[0:00] Take your Bibles if you would and open it with me to the book of Ecclesiastes chapter 9 and verse 10. I'll give these guys a second to get that up on the screen for you. Ecclesiastes chapter 9 and verse 10.
[0:13] I want to have a word of prayer for you, Timmy. I'm excited that God is allowing you to go and excited about what God is going to do with you. I want to talk to the whole church just a minute. I think this is a major lesson that I think all of us can learn.
[0:28] And I've been in the process of helping men and women do the will of God with their lives for a long time in full-time Christian service. And I'm excited that Timmy gets to go do this.
[0:40] You know that he will soon be at Camp Rhino. He'll be helping take care of things there, helping lead the camp, helping work with children and teenagers, helping in churches. He'll be doing a little bit of everything.
[0:52] I appreciate his heart. The Bible says, let's have a prayer. Father, please bless Timmy. Bless destiny. Thank you for what you've done in our lives.
[1:02] Thank you for the hunger he has to serve you. God, I ask you to do something very special with this young man, his wife. I ask you, Lord, to bless over there and let kids be saved, lives be changed, and people serve Jesus.
[1:16] I pray, dear God, that you'd show your power, and I'll give you glory and honor and praise for all you do. In Jesus' name, amen. You know, every one of us ought to be figuring out what God could do with our lives, and we ought to be doing whatever God puts in front of us that we can.
[1:31] The Bible says there in Ecclesiastes 9 and verse 10, whatsoever thy hand finds to do, do it with thy might. There's no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the grave where you're going.
[1:45] And so, Timmy has chosen to give his life to make a difference, and he is going to go and go to work and do something for God.
[1:57] But I think most of us are kind of satisfied with coming to church and maybe reading our Bibles and having family devotions. I'm not certain how many of us really look and say, I need to know something I can be doing in the kingdom.
[2:11] I need to know something I can be doing in the ministry. So I want to challenge you all to find whatever your hand can do and to get involved in that. Every one of you are important.
[2:23] Every one of you have a ministry that can make a difference. Nobody ought to ever be left out. Go with me, if you would, to Ephesians chapter 4, verse 11, if you would.
[2:33] Ephesians chapter 4, verse 11 and following down through verse 16. We won't read all of that, obviously. But in Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 11, God gave some gifted people to the church.
[2:46] He gave some people to the church that would be able to do different ministries. And in verse 12, their ministry was to perfect the saints, perfecting of the saints. Maturing of the saints.
[2:58] Getting them grown up and able to carry on and do life for him. The perfecting of the saints. For what? For the work of the ministry. And that way the body will be edified.
[3:10] For the edifying of the body. And as we decide that we will all do whatever God has gifted us with. Nobody in any church ever has any right to look at any other person and say, I'm one up on you.
[3:24] I have the better gift. I have the better ability. You know, that was something that was going on in the Corinthian church. Those of them that had the showy gifts like to boast about that. They like to act like they were better than the others.
[3:36] And the Lord made it very clear that those that you see most often, they may not even be the more important gifts. And so we ought to all be saying, I want to be used to God wherever he'd have me used.
[3:48] And I look down if you would at verse 16. I would have preached the whole thing. But verse 16. We should outline that.
[4:07] Every joint has a job. Every joint's important. Now, I have had some battles with gout in the past. Thank the Lord it's been many years now. But it mainly hits my right toe in the joint right past the end of the big toe.
[4:25] That's a joint I never even think about. But you let it get gout, and I will know that that joint supplies something. Massive pain. I mean, I hobble.
[4:36] I can't get my shoe on. I don't like the sheet on the bed on my foot. And my foot's too cold to see I'm under the cover and hurts too much to be under the cover. No way to make it comfortable outside the cover. I'd have to cook the rest of my body in bed.
[4:47] And so it would be pretty bad. Every joint. Every joint. According to the effectual working and the measure of every part. Every joint.
[4:59] Every part. And that causes increase in the body under the edifying of itself and love. Every joint. Every part. Everybody doing what God has in mind.
[5:11] Passage of scripture I was going to preach out of. But I just felt like I was supposed to read those. I want to take you now to John chapter 9 verses 4 and 5. And I'm done. I'll get you out on time. John chapter 9 verses 4 and 5.
[5:28] I love this. Jesus is talking to us. He had the luxury of knowing how long he's going to be on the planet. I do not. He had the knowledge of what he could do.
[5:43] I often had to feel around to figure out what I can do. I had to stumble around for quite a bit of time to figure out just exactly where God would have me work. But I want you to look if you would in verse 4.
[5:53] I must work the works of him that sent me while it is day. The night comes when no man can work. As long as I'm in the world, I am the light of the world.
[6:07] Now, that's an amazing set of verses. He said, I must work the works. He felt responsible. He felt like there was something he was supposed to do.
[6:18] And I think that's what gives reason and purpose to life. I was sitting in my office today studying what the Bible has to say about world evangelism because I'm kind of caught up on some studying and I had extra time.
[6:30] And so I was putting together material on world evangelism, reading books and taking verses down and looking at them. And I thought to myself, if I didn't have a reason to live, I don't think I'd like living.
[6:43] I thought if all I wanted was money, I don't know. It seemed like it would be a hollow life because you could never get enough. And, you know, however much you got, I want to do something for him.
[6:54] I want my life to count. And Timmy, I believe that's what your decision is. I've talked to you. We've had some long talks about it. Jesus felt the responsibility. I must work the works of him that sent me.
[7:08] And then I want you to notice that God had some work for him to do. It was the works of him that sent me. And that's what we try to find. I want to know what God wants me to do. I'd like to challenge every one of you, lay person or not, you ought to know what God wants you to do.
[7:23] Every one of us ought to be saying, you know, there's something about it. We have this idea that those that are called to preach are like a different breed of people. In this church, that really makes it weird.
[7:34] Sometimes you do. You feel like, well, there's the preachers and the missionaries and there's us. But biblically, we're all his sons. Biblically, we're all his children. Biblically, we're all in the ministry.
[7:47] My dad might not have had a lot of education. He always told me when I was a boy, he said, God has a will for every preacher's life and every person's life.
[7:58] Not just you preachers. God has a will for everybody's life. I was always like, you know, Dad, that's pretty smart for God. I mean, reading a book, he went to sleep. He sat down and opened a book.
[8:08] That was a good nap pill for him. You just put that book in his lap and he'd be like, this is a good book like that. But he knew that. I don't know if you know that. I don't know if you know that.
[8:19] I must work towards him that sent me. Then he says, I got a time period. Well, it's a day. I had the privilege of working at Mount Calvary Baptist Church in Terrence City, Alabama.
[8:30] It's the second church that I was on staff in. And I remember when one of the men retired. His last name was Byers, if I remember right. I can't remember for sure, or Bowers.
[8:43] He retired. He came to church and he was probably roughly my age. And he said, you know, I've been busy making a life. Now I plan on living for God. The whole church applauded.
[8:54] Everybody was so excited about it. He was always at church. He was a deacon. He did a lot of stuff at church. But now that he was going to be retired, he said he'd go full time. And I thought to myself, boy, it's sad. You've got to wait until you're 65 to really want to do that.
[9:10] There's a day coming when none of us are going to be able to work. There's a day coming when I will have done all I can do for the kingdom of God. There's a day coming when I will have done all I can do.
[9:21] It will be all there is. I need to work. He said, as long as I'm in the world, I am the light of the world. As long as I'm in the world.
[9:32] And I just would just challenge each of you. You know, we're not all going to be pastors or missionaries or preachers.
[9:43] But every one of us ought to be saying, boy, I'm a full time Christian. You might not be in full time Christian work. You may work another job, but you're always a Christian.
[9:54] I have the craziest thoughts because I'm always overseas in my head. And I'm always thinking about what's going on. And I often think, well, what happens if Wall Street collapses? What happens if this country just loses everything?
[10:07] What happens? Will we all quit on God or will we be excited about serving God? Will we all quit on God or will we be excited about serving Him? I hope you are.
[10:18] I hope you are right now thinking to yourself, I am to serve God. I want to be His. I want to be living for Him. Timmy, I'm proud that you're going to go to the mission field. I'm proud you're going to do something to help young people come to know Jesus.
[10:30] Jesus, I'm proud that you're going to a country where just a few days ago, a 14 or 15-year-old boy that had gotten saved. I think he might have reached the age of 16.
[10:41] I'm not really sure about that. A monkey or a wonky or something. I can't say his name. He walked into a room and stabbed another kid in the chest and killed him. And two weeks later, three weeks later, he killed himself.
[10:54] Somebody needs to do something to reach those kids and tell them about Jesus. I'm glad you're going to do that, and I'm proud of you. Thank you.