trained under his leadership. The Bible says in Proverbs chapter 24, verses 11 through 12, If thou forbear to deliver them that are drawn unto death, and those that are ready to be slain. 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? God used this verse to burden our heart and call us to be missionaries to the people of Chile. The country of Chile is located on the western side of South America and is highlighted in orange on this map. The country is 2,700 miles long and 150 miles wide. It is 18 times longer than it is wide. The country spans from the Andes Mountains through the Central Valley to the coastal regions. The people of Chile are very proud and patriotic. This picture was taken a few years ago when the 33 miners were rescued from the collapsed mine. The population of Chile is roughly 17.3 million people, with the capital city of Santiago boasting 7 million people. These people are very industrious. Copper mining, forestry, sheep and cattle ranching, large commercial fishing, and agriculture are a list of their industries. Despite the country's great prosperity, the people of Chile are in spiritual darkness. 63% of the people are Catholic. 18% of the people are atheists or agnostic. 15% of the people are Protestant. Of that 15%, 10% of that are charismatic. These people need the gospel of Jesus Christ. Less than 0.01% of the population are independent fundamental Baptists. They need the book, the blood, and the blessed hope. They need the message that we have. These people need someone to preach the gospel unto them. In 1 Corinthians 9, verse 16, the Bible says, For though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of, for necessity is laid upon me. Yea, woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel. They need us to come preach the gospel of Jesus Christ unto them. That is why we need your support. This is what we're doing right now. We're on deputation raising the necessary funds that we need to get to the field and be able to minister to these people. From here, the very first thing we plan to do is move to the country of Chile. There we will go through language school and learn the language and culture. After we learn the language and culture, we will go to wherever the Lord leads us and start an independent fundamental Baptist church. While establishing this church, we will seek out a man to disciple and train as a national pastor and move on to where the Lord will have us go next. The churches there will be no different than ours, except the language and culture. The focus will be on the preaching and teaching of the Word of God. In Spanish, this is the Palabra de Dios. Our emphasis will be on the distribution of the Word of God. This is what changes souls. Satsang with Mooji Andante, andante, salvación. Andante, salvación. The. The greatest thing that's needed in Chile is human resources. Men that are willing to give themselves to the preaching of the gospel to reach these people. We need preachers. Do you have preachers? We need preachers. Thank you. This is what the people of Chile need. Someone to tell them about the gospel of Jesus Christ. Please prayerfully consider supporting the Pittman family. Thank you. He didn't ask for us to come down there and build them houses or send them money or food or anything like that, because they have all that. Chile's one of the most prosperous nations in all South America. They've been a country since 1810. But they were founded upon Catholicism, and they didn't have the biblical founding that we have had and the free preaching that we've had here. Our country has always had men that preach this book. They've never had that, and they need that. And our plan, you can pray with us, our plan and our, Our vision and what we want to see done in Chile is when our church comes down to organize a church, that we want to be organizing three churches. We're going to be working in three places at once. And we're trying to plant churches there where God wants them. And we're specifically praying about the towns of Villarica. It's about 45,000, 50,000 people. They've never had a gospel influence there. The town of Pucon is about 25,000 people. They've never had a gospel influence there. The town of Petrifican is around 25,000 people. They've never had a gospel influence. All the towns in the Araucanio region of Chile, there's a million people there. There's two independent fundamental Baptist churches there, and that's it. They don't have what we have, so please just pray for them. We're leaving on February 2nd. I got to book our tickets last week. I looked them up, and I tell you how the Lord works stuff out. Uh, I was looking at our tickets and the cheapest I found him was $950 and between 950 and 1200. And I looked him up last Monday morning and I got every one of our tickets for $309 a piece. And so we saved almost $4,000, and the Lord just does stuff like that. We're, you know, we have a few more meetings here to finish up, and we're spending Christmas and Thanksgiving with our families. We have some commitments at our home church in January, and we're flying out the 1st of February. So please just Pray for us and that we get everything done. We need to get done. We got almost all of our paperwork done We're waiting on one paper and we're praying, you know, we're confident in the Lord that that'll be done by the time that we leave and pray that we have all the funds that we need to buy vehicles and You know all the stuff for the house. It's a big deal. You have several missionaries in here They understand, you know, once you start going through a checklist if I need this this it's like wow We you know, it's it's it's just crazy all the things that you need so Please just pray for us and I just want to just want to praise my savior because he's just given us such a such a good time on deputation. We've been so blessed and just just want to thank him and thank you for allowing us to be here. Amen. Thank you brother Pittman. It's good to have the Pittman family with us this week. I encourage you, church family, take the opportunity to get to know these families and the Pittmans and the Hamiltons and the Moors. You'll be meeting them through the week. And we're honored to have Brother Jim Rowe with us. How many years has Metropolitan supported you, brother? 10 or 12 years that we've been part of their ministry. And he'll have opportunity to share what the Lord's doing with them as well. And there's some changes and some important or tremendous things going on with them. Well, guys that are going to receive our offering this evening, will you get ready for that? Of course, I'm so thankful for the ladies' work already. They've been working, really, for days, getting ready to get ready today. And they had a tremendous meal this evening for our missionaries. And I'm thankful, you know, that I get to get in on that when the missionaries are getting fed. So that's my blessing. And so I'll probably be tipping the scale a little bit heavier by the time the week's over. But it's good. I sure appreciate our gals, their blessing to their pastor and appreciate them very, very much. Well, let's bow in prayer for our offering this evening. Thank you, Father, for your goodness to us. You are a great God. And as we've just heard about the land of Chile and, of course, our own Brother Bruce returning from from Chile and Peru just a week ago, and thankful, Father, for just the reaffirming of what's going on there. We're grateful for this family and their willingness to go. And even as we read Sunday in the verse before us tonight, that indeed, how beautiful the feet of the preacher, indeed, that is willing to go, carry the gospel of life, eternal life, to desperate people in need. We pray, Father, that everything that takes place here this evening and in these days would be for your glory. I know how our Brother Hudson speaks of a mission's revival. Might you be pleased to give us a reviving this week, a refreshing, a renewing, that reviving of our souls towards you, towards your cause, where we realize there's no greater cause than the cause of the gospel. So please, this week, might our hearts be set afire for you and for the great and tremendous work of the ministry of the Word of God to the uttermost parts of the earth. Thank you again, Father, this evening. Please bless this offering. Bless those that give in Jesus' name. Amen. Lord bless you as you give. Please pray for me as I sing the mission. There's a call going out across the land and every nation, a call to all who swear allegiance to the cause of Christ. A call to true humility To live our lives responsibly To deepen our devotion To the cross at any price Let us then be sober Moving only in the Spirit as aliens and strangers in a hostile foreign land. The message we're proclaiming is repentance and forgiveness, the author of salvation to the dying race of man. To love the Lord our God is the heartbeat of the mission, the strength from which our service overflows. Across the street or around the world, the mission's still the same. Proclaim and live the truth in Jesus' name. As a candle is consumed by the passion of the flame Spilling light unsparingly throughout a darkened room Let us burn to know Him deeper than our service flaming bright. We'll radiate His passions and blaze with holy light. To love the Lord our God is the heartbeat of our mission, the strength from which our service overflows. Across the street or around the world, the mission's still the same. Proclaim and live the truth in Jesus' name. To love the Lord our God is the heartbeat of the mission, the strength from which our service overflows. Across the street or around the world, the mission's still the same. Proclaim and live the truth in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you, Brother John. That was wonderful. Good evening, everyone. It's a pleasure to be here for this, the first night of one of the most important times of Metropolitan Baptist Church. For this next four days, five days, our church is going to have a time when we're going to justify our existence as a church. The reason that we get together here is really to reach the world with the Gospel. And so this for me is a great honor for this first night to come before you and open the Word of God and express some of these things. I want to first of all say thank you for many of the missionaries that have joined us. I hope you don't feel too much out of place, but a lot of our home missionaries are here this week. Our church is not like a lot of other churches sometimes. I can say that I do have some experience in missions. My family, as you've mentioned before, there are three Martins here today, three generations. My father is sitting back there. He's 81 years old. He arrived in Mexico in 1961 when I was four years old. I'm almost 60. So that was quite a while back. My son, who's on deputation for Argentina, was with us. He'll be speaking tomorrow morning, and right after his grandfather. We have some experience with some of these things, and I can tell you I've been to a lot of churches. I've worked with a lot of missionaries, but I can say that I really feel very privileged and honored that my home church is Metropolitan Baptist Church, because they are a sponsoring church. We use the term sponsor because this is the church that not only I'm a member of, but does everything for me. They're the ones that stand behind me. They're the ones that do all the real, the work of holding the ropes. And I cannot think of any other church I'd rather have as my sponsoring church. They're the most faithful ones I could think of. And sometimes people have a hard time understanding. I've had pastors as I've been visiting said, we can't understand you. Are you staff at that church? Because our relationship is so close. And they look at that as a negative thing when I think it's a positive thing. Because just as the pastor, Brother Turner, associate pastor, Brother Little, the youth director, we have Brother Graham and others, we missionaries consider ourselves part of this church. That's why it's important for us to be here this week. And I have a standing situation with my calendar. I work sometimes over a year ahead, but the last week of October is always blocked off. Because I've got to be here. This is where I'm supposed to be. And I thank the Lord for that. And I hope you understand that this week is very special for us. And we want to make it special. And, of course, the talk of this week is fulfilling the Great Commission. And we're going to be having sessions in the morning and also reports. And we're going to go over a lot of strategies and planning. And we like to, you know, we're Americans and we like to plan everything out. and we have strategies and we've got everything set up. My son and I were talking today. He's getting ready for a teaching on some culture things tomorrow. And we're very familiar with many cultures. We work in them a lot. And we, in fact, I work in one just a half a mile from here, our Spanish church. And this week, as we're doing all the transition from the building that they've had now for eight years over there, now they're moving to their new building and we've got to transfer all the utilities, do all this kind of work, and I'm finding out that they don't do things like we Americans do them. They're not as organized. And one thing that my son was talking about was they approach crisis in a different manner than we do. We prepare for crisis. They react to crisis after it already happens. And things like that. But anyway, in a way, we're planning for every eventuality how we're gonna have a strategy for the ministry. And that's the way we Americans think. And we wanna help others do those kind of things. But it doesn't always happen that way. Sometimes you're going to be thrust into a situation where you have to be a missionary and you didn't plan for it. There was a pastor in Canada, Oswald J. Smith, well known for his missionary emphasis. In 1928, he started a church in Toronto and he was considered one of the major influences in Canada for the fundamentalism. in that country and also for his sayings about missions. He had a lot of sayings that we still use today about missions. For instance, he said we talk of the second coming when half the world has never heard of the first coming. He says the mission of the church is missions. He says we can't take it with you, you can't take it with you, but you can send it on ahead. He says, no one has the right to hear the gospel twice while there remains someone who has not heard it once. He says the church that does not evangelize will fossilize. Then he also said you're either a missionary or a mission field. A common misconception among many Christians is that the task of world evangelization is for a select few. those of us that are called to be missionaries. And I thank the Lord I'm one of those. But I tell you, I'm not really a part of the select few. Because it doesn't really require special training to be a missionary. Because that last saying that I just quoted from Oswald Smith was, you're either a missionary or a mission field. What that really means is, Every Christian is a missionary. Everyone that knows the gospel has the responsibility of sharing that with others. And everyone that you come in contact with that does not know Jesus as their Savior is a mission field. Now sometimes this term is used in such different manners and has such misconceptions that it can be offensive. For instance, if you go to a country that's pretty advanced, let's call England for example. You say, I'm a missionary to England and you arrive and England says, I'm a missionary to England, they're going to be very offended. Why? At one time missionaries were going out of England. And in their mind, well we're already civilized. going, sending missionaries only to the uncivilized parts of the world, their concept of missions has already been lost. They don't understand what it really means. And many people that are Christians want to use those same misconceptions about what missions really is. You know, if you don't become a missionary, then what are you doing here? you might as well go home. Because, you know, this earth is not our home, is it? Our home is in heaven. So if you're not at home, why are you here? Because God has something for you to do. And until you fulfill that purpose, God's going to leave you here. That's the way it works. And when you've done the job, He says, OK, now you can come home. But many of us are not fulfilling that purpose. It's really distressing as we look at our nation and we see what's going on of the lack of religious conscience anymore. We look back, some of us that have more age and say, you know, there were times when the church building was never locked. You never had fears. There was a respect for things of God. That's being lost. Well, it's not just here in America. It's all over the world. You know, probably in the last 10 years, there have been more martyrs for Christ than the last thousand years almost. People think, that's old hat. That's something that happened in the Inquisition. No, it's happening even greater in these last 10, 20 years than we realize. We're becoming close to the end times. We're seeing things getting rougher and rougher. And I'm surprised when I look at the media, when even they, the secular media, are talking about the loss of religious liberty. When they begin to see it, and we've been preaching and trying to warn people about it for many years, it's finally coming. We're in living and troubling times. And a lot of times we think, well, because of those troubling times, that's an excuse not to serve the Lord as much. Not to be as faithful. I have an excuse now of not being vocal about my faith because it's dangerous now. I could lose my job. I was just reading this week about a coach in a football team. who prays at the end of every game. And they're going to fire him because he prays. We've heard about situations of the homosexual marriage issue. The woman in Kentucky, how they've been attacking her, things like that. Who would have ever thought that would have happened to our nation 20 years ago? It's coming. But let me tell you, this is not new. This happened times before. What I'd like to do tonight is go to Daniel chapter 1. Read the first eight verses of Daniel chapter 1 because here we're going to see another nation that was judged by God. The nation of Israel was judged by God. This is not an accident. This is something that God planned. He used Nebuchadnezzar to punish his people. And God will do that. He will do it to this nation if he has to. And there were trying times. We're going to find that there were some missionaries out of that group. Four young men that I'd like to study tonight. Daniel chapter 1 verse 1 says, In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, came Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, into Jerusalem and besieged it. And the Lord gave Jehoiakim, king of Judah, unto his hand, with part of the vessels of the house of God. which he carried into the land of Shinar to the house of his God, and he brought the vessels into the treasure house of his God. And the king spake unto Aspinas, the master of his eunuchs, that he should bring certain of the children of Israel, and the king's seed, and of the princes. Children in whom was no blemish, but well favored, and skillful in all wisdom, and cunning in knowledge, and understanding science. And such as had ability in them to stand in the king's palace, and whom they might teach the learning and the tongue of the Chaldeans. And the king appointed them a daily provision of the king's meat, and of the wine which he drank, so nourishing them three years. that at the end thereof they might stand before the king. Now among these were the children of Judah, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, unto whom the prince of the eunuchs gave names. For he gave unto Daniel the name of Belteshazzar, and to Hananiah of Shadrach. and to Mishael of Meshach, and to Azariah of Abednego. But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's meat, nor with the wine which he drank. Therefore he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself." I'd like to spend some time looking at these four young men because they became unwilling missionaries. They were taken to a far off land, whether they wanted to or not, and they had to become missionaries among a heathen people. And the question is, what would happen to us if we were forced into the same situation? Now, if anyone had an excuse of not being faithful to the Lord, It could have been these four young men because they had suffered tremendous loss. For instance, the first thing they lost was their family. It says they were of the seeds of the king, the princes. What happened to the rest of the king's household? They were murdered. They were killed. possibly in front of these young men. They witnessed the death of their family. They were the last ones. There was no one else but them, so to speak. What would you feel like if you were the only one left of your family? You had to watch everyone else die, and you're the only one left. But it wasn't just your family. It was also your nation. the nation of Judah ceased to exist that day. It really did not exist again as an independent nation until 1948. We love our nations. We call ourselves Americans. We want to be patriotic, and we should be. How would you feel if your nation ceased to exist? You don't have a citizenship anymore. You've lost your birth certificate, your passport, whatever else identifies you as being a citizen of a country. You now have no country. You're a slave with no citizenship. They lost some privileges. Apparently they were princes of Israel. Now, I'm sure if they were part of the king's family, they lived pretty well. They possibly lived in the palace with the king. They were royalty. As we would say today, blue bloods. And with those came privileges. Possibly they ate well. Obviously they were well educated. They were the top percentage of their population. It's obvious because that's why they were chosen. It says here in verse 3, "...he should bring certain of the children of Israel, of the king's seed, and of the princes." All of those privileges they had of being the royal family were lost. They now had nothing. There's another thing they lost, and many people don't like to emphasize this because it's uncomfortable, but we must face it. They lost the control of their bodies. They were made eunuchs. In other words, they could never marry. They could never have a family. We never know of Daniel being married. They could never have any descendants. Their family ended with them. It's a horrible thing to think about what they would do in those times, but it was not uncommon, especially those that they would chose to high places of honor because they could be more dependable if they were eunuchs. But then it also says they took away their identities. Their names were changed. This last Sunday morning in our Sunday school class, Brother John was mentioning some of these things and it's really interesting how these four men, their names, how they were changed. Let me give you the interpretation of each one of these names. Daniel means God, Judges. His name was changed to Belteshazzar, which means whom the god Bel protects and favors. He was given a pagan name in honor of Bel. Now his story tells us a lot about this god. He was a horrible god. A pagan god that needed human sacrifices too. Hananiah. It meant beloved of the Lord. His name was changed to Shadrach, which meant illuminated by the Sun God. Sun God was very popular even the times, even from the times of Egypt. Mishael was like the Lord in Hebrew. His new name, Mishach, Mishach was who is like Venus. So they're getting a little bit of all the gods in there. From Egypt all the way to Greece. And finally, Azariah, the Lord is my help, his name was changed to Abednego, which means the servant of Nego. Nego was the god of wisdom. Each one of those were pagan gods. They not only lost their Hebrew names, they lost their identity, who they were. That seems like a horrible thing, because we put a lot of stock in names. But let me tell you something. Yes, names can be important, but what you call something, if you change the name, that doesn't really mean you change that thing. It seems like that's what's happening in our nation today. Our politicians think, well, if you just change the name, that means that everything else changes. And that's not true. Abraham Lincoln, one time, when he was still in the Congress, he had proposed a bill, and it failed to pass. He was advised by his friends to change the name of the bill and try again. So Abraham Lincoln replied, if you call a dog's tail a leg, how many legs does he have? Five? No, only four. Calling a tail a leg does not make it so. Just because you change the name doesn't make it different. It still has its same characteristics. And even though they tried to do that with these men, they still kept the character that they'd had when they're with their nation in Judah. It's very important we understand this. You know, we might come to a day when this might happen among our own people. I trust it would not. I don't think it's happened yet at all. But what would happen if we had to face that? You know that in the Muslim countries, when someone converts to Islam, what's the first thing they do to them? Change their name to reflect the adoration of that new God. Not only do they lose their family, their nation, their privileges, the control of their bodies, their names, their identity, they also lost their culture. At least there was a try for them to lose their culture. They tried to make them eat different things. But in verse 4 it says, they might teach them the learning and the tongue of the Chaldeans. Now the Chaldeans were the, how would I call it, the scientists of Babylon. You'll find further on in the book of Daniel where it talks about different groups of people that would help the king. They were called magicians, astrologers, sorcerers, and Chaldeans. Each group had a different area that they tried to help out. But the Chaldeans were the scientists, so to speak. Not only did they have this special knowledge, they even had their own language. And these young men were to be converted into Chaldeans. That was their goal. That's what they were going to spend three years doing. So they were being told, you can't even speak your own language anymore. But they lost something else. They lost their youth. We're not sure, but the age of these young men could anywhere be between 12 and 17 of age. Probably about 15 to 16. Now, we've got some young people here. How many of you guys are between 15 and 16 right here? Raise your hands. We got three right there. Now, can you imagine these young men having to face what these were gonna face? All of these things at that moment. But by that time, they'd learned enough to know what God really wanted them to do. They did not have, what we consider in America, the privilege of enjoying their teenage years. And that's a misnomer, really, sometimes. I think that's a wrong concept we have. We think that, well, the teenage years are the times to live it up, to enjoy yourself, to sow your wild oats, they'll use the term, and stuff like that. That is completely wrong. Our concept is that's the time for you to develop into what God would have you to be. your foundations are being set during that time. That's not a waste of your youth, that's an investment of your youth. Of course they lost their Jewish customs and beliefs. They were going to be forced to eat things that they were not allowed to eat. Now these things that they were going to eat were considered the delicacies. It was from the king's table. It was the best of the best. You know, I travel all over the world and I get to eat a lot of different things. Some of you would say, oh, that's a, but you know, really, when I go to a different country, I tell the people there, I was just in Chile and also Peru. When my wife was with me there in Peru, she had this list of things she'd heard about that they only eat in Peru. And while she was there, she had to try them all. We did. She was looking for special restaurants. We stayed at one of, we were staying at a missionary compound where they had the death ministry, but the wife of one of the missionaries there really had gotten involved in the cultures, and so they made a dessert that was made from, what was that dessert probably? From purple corn, believe it or not. And it was very good. And different things like that, and we do that because if they like it, it must be good. You know, you acquire a taste for certain things. Do you realize that people from other countries come and see our food and say, ooh? I heard when I was in college, I had friends that were missionaries in Africa. And they were telling us this wonderful story. They said that they had finally gotten a care package from home. And in that package was American foodstuffs. Oh, they hadn't had any American food for a long time. And in that package was some butterscotch pudding. Oh boy, they were ready for some butterscotch pudding. They whipped up that butterscotch pudding, made a big bowl of it, sat down to eat, and some African friends came in there and looked at them, and they walked out and threw up. They said, you know what that looks like? Now they'll eat bugs and all these other things, but they won't eat butterscotch pudding. It's all in our minds. But they valued their Jewish customs just as much as we devalue ours. And they had to stand true to some of them because they were God-ordained. But what was the goal of Nebuchadnezzar? To strip all that away. To leave them naked spiritually. So he could then conform them to what he wanted. That's what the world wants to do with us. It's a constant battle. You think that, oh, that's special then. Those horrible things don't happen to us. They might not happen to us physically, but spiritually they're happening to us today. And we're facing the same things. But despite all of these losses, and their tremendous long list of things that they lost, they held true to their convictions. It says in verse 8, but Daniel purposed in his heart. You know, that one phrase in scripture can be the most powerful phrase that you can really understand. If you can capture and understand how important, how this will change your life, if you can understand that getting a conviction will give you something that no one else has, will make you stand out. You know, convictions are not natural. You know, they have to be taught. You realize that? The natural man does not like convictions. The natural man's against convictions. You have to be taught those kind of things. And that's one of our goals that we do with our children. When I start working with my, I have a three year old grand, well not quite, two and a half year old granddaughter. We have already started working on her to teach her convictions. You start as early as you can. Obviously someone has started with these young men and had taught them well. Convictions are also costly. You have to pay a price if you want to keep them. There will be sacrifice. There will be people that will disown you and people that you think are your best friends and are even Christians. Those convictions are what are going to sometimes cost you the most in your life. You know, I have paid for a lot. There's been some things that have been very costly. Think about the things that have cost you the most. Buying a house, possibly, or buying a car, or a loss, an accident, or something like that. But you know what? Probably what hurts you the most isn't those material things that you've lost, but relationships you've lost with someone because of your convictions. Convictions are also immutable. That means they don't change. They should be consistent. You know, in the book of Joshua, we quote this verse quite a bit, Joshua chapter 24, verse 14. Joshua said he had a conviction, but not only did he have the conviction, but his home had the conviction. He taught them to his family also. He says everyone else, and if you look at the verses right before this, verse 14, says, y'all do what you want to do, basically is what he's saying. He says, but I want to tell you what I'm going to do and why I'm going to do it. He said, If it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell. But here comes the kicker. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. That was a conviction. And it was immutable in his life. It wasn't going to change. He held it to the day he died. And these young men had convictions because they were facing some pretty tough stuff. They were going to go into some fiery furnaces. They were going to go before the pit of the lions. All of these men were going to face a lot of things during this time that they had before them. But their convictions were going to keep strong. They were strong all the time. But you know what? Despite the cost, despite the fact that it's not natural, convictions are the anchor that keeps us safe in trying times. When the times get really rough, what's going to keep you safe? What's going to be your anchor, so to speak? What you can hold on to when everything else is falling apart? is your convictions. Remember what I'm trying to get across to us today. Sometimes we think that being missionaries and doing the mission work is when everything is lined up. David, my son right now is getting ready to go to Argentina. He's doing deputation. He's very frustrated. Why? Because we're putting some requirements on him. Get everything lined up before you go. But you know what could possibly happen? Despite all of our plans, it couldn't work out. He might have to go down there and work. He might have to do something really strange. But that doesn't change the conviction he has. But what that means is, what is really his calling, what does God have for him? It means that when the rough time comes, he has an anchor. That conviction that God has given him. And you know, if this nation has to go through some hard times, I wonder how many Christians truly have convictions. Because those that have convictions are going to stay true. That's going to be their anchor. That's what they're going to hold on to when the rough times come. But those that don't are going to be very easily swayed. You know, it's really sad. I've been with Metropolitan now for 35 years. I consider it the greatest honor of my life that this church has trusted me to be their missionary for that long of a time. You don't find that too often. I've been very privileged. And I've also seen in those 35 years, this church go through a lot of things. I've seen a lot of members come and go. And I've seen a lot of them go over trivial things. Things that really don't make really that much difference. Small things. Well, the pastor didn't say the right thing to me at the right time. Or that other member did something that I don't like. I've rarely seen someone say, well, I've got a different conviction than what y'all have. It's usually over small, personal things. They don't have an anchor. I trust that when you're here at this church, that you're setting an anchor. And when the rough time comes, you're going to use that anchor, the convictions that you have. But I'd like to finish also with a reward that these men receive because of their convictions. Now I don't have time tonight to go through the whole book, but there was a lot of things that these men received because they stayed true. Now, I've got six chapters here that I could talk about all of these things, which of course we can't do tonight. But if you look at chapter one, the conviction of not eating the wrong things. Chapter two, the interpretation of a dream when they were about to be killed because no one else could. Chapter three, being thrown in the fiery furnace. Chapter four, Well, that's Nebuchadnezzar talking about what he did with his pride. Chapter 5, well, that's Belshazzar's feast. And they had to face a king that was very, well, I would say blasphemous toward the things of God. Chapter 6 was the lion's den. I mean, every chapter has something big. And if you really look at it, basically at the end of every chapter you find them being recompensed, being rewarded, because of their faithfulness. For instance, chapter 1 and verse 19, we see that they had a tremendous testimony. Verse 19, The king communed with them, and among them all was found none like Daniel, Hananiah, and Mishael, and Azariah. Therefore stood they before the king. And in all matters of wisdom and understanding that the king inquired of them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and astrologers that were in all his realm. You'll only find that they had the testimony. when Nebuchadnezzar made the image and he required everyone to bow down before that image and he found out that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego had not been willing to bow down before that image and he called them up and told them verse 16 of chapter 3 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said unto the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this manner. In Spanish it says, you know where we stand. Basically here. What it says, we are not careful. Basically what it means, you already know what our position is. Now, you think they would be careful. Why are they not careful? Well, because everyone knew where they stood already. They'd already been accused. They had a testimony. Sometimes that testimony was attacked, but they had a testimony. They also had a relationship with God. That relationship was so intimate that in Daniel chapter 3 and verse 25, we find these three men who were thrown in the fiery furnace had the chance to see Jesus Christ face to face. And then He answered and said, Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt, and the form of the fourth is like the sun. God. Now, just think this for a minute. Do you really think those men wanted to get out of that fiery furnace? I mean, really, why would they want to get out? It wasn't hurting them. They weren't getting burned. And what were they doing? Talking with Jesus Christ. I mean, they were having the greatest time of their life. And the king says, get out of there. They said, well, we'd rather stay in here. They had a relationship with God that was so intimate that he came and talked to them directly. Not only that, they received revelation from God. Daniel wrote this book that we're reading. He became one of the writers of the Bible. He received revelation directly from God. He was one of the inspired ones. He had true inspiration. Not only that, We don't know about Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego because we don't find anything about them after chapter 3, but we do find about Daniel. You know, Daniel lived a very long life. It's estimated he probably reached to be 90 years old. He probably was still alive when they returned to Jerusalem. It says in the book of Daniel that he served four different kings by name. Really, four. These were Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar, Darius, and Cyrus. But during his lifetime, history tells us that Babylon had seven total kings. And probably, he served all of them. He outlasted two empires, so to speak. Normally, when one empire falls, they get rid of everybody, they have no trust in them, and the new empire has them. But you know what? Daniel was the exception. Because when the empire fell under Belshazzar, the new King Darius immediately put him into a high position. In fact, let me read all the posts and privileges of honor that Daniel had, and also these other three men. Daniel 2.48, Then the king made Daniel a great man, and gave him many great gifts, and made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon, and chief of the governors over all the wise men of Babylon. Chapter 3, verse 30. Then the king promoted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the province of Babylon. Chapter 5, verse 29. Then commanded Belshazzar, and they clothed Daniel with scarlet, and put a chain of gold about his neck, and made him a proclamation concerning him, that he should be the third ruler in the kingdom. Now this third ruler, he lasted about 15 minutes, probably is that position. Because Belshazzar was killed just a little bit after this. And finally, in chapter 6, verses 1-3, it pleased Darius to set over the kingdom and 120 princes, which he should be over the whole kingdom. And over these three presidents, of whom Daniel was first, that the princes might give accounts unto them, and the king should have no damage. Then this Daniel was preferred above the presidents and princes, because an excellent spirit was in him, and the king sought to set him over the whole realm. They had some posts that were amazing. These were the greatest empires of the time, and they were top dog, so to speak. So much so that they were being attacked continually. And you know, they didn't play the politics like the rest of them. They were true. Daniel, even here, when the rest of them were trying to connive, you know, they were very corrupt. They were taking advantage. And it says that the problem with Daniel was he wasn't corrupt. You couldn't bribe him. He was honest in all of his dealings. They said, well, we're going to try to attack him. Well, we can't attack him on his honesty or his loyalty because there's not anything we can use against him. He's without fault in those things. So the only thing we can attack him is his prayer, his prayer life. Now, just a moment ago, we heard a missionary talk about people praying for him, talking to God behind his back. You know, we don't like someone to do that, but if you want to talk to God behind my back, go right ahead. I don't mind one bit. If the only way we can attack someone is because they talk to God too much, then that is not really a bad thing for us. When I was in college, we made a film about a circuit riding preacher. His name was Robert Sayer Sheffy. Now, Sheffy was one of these type of preachers that he didn't have any formal training. And he just, you know, decided to serve the Lord and did what he could. But he was known for his prayer life. He started in the ministry while he was still a teacher, a school teacher. And when he decided to start preaching, at that time, you needed a license. So following convention, he went to the denominational headquarters and asked for the license. And so they investigated him. And they went to the classes where he taught and interviewed the children and stuff. And then he showed up for the interview to finally get his license. And they said, well, we have some problems with you. They said, we've interviewed your children. And they say, you pray in an unusual manner. And he says, what do you mean? He says, well, when you pray, it's like you're talking to God. And he looked at the other preacher and says, well, who do you talk to when you pray? You know, sometimes people look at prayer as something, as a curse. It's the greatest blessing we can have. And Daniel knew that. Our media has recognized that our nation is changing its attitude toward Christians. Even our media is saying this. There's no doubt about it. Everyone's talking about the loss of religious freedom in America. You know, we'd like to stop this anti-Christian freight train. We're praying that an election comes up that might change it. But it's possible that we can't stop this train. If it doesn't happen, if it doesn't get stopped, what's going to happen to you? What are you going to do about it? Will you be like one of those nameless many of Israel who died under Nebuchadnezzar or were taken into exile? Remember, of those that were taken into exile, we really only know the name of four. Now there are others that were in exile that we heard about later on. But of those that were taken into exile, these four young men were the only ones that are mentioned. Now there were many others, but they're not mentioned. So the question is, will you be like these four young men? Will you have the courage to stand up with your convictions and defy three different kings? Because that's what's mentioned here. He defied Nebuchadnezzar, he defied Belshazzar, and he defied Darius. Not only Daniel, but also Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. What are we going to do? The title of our message is, Fulfilling the Great Commission in Trying Times. Times are trying. Instead of it being a time for us saying, let's do less, it should be a time of saying, let's do more for the Lord. Let's get up and even do more in our church for missions. Let's get this gospel out in every... I thank the Lord that we now have a missionary in Idaho. Not just to foreign lands. I don't know, Idaho might be a foreign land. But we need it in every part of the world. Are you willing to stand up for the Lord? Father, I pray even now that you would give us the spirit of Daniel and his three friends. These men who stood up to the greatest empire of known to man at that time. And when they stood up, they were not alone. You were with them in every occasion. They did what was right. And because of that, you used them in a mighty way. The word of God went out to the entire empire because of their willing to stand for you. They were able to use their positions to do great good for many and to help in the knowledge of who the great Jehovah really was. May we be missionaries like these four young men and touch the hearts of those that are here today to have the same commitment. I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. John? Page 223. Page 223, the altars are open. If you want to come and pray, you come on. If you want to have someone counsel with you, we're always willing to open. The Word of God with you. Come on the first verse. While we all stand and sing. I am thine, O Lord, I have heard thy voice, and it told thy love to me. But I long to rise in the arms of faith, and be closer drawn to thee. Draw me nearer, nearer, blessed Lord, to the cross where Thou hast died. Draw me nearer, nearer, nearer, blessed Lord, to thy precious bleeding side. Consecrate me now to thy service, Lord, by the power of grace divine. Let my soul look up with a steadfast hope, And my will be lost in Thine. nearer, blessed Lord, to the cross where Thou hast died. Draw me nearer, nearer, nearer, blessed Lord, to Thy precious bleeding O the pure delight of a single hour that before Thy throne I spend. When I kneel in prayer and with Thee, my God, I commune as friend with friend. draw me nearer, nearer, blessed Lord, to the cross where Thou hast died. Draw me nearer, nearer, nearer, blessed Lord, to thy precious bleeding side. Amen. My favorite Bible characters is the man Daniel. He's a man. He did have that set of convictions. You know, as Bruce was speaking, of course, whenever I studied Daniel, you know, that tremendous truth pierces my heart to question what are our convictions? What is it we're really willing to truly stand on without moving? That's what we're convicted on. Hopefully, we build our convictions on God's Word, on the Word of God. We build those convictions here, then when we take those stands, we can be assured that we're standing with God. We're standing with him. And he will stand with us, indeed. Thank you so much, Brother Bruce. I trust my wife's staying warm back there. She needed a jacket this evening. And I'm glad to give it to her. Well, it's good. It's been a good start tonight. Appreciate the word about chili. We heard about chili Sunday night. Heard about chili again this evening. That's good. Tomorrow morning, we'll I'll start up at 9 a.m. and looking forward to that. One of my mentors was speaking to us at 9. How do you say that? You know, I remember Milton Martin standing in my office one day in Bowie, Texas, and he put his hands on my shoulders this way. Spoke just as, just as only Milton Martin could say. And he says, pastor, am I doing everything you expect of me? And I'm thinking, oh my. Along the way, you meet some men that become your heroes. Milton Martin is one of my heroes. Not ashamed to say that and love him and look forward to what the Lord would give us in the morning 9 a.m. You'd be praying for Brother Milton as he speaks with us and then we'll skip a generation of Martins and David will be speaking to us as well. We're going to be talking in Thursday and Friday morning about the strategy that Bruce spoke of. A strategy that would help our missionaries, the ones that are with us, our own missionaries, is they would seek to build work. What do you build that work on? Of course, it's on the gospel, it's on Jesus Christ. But a work that lasts will be a work that invests in men. men that will become leaders in those works. Pastoral laying across the board. And so we're gonna explore that in these mornings. Invite you to come if you're able to be there in the morning, 9 a.m. Surely we'd love it if you'd come and join us. And so please be in prayer about that. It's been a good evening. Thank you for being here, church. Thank you so much. It's an answer to prayer. Curtis and I were praying early this morning that, uh, for the meeting tonight, we'll be praying again early tomorrow morning. And so, uh, please, uh, uh, please take advantage of every opportunity you can in these days. Bruce shared, this is one of the very, very most important weeks in the life of our church in the course of the year missions. What will we do concerning missions? Hey, amen. Amen. Brother John, you have a course for us as we close your dismissal. Let's be dispensed with our chorus, Send the Light. Send the light, the blessed gospel light. Let it shine from shore to shore. Send the light, the blessed gospel light. Let it shine forevermore. You're dismissed. Attention.