[0:00] Let's go to the book of 1 Corinthians. 1 Corinthians chapter number 15. 1 Corinthians chapter number 15. As you turn there, I just want to share with you one final testimony from our time there.
[0:14] Or not final, because you know me. I always talk about Burkina. I can't help it. But another testimony from our time there in Burkina. We were putting up a church sign on the side of the road. You know, to kind of give directions to the church. And I was working hard.
[0:26] You know, Brother John, I made sure that sign was straight. I had my left route. It was perfectly straight. I walked away, and it looked crooked. I was very disappointed. And I realized the road itself was crooked. I was like, what can you do? But anyways, that's besides the point.
[0:36] I'm still a little bitter about that. We're out putting up this sign on the side of the road. And as we're putting up this sign, I look over, and I see a man who owns a little bicycle repair shop. And as we were finishing up, I was just like, you know, I'll go over and talk to this guy over there.
[0:50] And give him a track. I talk to him a little bit. I invite him to church. And who knows? So I walk over, and I give him a track. His name was James. There's Jacques in French. And I gave him a track. And I invite him to church.
[1:00] Talk to him in a few minutes, five minutes max. And I walked away. I didn't think another thing about that little five-minute visit, that five-minute interaction on the side of the road. Well, a few weeks later, Jacques comes to church with his wife.
[1:11] They come for several weeks. They end up getting saved, getting involved there in the church. They end up bringing, start bringing their teenage sons. One of them, his name was Sylvain. He ends up coming to church. He gets involved. He gets saved.
[1:22] Starts growing his faith. Sylvain invites one of his friends. We're having a special youth activity. Sylvain invites one of his friends named Kevin to come to church. Kevin comes to church. He hears the gospel.
[1:32] He gets saved. He starts growing his faith. He invites a schoolmate of his named Abdul, who was a Muslim young man, to church. Abdul started coming to church. Got saved. First, he wanted to come on Sunday mornings. He'd only come on youth meetings, but pretty soon, we had special services.
[1:45] Started coming little by little on Sundays, and pretty soon, Abdul got saved. He began to get faithful there in church. And once, Abdul came to church with his neighbor, whose name was Drabul.
[1:57] He said, this is my neighbor, and I told him about our church, and he wanted to come. If you recognize his name, Drabul, he's one of the pastors you saw there in the video. Drabul invited a friend of his named Etienne, who was an electrician, a big old man.
[2:09] And he came to church and would come for a few weeks. But Etienne invited another one of his friends named Noel. He's one of the other pastors you saw there in the video. A five-minute interaction on the side of the road produced two pastors in the ministry.
[2:28] And sometimes we forget how powerful one little interaction, one little act of service, one little work for our Lord can be. But Eienne, I want to talk to us about the importance of fruit that remains.
[2:44] Because I gave those names, some of them are still faithful, some of them aren't. One of them has actually passed away. So, but we talk about those names, and they aren't all there, but there's fruit that remained.
[2:55] And here in 1 Corinthians chapter number 15, we're going to read in verse number 58. And the Bible says, Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord.
[3:14] For as much as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. Hear what Paul's saying here, he said, hey guys, listen. You keep working.
[3:27] You keep plowing. Because you may not see the fruit, you may not know what God's doing, but your labor is not in vain. And I want what I do to count for Jesus.
[3:39] I want fruit that continues and that remains, what we plant, what we establish. I want to see God work. And you see, I want to look at this passage. We're going to see three things that we can do to have fruit that remains.
[3:56] So the first thing we're going to see is we need to work in faith. Work in faith. If you look here in verse number 58, we see that word I mentioned before, that word therefore.
[4:10] You know, when we look at the Bible, not only is every verse of the Bible very important, but also every word of the Bible is very important. And this word therefore is a very important word.
[4:21] It's a word that takes this truth or this command and it connects or ties it with another truth or another command that we're given earlier. We saw there in Matthew 28, he said, all power is given unto me, go ye therefore.
[4:32] You can say another example, you know, you say, I didn't sleep much last night, therefore I am tired. I'll give you an example. I've been back in the States for three months. I've eaten a lot of American food. Therefore, I'm getting fat.
[4:43] It's just part of life. And this weekend is not helping. I went to the Pearson's house and Miss Sandy served miracle bread. What's it called, Kirsten? Or is it called like manna or something like that? It's like this mozzarella.
[4:54] I just kept eating it nonstop. I tell you, therefore, it is just hopeless. I need to give up. You see that? Therefore, it connects this truth with this fact or this command. So anytime we see the word therefore in the Bible, we need to look at the verses that come before us.
[5:06] We can understand why are we given this command. Why do we have to do what we're called to do? So let's look at the verse that come before this. Let's start reading verse number 54. And the Bible says, And what's going on here is Paul's giving me the defense of the resurrection.
[5:59] There's some people coming in saying, there's no hope. There's no resurrection. We die and that's it. And Paul's reminding them, no, Christ is risen from the dead and he's the first fruit and we're going to be risen with him. But what he's doing is he's founding their faith in Jesus Christ and the resurrection.
[6:14] He says, listen, guys, we have the victory in Christ. We have victory through him and through his resurrection. And things might be hard at times and things might be difficult. But we know that in all things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
[6:30] And when we go out and we preach the gospel and we work in faith, it's not an empty hope. It's not just a hope. When we give the gospel, it's not just a hope saying, telling someone, you have a better life here on earth. It's giving them eternal hope in Jesus Christ.
[6:45] It's offering them a resurrection. It's offering them an eternal life found in Jesus Christ. When we work, we have to work in faith, knowing that we serve a risen Lord and we serve a great Lord.
[7:01] And a lot of times it's hard to see that victory. Sometimes it's hard to go out and work.
[7:13] Sometimes it's hard to get started because we just don't know what God's going to do. But if we work and we sow in faith, we're reminded no matter what happens, our God is in control.
[7:28] And we have victory. Kina Faso is a Muslim majority country. And most Muslims are very nominal, but there are a group of Muslims that are very, they're very hardcore, they're very radical Muslims.
[7:40] And you can usually tell who they are because they have a very specific outfit that they wear. And a lot of times you see them on the side of the road and you're not really inclined a lot of times to give them a track or invite them to come to church.
[7:51] It's because, you know, you look at them and you're like, there's no hope there, right? And one day we were having church and I was preaching and I look up and in comes one of those Muslim men walking to church.
[8:02] And I got a little bit scared. My heart started beating saying, what does he want? Is he coming in to give us a hard time? Is he coming in to mess up the service? Maybe his wife or his child's here. What is this man doing?
[8:13] So I'm just like, I'm going to keep preaching and say, Lord, I know what you're going to do. Well, pretty soon that man, he comes in, he sits down in the back and I just finished the service. After the service, I go back to him and I start talking with him and just trying to figure out, pretty much saying, what are you doing here?
[8:26] What's going on? And as I'm talking with him, he pulls on one of the tracks from the church and he said, somebody gave this to me. And I want to know I can be saved.
[8:37] What happened? Somebody saw something that seemed impossible. Somebody saw something they thought was no hope, but they had the faith to work. They had the faith to give him the truth.
[8:50] And God did a work. And we have to have the faith to work because we serve a God who has given us victory.
[9:01] So we see that we need to work in faith. Second thing we see is we need to work steadfastly. We see here it says, therefore, talk about that faith, that victory we have in Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren. Then he says, be steadfast, unmovable.
[9:15] There in Burkina, we have a lot of animals. You, of course, have the exotic animals. You have the hippos. Some of y'all went on the lake to visit when you visited there in Burkina. Not a very smart move, right, Dylan? But you also have a lot of, you know, just the typical farm animals.
[9:28] You have sheeps and cows and animals on the road. And a lot of times when you're out driving and there's a lamb on the side of the road, or there's a sheep in the road, you honk your horn and it runs out of the way.
[9:39] But we also have a lot of donkeys. And when you're going down the road and there's a donkey in the middle of the road, and you honk your horn, you know what that donkey does? Nothing.
[9:50] He plants his feet. He looks at you and says, what do you want? I was here first. And you have to stop your car and let that donkey get out of the way. A lot of times we say donkey, I say the word donkey, what do you think?
[10:03] What word comes to mind? Stubborn. But you want to know something? We need to be stubborn for Jesus. A bit like where a better word might be steadfast.
[10:14] And there was a time I was driving down the road. It was raining out and the water was kind of raining to the side. Kind of creates these little streams. If you've ever been to the bikini, you know what that's like. And it was raining hard. And I saw a donkey there hooked up to a cart.
[10:27] And the rain was falling. It was hitting him in the face. The water was up to his waist. And he just stood there. He wasn't moving. He wasn't running. He stayed where his master put him.
[10:41] Until his master told him to move or until his master came back. And we start in faith and we go out saying, hey, I know God. I believe God's going to work. But when we're there working, things get hard.
[10:55] And we don't know what's going on. And we don't see the fruit we think we want to see. And people are attacking us. And we don't know what's going on. We say, Lord, what are you doing? We need to be donkeys.
[11:09] We plan our feet on the promises of God. We stay where God's put us. And we say, you know what? I'm going to be steadfast and unmovable. Hebrews 12 and verse number 1 to 3, it says, let us run with patience.
[11:25] The race has said before us. That word patience gives the same meaning of steadfastly. You don't run fast. You know, you start a race. You run really fast right away. But no, you just stay consistent and steady.
[11:40] And how do you do that? Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. We don't know what God's doing sometimes. But we know that our God is in control.
[11:53] And if we continue steadfast for him, he is faithful to give us fruit that remains. So we see that we need to work in faith.
[12:05] We need to work steadfastly. The last thing that we see here is we need to work in humility. We need to work humbly.
[12:19] I'm going to give a confession here. I probably shouldn't because you might kick me out of the church, right? But Terry and I were talking a while ago. And something was going on in the ministry.
[12:31] And I was a little frustrated with someone. And I made a comment to her. I was like, I can't believe that they would come to this ministry that I built. The second those words came out of my mouth, the Holy Spirit and the spiritual lightning bolt that strike my heart.
[12:47] You did what? You accomplished what? It was not you. It was the Lord. Look what it says. It says, Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable.
[13:05] Look what it says. Always abounding in the work of the Lord. I am nothing but an earthen vessel.
[13:19] The power belongs to my God. He gets the glory and he gets the honor. And no matter what ministry you have, and each and every one of you have a ministry, it's all different.
[13:35] You might not be a missionary in Burkina Faso. You might not be the pastor of this church, but you have a ministry. Maybe it's a ministry that impacts your family. Maybe it's a ministry to teach children. Whatever that ministry is, we each have a ministry.
[13:47] But it's not our ministry. It's the Lord's ministry. And we are just vessels. And we are just tools. And we are just servants that God has placed in this place in that time to do his work.
[14:00] And let's go to the book. If we're still in 1 Corinthians, let's turn over chapter number three. Look what Paul says here.
[14:11] He says this so clearly. He says this. Who then? 1 Corinthians chapter number three and verse number five. Who then is Paul? And who is Apollos?
[14:24] But ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man. I have planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase.
[14:37] So then neither is he that planteth anything, neither he that watereth, but God that giveth the increase. This is God's work.
[14:49] And whatever God has called you to do, whatever ministry, whatever job God has given you to do, you do it humbly. You have to. If we want fruit, that remains.
[15:02] We realize that we are just tools in the master's hand. And God is using us. But we, in and of ourselves, we are nothing. But, he says there in 1 Corinthians 15, by the grace of God, I am what I am.
[15:15] And we have to have that humility in our hearts to realize that God is doing the work. I think of the story of the prodigal son.
[15:28] The father, he comes to the father. He gives, he says, father, give me everything. I want everything. That pride and that arrogance. And the father gives it to him. And as that son's walking away, I think it broke the father's heart.
[15:39] But he knew that his son needed some humbling. He knew that his son needed to be hit over by the world a few times because he'd come back.
[15:51] Changed man. And too often in my life, I've gone out in my own power. My own strength. Thinking that I could do it. And every time, God brings me back to my knees realizing, no, without you, I am nothing.
[16:09] And, Lord, I need you for everything. And if we work in faith, if we work steadfastly, if we work humbly, God will give fruit that remains.
[16:26] And I want to read one more verse in closing. Galatians chapter number six. And verse number nine. And before we reach, I just want to thank you again as a church. Because you have played a part in seeing fruit there in Burkina Faso.
[16:41] You have allowed God to use you in a great way to impact not only Burkina, but the entire world with the gospel. You are an amazing church. Look what he says. Galatians 6, 9.
[16:52] And let us not be weary in well-doing. For in due season we shall reap if we faint not.
[17:05] And I want to encourage you. Let's keep going. Let's keep seeing what great things God has planned. Let's keep working and plowing steadfastly in faith and humbly because we know that we serve a great God who is going to do great things.
[17:22] Let's pray. Heavenly Father, Lord, I do love you so very much. Lord, I thank you so much for this church. And Lord, I know and I believe that you have great things planned for each and every person here and for this church and for the ministry there in Burkina.
[17:36] And Lord, I pray that you would just help us this evening, Lord, to work for you. To plow, Lord, in faith. To continue steadfastly.
[17:46] But Lord, to realize that we are but tools and you are the master. And thank you, Lord, for all that you do. We love you so much. In Jesus' name we pray.
[17:57] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.