Once again, as I said, it's great to have the Mitchells with us, and I know Brother Jack has filled in the pulpit several times, and I think last time he had reminded me that I had messaged, you know, we need to meet sometime. And so, so thankful that he is here and that I'm able to meet him. And of course, does a lot of work in kind of the medical mission side and works very much with the Beeman's over there in Zambia who we have supported for years and years and years. And so looking forward to what he has from God's Word. And so, Brother Jack, you come and share, or well, after Andrew, sorry. Brother Jack, you come and share what the Lord has laid on your heart. Well, already I feel blessed about being here. Jennifer and I have been looking forward to our time with you all again. I don't remember, we were trying to figure out when the last time we were here. So I think my wife won out. But anyway, it's hard for us to remember these days what we've done. Somebody asked me a few weeks ago when I had gotten home from a trip to Greenville, South Carolina. And it was like on a Sunday they asked me that. And I could not remember that I had gotten home on Friday from that trip. So, I mean, we've been traveling so much lately, it's kind of gets kind of confusing. I'm thankful to meet your new pastor. Not so much new, but new to me. I'm thankful that God has provided for you in such a great way. Just remember, you know, when the Shofs were here and how God provided for that time and how he didn't want them to leave. And now God has provided for you again. Praise the Lord for how he takes care of us. And, um, and I just praise the Lord for your patience during the whole time. It's been, uh, it was a long time, um, in between. So praise the Lord. And, uh, again, we're, we're thankful, um, for, um, your prayers for us. Several have asked about our daughter. She's, uh, right now, uh, doing well. She's, she's had some cancer surgery and chemo, uh, issues and, uh, If you think of her, you can pray for her on Tuesday. She has a CAT scan, actually two of them, I think, to check to see how things are going. Hopefully everything will be clear. But she does have an issue with whatever she has to take before the scan tends to make her sick. So if you think of that, You can pray for her on Tuesday. It's been a trial for her, but we're thankful for how God has blessed. She finished her chemo and everything was clear. She had a PET scan and such. So we're trusting the Lord will keep things going in that direction. For us, we had a busy summer with the Beeman's in Zambia, actually my wife. was not able to go in May. We had trips in May and July. Unfortunately, well, fortunately, we were supposed to celebrate our 50th anniversary there in Zambia in May. Our anniversary was in June. But we were going to celebrate it in May by going to Victoria Falls. We've been to Zambia so many times. We've never been to Victoria Falls. And we were going to do it for our anniversary. And at the last minute, actually a couple of days before we left, My wife had to stay home to help out with our daughter. But in July, she came with us, and thankful for that. She's my number one assistant. I'm kind of lost without her. So I'm really thankful that she was able to be a part of that trip in July. We feel like we're still recovering from that, although it's been several weeks now. And Lord willing, we'll be going to Micronesia Coming up in September, not too far, September 9th I think we leave. Many of you probably don't know where Micronesia is, but I think we'll get there all right. It's not far from Guam, if you know where Guam is, and that's a little bit above Australia. We'll be on a small island called Chuuk, C-H-U-U-K. I'm sure you've all heard of that. Some of you older folks probably heard of it by the name of Truk and the Truk Lagoon. During World War II, actually soon after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, the U.S. responded by attacking the Japanese fleet in the Truk Lagoon. And today, there are still about 60 or so Japanese vessels in the truck lagoon at the bottom of the lagoon that U.S. sunk there. And as a result, it's one of the top 10 places in the world to go scuba diving. We won't be doing that, but we'll be on that island of Chuuk. There's a young missionary family there. Chuuk is a very sparsely dark place. It's been on our hearts to get back there. We've been there a few times in the past, not since 2018. During the COVID situation, no one was allowed in or out of those islands for, I think, two or three years. And so now we're planning to go back. So appreciate prayer for that. It's coming too fast. It's a couple of weeks away now and still a lot to do, but thankful for the opportunity. In November, we'll be going to Mexico. We've been to the eastern, southeastern part of Mexico the last few years. We've had to adjust that trip a little bit because of the drug cartel issues there. I was just reading yesterday, one of the missionary pastors that we work with there had a post about his city where he had been ministering. He's had to leave. because of the drug cartels and they're actually forcing people to, the average person, to block off roads so people can't get in and out of those cities. The drug cartels are coming into people's homes and actually dragging them out and putting them in the center of streets to block the roads for people. We won't be going there, but we'll be in a little bit north of that where hopefully it is safe. So appreciate prayer for that in November. And then in January, Lord willing, we're planning to go back to Israel, which I will share with you a little bit more during the message here. We were there in February. of this year, so I appreciate prayer for just the Lord's working there. Hopefully, things will calm down before then, but I've been saying that for months, so things seem to be escalating day by day, so I appreciate prayer for that. Just in singing the last song I will follow, I was just caught by the chorus, I rest in the Trust in the, I place my life in thy hands. More and more these days with the situation in the world, that last phrase, I place my life in thy hands, has become more of a reality to us. And we really trust the Lord for his protection and guidance along the way. We're thankful again that the Lord has allowed us to continue in ministry Not only did we have our 50th anniversary in June, but in May, I turned 74. My wife, she's so much younger, but I turned 74 in May, and I just can't believe it that the Lord has allowed us to continue in ministry, travel the way we are traveling, at this stage in my life. It's just amazing to me. Now, I can't get out of bed in the mornings, and I, you know, But I mean, it's just really a testimony to God's grace. And we have no plans to retire or stop. Although, a couple of weeks ago, maybe a month ago now, I was sitting, well, you know how much I love an in-ground pool. I really hate it. But I was sitting by my pool about a month ago. And I'm thinking, wow, this would be kind of nice to, you know, day after day, just kind of sit around. But then I said, I would never be able to do that. God has not wired me that way. So thankful again for the Lord allowing us to continue. The glasses, we have been giving out reading glasses for years in our ministry. And people overseas, they really, next to teeth, I think glasses are the other neglected thing. don't have any opportunity to really to get glasses, eyeglasses, either for reading or for general vision. But up till now, we haven't been able to do the regular vision glasses, prescription glasses, we'll say. But in these days, there are some things, some machines that have become available in a portable way. And we have what we call a lens meter where we can read the prescription of Prescription glasses you just put the glasses in this thing and it prints out what the prescription is And so that's why we're collecting glasses To try to be able to give out prescription eyeglasses to people Sometimes people come for the reading glasses. They think it's going to help their their general vision but it doesn't so Now there's also another machine, it's called an auto-refractor. Now I'm a dentist, I know a little bit about glasses, but this machine, auto-refractor, it actually, it looks like a gun, you put it up to a person's eyes and it actually reads the prescription. You've done this when you've gone to the eye doctor, you sit in the thing and he looks in your eyes. So this machine reads it automatically and so, We are trusting the Lord that we'll be able to purchase at least one of those. We'd like to get more, if we can, to have them in different places around the world. But we have a woman that's going to be trained in how to use that machine. And so, Lord willing, in May of next year, when we go to Zambia, we're going to have these prescription glasses, red and marked what they are. We use the auto-reflector on the field and match up the person with the glasses. Pray for that. That will bring a number of people into the ministry to hear the gospel. That's the bottom line with this is to effectively minister to more people in a spiritual way. So if you think of that, you can pray about that whole project. So thankful again for the opportunity to be here. I did have a PowerPoint prepared. But it's sitting at my desk at home. And we were about half an hour along our way here. And I realized that I was more involved with the dog than with my PowerPoint. So I think I probably shared with you two things I never wanted. One was an in-ground pool, the other was a dog. The Lord has a wonderful sense of humor and has given us both. So, yeah, it's an interesting life we have now. But anyway, I think you'll get the picture without pictures. I want to share with you really about our ministry in February of this year. Although the ministry in Zambia both times, May and July, was exceptional. And between the two, almost 2,000 people heard the gospel during those ministries. And what a blessing that is to see. And even we had a few of our teammates that had opportunities to share the gospel with people, and people responded to them. So that doesn't happen often because of language issues, but we're thankful for that. But anyway, really in February, the ministry that we had to Israel, God really used that in my life to just kind of cement some spiritual application in my life that really is a help to me as I go day to day trying to decide where the Lord would have us to go and try to assess different things. So I'm going to pray and then we'll look at some thoughts regarding that. Father, thank you again for your goodness to us, each of us. Thank you that we all could be here today to worship you. Thank you for this church and its desire to serve locally and to be a testimony and a light in this local area and also the desire to see the gospel go around the world through their support of missions and missionaries. We pray that you will continue to bless the ministry here and McNeil's as well. Thank you again for working in each one of our lives and how you direct our steps. Pray that you would guide our time now this morning, and that you would encourage us through your word today. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. So this is kind of a practical message. I hope it really encourages you, as it has me. And I title it on paper here, what to do when the door for ministry appears closed. What to do when the door for ministry appears closed. So that's my spiritual title. My practical title is, What to do when you don't know what to do. So that's kind of what we want to look at today. What to do when you don't know what to do. I think probably most of you have had times in your lives when you didn't know what to do. You didn't know which direction to go. You didn't know where God was leading you. or where you should go to school, who you would marry, all those different things that come up in our lives, the practical things that we go through in our lives. I went through that. What to do when somebody offers you a dog? Should you take it or not? Unfortunately, I made the wrong decision there. I took the dog, but I didn't know these verses then. Not really, but what to do when you don't know what to do? So we were planning this trip. I'll let you in a little, pull the shades back a little bit on what happens with us when we're in between trips. People often ask us that. Well, what do you do when you're not traveling overseas? As if we're just sitting at home by the pool, you know? But we were planning a trip for February to actually the West Bank of Israel, the West Bank. We had been to the West Bank a couple of years before that. And the Lord opened a huge door for us to have ministry in the northern part of the West Bank. So if you're looking at Israel, map of Israel, kind of the West Bank is what we would look at in our Bibles as Samaria. A big chunk of the West Bank is biblical Samaria. So on a map of Israel, Nazareth is kind of at the top underneath Galilee, that area, the top of Israel. And then Bethlehem, Jerusalem is kind of towards the bottom of Israel. Now there's more of Israel below that, and there's more of Israel above Nazareth. But the area of the West Bank is kind of between Nazareth and Bethlehem. Bethlehem is actually, in the West Bank, Nazareth is not. It's a little bit above it. So, and I can't remember the date, but anyway, a few years ago, we were in the northern part of the West Bank. There's a Baptist pastor and his wife there. They have a very small church in the northern part of the West Bank and a little town there. It's actually in the West Bank. which is predominantly Palestinian Muslims. But this town that this pastor in, he actually grew up in this town, it's a Christian town. It's not a born-again Christian town, but it's a Christian town, a lot of Orthodox people, a lot of Roman Catholic people. And so in the middle of the West Bank, it's kind of an isolated area, more Christians than, well, I shouldn't say that, it used to be. 70% Christian and 30% Muslim. Today, it's the opposite, 70% Muslim, 30% Christian. And so, but it's described as a safe place to be. So that's where we went a few years ago. And during that time, in this safe place to be, an Israeli tank was going through the city. just off the street where our hotel was and Palestinians were starting to shoot at it and different things. And so the Israelis responded by two explosive smoke bombs and gunfire. Now this was at 430 in the morning. We were sort of asleep at the time and woke up to that. We could definitely hear it, two explosions and then gunfire. So I texted the man we were working with, two men, the pastor and another man. I texted them and I said, hey, there's gunfire here. And one response was, oh no, it's probably just fireworks. But it wasn't. It was gunfire. But it only lasted that long. And the owner of the hotel actually was a Roman Catholic, a family owns the hotel. The owner of the hotel we were staying in said to us, oh, don't worry, this happens all the time. And now, I mean, that's fine for them, but it's not fine for me. And this doesn't happen all the time for me. But they are used to that kind of thing, unfortunately. But we're thankful that's all it was. And we had no other issues there. Now the northern part of the West Bank right now is a hotbed of terrorism. And unfortunately we cannot go there anymore, now anyway. I see it regularly in the news, a city called Janine. There's a, it's a kind of, they call it a refugee camp, but it's actually, you know, apartment buildings and such, but it's just kind of walled off. It's a refugee camp. But Israeli Army attacks it regularly because the terrorists congregate in that area. So that was pretty close to where we were having ministry. So we don't go there anymore. So we were planning ministry. actually to go back there in February because in between trips, there was no major problem up there. So we were planning to go there. And we were planning for almost a year, okay. So it takes about a year, probably I would say nine months to a year to plan a trip. And so right now we're planning, as I mentioned, several trips. We're planning the trip to Micronesia. We're planning the trip to Mexico. We're planning the trip back to Israel. Actively doing things regarding all of those trips. And so we were planning to go back in February to this location. And then October 7th happened. So October 7th, 2023. was when the war started, the attack in the area of Gaza. And so we were a little bit concerned about that. But we thought, okay, this is going to blow over. And so we kept on planning. And obviously, it wasn't blowing over. It was, you know, getting more and more, becoming more and more active. And even today, it's extremely active. I read in the news this morning that Israel attacked southern Lebanon in response to a number of missiles that were fired from southern Lebanon into Israel. So things are not calming down over there. But we know the Lord is still at work. So anyway, so we were continuing to plan thinking that things are going to calm down. But they weren't calming down. And it came down to about two days, actually, before we were supposed to fly to Israel. before we decided whether to go or not. And so that's why I say, what do you do when you don't know what to do? We just did not know what to do, whether we should go or not. There were six of us going, my wife and I and two other couples. And so what do you do when the door for ministry appears to be closed? Now we've planned, I don't know how many ministries we've planned over the years. Somebody asked me, how many trips have you gone on recently? I have no idea. I think it's between 90 and 100. I don't know. I'm not a person that keeps track of things. I just try to go day by day and do what the Lord wants. And they say, how many people have you treated? I have no idea. And so on. However, a lot of times we plan trips. And they don't happen for various reasons. The doors close. And so that's a common thing, you know, with this kind of ministry. We plan things up to a point, and then sometimes the door closes. So in this case, this was not unusual that we were seeing, you know, maybe the door is closing here. And so from my perspective, as the one that's trying to do this ministry, how do I know How do I know if the door is closed? And so in this situation, the war wasn't stopping. It was getting worse. And I'm thinking, OK, the door is closed. But I really felt strongly that God was leading us to go back to the West Bank. And so I just did not know what to do. And I'm thinking, OK, from a Bible, from a biblical point of view, what could be the cause or the reason for a door to ministry being closed? What could be the reason for that? And I came up with two reasons for that. One, it's either God or it's the devil. It's either God or it's the devil. Look in Acts chapter 16. Acts chapter 16. You know, the Apostle Paul, he had a lot of journeys, different places, several missionary endeavors. And he went from place to place to place. How did he know where to go? And so in Acts chapter 16, we see one of these times when Paul was planning to go a certain direction, and it changed. And so we're going to just kind of jump in in the middle of chapter 16 in the Book of Acts, verse 6. It says, now when they, this is Paul and Silas, when they had gone throughout Phrygia and the region of Galatia and were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia, after they were come to Mycenae, they assayed to go into Bithynia. But the spirit suffered them not. So their plan was to go to Bithynia. But the spirit suffered them not. Now, it doesn't say what the spirit did. I mean, how this happened, how they knew that they couldn't go this way. The spirit suffered them not. And they, passing by Mycenae, came down to Troas. And a vision appeared to Paul in the night. There stood a man of Macedonia and prayed him, saying, come over unto Macedonia and help us. seen the vision, immediately we endeavored to go into Macedonia, assuredly gathering that the Lord had called us for to preach the gospel unto them." So they were sure at one point to go to Asia. And they were going into Bithynia. They were sure that that was the way to go, but for some reason the Holy Spirit changed. And they were not able to go that way. And then, verse 10, after they had seen the vision, immediately we endeavored to go into Macedonia, assure the gathering that the Lord had called us for to preach the gospel unto them. What this showed me was the importance of being filled with the Spirit. Filled with the Spirit. I mean, personally, I just need, you know, as we're planning trips, I need to be sure that I'm doing what God wants me to be doing. Sometimes, well, let me just say, don't tell anyone this, but let me just say, Micronesia, I love going to Micronesia. Why? the beaches. I mean, it's just, this is the Pacific, you know, the Pacific, I mean, these island beaches, I mean, this is a place to go. Well, it's not quite like that, but I mean, it is like that with the beaches and all, but that's not why we go. But sometimes there are places in the world that I have a preference to go to. And there's some places that I have a preference not to go to. But I've been to both of those places. I need to be filled with the Spirit in order to know where does God want me to go. I mean, in my everyday life, in your everyday life, you're praying to God, God show me, should I marry this person? Should I go to this school? Should I move to this place? Should I attend this church? All these different things come up in our lives. We need to be filled with the Spirit. It's the Spirit within us that God communicates with us through. And it was the Holy Spirit who showed Paul not to go to Bithynia, but to go to Macedonia. And he had quite a ministry there. So sometimes it's God. It's the Holy Spirit that is closing the door, closing the door to ministry. But sometimes it's the devil. Sometimes it's the devil. 1st Thessalonians chapter 2. 1st Thessalonians chapter 2. Same Paul here. 1st Thessalonians chapter 2. There in verse 17 and 18, again, we're jumping kind of in the middle. He's talking to the people in Thessalonica and he says in verse 17, But we brethren, being taken from you for a short time in presence, not in heart, endeavored the more abundantly to see your face with great desire. Wherefore, we would have come unto you, even I, Paul, once again, but Satan hindered us." Satan hindered us. And again, it doesn't explain here how Satan hindered them. And so that's the other thing that we need to be thinking about. Personally, myself, I need to be thinking about that. In this case, we're a couple of days from deciding whether to go or not. And I'm just praying, God, I feel sure you've led us this far in this ministry. And I don't have a real peace about just saying no. But at the same time, if God doesn't want me in a place, I don't want to be there. But sometimes it's God directing. Sometimes it's Satan hindering. So we need to be sensitive to that. And so I came up with, in my mind, OK, how can I assess which way to go? How can you assess what to do when you don't know what to do? And I was reading. As I was thinking through this, I was reading in my Bible one day in Isaiah. Isaiah chapter 37. So let's go to Isaiah chapter 37. And I've read this section in the Bible before, and I'll explain that a little bit in a few minutes. But Isaiah chapter 37, we're jumping again into the ministry of the King Hezekiah. You know Hezekiah was actually one of the better kings of Israel, Judah. And so Hezekiah had a tremendous ministry. And actually God gave him 15 more years of ministry as he prayed to God. But at this particular time, in chapter 37 of the book of Isaiah, Hezekiah and the people of Israel, or Judah, were being attacked by the Assyrians. And they were pretty vocal about what they were trying to do. And they were sending letters to the king and the people of Judah telling them, Hey, don't listen to your King Hezekiah. No one has been able to stop us. And he's telling you, you know, that God is going to help you. Well, don't listen to that, they're telling them. And they even pleaded with this king, don't write it in a language that the people can understand. We don't want to discourage the people. But Hezekiah, he wasn't sure what to do. And so in Isaiah 37, verse 14, And Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers, and read it. And Hezekiah went up unto the house of the Lord, and spread it before the Lord. He spread the letter before the Lord. And Hezekiah, verse 15, prayed unto the Lord. We'll look at what he says in a few minutes. But Hezekiah spread the letter. before the Lord. And I read that several years ago. I was trying to decide. We had a major decision to make, my wife and I, a major decision. Do you ever have a major decision that you need to make? I mean, we all have decision times in our life. We had a major decision to make, and I did not know what to do. I did not know what to do. I read this passage during that time. And you know what I did? I spread the letter on the floor. I didn't have a letter, though. I spread paper on the floor. This is my imagination. I spread paper on the floor. I said, Lord, I don't know what to do. And I was like Hezekiah. Lord, show me what to do. Show me what to do. I mean, that is our avenue, isn't it? Between God and us is prayer. When we don't know what to do, the first thing we need to do is pray, right? That's the first thing. Oftentimes, it's the last thing we do, or the middle thing we do, or whatever. But pray. We need to be praying about what to do. I confess, I don't pray enough. But we need to be. We need to be praying and asking God, God, I need help with this decision. This is a major decision in my life. I need help. You think of God. God wants us to pray, doesn't he? The Bible says what? Pray without ceasing. God wants us to pray. He wants us to bring these things before him. And, you know, I just thought of that. I had this thought, as it were, looking at this, I had this thought, if God wants us to pray, if God wants to help us in these decisions, it's not like we're going to pray to him and he's going to say, oh, I'm not going to answer this prayer. He's never going to say that. He's never going to say, I'm not going to answer this prayer. So why don't we pray more? Why don't we pray more? He wants to help us. He wants to direct us. The power of prayer. So when we don't know what to do, remember the power of prayer. Remember the power of prayer. The other thing, in my particular case, I had to remember, I had to be reminded of the spiritual battle. There is a spiritual battle. If you're trying to do something for the Lord, The devil does not want you to be doing it. Right? The devil does not want you to be doing it. You know Ephesians chapter 6. You know Ephesians chapter 6. You may not think you know it, but you know Ephesians chapter 6, because that talks about what? The armor of God. The armor of God. Ephesians chapter 6. Now, let me try to find that in my Bible. Ephesians chapter 6. We don't have to go through the armor of God. We'll go just in the beginning here. It says, finally brethren, verse 10, Ephesians chapter 6, finally my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. And we have a strong, powerful God on our side, don't we? A strong, powerful God who wants us to pray, who wants us to serve him, who wants us to do things, and he wants us to be understanding of this. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against what? The wilds of the devil. The wilds of the devil. Have you ever run across the wilds of the devil? A few years ago, we were in Zambia. We were in a particular village. Actually, it was the village that we were in in July. We were in this village. No, that's not true. I can't remember what village we were in. But anyway, we were in a village in Zambia, and Todd Beeman said to me, we get there, we're setting up our stuff, and we're just, two of us are sitting watching everybody else work. We're just sitting there. And he said to me, you know, this is probably the most spiritually dark village that I've taken you to. And I'm like, well, thank you. But he said, there's a witch doctor who lives just over here. And that witch doctor has really control over a lot of the people in this village. Now, it's very rare for any of us to run into a witch doctor, right? But he said, this witch doctor has a lot of control here. And so, as we usually do, before we start our ministry, we have someone present the gospel to the people that are waiting. And for some reason, among those people waiting to see a doctor or dentist is who? The witch doctor. The witch doctor. Now, people go to this witch doctor for healing. And here, the witch doctor comes to see a doctor. I mean, does that make any sense? No. But anyway, there's the witch doctor. And so, Todd Beeman, he tells a couple of his men there to confront this witch doctor with the gospel. Make it a point to share the gospel with this man. And they did. And that witch doctor told Todd Beeman, That one day, he said to him, you will fear me. One day you will fear me. And the response from Pastor Beeman, which it should be our response, is greater is he that is in me than he that is, what, in the world. God is more powerful than the devil, than any witch doctor. So here we are. The witch doctor is there. He's hearing the gospel. I'm standing over here with my wife and a doctor, one of the doctors with us. All of a sudden, my wife is on the ground, passed out. No prior issues. She's on the ground. It turned out she was in kidney failure. We didn't know it for days afterwards, but she was not getting any better. Did the witch doctor have anything to do with that? I don't know. I can't tell you yes. I can't tell you no. I can tell you it was certainly a coincidence. She was getting sicker and sicker, and they wanted to put her in the hospital there in Zambia, but I'm like, there's no way. She's never going to come out of that hospital. She goes in it. And so we just tried to do the best we could until we could get her home. And as soon as we got home, guess what? She started getting better. She started getting better. We did see a doctor here in the States, kidney specialist, gave her some medicine. He said, I don't know what happened. He said, I think maybe you had an allergic reaction to some medicine you were taking. But he said, I don't know. I don't know what happened. Today, she has no issues with her kidneys. We are in a spiritual battle. We are. All of us are. And the more you try to do and serve the Lord, the stronger the conflict is. The devil does not want you serving the Lord. We need to be aware of this. So we put on the armor of God, why? Verse 12, for we wrestle or we battle, not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. There is a spiritual battle. So we need to be reminded of that. I needed to be reminded of that as I'm preparing to go to the West Bank of Israel, Palestinian Muslims. Does the devil want me to go there? No, he does not want me to go there. So I'm thinking, okay, God, is this you or the devil? What is going on here? So then I have to be reminded of the sovereignty of God. Who is in control? Who is in control? Is it the devil or is it God? Who is in control today when the world, even our country, seems out of control? I can't believe the things that are going on in our country today. I mean, I'm old. I grew up when none of this was issues. I mean, unbelievable things going on in our country today. But who is in control? God is still in control. We have to always come back to that in our lives and in our country. I mean, we can be so distressed. We can be so distressed. You know people, you know people, maybe you're one, you know people who they're watching the news all the time, all the time. And what is common among those people? They're scared to death. They're scared to death. There wasn't the news. And the news is so distressing if you're a Christian. But God is in control. God is in control of what is going on. And I had to turn to that in my trying to figure this thing out. What should we do? And I'm talking almost daily to one of the men that we're working with to set that trip up. and continuing to set up the trip for this year. I need to be reminded of the sovereignty of God. Daniel chapter 2, let's look at that. Daniel chapter 2. Daniel chapter 2, verse 20. Daniel answered and said, okay, again, we're jumping into the middle of Daniel's ministry, but he answered and said, blessed be the name of God forever and ever. For wisdom and might are his. And he changes the times and the seasons. He removeth kings and setteth up kings. He gives wisdom unto the wise and knowledge to them that know understanding." God is the one in control. He sets up kings. He removes kings. That's something for us to remember as the election comes up. God is the one. He sets up kings. He removes kings. God is in control. We have to understand and not lose sight of that fact. We all are praying for the Lord to come and take us to be with Him, right? We all, well, I hope we're all praying that, you know, that God will come and take us. But we know, we should know from our Bibles that leading up to that, the world is not going to get better, right? It's going to get worse and worse. So as the world is getting worse and worse, we think, we have to think, God is working out his plan. He's working out his plan. So with me, I'm thinking, okay, God, you're in charge of this. I need to know, I need to know what you want me to do. And I need to understand nothing, nothing is impossible with God, nothing. Did you hear that? Nothing, nothing is impossible with God, nothing. Years ago, I don't have much time, but years ago, my son, he was praying. God, he's 20 something, I don't know, 24, 23, I don't know. He didn't have a girlfriend. He's gone through college, Christian college, no girlfriend, nothing. He's never going to get married. Never. That's what he said. Never going to get married. He's praying, God, help me in this situation. What do I do? So we had a guest speaker at our church. And this guest speaker, part of his message was, when you're praying, when you don't know what to do, and you're praying to God to show you what to do, be prepared for God to answer your prayer in an unusual way. That's what this man said. The next day, the next day, this man came up to my son and he said, he met him, he talked with him a little bit, he realized he didn't have a girlfriend or anything. He said, I have someone for you. How many times have you heard that? You know, I have someone for you, but you know what? That someone for him turned out to be his wife. God can answer our prayers in an unusual way. We need to be ready for that. Ready for it. I was not ready for the way God answered this prayer, though. I'm praying, God, we want to go to the West Bank. I don't know what to do here. We've got to decide right now. I got an email. I got an email from one of the men we're working with. He lives in Israel. He attends a Bible-believing church in Israel. He's connected with the ministry that we're working with. He sends an email to his dad, and his dad sends it on to me. And this man said, Would you consider coming to Israel, not the West Bank, would you consider coming to Israel to treat Chinese men? Now that is unusual. How many Chinese men do you think are in Israel? I mean, I would think maybe there's a handful. I mean, I don't know. Chinese men. You know what? Today, today there are 50,000 Chinese men in Israel. Because of the war, the Israeli men are fighting. Israel used to employ Palestinian Muslims from the West Bank. Once the war started, October 7th, canceled. No Palestinians can work in Israel today. So what did Israel just do? They cut off all the workers in Israel. They needed to allow visas to Chinese men. They're also now adding Indian men and Thai men into Israel. They are doing all the construction work today. They're on contract. two-year contract. So these Chinese men have come to Israel. They have no access to medical care, no access to dental care. That's how this man found out about it because one of the Chinese men had a toothache. And a lady, a Chinese lady in his church had to take this man to a dentist. And he found out through that experience that all of these men, they have no access to medical care. They don't want to spend any of their money on medical care because they're sending it all back to China. This population, he said, this is ideal for your kind of ministry. Would you consider coming? I said, yes. I mean, I did not even hesitate. I don't know why. I just felt I had been praying, God, what do I do? And I get this email. I'm like, that's it. We'll do it. We'll do it. You know, when we don't know what to do, we need to also be reminded of what? The faithfulness of God. I mean, we could do a whole message on any of these points, but the faithfulness of God. I was reminded of 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, verse 24. You know this verse, but I can never remember verses from memory standing up here. First Thessalonians 524. I'll read it to you. Faithful is he, it goes, faithful is he that has called you who also what? Who also what? Who also what? Faithful is he that calleth you who also will do it. Will do it. God's not going to call us to a ministry and leave us there. He's going to help us along the way. He's going to help you along the way in your Christian life. God is faithful. He's not going to leave you alone. I read another verse the other day in Isaiah. I'm reading through Isaiah again. Trusting my memory here to find it. Isaiah 42. I just loved this verse. I wrote it down. unfortunately, in my other Bible. 42.6, I the Lord have called thee in righteousness, and I love this part, and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people for a light of the Gentiles. I mean, by application. I mean, we know In the New Testament, God promises He will never leave us nor forsake us. I just love these verses that talk about God holding our hand. Look that up sometime in your Bible. I mean, it's just amazing. Can you imagine God holding your hand? Can you imagine that? I can't. I can't imagine that. But He is. He's holding our hand. He's called us to serve Him. He's going to hold our hand. and keep us, he's never going to leave us nor forsake us. Bottom line, bottom line, we agreed to go and treat Chinese men. Our plan was to go to the northern part of the West Bank. What did God do? He brought us to Israel. where we treated Chinese men. But while we were there, he opened the door for us to go to the West Bank, the southern part, Bethlehem area, where we treated Palestinian Muslims. Not only that, he opened the door for us to gain access to a Bedouin community in Israel. Bedouins are traditionally Palestinian Muslims. They used to be historically nomads, just going from place to place, sheep herders, going from place to place in Israel, West Bank, Israel, the whole area. Today, they are little communities. almost like family, extended family areas where they have these almost like shacks and really, I mean, they have nothing, these people, but they are very private. They don't let anybody into their community, these Bedouins. But what happened again with the war, the Bedouins in this particular community were working for Israel before the war. Once the war started, they lost their jobs. And the man who said, will you come and treat Chinese men, he had been asked by someone to go and teach Bedouins Jewish, Hebrew. And so he had access to one of these camps. And he asked them, he said, would you be interested in a doctor and dentist coming? And they said yes. So we went to treat Chinese men. God opened the door. also to the West Bank area in the Bedouin community. God is faithful. We had one of the best ministries we have ever, ever had. And it was all because of who? God. God's faithfulness. Just like God was faithful in this, God is going to be faithful to you and me in our whole Christian life. We just have to do the things that God wants us to do. We need to be praying to God. God, I love you. God, I know you're in charge. I know there's a battle, but I know you're in charge. And I know you're a faithful God. It all starts, though, in being a child of God, right? Child of God. I had a man come to my home this past week to deliver some crushed stone. This man. Tattoo on his arm. Just the nicest guy you would ever want to meet. He asked me what I did previously. This was the second or third time he's come. And so he knew what we did. And we started talking about that a little bit. He said, so where have you been? I said, oh, Israel. He said, oh, I've been reading the Bible. Unsaved man. I've been reading the Bible. I don't understand the Old Testament. I'm reading the Old Testament. I don't understand it. We spent 45 minutes talking about spiritual things. God is faithful. He's going to bring people. We have to be sensitive to opportunities, but also We need to be a child of God ourselves. We need to have come to that place in our lives, which I explained to him, where we understood that we were sinners, that we could not save ourselves. We could not pay for our own sin. We needed to trust in Jesus Christ as our Savior. We need to be born again. I don't know how many times in the conversation I told him, you need to be born again. You need to trust Jesus Christ as your savior. He just kind of nodded his head each time. I'm praying for this man, his name is Luke, that he would be saved. But that's where it starts, isn't it? Becoming a child of God, having the Holy Spirit. That's what I told him. You need the Holy Spirit in you to help you understand the scriptures. We need the Holy Spirit in us to communicate with us, to help us to understand what we need to do when we don't know what to do. It starts there. So, as we pray to God and ask Him, Lord, help me in this decision, we need to trust Him, we need to remember His faithfulness, we need to understand that He could maybe answer the prayer in an unusual way. And I trust that God will help each of us in those times in our lives when we're seeking God's will. Maybe you are at a point in your life where you're at a point where you don't know what to do. Maybe it's decisions need to be made. Maybe it's a trial you're going through. Maybe there's just some question of what's the next step. Just take this moment and pray to God and say, Lord, I surrender this to you. Lord, help me through this and guide and direct me. And Lord, I am open to whatever you have for me. Lord, I pray that you help each of us to be guided by you. Lord, when our plans change and when we are seems as if Lord, you are maybe withholding what the next step is. Lord, allow us just to hold your hand and allow us to guide us each and every step of the way. Amen.