[0:00] Open your Bibles to Acts chapter 13. Acts chapter 13. What I'd like to speak about tonight, and this is what Brother Gardner asked me to speak about, so that's the reason I'm doing it, okay?
[0:12] I often tell pastors when I go to a mission conference, I said, the last decision I have to make is to come to your conference. After that, I'll do whatever you want me to do.
[0:24] And I think that's the way that any guest ought to be when you go to a church to minister. So he's asking me to speak about this. It's not real exciting, okay? But I've seen the outline.
[0:37] It's not good at all, okay? So just bear with me anyway, okay? And what I'm speaking about tonight is becoming a church that sends forth labors.
[0:54] Becoming a church that sends forth labors. And by the way, that ought to be the goal of every church, is to send forth labors into the harvest.
[1:05] In Acts chapter 13, the Bible says in verse 1, now there was at the church that was at Antioch, certain prophets and teachers, such as Barnabas and Simeon, which was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manion, which had been brought up with Herod the Tetraker, and Saul.
[1:32] By the way, that's a list of some pretty important people. It was a diversified church. Now look what happened.
[1:43] Look at verse 2. And 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.
[1:59] And when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them, they sent them away. Now it's good to have a sending church, but it's better to have what verse 4 says.
[2:13] So they being sent forth by the Holy Ghost. I mean, men can do certain things and thank God for it, but certain things only God can do.
[2:25] So they were sent by the church. They were sent by the Holy Ghost. How do we become a sending church? Years ago, I think it was 34 years ago, I preached in northern Virginia in a church, and the pastor said to me, he said, Brother Sis, tell me what we should do that we're praying that God will send some missionaries out of our church.
[2:53] And his son had already committed his life to be a missionary. And he said, tell me what we can do to be a good sending church. And I made a big list of things.
[3:06] And, you know, I thought, you know, you can do some of these. And I've sent that list to many, many home churches when they have a missionary come with Baptist International Missions. And, for instance, you can take on a big chunk of their support if you want to be a sending church.
[3:22] I think if you're the sending church, you ought to have at least 10% of the support of the missionary. I mean, you know, you're the primary authority in his life, okay?
[3:34] And maybe give him some money to go to Kansas School and maybe on a survey trip and things of that nature and so forth. I didn't realize it, but he just took that list and did every one of them.
[3:46] I was in the church a few years ago, and they have 13 missionaries on the mission field, and they sent $10,000 to every one of their missionaries. That night encouraged some people going to missions.
[4:00] I had three missionaries with me down in Florida one time, and they had just had a man, an evangelist, and he said, the evangelist was here Sunday through Wednesday, and we gave him $1,500.
[4:13] And I thought, that's great. We'll probably get a good missionary here. So I had three other missionaries with me, and the church gave the four of us $500. If you were going to be a, if you're going to be called in a full-time ministry out of that church, which you think you'd be, an evangelist or a missionary?
[4:37] Just a thought, okay? How to become a sending church. How to become a sending church.
[4:48] Let's pray together. Lord, I thank you just to be with these men. I honor them. I respect so many of them that I've known through the years, and you've taught me so much through them.
[5:01] Now, dear Lord, I pray that you'll help me to be a blessing to them tonight. And the only way I could do that would be that you would use me. And, dear Lord, as best I know how, I'm giving myself to you, and I pray you'll anoint my tongue that I could speak right, my mind that I could think right, and anoint the hearts and the ears of the hearers.
[5:20] Because if somebody has a responsibility to speak, everybody has a responsibility to listen. So I pray that you'll help us to listen to your word tonight. In Jesus' name I pray.
[5:32] Amen. Amen. Let's think a little bit about the church at Antioch. This is a transitional point in missions, in world evangelization here.
[5:47] Up until this time, the model church in the New Testament has been the church at Jerusalem. But I believe, from this time on, the model church for the New Testament has been the church at Antioch.
[6:02] It took the church at Jerusalem a long time to listen to the Lord. Now, they did an unbelievably great job in Jerusalem.
[6:15] But they had, sort of had tunnel vision, and they did not see beyond Jerusalem. And they just stayed there.
[6:27] Eventually, a man by the name of Cornelius had a vision one night. An angel appeared to him. And he said, I want you to send over to Joppa to a man's house by the name of Simon the Tanner.
[6:43] And over there, there's a man by the name of Simon Peter. And the Bible tells us that Cornelius was a devout man, one that feared God with all of his house, a man that gave much alms, and he prayed often.
[7:03] And I read that second verse in Acts chapter 10, and I think, he'd make a good church memory, man. Only problem is, he didn't know Jesus. And so, it doesn't matter how good a person may be, if they don't know Jesus, they're a candidate for salvation, amen.
[7:24] And immediately, the angel said, oh, send some of your men over there to get Simon Peter. And Cornelius obeyed immediately. Now, it took God a little bit more time to get Peter to realize that he needed to go over and teach him, okay?
[7:38] And you remember Peter was getting ready to get some rest and so forth, and he had a vision, and he saw this sheet coming down out of heaven with all kind of animals on it, and it said, arise and eat.
[7:51] Oh, no, no, no. I've never eaten anything common or unclean. But eventually, God taught Peter what God is called. No man should call common or unclean.
[8:06] They got the message. Peter got the message, and he went over and preached to Cornelius, and he didn't get to finish his message.
[8:16] The Holy Spirit interrupted him, amen. And even while he was speaking, you know, Cornelius and his household got saved. And the church of Jerusalem heard about that.
[8:28] Wait a minute. They're preaching to Gentiles? They're preaching to Gentiles? Oh, yeah. Salvation is not for one race.
[8:41] It is not for one nation. It is not for one culture. It is for the world. And so God prepared Peter, and Peter went over there, and then he had to rehearse to the church at Jerusalem why he did that.
[8:58] And they said, we better send somebody over there and see what's happening. Okay? Look over in the 11th chapter of Acts for just a minute. And here's the formation of the church at Antioch.
[9:17] Verse 23. Verse 23. Verse 23. I'm sorry. I'm in chapter 10. Let's get in chapter 11. Okay? Verse 19.
[9:29] Okay? Now, they which were scattered abroad upon the persecution. By the way, the first missionary movement was not Acts 13.
[9:40] Now, that's the first organized missionary movement. But the first missionary movement came when the persecution came. People like Saul of Tarsus persecuting the church and so forth.
[9:52] And in chapter 8 and verse 4, it said, therefore, they that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word. That's missions. Amen? And it wasn't organized.
[10:03] They didn't pray about it. They didn't say, okay, let's censor. No, no, no. They were scattered abroad because of the persecution. And then over in chapter 11, verse 19.
[10:15] Now, they which were scattered abroad upon the persecution that arose about Stephen traveled as far as Phineas and Cyprus and Antioch preaching the word to none but unto the Jews only.
[10:31] Now, if we're not careful, we don't want to preach the gospel to certain types of people. The gospel is not for certain types of people. The gospel is for the whole world.
[10:43] And it does not matter about their color of their skin. It does not matter about the culture they came from. It doesn't matter about the language they speak or any of those things.
[10:53] The gospel is for everybody. Now, it took all these Jewish leaders a hard time to see that. Okay. Now, look at verse 20. I love this verse.
[11:04] And some of them were men of Cyprus and Cyrene, which when they were come to Antioch, spake unto the Grecians preaching the Lord Jesus.
[11:16] Wow. They got the message. Eventually, they got the message. This is not just for us. It's for everybody. Amen. They got the message.
[11:26] Okay. Verse 21 says, and the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number believed and trusted unto the Lord, or turned unto the Lord.
[11:39] Verse 22. Then tidings of these things came unto the ears of the church, which was in Jerusalem, and they sent forth Barnabas that he should go as far as Antioch.
[11:52] Thank God they got the right man. Amen. They didn't get somebody that's going over there and criticize everything they were doing. Wait a minute. You didn't do this. No, no, no, no. Barnabas, an encourager.
[12:05] Every time you find Barnabas, you find him encouraging somebody. We need some Barnabases. Amen. And so Barnabas went down there, and look what happened. And when he came and had seen the grace of God, was glad.
[12:23] Praise the Lord. Gentiles are getting saved. He was glad. And he exhorted them that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord.
[12:34] And here's a short biography of Barnabas. For he was a good man and full of the Holy Ghost and of faith, and much people was added unto the Lord.
[12:47] Amen. That's a good testimony. Amen. And then the Bible says, then departed Barnabas to Tarsus for to seek Saul. And he said, wait a minute. This job's a little bit too big for me to be alone.
[12:59] I remember a fellow that was persecuting the church, and he got saved. And when he came to Jerusalem, the church there didn't want to even let him fellowship with them.
[13:10] But Barnabas brought him in and said, hey, he's been saved. We need to accept him so far. And then he realizes that Paul, Saul of Tarsus, that he has been called to the Gentile world.
[13:24] And so he goes over and he gets them, and they brought back, and they were ministering together. They're in the church at Antioch. You remember what he said of him? And the believers were called Christians first at Antioch.
[13:38] Wow. When we are realized that God, the Lord Jesus Christ, died for the sin of the whole world, it doesn't matter about their culture or background or anything else.
[13:51] The gospel needs to be preached to everyone. By the way, we need to learn that here. Amen. Amen. Amen. Everybody needs the gospel. So let's look at some things, okay?
[14:04] What about the church at Antioch? It was a multicultural church. Some of them are from Africa. Some of them are from Cyprus. You know, different parts of the world.
[14:17] A multi-ethnic church. It was a multicultural church. They came from all kind of different backgrounds. Some of them, obviously, very wealthy and so forth, okay?
[14:27] Some of them, probably very poor. But they were all together, okay? So it was a diversified church. I love to see churches when there's all kind of colors of people.
[14:42] I'm a member of Lancaster Baptist Church in Lancaster, California. Our choir looks like the United Nations. It really does. I mean, you know, there are people from every country you could possibly think about and so forth.
[14:59] And they work together in such a beautiful way. The church was diversified. The church was a spiritual church. Notice what it says over in chapter 13 again, okay?
[15:14] As they ministered to the Lord and fasted. Wow.
[15:25] That's a little radical, isn't it? We do a lot of feasting as Baptists. But we don't do a lot of fasting, do we? Evidently, they were serious about this matter.
[15:40] I mean, they had been brought together from various countries around the world, various cultures and so forth. And here they were. They were ministering to the Lord.
[15:50] They were fasting. And in that atmosphere, the Bible says, the Holy Ghost said, separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work went to and I have called them.
[16:03] By the way, that's the kind of church that the Holy Ghost of God would work in. Amen. And so they doesn't say anything about the Holy Ghost saying anything to Barnabas and Saul.
[16:18] They said to the rest of the church. Haven't you noticed so many times when somebody's really called of God and they come forward and say, God's called me to be a missionary? A lot of people in the church say, I knew that was going to happen.
[16:32] By the way, if you came, come and say, I'm called to be a missionary and everybody said, well, I didn't think he'd ever be called a missionary. Might not be too good, amen. I mean, you know, they'd watch Barnabas and they'd watch Saul and so forth.
[16:47] They knew what they'd been doing and so forth. And the Holy Ghost said, separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work went and I have called them. And then in verse 3, it says again, okay, and when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them, they sent them away.
[17:09] They sent them away. The church was a spiritual church. The church was a diversified church.
[17:20] The church was a group of people that realized that everybody in the world needed to hear the gospel. Not just at Jerusalem, not just at Antioch, but everywhere.
[17:31] they were a church that God was working in. You know, if we're not careful, we'll get so organized that we completely leave the Holy Spirit of God out of our church.
[17:48] maybe one of the ways we could become a sending church would be having more prayer meetings. Maybe there would be some times when we would get so consumed with the work of God that we would forget about eating or forget about all the sports and all the other things and spend our time praying before God.
[18:10] In order for the church to be a sending church, number one, they must realize that the local church is the sending agency.
[18:26] Now, I'm not against mission boards. I'm for them. In fact, I believe every missionary ought to be a member of some good Bible-believing mission board.
[18:37] You say, well, I don't believe the mission boards in the Bible. And neither is Christian camps nor colleges, even. But they're not anti-biblical. But, and every once in a while somebody says to me, how many missionaries did BIMI send?
[18:54] And I said, none. BIMI is not a sending agency. If a mission board is what it ought to be, it is a helps organization.
[19:05] And they do all kinds of good logistical things for the missionaries. And it's a wonderful thing. I never will forget after God had called me to be a missionary. I'd made a commitment that I'm going to Japan as a missionary.
[19:19] And I was not an independent Baptist then, okay? I'll not tell you what I was, but I was a Baptist in the South, okay? But I noticed several things that reasoned that I was going to get out of that group, okay?
[19:37] And I committed my life to be a missionary in Louisville, Kentucky, Walnut Street Baptist Church. They didn't give an invitation, but I went home that night after hearing Dr. Baker Carthin preach on the untold millions.
[19:51] And I had gotten a letter from a missionary in Japan. I had written a column for the Western Recorder, which is the state paper for the Baptist Convention of Kentucky.
[20:03] And I had written that particular article criticizing the corporate program. We thought all of our money going to corporate program was mission money.
[20:15] Come to find out, 10% of it was mission money. 90% of it was used for something else. I didn't like that. I wrote an article about it. And they published it.
[20:26] I don't know why, but they did. Anyway, a couple months after that, I got a letter from a missionary in Japan by the name of Donald Mobley. And, of course, he had been, he was a graduate of Louisville Seminary, so he got the Western Recorder while he was there.
[20:42] And when he went to Mission Field, they got his new address and kept sending it to him. And Donald Mobley wrote me a letter and he said, Dear Brother Sisk, I read your article in the Western Recorder. He said, I don't know how old you are.
[20:56] I don't know your educational attainment. I don't really know anything about you except when I read that article, I could not help but think there is a man that has a heart for missions.
[21:08] And he said, we are in Akita, Japan. That's like a state in Japan, Akita, Ken. There are three and a half million people here.
[21:19] My wife and I are the only missionaries in Akita, Ken. I was pastoring in Providence, Kentucky. 3,500 people. There were two other Southern Baptist churches.
[21:33] There's a Methodist church, a Presbyterian church, a Pentecostal church, probably a dozen others. Okay. And at the end of that letter, he posed a question. He said, What would keep you from coming to Japan?
[21:46] I was dumb enough as a pastor to read that to my church. Okay. I mean, and they prayed me out of that church.
[21:59] Okay. But by that time, I knew I could not go to the Southern Baptist Convention. I had to go to the seminary and the seminaries were so liberal that I could not go.
[22:12] And the providence of God is an amazing thing. I don't even know how they got my address. But a few days after that, in the mail, there was a mammograph pamphlet from Baptist International Missions Incorporated.
[22:27] That's 1962. And the mission had been formed in 1960. And it had on there the doctrinal statement and the philosophy of BIMO. And I looked at that and I thought, Hey, those folks are right.
[22:38] That's where I need to go. I never remember praying there in the Brown Hotel that night. Dear God, if you'll open doors, I'll go. By the way, God's good at opening doors.
[22:50] Amen. Two years later, we were in Japan. The local church, we must realize that you are the sending agency for missionaries.
[23:07] Amen. I mean, that's where missionaries come from. They say, well, they come from Bible school. But before they went to Bible school, they went to some church. Okay. And by the way, before they went to church, they were in a home somewhere.
[23:24] And pastor's already so part of my thunder. Okay. He got up and said, the home's a major problem while people are not going to mission field. And by the way, that's right. Amen. I was in a mission conference in Lynchburg, Virginia, with David Ralston years ago.
[23:39] And we were eating lunch in a beautiful home group, wonderful Christian home. And the mother said to Brother Ralston, she said, Brother Ralston, I get very nervous every time we have a missionary conference.
[23:50] And Brother Ralston inquired as to why she'd get nervous about a mission conference. And she said, you know, we have two teenagers, a boy and a girl. Both of them are very committed Christians.
[24:01] And I'm scared to death that God's going to call one to be a missionary. And I don't believe I could stand to see my children go to the mission field. You say, Brother Don, is that rather common?
[24:14] I don't know. But it's not very Christian. For God so loved the world that he sent an angel.
[24:26] No. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. That's where it begins, in the home.
[24:39] I preached at South White Baptist Fellowship years ago. And I did a little research before I preached. Because I knew I was going to preach on missions.
[24:50] Every time I get to preach, I preach on missions. I mean, you know, if you want something else, to get somebody else. Amen. When I get a chance to preach, I preach on missions.
[25:01] And I preached on missions. But I did some research. And I said, I've looked back 20 years at all the speakers for the last 20 years. And I said, in 20 years, I am the first preacher that's preached at South White Baptist Fellowship that had either a son or a daughter on the mission field.
[25:21] And it got real quiet in there. I went to the bathroom after that and they were discussing my sermon in the bathroom. One preacher said, he didn't have any right to say that.
[25:34] He didn't know I was in there. I said, oh yeah, I did. They asked me to preach. We need to realize that it's the home.
[25:50] By the way, how long since you prayed the only prayer request of Jesus? The harvest truly is plenty as the laborers are few. Okay, what's the answer?
[26:01] Pray therefore the Lord the harvest that he'll send forth laborers into his harvest. By the way, when you pray, you might ought to realize that God may say, all right, you're interested, you're praying, you're the one.
[26:15] Or your son or your daughter or your grandson or some of the good members of your church. Number two, the pastor must have a passion for missions.
[26:31] Now, he's already said that the pastors are the captains of the mission team or something like that. Okay. But the pastor must have a passion for missions.
[26:44] For instance, there must be regular preaching on the responsibility of the local church to send laborers. Pastors, how long has it been since?
[26:57] You emphasize to your church that our church has a responsibility to send missionaries to the mission field. Missions must be emphasized in the church, on the church calendar and in the church budget.
[27:17] In other words, missions ought to be big. It ought to be big in the church calendar. There ought to be specified times when missions is emphasized.
[27:28] I believe from the depth of my heart that every church ought to have an annual mission conference. If we're going to be a great missionary church, it is absolutely necessary.
[27:40] Now, I'm going to get on pet peeve and I'm going to hit some of you, okay? Every once in a while, I hear people say, well, people won't come to mission conferences so we're going to have a mission month.
[27:53] What if they don't have to come Sunday night? Are you going to quit having Sunday night? What if they don't come to Wednesday night prayer meeting? Are you going to quit having it? No, no, no. If you'll have a mission conference and you'll make it exciting and you'll get some good preaching in it and so forth and some good singing and make it lively, not something people have to come to, you can have a great mission conference.
[28:15] You say, well, what's the difference between having a mission month and a mission conference? It's all the difference in the world. I mean, you take a church four or five nights in a row where missionaries are there and missions is emphasized in the Christian day school, in the college, wherever it's at, in Sunday school and all of a sudden there's a great impact that it does not come in any other way.
[28:41] So you must have a mission conference. Put the missions in your schedule, your church calendar. Then be sure that your church budget emphasizes missions.
[28:53] I was thinking today, for many years I was a member of Highland Park Baptist Church in Chattanooga, Tennessee. And that great church, with all the things they were doing in Chattanooga and in that area, every year over 50% of all the income of that church went to world evangelization.
[29:14] Dr. Harold Seidler, where Brother Eden is a member. For many, many years that church, two-thirds of everything that came into that church went to missions.
[29:31] Wow. Oswald Smith pastored one of the great churches in the world, People's Church in Toronto, Canada. And he said to the people after he had been there a few years, got them started on a mission.
[29:46] The minute we spend more money for people in Toronto than we do the rest of the world is when you will get a new pastor. By the way, one of the great ways to make missions a big thing in your mission budget is to have faith, promise, giving.
[30:04] Now, personally, I think you're backslidden if you don't have it, okay? Okay? Now, I'm not going to be mean to you, but you're just not right with God. And yet, I hear pastors say, well, if we gave all that money to missions, we wouldn't have anything to run our church at home.
[30:22] I've never seen a church get involved in faith, promise, giving that their regular giving did not go up along with their mission giving. So just do it, okay?
[30:38] Missions should be promoted in the Sunday school, in the youth meetings, in the ladies meetings, everything. I mean, saturate your church with missions. Missionaries should be respected.
[30:51] I mean, you know, give them equal honor with other pastors or evangelists and so forth. Missionaries should never be looked upon as second-class citizens. Now, I know years ago, in fact, I remember a lady in Kentucky saying, maybe she both says, my brother-in-law has had five jobs in the last year or two and he can't keep a job to save his life.
[31:12] I wonder if God's not calling him to a missionary. And I said, I hope he isn't, okay? Okay. No, no, you listen to a lot of the missionaries today.
[31:25] They're some the cream of the crop. Missionaries should be respected. They should be regular testimonies of missionaries in your church. Missionaries should be speaking in various church activities.
[31:40] Somebody's already said this, but I'll say it again, okay? We don't get what we want. We get what we emphasize. Whatever you emphasize in your church, that's what you're going to get.
[31:53] Let me get on some real practical things. I believe from the depth of my heart that regular mission trips should be a part of your church. nothing, nothing can get people more excited about missions than taking them on a mission trip.
[32:13] But don't just say, okay, how many of you want to go to a mission trip? No. The mission trip should be planned well in advance. People should be trained and get them ready for what they're going to do.
[32:27] Those that plan to go should be well prepared before they go. good communication with the missionaries you plan to visit on the mission field. Plan to be submissive to the ones on the field.
[32:43] In other words, when you take a group of young people or older people or whoever, you say, okay, when we get there, we're going to do what the missionaries on the mission field want us to do. We're going to dress the way they tell us to dress, okay?
[32:56] And we're going to talk the way they tell us to talk. In other words, be submissive to the leadership on the field. Regular mission trips should be a real part of every church.
[33:09] Church should be willing and anxious for the very best people to go to the mission field. I don't know how many times I've had somebody say to me, isn't it strange?
[33:20] God calls the best people of our church to be missionaries. I say, well, if you were God, would you call the worst people in your church to be missionaries? Think about the church at Antioch.
[33:38] Now, I'm not sure. I don't even know this. You don't know it either because it doesn't say it in the Bible. But I kind of get the idea that Barnabas and Saul was the pastor and associate pastor at Antioch.
[33:53] If they wasn't, they had a big part in that church at Antioch. But God spoke to people that had trained and was leaders and were filled with the Holy Spirit of God and he called them to be missionaries.
[34:13] You know, we have a great verse in Luke 6, 38. It says, give and it shall be given unto you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over, shall men give you a blessing.
[34:25] Now, we use that for finances and I think it is for finances, okay? But I don't think it's just for finances. I think it's for missions too. In other words, wouldn't it be great if a lot of you churches would send somebody from your church to start another church nearby where they don't have a good church?
[34:47] Or you say, they're so important to our church. Wait a minute. Give and it shall be given unto you. You should pray that God would send people out of your church to the mission field.
[35:02] The church should be totally involved in the ministry to their missionaries on the field. Regular communication.
[35:15] I remember coming home on furlough and one of the members of our church said, Brother Sis, now this was old time missions, okay? We didn't have any text or email or Skype or all of that junk, okay?
[35:28] No, it's not junk, it's good. Thank God for it, amen. In fact, when we went to Japan, a phone call from Japan to America for three minutes was $25.
[35:40] We had $500 a month support, we did not make one phone call to America. And it sometimes take a letter, maybe 10 days to a month to get there.
[35:52] But nowadays there is absolutely no reason for you not to be in good communication with your missionaries. Now, particularly the ones that are out of your church, okay? But in reality, I think that every missionary ought to have somebody assigned to them that would be sure that they communicate with them on a regular basis.
[36:13] Phone calls, you can call all over the world now for nothing. Text, email, good communication, occasional visits from the pastor and other leaders of the church.
[36:27] Preachers, go see your missionaries on the mission field. You say, well, I can't afford it. Put it in your mission budget. No reason in the world not to put a mission trip for the pastor in the mission budget.
[36:42] You say, well, I don't know how the deacons didn't know that. Well, let me come tell them, okay? The home church can help when emergencies arise.
[36:59] You can help when the missionaries are on furlough, when they're on dedication. Help the missionaries. Help them with their transportation.
[37:11] Help them with their education of their children. If you have a Christian school, be sure that you let the missionary kids go without any cost to them. You say, you're meddling a little bit.
[37:25] You do, too, every Sunday, amen? Amen. Get the missionaries totally involved in your local church.
[37:36] Now, that don't mean they don't go out and report to other churches. It doesn't mean they don't have a church every Sunday on furlough.
[37:47] By the way, when you're on furlough, when you're on debutation, if you don't have a schedule, just go to the church anyway. I mean, how many times have you, as a missionary, just visited a church and all of a sudden they say, well, why don't you give a testimony?
[38:03] And then they take you home for support. In other words, if you're in your home church all the time while you're doing debutation, you're not doing debutation. If you're in your home church all the time when you're on furlough, you're not fulfilling all the purpose for the furlough.
[38:19] So help the missionaries while they're home on furlough. Help the missionaries while they're doing debutation. Help the missionaries in any way. And I think of all the things, and I mean this from the depth of my heart.
[38:35] If we send our money to missionaries and we do not pray for them, we are cheating our missionaries.
[38:48] There's a lot of places that a missionary can't get paid out of. Thank God there's no place in the world they can't get prayed out of. I'll never forget going back to Japan for the second time.
[39:02] God did some unbelievably great things the first year we were, the first three and a half year we were in Japan. We started the Cindy Newtown Baptist Church. The very first night we had a service, had 11 people saved.
[39:16] The man that's been pastoring that church for the last 46 years saved that night. I mean just some great things. And first anniversary we had 139 people.
[39:27] You say, well that's not very many people. You go to Japan and find 139 people in the church, okay? By that time we had five young men that had committed their lives to be a preacher. We sent one of them to Bible school.
[39:41] Came back one Sunday and he printed the bulletins for us. He did up the bulletins. One Sunday morning I got there in the bulletins had on the front page five points of Calvinism. I said, I don't think we'll have a bulletin today.
[39:56] And if I have to re-teach them everything, I might as well teach them in the first place until we started Bible school. You know, and God did some unbelievably great things. I was in language school two of those years.
[40:12] Every day. Somebody asked me today, Brother Seth, how long did it take you to learn Japanese? And I said, I don't have any idea. I hadn't learned it yet, amen. And I started preaching after I'd been there a year and a half.
[40:26] I don't know how long I preached before they understood anything. But I remember getting back home, back to Japan, home, and that was home then.
[40:39] And by the way, that's a good way missionaries to look at a place. When you get somewhere, you're home. Don't always be talking about back home. This is home. Make home wherever you're at.
[40:51] Every once in a while I hear people say, well, is it hard for children to adjust on the mission field? And you mark it down. The children will adjust according to how the parents adjust. I got back to Japan.
[41:07] And I'd come home on a furlough because my mother was dying of cancer. I'd been here just a few weeks and she died. And I got back to Japan. You know, okay, I'm capable of preaching and so forth, teaching in the language.
[41:24] I raised a good bit of support that year. Thank God for that. Amen. Had much better support. I got back to Japan and began to do the same thing I'd done before, but something was missing.
[41:37] Something was missing. And I began to search my own heart. What's wrong with me? You know, one day I was in my little study there, just a little bit of room in our church there in Akashi. And all of a sudden, I thought, when I was home, my greatest prayer warrior went to heaven.
[41:57] And I remember writing a letter, Brother Gardner, a prayer letter. And I said, folks, I'm back in Japan. I don't need any money. That's real odd for a missionary, ain't it? But I was honest.
[42:09] I didn't have good support there. I said, you know, I've got some helpers here. We've got some preacher boys. We've got, you know, all kind of good things are happening. But I said, when I was home, my mother went to heaven.
[42:22] I lost my greatest prayer warrior. And I said, would somebody, would somebody take her place? And even to this day, I meet people that say, Brother Schiff, since we got that prayer letter, we pray for you every day.
[42:36] Amen. More things have been accomplished by prayer than we could ever imagine. Pastors, associate pastors, youth directors, you have big responsibility.
[42:55] But there is no joy in all the world like the joy of having somebody to go from your church to the mission field. Amen. And then one day they'll come back and they'll tell you what God has done.
[43:10] That's what the first missionaries did. They didn't come back and say, look what we have done. No, no, no, no. They came back and reported what God had done. Souls had been saved.
[43:21] Churches had been started. Leaders had been trained. There's no joy in all the world like the joy of seeing God work through your church.
[43:33] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. In the ninth chapter of Matthew, you read all the chapter. Jesus ministered to all kind of people, cast out demons, healed blind people, on and on and on.
[43:50] And then he said when he saw the multitude, he was moved with compassion. Amen. By the way, you read that same statement time after time.
[44:04] Just before the feeding of the 5,000, he was moved with compassion. The disciples said, send them away, let them go in the village and buy food. No, no, Jesus, no.
[44:15] You give them to eat. He was moved with compassion because they were fainted and were sheep without a shepherd. And then he said, the harvest truly is precious.
[44:30] Probably at that time, fewer than 500 million people lived on the face of the earth. when he saw the multitude, today, there's 7.8 billion people on the face of the earth.
[44:46] When, what do you say today? And when he saw the multitude, he was moved with compassion. By the way, if we don't have that, we're not going to be successful.
[45:01] I watch God, he uses all kinds of people. Isn't he wonderful? I mean, you're the strangest looking bunch I've ever seen, okay? And everybody's different.
[45:14] There's all kind of differences. But if you find a missionary, if you find a pastor, if you find an evangelist, you find a layperson that's being used of God, you can tell that one thing they've got is compassion.
[45:29] You can't do without that. And Jesus was moved with compassion. And he said, the harvest truly is plenteous.
[45:42] Oh, it's never been more plenteous than it is today. I remember days back in the late 60s, early 70s, mid 70s, when about 15 to 20 percent of the college graduates from Bible colleges were going into missions.
[45:59] I wrote a little blog last year and best I could figure out in 2018, in June, May and June, about 3,000 students graduated from Bible believing fundamental colleges across America.
[46:20] 20 percent of them would have gone to the mission field like they used to, there would have been 600 mission volunteers out of that group.
[46:34] You know how many there were? 55. we're not getting a job done. I dare you to take Acts 13, Acts chapter 11, and find out why we're not sending more people to the mission field.
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