[0:00] Verse number 15, John chapter 21. Let's get serious here. So when they had dined, you know they were Baptists, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these?
[0:18] He said unto him, Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. And he said unto him, Feed my lambs. He said unto him again the second time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me?
[0:34] He said unto him, Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. He said unto him, Feed my sheep. He said unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me?
[0:53] Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time, lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things. Thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus said unto him, Feed my sheep.
[1:07] Verily, verily, I say unto thee, When thou wast young, thou girdest thyself, and walkest whither thou wouldest. But when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest not.
[1:27] This spake he, signifying by what death he should glorify God. And when he had spoken this, he said unto him, Follow me.
[1:39] Father, help me tonight. Lord, not just to preach words, but Lord, to convey a message tonight from thee.
[1:51] I pray, Father, that you'd open every heart, every mind in this building tonight. And Lord, that you might do something in each one of our hearts.
[2:05] Lord, do what I cannot do. I can't speak to the hearts. But Lord, your Holy Spirit can. And I pray that, Holy Spirit, you would take control of our thoughts, our minds.
[2:22] That your Holy Spirit might have free reign in our hearts. And that we might learn something from the Word of God. That we might be more like thee. In Jesus' name, amen.
[2:35] Quite an interesting passage here. I'm always drawn to that, almost that last verse there, in verse number 19.
[2:48] And this spake he, saying, by what death he should glorify God. I don't care if it's in your life, your ministry, or your death.
[3:01] We are to do all of these things to glorify God. I want my life to glorify God. I want God to say, well done, thou good and faithful servant, just like everybody else.
[3:14] But you know, I'm getting older. And I want to glorify God in my death. My wife, I already give her instructions about our burial.
[3:27] Of course, we're going to go together, so it's going to, she'll have to pass that on by letter. I said, I want them to sing Victory in Jesus about four times in the service.
[3:40] Because it's not a funeral. It is a victory meeting. Because we're not going to be here on this earth. We're going to be standing there with Jesus.
[3:51] And it's going to be worth it all. We bury people all the time in Uganda. And we have to put in our contracts for our workers how many burials they can take off a week.
[4:05] Because they could go to another burial almost every day of the week. Ken folk, neighbors, people, they die like flies over there.
[4:15] I see people back here in America scared to death. They're scared of COVID. They're scared of, you name it. Somebody will get killed in a car wreck and they say, oh man, their life was cut short.
[4:33] No, it was right on time. Some little baby dies. Oh, man, they didn't get to live a full life.
[4:45] No, they did. Who do you think flips the switch? Is it a doctor? Is it parents?
[4:58] Is it the devil? No. God's the one that flips the switch. God's the one that says when you die and when you don't die.
[5:10] We are in the hands of an almighty God. If I did not believe that, I would never have set foot on that airplane to go to Uganda, East Africa.
[5:23] It is not a place you want to go for a vacation. It's really not. When we got there, they said about half the population had AIDS. We were burying people left and right.
[5:33] You can't imagine unless you've been in one of those places where people are dropping like that. It just, it boggles your mind.
[5:46] But you begin to realize God is the one that controls everything. So as a missionary, I hear missionaries, they're scared to death.
[6:01] I was scared to death. I'm telling you, I'm not a great, a man of great faith. I don't want to die any more than anybody else.
[6:14] I'm allergic to pain. But I had to come to the point in my life that it was God that was in control of my life.
[6:25] That even though those people over there had AIDS all over the place, they had typhoid, they had, they had, what's that, the breathing thing, TB and all of that.
[6:42] Right before we come back, I'm over there and one of the ladies in our church comes and says, Brother Stances, my brother is dying of, dying of TB and he needs Christ and could you come over and I went over there.
[6:59] They had a little old, about a 10 by 10 room, had a bed in it and that was about it, a little chair and so what do you do as a missionary? Do you have him over here in his bed, coughing and spitting up blood and stuff like this and you stand there back there by the door and put a mask on and all, no?
[7:22] You go over there, you grab that chair and you pull it right up next to him and you get right down there and you take that Bible and you show him how to be saved. You say, aren't you afraid of getting it?
[7:36] No, I'm not. I really am not. Now, I don't want any of that stuff but God's the one that flips the switch.
[7:48] So, I don't have to worry about it. America's living in fear. Churches are still shut down. Had one over in Dayton.
[8:01] Just started to open up this week. Started, they haven't all the way yet. Living in fear. That's not what God designed for us.
[8:15] God said, I want you to have life and that more abundantly. I want to tell you about two men and a lady. First of all, you may not have ever heard of, you may have, that's all right.
[8:27] The first guy is called Peter Jorgensen. Anybody ever heard of Peter Jorgensen? He was from my side of the world, Norway.
[8:40] By the way, I went to grade school in Norway. Of course, that one was right in the middle of Kansas but you can tell how many people settled around there, a whole bunch of Swedes and Norwegians.
[8:51] But Peter Jorgensen was from Norway, the country of Norway. He was 17 years old and he attended church one evening and a missionary from China just poured his heart out about the country of China and the need.
[9:13] And God really touched his heart. 17-year-old boy sitting there in the church.
[9:24] They took an offering after the preaching and they passed a plate and it said Peter Jorgensen took everything he had in his wallet and dumped it out in an offering plate.
[9:39] But he didn't pass the offering plate. He said, it's not enough. And he got a pencil and a piece of paper and he wrote three words.
[9:51] Augmit leave. Any Norwegians here? Are you Norwegian? No, Swedish. My whole life. Just remember one thing.
[10:02] Ten thousand Swedes ran through the Vids chased by one Norwegian. Uh-huh. Some of you will get that later.
[10:14] We'll explain it to them, brother. You've seen a Norwegian pencil. It has an eraser on both ends. Augmit leave.
[10:32] He wrote three words on that piece of paper and put it in an offering plate. When they took the offering back and was counting it, it was his Sunday school teacher that was counting the money.
[10:43] And he had seen him put that paper in there and so he recognized the handwriting of Peter's and he pulled it out and he kept it.
[10:56] You see, Augmit leave means and my life. said, my money wasn't enough.
[11:13] Augmit leave. A lot of people put money in the plate but God don't have their life. Mission churches.
[11:24] God has spoke I don't know how many times but Jeff through the years people have come to me after a mission conference and pastor, they come and they say, you know, when I was a teenager God spoke to my heart and you know, I'd surrendered to mission but I've never got there.
[11:44] What a waste. God didn't have their life. He kept that and he watched Peter and Peter grew and he grew up into a fine young man and he ended up in the country of China as a missionary.
[12:11] Took his bride there of Albert and in 1939 the Japanese invaded China and bombed it and Peter was killed.
[12:27] People say, oh, what a waste. No. Right on time. God don't make mistakes. God's not early and God's not late. He's right on time.
[12:38] And my life. He gave his life to God and he took his hands off of it and it's up to God what he does with it.
[12:52] I was listening to a message coming down as I was driving today and this guy said, it's all about authority. See, that's what discipleship is all about.
[13:04] You bring a person in discipleship not to the end of however many lessons you've got. You bring them to the point that God is their authority.
[13:17] Jesus Christ is their authority. He's the one that can tell them where to go. He can tell them what to do. He tells them how long to do it. He tells them what friends to have.
[13:29] He tells them all of these different things because he's the authority. And although we come to church many times God is not our authority.
[13:47] His wife continued on in China after his death. Did a great work. Churches were established Chinese saved through the death of this man that said augment leave and my life.
[14:07] He realized that serving Jesus Christ was more important than life itself. He loved Jesus more than these. There's a lady called Tanya Collins.
[14:24] In 1990 Joe and Tanya Collins were missionaries to Nepal and they were attending a mission conference in Windsor Hills Baptist Church in Oklahoma City.
[14:37] And during that conference Tanya they had both the husband and wife Joe and Tanya to get up and give their testimonies. And in Tanya's testimony it was very unique because she began to share the fears and how God dealt with her fears.
[14:57] And you ladies don't lie to people you got fears. You're fearing for them little babies. I prayed with a lady out there in California going to mission field almost there.
[15:13] She said pastor I'm scared about my babies. She shared real fears and how God began to work in her life there.
[15:27] Turn over to Philippians chapter 1. Hold your place there in John. But Philippians chapter 1. If you get there before I do start without me.
[15:39] Amen. In Philippians chapter 1 he said verse number 20 according to my earnest expectation and my hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed but that with all boldness as always so also now Christ shall be magnified in my body whether it be by life or death.
[16:05] Same thing with Peter. Same thing with all of us missionaries. Should be the same thing with all Christians. No matter what happens in our life pastor and I was talking earlier.
[16:19] God doesn't nothing happens by accident. Nothing. God knows everything that's going to happen and that has happened.
[16:33] He is not surprised. He is not shocked and he allows it to happen for our good. God does the good to them that love God.
[16:51] Now there are some that things aren't working so hot for those that don't love God. But God is working in our lives. Now as Tanya began to go through these things and God began to work in her life and in verse number 21 it says to me to live is Christ and die is gain.
[17:12] She stood there and I watched this same video that they put out on them probably four or five times just this month. I love the video. It just really speaks to my heart.
[17:25] But she stood there and she said look my greatest fear about being a missionary is dying on the mission field.
[17:37] But she said God showed me this verse for me to live is Christ and to die is what? How many think dying is gain?
[17:49] Now really we don't. Don't be lying. None of us physically want to die. But folks dying is gain.
[18:07] God like John R. Rice guy was going to rob him and he said what are you going to do threaten me with heaven? I mean come on. Now I'm not John R. Rice I might have just cleaned his clock but you know John just walked away.
[18:22] Not this old boy. augment V. She said but I can die here in America too.
[18:35] And God dealt with her through this and they went to the field. But before they went to the field in that same conference they took up the offering that next night and as the offering plate passed Tanya took an envelope and she took off her wedding ring and put that in the offering with a note telling them to sell the ring.
[19:02] The pastor got a hold of it. They brought it to him and he said well I'm going to go ahead. He put the money back in the offering that it was worth and he was going to give it to them the next furlough when they come back on furlough.
[19:15] After a few years working on the field there in Nepal they went on a little short furlough on the way back the plane crashed Joe and Tanya and their five children all died.
[19:31] And I heard people say what a waste. They just got started what a waste. No it wasn't a waste. Because of that they glorified God in their death and people surrendered to the mission field churches were established.
[19:51] Souls were saved and they still continue speaking to hearts today. If we're going to give ourselves to God we got to take our hands off.
[20:03] And whatever God chooses for us that's his business.
[20:13] Tanya said augment thee and my life.
[20:27] And you know what? God took it. I'm afraid of my children suffering, dying.
[20:40] Augment thee. their life as well. Wives follow their husbands that have said augment thee and my life.
[20:57] No man lives to himself or dies to himself. We affect other people. We affect each other. You missionaries affect each other. I've prayed for you day after day after day since we met out there in California.
[21:14] On my prayer list I pray for them all the time. I pray for her all the time. Why? She needs our prayers. She affected my heart out there.
[21:27] Her countenance, the way she conducted herself, her presentation, her love for the Lord. All of that. Tanya and Joe, when God said lovest thou me, he said augment thee and my life.
[21:48] There was another man, a young man, his military. He'd heard the gospel and he'd received Christ as his savior.
[21:59] A few months after he was saved, he was in a church and he heard the message. He'd been saved but everything was just kind of the same.
[22:13] Oh, his life had changed but there was something there and the preacher preached from this passage in John 21, lovest thou me more than me.
[22:27] And God broke his heart. heart. Just like Tanya and Joe and Peter, God used a preacher to speak to his heart. And as God broke his heart that day about the souls of men dying without Christ, he wondered how in the world could God use some fool like him.
[22:51] he was a nobody, he was the guy they'd take out in recess and roll in the sticker patch, you know. He was nothing.
[23:07] He thought about his plans, his career. Some of you might be thinking that same thing, how could God really use me.
[23:20] I'm nobody, I'm nothing. I just, you know, I don't have anything I can offer God. Well, Lord, I've got these plans in my life or, you know, I've got this career.
[23:34] Well, he had a career too. He was 26 years old. He had a wife and two children and he was making rank up the ladder.
[23:47] he would have been retired at the age of 38. But those words kept ringing in his ears. Lovest thou me?
[24:02] Lovest thou me? He gave everything for him. Jesus gave him eternal life. And he kept asking himself, do I love him more than these?
[24:19] More than his career? More than his security? More than his retirement? More than his family?
[24:31] Because God says, you've got to love me. And the love you have for your family will seem like hate. there was a lot to consider.
[24:45] When the invitation was finally given, he got up out of his seat and he came off down over on the side, over there, and he knelt down at that altar, just weeping.
[25:02] He knelt there and poured his heart out to God. And he said, God, I'm not much. But you can have my life. You can have my career.
[25:15] You can have my rank. You can have my family. Everything I have all meant leave.
[25:28] And that day I surrendered my life to Jesus Christ. I relinquished his control of the direction and anything God wanted to do.
[25:45] That was up to him. And you know what? He took it. Every bit of it. He took my career.
[25:58] I was flying as loadmaster all over the world just having a blast. one day we'd be in Athens, Greece. The next day we'd be in Naples, Italy. The next day we'd be in Rhodes and all just all over the world.
[26:16] But when God asked me, lovest thou me more than these, he took my career and he gave me the greatest privilege on the face of God's earth.
[26:31] and that's to be a missionary. He took my family, all of them, and by God's grace, they're all serving the Lord.
[26:46] In missions, in local churches, my grandchildren now are serving the Lord. We buried Micah, one of our grandkids, on the field. He took all the little that I had and he has magnified that more than a hundred fold.
[27:06] He said, I'll magnify it by a hundred fold on this earth. He's given me so much more than that. I stand here tonight totally unworthy, but God has allowed me to do that.
[27:20] I'm going to stand before these missionaries tomorrow and try to help them and teach them some things, things I wish I'd have known. God has blessed me beyond measure.
[27:38] Why? Because one day I said, augment thee and my life. What you hold on to, you lose.
[27:54] And what you give away, you gain. Jesus asked me, lovest thou me more than these?
[28:13] And the best decision outside of salvation I've ever made in my life is given everything I've got to Jesus. I'm still nobody special.
[28:25] I'm still, my wife has to tell me which direction to move. But I realized that day that serving my Savior was more important than anything this world had to offer.
[28:42] Now Jesus asked Peter this three times. Peter, do you love me? It's easy to say, yes. I think if I'd say that right now.
[28:55] Do you love Jesus? Everybody would say yes. But when you ask it a second time, it strikes a chord.
[29:11] It gets your attention. I thought you just asked me that. I did. But I want to know do you really love me?
[29:26] And you have to stop and think a little bit. But then Jesus comes to Peter again the third time. And he says, Peter, lovest thou me?
[29:41] I mean when my wife says something three times, I pay attention. I think what Jesus was trying to get across to Peter, Peter, you say you love me, but Peter, do you love me the way I want you to love me?
[30:14] and when you're asked three times, it really starts ringing a bell. We have to really start thinking about it.
[30:26] May I ask you? Because Jesus is the one that wrote this, not me. Lovest thou me more than these?
[30:39] Over 50% of the missionaries that start deputation quit. Independent Baptists quit.
[30:56] Why? Oh, there was a surrender, but there was no augmently.
[31:10] And my life absolutely taking your life out of your hands and placing it in God's hands and saying, God, you call the shots.
[31:27] You tell me where to go. You tell me what to say. You tell me how long to stay there. Anything, whatever it is. And God, if I die on that field, there's been times when I had malaria, I thought I was going to die.
[31:45] And the doc said if I got it again, I would. Are you ready? Are you willing to give your life?
[31:57] Not just as a missionary. I'm talking about church family. I'm talking about the choir. will you say, as he asks us tonight, lovest thou me more than these?
[32:15] What's standing in between you and augment thee? Father, Lord, I just pray tonight that Lord, as you were talking to that lawyer and he, you asked him basically the same question.
[32:50] And he said, this is what you require, that we love the Lord, our God, with all of our heart, with all of our soul, with all of our mind, with all of our strength.
[33:07] Lord, do we love you the way you want us to love you? Do we love you more than these? Can we honestly, every Christian, can we honestly say, if an offering plate was passed, augment thee, and my life.
[33:37] Would you commit your life to Jesus Christ tonight? Say, well, I've got financial problems, I've got physical problems, I've got all these different problems. That's fine. God, he's not worried about that, he wants your life.
[33:55] He wants your life. He can tell you to stay just as easy as he can tell you to go. But does he have your life? All with me He with ede Thank you.