Alrighty, get your Bibles out. And Brother Matt mentioned that in November and December I was teaching through the ages of a Christian and there's seven and I stopped at the first one. And I haven't forgotten, but we're not going over that today. Maybe we'll hit it here in a couple weeks or something, but I do believe the Lord's giving me something here. Look at Acts chapter 13. Acts chapter 13. And when you get there, let's look down at verse 1. Acts 13 verse 1. Now there were in the church that was at Antioch certain prophets and teachers as Barnabas and Simeon that was called Niger and Lucius of Cyrene and Manion which had been brought up with Herod the Tetrarch and Saul. As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate me, Barnabas and Saul, for the work whereinto I have called them. And when they had fasted and prayed, and laid their hands on them, they sent them away. And I want to preach to you today on the called missions. Father, I ask you now to please help me, and God, I'm gonna try to follow your lead, and I pray, God, that you'll guide me, Lord, and guide my words and the illustrations, Father, in the verses that we go to, and that, Lord, you'd be in and out of this whole thing, Father, just to permeate it, Father, anoint it, Lord, if you would, and fill me with the Holy Spirit. And I pray that these folks would receive a blessing from your word and a rebuke and a reproof and exhortation, Father, that they might grow thereby. We love you, Father, and we pray all this in your Son's name. Amen. I want to preach to you on missionaries today and the call to be a missionary and what that is and what that means. And you'll notice here, this is a great place to just kick off this thing because you'll notice that these guys are here and they're busy working. They're in a local church and they're staying busy. It says that they're ministering. It says that they're teaching. And then it says that the Lord shows up and calls them to go. cause them to special work and he's calling these guys, he's about to separate these two men from the work they're in and send them to go preach the gospel. So I want to preach to you today on this thing, on the call to missions and on what it is to be a missionary. Now, I'll just be up front with you today. I'm just going to be honest with you, alright? I'm after one of you today. I'm after you. And that's a good thing. I don't mean it in a negative way. I mean in a positive way. And I'm praying that the Lord will start working in one of you, somebody's heart today. And I've prayed over this, and I've prayed over you about the Lord maybe calling somebody out of this congregation to be a missionary. Now, that's between you and the Lord. I ain't gonna force it, but I'm after you, all right? So the first question is, what is a missionary? Point number one, what's a missionary? Well, the word missionary is not in the Bible, but it is a good word and we use it. It helps to describe something in the Bible. And there's all kinds of words like that. Some people use the word Trinity. As long as they're not using it in a Catholic sense, I'm okay with it. What they're trying to describe is the Godhead. That's the Bible word for it. A better thing is the word rapture. That's not a Bible word. It's not in the Bible, but it is a biblical way of describing the catching away of the bride of Christ, the resurrection when the Lord calls us out. And the word missionary is the same. It's a good way to describe something. I'll even say it like this. The word missionary is not in the Bible, but the word go is. Look at Matthew chapter 28. Matthew chapter 28 and you have here what's called the Great Commission and that's not even in the text but that's what we call it now and that works too. He's committing something to some men to go and do something. Matthew 28, 18, And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go. He's telling you to go. He's telling His men to go and to reach some people. And He's not talking about just going next door, although that's where you're supposed to start. Eventually He says, "...go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world." The word missionary, it means one cent. And that happens throughout the Bible. God will reach down and put his hand on a guy and he'll send him. And what is sad today is that missionaries around the world as Laodicean Christianity becomes more and more prevalent, less and less men are answering the call. I didn't say God's not calling them. They're not answering it. Now over there in Scotland, you know what I managed to find over and over and over again? Mormon missionaries from America being sent over there. and they're sent all over the place. And where are the Christians? Where are Bible-believing Christians? Well, I know the Lord's still calling, but men aren't answering there. Missionary means one sent, and a missionary is one that's sent on a mission. It's in the name, a mission. And it's a man or a woman or child or family that's called to go and do something for God. If everyone look over there, you see on that wall, we've got some plaques. You'll see pictures of families up there, men and women and children. And underneath them, you'll see their prayer letters. Now, those are our missionaries. Every Wednesday night, we normally have one or two prayer letters here. Every once in a while, we don't have one. But almost every Wednesday, we have a prayer letter that they send. Every month or two, those missionaries send a prayer letter to us. We financially support those guys. There's a thing that's been going on for years and years and years that men say, well, it's less expensive to just send money to a national pastor. Why couldn't we just find a missionary that's already there or a preacher that's already there and just give him money? Because that's not the biblical way. The biblical way is God sends a man. He doesn't send money. And so these men, I know some of you are newer here, you haven't seen it. Lord willing, in April we're going to have a missionary in, a missionary to Mexico. But these guys, we've got Joel Dare in Brazil, Brother Muberry and Brother Sharaus in Brazil. You've got Brother Pizzo to Israel there. And you've got Brother Lieb and his family to Sicily. And you've got Brother Hauser there to Italy. Those guys, at some point in their life, the Holy Spirit came down and tapped them on the shoulder and said, go. I have a calling in your life for you to go and tell somebody that Jesus died for them. And what we do is we send them a monthly support. You guys put money in that plate, and of course that goes to keeping the lights on, and it helps you guys pay me to be able to be your preacher, but a lot of it goes right there, goes right to those guys to keep people spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ. Now I'll say it like this, and just so we're all on the same page, I know most of you in here aren't called to do what they did. Most of you aren't. Most of you aren't called to sell your house and get rid of your dog and get rid of your cars and have to give a sad goodbye to family and go to a foreign field. I know most of you aren't called to that. But in a church this size, I'm after one of you. And if not more. You know why? I'm not interested in a big work. It means nothing to me. This church could get cut right in half and half go to the mission field. And I would feel like I've done a way better job as a pastor and a minister because I'm supposed to send people out to reach people for Jesus Christ. And this thing could get smaller. We have to take and we're buying more seats. I'm thankful for it. But if we had less seats and had to take some out and just had to start meeting in a little room because we couldn't keep the lights on because this church sent missionaries out, we'd be doing a far better job at the judgment seat of Christ than for the thing to grow and get big and become the next whatever. Now, I'm not interested in a big work. I'm interested in seeing souls saved. You know why? Because that's what the Lord's interested in. Look at Matthew chapter 9. I've pointed this passage out to you before, but this is a great passage. And I've put it to you like this, so I'll say it again for those who haven't heard it. What if we just got done with prayer requests here, where each and every one of you are given a chance to raise your hand and ask, I have something on my heart I'd like for you to go to the Father about. What if Jesus Christ came in here today, raised His hand and said, could you pray for something? Could you go to my Father and petition Him on my behalf? Can you imagine Jesus Christ saying that? He does. It's right here in the Bible. Look at Matthew 9, 36. 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. Then saith he, Jesus Christ, unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few. Pray ye therefore the Lord of harvest, that he will send forth laborers into his harvest. He stops his disciples and, hey, I got a prayer request for you guys. Would you guys mind praying that the Lord of Harvest would send some laborers in? You know what it shows? It shows the Lord's heart. It shows that he wants to see people saved. And you know what, folks? You need to get this through your head that God is not interested in the 2024 election. He doesn't care about gas prices. You know what he cares about is people getting saved. That's what he's interested in. He's interested in his son being accepted. He's interested in his son's blood covering the multitude of sins and saving souls who are bound for hell. So you know what he does? He sends out men. And he sends out women. He sends out families to go out and reach souls for him. If there be any one point in which the Christian Church ought to keep its fervor at a white heat, it is concerning missions. If there be anything about which we cannot tolerate lukewarmness, it is in the matter of sending the gospel to a dying world. Now that's what we need to do. Now what I find incredible and mind-blowing is I've been a pastor here for going on a year. I've had one call from one missionary asking me for a meeting. One. And the whole time. And listen, when I was a missionary, and most of you know this, I was a missionary for almost five years, and I had to call pastors like these guys did to go get support. I remember calling one guy, and he got kind of frustrated with me, and I said, oh, brother, I'm not trying to be a pain. I said, the Lord's just called me to be annoying to pastors for a few years to raise money. And he laughed, and he goes, you're the 12th guy who's called me today. And I haven't had one. In fact, the only one that we actually have booked, it was through Brother Dominguez. He knew the guy. And the guy was coming back. He's not even a brand new missionary. He's been over there 25 years in Mexico. They're not going. They're not answering the call. You know why? Most of them are like this. The Lord couldn't get their attention if He wanted to. I've said it another time, and I mean it. He speaks in a still, small voice. And you have everything else just as loud and at a hundred as you can get in your life. Well, I'm busy with this, and I'm busy with this, and the kids gotta do this, and they gotta do this, and this sport, and this, and I gotta be in this activity, and this social media post, and I'm doing this. Well, the election's coming up, we gotta pay attention to that. We gotta get Trump back in. And the still, small voice of God's going, will you go? Will you go? Will you go do something for me? That means something in somebody's eternity. And say something for him. I read this prayer letter on Wednesday night. For some of you, I know you don't make it there yet, so I want to read this. This is from Joel Dare, our missionary to Brazil. Joel Dare is, I always joke, he's my third best friend. I got the Lord and my wife and then Joel Dare. This guy is a dear friend of mine. Here's what he says. A few weeks ago, my family and I traveled to a city a few hours away to shop for some things that are difficult to find in our city. We stopped in a cafeteria for some coffee, and a young woman named Anna gave us a nice compliment about our children. She was very excited when she heard we were Americans. She told us she has family who lives in the US, and this opened a door to start a conversation with her. Hey, that's good, that'll preach. You're looking for an open door to witness. She told me her life story which included several near-death experiences where she should have died. Can any of you do anything with that? If you were talking to somebody and they start talking about a near-death experience, could you take that and then lead them to Christ? That's an open door. I was able to use this as an open door, forgot he said that, to start witnessing to her. It's been a while since I've dealt with a person who is looking for truth. She told me that three days earlier, she'd prayed that if God wanted her to do something, that he would show it to her. And it was with great joy that we watched her bow her head and trust Jesus Christ as her Savior. Not only was it a great encouragement to my family, it was also a testimony to relate to the people at our church the next night. I want to train a church of soul winners, but sometimes it can get discouraging when you don't see results. It's always good to hear that there are still people out there that are actually looking for truth. Now listen, I'll be honest with you. I don't know that Americans are looking for much truth, but they're still looking for it in Africa. They're still looking for it in Brazil. Joe Dare's down there in Catholic-ridden Brazil, superstition running wild, still leading people to Christ. Brother Resmando, he's not one of our missionaries, but he's a friend of mine. He's over there. He's over there in the dark continent of Africa, there in Malawi with witch doctors and all that stuff, still finding souls, looking for some truth. Joel goes on to say, I was able to lead another man to the Lord on Saturday visitation. I went to the center of town to give out tracts and hopefully talk to someone. The Lord allowed me to meet a young man named Tiago who was sitting on a park bench. Praise the Lord. After hearing the witness, Tiago bowed his head and accepted Christ. That's what the Lord's interested in. He's interested in seeing souls saved and he wants to send some folks out. He doesn't want you to get comfortable in here. I know the potluck's nice. I know you like your family and all this stuff, and the Lord's going... Somebody gonna go? Someone gonna sacrifice? Now here's the second point. That was what a missionary is. Who's called to it? Well, look at 2 Corinthians chapter 5. In a practical sense, every single one of you are. 2 Corinthians chapter 5. Who's called to be a missionary? All of you. I didn't say all of you are called to sell everything and go to a foreign country, but you're all called to be a missionary. 2 Corinthians 5.20. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ as though God did beseech you by us. We pray you in Christ's stead be you reconciled to God. You're an ambassador. Do you know what an ambassador is? He's somebody that represents another country. You know, the old song says, this world is not my home, I'm just a passing through. And the Bible says over there in Hebrews, he likens those guys to strangers and pilgrims. That's what you are. You're a stranger and a pilgrim to this world. The moment you're saved, you have an eternal home and this place is not your home and you should not treat it as such. And so what you need to do is realize you're an ambassador. An ambassador is somebody who represents another king and the Lord's called you to do it. Another good Bible word for missionary is the word evangelist. Now we use that word kind of loosely. If we had Brother Spurgeon and he's a good preacher, he calls himself an evangelist. Well, he goes church to church to preach. He's not evangelizing. We've kind of used the word incorrectly. I'm not saying he's a good guy. I love him. But at the end of the day, evangelist is someone who evangelizes. It's in the word. And that's a man or a woman or a child that goes forth and evangelizes the lost. In the book of Acts, there's a deacon named Philip. And later on, the Bible calls him Philip the Evangelist. I thought he had to do the business. I thought he had to serve tables. He was an evangelist. And that's how the Lord calls regular people to be missionaries. And he was a soul winner, even though he had other things going on. In the book of Ephesians, you've got a list there, and in that list of people that are called to edify the church, one of them's called an evangelist. But then in 2 Timothy, you've got the bishop of Ephesus, Timothy, the pastor there, he's told to do the work of an evangelist. So I could get up here and I'm just going to edify you, I'm just going to take care of you, I'm just going to preach to you people, but I never tell anyone about Jesus Christ, I never go out and win the lost. I'm a terrible preacher. I'm a terrible pastor because I'm not doing the work of an evangelist. And you're supposed to be winning souls. Every single one of you. go down to the littlest little saved person in here, all the way to the oldest, you're supposed to be telling people about Jesus Christ. Now obviously I know it's a special calling of God to go to a foreign field, that's its own thing, but every person in here is called to go talk to somebody. Every Christian is either a missionary or an imposter. You will never make a missionary of the person who does no good at home. He that will not serve the Lord in the Sunday school at home will never win children to Christ in China. That's an old Charles Spurgeon quote right there. You know how they normally say, and I've heard it said many times and it fits, is why would somebody pick you up for support to send you across the ocean if you won't go across the street? If you won't go around the cubicle and talk to the co-worker there and talk to somebody. Look at Acts chapter 1. This is just real practical right now. Acts chapter 1, you're going to see the biblical way that missions are supposed to go. Acts chapter 1, Jesus Christ is about to ascend up into heaven. He's given his apostles and disciples there their final charge. Excuse me, Acts 1.8. But ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you. And ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, number one, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and in the uttermost part of the earth. Well, that's where they were. They were in Jerusalem. Those were Orthodox Jews around them. And then he goes, yeah, but then all Judea. So you're going to all the Jews, not just the Orthodox ones. And then eventually he says, and go to Samaria. Now for a real orthodox Jew, that would seem off. You want us to go to those half-breeds? Those ones that are half-Jew and half-Gentile? And the Lord goes, I'll take you a step further. Then the uttermost parts of the earth. Go the whole way. But you start at home. That's what you ought to do. You ought to start at home. It blesses my soul when somebody asks prayer for a relative. Because you're starting in your Jerusalem. But it doesn't stop there. And what a blessing that we can have some missionaries that we can just donate a little bit of money, put a little bit of prayer into their ministry so we can go into the uttermost parts of the earth. Now listen, the Lord is still calling Christians to be missionaries today. He's calling. And I'm hoping He's calling somebody this morning. The problem is Christians aren't answering. And God's still calling. And look at Isaiah chapter 6, a great passage, well-known passage. Isaiah chapter 6. And you've got the vision here of Isaiah and he's about to, it's almost like he's getting a visual of heaven there. Isaiah 6 and we'll read a few verses. Isaiah 6 verse 1. 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." Now listen, don't just read the words, put yourself in them for a minute. Imagine all of a sudden you're just sitting there and you look up and you see the throne of God. and it's taken up the entire space before you. And imagine what this would be like. Verse 2, Above it stood the seraphims, each one had six wings. So here are some angelic beings. They're not angels, but these are some celestial beings there. 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. Then said I, woe is me, for I am undone. That's what happens when a man really gets close to the Lord. He starts going, oh, woe is me. because I'm 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, then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar. And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips, and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged. 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. And he said, Go." Now folks, what you have right there is one of the greatest passages in your whole Bible on how the Lord is going to deal with you. Now here's Isaiah, and he's up there, and whether he's in heaven or just given a vision of it, he's there enough that he's seeing it, and there's something supernatural going on, and the Lord is going, Who's going to go and say something for me? Who's going to talk? And Isaiah doesn't step back and go, the cherubims are right there. The angels, what about the angels? They know your glory better than I ever will. He just goes, I'm available. I'm looking at you, and you've done so much for me. You've cleansed me of my iniquity. And you're giving me a chance to do something? Here am I. Send me. And all through the Bible, the Lord calls for men, and that's how they respond. They say, here am I. Over there in Genesis 22, you have Abraham, and he's about to have to take his son Isaac up to sacrifice him. And the Lord says, Abraham. And he says, here I am. Takes him up there, and he's about to take that knife and plunge it into the chest of his kid there. And the Lord steps up and goes, hold on, Abraham. I see that you're willing to do whatever I said. I see that you love me more than yourself. Abraham! And he turns and he goes, here am I. Same response either way. Jacob says, here am I. Moses goes up to the burning bush and he says, Moses out of that burning bush and he says, here am I. God speaks to Samuel there in 1st Samuel 3 and he says, speak Lord, thy servant heareth. Now listen, the Lord's still calling. He's still calling men and women and families and children to go. And in a church this size, I know the Lord could call someone right here. You know why? Because He called me. I was sitting right over there. I'll give you a little bit of a testimony of mine, if you don't mind me taking a few minutes here. I went down to PBI when I was 19, and I went down, I knew I was called to preach, that's all I knew. And I go down there, and they start teaching me that book, and the way that PBI is, you go four hours a night, from Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, your first year. And it's just Bible, Bible, Bible. And I started noticing changing. I started something just started cleansing my heart and cleansing my mind. I started thinking different, just getting that book put in me. And one night, I'm sitting in class. I was sitting right about there. And Brother Donovan's up here teaching. And the Holy Spirit came down. He sat right next to me. And he said, I need someone to go. And I bowed my head. And I said, ooh. Here am I, Lord, send me. And I remember Katie and I had just started dating. And we hadn't been together but for a few months. And I finished up class, and she was sitting in her car. And now that I think about it, I came down. It was almost like a proposal. I came right up to that window, and I kneeled down like this. And she's smiling ear to ear like she does when she sees me. And I kneeled down. And I said, Katie, I got to talk to you about something. I said, uh. I just feel like I need to let you know before we go any further that I think the Lord might be calling me to the mission field." And I remember, you know, she claps. You know what I'm talking about? And she said, I've always wanted to be a missionary. I've always wanted the Lord to call me to it. And I said, okay. And then some time goes by there, and I remember she got cancer. And just as strong as the Holy Spirit put that pressure on me to surrender to the call, as soon as she had cancer and we started heading through that storm, He just took that pressure right off me. So kind of Him. He knew I couldn't deal with that pressure going through that thing. And we go through that time with her cancer, and we ended up graduating PBI. The Lord took care of that. And then we ended up up here. And it was over, it was like a full year before anything happened. And I was sitting right about there. And we had a missionary up here preaching, and he got right here in Isaiah chapter 6, and he said, the Lord's looking for one man. He's looking for somebody to go. And I came up, and I knelt right here. And I said, here my Lord, send me. I'll go. And I remember it was another six months of prayer and putting some time into that thing that the Lord finally gave us clear direction that we were going to go to Scotland. And we had to spend some time, a couple years, raising support. And we ended up over in that place. And that was a bunch of atheists and some of that hardship. And then pretty soon, the Lord started giving us some souls. I remember having an idea of what the Scottish people were like until we ran into some Christians that were Scottish. Some people started joining our church, some of the sweetest folks I've ever known, some of my favorite people I'll ever know in my whole life. Can't wait to get up to glory and spend a bunch of time with them. I remember the first time going out street preaching with Brother Volgopol, very first time going out, and he's up there standing on this thing, open air preaching, women coming up and screaming at him, and I'm trying to divert traffic and keep him away so he can keep preaching, and a young man comes up to me and says, man, this is crazy what you guys are doing. Give him a gospel track. I said, you ever been saved? He goes, I don't think I have. I said, would you like to be saved? and lead a young man named Sean. First time ever going out. I remember the second time ever going out. We're going out on the street there in Glasgow, and there's literally hundreds and thousands of people going by, getting out tracks to him, and Katie's sitting there by the Bible stand, and a girl comes up to her and says, I'm just looking for some light. And Katie goes, I can show you the light. Jesus is the light and leads that girl to Christ. And the Lord allowed us to be missionaries there for almost five years. And I remember after the Lord made it so clear that we had to come back and dad was going home and the Lord was opening up this position for me to take, I remember I was in Scotland right before we left. and we had led Maria to the Lord. And Maria had been saved for about a year and just growing like a weed and we had her with us and we're going through the parking lot of a grocery store there and I'm waiting for them to come back and I'm looking in my rear view mirror and they're chasing this old lady down giving her a gospel track. And Maria gives her the track and ends up bringing her over to me. I'm just sitting in my truck with the window down. I couldn't even really see her that well. I kept looking at her in the rear view mirror, my side mirror there, and I'm watching tears coming down her eyes as she accepts the Lord as her Savior. The Lord's still calling people. He's calling somebody, maybe even here today. And the Lord calls for folks. He's called somebody from this church before. I wonder if He'll do it again. And maybe it is one of you kids. Maybe it's a teenager. Maybe you can give your life to Christ early. You say, just even as a kid? Well, back in the 1800s in a small church in southern Scotland, there was a There was a preacher standing before a small congregation and he preached on missions and he pleaded and he begged for someone to answer the call. And he preached his heart out and preached that there's got to be somebody that'll go tell the lost world how to be saved. And as the sermon closed, he gave an altar call, called for somebody to come. And a little boy, about four years old, came up and got down and prayed. And that preacher was just kind of disappointed. Not disappointed in the boy, disappointed in the crowd there. And he looked out there and he looked down at that boy and he looked out at the crowd and he said, is it only this wee boy that comes down to surrender today? He didn't know who that wee boy was going to grow up to be. He grew up to be Robert Moffat. And that missionary went down to Africa. He spent 52 years down there leading souls to Christ. He only did one furlough in 52 years. He was the guy that got David Livingston down there. He was the man that literally saw hundreds of missionaries come down because of his call. Came down at four years old and surrendered. Is this just this wee boy? I guess that guy didn't think of the verse, don't despise the day of sorrow, despise the day of small things. And you ought to come down today and at least surrender to it. Now listen, I surrendered when I was 19. The calling was not the enabling. I was called to it, but I didn't learn enough. I didn't grow enough. It took years before I was ready. But if you got anything in you at all that's pulling, you better Come down and tell them, I'm here. I'll go. Back in the 1700s, Zinzendorf was a preacher over there in Europe. He was an evangelist and he sent out missionaries by the scores. And old Zinzendorf was traveling there one time and he came across Greenland. And he saw that the place just didn't have a single missionary, any preacher. And when he got back to Europe with his guys, he sat down and he said, I was just at this place and they need a missionary real bad. Who will go? And one of the man says, I'll go, where is it? Can you get something from that? Didn't even know where it was. I'm not saying that he didn't need to learn, but I don't even care. I'm ready to go. He went to another time. He's found a place that didn't have any missionaries. And he went to one of his guys there, a whole bunch of his guys, and says, there's a place. There's a place that needs a missionary. Who can go? And one man raises his hand and said, I'll go. And he said, how soon can you go? He goes, as soon as I can get my boots back from the cobbler, I'll go. Did you go that easily? You've got to sell a bunch of stuff. You've got to cut a bunch of ties and all that. What's holding you up from going? Now you ought to be thinking about that stuff. Now the third point here is why you should go. And it seems pretty obvious between pleasing the Lord and seeing lost people saved, there's no greater, higher calling. Millions have never heard of Jesus. We ought not to ask, can I prove that I ought to go? But can I prove that I ought not to go? One time our missionary, Joel Dare, he went into a prison he was preaching at and he got to dealing with this guy and ended up leading the man to Christ and afterwards that man said, I've been praying all week that God would send me somebody that could tell me how to be saved. Is that enough of a reason for you? To surrender and go tell somebody? Why you should go is there's still souls out there searching. You know, right now, I'm praying and thinking about this thing with Maria and she's got something like 11 people over there looking for a missionary to come talk to them. The laborers are few, but there's still fields out there. Pray that the Lord of Harvest will send somebody. When I was in PBI, one of the things they do in those classes is they pull out this old giant TV and they pull the thing up and it had an old VHS player and Brother Donovan puts in a tape. They took a camera when they went over to visit a missionary of theirs in Thailand. He was a missionary to the leper colonies over there. And we watched that video, and I'm not kidding. I've never been grossed out and drawn to tears at the same time. It was such a weird experience. I'm watching this video, and I'm trying not to look and wiping away tears. And this, was it Brother Tillman? Is that his name? Brother Tillman had been over there all these years, and they say, well, how do you not catch the leprosy in those leper colonies? You're not in a first world country where you could get aid for it. He goes, just pray. I just pray I won't get it. goes through those leper colonies there, and he goes into a man's room, and that man's sitting on the bed, and he's missing his legs, the leprosy's just ate it all up, and he's missing all his fingers, he's just got nubs like this, his nose is rotted away, his ears are rotting away, he's got these big old glasses on like this. and what he had is bound to his hand he had a magnifying glass and he had a Bible and that guy's going like this literally turning the pages with his nubs and reading and going and pointing to God's words. You can't go. You can't go and tell somebody. They're looking for him. I've mentioned the missionary in here before, John Patton. He was the Scottish missionary from the 1800s, he went to the North Hebrides Islands there. I've told the story many times. He's a great man, a great missionary. I won't go into great detail. This wasn't in 2023. He went over there in 1858 to the Pacific Islands there to the cannibals. And he started trying to reach them with the gospel. Pregnant wife there, about 19 days after they arrived, she passes away. And right after she gave birth to the baby, it didn't take any time at all, and that baby died. And he buried him in the same grave that he dug with his bare hands. And then he had to sleep on the grave to keep the cannibals coming and digging her up. You can't tell your co-worker about Jesus Christ? You can't go talk to that family member after hearing something like that. He laid on that grave and he wrote these words, but for Jesus, I must have gone mad and died beside that lonely grave, but for Jesus. And that missionary spent the rest of his life fighting for those savage souls. And by the time his work was done, the entire island of cannibals professed Christ as their Savior. 33 years of threatenings and disease and heartache, he got to see the whole island come to Christ. That's why you should go. That's why you should be willing to go. John Patton, he ended up leading one of those tribal chiefs to the Lord. The guy was a complete cannibal. And he led this guy to Christ and the guy got saved and he ended up living a holy Christian life, and he led the whole tribe to live a holy Christian life. And years and years later, an English sociologist visited, an unsaved guy. He visited that tribe and he came to try to help them, you know, they needed help, you know. And he sat down and he saw one of those tribal people there reading a Bible, and the sociologist said, well, you know that Bible is just a myth, right? You know these missionaries are just using you, right? And the native pointed over to a big rock over to the side. He goes, you see that rock? Before the missionaries came, we used to take people like you, we'd beat their heads against that rock and eat them. You better be thankful for a missionary and a Bible. You ought to go because it changes lives. And more than that, it changes their eternity. In the book of Acts, Paul, he's talking about his hardships and the things that he's going through. It's trying to keep him from doing the ministry. And you know what he says? But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God." Do you know what he said? He goes, none of this stuff moves me. You know what's wrong with Christians? I could preach like this today and it won't move you. You know what moves you? Your parents telling you, no, no, no, don't go. You know how many missionaries haven't gone to the field? Because they had mothers hanging on to their coattails telling them not to go. You know how many missionaries didn't go because one of their spouses said, no, I'm not going to that place? Well, I guess I ought to obey men rather than God. And they don't go. What moves you when the still, small voice of God is saying, will you be willing to go? Would you surrender to go? Back in the 1800s, the American Baptist Foreign Mission Society was founded. And they started sending out missionaries across the world, but they had a seal. They had an emblem that embodied what a missionary should be. To this day, you can still find it. And this American Baptist Foreign Mission Society, their emblem was the picture of an ox at the center of the thing, standing between a plow and an altar. Not an altar like this, like an Old Testament altar where you would kill that thing and sacrifice it. And the ox was supposed to be a picture of the missionary and the plow symbolized work. And the altar symbolized sacrifice and over the top of the emblem it read, ready for either. Ready to work, ready to die, ready for either. American missionaries, they say, I'm not ready for either. American Christians, I don't want to do any of that stuff. I'll just get by. I've got a good family. We do the right stuff and we're clean. Just leave us alone." And the still small voice of God saying, would you at least surrender to it? Would you at least be willing to go? Now, I'm going to close with this illustration. I know some of you have heard it before, but it's been a while and I know some of you have never heard it. It's a true story. Over there in India there was an old missionary and he'd been over there I think 25 years. He's been over there preaching and he started having real bad health so the London Missionary Society, they sent a young missionary to help the old missionary out. And that old missionary started doing worse and worse and pretty soon he's just in a hut there dying of a fever in the jungle, and one day a letter comes in the mail to that young missionary, and that letter is a call back from the London Missionary Society. And they're saying, listen, I know you've been doing stuff there, I know that guy's been needing some help, but what we've got going on here, we really need you to come back because we'd like to vote you in as the president of our society here. We got a whole church for you, you can pastor, we got a whole, all this stuff. Come on back." And he sticks that letter in his pocket and just chews on it. And one day he's sitting in there with that old missionary. The old missionary can tell there's something wrong. He asked him, he said, hey, what's been bugging you, man? He goes, oh, nothing, nothing. And he says, no, no, no. I was born at night. It wasn't last night. Won't you show me? I don't know if he said that, but he said, go ahead. Let me see it. What do you got? He pulls out that letter and hands it to him. And the old missionary reads that letter, thinks about it for a minute. The young missionary goes, can I ask you something? He goes, yeah, shoot, go ahead. He goes, you've been out here 25 years, right? Yeah. You just got this little church of 55 people after 25 years? He goes, out there in that jungle there's a couple graves where you had to bury your wife and your kid, isn't that right? He goes, yeah. He goes, now you're sitting here in a hut, dying of a fever, about to go home. Yeah. He goes, listen man, I don't want to offend you. I know this is going to come across a little rude, a little inconsiderate, but I just got to ask you. Should I stay here? and continue on this tiny ministry with very little progress, very little fruit? Or should I go back, take the big church and the better opportunity? What do you think? The old missionary kind of sat back and thought for a minute. He goes, I think I got something that can help you. And as he sat there, it's almost like he started just talking to himself. He started picturing heaven there. The old missionary said, he goes, one of these days pretty soon I'm going to die. They're going to take me out there next to those graves and they're going to bury me. But my soul's not going there, it's going up. And I'm going to open my eyes for the first time in eternity and it's going to be unlike anything I could have imagined. I'm going to see those streets of gold. I'm going to see the Jasper walls, I'm going to see the angels, I'm going to see the saints that have gone before. And more than anything, I'm going to look up and see the Mount of God, and I'm going to see the light that's coming off that thing and go, I know that's where Jesus is, I've got to go see Him. And I'm going to head up that path. And as I go, I'm going to walk beside the crystal sea, and I'm going to go underneath the leaves of the tree of life. And an angelic figure is going to step out and stop me and say, good morning, sir. And I'll say, good morning. And she'll say, you don't really recognize me, do you? And I won't recognize her. She'll look way different than when I would have seen her all those years ago. And she's going to say, 25 years ago, I was an eight-year-old girl, and I was your first convert when you became a missionary here. I got somebody you've got to meet. I'm going to follow her up, and we're going to walk up there, and we're going to come into the throne room. That light's going to shine down, and Jesus Christ is going to come down, because you know he always would come down for a sinner. And he's going to step down there, and that girl's going to look at me, and look at him, and go, Jesus, Lord, this is the first man who ever introduced me to you, and I'd like to be the first one to introduce you to him. The old missionary looked up, kind of came out of the vision there and looked at him. He said, can you do anything with that? And the young missionary goes, all right, I'll stay. Does that answer your question? You see, one of these days, it's going to, all this lights and buildings and chairs and people, it's just all going to go away. And you're going to go somewhere where it's eternal, forever. The question is, you got any souls following you up there? You got a soul? One. You got one? You got five? You got somebody that could take you up to Jesus and go, this guy, this woman, this kid introduced me to you and I'd like to introduce you to them. You got anybody? You're called to go and tell somebody. Anybody. Every saved soul in here is called to go and tell. And maybe it is here. Maybe it's another land, but no matter where it is, I don't care if it's the coffee shop down the way, and I don't care if it's over there in Australia or Japan or where it is, you know where you're supposed to go? Right down to this altar and say, Lord, here am I, send me. Let's all stand