It is a blessing to be with you tonight, and I want to say thank you for me and my wife for your support, your prayers, and we do so much need your prayers on the field, your protection, and God's blessing. We do bring with us an extra one tonight. Joshua is down in the nursery, so for you ladies who are wondering if you should work in the nursery, Joshua is there, and so get a chance to meet him. And the Lord has given us another one. A little baby girl will be doing march. And so we praise the Lord for that, and we were content with whatever God had for us, and God, for a number of years, had not given us any children, and then give us two, and we just praise the Lord for that. You just never know what the Lord's going to do, and we do praise the Lord for that. Turn, if you would, to Revelation chapter 3 tonight. If you would stand. Revelation chapter 3. We'll begin reading in verse 15, he says, ìI know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot. I would that thou wert cold or hot, so then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest, ìI am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing,î and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked, I counsel thee to buy me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich, and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve that thou mayest see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Be zealous therefore and repent. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we ask Lord tonight that you would meet with us. I plead with you tonight Lord that you would fill me with your spirit Lord that you would Lord, you meet with us tonight in a special way, and Lord, that you would change hearts and lives, that you would challenge those that are here tonight. Lord, if there's one here not saved tonight, Lord, that you would save them. Lord, for those tonight, Lord, I pray that you would call some out, Lord, to be missionaries, to serve you full time, Lord, with their lives. And Father, I need you tonight, and we thank you for these things. We ask them in Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. Now as the Lord addresses the church in Laodicea, He has a problem with this particular church, and in verse 16, he says, So then, because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth, verse 17, because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing. And knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked. This church saw themselves one way, but the Lord saw them a different way. And many times, we find ourselves in the same condition. We think we're one way, but in reality, we're not that other way. And the one word I'd like to focus in on tonight, and I won't be long in the message, he says, "...and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked." I'd like to focus in on that word blind. Now we know that in the Scripture the word blindness many times is referring to lost people. Turn, if you would, over to 2 Corinthians chapter 4. And notice what he says. He said, But if our gospel, verse 3 of 2 Corinthians 4, he said, But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost, in whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. One of the problems we have when we go to lost people, many times we forget that they're blind. We start to share with them things from the Word of God, and they don't understand them. When we talk about the peace of God, they don't understand that. When we talk about having joy as we're going through tribulation, They don't understand that. They can't comprehend it. It's something foreign to them. It would be like you trying to describe a color to a person who's physically blind from birth. Could you describe the difference between red and blue or brown to a person who's been blind from birth and has never seen? It might be possible, but to me it would be a near impossibility. Well, when you deal with a person who's spiritually blind, They just don't understand some things, and we can go through the Scripture and through the Scripture and show them, but there's just certain things that they just won't ever be able to see. In 1 Corinthians 2.14, he says, "...a natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God." Jesus is still in the business of healing the blind. And one of my favorite stories, John chapter 9, is a man who was blind from birth, And Jesus comes and He heals this man in John chapter 9. And after Jesus heals this man that was born blind, the Pharisees, the spiritual leaders of the day, they're not excited over the miracle. They're not excited about what Jesus has done. They begin an interrogation. Who was He? Where did he come from? Tell us about this man. And this blind man that can now see, he couldn't answer all their questions. But I love what he says in verse 25. He answered and said, Now you may say, well I don't believe people can get saved at five years old. Well I did. And I can tell you this, whereas I was blind before, I could see afterward. And I praise God that God still opens the eyes of the blind. Be it in Brazil or Thailand or wherever in the world, God still opens the eyes of the blind. How many of you can remember what it was like when God opened your eyes? Amen? You remember what it was like? And if you were older when you got saved, if you were in your thirties or forties and you lived a life of blindness, when you finally were able to see, you just gave glory to God for what He'd done. And I praise God he still opens the eyes of the blind. Jesus Christ was the first one in the scripture to open the eyes of the blind. In fact, when John the Baptist sent his disciples to Jesus to ask him, are thou he that should come or do we look for another? You remember Jesus' response to the disciples? He said, you go back and tell John the things you've seen and heard. And one of the things he mentioned was that the eyes of the blind were open. Because the scripture said in Psalm 146 verse 8, the Lord opened the eyes of the blind. Isaiah 29 verse 18, the eyes of the blind shall see. Isaiah 35 verse 5, the eyes of the blind shall be opened. And when John the Baptist heard that the eyes of the blind were opened, he would know that this was he. And I praise God, he still opens the eyes of the blind. The lost can still be saved and have their eyes opened. But notice if you would, In Revelations 3 verse 14 through 18, Jesus is referring to a spiritual people, a people I say spiritual, a people who are saved, but he refers to these saved people as being blind. Now you can be blind without being totally blind. Tonight I am legally blind. If I didn't have my glasses, or tonight I have contacts in, if I did not have something to help me see, I would not be allowed to drive. In fact, you would not want me to drive. Because as I drive down the road, you'd just be a blur coming at me. So that would be a very bad, bad thing tonight. Now I'm not totally blind, but I'm legally blind. And there's different, there's farsightedness, nearsightedness, there's color blindness, there's night blindness, all kinds of different blindness that afflict people who aren't totally blind. And I remember I was in the fourth grade, and I would sit up at the front of the class. And I always had to struggle to see. I'd have to squint and do like this to be able to see the board. And I always wondered how the people in the back could even read what was on the board, how they even understood the material. And one day, my mom took me to the eye doctor, and he put the machine on me and began adjusting some things. And about a week later, I got glasses. And the first time I put those things on, I was amazed. I couldn't believe, can everybody see like this? Haven't you been there? Yes, the first time you get glasses and you can see. Can I say tonight, sometimes spiritually, that's the way we are. We see things, but we don't really see them like we ought to see them. And see, I sat in class thinking everybody was just like me, blind. I thought everybody saw things just the way I saw them. And afterward I realized I didn't see them that way. What I'd like to do tonight for just a few minutes is give us a spiritual eye test. Because the way we see things clearly is through the Word of God. In Psalm 119 verse 18 he says, Psalm 119 verse 105, 2 Peter 119, Peter who had heard a voice from heaven, He'd heard God's voice from heaven, said this, "...we have also a more sure word of prophecy. Whereunto ye do well that ye take heed is unto a light that shineth in a dark place until the day dawn and the day star rise in your hearts." You know, I've talked to people who, they say they were atheists, they didn't believe in God, and I ask them, I say, what would it take for you to believe in God? Well, if I had a vision. If God would appear to me. But you know the problem with that? If God appeared to them today, next week, they might doubt whether God really appeared to them. But you know, I don't have to have God appear physically to me, every day, because I have the Word of God. That doesn't change. Amen? And it allows me to see things clearly as I'm supposed to see them spiritually. The first thing, turn to Isaiah chapter 6. Turn to Isaiah chapter 6. Isaiah chapter 6, we need to have a proper vision of who God is. In verse 1 it says, In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphims. Each one had six wings, and with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory. And the post of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke. Isaiah is called up to heaven, and he sees what's in heaven. He sees the Lord. And the angels that are up there flying around, they're crying out, holy, holy, holy! He saw God as holy. Now you know, we don't have to be transported to heaven to see that, because we have the Word of God. And we can see it for ourselves tonight, what it's like in heaven, and we can see that God is holy. Can I say tonight it's not enough for our pastor to have a vision of a holy God? It's not enough for my church, for my pastor to have a vision for who God is. I need to have a vision of who God is, that God is holy. Because if we get a vision of who God is, it won't be optional. It won't be something that we argue about and discuss. And to me, I don't understand that we argue about this and that and the other. God is who God is and He is holy tonight. You say, Brother Ingram, what does that have to do with missions? Thank you, I'm glad you asked. Look at verse 5. Then said I, Woe is me, for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. For mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. The first thing that happened to Isaiah is he had a desire to be like God. And that he had a desire to be clean and to be holy. Can we be holy tonight? We can through the shed blood of Jesus Christ. We can be holy tonight. And we ought to have a desire to be holy and to walk close to God tonight. Because God is holy. And when we see God as He is, that He is holy, it will produce in us a desire to be holy. Because God is holy. 1 Peter 1 15 But as he which is called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation, because it is written, Be ye holy, for I am holy. First of all, he had a desire to be holy. Secondly, he had a desire to serve. Notice what he says in verse 7 and 8. And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, as this touch thy lips, and thy iniquity is taken away, and thy sin is purged. And also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I, send me. See, one thing that hinders missions is sin. Because as long as we have sin in our lives, we're not going to hear the call of God to go to the mission field. I think of Moses. He sees the burning bush there. And he goes over to see the burning bush and the Lord starts to speak with him. And you know what the Lord told him to do? Take off his shoes. That's not a big thing. That's a little thing. But you realize tonight, for many of us that have been walking with God and drawing close to God, it's the little things that end up stopping us. Because I believe this tonight, that if Moses had not been willing to take off his shoes, he never would have gone on for God. And that's what we say tonight. We say, well, that's a little thing. Whatever it may be. Pastor Starr is preaching on something, or God deals with you about something, and this is what we say. It's a little thing. They're just shoes. They're just shoes. They're just shoes. They're just shoes. He said, Moses, he said, take off your shoes. Moses took his shoes off, and God used him. It's the little things that we're not willing to give up to go on for God. And it could be tonight that there's somebody here that God wants to use. And all you have to do is take off your shoes. You know, if you went into somebody's home and they were going to feed you a good meal and you could smell it from outside, and they said, we'd like you to take off your shoes. There's not, I don't believe, a person in this room who'd say, I'm not going to take off my shoes to go eat that meal. You'd take them off. I'd take my shoes off, socks too. The Lord says, take off your shoes. Would you take them off tonight? I don't know what it is. The Lord's spoken to you about something in your life, and all I ask you to do tonight is take off your shoes. When Isaiah saw God, he had a desire to be holy, and he had a desire to serve. He said, Here am I, send me. When we see God as He is, we won't have any desire to do anything else. We want to serve Him. He says in Matthew 6, 24, No man can serve two masters. When you make the Lord your master, you won't have a desire to serve any other master. Let me show you 2 Kings chapter 17. What happens if you have a faulty or a perverted view of who God is? Notice what he says in 2 Kings chapter 17 verse 14. Notwithstanding, they would not hear but harden their necks like to the neck of their fathers that did not believe in the Lord their God. And they rejected his statutes and his covenant that he made with their fathers and his testimonies which he testified against them. And they followed vanity and became, what's he say? they became vain. Do you understand tonight that you become like the God that you follow? If your God is holy, and I understand tonight that the God of the Bible is holy, but if you don't see God as He is, you will not become like He is. You will become like what you see. It would be like a man who is mostly blind trying to paint a picture. of you. And when he gets done, you say, that looks nothing like me, but it looks like what he sees. And if we see God as holy, we will become like him who is holy. We need a proper vision of who God is. Secondly, we need a proper vision of the world. Turn to John chapter 4. John chapter 4 verse 31. He says, In the meanwhile his disciples prayed him, saying, Master, eat. But he said unto them, I have meat to eat that ye know not of. Therefore said the disciples one to another, Hath any man brought him aught to eat? Jesus saith unto him, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work. Say not ye there are yet four months, and then cometh harvest. Behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields, for they are white already to harvest. And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal, that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together. And herein is that saying true, one soweth and another reapeth. Notice in verse 35, he said, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields. Now can we say tonight that the disciples saw something different than what the Lord Jesus Christ saw? Can we say that tonight? When they saw Samaria, they saw people that weren't as good as them. They saw people who didn't really deserve to be reached. They saw just dirty people. When they saw the woman talking to the Lord, they saw a woman of ill repute, a woman who was to be avoided at all costs. But that's not what the Lord saw. Now can I say tonight, if we don't see what the Lord sees, it's a sign that we're spiritually blind. When you go in for an eye test, it's real simple. You stand at the line and you can either read the letters or you can't. It's that simple. And tonight, if you can see them the way that the Lord sees them, when you look at the world, over 190 countries around the world, and you look at the world, if you can see the world the way the Lord sees the world tonight, then you've got spiritual 2020 vision. But if you can't see them the way the Lord sees them tonight, if you can't read the line of letters then it's a sign that there's a problem. And these disciples, they did not understand, when the Lord said, there's a harvest, they couldn't see what He saw. And they didn't see what they were supposed to see. Jesus said, the harvest truly is plenteous. I'm sorry, He said, lift up your eyes and look on the fields, for they are white, all ready to harvest. We're told that there is, or there will be soon, seven billion people in the world. We're told that 56 million people will die every year, and that each day, about 153,000 people will go off into eternity. Every day. You know what he meant when he said the fields are white? He means they're ready. They're ready right now. Right now, they're ready. Today, when today is over, 153,000 people will be in eternity that we'll never reach. Tomorrow, another 153,000 people will pass off into eternity. Heard the story about the lady who said, I know you'll come back. She's not there. You may work with people. You may have neighbors. They won't be here next week. When he said the fields are white, he means they're ready today. Now, 153,000 people, that's a lot of people. I can't reach 153,000 people. You can't reach 153,000 people. But I can reach someone. And I can reach who I should reach. I should reach who God has put in my path. And if I see them the way that the Lord sees them, can I say this tonight? I'll reach them. I'll reach them. We need a vision for the world. the way our Lord has a vision for the world. I'll go through these very quickly tonight. If we have a vision, the right vision for the world, it will cause us to do some things. It will produce some things in us. Number one, we'll weep for the world. In Luke 19.41, it says of Jesus, he beheld the city and wept over it. Why was Jesus weeping over the city? Because he could see what was going to come in the future. If you meditate on hell, As the Bible tells us about hell, and you think of all the people that are going into eternity, you won't help but have tears and be broken over those people. All the people in the 1040 window, who will die and go into eternity, never having heard the gospel. It will cause us to weep. Number two, it will cause us to pray. Matthew chapter 9, verse 35. Number one, it will cause us to weep. Number two, it will cause us to pray. Verse 36 of Matthew chapter 9 says, But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them. When he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them because they fainted and were scattered abroad as sheep having no shepherd. He had a vision of the people. Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labors are few. Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labors into his harvest. If we have a vision of the harvest, it will cause us to pray. it will cause us to pray. I believe God answers prayer tonight. Do you believe that? You believe that tonight? You believe God answers prayer? Is there a shortage of laborers tonight? Yes or no? Yes there is. Can I ask you a question tonight? Why aren't there more laborers? Because we're not praying for them. And I understand tonight this is a church that loves missions. That loves missions. I can say tonight that I appreciate this church and love this church, but can I say tonight there's not a lot of churches out there that are like this church. And if I could beg you tonight, I know you pray. I know you pray, but don't ever think that there's lots of other churches out there praying, because there's not. And can I challenge you tonight to pray more for laborers? We had a young man come down to Brazil, rode in the car, and we went through one city after another city after another city after another city, and I tell him, I say, there's no church in this city, and there's no church in this city, and there's no church in this city, and there's no church in this city, and after a while he said, brethren, why aren't there churches here? I said, because there's no pastors. There's no laborers. Our capital city tonight of Belo Horizonte, a city of over 5 million people, there's one Baptist church in that city of about 20 people. Folks, we need labors tonight. And if we get a vision for the world, we'll pray. It will produce in us a desire to pray and to pray more. If we get a proper vision, it will cause us to go. Mark 16, 15, Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. I can pray for missionaries abroad, but I need to go where I'm at. And I believe tonight if we have a vision for the world, we'll go. We'll go. We need a vision of who our God is tonight. Can you see Him as He is, that He is holy? And we need a vision for the world tonight.