Choir singing in foreign language. I visited the land of Africa for the first time in 1990 and what I saw there and witnessed stayed with me and I knew when I went back home I could never ever be neutral again as a Christian and I knew that there must be something that we were responsible for, not only personally but but as a people. People have somehow gotten away from the fact that while the social gospel is a lie, yet there's a very positive social side to the true gospel. When I came here, I thought of having a doctor in our clinic. I was advised by a pharmacist, actually, in Nairobi, where we got the drugs at that time. He said, listen, Bwana, he said, don't get a doctor. Get yourself a nurse, a qualified nurse, because you will be able to treat 95% of cases who come to you. with a nurse because nurses here can prescribe, you see, they've got a four-year course which includes they can prescribe drugs and he said you can refer those who need referral to a larger hospital but if you bring a doctor in all the other expense piles on top of that for the sake of that five percent which you can refer and so that was very good advice. People do not realize the value of what we call an upcountry clinic. A small clinic, one nurse, one nurse aide and a laboratory assistant who can do tests for malaria or whatever. He can do blood tests there and then and have a positive diagnosis. People cannot comprehend the value of a small upcountry clinic in rural Africa for those reasons. This is a rural setup. It's a mission clinic. And we serve poor people, needy people. And it's able to treat 95% of the common diseases or even more. Because it's a clinic that is set up in the rural people depend on us to give them help at first hand. So we try at our level best to do more than nurses do. We call ourselves doctors because we handle what doctors handle. Because people, when they come to us, they don't expect to be sent away. They need to get help, so we go to an extent of doing that. We are trained to work in the rural setups, to do what doctors do in the main hospitals, so we can deliver, we can stitch wounds, do main operations like removing a piece of thorn in somebody's flesh with a minor local anesthesia. and we can do tooth extraction, we can do circumcision. Those are the minor surgeries that we do. We have common diseases that are common in our setup here. We treat malaria, we have respiratory tract infections that includes bronchitis, coughing, then we have typhoid, we have diarrhea diseases. We have seasons for everything. There are peaks for malaria, there are peaks for respiratory tract infections, there are peaks for deliveries. So it depends on what month it is. Like in January we had about 500 patients, February we had around 600. What we've built here has so resonated in the hearts of these people through their gratefulness, their thankfulness, their appreciation, that even our medical clinic, the facility of the clinic for them, We were welcome in their village, in their home, in their area. We could give out gospel tracts. We could have gospel meetings. I cannot compute what this clinic has opened up for us, gospel-wise. And we commenced here with a clinic, and it has grown from that. A clinic, we have now an orphanage of almost 200 children. We have recently opened an infant rescue unit, specifically for abandoned day-old infants, week-old infants, month-old infants. We have polytech, sewing class for the girls, carpentry for the boys. dormitories, boys and girls, dining hall. There's nothing wasted here, anything is awesome. It's a goat's head, with the hair burned off it, ready for it to make soup. We have auxiliary buildings. We have about 14 staff cottages. We have dormitories for visiting groups from UK or wherever they come from. We have a half a million litre water tank capacity for fresh rainwater harvested off our own roofs. It's our policy to have only African staff and we have 40 plus staff full time. Love the people and love the work. and let the work go forward. If I was to ask for a legacy, then let that be my legacy. It certainly hasn't been easy over these past 15 years, coming into Eastern Africa, a very remote area. And today, we do have the expertise. Today, we have the context. We have the local knowledge. And we can identify a site in a very remote area. And we can construct an outreach rescue clinic at minimal cost. But what we need to do is partner with churches, with people of like precious faith, and do just that, construct an outreach clinic, a place where 95% of the medical needs of those people can be met, a place where an abandoned baby can be received, and what we have proved here is that this opens the door for so many gospel opportunities, and that's our prayer, that's our vision for the future, that we'll not only meet the medical, practical needs of the people, a very poor people, but we'll be able to reach them with the gospel. Children singing in that orphanage is really what inspired me to... try this, because when I heard them sing like that, and it was a little hard to hear over these speakers, but it was extremely uplifting to me, and they're largely untrained, and I think that it's very glorifying to God. But I want to introduce our next speaker, the man you saw up there, his name is Alan Dunlop. He saved at 23 years of age in 1970, and he knew immediately in his heart he was saved to serve. He went through four years of college course in the Theological Hall of the Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster, and he served in two pastorates in Northern Ireland. In 1990, he and a church elder traveled to Africa to visit missionaries. Returning, he said about funding a purely private endeavor whereby through humanitarian aid, churches could be assisted, repaired, built, pastures provided with cycle transport and famine relief when needed. He is here in part to tell you about that mission and how God has developed the vision of fame over the last 15 years. And like I said, I had the great privilege of visiting that mission, and I shot that video. And I can tell you firsthand that what I saw out there completely blew me away. I had no idea what this man was doing, largely on his own. It's a very lonely work. It's in a very remote area in Rural Africa there are other areas of Africa that are flourishing and doing wonderfully well this is a very remote area and his heart is to Reach into further into bush country where there is absolutely no witness and he's using Humanitarianism to do that. It is a gospel opportunity We read there in Proverbs 21 Who so stoppeth his ears at the cry of the poor? he also shall cry himself but shall not be heard and I feel like that that ties in well with I our emphasis on prayer. It's all connected. The gospel works. We don't work in order to be accepted by God. We understand that. But there is there is fruit. And this is this is why we have him here. In fact, the title of his message is Faith in Action. I believe that's what it is. So before he comes, we're going to have his son, who we're very happy to have here today, come and lead us in prayer. His name is Aaron Dunlop and he is the pastor of Victoria Free Presbyterian Church in Canada and he has a daily devotional and blog at ThinkGospel.com Before I bring us to the Lord in prayer, I want to thank our brother Stephen for his vision, for the work that he's put into this conference, and his team. A lot of work that you know nothing about, or I know nothing about, has gone into this conference. And my hats off to Stephen and his team. Let's look to the Lord in prayer. Our Father, And our God in heaven, our hearts are humbled as we view the needy, as we've heard already today and yesterday of the great need of our own hearts spiritually, and yet we see the great need of others both spiritually and physically. And our prayer this week is, O God, that thou wouldst humble our hearts that you would cause us to see our great need before God in the place of prayer, that you would cause us to see our great need in the ministry, in the study and exposition and application of thy word, and that you would cause us then to follow through on that gospel and to take it to the needy. Stir our hearts, we pray this day. Melt our hearts before thee today and open our hearts before thee and enable us, our Father, to leave this week, as we've already heard, with the expectation that God is working and that God will work We plead the blood upon the sin of our souls today. We plead the blood of Christ upon the ministry that you've given us, and we're thankful with the Apostle Paul that he knows that God is able to keep that which he committed to us. We ask our God today that we might stretch ourselves and stir ourselves and stir up the gift that is within us. We pray, Lord, that our work might not be all in the head, that we might not love theology so much that we don't see the need to stretch out and reach out. We pray, our Father, that our theology might not be simply in the head, but that it might reach the heart, that it might stir our hearts, and that our emotions might be stirred, that our love for God might be stirred. And we ask our God today, as the focus of this meeting is, that the head and the heart might reach into the hands and the work of the hands. Bless thy word to our hearts today. Bless the one who will bring it. We thank thee for him, for his vision, for his work, for his constancy in the work. And we ask, O God, that you bless his soul, today as he brings thy word to our hearts. We pray in our Savior's name. Amen. Could we turn in God's word today, please, to the 10th chapter of the Gospel of Luke? The 10th chapter of the Gospel of Luke. And I want to read some verses with you from this portion, and as time permits, to tell you something about the portion, and also about the mission. I do keep an eye on my watch, and I will be finished by five o'clock. There's not a problem there. So, don't worry about it. There's no need in us all worrying about it. I'm not going to worry about it. Luke's Gospel and the chapter 10. And I want to begin the reading today at the verse 25, where it tells us that a certain lawyer stood up and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus said unto him, What is written in the law? How readest thou? And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind, and thy neighbor as thyself. And he said unto him, Thou hast answered right, this do and thou shalt live. But he willing to justify himself said unto Jesus, and who is my neighbor? And Jesus answering said, a certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. And by chance there came down a certain priest that way, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side. But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was, And when he saw him, he had compassion on him, and went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn and took care of him. And on the morrow, when he departed, he took out two pence and gave them to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him, and whatsoever thou spendest more when I come again, I will repay thee. Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among thieves? And the lawyer said, He that showed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, go and do thou likewise. Amen. May God be pleased today to bless the word to all of our hearts. It's my privilege this afternoon to be amongst those who are standing on the foundations It's my privilege and joy to be amongst those who defend the cardinal doctrines of the Christian faith. It's not only my joy, it's my duty. I feel it is my duty. If Christ's blood purchased for us redemption, and paid for every last single sin, such as was so ably preached yesterday afternoon by Dr. Lawson. Surely, it is our duty to love one another and to stand fast by one another. and to recognize that we do belong to the blood-washed body of Jesus Christ, the church of the firstborn. And if it is our duty, ought it not to be our joy to do so? To put aside for a moment of time for a few days to put aside those little, oftentimes petty idiosyncrasies that we have built up around ourselves within our own particular little denomination and come down from our high horse and fellowship with those of like Precious faith, I'm happy today. Happy today to be here, to enjoy the fellowship, and to, God willing, allow some to return to their ministry, as it says in a little booklet, refreshed and encouraged by what they hear. I have to make something very plain from the outset today. I realize I'm sitting at the feet of the doctors of the law, and I feel it. I do indeed. I'm not an academic. I like to tell people that first go off before they catch it on for themselves. I mean that. I was at six different primary schools. I met the scholars coming home. I'm telling you. In my first 10 years of life, we made about 14 or 15 house moves. And you don't do that without carrying some baggage. And the older I get, the heavier that baggage becomes. And so I'm happy to be here, but I have to tell you that I'm just a hillbilly. Ulster redneck. But we all have gifts in some degree or measure. And the Lord has been pleased to save me, and I'm happy for that. I'm happy for that. But with all the strikes that I have against me, academically and otherwise. Almost 20 years ago, my wife and myself set out to establish and pioneer a mission in a remote area in Kenya. I hadn't hardly a red cent to my name. I'd just resigned from my pulpit ministry. The men had been gracious enough to give me a year's salary to let me get my feet under me, so to speak. And I prepared to go. I had already bought a little piece of land for a few dollars. Land is very cheap out there. And I determined what I would do. Build a small clinic. I had it all in my mind. I was going to build it myself. Had it all in my mind to do. Just go out there and see how it went. My support base was A couple of hundred ladies scattered across our churches in our province who pledged to give one pound a week, maybe two dollars or so in your terms. And that's all I had. I gave up my pension. It was a Mickey Mouse pension anyway. It wasn't worth anything. And that's a fact. That's not a joke. The pension was a joke. I'll tell you. Gave up my house, and people said, you're mad. Well, they've been telling me that for the previous 40-odd years, so it didn't matter. When you're told something often enough and loud enough, you begin to believe it. And so it just ran off me. And before I went to do that clinic, I got a phone call from my daughter, who lived at that time about 40 miles away in Kilkeel, in the Morne kingdom of Morne. And she said, I've got good news for you. I said, I'm glad of that. So little good news and lots of bad news. She said, I said, what's the good news? She said, Trevor, that's, that was her husband. Trevor and Alan, that's his brother. They had a business down there at the time. They're going to build a clinic for you. Just like that, out of the blue. Trevor's in the meeting today. He's my son-in-law. He lives in Toronto with my daughter. and his family. And he'll be the point man for the North American fame if I can plant this seed and people can see that God has been in it and God can yet be in it for this land. And so Trevor and Alan, who's our treasurer back home, I couldn't do without him. He's a pillar of the work. They put together a container and we went and we built the clinic. And I want to tell you something. I suffered opposition. I tell you that. And it wasn't the world. It wasn't the world. There were those who were pillars, so-called, as Peter aptly describes them, were opposed to the work. It wasn't the world was opposed to the work. Christian people who should have known better were bitterly opposed to it. Do you know why they were bitterly opposed to it? Because money was involved, that's why. The curse of filthy lucre, that's why. I could preach a sermon on that today, but I have to stick to this. I tell you, I knew what it was like to suffer the opposition of those who ought to have been encouraging me. But that's another story. I'm here. I've made it to the Big Apple. Took 20 years, but I've made it. I'm not really interested in the Big Apple, I have to say. Your city's very nice, but I'm happy to be back where I belong, in the sticks, in the boonies. Let me say this, to those young pastors here today, or maybe an older pastor. My brother Wagner touched on it today. You maybe feel like giving up. You maybe feel you're not worth very much. Well, let me tell you, if you feel like that, that's because you're not worth very much. There's none of us worth very much. And that's the problem that I see with the opposition. If any man thinketh himself to be something when he's nothing, he's nothing. Can they not see that? Those who put their hand against the work of God, can they not see that they're nothing? Let me tell you this young pastor, or older pastor for that matter, the task before you is never greater than the power within you. You think of that. And we never know what God can do until we step out on the promise and allow Him to do it in our lives. I've come today to speak on this subject at Steve's request. I'm grateful to all he's done and the staff of Sermon Audio. I've come today to speak on hands-on religion, faith in action. And I want to, as the time permits me, I want to use for your mission as an example. And I want very simply to use this portion that we've read as the foundation of it. My subject of faith in action, hands-on religion, nowhere in the entire Bible is the subject so clearly expounded than in these verses that we've read together. I feel that this is something of a unique portion. It's a parable. The words, and what makes them to me so important is this, they were used in a direct answer to a direct question. And the Lord, in giving the answer, because the question concerned the second part of the sum of the Ten Commandments. And so the Lord, in giving the answer, therefore, gave and gives an exposition, an exposition of the second part. of the sum of the 10 commandments. Who is my neighbor? Thus the Lord answers the lawyer. I'm going to cut to the chase today. I'm not going to get into all the niceties of homiletics and all that stuff. Leave that to the masters. I just want to look at this. I'm conscious I'm speaking to pastors. You don't need it all explained to you. We don't need a lead-in to it. We don't need... I want to look at this. I want to look at this answer to this question. I want to look at the Lord and the lawyer And I want you to see that these verses show us how far we must be prepared to go in order to exercise our faith towards a fellow man. Out of the very mouth of the Christ of God, we receive this exposition and all its binding duty and responsibility on every one of us. This is not just a nice little story. It's a parable, you know, but people subconsciously think, oh, that's a parable. We'll set that aside for the moment. We're getting into the doctrine here. These words were spoken by the Son of God. It's not just a nice little story to show us that there's some good in every man. It's not about doing a favor to some soul in need. It's not about encouraging us to put something in a beggar's bowl the next time we meet him on the street. It's not about that. It's not about niceness or goodness to others. This portion is not to be viewed as a simple moral tale to be interpreted or manipulated or adulterated to suit life's little incidents or Christmas goodwill. No, my friend, these verses plumb the very depths, the very, very depths of the experience we must have. if we will serve Jesus Christ in this matter of our neighbor. These verses give us the yardstick, if you like, the measuring rule to measure our service by. These verses set forth the service we must be prepared to render any time, anywhere, any way. That's what this is all about. That includes mission work. It's not a church having a missionary stuck somewhere in the back of Beyond and mentioned every now and again in a quarterly magazine. That's not mission work. It's not mission work. Having to say, we have missionaries all over the world, that's a nonsense. That's a nonsense. Go and visit the missionaries and see what they're doing. And I'm not blaming the missionaries. You can't do much when you have nothing to do it with. And so it's not enough to have missionaries all over the world. We need to have missionaries prepared and equipped to get to grips with what they're facing on the mission field. I want to tell you, these verses are so far removed from Sunday respectability. and Sunday tradition and Sunday dress and Sunday-only worship, I tell you, it's as far removed as day is from night. According to the words of our Savior here to this lawyer, the knowing and the loving of our neighbor includes, listen to it if necessary. You see, if the Lord gave this answer and he was going to leave this man Without a comeback, there was going to be no hole in the armor. There was going to be no chink whereby this lawyer could come back. And the Lord gave this answer, in all its detail, to rob this man of every criticism he could have. And the Lord gave, and we need to look at this. And we need to understand that these words the Lord gives are not just padding. And so according to the words of Christ here, loving our neighbor if necessary involves dealing with blood, with gore, with danger, with nakedness, with sacrifice, finance, opportunity, direction, guidance, generosity, all these things, all these things. This was no token service. That's what's wrong today in the church. Token service. Token this, token that. The emphasis is placed very definitely on a personal level. This man used his own beast, his own oil, his own money. Men and women, do you know why so many in this world today are still unreached with the gospel of Christ? I'm convinced of it. In fact, I know it. In spite of the wealth and prosperity that abounds, In our world, it's just because the people of God, generally speaking, have never come to terms with the teaching of what we find in this parable concerning the poor, concerning the needy. Certainly not in an organized manner. Churches are content to travel life's road laden with life's blessings, meaning in a nice church building. having no problems and don't want any problems, avoiding any scene that would cause problems. They'll not leave the comfort of their own beast. That's why so many are unreached and that's why we have so many token missionaries all over the world. They're not open. They're oil skins or they're wine skins. They'll not spend their money. I can hear them now. I tell you, I've heard all the opposition I've ever faced was money, because of money. First criticism was, we're all fishing out of a small pool. Imagine. The ones that were saying that were fishing out of it for a brief while before I could start it. And for a whole lot, Less honorable reasons, too. I want to tell you something. Let me tell you this. God always finances his own will. I tell you, always finances his own will. You can't tell people where to give their money to. You can't tell your congregation, you must give your money here. If you've got the goods to deliver and to show them, why they must put their money here, by all means, let them put it there. But just paying into something because it's there and because it's their denomination, I wanna tell you, God finances his own will. And God financed for your mission and has done until today. I can hear these people now talking, and they do talk, justifying their apathy, justifying not spending money. Can you hear them talking about this stranger? He ought to have known not to go on that way. That was a dangerous road he took, traveling alone. Did he not know there were thieves there? They'll blame himself. It's his own fault he's lying there. Christians always can be so articulate, so articulate and persuasive and prejudiced, and prejudiced when it comes to spending their money. And my friend, until we get over the prejudice, I mean that, until we get over the prejudice, we'll never know the joy of giving. and the joy of doing without ourselves. That some other might have something. Someone who has nothing, that they might have something. I tell you something, this Samaritan lifted a total stranger. He was unconscious, he couldn't tell him what happened. But he didn't wait to find out, he lifted him, and he put him on his own beast. If the scripture doesn't teach this, hands-on religion, faith in action, then I don't know what will teach it. Do I hear someone say it's a social gospel? I've heard that one too. Our work, I say my work, I don't like to use that term, it's our work, it's the Lord's work. People were saying, oh, our work's more spiritual than their work. Their work, our work's more gospel than their work. Well, I don't know how that can be. We're reaching thousands with the gospel. I never reached thousands with the gospel when I was in the pulpit. Never, ever in my life. Maybe never reached thousands in the 20 years I was in the pulpit. It's not a social gospel. It's not spiritual bribery to help a soul in need. Never ever allow that lie to fasten itself upon your mind. I got a letter from a missionary one time. She wrote to me many years ago. Refusing a very, very generous offer, I made her. on the grounds, and I quote, oh, that was a scathing reply. Terrible. Never allow your pen to be used for that type of thing. Scathing, scathing reply. But she said, it's much too soon to assess the work as it's not known among the community who are interested in spiritual matters or who are self-interested." Is that the mission he's calling? To suspect, to judge the people that's listening to them or coming under their endeavors? To say, are these here for the bread or are these here for the Lord? Is that the mission he's calling? It's what the Bible tells me. The Bible tells me we cannot know the heart of any man, including our own heart, including our own heart. The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. How then can we begin to suspect those who come in under the sound of the gospel to see if they're, start examining them? That's legalism. That's legalism, examining them. to see if they're spiritually minded or to see if they're materially minded. What does the Lord say? He said, as far as sorting out the wheat from the chaff is concerned, he said, let both grow together until the harvest. I'll sort it out. I'll sort it out. It's not our duty or our calling to second guess who's coming to our meetings for what. We preach the word. We preach the gospel of Jesus Christ to every soul. We make the free and open offer of the gospel available. And that our brother said yesterday, praying that God will save his own elect. Men and women, Self-interest? Let me tell you about self-interest. And I'm keeping my eye on the watch. It's not five o'clock yet. Some of these boys in the front are getting worried. Was a blind beggar interested in spiritual things or physical things? What did the blind beggar say? Did he say, Lord, thou son of David, I'm glad you're here. I can't see you, but I'm glad you've come just to see him. I'm happy to sing hosannas to you. No, he didn't say that. He said, Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me. He came with a problem. He was self-motivated. He was self-interested. What about Jairus? What brought him to the Lord? It wasn't the kingship of the Almighty. Whatever thoughts he had in his heart about that, it was his little daughter. It was his little daughter. What about the 10 lepers? What brought them to the Lord? Was it self-interest or spiritual things? What brought the woman with the issue of blood to the Lord? We know she had faith. She was a daughter of Abraham, but it wasn't her faith that led her to touch the hem of his garment. It was her problem. I do not know of one single instance in the Gospels where someone came to the Lord that hadn't got a great degree of self-interest. And the Lord touched them and healed them. He gave them sight. and told them to go and sin no more. Men and women, it's not our duty, as I've said, the second guess, who we will help or make accusations about social gospel. The more people come to us through the help we give them, the better, because the crowds constitute our mission field, and the bigger the field, the more we like it. And if it means giving them a bowl of porridge, or a handful of grain, or putting a patch on a wound, or a stitch here and there, so what? I'm glad that God has given me the strength and has enabled me to do it. Men and women, let us understand these things. It's not spiritual bribery to assist a needy soul. It's not a social gospel to give a hungry soul a bowl of porridge. It's not self-interest when a mother brings her child to us. It's the highest form of maternal love and we expect no less from her. Let us understand what this scripture is teaching. We don't ask those questions. The Samaritan didn't ask any of those questions. He saw them. He had compassion. Let me move on. Bring this to a finish. In the bush, there is no postal service. Those with a job might have a post box 30 miles away in the nearest town. And if someone was friendly with them or they knew them, they said, could I get my letter sent to you, to your box? And so there's no postal service. So you cannot do a leaflet drop. An army of missionaries could never visit the houses because there's no one there. All day, the mother's gone from early morning, maybe a three or four hour trek to find water. She comes back, she's making the supper if she has it. So what do we do? What do we do in conditions like that? You just consider these examples that I've given you. Is it wrong, therefore, to assist the local evangelical churches, to give them Bibles to give to their people, to give them bicycles to visit their people, to give them Sunday school literature for their children, to have Bible seminars in our Christian education center, to have Bible school there? That's what we do. We reach them where we can, where we can, with whatever means we can. And that means using our funds. Yes, it does. It means using our own wine skins, opening our own oil bottles. Let me just bring this to a close by saying something. A mother has a child dead in the mortuary. It died of snake bite. My wife and I delivered the little body back home. The child was bitten in the middle of the night. They heard the child crying. The father got up after the child was crying for a while. He went outside. He picked a burning ember. They didn't even have matches. They didn't even have a lamp. He picked a burning ember and blew some life into it and shone it round the mud hut until he saw the snake. But by that time it was too late. The body's in the mortuary. A pastor has a son drowned, 11 years of age. There was heavy rain. The rains leave behind pools of water. Children, they don't see much water. They're in it. This young boy jumped into it, not knowing that on the bottom of that pool, there was about a foot or so of very, very fine silt and mud. And he jumped in and he never came up again. His body's in the mortuary. A wife was murdered by a drunken husband. She's sitting making the supper, he lifts a piece of four by two and he hits her over the top of the head. And she staggers six yards, I was there, I measured it. And she gets on her knees and she begs him not to do it. And he gets a bow and arrow and he goes to kill her with the bow and arrow and her daughter, who was helping her with the supper, runs with the knife and cuts the string of the bow. So he takes an arrow then and he stabs his wife to death. I saw her in the mortuary. The children are scattered in the bush. There's three scenarios. They all happened with me. What will we do then? The bodies are in the mortuary. These people have no money for mortuary fees. They have no money for transport fees to bring the body home. What will we do then? We who are blood-washed, we who believe in the Great Commission, will we turn them away because they come self-interested? Or will we see them for what they are? Poor, and needy, and blind, and helpless, and grief-stricken, and miserable. And when we lift them up in Jesus' name. Let us never stoop to ridicule an act of compassion on the grounds that it might be pandering to self-interest. Let us never stoop to that. Look at that verse 35. What this man did, did not impoverish him. And this is the beauty of it. And this is the secret of fame. and still is the secret of fame, finance-wise. What this man did did not impoverish him. The Lord didn't put an impossible scenario to this lawyer. This man didn't have to touch his savings, the Samaritan. Didn't have to sell his second donkey or remortgage his house. Didn't have to do any of that. Didn't even have to break his journey. Because on the morrow, he continued on. This was disposable income, easily managed. He had it on him, but his hand in his purse or his crib took it out. What was the difference in these three men? Any of those men could have done the same, any of them. But there was one difference, and that was compassion. Verse 33. That was the difference. Compassion. And if I can awaken compassion in your hearts, if I can show you that there's multitudes out there in the land of Africa, in the continent of Africa, and people really don't care, I have to say that, Oh, you can't do anything for Africans. I've heard it. I've heard it. It's an empty hole. You can't do anything. I know a whole lot of white people you can't do anything for, too. I tell you. It was told to me, oh, when you introduce money to the mission field, it causes problems. But I tell you, you don't have to go to the mission field to see the problems it causes. Men and women, let's not stoop to those things. If each of us was to give just a little, a little, of our bounty, collectively, collectively, that can do so much. Just for instance, in closing, if a hundred people or a hundred churches or a hundred little groups of people gave a hundred dollars a month, $10,000 a month, that would revolutionize our work, revolutionize our work. No one would be broke. You wouldn't have to sell your second or third car. You wouldn't have to remortgage your house. A few dollars. That's all it takes. Motivation. Organization. A few dollars here, a few dollars there. In two months, if a hundred people were to do that, we have the cost of a new clinic in two months. A new outreach clinic. Men and women, we've been going on nearly 20 years. In fact, next year is the 20th anniversary of the founding of FAME. 20 years is a good enough test for anything. I'm not coming as a parvenu here today to tell you what can be done. I've come in God's will to tell you what has been done, and how it has been done, and how it can be done from North America too. And I trust today, and I feel so, so, so inadequate to adequately give due justice to the cause that I'm championing. I feel so inadequate. But I trust that somewhere in some heart that some of you will have encouragement from it and see there's much that can be done. Let us not ask ourselves when we see a need such as the Levite and the priest must have asked themselves, what will happen to me if I stop to help this man? Ask ourselves rather, what will happen to him if I don't? May God bless these words today to your hearts. We'll close in prayer. Father, bless us today. We thank you for your word, Lord, for your word most of all. We thank you for the fellowship of the saints of God. We thank you for the family of God. Help us, our Father, never to be so against the evils of ecumenism that we begin to deny the truth of true ecumenism, the fellowship of the saints of God. Bless us now, we pray. Answer our prayer, we pray. Undertake for the next speaker. Grant thy care and goodness to him, Lord, and encourage all our hearts, even as thou hast done. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.