Thank you, and I didn't need the introduction, I just needed time to get turned on and get my glasses out. So, we have enjoyed so much being here with you, and I think I can speak safely for all the missionaries. This morning in Sunday School, I gave a lesson from 3 John, and I talked about Gaius, who became an ally to the truth by bringing God's missionaries forward on their journey after a godly sort. And we can say that you all have done that this week. You're allies to the truth to help us missionaries get to the field and stay there. Thank you so much for your kindness and just letting us be here and part of the meeting. Now, if you are visiting or you were not able to come the rest of the week and you wonder what in the world have I got the same thing Pastor has, I do not. I don't want it either. I have a paralyzed vocal cord, and I know most of you heard me say that. I'm just letting you know that I'm not hurting, I'm all right, and you just have to listen closely to overcome the southern accent and the raspy voice. Several years ago, I was out in the Far East, I don't remember where I was at, Philippines, Taiwan or somewhere, Dr. Paul Chappell called me and said, Brother Godfrey, would you travel with a group of 30 young Bible college students and people from our church in the Philippines? And I said, well, Pastor, I can't travel with them, but I'm in Taiwan. I'll meet them in Manila. So have you ever taken a trip with 30 people before? I met them in Manila, and we went up to Ilo Ilo City, and we ministered for several days there with Missionary Rick Martin. It's amazing. We saw hundreds of people saved. We preached to thousands in public schools, prisons. We did Bible clubs. Brother Martin was having his missions conference, and I was preaching in that every night. And it was just a great time. But one day, I was out. We divided them into groups of 10. So I was with a group of 10, and we were going out into neighborhoods. And all you have to do in the Philippines is take up an easel and put some flannel graph up on it, start singing songs, and you've got a crowd, sometimes hundreds of people. So I was with this one group, and they were setting up and getting ready to teach a Bible lesson, and they were singing. And as I stood there, one of the church members came and said, Brother Godfrey, there's a lady right over there. She's washing clothes outside at a public faucet there. She's washing her clothes. They said, that lady is a member of our church, and she's a Christian. Her husband, he's standing right over there, and he's never been saved. So I went over to this gentleman, and I said, sir, I'm JB Godfrey, and I'm from America, and I love the Philippines, and I eat chicken feet and chicken intestines, and I like balut. And I started talking to him, made him laugh a little bit. I said, sir, could I share some things with you? Would you mind? He said, no, I'd be glad to hear it. He invited me in his house. Well, I said to one of the Christians there, one of the church members, you go in with me and be my interpreter. Now, I know what you're thinking, well, how were you already talking to him? All right, he did understand some English. But I had laughed more that week watching these, the young missionaries were speaking English, and the Filipinos were speaking English, and they didn't have a clue what each other was saying. So I asked this church member to go in with me. So we went into this man's house, and I don't usually do this, but I looked at the guy, and I said, sir, what's your name? He said, my name is Mr. de la Cruz, Mr. of the cross. And I said, sir, have you ever thought what your name is all about? I said, let me tell you about the God that, and I backed all the way up to God of creation. And I talked about God and creating the world and how sin came in and how God came looking for Adam and Eve and then how God taught them to perform the first sacrifice. And I worked through that and talked about Abraham and Isaac and got over finally to the cross and talked about Jesus being nailed to that cross and his blood shed. And I said, Mr. Delacruz, wouldn't you like to know the Christ who died on the cross so that you could be saved? And he said, I really would. And he bowed his head, and he asked Christ to save him. And that took me about, I guess, 25, 20, 25 minutes. We'd gone through that. So we left his house, went out back outside. The Bible club was still going on, and the church members came back to me. And they said, Brother Godfrey, while you were talking with him, his brother-in-law just came up. And we've been inviting this man to church for 16 years. He's never come to church. So I went right back over there and I said, sir, I'm J.B. Godfrey, and I'm from America, and I eat Balut. And they like that, see, because not most Americans won't do that. If you don't know what Balut is, ask me later. And I talked with him a while, and I said, hey, sir, could I share some things with you? So we went right back in the same house. So this guy, now they were getting it twice in English and in Tagalog. So we went in there and again I looked at this gentleman and I said, sir, what's your name? He said, my name is Mr. Regulacion. Now that may not mean anything to you, but that hit my funny bone. I just won Mr. Grace to the Lord. Mr. De La Cruz, and now I'm looking at Mr. Law, Mr. Regulation. And I backed all the way up to the Old Testament again, and I explained to him about law and what payment of sin is, and I went through the whole different, little different route with him. Another 20 minutes later, Mr. Regulation's on his way to heaven. Now I'm simply telling you that, not that that happens every time you go out, but if you've never been out to the mission field, not every country is that responsive, but many of them are. Last year I was in Uganda, saw people saved all the time down there. I've been in Nicaragua and Ivory Coast and many places like that so open to the gospel. Other places not so open, but they need the gospel. So that's my story, that's my first story. All right, I want you to open your Bibles this morning to Matthew chapter 8. I promise you I will not keep you... I won't be Pharaoh. I'll let God's people go for too long. Matthew chapter 8, verse number 23. Matthew chapter 8 verse 23, And when he, that is Jesus, was entered into a ship, his disciples followed him. And behold, there arose a great tempest in the sea, insomuch that the ship was covered with the waves, but he was asleep. And his disciples came to him and awoke him, saying, Lord, save us, we perish. He said unto them, Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith? Then he arose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. But the men marveled, saying, What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him?" Now I'm coming back there in just a moment because I want you to see something in that passage. But let me ask you a question as an introduction. And please, every once in a while I run across somebody and they just don't think you ever ought to have any fun. But I just can't help it. It's in my nature. I see the fun. How many of you are like that? You see the funny and have fun? I don't really, I don't tell a lot of jokes. I just, real life sometimes. What is it, what is it in your life that just makes you sit up and pay attention? Is there anything that you just like to do? If Dr. Sisk was here this morning, I can tell you exactly what it would be. He bleeds blue. Yesterday, I know Dr. Sisk was shouting all over his room in California because Kentucky, I wasn't supposed to tell they beat Florida. Oh, I'm sorry about that. What gets the attention of Dr. Don Sisk? Kentucky playing basketball. Dr. Sisk is the most competitive man you've ever been around. If there's two bugs going across the floor, he'll pull for one of them. I took him up on the Great Wall of China, and all he wanted to do was go further up it than Dr. Les Frazier had ever gone. So I know what gets Dr. Sisk attention. What is it that gets your attention that you really like? Well, boy, this is a big crowd. It will take us a while. So since I'm up here, let me tell you what gets my attention. Food gets my attention. I mean, there's literally, I guess, nothing much in this world Linda and I have not eaten. She looks quiet in innocence. She'll try anything. And I'm not going to go through the list of things that we have eaten, but I was up in Framingham, Massachusetts. And when I go to Massachusetts, I need an interpreter. I was there and after church the pastor had been a missionary to Brazil. And there's a big Brazilian population there. So they took me out on Sunday afternoon to this Brazilian restaurant. And I know the men went this week and I took my wife shopping. But anyway, you go in the restaurant and you get your salad and your beans and your rice and then these waiters come out with these big skewers of meat. And it's just dripping, I mean it's just, and they just slice it off and slice it off. Now that gets my attention, all right? So food gets my attention. Having fun gets my attention. We like the babies on the airplane. We just like, when I was pastored, all the kids wanted to go home with me, they thought I was grandpa. We were over in Japan, one of our missionaries, and we spent 10 days with them, I think it was, several days, and they had three grown daughters and a little boy sneaked up on them later in life, and his name is Josiah. And Josiah would climb up on my lap and kiss me right on top of my nose and both cheeks and call me grandpa. That gets my attention. I was in Japan another time and I had preached up in the north of Japan for missionary David Harrison. After I preached, I was standing there and this little Japanese girl, I don't know, she's a pretty good-sized girl, maybe seven or eight years old. She came up behind me, she climbed up on the seat behind me and she started rubbing my bald head. And she's saying, kawaii, kawaii, kawaii, cute, cute. Anyway, I liked it. I was preaching at Lancaster Baptist not so long ago, and Dr. Bud Calvert, anybody know? He started Fairfax Baptist Temple. Dr. Calvert's bolder than I am. He preached at Lancaster Baptist on a Sunday night, I think it was. Lynn and I went out to go home. We lived right across the street. And when we went out, this lady looked at me and said, Dr. Calvert, that was a great message tonight. I said, thank you very much. I appreciate it. We went on by and Linda said, you didn't tell that lady you're not Dr. Calvert. I said, Linda, that lady thinks all bald-headed men look alike. Leave her alone. So I like to have fun. I like to see you smile, by the way. Now, hang on. I'm working. I'll get back to this, and I'm going to be serious. But I'll tell you something else that gets my attention. Good friends. I mean, you know, it's a blessing to have a real good friend. And God's given us so many people, and I could name a lot of them, but I think about Brother Ron Bragg. We worked together out in the desert with Muslims for 16 years, and we're still the best of friends. Dr. Ray Thompson, Dr. Bob Dayton, and I could go down the list, but those are things that get my attention. But have you ever thought what it is that makes Jesus pay attention? What does Jesus really notice? And if you've read the gospel accounts very much, you'll know there's several things. The first one now, are you still there, Matthew 8? I want you to notice Jesus was in this little ship with the disciples in the middle of a storm, and it says He was asleep. Now you might wonder, how could He sleep in a lake, in the middle of a storm, the ship bouncing around, the waves, water coming in? How could He sleep? I'll tell you how He could sleep. When you get tired enough, you can sleep anywhere. And everywhere Jesus went, people showed up. And Jesus was in the little ship asleep. And the waves are coming up, the wind's blowing. And I want you to notice this in this story. The storm did not awaken our Savior, but the fear of the disciples woke him up. Maybe you've never thought about this this morning, but can I share this with you? When you're afraid, he notices that. Have you ever been there? Have you ever been there when you really just don't know what you're going to do next? Maybe you've been to the doctor and you come out and you've heard those words. I'm sorry to tell you, sir or ma'am, that you have cancer or some other sickness. It may be down in the jungle when we lived there. My wife, she doesn't like snakes. We had snakes everywhere. I killed a snake every day. We ate them. Maybe that's your problem. Maybe it's one of your children or your grandchildren. Seven years ago today, One of our grandchildren, today's his seventh birthday, I was in Africa preaching in Senegal, and I had an email, he was born in Fairfax, Virginia, with no kidneys. Seven years ago, he's a tough little guy, he's been through a lot in his life. I don't know what it is for you, but I just want you to think about this morning. When we are afraid, that gets his attention, he notices it. Let me have you turn, I'm coming back to Matthew 8 in a moment, but would you turn over to John chapter 20 just for a moment. I'm going to show you where this sermon came from. Most of my sermons is when God's working on me. I'm reading the Bible or spending time in prayer and God's just working on me. I was reading through here again in John's gospel And I came upon these verses, I want to read verses 19. And how many of you, you've read your Bible every day you read it, I hope you do. And you've read it and read it and one day you read that same verse that you've read a hundred times and boy it just... You see something you've never seen before or the Holy Spirit really shows you something. So this sermon came out of an occasion when I was reading my Bible and I came to verse 19 in John chapter 20 and it says the same day at evening being the first day of the week. Now what day is the first day? Sunday. What do we do on Sunday? We go to church. All right. But it says here, when the doors were shut, where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews. Now hang on just a moment. I read that. I had read it literally hundreds of times. I read that, and it just, the thought came across my mind, this was a Sunday night service. I don't think I would have enjoyed being at. I mean, here at this church, you don't lock the doors. You open the doors, turn the lights on, have the air conditioning going, you're passing out flyers, you've invited your neighbors. We do everything we can to get people to church. But here was a Sunday night service when these believers were in a room with the doors locked because they were so afraid. But I'm glad the verse didn't stop there because it goes on to say, came Jesus and stood in the midst and said unto them, peace be unto you. And I want you to notice that Back in Matthew chapter 8, Jesus turned their fear into amazement. What manner of man is this? In this verse, Jesus turned their fear into peace. Have you ever been in a Sunday night service like that, by the way? Maybe not. I haven't been in too many of them, but we have been in some. There are churches in China, there are house churches in China. We've been to when they're in an apartment building, so their neighbors above them, neighbors below them, neighbors on the side. And in the service there, they will say, open your hymn books to page number 150 or whatever number. And the Chinese Christians will take their hymn books and they will open it. And I can show you how they sing. Here's the way they do it. Jesus, all our sins increase to bear. And they sing silently because if they sing too loud, the neighbors will hear them and they'll call the police and they can go to jail. I don't know if you've ever been in a service like that or not, but here's the truth. When you're afraid for whatever reason, Jesus notices that. Jesus can turn your fear into amazement, He can turn it into joy, He can turn it into peace. Fear gets His attention. Would you go back to Matthew 8 again and this time look at verse number 5. Here's something else that gets His attention. When Jesus was entered into Capernaum, there came unto Him a centurion beseeching Him. Now let me just pause. A centurion, what's that? It's a soldier, a Roman soldier. He's a leader of soldiers, a saint. That's a good French word, saint. That's a hundred. He was a leader of at least a hundred soldiers, a leader of men. And he came to Jesus, beseeching him. Now notice verse 6, and saying, Lord, my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented. And Jesus said unto him, I will come in healing. Now, I'm not going to read the next few verses, but let me give you the God-free version of this. Here was this foreigner. I picked this story. Actually, there were so many stories, I had to just pick one or two because I could have picked... Y'all don't want to stay here all day, I don't think. Anyway, I just picked one or two. But here's the story. Here's the Lord Jesus Christ. Here's this outsider, this foreigner. Have you ever been a foreigner? Anybody ever lived in a country where you don't speak the language and everybody looks at you like, in Japan they say all of us Americans have big noses? That used to offend the missionaries until we discovered that they just want one too. But when you can't speak and you, anyway. Here was a foreigner, here was not a Jewish man, here was an outsider, a soldier. And he had a servant who was sick, and he came to Jesus and said, Lord, would you come and heal my servant? And Jesus said, I'll come and heal him. And here's what he said to Jesus, Lord, I'm a leader of men. He said, I say to some, you go, and they go. I say to others, you come, and they come. And I read that, and I thought he was a Marine. But anyway, that's neither here nor there. But he said something very unusual to Jesus. He said, Lord, you don't even need to come to my house. All you have to do is say the word, and my servant will be well. In verse 10, here's what it says. When Jesus heard it, he marveled. Do you want to make Jesus pay attention? Jesus will marvel, and then he said to them that followed, Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel. You know what gets his attention? when we trust him, when we have faith in him. I like that word faith. Here was a military man, an outsider. He said, Lord, I believe you so much, I trust you so much, you don't even have to come, just say the word. And the servant was healed. Turn over a few pages, if you would, to Matthew chapter 15. Again, I just picked a couple. I could have picked dozens, but in chapter 15, I picked this story because this time it's a woman, but it's still an outsider. She was not from Israel. Verse 22, Matthew 15. And behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coast and cried unto him, saying, How mercy on me, O Lord, thou Son of David! My daughter is grievously vexed with the devil, but he answered her not a word. Now, you know, you can read this passage And you might get the impression that Jesus was being mean to this lady. Oh, no, no, no. Jesus was not being mean. Jesus was trying to evoke something from her. And the disciples came here and they tried to send her away. And in verse 24, but he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Then came she and worshiped him, saying, Lord, help me. Have you ever been there? Lord, if you don't help me, nobody can. Lord, would you help me? And he answered him, verse 26, and said, It's not me to take the children's bread and to cast it to dogs. And she said, Truth, Lord, yet the dogs eat the crumbs which fall from their master's table. Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith, being unto thee, even as thou wilt. I want you to know this, that when you exercise faith in him, he notices it. I'm going to pause just a moment. This is almost a separate sermon, but I've got to say it. I want you to know that in the United States of America, and much to the world today, we have redefined the word faith. Everybody has faith. The Muslim has faith in the Quran and Mohammed. An idolater has faith in a graven image. A humanist has faith in himself. Boy, that's scary. A philosopher has faith in his ideas. A gambler has faith in lady luck. A scientist, a lot of scientists today have faith in what they call certain faith suppositions. Have you ever watched Discovery Channel and listened to one of these scientists with a straight face sit there and tell that 20 million years ago this dinosaur came down out of this mountain and he was at this river and then another dinosaur came down this way and those dinosaurs met and there was a battle and that guy's telling that like he was sitting there watching. Religious people have faith in good works. A lot of Americans have faith in government. So we Christians are not the only people that have faith. It's not whether we have faith or not, it's in whom we're putting our faith. It's not the faith, it's the object of your faith. And I want to say faith, you know, I said it's been redefined. Faith is not blind optimism. It's not just saying, well, I think it'll be all right. I think it'll turn out all right. It's not a hope-so feeling. It's not a blind leap into the dark. Most of our college students today are being taught that faith is to close your eyes and hope everything turns out all right. In fact, I read this, and I couldn't even believe it when I read it. Mencken, who's an educated man, here's his definition of faith. I quote, he said, faith is an illogical belief in the occurrence of the impossible. Let me redefine. I'll take his definition, but the term I would use with that is not faith, but superstition. Faith is to rest in, to trust in, to believe in, to rely upon. I like the way Charles Spurgeon defined it. Here's what he said. He said, faith is reason at rest in God. And my friends, when we have faith in Him, He notices that. Two points and I'm almost finished. When we have fear, Jesus notices that. He cares for us. When we trust Him, how much are you going to give? How much am I going to give next year? I've said, look, we missionaries would never say anything about faith promise to you if we're not willing to practice it ourselves. In fact, I tell people all the time right now, Linda and I, we're some of the best church members in the world. Because we're never there to cause trouble, and we send our tithe and faith promise back every month. When we trust Him, He notices that. How do you get saved? You trust what He did on the cross. How do you live your Christian life? You trust His finished work and the Holy Spirit's power in your life. How do we give to missions? We trust Him to help us give. Let me give you my last thing this morning. Now those things really do get His attention, fear and faith, but let me tell you something else that you'll see it over and over and over again through the Gospels. The fields of the world get His attention. In Matthew chapter 9, in verse 36, here's what it says, But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they were scattered abroad as sheep having no shepherd. Have you ever noticed as you read the Gospels that it seems like every time you see Jesus, He's seeing people? Oh, that's what missions is about. We're not trying to win some philosophical battle, we're trying to win the souls of men and women to Jesus. And Jesus looks up and he sees people, for God so loved the world, but God not only loved the world, God loves you. Can you just picture Jesus a few days before He was crucified as He comes into Jerusalem, city that He loved, and He stands there in Matthew chapter 23, and He looks at that city and He says, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings, and you would not. You get the picture of Jesus standing there looking at that city and saying, I just wanted to get all of you. I just wanted to get you under my wings and take care of you. Anybody here grow up on a farm beside us? I met some of you, I know you did. Anybody ever tried to take an egg out from under a setting hen? Anybody ever followed a chicken around that has a bunch of little chickens and tried to take one? Anybody here beside me that's ever been flogged? Now if you don't know what that is, ask later, but if you've ever been, you know it. You know, do you see the picture that Jesus is giving? Just like that mother hen will protect those little chicks, Jesus said, folk, people in Jerusalem, I just wanted to get all of you. gather you under my wings and take care of you, but ye would not. In Luke chapter 19 and verse 41, here's what it says. But when he was come near, he beheld the city and wept over it. When's the last time you wept over your city? You probably have heard Dr. Sisk tell this, but I've heard him tell it many times. He told about one year having Dr. Lee Robertson in Kobe, Japan with him. And he took Dr. Robertson up on top of one of those big high-rise buildings in Kobe. And in that area, there are 20 million people in and around Kobe. And he took Dr. Robertson up there and Dr. Robertson looked out over those huge high-rise buildings and just somebody in every apartment, many people in most of them. Dr. Robertson started to weep and he cried and he said, the doctor says, surely there's some way we can reach these people with the gospel. John chapter 4, Jesus said, my meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work. Say not ye there yet four months, and then come at the harvest. Behold, I say unto you, lift up your eyes and look on the fields, for they're white already, and the harvest. I want you to think about, I'm almost finished. I want you to think about this a moment. When you see Jesus, he's seeing people. And when Jesus sees people, what does he do? Well, let me tell you this morning what he does. When Jesus saw people, he sighed. Oh, people of Jerusalem, I just wanted to get all of you. And you can almost feel his heartbeat as he looked at those people and said, I want you to know me. I want you to be saved. I want you to have joy in your life. When he saw us, he sighed. But there's a step beyond that. When Jesus saw people, he cried. He beheld the city and wept over it. But there's a step beyond that. When Jesus saw you, my friend, when Jesus saw me, not only did he sigh, not only did he cry, but when Jesus saw you, he died. Now I want you to think about it. The only man that ever walked the roads of this world who did not deserve to die, because the wages of sin is death, and he never sinned, But God, in His wisdom and His mercy toward us, poured the sin that we should have. The sin that should have been on me and on you, God put it on Jesus. He voluntarily took it. And when Jesus saw you and He saw me, He died. That's the business of our life. If that is the thing that gets the attention of Jesus, I want you to know that that's where I want to give my attention. William C. Burns, It's not a name that a lot of people know. William Burns was a missionary to China. If we talked about David Livingston and Aaron I. Judson and Hudson Taylor, you might know those names. But William C. Burns was a man that God greatly used. And God used him sometime more to encourage other people. He was a great inspirer of Hudson Taylor and Robert Murray McShane. William C. Burns went to China. Well, let me tell you a story about Burns and why God blessed him and God used him. When he was a 17-year-old lad, he went with his mother to visit their relatives in Glasgow, Scotland. They've been there several days, and it was time to go back home. And Mrs. Burns got ready to go, and she began to look for William, and she couldn't find him. And so she starts walking down the streets there in Glasgow, and she had to walk a good little bit. And finally, she sees her son, and he's sitting in front of this house on a step out in front. And he's got his face over in his hands, and he's just crying his heart out. And Mrs. Burns walked up to her son, William, seven, I want you to get this, a 17 year old boy. Now what's a 17 year old? A teenager. Are you listening to me this morning? Mrs. Burns walked up to her teenage son and he's just crying and crying and she said, son, what ails you? And he said, mother, Mother, the thud of these Christless feet on their way to hell breaks my heart. I wonder, do we have any 17-year-old boys and girls today that can look at the people around them and it breaks their heart when they hear the thud of those Christless feet? We're here at missions conference this week, let me tell you what I I can't see them physically, I can't hear them, but I can almost hear the thud of those millions, billions now in China walking across Tiananmen Square, or those Japanese Buddhists and Shintoists who so few of them, less than 1% of the people in Japan are believers in Christ. I can hear the thud of those Senegalese feet walking across the sands of the Sahara. I can think about our friends down in the jungles of the Congo. I think about those people I've seen there in Nicaragua and in Central America. Wherever you go in the world, modern-day post-Christian Europe, do you hear it today, the thud of Christless feet? Many, many of them never heard a clear Bible presentation of what Jesus did for them. Now, that gets the attention of Jesus. Does it get our attention? Let's pray together. Dear Father, we come this morning and Lord, there's some things that get our attention, things we like. But Lord, as we read the stories in the Bible about what you like and what gets your attention, We certainly know that fear and trusting you and the people of this world, the fields of the world, get your attention. And I pray this morning that you would refocus our attention to the things that you love. These people are praying about what they're going to give to missions next year. There may be somebody here this morning, they're not even sure that Jesus is their Savior. They've never put that simple, trusting, resting confidence in you. And I pray that if it's somebody like that, they would be saved today. And Lord, I just pray that you would work in our hearts now this morning, in Jesus' name, amen.