All right, it's good to see you this evening. I understand that some of you, it costs you to come to church because you've got to cross a bridge and pay some money. So I'm thankful that you were willing to do that and come out tonight. Do you have your Bibles this evening? I see them. Thank God for that. Do you know what a blessing it is that God Almighty has given the Word of God in our language? Somebody said this evening, I heard it said that the Word of God is not bound. Aren't you glad that the Word of God is not bound to Hebrew? It's not bound to Greek. And bless your hearts, it's not bound to English either. They have the Word of God in Polish. And that's a tremendous blessing in answer to your prayers. Open your Bibles if you will tonight to Acts in chapter 16. Were you blessed this morning by the preacher, by the message? I was thinking about that message and I was thinking also about the messenger that, you know, if that is an obnoxious preacher, we need more obnoxious preachers, don't we? That's going to put it across the plate for us and just tell us the truth in the Word of God. I was also thinking about something that was said this morning about, you know, if you give your life, your children, and go to a foreign field, your children might marry one of the locals. And Brother Bill said you might end up having little brown children. Well, that's not necessarily true. You could go to Poland and end up having little white Polacks. You just never know what might happen. Acts 16, beginning at verse 1. It says, Then came he to Derbe and Lystra, and behold, a certain disciple was there, named Timotheus. Timotheus and the son of a certain woman which was a Jewish and believed but his father was a Greek Which was well reported of by the brethren that were at Lystra in Iconium Him would Paul have to go forth with him and took and circumcised him because the Jews which were in those quarters For they knew for they knew all that his father they knew all that his father was a Greek and as they went through the cities They delivered them the decrees for to keep that were ordained to the apostles and elders which were at Jerusalem. And so were the churches established in the faith and increased in number daily. All right, this evening I'd like to lay out what I want to talk to you about tonight. First of all, I would like to give a short report of how God has answered your prayers in Poland, what the Lord's doing in Poland, and a little bit about the Bible project. Also, I'd like to talk about Timotheus here, this young man Because what I really want to talk to you about is a question that's often asked me. How do I know that God has called me into the ministry? Or how do I know that God has called me to Poland? And I'd like to address that tonight. And we're going to find the answer in the scriptures we just looked at. But in those scriptures, we have a young man, a young disciple by the name of Timothy. And I'd like to talk just a little bit briefly about the progression in his life and ministry. But more importantly, I'd like to answer the question, how do we know that God has called us into the ministry by four points? The first point is testimony. The second point is going to be desire. The third point is going to be gift. And the last point is going to be recognition. And so here we are with the Scriptures. I'd like to tell you about Poland. God is tremendously blessing. I just got a message from Brother Joe S., our co-worker there in Poland. He said that we had 50 people in our services. And if you're not familiar with Poland, 50 in a service is doing pretty good. So we've been averaging about 15 to 20, sometimes 25 on Sunday. And so, for this last month, we've been pushing the limit of our chairs. We have 50 chairs. That's how we know there was 50 people, because they're all full. And so, we're pushing our limit, and that's direct answer to your prayers for God to do something in Poland. We thank God for that. Also, I mentioned... about evangelizing. We're evangelists. We preach the gospel right on the streets every day. Most of our ministry, we have been street preachers. That is, we would stand up in a public place where people would gather together or we'd go to neighborhoods and preach and we'd stand on a corner and we'd preach the gospel. That's how we've done it. Now, we haven't been in the ministry of haranguing people or trying to deride people, but we've been preaching Christ and Him crucified and preaching the great news, the gospel, many times they ask us, what are you doing in Poland? We're just looking for sinners because we've got good news for sinners. That Christ died on the cross for sinners. Aren't you glad He died on the cross for sinners? If God only saved the righteous, we'd be in real big trouble, wouldn't we? If God only saved the faithful, we'd be in real big trouble, wouldn't we? If God only saved this denomination or that denomination, we'd be in big trouble if we're not members of that denomination, right? If God only saved Americans, then Poles would have some trouble. And if God only saved Poles, then Americans would have some trouble. So we've got good news because Christ died for all men. And so we've been evangelizing. Now we haven't been street preaching per se in the classical definition where you're actually standing on a corner and preaching in and preaching out, preaching forth. But what we've been doing, we've been on the streets daily. And what we've been doing the last two years, I guess, is we've been grabbing people. We just, we got experience now. And as people are walking along the street, we'll just ask them if they got a minute. And we'll quickly ask them a question. For example, have you ever been to a church service that's not Roman Catholic? And they're either going to answer yes or no, but that's an opportunity to begin talking to them. And unbelievably, God is tremendously blessed. There hasn't been hardly a day gone by, I won't say never a day, but hardly a day doesn't go by where we actually get to present the gospel clearly to somebody. And that was the whole purpose of preaching. When you preach, the whole idea is to get an opportunity to speak to somebody clearly giving the gospel. I've done a lot of door knocking my life. You don't always get in the door. You don't always get that opportunity. And the same thing with street preaching. Yeah, we proclaim the gospel so that people might hear with the intent that somebody might be interested. So we're really excited about that. And as you heard already, we've had this past month, we've been pushing 50 in every service. So praise the Lord. We got lots of Bible studies going on. And it's been a long time coming since we've had as many Bible studies we have right now. When we make contacts with people, the first thing we want to do is have a Bible study. We get them to commit to a Bible study so we can open up the Word of God and give them the scriptures. And so we're really excited about that. We have finished the Polish Bible. We printed it last well this year. We got our first editions arrived in poland 7,800 of them arrived in poland in june of this year I just got again. I had a message from brother joe all of our bibles have been sold Except the uh, we ordered 1,500 wide margins I think we sold maybe four to five hundred of those so we have 1,000 wide margin bibles and if some of you probably have a wide this is not a This is the large print, but we also have a regular size Bible that's the same size as smaller print, but it gives you bigger margins for taking notes. And we really thought that more people would be interested in that type of Bible. We're not marketers, obviously, but they haven't sold yet, so we've got them. We're selling those at cost now. But the Christian bookstores in Poland called us and wrote us and begged us to try to have more Bibles before Christmas. And so our original plan was to sell all our Bibles, use the profits that we gained from that sale in order to print more Bibles. And so we sort of rushed on that, and we made an order in September, and our Bibles are promised to be in Poland by December 1st. So when we get back to Poland, we're going to start making pre-orders, and then we order 10,700. leather Bibles and some of the smaller version there'll be a Little like a pocket version a six size about half this size. So we have different folks also on that Bible project We've also have the Bible being read by a professional reader. And so we're gonna have the audio Bible So the people we've already finished the New Testament and they're working on the Old Testament. I really thought I was going to be finally liberated from my computer monitor But come to find out that the professional reader asks of us that we proofread his reading and we verify that what he's reading actually enunciates all the words that are in the Bible. Come to find out that professional readers don't always do that. Sometimes they mix the words. Sometimes they skip over a word. So we have to listen carefully and verify that he's actually said all the words. And we do find some mistakes on that. Not too many. But we have found some. And so that's a process. Hopefully by next April we'll have all of the Old Testament done as well And then we'll be able to get that out to the people, but you know where the where faith comes from By hearing the Word of God and if you're gonna build a church and you're gonna preach the gospel people have to hear the Word of God in their language and so we thank God that the Word of God is not bound by Languages that it's even found in the Polish language. Amen. All right. Let's look at our text I want to talk to you a little bit about Timothy and and how God calls people into the ministry, and how you can know whether God is calling you into the ministry. Now let me preface this by saying that first of all, that all of us, all of us are called into the ministry of preaching the gospel. What I want to talk about tonight is those that would be considered a bishop, an elder, or an overseer that's going to perhaps receive financial support from the church of God, those types of ministries. So I'm not talking about this idea that all of us are ministers. All of us are servants. If God has saved you, then you have a responsibility to preach the gospel. And there's no way on God's green earth that we're going to get the Gospel to every creature if it's only going to be the full-time ministers that are preaching the Gospel. You have to be a witness and a testimony wherever you're at. That's the only way that we're going to fulfill the Great Commission of preaching the Gospel to every creature. And I think I spoke about this the last time I was here. We have to get the Gospel to every creature. You have to do that. And the most powerful witness is that witness is the living Word and the spoken Word. Do you understand what I'm saying? That when you go into your place of employment or in your neighborhood or with your family, that testimony that you have, that light of good works in your life, that conversion, that changing of life, the Holy Spirit works in our lives with the Word of God, that is a powerful witness. Now, when we're preaching on a corner, they could go by and say, ah, that's just another hypocrite. That's just because they don't know us. And we don't have that side of the of the witness that we that we need, that that powerful side where they observed our manner of living. You know, I got saved because a young lady, 16 years old, was working at Hardy Hamburgers and she had a real testimony. I worked with her almost every day and I saw her testimony. She was happy. She was thankful. She didn't curse like the other workers did. She didn't blaspheme the name of God like other workers did. She was real. She was one of the first real Christians that I ever met. Then when she opened up the Word of God, I was already convinced that what she was telling me was going to be true. And that's a real problem in Christianity today, that the testimony of God and the witness of God is hampered because those that are preaching the Gospel aren't living the Gospel. They're not living according to the Word of God. There's too many people that are Christians on Sunday, but they're devils on Monday. And how are we going to convince people of believing on the Lord Jesus Christ if our testimonies aren't consistent with the Word of God? You see, I learned a long time ago that God is not interested in just having numbers on a belt. God is not interested in just filling out a missionary report and say, well, you know, we had 5,000 saved last year and 20 baptized. No, no, no. I would think if you're going to fill out that report, you would say, we got 20 saved, 20 baptized, and 20 new members in the church, and 20 new preachers of the gospel. Yeah? Because when God says, He says completely. God is interesting in converting people. He's not interested in somebody just repeating a prayer. You understand what I'm saying? I may be stepping on your toes. I'm not trying to. Look, a long time ago, I'm not interested in that. Brother Bill and I, years ago, when we were young men, we'd go out and show a film on the base in San Antonio, Texas, and we'd have these young recruits. They're away from Mama and Dad. They've had their haircut all buzzed off, like mine. They'd have it all buzzed off, and you know, they were tender. Them drill sergeants had worked them over, and they were attended. We'd stand up, and we'd preach the gospel to them, and back in them days, we'd give them, you know, the sinner's prayer. At the end, at the end of the preaching, we'd say, all right, how many people want to go to heaven? Who doesn't want to go to heaven, you know? Everybody raised their hands. All right, if you want to go to heaven, repeat this prayer. And man, we were getting a hundred converts a night! Bless God! I mean, the Holy Spirit was on us, right, Bill? And then we'd go out and knock on doors in San Antonio, and nobody'd even open the door. And they just slammed the doors and, you know, something began to dawn on us. Bill said this morning, we're a little bit dumb. It takes us a while in Texas to figure things out, you know. And so we're knocking on doors and it began to dawn on us. You know, what is it? Does God, the Holy Spirit, leave us when we leave the base? What's going on? How come we're getting 100 converts a night out on the base, but we can't get anybody to even talk to us out on the streets of San Antonio? Well, one night we ran an experiment after we got through the whole spiel, the Christian film, the preaching the gospel, the invitation, how many people want to be saved, the prayer. We did the whole thing. And then we started around and we asked the question. Are you going to heaven? Oh, yeah, I'm going to heaven. How do you know? Well, I was baptized as a baby. Hmm. Let's go to this next one. Did you get saved tonight? Well, I don't know. Maybe. Well, what do you think you got to do to be saved? Well, I got to keep the Ten Commandments. Hmm. Then we'd move on about three, four or five down the line. We figured out they didn't get the message. They did. They didn't quite figure it out. We were just patting ourselves on the back on our backs and notching off our belt saying, hey, look what we got. We got 100 new converts. But there wasn't a convert in the room. Unless God Almighty moved and overcame the things, our errors that we were doing. What I'm saying, brothers and sisters, that we want real conversions. People that God Almighty rescues from the pit. People that God Almighty saves from their sins and delivers them from the wrath of God and changes their life. Well, that was Timothy. But you know, there's something about this young Timothy. Look over, you have your Bibles tonight, right? So we're going to look at some verses. Look over in 2 Timothy. 2nd Timothy chapter 1. 2nd Timothy chapter 1, look down at verse 5. And when I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and thy mother Eunice, and I am persuaded in thee also. Who's he talking about? He's talking about Timothy. Timothy had a testimony. What kind of faith did he have? Unfeigned faith. In other words, his faith wasn't hypocritical. His faith was real. Where did he get that faith? Grandma was teaching him the Word of God. Mama was teaching him the Word of God. We already read in our text of Acts chapter 16 that his father was a Greek, probably not a believer. That's the understanding that we have. He was probably not a believer. His mother and his grandmother were believers. They were Jewish. And they believed in the one God. They believed in the true God. So more than likely, Timothy got his faith from listening to Grandma Give him the Scriptures. Now, where do I get that from? I get that from 2 Timothy 3 and verse 15. Look at it. He says here in 2 Timothy 3 and verse 15, And that from a child thou hast known, what? The Holy Scriptures, which were able to make thee... Now, you know what? Those Scriptures that he had were not the originals. He didn't have the autographs. Now, they may have been in Hebrew, they may have been in Greek, it doesn't say what language they were in, but the probability of it being the autograph is zero. He didn't have the autographs, but he had the Scriptures. Now listen to what it says about those Scriptures. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and it's profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. This young man Timothy, the way I understand it, he got the Word of God from Grandma. And he got the Word of God from Mama. And when you get people that are grown up with the Word of God, you're going to see some real conversions. Now, I told you that story about our ministry on the air bases, in the military bases in San Antonio. I'm not belittling the fact that God can save multitudes in one setting. No, no, that wasn't the point. That God can save multitudes in one setting. He can do that. He's a powerful God. In fact, He did do that. If you read in Acts chapter 2, they got up there and they started preaching. In what language did they preach in? They weren't preaching just in Hebrew. They weren't preaching just in Greek. And bless God, they weren't preaching just in English. I don't think they were probably preaching in English at all anyway. But you know, they preached in what? The languages of the world. It was God Almighty that confounded the language way back at Babel. And He confounded the language, and you read in Acts chapter 17, He did so, and He set the bounds of their habitation that they might seek the Lord. So it was God Almighty that divided the language, and when He sent out His disciples to preach the gospel, at the very beginning of the church, He sent them out to preach the gospel, and they preached in languages of the hearers. And all of them were astounded. They said, how do we hear these men speaking in our tongue, in our language? And there were many people saved. But here's the point. They were saved because these people were brought up on the Book. That's not true today. Right here in America, there are people that have never read the Bible. We're not talking about a nation that doesn't have the Bible or doesn't have the Scriptures. We're talking about a nation that has had the Scriptures from the very beginning. We've had the Holy Scriptures in our language from the very beginning, but there's a great dearth of understanding and reading the Scriptures in our generation. Do you agree with me? You know, it's one thing to go off to the hot and tots and try to preach to them and try to give them the gospel and understand that they're ignorant of the scriptures. You've got to do a lot of teaching, yeah? But right here in America, there are people that don't know the Ten Commandments. Never read them. That wasn't the case with young Timothy. He had a mother and a grandmother that cared about him. And even though there were probably difficulties in the religious nature in their family because the father was Greek, there were probably some troubles, but Grandma and Mama set aside time to read the Scriptures to young Timothy. And I know that because the Apostle Paul said that even from his youth, he knew the Scriptures. Isn't that what it says? Alright. How many here tonight have children? How's that going for you? Are you reading the Scriptures with your children? Are you taking time to turn off the television, turn off the iPad, turn off the smartphone, turn off the electronics, turn on the lights, open up the book, and reading the Bible to your children, so that your children do not grow up in ignorance? Listen, people are crying out and saying, why? Why is my child under the influence of alcohol or under the influence of drugs? I've heard the stories here. Lots of heroin addiction right here in the U.S. of A. But why is that? Because they're not brought up with the Scriptures. I'm going to tell you that it's a whole lot easier to see conversions when people are brought up with the Scriptures. The Word of God is powerful. And God, the Holy Spirit, uses the Scriptures, uses the Word of God that is sown in the hearts of man to bring real conversion. All right, we don't have time to go through all of Timothy. I wrote some notes down. You can do this study yourself, but you can see the progression. First of all, his grandmother and his mother taught him the Scriptures from his youth. Now, look at the list, or just listen to the list here. Paul says about Timothy, He, listen to the progression, this is important. He says, my own son in the faith, my beloved son, my dearly beloved son, our brother, our servant of Jesus Christ, a minister of God, faithful in the Lord, who works the works of the Lord, a fellow laborer in the gospel of Christ, my work fellow. So you see this progression of Timothy being saved and then growing in the faith that he becomes a minister. He becomes a minister. And now go back to our text in Acts chapter 16. Because my first point about knowing that God has called you into the ministry, if you do not have a testimony, then God's not going to call you. No matter what you say, if you don't have unfeigned faith, you're not going into the ministry. Now, you can get into religious type ministries, but not in the church of God. That is not the ideal. And again, tonight I'm giving you principles. There's always exceptions with God. God is a merciful God. and God's able to raise up stones to give Him glory. So it's not going to be too difficult for God. And if God can't convince the prophet by another prophet, then He'll get a dumbass to do the work. He's going to get it done. He's going to get the job done. You understand? So we're talking about ideal principles. And that's our mark. We're shooting after the mark, right? So God, when He calls out people for the ministry, and I've already defined what we're talking about when I say ministry, because we're all missionaries. We have a saying, if you're not a missionary, you're a mission field. So we're all gospel preachers. We all should do the work of an evangelist, but not everybody is an evangelist. This is what I'm talking about. And so, the first step into the ministry is you have to have a testimony, and your testimony is this, that you have unfeigned faith. And unfaith faith is something, not that you talk about yourself, but unfaith faith is something that others can say, hey, that guy's got real faith. In Proverbs in chapter, I wrote this down as well, Proverbs chapter 27 in verse 2 it says, Let another man praise thee, and not thine own mouth. a stranger in not thine own lips. So when God's going to call somebody out for the ministry, it's not going to be somebody walking around talking about how great he is. I'm a really good guy. You ought to support me. I'm the best in the world. No, no, no. When God calls out somebody else, he's going to call somebody that says, the other brethren are going to say, hey, he's got a good report. That's a faithful brother. That guy's got real faith. His faith is not feigned. How he walks on Sunday, he walks on Monday. And how he walks on Monday, he walks on Tuesday. He's got Christ in him. He has the hope of glory. He's been saved. We know he's going to heaven. And there's no doubt. So, before we ever talk about somebody going into the ministry, the question we have to ask, do you have a testimony? Do you have a real vibrant testimony? Do you? If you don't, don't think about going to the ministry. I think that was pretty clear, wasn't it? Look, we're in our text, right? In Acts chapter 16. Did you notice here in verse 2, it says, which was well reported of by the brethren. Yeah. It doesn't say Timothy gave a good report of himself. Now, I think you all have some experience with missionaries, no doubt. You've probably heard about them. There are some missionaries that ain't missionaries. They're just showmen. They're going around, they're showing films, and they're talking about what they're doing, blah, blah, blah. They're padding the numbers. It's a real shame. It's a real shame. But that's the reality, right? Didn't Jesus say there's going to be a lot of false prophets? And don't you and I have a responsibility to prove all things and hold fast to that which is good? So we ought to prove these alleged ministers, yeah? That's what I like about your pastors. They're willing to go to the mission field and see if it's really so. See if it's really going on, or if it just ain't a show. You can make a lot of money traveling around on deputation. Yeah? Because people don't know whether you got a... Don't you know they can come and preach a great sermon on Sunday and Wednesday night or during a mission conference, but then when they get back, they got problems in their family, they can't raise up their kids right, they got problems with drugs and alcohol, they're swearing and there's all things, all sorts of things going on. And God help us! But we're talking about the biblical ministry. God is looking for people that are real. And if you're going to find that somebody's going to go to a ministry, he's going to have a testimony that's well-reported of by the brethren. The brethren are going to say, hey, that's a good brother. He's not going to walk around and say, hey, look how good I am. You ought to give me some money. Come on, Wayne. Come on. I can preach, man. I can get you in on it, too. Come on. No, he's going to have a testimony and it's going to be other people praising him and not his own lips. Do you have that type of testimony? Look also in the same, back up just a little bit in verse 40 of the previous chapter. Now, I don't know if I'm going to prove that, I'm going to try, but look at this in verse 40. And Paul chose Silas. Did you see that? Do you see it? 1540 and Paul, they're going out. They're going out. I think Barnabas took Mark, right? Barnabas took Mark and Paul chose Silas and departed being recommended by what? The brethren. Paul says, look, I've got a ministry to do, and I need some helpers, and he knew he wasn't a lone wolf. I mean, we see God in the very beginning when Jesus Christ comes down in the flesh and begins preaching, He calls out disciples. And when He sends them out, guess what? He doesn't send them out as individuals, He sends them out in pairs. And if you read the New Testament, you're going to find out that the apostles traveled in groups. That there wasn't a single dictator. There are a lot of problems in the pulpits today. You've got one pastor that's become a dictator. Where is the plurality? We see the plurality in Scriptures even in the ministers of God going out to preach the gospel. And Paul says, you've commissioned me to go, but I ain't going alone. I'm choosing Silas. And why did he choose Silas? Because Silas had a testimony. Isn't that what it says? Being recommended by the brethren. Paul, you need somebody? Here's the brother right there. Isn't that what it says? Paul didn't say, pick me, pick me. Or Silas, I should say. The brethren said, pick him. Look back now in 16 and verse 3. I'll read verse 2, which was well reported by the brethren that were at Lystra and Iconium. Him, talking about Timothy, him would Paul have to go forth with him. Why? Because he got a good report from the brethren. He says, Paul, if you're looking for somebody, we got a young man here. He's a good brother. He's faithful. Isn't that what it's saying? Did I get it wrong? Okay, you have to weigh in the balances with the Scriptures and see if I've interpreted that correctly. I think I have. Okay. Where does a good report come from? Look quickly in Hebrews in chapter 11. My wife said, have a good time. I think I am. I'm starting to get warmed up. 11 verse 1, now faith is a substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen, for by it, by what? By faith, by it, the elders obtained what? Look, what we want in a ministry is somebody that has a good testimony of what? Of faith! Here's a brother that believes God. Here's a brother that's faithful. Here's a brother that has a testimony. And when the brethren point him out, Paul says, I want him. He's got a good rapport. He's got a good testimony. Yeah? Alright, one more. This is going to be a stretch, so put this on the balance carefully. Look in Philippians chapter 4. There's probably a lot more verses, but I was just thinking about this today. Philippians chapter 4 and verse 8. I want you to notice something because this idea of getting the gospel out, this ministry, is not just individual. It's a corporate affair. That means it includes you. Who is doing the recommendation of Silas? It was the members of the church. It wasn't a deacon board somewhere saying, OK, we're going to do... No, it was the body of Christ. Every one of us is a priest, right? In the church of Christ, in the church of God. We're all believers. We're all members in particular. We're all priests of God. We all have the Holy Spirit. We all have the book in our hands. We have the Holy Scriptures. And we're observing the brethren. And we can say by weighing the balance and looking at the Scripture, that brother's got a good testimony. Yeah? Look what it says here in Philippians 4. Look down in verse 8. Paul's concluding. He says, Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are what? Whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any virtue, if there be any praise, think on these things. Those things which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen, and meet, do. And the God of peace shall be with you. But I rejoice in the Lord greatly, that now at the last your care of me hath flourished again, wherein you were also careful, but ye lacked opportunity. What's Paul talking about? He's talking about the church in Philippi supporting the ministry. And he said about supporting the ministry, you need to be thinking about some things. And one of the things that they need to be thinking about was a good report. Yeah. All right. You can think about that for a while. How do you know God's called you? Well, there's got to be desire. Look at first Timothy chapter three. Is anybody going to be offended if I take off my jacket? OK. Now my wife will know I'm having fun. 1st Timothy chapter 3, look at it, in verse 1. Oops, I'm sorry. 3 and verse 1. This is a true saying, if any man, what? If any man desire the office of bishop, he desire a good work. So, it's not only that you have a good testimony, but you also have to have a desire. Now, this is a great contrast between the work in Poland and the work in Mexico. Man, we had a lot of brethren in Mexico. Ain't that right, Bill? A lot of brethren in Mexico, when they got saved, they had a whole lot of desire, I want to preach too! And it was, pick me, pick me, I want to go, yeah? Because we'd go out on preaching campaigns, and all of them would want to come. And some of these were novices, and we just had to say, you know what? We're going to put some restrictions. It's not going to be everybody. It wasn't just desire, but desire is part of it. Now in Poland, we have some men that are qualified. I mean, they are good, solid teachers. They know the scriptures. But when it comes to desire, they've got no desire for any responsibility. They say, brethren, you've got a great testimony. I'd like to recommend you for the ministry. No, thank you. I don't want the responsibility. I thank God for their honesty, right? but they had no desire. If you want to get into the ministry, there's going to be a need for desire. Now, I wrote this down. Listen to it carefully. You might want to write it down yourself. How do you know that God's called me, called yourself, into the ministry? This is one of the phrases. Upon discovering the truth, if this is true of you, upon discovering the truth in the Scriptures, you have an insatiable desire to teach others that truth, there's probably, that's a calling. Yeah? I know what happened with me with the gospel. When I saw the gospel that Christ died for sinners, because all my life I was told good people go to heaven and bad people go to hell, and I understood, well, looks like I ain't going to heaven. Because I knew that I wasn't good. Mama said I was good, and the neighbors said I was good, but I was able to deceive them. And the police didn't have a record because they didn't catch me. Yeah? They always caught my brother, they never caught me. And I was so embarrassed that my own conscience bore witness to me. It was like kicking against the pricks when my mother would say to my brother, why don't you be a good boy like your brother? And my brother's over there, you know, he didn't rat me out, but he coulda, but he didn't. He knew that I was with him. I never got caught. And so my conscience was always bearing witness that I wasn't good. And so when I heard that only good people go to heaven, I just thought, well, I guess I'm not going. Now, I wasn't brought up with the Scriptures. I wasn't like young Timothy. I didn't have a grandmother or a mother that sat down with the Scriptures or even a father that sat down and opened up the Scriptures. My children have had that blessing, haven't you? I don't mean to embarrass you, but haven't you? And I hope your children have that testimony. You know what? Mom and Dad, they might not be the brightest light bulb in the house, in the house, but you know what? They taught me the scriptures. They might not be the sharpest knife in the drawer, but hey, they took time to teach me the scriptures. Are you teaching your children the scriptures? Are you? That's a question. You can respond. If not, you can start today. You know they sell Bibles in America that has it all divided out for you? Yeah? Where you can read the Scriptures, so many Scriptures every day, and if you read three chapters a day, you're probably going to get through the Bible in one year with your family. I know we did several times. But one of the things that desire, and in Poland, unfortunately, we have a lot of brethren that they have a great testimony, but they have zero desire. So there's got to be a balance. Look in 1 Corinthians in chapter 9. And verse 16, Paul says, For though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of, for necessity is laid upon me. Yea, woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel. For if I do this thing willingly, I have a reward. But if against my will, a dispensation of the gospel is committed unto me. Now I want to balance this desire with the Scriptures. Because desire can be two-fold. Desire could be as I defined it by this insatiable desire within me and within us to repeat this truth or teach this truth or go further. That could be also. But also there's a desire on recognizing that we have a moral responsibility to carry the gospel, yeah? So some people, they do it willingly. Yeah, I want to do that because this is great news. I want to tell you about Jesus. This is fantastic, yeah? And they're excited about it. This is what they want to do. But other people say, you know what? I don't really like standing in front of people. That's not my cup of tea. I don't know if I can do this, but I have a responsibility. I've got a responsibility and I need to do this because this is the command of God Almighty. Do you understand what I'm trying to say here? So there's two types of this, this desire. There's a desire that maybe comes naturally. I think there was a, I can't, who was it? Was it Titus? It says that he had a, he just naturally loved people. Yeah. And I've met some people. Dale West was a man that just naturally loved people. But you know, for me, it's a command. I got to love you. Oh man. Why is that? Can I read some other verse? I got to love him. I'm sorry, brother. I'm not picking on you, but you're just my example right now. I got to love him. I don't mind loving her over here, but Him? Come on, Lord. You understand what I'm saying? Sometimes we've got to bear a cross. And there's a desire within us that says, you know what? I want to please my Savior. And I don't have that natural desire. And there's nothing up emotionally bubbling within me that says, let's do it. But there's that cross that says, I've got to carry it. I'm going to take that cross, the cross that Christ carried, and I'm going to do it because God said do it. So there has to be desire to fulfill the Word of God. Isn't that what it says here? Look in Jeremiah, that's the Old Testament, chapter 20. I think you'll remember this verse when I read it in verse 9. Jeremiah was always looking for excuses, right? He says, you know, I can't speak. And then God figured and told him, well, I made your tongue, you can speak. Yeah. You know what? I've used all those excuses too. Lord, Polish is too hard. There's no way I can't speak. And he says, don't worry about it. I made your tongue. Yeah. Look what he says here. Jeremiah 20 verse 9 then I said I will not make mention of him Nor speak anymore in his name got a little bit discouraged didn't he? But his word was in my heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones And I was weary with forbearing and I could not stay How do you know you're called in a ministry? Well, there's something burning in you. I You just gotta do it. Yeah? You can't hold out anymore. You can't resist anymore. I think in the New Testament it said, Jesus said to the Apostle Paul, it's hard for you to kick against the pricks. And sometimes in the ministry, of course Paul was called immediately into the ministry, wasn't he? Yeah? So, sometimes in this idea of how do we know that God's calling us, there's something burning in us. I gotta go. I gotta do it. Yeah? I can't stay anymore. I can't forbear anymore. I just gotta do it. And I think that's the goal of this conference, right? Trying to preach the Word of God to find somebody, the Word of God will get a hold of their heart and they'll say, I can't forbear anymore! I've got to go out and I've got to preach the Gospel! That's what we're doing, we're sowing seeds. Brother Kincaid used to say, Brother Lendl, Bill's dad, used to say, just strike your matches. I'm trying to get a fire going somewhere, yeah? I'm striking matches, you know. Maybe right here it'll start burning. Yeah, I'm gonna strike some matches. Maybe over here it'll get burned. Right here I'm gonna strike some more, man. Do you hear it? Poland, Poland. We're just striking matches. Before the book of Jeremiah is the book of Isaiah, right? Look over in Isaiah chapter 6. Bill wrote a story, he told me he did, in high school about There's no new, what do you call those? Plots. All the plots are already in the scriptures. So long before, what is that film called? Shrek. Long before Shrek and the donkey saying, pick me, it was already in the Bible. Isaiah 6, 8. This is Isaiah. He's not like Jeremiah. Jeremiah said, no, no, not me. Go talk to Isaiah. I don't want to get involved on this. And so Jeremiah was like a necessity was laid on him, like Paul said. But here we have Isaiah. Isaiah says, also I heard the voice of the Lord saying, whom should I send? And who will go for us? And then Isaiah says, here am I, pick me, send me, pick me. Yeah? Sometimes we get some people like that, right? We had a whole lot of them down in Mexico. Yeah, pick me, I want to go, I want to go. There's got to be a balance. So we have what? Testimony, and we have desire. One more on desire. Romans chapter 1, verse 14. This is what I was talking about, this portion of Paul's testimony in Corinthians where he said, necessity is laid upon me, yeah? It's like this burden. I'm a debtor. He says in verse 14, I'm a debtor both to the Greeks and to the barbarians, both to the wise and to the unwise. So, as much as in me is, I'm ready to preach the gospel to you that are in Rome also. For I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For herein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, The just shall live by faith. Sometimes we get this overwhelming burden that realizes, that says to us, I'm a debtor. I'm a debtor. I think about Gwen Higgins, 16 years old, overcoming all the fears and all the anxieties that we get, all the stress that we get when we want to talk to a co-worker about the Lord. You know what I'm talking about, don't you? You know you want to tell them about the Lord, but the knees start knocking, yeah? And the butterfly starts flying. And you start getting nervous and your mouth gets dry. There's just a lot of emotional things that happen when we start witnessing to people. Am I close to home? Is it true? You know what? She overcame all that stuff. However, I don't know how she did it, but she overcame it, got her Bible out of her purse and talked to me about the Lord Jesus Christ and I got saved. Well, five years later, she died of hepatitis. Young wife, two or three-year-old child, and she was dead. She's not witnessing anymore. She had a great testimony when she was alive, all the way to her death, but she's not witnessing. I'm thinking about who's going to witness like Gwen Higgins if I don't. But really that's not the best example of this because Paul says, you know, I'm a debtor to these other people. He says, I'm a debtor to who? He said, I'm a debtor both to the Greeks and to the barbarians, both to the wise and the unwise. Don't you know that we're all debtors? You owe the gospel to the Polish people. You owe the gospel to the people here in New York. You owe the gospel to the people in Mexico. You and I owe the gospel. We are debtors. God has given us tremendous grace, and He's given us great mercy, and with that comes great responsibility. If you've got the cure for cancer, You have a responsibility to give it to other people. You shouldn't be hiding that cure. And we've got the cure for sin, brothers and sisters. We ought not to be hiding that. And what we need is some full-time ministers that are carrying that gospel out, that says something in their soul. You know what? I'm a debtor. I've got to go. That's desire. Testimony, desire. I look at 1st Peter chapter 4, another point that we have to look at is you have to have a gift. God in His great wisdom when He built the church, He gave what onto the church? Gifts. He gave gifts to the church. 1st Peter chapter 4 and verse 10. As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God. If any man minister, let him do it as the ability which God giveth, that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion forever and ever. Amen. You know what I know my gift ain't? Languages. Now, Brother Bill, he's got a great gift of language. Brother Joe West, he's got a great gift of languages. I thank God for them, and God gave them that ability. They can get the language down and they can speak it correctly. And, you know, Joe, he's over there correcting the polls on their Polish. It's just amazing, yeah? And here I am, I'm just stumbling along, you know? But you know what my motto is? As much as in me is. And I'm going full throttle ahead. I'm preaching the gospel in the best way I can. If it's gotta be stammering lips, it's gonna be stammering lips. But I'm gonna get the gospel out. Why? Because I'm a debtor! And there's been a desire in me from the day I got saved. The gospel was a wow for me. I learned later I'm supposed to say praise the Lord and hallelujah thing for me, but in the beginning it was just wow! A sinner can be saved like me? God gives gifts! And you know why? You know why we have open meetings? Because the church is a body. And if you have one mouth and the rest is all ears, that's a deformed body. God set it up that we're all priests and we ought to be functioning. And there's no way that you're going to know whether that brother or sister has a gift if they don't ever get a chance to speak. You don't know if he has a speaking ability or not. Now, the systems that are set up and the traditions, and I'm not here to criticize. I'm just trying to explain from my viewpoint. Yeah. The problem we have with deputation is a lot of times deputation is like a training exercise. You just go around these churches and see if you can preach or not. Brethren, that ought to have been decided way before they even thought about going out on deputation. They ought to have had opportunity in the Church of God to function as a priest of God and speak the Word of God so that the brother can give a report. Yeah, that brother can preach. Yeah, that brother can teach. Or, no, bless his heart, he's got a lot of desire, but I'm sorry, he just ain't got the gift. Yeah? But unfortunately, in the systems that we got, and all of us are fighting traditions. Not just them guys out there, right here. Right here. We're fighting tradition. Down in San Antonio, they're fighting tradition. In Poland, in Toruń, Poland, we're fighting tradition. We all got tradition. That's why we keep on going back to the book. And that's why I'm thankful that your pastors have enough wisdom to invite people out of their circle. We tried to do that in San Antonio. We tried to do it in Poland, for sure. We invite people that are out of our comfort zone to challenge us. You know, there's a problem with being inbred. I don't want to go into the details, but really, you know, there is a problem. And sometimes churches get inbred. They only talk about, you know, what they believe. And nobody ever challenges them. You know what I thank God for? Brother Lendl, a long, long time ago, he invited other evangelists. They didn't believe everything we believed. And he gave them liberty to preach whatever they wanted to. He just warned them. He says, listen, we're people of the book. You better make sure you preach according to the book because if you're not preaching the book, you're liable to get rebuked. Yeah? So we're not afraid of inviting some brother that doesn't agree with us, you know, doesn't toe the line on every dot and chittle. Tittle. Chittle. Because we got the book. Brethren, if you're not weighing me tonight, then you're not doing your duty. You're supposed to find out, you're supposed to listen to me, examine what I say, compare it with the Scriptures, and if it's according to the Scriptures, you hold it fast. If not, that's just chaff to the wind. But the problem is we have all these traditions, even in the Church of God we have traditions, we've got to fight against it daily. And one of the traditions is, we got one pastor, he's gonna preach Sunday morning, he's gonna preach Sunday night, he's gonna preach Wednesday night, and any meeting, it's gonna be him or somebody, one other brother maybe. And how do we know if anybody else has a good report or not? How do we know if anybody else has the gift or not? Because they're never given an opportunity to function as a church. You know, the church meeting is the open meeting. I know we have a term for it, we say open meeting, but that's the church meeting. That's where the church functions. The church is the body, right? And the body has more than just one member, one mouth. The body has, like, lots of members, yeah? And they all function. Every one of you, it says in Corinthians. Every one of you. Not every one of you elders, but every one of you members of the body of Christ. All right, you're pretty sharp cookies. I think you got that. 1 Timothy chapter 4. Honey, I'm having fun. Your prayers have been answered. 1 Timothy chapter 4. Are you? Everybody else having fun? Maybe I'm the only one. Verse 14, listen to what Paul says to young Timothy. Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by the prophecy with the laying on of hands of the presbytery. Meditate on these things, give thyself wholly to them, that thy profiting may appear to all. What does he say? Don't neglect the gift. If you got it, use it. Don't sit on it. You've got the ability to teach? Teach! You've got the ability to preach? Preach! You've got the ability to minister? Minister! You've got the ability to give? Give! And like Brother Earl said this morning, give it all! You're going to preach? Preach it all! You're going to teach? Teach it all! You're going to give? Give it all! Let's take our first offering. Everybody's animated. I think the fire's burning, brother. 2nd Timothy chapter 1. Yeah, because we have to have a testimony, we have to have a desire, we have to have a gift. And the gift comes from God. Every good gift. I think a sister quoted that verse, right? Every good gift comes from where? From the Father above. What did I say? 2nd Timothy 1 and verse 6. We read verse 5, right? When I called to remembrance the unfaith faith. Thank you, brother. The unfaith faith. that is in thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and in thy mother Eunice, and I am persuaded in thee also. Wherefore, because of this, I put thee in remembrance, that thou stir up the gift of God which is in thee by the putting on my hands." Yeah, well you got a gift, you need to stir it up. You may need to mix the pot. And you elders have a responsibility to give the other members of the church of God the ability to stir up their gift. And don't be quenching their gift. You ought to encourage them to use the gift. Yeah, they're going to make mistakes. They're going to stumble. Yeah, that's what you're around for, to help them, to guide them and correct them. Every young kid that first learned how to ride a bike, he tumbled and fell and cut up his knees and everything else. You're not going to do that again. No, you put him back on the bike. Try it again, son. Now, of course, you're going to have heretics come in and try to teach some bad doctrine. But if I read 1 Corinthians right, that was intent. God intended that to happen so you might know who your elders are. Because the true pastors are going to protect you from the wolves. But in our society, ain't no wolf going to get in the door. Because the only one speaking is the pastor. And how are we going to know whether he's a wolf or not? Do you understand? The Turk is a body. A body is made up of what? Members! That's plural. Crick. Some of you understand that. Alright, did you get that? You have to have a gift. The gift comes from God. And none of this faking gifts. I got the gift of tongues. No, you don't. down a language school in Guadalajara, Mexico. Went down there, and Janice and I, we studied nine months, five hours a day, every day, went to school. In that school was a bunch of Pentecostal brethren. Like Bill said this morning, some of the Pentecostal brethren are some of the finest brothers on the planet Earth. And in Mexico, they're preaching the gospel. And in Poland, they're preaching the gospel. I thank God for them. I really do. But you know, I've got a problem with some of their doctrines. And so this brother, bless his heart, He was like, you know, I got trouble learning language. This brother really had trouble learning language. But I didn't go around saying I had the gift. He was saying that he had the gift of tongues. I said, what? You got the gift of tongues? He says, yeah. I said, God called you to where? Mexico. God called you to Mexico, so you got the gift of Spanish? What are you doing in language school? He said, no, God gave me another language. What? Are you blaming it on God? God gave you what? Swahili? And sent you to Mexico? When we say gifts, we're talking about real gifts. That brethren are going to be able to identify and say, you know, that brother can preach. Or that brother can teach. Or that brother, boy, he's got a giving heart. Or that sister right there, boy, she can minister. Real gifts. You understand that, right? We're talking about real stuff. We're not talking about fake. There's enough of that out there. All right, what's the last one? Well-reported of. Recognition. By the church. Look, we're in 1st Timothy, right? 1st Timothy chapter 3, just back up. We read verse 1. If any man desire the office of bishop, he desire the good work. Look down in verse 6 and 7. not a novice less being lifted up with pride he fall into the combination of the devil we gotta be careful about this ministry stuff yeah because we're in a war moreover he must have did you see that that's a necessity you can't get by you can't skirt around this one he must have what a good report a good report of them which were which are without lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil." I was telling about brother Bill and I down in Mexico and we'd have these, I mean we were getting, people were getting saved, the Holy Ghost was moving, I mean the fires were burning, real revival, just amazing. I mean some of the stories you just wouldn't believe, you'd think we're just preaching. But I mean people are really getting saved. And these young men, they were zealots from the very beginning and they'd want to preach. And they had this idea, well, I'm going to quit my job and I'm just going to preach. Well, the problem was they didn't have a job to quit. You know what we began telling them? You go work at a job and figure out what it's like to work at a job and then preach and then come talk to us about preaching. Don't be giving up your non-job and say, you know, you gave it all when you never had a job in your life. Go get a job. Find out what it's like. Then you can start preaching and telling people, you know, you need to get out and preach the gospel. But until you've got to work, you know, 10, 12 hours a day and then still come to church and read your Bible and get out and preach the gospel, you don't have any experience. You're just a novice. So it's not enough just to have desire. You have to have experience. Isn't that what it said? Now about this report. from without. You ought to have a good testimony in the world. You know, one of the things that really discouraged me, even as a young believer, when I found out that there were deacons that were deaconing on Sunday, but they were cussing it up on Monday. I'd go out where they were working and I'd hear them swearing and cussing up a blue streak. And I'm thinking, am I seeing right? Is that something wrong with that, right? God expects us to have experience. You know what Brother Lindell taught us when we were young guys and we started preaching and he started teaching us? He took a map of San Antonio and he cut it up. He said, so you want to be in the ministry, do you? And he cut this map up. He said, you want to go to another country and preach the gospel, do you? Cut the map up. He said, all right, evangelize this part of town. We had a whole section of town we had to evangelize. When you get that done, come back and talk to me. What was he doing? He was training us. If you're going to go start work in some country and you can't even speak the language, how about right here? Show me what you got. Go knock on doors right where you're at. Go figure it out yourself. You're going to have to figure it out when you get there, right? Figure it out right here. If you can't figure it out right here, you're not going to figure it out right there, out there. And boy, we did all sorts of things. We knocked on doors. We tracked. We tagged. We did all sorts of things, but we covered our ground. And then we went back to Brother Lynn, and he had us on the other side of the map. He was a real taskmaster. But the elders then, they were really wise, you know. They understood that most missionaries in denominations, before they go out, they got to have four years of college, they got to have so many years of seminary, and they're going to spend about eight years of training before they ever went out. And then they're still going to fail. But they had a lot of wisdom. They said, all right, we're going to have some training. We're going to have to train you right here in San Antonio for a year or two. And then we're going to send you out. But you're not free yet. You've got two years of training under another missionary somewhere. And you're going to train under him. And you're going to be a toilet cleaner. That means you're not going to criticize. You're not going to make comments. You're not going to say anything. You're going to keep your mouth shut. And if they have nothing else for you to do but clean toilets, you're going to clean toilets with a good attitude and thanking God that you had an opportunity to clean their toilets. And you're going to work under another and experienced missionaries for two years. And after you complete that two to four year process, then if you want to go somewhere else, you can go. But not until then. You know, that was good advice. So Paul comes along and he's commissioned by the church in Jerusalem to go out. He picked Silas because Silas had a good testimony. And the first town he gets to, it looks like anyway, the first town he gets to, he hears good report of young Timothy. He said, come on, Timothy, you come with me. And I gave you that progression of Timothy. It looks like Timothy was being trained on the beginning. He just followed Paul around. But then as as time goes by, Paul says, I want you to go there and preach for me. And he's giving more and more responsibility. And that's the progression. Not a novice. All right. Do you got it? Did you figure it out? How do you know God's called you into the ministry? Well, do you have a testimony? Do you have a testimony? Have you been truly saved? Are you a servant of Christ? Are you serving the Lord where you're at right now in the condition that you're in? Are you doing it? Do you have a good report? Do you have a desire? Do you have a desire? Do you have the gift? And can anybody else recognize that gift? And does the church speak highly of you? Does the church say, you know what? I'm going to support you. And when I say church, I'm talking about you. I've seen your life. I've seen your desire. I've seen your ministry. I know that you want to go. I think you're qualified. You've got the gift. Let's lay hands on you. We're going to send you. You're going to go out and you're going to do work and we're going to support you. That's personal. And that's why we've done designated offerings. Because you know the testimony and you have the testimony. You have the testimony, and it's recognized by the brethren, and we know you, and we have a burden for you, and I have a burden for you, so I'm going to give to your ministry. I worked overtime while Bill was down in Mexico so that I could give to him, because I knew his character, and I knew his desire. And we worked hard so he could have money. He about starved to death anyway, but... I don't know what would happen if we hadn't been given to him, but we gave to him. And nobody that goes out of San Antonio goes out with a salary. Nobody gets a guarantee. You go out by faith, and you might end up making ten somewhere. We've worked from almost the day we landed in Poland. It's expenses over there. Well, the last verse is in Acts chapter 13. I'm having fun, but I'm running out of energy. Acts 13. Now there were in the church that was at Antioch certain prophets and teachers. Note that. Mark that down. 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 whereunto I have called them. When they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them, they sent them away. So they being sent forth by the Holy Ghost departed from Seleucia and from thence they sailed on to Cyprus. All right. You probably heard a missionary say, God told me. Have you ever heard that? God told me to go to Poland. You're not going to hear that from me. How do I know that God has called me? Well, from the four points I just gave you. But I don't know that He told me to go to Poland. Because I've been reading that Bible in about three different languages and I haven't found Poland in any of them. So I don't see any command in the Bible that says to go to Poland. I don't see any command in the Bible that says stay in New York. What are you doing here? Yeah, what are you doing here? I didn't see any command in the Bible that says go to San Antonio. And whether God told you or not, if you said God told me, how am I going to know if it's not in the scripture? I hear a lot of people saying, God told me to do this, God told me to do that, and they don't last five minutes. But we're back to this consensual recognition that the Holy Spirit is moving. Can you tell if somebody's got the Holy Spirit or not? Aren't there some signs in the Bible, maybe not signs, aren't there fruits of the Holy Spirit that you can identify and say, yes, this person's got the Holy Spirit. How do we know? Because love is coming out of them. Joy and peace See, yeah that person got the Holy Spirit Did you notice what's going on here? These guys were already teachers These guys were already prophets. They were already speaking. Yeah in the church. They're already ministering They were praying and it looks to me like the consensual voice of the church recognized That these are the ones to go now. I might be wrong on that. But that's what how it looks to me And it looks to me like they recognize this is a moving of the Spirit of God. These guys have a testimony. These guys have the desire. These guys have the gift. We recognize it. We believe it's of the Holy Spirit saying, send these guys. And that's what they did. And they went. All the believers recognize it. And that voice is what establishes things. Do you have the Holy Spirit? Do you know how you recognize heresy? Heresy is a contradiction of the consensual voice of the Church of God. When you read your Bible, and you read your Bible, and you read your Bible, and all of us read our Bible, we all come to the conclusion that our God is triune. We've established the doctrine. And when somebody walks in the back door and says, no, no, no, no, there's no Trinity in the Bible, God's not a triune God our consensual voice outweighs them Because we have the Holy Spirit and Holy Spirit works in us. Are you following? Well the church recognized Paul's ability recognized Paul's testimony recognized Paul's gift recognized Paul's desire He was well reported of didn't brag on himself and the church sent him out And the last verse I want to give you is in Mark chapter 16 because the remaining question is, how do you know it's Poland? Well, I'm going to try to answer that. Mark 16 and verse 15, Jesus is talking. He said unto them, he said unto his disciples, go ye where? Into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. And what does it say in Matthew chapter 28? All nations, right? Every creature, all nations. I think that includes Poland. So, the calling is practical. I think we serve a practical God. And we look out at the need of where the gospel is, and we go to Poland, and it's not 2%, Brother Bill, like Mexico was, of born-again Christians. It's .1%. That's not even 1%, it's 0.1%. That's about 30,000 people in a country, 38,000 people in a country of 38-39 million souls. And we said, there's a great need to the gospel. Is the door open? Is there a need? Yeah, there's a need. I can remember when we were in Irapuato, Mexico, that we were considering about going to other places. We had already covered the Bajio and all the major cities in the Bajio, and we were considering, well, do we need to start going to these smaller cities? And we even thought about going to other countries, but all the Latin American countries, they had more Christians than Mexico did. Why leave Mexico to go somewhere else where there's already more Christians than Mexico? Why don't we stay where we're at? So it was a practical decision based on need. We looked at Poland and said, you know, there's a great need. And Bill and I flew over there and we started talking to people all over Poland, talking to some of the pastors, and they said, yes, there's a great need. But if you want to win souls, don't come here. Stay in Mexico. And that was a great need for us. I mean, the leading pastors appeared to us. They weren't discouraged, but we thought they were discouraged. It looked like they were discouraged. We need to come and help them. And sometimes you might get that Macedonia call where somebody says, come over and help me. That's why we're in Torun. We were in Warsaw looking for the next place to go in Poland, and a brother called me up and said, we've been praying for 30 years that a street preacher come to our town. Can you come? I said, I'm your answer to prayer. I'm coming. Practical things. All right, brother. I'm out of energy. I gave it my all. I had fun. I hope you did. I hope you learned something. Do you got a testimony? Do you have a desire? Do you got a gift that matches that desire? And does your fellow brothers and sisters recognize that? Then you're ready to go. Amen? Brother, I'll let you take over. Thank you, brethren.