And all God's children said, amen, amen, amen, amen. Thank you, thank you, thank you so much for all of that. Children, you can run to Jesus right now, well, you can run to Keith right now in the back. Kind of the same thing, he'll tell you about Jesus. Oh, you left your, okay, I'll take that. God bless you guys, have a good time. Okay. I really don't know what the Lord has for this morning. I mean, we're scheduled to go through Romans chapter 16, verses one and two. But I just want to talk to you guys a little bit before we get into that. You may not know the story of Blake and Sammy. Probably many of you don't. But the Holy Spirit inside of my heart is connecting a couple of things here this morning. So we have, we have a gentleman that went over and visited them just now and he came, he gave his testimonies. But how in the world did we get to be supporting the Freeborn Rangers or supporting Blake and Sammy? I want you to know this because it's important that we don't just pray and we don't just give money, but we understand what God is doing in us. And this was about five or six years ago. I was up visiting my boys. They were both in the Navy. They were telling me a story, specifically Jedediah was telling me a story of a guy by the name of Blake. And I said, well, who is this Blake stuff? And he said, well, he was, they were in the Navy SEALs together, and yet Blake was just really messed up. And in fact, he, it's really hard to do this, but he got booted out of the Navy SEALs. Because you got to be really bad to get booted out of that. Once you're in, you got to be really, really bad. But when that happens, there is a kind of a shunning that goes on. You get booted out of the Navy SEALs, no Navy SEAL wants to talk to you. So he had gotten into drugs and he had gotten into drinking and so they finally said we're done with this and sent him to a rehab place. Before he left Jed was the only one that contacted him and said to him, Blake, get your act together. God's talking to you. Start listening. And they had been friends. Everybody else shunned him. Jed sent him that note. So he went to rehab or he went to detox and then rehab. And while he was there, there happened to be a Bible in the bedside container there. And he picked it out and he started reading. And by God's grace, God saved him. And so here's this guy that was just deplorable in his life. I mean, this is an individual that would do things that you and I would be shocked at. And so he goes to this rehab. God saves him. He calls up his wife who is planning on divorcing him and said, God met me. I'm changed. Um, I want to stay married. And she's like, uh, I don't think that's going to happen. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, please, please. So it got into the discussion. Well, anyway, long story. After he got out of rehab, he comes home to his wife. His wife does not know who he is, who this guy is because he's 180% different than, than how he was living his life before. I mean, he was messed up big time. So. She calls Jedediah and said, you need to come over and help me with this. So Jedediah goes over there, and what you're doing is you're checking out what happened, right? I mean, here's a guy that everybody knows who he is, and now he's totally different. So Jed goes over there, interacts with him, and comes to the clinic. This is the real deal. I mean, he really is saved a different person. And Blake is like, well, yeah. And of course, everybody else was like, you know, and so she says, OK, we can we can try to put this back together. Well, I go, Marie and I go up to visit Jed and Jeremiah about, I would say, two months later. And Jed says to me, hey, I'm bringing over a friend of mine. I said, OK, great. We'd like to meet. His name is Blake. I said, OK. And then tells me the story. And he wants my same response, you know, I want you to check it out to see if it's real. So here comes Jed, or here comes Blake and Sammy. I think at that time, they had three girls comes through the door. And I'm, you know, I was like, Okay, nice. Nice to meet you. Hey, hey, brother, how you doing? You know, just because that's where Blake is. He's just he's alive like that. And we sat down and we talked. And it was the real deal. You can always tell when God changes a life. He's just a different person. And then all of a sudden I started hearing all of the stories that Jedidiah told me about him prior to salvation, after Blake and Sammy had come. And so during that discussion that I'm talking with Blake about, he goes, yeah, yeah, yeah, I made contact, or I'm gonna make contact with David Eubanks. I had just two weeks earlier found out about David Eubanks and Freeborn Rangers and done some research and found out about it. There's a ton of people who wants to get in contact with Eubanks. And he just doesn't, he doesn't make contact. He's got so many people to talk to him, he doesn't make contact. And I said, I don't want you to be discouraged, but I don't think that's going to happen, you know, very much. Really? Because he called me right back. Well, you know, well, that happens sometimes too, you know. But anyway, what took place is David and, because they're both from the special forces arena, he invited him over. He went over there for, I think, two months and Sammy, didn't Sammy and the kids stay with us for the time that he was gone? And so we're all trying to figure out what's going on. Comes back and says, yeah, he wants me to come over. And Sammy is like, we're going from salvation to trying to put this marriage back to now we're going to be missionaries. And Blake is like, Oh yeah, and I got a bunch of friends who are going on with me and they're all going to support us. It's going to be great. You know, and, and Sammy's just trying to go in like this. I'm going, well, I'm not in this family. So we'll just kind of watch and see what happens. Well, anyway, what transpires is that God takes the whole family over there. And I said to him, hey, you need to come down and meet Hope Chapel. And he said, why? I said, what is that? I said, it's all church. He comes down, presents everything to, and I don't know how many of you were here when, okay, yeah. And he just played, I mean, first time he's presenting about being a missionary. The guy's like, just very brand new in Jesus. And our church falls in love with the whole family and everything. We just say, Oh, this, this, this is why we're here. This is what we're doing. So we're going to support you. He goes, great, great. And so he goes out to Washington and he goes to Texas and, and he gets more support and, and goes over and starts. And then we start getting pictures like. I mean, this is this is the real deal. I mean, you're seeing pictures of people's arms blown off and legs blown off. Because what this is a 75 year old civil war. This has been going on for 75 years. And the government is just they'll just bomb villages and just destroy the whole vision, just come in with their planes and just bomb everything. Well, these people hear the planes come and they start running away from the village. And that's where Freeborn Rangers is involved in picking up all of the pieces. And so they had to have people who can handle the frontline tactics and what's going on. So that's right up Blake's alley. And so here you've got a situation where this guy is, I mean, you think about the act of God saving this guy. training him, full-on training. He knows what he's doing. Full-on training in the Navy SEALs gets blown out of there because God's got another job for him. And he's not even saved yet. Gets blown out of there. My son interacts with him. He comes down to us and we're kind of like, like this guy, you know, goes over there and ministers. And now he's learning dentistry, pulling out teeth and doing all kinds of things because they don't have any other doctor. And you sit there and go, wow. And then about a year ago or two, I say to guy in our church who reminds me a little bit of Blake and reminds me a little bit of David, I say, you know, you ought to think about just going over there. You know, I, yeah, I've been thinking about that, you know. That's how he is. You know, you know, and I, so I, you know, and by the way, this is from Uganda, so it's all right for me to wear a shirt like this on Sunday morning, okay. Again, all the complaints from all the, all right, it's okay, all right. So I tell him, all of a sudden he makes contact. And then he goes over, and I will tell you, you're a different person having gone over. Now, the reason I wanna say that to you, because you know that I went over to Uganda and Kenya, and I love going over to the field. You know what the thought, you know what the question that came to my mind when I was over there? What am I doing in America? Brothers and sisters, why are we here? There are places that need you. Just to visit? Sure, go ahead. Just to visit. But God may then say, hey, I want you there a lot longer. So I feel bad for Suzanne. So Chad comes back and says, whoa, yeah, let's do this. And Suzanne, oh, here we go. You know, the ride's going to be interesting. I don't know what's for their family. I don't want to lose them because we lose our worship team. OK. But God's got a plan for them. And the question that I have this morning, dealing with even verses in Romans chapter 16 and verses one and two, what's God's plan for you? So let's, I'm gonna tie this in, but you've gotta get it, all right? So turn in to Romans 16, one and two, put those verses up there, and I wanna kinda go through this. So this is Paul at the end of his most theologically sound treaties that he's ever written, the Book of Romans. Last chapter, signing his name, he says these words, I commend to you Phoebe, okay, Phoebe. And there's a ton of this that I will probably get into next week. I'm just gonna take a couple of points here. Our sister, so she's a believer in the Lord. who is a deacon of the church in Sincreia. That's what the word means. That word is diakone, same word as 1 Corinthians or 1 Timothy 3. Now we'll talk about this later. I want to get into this right now. But he's saying, I commend this person to you, Phoebe. And what I want you to get at is that Phoebe most likely was the person who was taking the letter, the Roman. And I'll show you a map in just a moment, but she took the letter of Romans to the Romans from Paul to Rome. And she is a servant in the church in Sincrea, that you may receive her In the Lord, and that phrase is given us about six times in this chapter, in the Lord, in the Lord, in the Lord, in a manner worthy of the saints. So I want you to receive her in a way that is likened unto Christians. So you're a Christian, she's a Christian, I'm a Christian, I want you to treat her like one, okay? And assist her, he goes on and says, and assist her in whatever business she has need of you. Now hold on to that because I didn't know how God was going to Bring these together, what we were talking about with Blake and Sammy, what we're talking about with Chad. But he says here, I want you to assist her in whatever business she has need of you. For indeed, she has been a helper of many and of myself also. So I want to just kind of apply this and we'll get into this a little bit more next week. But that's what God has done with Blake and Sammy. That's what God is doing with Chad. And that's what he's going to do with many more of us. In other words, it's this God says, I've got plans for you that you don't know. I got things for you that I want you to fulfill. And I can't let you know right now because if I do, it's going to blow your head off. You're just not going to what are you kidding me? It's coming. I've got plans for you. And what we learned last week is what? Make your plans, what? Open hands. And you may go, I don't see how this works. I don't know. This is kind of like way out there. I wonder how Sammy felt when she found out what God did to Blake. First thought had to be in her mind, this ain't happening. He's just trying to get back into the family. God says, no, I got plans for him. And if you had told her back, what, four or five years ago, hey, you're going to be living in Burma. You're going to be living in Taiwan. You're going to be living there in Thailand. That's going to be where your family is. Are you kidding me? But that's God. He's got plans for you. And what I see happening is when you open yourself up to something in the future, i.e. go over and see, what happens is your heart is going, what am I doing here? Brothers and sisters, we're not to live out the American dream. We are to live out God's dream. And we get caught up in the American dream and say, well, it's all, yeah, I get the money, get the house, get all this stuff. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's what we, no, no, no, no, no. Because what God says is, no, no, no, come with me. I take things from you. I do. I take things from you. My son is still working through some of that. My younger son is still working through some of that. God says, I'm going to take things from you. But when I do, I'm going to be with you. And I'm going to walk with you. So what I want us as a church to do and to think through is what has God not to do with Hope Chapel, what is God to do with me as a person? So God has brought Eric and Angie here. How did you get to Greenville? I mean, you're from way out west. And then you're in Colorado. And now you're here. Why? There's a reason for that. And there's a reason for every single one of you that are sitting here and looking at me that you don't know God has a plan for you. And all he wants you to do is open your hands up. God, I'll go anywhere. I will do anything that you want. As long as I know it's you, I want to do it. And I want to say to the young people that are here, don't think small, think big. Don't think small, think big. God, what could you do with me? Where could you take me? What do you want me to do? So Paul sent Phoebe 700 miles, and now you'll see the maps, and we'll come to this next Sunday also. But I have two maps that I want you to see. Put one of them up there, brother, all right? So this is Sincreia. This is on the coastline. That's where ancient Corinth is. It's about five miles between the two. But Sincreia was the port city for Corinth. Modern Corinth is up there, so they've moved it. But if you were to go over there, this would be the difference. Now, the second one, she, Paul met her, so it's down in Corinth, Paul met her in Sincreia. What we know about her, very little. except for that Paul sent her on a trip all the way from Corinth all the way over to Rome to take a letter from Paul to Rome about 700 miles. It's 1100 kilometers, but it's about 700 miles. And I was frustrated that it had this up here because it says 133 hour. That means if you're walking it, well, guess what? That's what she did. She didn't have a car. So she left here, got on a boat, went over to there to bury and then walked the rest of the place. She, a woman back in that time, dangerous, probably brought a lot of her friends along with her. From what we can learn from tradition or the people that spoke about her later on, she was a wealthy woman. very, very wealthy woman. And so she had the resources to go and take this trip with her and her entourage to take this letter to the church at Rome. And when she got there, Paul had put in the letter what we just read in verses one and two. So this is a wealthy woman who lives down here in Corinth. Yet God's got something for her to do. It's the same thing for you guys. We did not know today, years ago, if Ted would still be coming to our church today. And yet God has plans for Ted and Dawn that they don't even know right now. I went over to see Marty yesterday. She's really been struggling. I said, it's the hardest thing in the world to sit in a room and listen to her cough and cough and cough and hack and cough. And yet God's got plans for her. And I don't know what that is. What I'm saying to you today with the illustration of this person, Phoebe, with this person, Chad, with that family, Blake and Sammy and the kids, with the example of Barron and Joyce coming here from Romania. And again, how did you get here? And that's God. What I'm saying to you is open your hands. Don't make your plans. Open your hands to whatever God wants you to do. Where do you want me to go, God? You want me to go to Uganda? You want to go to Canada? Where do you want me to go? I'll go. I'll go. That's what I want you to hold on to. Don't get caught into everything is right now. I've got to get a job. I got to do this. I got to have all of these things that are in this box. Don't do that. God, where do you want me to go? Because I will go to the mission field. I will go for two months. I don't know how that'll work out, but I'll go. I may even go for two years. God, if you open the door, I'll go just stop. We got to stop just looking down here and saying, God, what do you want to do with me? Could God want the entire Nesberg family on the mission field in a year? Yeah. Are they willing? I don't know. But God could do that. Could God take Beck and put her in a school in another country and teach? Yeah, he would have to work it all out, but God could do that. This is what I want you to look at. What does God want? And think outside the box. What does God want? What happens in five years if I come here and there's 10 people here because everybody else is on the mission field? See, the people around here say, well, that's not successful. I don't give a flip about that. The question is, what does God want from you? What does God want from me? Where does He want to take us? And are you willing to say, God, hands are open, wherever you want to go, and make it a wild ride? Because when you and I get to see, understand this, I'm going to be in heaven within probably 20, 25 years, and maybe sooner. I don't want to get up there. and have Paul come. So what did you do? Paul, why don't you tell me what you did? You know what happened? And tell a story of what God did in your life and in my life. Taking this entire family and saying, I got a place for you to go to minister. All of them. That's what's, it's amazing to me with Blake and Sammy. They got four girls and they're on the mission field. Why? Because he sat in a tiny, he said, God's opened her door. I'm going to go. I'm going to go. I want to put that in front of you. Sure. You may not be over there like Blake and Sammy for four or five years. Could you go over for a couple of months? Could you go to your boss and say, hey, I'm going to need a couple month break. I'm going to go to the mission field. You may be surprised. The boss may go, hey, I want to support you. But we don't think this way. We think American Dream. And I want to encourage you. Think about what God can do with you and open your palms up. Say, God, just make this one prayer. God, take me anywhere I'm willing to go. Want to say that? Don't play around with that. But if you say, God, take me anywhere, I'm willing to go. And then go wherever Hebrew opens the door to. And if he says, no, no, no, no, I want you to stay here, that's fine too. But the doors, the hands are open. Does that make sense? So I would like for us, And I'm not going to ask you to pray with your partner, and I'm not going to ask you to pray with your kids. I want you to pray to God by yourself. And just say to Him, will you let me go? Because have we already been given a commission? What's the commission? Make disciples where? It says, first of all, where? Jerusalem, and then where? Judea and Samaria, and then where? Has that been given, now ask yourself, has that been given to us? Are you willing? Are you willing? Or no, no, no, no, no, Chad, you go. Suzanne, you probably need to stay here. Chad, you go. That's good for Chad. We'll stay here and support him. What if God says, no, no, no, Chad and Suzanne. Well, Suzanne's kind of like, hmm, not too sure about that. God's got to work in her heart. They can't have Brody. Brody has to stay here. I just want you to know that. Just kidding. What if God has for the entire family to go? Here's the only question. God, if this is your will, that's I don't care about the money. I don't care about the job. I don't care about anything. If it's your will, I'll go. But see, we don't do that because the opportunity is for all of us to find, God, where do you want us to go? What do you want us to do? That's the question that came to my head when I was over in Uganda and Kenya. What am I doing in America? What am I doing here? Is there not a way where we can say, I'll go for a month, I'll go for two months. I will make you a promise. You will absolutely be transformed. You will be a different person. Okay? So a little baby just squawked. that we are thrilled to have here today, amen? Do you remember back a year, two years ago, three years ago, that we didn't even know if that would ever happen? And as a church, I remember praying over this family, and all of a sudden, God what? I mean, I saw the tears in the eyes saying, I just would love, and God has, and he's right there. If God can do that, what can he do with you if you're open in your hands and say, God, whatever you want. Whatever you want. So we will finish, I didn't even get in the sermon. We will finish this. next week. Lord willing, half the congregation is going to be gone. So, you know, you're all over in the mission field. That's great. No problem. But just I want you to pray before we conclude. And I'm going to ask you just to open your hands if you can. Now, please know some of you are not there. I get that. I get that. You're not there. OK. But ask God to make you there. Because when you get to heaven, you're going to want to have said, yeah, I did it. And God took me. Change your life completely. He can do in your life what he's done in Blake and Sammy's life. And he can do that here in Jerusalem. So you don't have to go any other place. You can do it around here. Make sense? We need to reach our Jerusalem. We need to reach our Judea and Samaria. So I'm gonna ask, Tyler, put on some music, and I'm just gonna ask you to pray individually by yourself, and put your heart in your hand, if you can, put your hands open and say, God, I'll go anywhere you want. You just gotta, you gotta show me where and you gotta provide for me. Those are just the only two things, show me and provide. I'll go for you, all right? So let's go to prayer and ask God to do that in our lives.