[0:00] Well, congratulations to you three. This is like the first time we've ever had like three people to send off. That's pretty incredible. It's pretty awesome. I remember one of the first peoples we got to send out of this church, and I came up here, and I bawled my eyes out.
[0:14] I don't know if you guys remember that, when Mark Tolson, I was like, we're losing the pillar of our church. And little did I know that it was actually, you know, the truth is the pillar of the church, and so I've grown a lot in that.
[0:26] But I just want to congratulate you guys. It's pretty awesome to be having a send-off service, and you are about to embark on a journey, a journey that right now we praise the Lord that we get to send off, but it's going to be a journey that's going to be extremely difficult.
[0:43] Before you guys, you're going to have to overcome a lot of obstacles, like language, a language that has to be conquered for some of you, I guess. Hopefully. And then with that comes a frustration of not being able to speak.
[0:59] And then with that will come heartaches of being treated like a person that can't communicate. And then what lies on top of that obstacle is going to be loneliness. I'm not trying to get you depressed, but just trying to be realistic.
[1:15] You're leaving friends and family. And this is an exciting time, but it's something that we have to realize. You're beginning at a stage of ministry where you have been treated very well up until this point, but now you're going to go to a place where your phone's not going to ring as much, and your inbox won't be as full.
[1:35] And thoughts are going to lapse inside your mind. And with each journey that as this thought goes around your mind, it's going to entangle you with this scary, scary statement.
[1:47] You know, the scariest thing about distance is you don't know whether they'll miss you or whether they just forgot you. Have my loved ones forgotten me?
[2:01] Or was it that they didn't care at all? And these are trials and thoughts that are going to come into your life and come into your mind, and you're going to have to overcome these difficulties. And to add on top of that, you're going to be living in a different culture that is totally opposite of what you've been grown up and all that you've known.
[2:20] And so to say that you will endure stress, yes, you will. Stress like you've never known before, most of you. I know two of you guys have spent six months on an internship, but you're about to set sail on this journey with no return ticket.
[2:35] And this can be daunting. This can, and it might just turn into one of the greatest battles that you will have faced up until this point of your life. And I need to remind you that this battle has many facets, and in many, many ways it's going to attack you.
[2:51] Frustration will become your companion on this journey, and fear could possibly become your travel guide. But tonight we get to send you off to face a form, if we're just being honest and realistic, a form of suffering.
[3:07] Now I hope this doesn't come to shock to you. I hope you guys have been paying attention in Friday classes for the past ten years, okay? I hope you know that already. But I want to give you a truth. I want to give you one thing that the Apostle Paul knew himself personally, and that the Apostle Paul taught others who he counted dear to his heart.
[3:27] I believe it's the key that will unlock your frustration. I believe it's the key that will chase away your fears. I believe it's the key that will help you on the darkest day when you're all alone, and others seem to have forgotten you.
[3:45] This key helps those that face whatever trials they go to. And the key is found in Philippians chapter 1 verses 12. This is what the Apostle Paul says.
[3:56] But I would that ye should understand, brethren. I would that you guys understand. I would that Robert Becker, Justice Mize, Josh Ewing, and their families would put into remembrance that they would remember, brethren, that the things which happened unto me have fallen out rather for the furtherance of the gospel.
[4:21] The key to unlock the frustration, the key to help you on those dark days is this. Can I tell you what Paul's stating? Is that even though my life might be difficult, the gospel is going forward.
[4:35] That's what we have to live for. Not for personal comforts, not for our own desires, but that we might proclaim the message that our Lord and Savior said must be preached to every creature.
[4:50] That is the silver bullet. That wins every time. When you get frustrated in language, you've got to remind yourself this. I'm here to preach a message of good news and good tidings unto man.
[5:05] And I will endure whatever it takes. When you're there and you're afraid and you're all alone, you think everyone's forgotten, you must remember, I am here not to make friends, I am here to proclaim a message that was sent from heaven and that is for every human being on this earth.
[5:22] It will motivate you through language. It will help you overcome sickness. Homesickness. It will help you overcome your fears.
[5:32] When the sorrows that are like a sea billowing rolls, it will help it fade away. That message, that gospel message, that we're called to preach and proclaim to every creature, you must put in your mind and you must understand that whatever happens to me is for the furtherance of the gospel.
[5:54] I hope you put that in your heart. I'm proud of you all. Thank you. Amen. Would you open your Bibles to the book of Numbers in chapter number 13? Numbers chapter number 13. Josh and Justice, Robert, very happy for you.
[6:08] Very proud that this moment has come and very thankful. I want to take you to a well-known portion of scripture. This is where God sends the men out. They go to see this promised land, what God has already told them, right?
[6:22] And you know this story very well. The Bible says this, Numbers chapter 13, verse number one, the Bible says, the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, verse number two, send thou men that they may go to the search of the land of Canaan, which I give unto the children of Israel of every tribe.
[6:34] Their fathers used to send a man. Every one of the rules. So God had already given this. And God tells them. So in other words, God gives a promise, yet God also gives a responsibility. I want you guys to go and do this.
[6:45] Well, if you go a little bit further, jump down to verse number 21, you know the story. So they went up, they searched the land, they come all the way, jump to verse number 23. They came unto the brook of Eskel. They cut down from thence.
[6:56] A branch was a cluster of grapes. They buried between two upon the staff. They brought up the pomegranates and of the figs. So they go there. You know what it is? They get sent out there. God has told them what to do.
[7:07] Moses told them what to do. So they go out there and they end up coming back. They get all these grapes. Now that has to be a big old, you know, nugget of grapes, you know? I don't know if they were that big or I just don't know if the cluster was just humongous.
[7:18] Either way, I mean, that's Sears grape jelly. You know what I'm saying? I mean, that is good grape juice. I love grape juice. And I don't know what else you get from grape. Maybe the first essential oils of grape was made right here.
[7:29] Who knows? You know? And you naysayers, you need to get your heart right. Central is the way. No, I'm just kidding. Infomercial, right? But anyway, so they go there, jump down a little bit more, verse number 25. And the Bible says that they return.
[7:40] So they go there. They get all these grapes. They come back, verse number 25. They return, searching the land after 40 days. They went. They came to Moses, jumped down a little bit more. They told him, and they said, verse number 27, we come to the land where thou sent us.
[7:52] Surely it floweth milk and honey. In other words, very rich. I don't know. Not in this, not truly or, you know, literally milk and honey, but it was very rich. Maybe the ground, the soil was rich to grow things and the pastures were wonderful to feed the cattle and it was lush.
[8:09] And I mean, just a great piece of property, great country that God had sent them to. They go in verse number 28, and here's where it says, it says, nevertheless, so he stops right there and they say, and here's my question to you and here's at least the thought that I want to give you.
[8:23] What do you see? God had given them promise. God had given them responsibility. They go over there and they see this. You know the story here very well. All of them, 12 men, they were already the leaders that Moses sends out there and 12 go and you know how it goes.
[8:37] 10 were bad and two were good. You like that, right? And so, 10 were bad and two were good and they go out there and they look and they say, this is impossible. Look how big they are. Look how, I mean, they've seen all the blessings. Look down verse number 30, all of a sudden there's somebody else.
[8:49] Caleb, he steals the people and says, hold on gentlemen. He said, before Moses and he said, let us go up at once, possess it. We are well able to overcome it. So, there's these men who go out there and they said, you know what?
[9:01] This is impossible. And Caleb said, what in the world is everybody whining for? I mean, you guys are seeing the great obstacles. I'm seeing the wonderful opportunity. You guys are seeing all this rough stuff.
[9:12] You know, I mean, you guys are seeing how big they are and Caleb, you know, he might have been a shorter man of stature. Praise God for those gentlemen, you know. And he says, but man, something's about to happen. You guys see these big old giants, but all those little guys know that you can run faster, jump higher, run through the legs and punch them in the kneecap.
[9:27] You know, I mean, something's about to happen. And I want you to see three principles very quickly that apply to you that apply here. The very first one is that discouragement breeds more discouragement.
[9:38] These men, because they come back and they see this and they said, this is impossible. I can't do it. Now all of a sudden, everybody else has the same mindset. Everybody's discouraged. Nobody wants to move. And the same way in your life, when you come across naysayers, and you will, you come across people maybe who says, you know what?
[9:55] It's too hard. It's too difficult. You'll never learn language. It will never happen. People aren't going to listen. And the naysayers out there, when you come across them, just remember, they might say it's impossible.
[10:05] Be kind to them, but remove yourself as far away from them as possible. Get away from them as if they had COVID. Run like the hills. You know what I'm saying? Stay away from those people because if you don't, if you stay around the naysayers, you soon will become discouraged because the discouragement breeds discouragement.
[10:23] Let me give you another principle from here. Faith gives strength. So these guys saw and the naysayers begin to talk and so now one man's discouraged. Now everybody's discouraged and nobody's going to do the work.
[10:33] But also, there's some men, there's two men here that they have faith and because they have faith, their faith almost fuels their strength and gives them more strength. These men stand up and they say, you know what, let's go over and possess it.
[10:45] Let's see what God has. Instead of looking how big their enemies are, they look how big their God is. Instead of seeing all these problems, they say, we see that God's going to do something. Their faith begins to give them more. And when you have faith, you will have more strength.
[10:58] Strength to see, to tell people about Christ and strength to invite people to church and strength to tell other people they can be used of God and strength to learn that language and strength to get other people in church or start that church and strength to believe that God will protect you and provide for you and whatever it may be.
[11:13] You'll have difficulties. They're certainly going to come. They come for all of us. But as Abraham in Romans chapter 4, Abraham hoped against hope. In other words, that faith that he had, it became the strength for him.
[11:25] It was almost like that spinach for Popeye, baby. It gave him the muscles and he kept on moving. The strength will give you more strength. Mark chapter 9, verse number 23 says, all things are possible to him that believeth.
[11:37] Do you have the faith? Do you see what God can do? Because when you believe, you start working like you believe. When you believe, you start looking at every person that walks through the door as a future sold out church member.
[11:49] When you believe, you start looking at everybody, every gathering that comes on to preach the gospel to people. You start believing that you can make a difference where God has placed you. So discouragement breeds other discouragement and strength or faith gives you more strength.
[12:01] Let me give you one more. You get what you see. In other words, when you get over there, if you imagine that there's a monster behind every corner, you're most likely going to find a monster. You see, you must look at the situation as this is an opportunity instead of an obstacle.
[12:18] These are, these hard times, is God growing me, not God punishing me? You see things in a different light. I enjoy reading missionary biographies and I don't remember if this specific one, it comes from either John G. Patton, which was a missionary to New Hebrides, the islands, or John Williams, who was a missionary to the Polynesia Islands, but either one of them, we'll just call him Missionary Johnny.
[12:40] I don't know. It's one of the two. But Missionary Johnny, they looked at him and said, you're going down to the cannibals, you're going down to the people who are heathenistic, you're going down to the people who don't care.
[12:50] Do you really believe that you can convert these people? You really believe you could change them? You really believe that anything could happen? And he looked at him and said, no, I don't. He said, but I know God can.
[13:02] And his attitude went down there and he did the work of God because he totally believed that God was enough. And God's enough there in Indonesia. And God's enough in Argentina. And God's enough in Nepal.
[13:13] And God is enough absolutely anywhere you go. So here's the question. What do you see? You can be full of faith or you can be full of fear by simply focusing on the right things.