That was just a quick overview video. As it said, my name's Daniel Williams, and I've got my beautiful wife, Marianne, and my lovely daughter, Hannah, and my three boys are all teenagers. And they're all over at the youth group, hopefully enjoying that as well. It's been 17 years since I was here at this church. My brother Paul married Eunice Chan. Some of y'all may know the Chan family here in 2004, right before we went to China and everything. So they send their greetings from Texas. and everything, and I'm sure they come over for a visit occasionally. But God is good. Let's see. I was just recently with, I understand y'all are gonna be having a basketball game tomorrow against Faith Baptist Academy? Okay, and so they, I was actually with them at a winter camp this week, and so they think they're gonna take your team down tomorrow? I don't know. The teens aren't here to hear this, so they're the ones who need to hear this, right? But winter camp reminded me of my, quote, life verse. I don't know if any of you remember Isaiah 2820, but those, the camp bunk beds and everything, Isaiah 2820 says, for the bed is shorter than that which a man can stretch himself upon. Look it up, it's in the book, it's in the book. So that's my life verse being 6'5". So, yep, there it is. It's in the book, I mean, God put it there for a reason. But, so that's my life verse, especially the week, especially after I get back from camp. Pray for me, I don't know if my back's gonna recover. But it was a blessing, spiritual decisions were made and my boys really enjoyed it and it was a blessing to be there and see teens with a heart for God and things like that. So that was a blessing. I'll give a little bit of a testimony about myself. and everything, and then we'll have a little brief message, and hopefully we can all learn something from it. But I was born actually in a church a little similar to this. It was a church in Texas, not quite as large. Y'all have some very nice facilities, and I have to say thank you for the wonderful missions apartment. that we've been able to stay at a few days. That is, it's just amazing and thank you for your ministry for that. It's a blessing as a missionary. We're traveling and we're on the road and we're homeless for Jesus. And we sold our house when we went on deputation and now we just kind of live wherever we can. But it's a blessing to have a refreshing place that's nice and clean and just thank you for your ministry for that and allowing us to use that and others to use that. But I grew up in a church, and one interesting anecdote is back in the 70s, a lot of times the mothers would, they'd give birth, and even if you were perfectly healthy, they would keep you in the hospital for about three days or so, just kind of for observation, and hospitals weren't near as expensive back then as they are nowadays. And so I was born on a Wednesday, and they released my mom on Sunday. And so my dad and my mom were coming home with me, and it was getting about church time, and where the hospital was, going to where they were living, they were passing nearby the church, and they kind of looked at each other, and they said, well, let's just go to church. And so I actually went to church before I went home from the hospital. So I wasn't quite born in church, but it's pretty close. So that's me. I was born in a faithful, soul-winning, gospel-preaching church there in the suburbs of Houston. And I grew up in the nursery in the primary department and the junior department. In 1981, on a Sunday morning, my Sunday school teacher, Brother Granham, a retired military, he had a class of second grade boys. And at the end of Sunday school that morning, he asked the question, he said, boys, is there anyone here you don't know for sure that when you die, that you'd be on your way to heaven? And I said, I raised my hand, Brother Granham, I don't know that. And at the end of that Sunday school class, he took his Bible and he led me to Christ. And I was baptized that night on a Sunday night then. And I continued on growing up through the, going to Christian school and going through the teen department. We ended up transferring to another church when I was 14. But just growing up and just faithfully attending church. And I had a desire, you know, as a Christian I said, You know, as a Christian, God bought me with his blood. Jesus Christ bought me with his blood, and if I knew what Jesus wanted me to do, well, I'd be foolish to not do that. You know, the problem was, we didn't have the 70-foot Jesus step down in front of me and say, Daniel, this is what I want you to do. He didn't do that. And so I didn't really hear what he wanted me to do. And I think honestly it was just the world was screaming so loud in one ear that I couldn't hear the still small voice of Jesus in the other ear. And maybe there's some people in this room like that too where sometimes our focus gets a little away from Christ and the volume of the world gets turned up. and the volume of the Lord gets turned down. And for three years, I got a job and I was working hard, and I had the character that my parents had, my father and mother had raised me with to work hard, show up on time, and just work hard and be a faithful worker. And so work started promoting me and giving me raises and things, and I just kind of got stars in my eyes. I'm like, whoa, this is awesome. I love getting the commendations and the raises and things. And I suddenly found myself, well, over time, not really suddenly, found myself taking Christ out of first place in my life and putting work up in first place. And I kind of let them kind of own me. I let them schedule me on Sundays all day where I couldn't go to church on Sunday morning or Sunday night. I let them schedule me on Wednesdays. And I used to be on Saturdays, I'd go out, our church had a teen soul winning outreach program, and I used to do that, but suddenly I wasn't doing that anymore. And it got to a point where I was going to about one church service a month. And that was me who had grown up in church, going to church every time the door was open, three times a week, if there was any Bible conferences or missions conferences or anything, I mean, my family was there. And suddenly I found myself spiritually starving. I was feeding the world and the flesh so much and my spirit was suffering because, you know, when we come to church, there's so many reasons to come. But one of the reasons is your pastor, he's the shepherd and he feeds you. That's a biblical principle. Yes, we come together as a flock for encouragement, but we also come for spiritual food. And yes, I know that sometimes people for health or different situations, sometimes you need to stay home and maybe you'll watch a live stream service or something like that, but that shouldn't be the, that should be the exception and not the norm because Christ wants his sheep, the flock, to come together. come together for encouragement. And you say, well, I didn't need that for me. Well, maybe somebody else in that room needed to see you. So that's just a reminder. I got away from, I didn't go into any deep sin. I didn't go out into drinking or clubbing or any of that stuff, but I was backslidden. I was away from God, took Christ out of first place and put work in first place. And after three years of that, My brother and sister. came to me and said, Daniel, we know that you've got vacation time. I mean, at this point, I'd already been with this company four years, and I already had about four weeks of vacation. I had gotten raises and promotions. I had about four weeks of vacation every year. I was single, I wasn't dating, and they're like, we know you got vacation time. There's a Bible conference, and we want you to, it's a three-day Bible conference a couple states away, and we want you to go to it. I said, well, Yeah, I got the time, sure. You know, I love my family and they kind of badgered me a little bit about it, so I went off to a Bible conference. And all week long, it was actually a youth conference, and at this point, I was already 21, actually 22 years old. And all week long, the preachers were preaching Are you listening to God? And they kind of referenced the same idea of, can you even hear God when the world's screaming so loud, when you're listening to the world so much in this other ear? And they said, would you give God a chance? And I said, well, I'm a Christian. I don't know what God has for me, again, because I wasn't listening. But I said, I'll give God a chance. And I said, God, I've got these obstacles that I can't handle, but if you'll handle these, I'll give you one year at Bible college. I'll kind of separate myself out of the world, I'll go to Bible college for a year, and we'll just, you know, I'll do that for you, God. You know, since you saved me and I've got a home in heaven, I'll do that for you. But these were five things that were beyond my ability. And I was like, kind of, I told God, and there's a verse in the Bible that says, you know, don't open your mouth to the Lord. If you make a vow to the Lord, you better perform it. And one of those things was a financial matter, and I just didn't have the money. There was no possible way that I could make it happen. But I said, God, if you'll take care of these five matters, these five obstacles, then I'll go. Seven days later, all five of them had been crossed off. And so I said, well, I've opened my mouth unto the Lord, and I have to. And that was at the end of July, and college was starting at the end of August. And four and a half weeks later, I was in my car driving to Bible college. And... I went to Bible college, still didn't know what God had for me, so I just enrolled in a general studies degree. But at the end of that year, and the video referenced it, I went on a missions trip. That job that I had? Even though I had been backslidden, I had been able to save up money. I was able to pay my own way through college without asking my family for money and without getting student loans or anything like that. And I was also able to go on a missions trip at the end of the first year to Guatemala and visit a veteran missionary there who had a work. And it just broke my heart. We went into Guatemala City and we saw this gigantic cathedral, very expensive, going inside, gold gilt on the inside, statues, very expensive, very valuable. This cathedral must have cost millions of dollars to build. And yet in the same city, on the outskirts of the city, I went with, me and some other college students went with that missionary to the city dump. and visited people who were living in the city dump. They had this big, giant kind of a cliff coming off of the mountain there. It's very mountainous there in Guatemala. And they would just come and just shove the trash over the edge of the cliff. And at the bottom, there's this massive trash heap. And people would literally hollow out a hole in the side of a trash mound and put a piece of cardboard up as their front door and live there. And I was just like, wow. To see such opulence at this cathedral preaching a gospel that doesn't save. and to see this filth and this poverty and this squalor. And we ministered to their physical needs. We took some bags of beans and rice, but we also ministered to their spiritual needs. And my Spanish was very limited, but we took gospel tracts, and I could read Spanish. I could read a gospel tract, and I could try to minister to their spiritual needs. And our group there, we had some people who could speak Spanish and we had some translators, but we were able to see souls except Christ who had never heard a clear presentation of the gospel before. And it just broke my heart and it just said, wow, God, that's so amazing. It's so amazing that people would accept you as their savior. And being in a part of America where I would knock on doors and sometimes people would accept, but sometimes they'd slam the door in my face. And sometimes they'd say, no, I don't even want, could I give you a track? Could I give you something to read? It could be a blessing for you. And they'd say no. But there in Guatemala, nobody refused a track. I was able to go on some other mission trips as well to the Mexico and the Philippines, but just seeing that broke my heart, and I said, God, if you'll let me, I'll go to the mission field, and I'll serve you on the mission field with my life. So I changed my major to missions, and instead of just giving God that one year, I went ahead and re-enrolled, changed it to missions, and I graduated with a missions degree there in 2001. Met my wife in 2002. and that's where my brother, he was attending the same college, that's when he met Eunice here from Yale's church, and we got married in 2003. My wife was actually born in the Philippines, and the video referenced that. She lived there for 14 years, and nobody ever presented her with the gospel. She never had that opportunity. She came to America, lived in the LA region, and when she was 18, a gospel preaching church invited her cousin to a church activity, a church outreach activity, and somehow they got a hold of her cousin's phone number, and the cousin didn't accept the first time, but they called her back. And she didn't accept the second time, but they called her back. And she didn't accept the third time, but they called her back. And she didn't accept the fourth time, but they called her back. And when they called her back around the fifth time, the cousin said, these people are so friendly, but I'm a little nervous to go by myself. Marianne, if you'll go with me, I'll go to that church activity. And after literally around five or six weeks of that, they finally attended that activity and they heard the gospel for their first time. They didn't accept Christ immediately. It took a little while. It was new to them. And that's how people are. I'll get to China in a minute, but in China they had no foundation. It was very rare to be able to witness to somebody and see them accept Christ with just a limited amount of witnessing. They had no foundation, you had to build the foundation. And the foundation that my wife had, being in the Catholic faith but not super faithful, they had to work through the truth of the Bible and work through that. And after several weeks, actually a couple months, my wife finally accepted Christ as her Savior. And she ended up coming to Bible college, and we met there at Bible college. And we went on to... Actually, I was God's interesting. He knows the future and we sure don't. He knows the future and we sure don't. And we've gotta trust him. There's so many things that come into our life that we just, we don't know, but God does. And I thought I was headed to Japan, and I pray for Japan often. Japan's a needy country, but they're very materialistic, and they're very hardened to the gospel. And God opened an opportunity to go into communist China. And it's, Communist China's not like America, okay? There's a missionary, and I talked to this missionary face-to-face. He went to China a few years before me, and he flew in during the week, and he was in Beijing, and on a Saturday, in Tiananmen Square, he went out passing out tracks. Well, can you guess what happened? Later the next week, he was on a flight headed back to the States. It's not legal to do that in communist China. It's not legal to just go to a public location and pass out tracks. It's not legal to get a megaphone and get on a street corner or a park and preach. Publicly the gospel of Christ. It's not legal to do that. You'll be put in prison or you'll be kicked out of the country But the Bible doesn't say there's nothing in the Bible that says you must pass out tracks It does say you must spread the gospel. We've got to be witnesses. We've got to show our light to the world and be witnesses and so We did that, but it was a little different. The gospel never changed. It's the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ that saves mankind. Plus nothing, minus nothing. And the gospel never changes, but methods are a little different, and the sister there in Nepal, I'm sure her methods are different too. In many countries, some of the methods are a little different, but the gospel must never change. Never. And so we were able to see people saved. And the Chinese people were very open to the gospel on a private setting. And we were able to see people saved and see people baptized and see people discipled and see lives transformed and see some of them start bringing others to Christ as well. And it was such a blessing to be there and do that. Pray for China right now. Of course, China's been in the news a lot the last year or two. The president, President Xi, who came into power in 2017, has been tightening down the screws. And almost every missionary that I knew that was in China is no longer there. They've had to go to Taiwan or other Chinese speaking areas or have come back to the States. It's extremely difficult to get into China. But at the time we were there from 2004 till 2010, there was a window of opportunity where the Chinese government was more open to foreigners. and we were able to see many, many souls saved. Our video referenced it as well, but there was a large Philippine community of workers there in our city, and while we were witnessing and seeing Chinese people saved, we stumbled across that community, and of course my wife's Philippine And we were able to start an international church there. And because it was foreign passport holders, the Chinese people, the Chinese government didn't really care. They care about their own citizens. But we could have that a little more openly. And we were able to see a lot of souls saved and people baptized and lives transformed with that as well. And it was such a blessing. We had some medical things that we had to care for, so we came back in 2010 to care for that. God never asks us to sacrifice our family on the altar of the ministry. God lets us do both. So we had to come back to America, care for that, stayed faithful in church. But in 2018, after caring for that, it took several years, it took about six years to care for that, started burning in my heart, kind of like the book of Jeremiah where the Bible talks about it was just burning in his heart and he couldn't stop. And God said, Daniel, are you still my servant? And I said, yes, Lord. And of course, China being very closed, We started looking at other avenues, but we realized God had actually prepared us. Giving me a Filipino wife, being around that community for nearly 20 years now, having that Filipino ministry there in China, God was preparing me, knowing what he had for me in the future. And so now we're looking forward to heading to the Philippines. Let's open our Bibles to the book of Matthew. We do have a display table, and please stop by and see it, get a prayer card, please pray for us. We've been traveling a lot. Matthew chapter nine, just a brief message. Really, two points, and the thought is why do missionaries go out? Why do missionaries go out? Honestly, living here in America is more comfortable than it was living in China. It's more comfortable than it will be living in the Philippines. Just being honest, the medical system here in America is better than either one of those two countries. My three boys were born in China, and that's a different story in and of itself. But God is good. But why do missionaries go out? Matthew chapter 9 and verse 37 and verse 38, a very, very popular passage. Actually, we'll start in verse 38. We'll start in verse 36. And we're looking at why. Do missionaries go out? Let's pray briefly. Lord, we love you. Thank you for this time, Lord. Thank you for these people. Thank you for your message. Thank you for your word. May the words I speak be your words. May we leave encouraged in you. So why do missionaries go out? Number one, because God sends them to the harvest. The Bible says here, pray, and this is a command to all Christians, I believe. Every Christian should be praying that there would be more laborers, okay? You should be praying that there would be more laborers here at Lighthouse. How much more could you do if there were more laborers laboring in the work, laboring in passing out tracts, laboring in giving, laboring in preaching, laboring in teaching, laboring in your different ministries of the Church? What more, how many more souls could you reach, could Lighthouse reach? you had more laborers. And we need more laborers all over the world. So, why do we go out? Because God sends us, and God sends you. He doesn't just send me, He sends you. Every single one of us, if we say we're a Christian, and I'm speaking tonight to Christians, if there happens to be someone in this room tonight who says, I don't know for sure that when I die I'd be on my way to Heaven. Don't leave this room tonight without speaking to someone. Speak to Brother Dunlop, speak to me. There's several people here, many people here who could show you. So if that happens to be the case, please don't leave this room without knowing for sure that when you die that you'd go to heaven. That said, this message right here is speaking to Christians. I'm going out because God sent me. But all of us are called and all of us are sent to the harvest and the harvest is wherever we are. There are people within a two miles radius. How many people within a two mile radius of this church are on their way to hell? How many people within a 10 mile radius of this church are on their way to hell? Okay, lots, lots. All of us are sent, and we're going because we're sent. God sends us to the harvest. Number one, we pray for the harvest, but number two, we labor in the harvest. We pray for more laborers to join us. Also, let's not try to hinder laborers, okay? I had the sad in my travels, This year, or I'm sorry, last year, I gotta get used, this is 2022. Okay, so last year, just a couple months, just about three months ago, I was at a church, and I talked to a man, and he said, my daughter is a senior this year, and she's gonna graduate, and she believed that God wants her to serve him full-time with her life, and so she wants to go to Bible college. And he said, pray for her mother. Her mother wants her to go to law school. And the daughter had already told her, and her mother was there at church that day. Her mother said she was a Christian, and yet her mother wasn't willing to let her daughter be a laborer in the harvest. Don't hinder laborers. Don't do it. We all need laborers. Yes, God's gonna call some of the teens. He's gonna call some of them to be plumbers or electricians or lawyers or doctors. Some of them, that's gonna be their calling. But if he calls any of them to work full-time for him, don't hinder them. Encourage them. Encourage them. So why do missionaries, why do we go out? Because God sends us. Don't hinder others. We should also try to encourage those who want to serve God and do more for Him with their lives. We ourselves should be laborers. God actually sends all Christians into the harvest. You know, back in the 17 and 1800s, if you kind of study agriculture, you know, farming today is nothing like it was 120 years ago. It's just, it's completely different. But I've read stories of how they'd have this farm and you'd only have maybe a dad and maybe a son or two or just a few people and they'd be harvesting and they'd be, okay, we're gonna harvest Farmer Joe's crops this week. and we're gonna harvest Farmer Sam's crops this next week, but they would all come together and harvest. And whenever they found a big storm was coming, they'd call off the whole town and they'd come out because they needed to get that grain in, they needed that. And that's what God calls all of us to labor in the harvest. You might not be the pastor. You might not be the music director. You might not play in the, you might not sing special music. You might not play an instrument, but there's something you can do. You might not even have the health to be able to go out door knocking or go out for outreach, but if you're still here alive on earth today, God has something you can do for him. I honestly believe God would just take you home if there's nothing that you could do for him. You can be in the ministry of prayer, you can pray for the missionaries. My goodness, we need prayer. There were times when we were in China that the oppression, this never happened to us, but imagine, I'm gonna take you back to the time I was in China, and there was a spiritual oppression. Satan was there knowing we were on his turf, going after his people. And there was an oppression that was just weighing on our spirits. There was also the thought, is this the day that three vans of the public security bureau are gonna pull up in front, and they're gonna call us over there, and they're gonna say, you need to leave our country. It never happened, but it could've. And that weighed on our spirit. But there were also times where we could feel that somebody was praying for us. and everybody can be in the ministry of prayer. Everybody can participate in the harvest. So number one, why do missionaries go out? Because God sends them. And number two, just a two-point message. mercy." If we look back at Matthew, we're still in Matthew 9, verses 35-36, and Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people. But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted and were scattered abroad as sheep having no shepherd. Jesus had compassion on the harvest. Jesus had compassion. And that's what happened to me when I went to Guatemala. It just, it just opened my eyes in a way that they had never been opened before. And in the book of the same chapter, but in verse 12 and 13, it says, But go ye and learn what that meaneth. I will have mercy. Verse 13 of the same chapter. And then the famous verse in Jude says some having compassion making a difference. Do we have the compassion for the harvest around us? Do we have the compassion and the mercy for our coworkers to be able to walk up to them and swallow our pride and say, hey, could I give you something to read? Hey, our church is gonna have a special service, could I invite you to a service? Hey, how about for lunch, we go out for lunch together, and I wanna tell you something that's very important to me. I wanna share with you some news about my best friend. Who do we need to have compassion and mercy for? How about our neighbors? How about our, you know, maybe our children's playmates in the neighborhood, maybe their parents. Whoever it is, whatever it is, why do we go out? Because we're sent, but also because of mercy. Let us have compassion and work the work that we can. You know, one day, it would not surprise me if one day in the not-too-distant future, in America, we won't be able to pass out tracks. And if we don't use the freedoms that we have while we have them, I think we're gonna lose them. I can see the path, and I think you can too. America's headed down a path that's headed to destruction, and part along that path is restricting religious freedom and restricting the gospel of Christ. It's coming. Let's use what we can and do what we can while we can. You know, the Bible says work while it's day because the night cometh. Let's go because we're sent and let's go because of compassion and mercy. Let's pray. Lord, we love you. Thank you for these, your people. Thank you for the time that we had where I could share a little bit of my heart. about my testimony and my past and the future that I believe you have for me. May each and every Christian in this room be reminded that God has, that you have sent us into the harvest. And he sends others around the world, but we are sent to our local area. And let's remember to have compassion and mercy. May each and every one of us be reminded in this. In your name we pray, amen.