[0:00] This message was recorded at Vision Baptist Church in Alfred, Georgia. It is our prayer that you will be blessed by the preaching of God's Word.
[0:14] I have to say, this week has been a huge, huge encouragement to me and my wife, and you folks have been so good to us. This is my last opportunity to thank you, and so I want to be sure to do that.
[0:26] We came in, this is our first meeting, and a little bit nervous, and you folks have just loved on us and made this really easy for us. And so we're looking forward to getting out and going to other meetings.
[0:38] And you set the bar pretty high. First night, you fed us well, fed us well all week, but we're so grateful for that. So Matthew 15, if you want to turn over there, we're going to read a few verses, and then we'll jump into a few thoughts about missions this morning.
[0:54] Matthew 15, we're going to start reading in verse 32, and we'll read through verse 36. It says, Then Jesus called his disciples unto him and said, I have compassion on the multitude, because they continue with me now three days and have nothing to eat.
[1:10] And I will not send them away fasting, lest they faint in the way. And his disciples say unto him, When should we have so much bread in the wilderness as to fill so great a multitude? And Jesus saith unto them, How many loaves have ye?
[1:23] And they said, Seven, and a few little fishes. And he commanded the multitude to sit down on the ground, and he took the seven loaves and the fishes, and gave thanks and break them, and gave to his disciples and the disciples to the multitude.
[1:35] You see what's going on here. Jesus has been ministering. He's let out in the wilderness, out of town, and they're away from the markets. They're away from the storehouses. And this multitude that's following, we'll find out later, it's 4,000 men with the women and children beside.
[1:48] They've consumed everything they've brought with them. And Christ looks on this multitude, and he has compassion, and he says, And if they go away without me filling them, they are going to faint in the way that they're going.
[2:02] And I love what he says there. This is our God, and he says, I will not send them away fasting. I will not send these people away from me wanting and having this great need that I don't fill.
[2:12] The same scenarios in John chapter 6, I think it's a different time, but Jesus talks to me. He says, I'm the bread of life, and if you don't take me into you and consume me, then you don't have a chance.
[2:23] You're going to faint. And so the disciples quickly figure out here that they can't meet this great need that's there. In verse 33, they mention that. When should we have so much bread in the wilderness? But that's not what Jesus asked them.
[2:36] He didn't ask them, how much is it going to take to fill this great multitude? He just asked them this, how much do you have? And so do you realize God is much, much more aware of the need of these people than we are?
[2:53] The question God really asks is not how much it's going to take to fill them, but how much of yourself, how much can you give to me and make available to me for me to use and me to work with?
[3:03] But Jesus goes on after this, and he takes what they have, and this is his plan for feeding this whole multitude. It's whatever you give, I'm going to take it, and I'm going to break it apart, and I'm going to give it back to you, and you're going to break it, and you're going to give it to the next guy, and they're going to break it and give it to the next guy.
[3:19] So that's the plan for feeding this multitude, just tearing apart what you have and passing it along. The other night, Brother Austin asked me about when the Lord called me to be a missionary, and I worked for nine years for myself in a small business doing industrial-type installation.
[3:37] I built steel mezzanines, steel racks, modular offices, material lifts, and the Lord put some verses on my heart. But a man's life consists not in the abundance of the things that he possesses.
[3:50] In 1 Corinthians 3.13, every man's work shall be tried by fire, and the day shall declare to what sort it is. And I felt like in my life I was just hoarding up to myself all the things that I wanted.
[4:01] I had a truck. I had a bobcat. You know, I'm a guy. I like tools. I had, you know, a welder. I had forklifts for work, and I traveled all over, and I did this for almost a decade. And God just broke into my heart, and it was how selfish of a life is that, that the things God has given to me, I'm going to hang on, and I'm not going to break those apart and give them to someone else.
[4:22] And through all that, Lord just broke me and made me surrender into missions. And there's this great multitude. When I started praying about countries, I came across Indonesia. And I can tell you that Indonesia is a country of over 250 million people.
[4:36] But when I say that, God doesn't see, say, 250 million people. He sees 250 million image bearers of his. That every one of them has worth, and they have value, and they have a name, and they have a face, and he loves them, and he gave his son for them.
[4:52] And so every one of these countries, that's it. When you talk about India or you talk about China or these other places, Colombia, that guys are going to, these are image bearers of God that he's trying to reach, and God has a great affection for them. And he is much more aware of that need than I am.
[5:05] But the question is still the same. How much am I going to make available to him? There's nothing selfish in the gospel where I get to take and hang on to myself, for myself. I need to break that apart and give it to other men.
[5:19] And so Indonesia is the largest Muslim country in the world. I had a few surprises when I started studying Indonesia. When I picture Indonesia, I thought, you know, rice paddies and huts and the guy paddling across the river.
[5:34] You know, they share an island with Papua New Guinea, so that's the image that I had. But when you look at the country, there are cities with millions and millions of people. We have one on our display out there.
[5:45] Jakarta is the second largest metropolitan area in the world when it stretches out and the city stops behind Tokyo. Tokyo will be the largest. And I wonder, in that Muslim country, that 14-year-old boy that I was when I got saved that didn't have any of that knowledge of Christ, and he doesn't have anyone that's pouring Bible and pouring gospel in his life, when he steps out on that street, the only answers he's going to find are going to come from the mosque and from a God who doesn't love him and didn't send his son to die for him.
[6:15] And so I don't want to hang on to what I have and not pass that along. God's called us to Indonesia. We want to make sure that we're faithful to do that and not hoard that to ourselves and not pass us along that world.
[6:31] So I hope you'll pray for us. I hope you'll pray for Indonesia and pray for these other countries. And I thank you for your time, your kindness with us this week. And I pray God will bless you guys for that.
[6:42] Thank you. That's a little bit easier. I was trying to figure out what to do. Y'all heard my best stuff last night.
[6:52] So I have to find something worth saying today. I haven't gotten to talk to anybody, really. I've gotten to talk to people individually, but not about my survey trip as far as a church goes. One of the things about a survey trip and about getting to go to any foreign country, and especially if you're like me and you don't sleep on planes, the main thing you deal with is disorientation.
[7:13] And the reality is that when you hit somewhere like India, the first thing that will disorient you is the fact that everything smells, sounds, and looks completely different from anything you've ever seen. Thousands of people surround you at every point.
[7:24] It's hot sometimes. It's humid all the time. And basically everything's just kind of strange. And some really funny things happen when you're doing that. So the second day we got the privilege of going to see the church and getting to meet Udom and seeing some stuff like that.
[7:38] And went to this little place called the Spice of Life. And the Spice of Life is a wonderful little restaurant. They have this thing called Afghani Chicken, which I'm very much so looking forward to getting to try again, because it's delicious.
[7:50] But they also had this little green thing. It was sitting in this thing with onions and other sort of root vegetables and things like that. And I tried everything and thought it was pretty good. And that, in my mind, I thought, okay, green?
[8:02] It's got to be green beans, snap peas, something like that. And they have this chili sauce. And I'm like, okay, neither one of those things are real hot. So I can dip it in there, try this chili sauce, and see how it is.
[8:13] Well, let's just say that green does not always mean cool. And so I grabbed it, dipped it in the chili sauce, which is hot on its own, stuck it completely in my mouth, and that thing tried to tear my head off.
[8:25] It really did. It tried to rip me from the inside out. And it burned my head off. And what I found out is that that was not a green bean, not a snap pea, but that was a chili. And it began to work inside my throat and my mouth and everything like that.
[8:37] And I think I drank a gallon of water in about two minutes. And it was just a wonderful time, so you're disoriented. Then I was sitting with Das, and Das is a wonderful man. Das and I could communicate because I speak terrible Hindi, none at all pretty much well, and he speaks wonderful English.
[8:54] And he was teaching me a few things and teaching me how to say what my name is. And I'd gotten used to saying my name with the ah sound. So Jim Roberts is sitting there, and I say, which means my name is Sam.
[9:08] And he's like, is your name Sam or Sam? And I looked at him and said, I don't know. And he said, 15 minutes of language learning, and you have no idea what your name is. And there are some wonderful things that happened and some wonderful things to see.
[9:21] But as we went around, we went to a couple of places. Akshardham, which is a huge temple to the Hindus, or Hindu temple. I have a book about it in my display, and it's a beautiful place and a wonderful place.
[9:33] But it is a place where they worship their gods. And as we were coming towards the end of the trip on Tuesday, we came to the temple of Hanuman, which is in Chetapur where the church is. And Hanuman is this large monkey god, and he has all these worshipers to him.
[9:46] And this is a more practical temple than Akshardham. Akshardham is kind of a tourist trap. And what you would see instead of there being the fact that there were just these people who were there seeing the sights and taking pictures, or trying to take pictures like we were, you find instead people who every day, they get up, they put together their incense, they go down there with their offerings, they take their food, they take their incense, they take their flowers, and decorate these idols.
[10:13] They decorate idols to the Kalima, who used to demand child sacrifices. They decorate idols to Hanuman, who was some man who suddenly became a god to them. And they decorate these idols, and they worship cows, and they worship all sorts of other things.
[10:27] And as I was sitting there and I was watching it, I hit what I call a saturation point. It was where everything that was going on, and everything that was there, and everything that I saw, it stopped being a matter of just being disoriented.
[10:40] And it became a realization that it was a place. I just couldn't stand it anymore. Not India. It was not the people. It was not the food. It was what they had given themselves to.
[10:52] It was the fact that they were entirely consumed by these gods. They were entirely consumed. And those who are not consumed by these gods are consumed by the same things we are.
[11:05] They're consumed by materialism. They're consumed by money. They're consumed by making a better part of their life. They're eaten up by it. And I was sitting there, and a verse kept running back through my head.
[11:18] A verse kept running back through my head. And I think y'all will recognize this one. I certainly hope you do. Not as I suggest reading your Bibles. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life.
[11:36] For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved.
[11:50] These are simple verses. Verse 16 of John chapter 3 is the first verse I ever memorized as a kid. But it began to hit me that it was not a matter of the fact that God just loved me, or that God just loved us, or that God just loved saved people.
[12:07] But the reality is, is that every child who walks by those statues and touches the head of that cow and speaks into the stone ears gods that cannot hear, gods that cannot see.
[12:23] And every person who stands there and worships and bows before these things and prostrates themselves before these things and worships them, God loves them too. The reality is, is that the people of India die and go to hell every day.
[12:36] The people of America die and go to hell every day. And that is not the intention of God. It says that God so loved the world that he did what? He didn't just give the law.
[12:46] He didn't just give these things that we see in the Old Testament. From the very beginning of time, his goal was to give his only begotten son that the people of India don't have to die and go to hell.
[12:59] That the people of Alpharetta don't have to die and go to hell. That your friends, your family, my friends, my family, Das' family, Udum's family, Suresh's family, none of these people have to die and go to hell.
[13:11] It is the intention of God that they all be saved. It is an absolute necessity that we take this truth to them because God says, if I be lifted up, I will draw them in unto me.
[13:23] I will draw them to me. Please pray. Pray for the country of India. Pray for me as I'm gathering my support. Pray that God would work there to see people saved.
[13:35] It is his intention that all men come to know him. So pray for me as I endeavor to do that. Thank you. Pastor, I'm not sure I should share this with you, but what you were saying about when you became one of the folks in Peru, whenever we had guests come to Moscow, we would roll our eyes and say, there's foreigners coming.
[13:55] And you understand that. It is such a delight to be here for the missions conference. And we want to thank you for all of your wonderful graciousness and hospitality.
[14:08] It's just a delight. Open your Bibles, if you will, to Romans chapter 15. Romans 15. I love Romans. I'm going to tell you a story that you already know and put a different twist on it that you don't know.
[14:22] Romans 15 in verse 25, Paul writes this. He says, But now I go into Jerusalem to minister unto the saints. Now, we know this story better from 1 Corinthians, from the book of 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, excuse me.
[14:37] And it's really almost impossible to have a missions conference without somebody getting into 2 Corinthians 8 and talking about the Macedonians and their abundant giving. Well, the whole context of the Macedonians and their abundant giving is given right here in Romans 15.
[14:52] He says, I'm going to Jerusalem to minister to the saints. Now, let's set the scene just for a moment, okay? Because back in that day when the church began, none of us were in it.
[15:07] I'm not just saying because it was a long time ago. There were no Gentiles in the church. The church was a Jewish church. The Lord was Jewish, the apostles were Jewish, and the entire church was Jewish. Today, we have people who say, do you really think the Jews should be allowed in the church?
[15:22] Which is a bizarre question because back in that day, they were saying, do you really think we ought to let Gentiles in the church? It was a big question. And God directly intervened and said, you know what?
[15:34] You're going to have to let those Gentiles in. Salvation is also for the Gentiles. Praise God for that. And so the church said, okay, we'll let the Gentiles in. And the church began to spread beyond the Jewish people and Gentiles began to get saved as well.
[15:49] And we ended up in a day when the apostle Paul was traveling around the world ministering, and he got news back from Judea that the saints there, the believers there, were living in great need.
[16:00] There was a famine in the land. The people were terribly poor. And so Paul began to talk to the Gentiles in other cities and say, listen. Listen, you guys.
[16:11] You have received from them the word of God. You have received from them the Bible and the gospel. It wouldn't be a bad idea if in return you gave to them material things.
[16:27] But now I go unto Jerusalem to minister unto the saints, for it hath pleased them of Macedonia and Achaia to make certain contribution for the poor saints which are true of Jerusalem. It hath pleased them verily, and their debtors they are, for if the Gentiles have been made partakers of their spiritual things, their duty is also to minister unto them in carnal things.
[16:48] He's saying, you know what? You Gentiles are debtors. Through the Jews you have received the word of God. Through the Jews you have received Messiah. Through the Jews you have received the gospel.
[16:59] If you have received spiritual riches from them, wouldn't it just be right that you could give materially to help out those poor saints there in Israel? And that's a story we all know.
[17:11] We know about the Macedonians' reaction that though they lived in deep poverty, they gave beyond their ability, gave themselves also to that work to be able to help the material needs of those folks.
[17:27] Today the situation is somewhat different. I'm not asking you to contribute materially to the needs of the poor saints in Jerusalem, but I want us to think about this. The gospel started there.
[17:39] The word of God, Messiah, the gospel, it came through the Jewish people. And today, I tell you the Gentiles that there's a great famine there among the Jewish people.
[17:54] Not a physical famine, not a famine of food and material, but a famine of the word of God. And I think that if Paul were hurt here today, he would say to them, wouldn't it be right since you've received great spiritual blessings from them?
[18:10] In that day, it was to give back materially, but today it is, you received from them the gospel. Don't you think it's time that we return the gospel to them?
[18:22] That we return the favor that we gave back, that we paid back by taking the gospel back to the Jewish people? There's another verse here where he says, not that you would be made poor and they would be made rich, but that there would be an equality.
[18:35] Sometimes people say, why is it you want to preach only to the Jews? I've never said that. We preach to anybody that we can preach to, Jew or Gentile, with great joy.
[18:47] Okay? We're not asking that you make that something special. We're saying, let's make it an equality. We already share the gospel with the Gentiles. Let's make it an equality where we are also sharing it with God's chosen people, the Jewish people.
[19:02] This is something that we need to do. Some people say, you know what? Jewish people don't really actually ever get saved. And that's not true. But I understand the doubt that you sometimes have.
[19:15] I was sitting in my office in Tel Aviv. I was working feverishly because, I don't know if you're like this, but before we travel, there's always 1,000 things that have to be done.
[19:25] And we're working like mad men going almost around the clock trying to get everything done before we travel. And we were about 36 hours away from getting on an airplane to fly back to America. We had a trip planned to come back to America for some things.
[19:37] And so we were working feverishly to get everything finished. And my phone rang. Happy moment. And I picked up the phone and said, hello? It was the president of our mission board.
[19:49] And he, now he had formerly served in South Africa as a missionary. And he called me. He said, Sam, how are you doing? I said, I'm great. I'm busy, but I probably won't tell you that. And he said, I just got a call from South Africa.
[20:03] There's a lady there in South Africa and her name is Miranda. And many years ago, she was at the hospital. Her husband was sick. She was at the hospital.
[20:13] And as she waited in the waiting room, there was a lady next to her whose husband was also sick. And they began to share. And this lady's name was Estelle. And Estelle is Jewish.
[20:25] And her husband was sick. And Miranda and Estelle became friends as they waited for their husbands in the hospital. And they became acquainted. They became friends. And Miranda, who is a believer, began to witness to Estelle and talk to her about Jesus.
[20:38] But Estelle said, no, you know what? That's not for me. I'm Jewish. And she said, I'm not interested. But they remained friends. And this has gone on for years and years and years that Miranda has witnessed to Estelle, has prayed for her, has loved her.
[20:51] But Estelle has never been willing to accept the gospel. Now, the reason I'm calling you Brother Frampton said to me, he said, is that Estelle then immigrated. Her husband passed away. She immigrated to Israel.
[21:02] She's living in Israel. She's very sick. And Miranda is no longer, Estelle can barely talk now. And Miranda is no longer able to communicate with her by telephone.
[21:14] And she's desperate that someone would take her to the gospel. And so Miranda knew me, called me and said, do you know anybody in Israel? And he said, I know Sam. And he said, Sam, could you go visit Miranda? And I said, no problem.
[21:28] It's 36 hours before the airplane. I got nothing to do. Sure. I didn't say any of that. I said, of course, I'd be glad to do that. And so I got in my car and I have to tell you, my faith was small because, because as I'm driving across the country, thankfully, it's a small country.
[21:45] As I'm driving across the country to the city where she lives, I'm thinking, okay, Miranda has witnessed to this lady for decades, has loved her, has prayed for her for decades. And so this guy that she's never met is going to walk in and say, hi, don't you want to receive Jesus?
[21:58] And of course, she's going to fall to her knees and repent, right? Sure. Right. Well, whatever. I can share the gospel. At least I can do that. That way nobody would throw rocks at me. And so I went in there to talk to that lady.
[22:12] And she was very ill. And I shared Christ with her. I went through the Old Testament scriptures and showed her that the Old Testament, the Jewish scriptures, the Tanakh, shows beyond a shadow of a doubt who Messiah is.
[22:26] And I got to the end of it and I said, Miranda, excuse me, Estelle, I said, tell me, according to the Tanakh, who is Messiah? I nearly fell off my chair.
[22:40] She looked at me and barely able to speak. She croaked out, Jesus is Messiah. And I said, would you like to receive him as your savior?
[22:53] And that day, Estelle bowed her head and received Christ and was born again. We saw an incredible change in her life. We have trouble getting Baptist to read the Bible, but that Jewish lady, she couldn't read.
[23:07] Her eyes were gone. She hadn't, her vision was completely shot. She couldn't see. So I brought her an audio Bible and she insisted every day to her caretakers, turn on that audio tapes.
[23:18] I want to listen to the New Testament at least an hour every day as she got into the word of God and still got wonderfully saved. Folks, there is a remnant.
[23:29] God is saving souls. In 1948, they counted and there were 23 Jewish believers in Israel. Today, 20,000. God is doing a work and Jewish people are being saved and as it was in that day when Paul said, shouldn't we give to their material needs?
[23:49] I'd say to you, there are Jewish people all around us in Israel, here in Atlanta. Shouldn't we return to them after all that we've received from them? Romans chapter 5 and please have your finger there.
[24:07] Everyone in this world is seeking happiness. Especially Colombians. If you look at their history, for more than half a century now, the people of Colombia have been in war against guerrillas, have been in war against drug cartels, have been in war against organized crime.
[24:22] For years, the people of Colombia have been trying to find peace, to find happiness. If you look at their history, the word paz will come along pretty often because that's what they seek.
[24:33] For years and years and years, they have not had it. The problem is that the peace that they've been trying to find is the wrong type of peace. It's peace with robbers, peace from robbers, peace from kidnappers, peace from organized crime.
[24:46] As you all know, I wasn't born here and I think you can tell by my accent and by the way I look. I was born in Colombia and I grew up all around the violence. I remember one night I was waking up at around 2 a.m.
[25:00] and the house was shaking and you might think, well, that's an earthquake. The reality is that two blocks down from where we live, there's a military station and what they would do, the guerrillas would come to Bogotá and they would throw bombs or hydrogen tanks to the station so that they would make it explode.
[25:18] And so you can hear, you can wake up from the shaking. I grew up with checking my pockets and looking behind my back every five seconds. My wife gets frustrated and makes fun of me sometimes because we live in a third floor apartment and when we're all the way down, I'm like, did I remember to lock my door?
[25:38] One second, I gotta go back upstairs and she's like, come on, you do this all the time. And so that's something that stuck with me in my head because of what I lived in Colombia. I grew up in a country where we're getting kidnapped, robbed and assassinated.
[25:49] It was news of every single day. I grew up in a country full of violence. At the age of 13, my family decided to take a rough decision.
[26:03] I remember how I was hearing of many families fleeting the country and coming to the United States seeking asylum because of what was going on in Colombia. My parents then decided to make a rough decision, a tough decision.
[26:17] They decided that my mother and my brother and I would come here to find peace from all that was going on. And you might be thinking, wow, they finally find peace by coming here, but that is very far from the truth.
[26:28] A lot of Colombians think that coming here, they will find peace from violence. Coming here, they might find peace from the robbing and all the violence, but the truth is that the only peace that everyone needs is peace with God.
[26:42] And when I came here, I did not have that. In Colombia, people think that by fleeting their current situation and place, that they will find peace in their lives.
[26:52] That when they come to the United States, that all their problems would be solved. That there would be no more problems in their lives. That by coming here, they will find happiness and money. They will finally find the happiness that they've been looking for for more than 50 years.
[27:06] But that is so far from the truth. That is what my family and I thought when we came here. And we came here thinking, man, all our problems are going to be solved. My mother, my brother, and I were thinking this is going to be the greatest thing.
[27:17] But the truth was very far from that. The truth was that my family was broken. The reason why you saw my mom standing here by herself is because coming here broke my family apart.
[27:29] We thought that we were going to find happiness. We thought that we were going to find great opportunities. And we did. But the peace, the happiness did not come along with that.
[27:42] Beside all that happened, God is still good. And God will always be good. I came here looking for different things. I came here looking for money. But what I found was Christ.
[27:55] At the age of 15, thanks to missionaries that came from Peru, they came and shared the gospel with me and I accepted Christ as my Lord and Savior. In Romans chapter 5, verse 1, I find this one verse that is always stuck in my mind.
[28:09] It's constantly telling me and showing me how people come here trying to find peace, trying to find happiness. But the only peace, the only happiness that they can find, they will only find, the only true peace is with God.
[28:21] And it says, therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. My wife and I, we found peace here. My wife and I, we've been happy here, not because of how the United States work, not because of the money that we have here, but we found peace here because of the Bible and what it says, the truth that it proclaims to us about how we can have peace with God through Jesus Christ, our Lord.
[28:48] Please pray for my family and I as we go back to the country of Colombia, a place that's been heartbroken for many years, a place where they don't have peace, that they think that they have to flee the country and go somewhere else to find peace and happiness.
[29:03] Please pray for us as we go and tell them that the only peace, that the only happiness that they need is with God and they'll only find it in the Bible. Thank you. If you would, open your Bible to the book of Matthew and we'll be in chapter number seven.
[29:20] On Friday, I talked about a young man by the name of Kenan and I told a little bit of his story. His story is a lot longer than what I said, but while reading through the book, I noticed Kenan.
[29:31] Kenan is a Bosniac, which is the group of the Bosnians that would be Muslim. But he was not a devout Muslim. When the war broke out and they were fighting and his family was going through all the persecution they were going through, in the book he writes and he says, I wondered why this was happening to us.
[29:52] He says, I wasn't even a good Muslim. I had only been to mosque one time in my entire life. By the age of 12, he had only been to mosque one time and that wasn't even with his parents. He had never gone with his parents.
[30:04] He did not know the Quran. He could not read the Quran and he had no idea what he said. The one rule his family did keep is they never ate pork. But the reason his dad gave him wasn't that the Quran said they couldn't.
[30:15] It was that pigs are nasty animals so we don't eat them is what his dad said was the reason for not eating pork. Today, I want to talk a little bit and I want you to see the hope that they can have that is in Bosnia for the people there.
[30:28] There are three main religions in the country of Bosnia and as I spoke on Friday, it's separated pretty much by nationality. You have the Serbians who are all mostly going to be Orthodox. You have the Bosniaks in Bosnia and they will be Muslim.
[30:42] And then you have the Croatians which are going to be Catholics and they are most of the population fit in those categories. From everything I can read and from those Bosnians I know here, they're not very religious.
[30:55] They claim to be Muslim, they claim to be Orthodox, but they don't even know what their church teaches and they're not true believers in their churches. But I want you to see what the hope would be if they were to fully commit themselves to the religions that they claim to be.
[31:12] If they were Orthodox or Catholic, they teach that you have to follow the seven sacraments of the faith. And those seven sacraments are how they gain eternal life.
[31:22] It's not by faith. Even though they will say it is by faith, but then they add to their faith, they add all of these works. For Catholics and Orthodox, they have to be baptized. That's the first step in their salvation is baptism.
[31:34] Not faith, but baptism. And they even do that as a baby. If you're Serbian, you'll be dipped into water and if you're Catholic, you'll have water sprinkled on you and that's their first step into salvation, they say.
[31:47] Then they go through these other steps which would be confirmation. They have Eucharist or Mass which is where they take part of the Lord's body and they actually believe that the bread and the wine turn into Christ's body and that they receive Christ as Savior every time that they are accepting the Mass.
[32:03] Then they would do penance where they go before a priest or before the church and they tell them all of their sins trying to find forgiveness. They will anoint the sick with oil, they'll follow the holy orders and then they must get married.
[32:15] To be a good Catholic or a good Serbian Orthodox, you must get married. To stay single means that you have not kept one of seven sacraments of the faith. The same is almost true for the Muslims so they do not follow seven sacraments.
[32:29] I know many of you might know this but they have five pillars of the faith and they have to keep these rules. Both religions are full of rules. The five rules that a Muslim will keep is he will first he'll confess that Allah is God and Muhammad is his prophet.
[32:43] Then he'll sit down and he has to pray five times a day. And it's not prayers like we pray where we just talk to God. They have set prayers that they have to say at specific times. Then he must give his money to the poor.
[32:55] He must fast during Ramadan and he must visit Mecca. All of these things they think will get them eternal life. When I was in Morocco a few years ago and I spoke with a young man by the name of Khalid and I had shared the gospel with him and we had talked back and forth about Islam and about Christianity and I tried to share Christ with him and he had rejected it.
[33:17] And one day I asked him shortly before coming back I said Khalid, if you were to do everything that Islam says and if you were to believe it all and you were to live a perfect life according to the Quran would you know you're going to heaven?
[33:30] And he looked at me and he says no. He said in Islam there's no guarantee of eternal life. He said Allah has the power to tell you whether you go to heaven or hell.
[33:41] And the truth is he said you could live a horrible life and Allah says I want you. And you could be the best Muslim and Allah says I don't want you go to hell. So his hope he had no hope.
[33:52] No matter what he did he had no idea where he would spend his eternity. Both of these all three of these religions teach that we get to God by our works. But we here in this room we know that that's not true.
[34:05] We know that the only way to God is through Jesus Christ. In John 14 6 he says I am the way the truth and the life. Jesus is the way not our works. In Titus chapter number 3 and verse 5 we know that it's not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to his mercy he saved us.
[34:22] We know that it is by God's work by Christ's work on the cross that we can have eternal life it's not ours but the people in Bosnia for the most part do not know that. And they either they think well I'm Serbian Orthodox so I'm going to heaven because that's what I am or they think that they are doing enough good works and make their way to heaven but neither one of those are enough.
[34:42] And here in Matthew chapter number 7 I want you to see a conversation that one day will happen with all of them before God and this is what will happen whether they be an Islam or an Orthodox or a Catholic and Jesus is talking to Israelites and Israelites are full of religion and he says not everyone that saith unto me Lord, Lord shall enter into the kingdom of heaven but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven many will say to me in that day Lord, Lord have we not prophesied in thy name and in thy name have cast out devils and in thy name have done many mighty works and I want you to notice what Jesus' response to them is his response is and then I will profess unto them I never knew you depart from me ye that work iniquity the people in Bosnia and many people even around us in Alpharetta and in coming someday they will stand before God and they will say
[35:42] God, have we not been baptized? have we not prayed? have we not done many mighty works? have we not even given to the poor and given to others and lived sacrificial lives or done great things?
[35:56] and Jesus Christ will look at them and he will say I never knew you and he will say depart from me ye that work iniquity and they will go to an eternity of hell and their end is the lake of fire where they burn for eternity and this is the truth for most of the people in Bosnia and this is even the truth for many of the people around us and our neighbors and this should cause our hearts to break knowing that the end of the world and the end of these religions is not heaven and it is not God and even though their hope is thinking I will earn my way to God God is looking back and he's saying believe in my son because if you don't believe I will say I never knew you please pray for Catherine and I that we'd be able to get to Bosnia quickly so that they might be known by Jesus so that when they stand before him one day God will say I know you you are mine and come and live with me alright if you have your Bibles turn with me to the book of Romans chapter 12 the book of Romans chapter 12 we're just going to be in the first two verses of Romans chapter 12
[37:13] I'll give you a little history behind the book of Romans Paul wrote the book to the church at Rome who he had never seen before he'd never seen these people but he had joy in his life he put Jesus first others second and himself dead last so he wrote 16 chapters to this church just to love them and encourage them and we're looking here in Romans chapter 12 it starts the second part of the book here on how to behave in the Christian life I don't think any of us have ever arrived yet on how to behave in the Christian life and we can all learn something here from the book of Romans right here we'll dissect these two verses here it starts out Paul says I beseech you therefore brethren the word beseech here means to beg to urge or exhort or encourage so he's encouraging these people and he calls them brethren they're his brothers and sisters in Christ he wanted to see them face to face he wanted to minister to him and now he's encouraging them to his fellow believers so Paul's going to encourage them on their Christian way how to behave as Christians when people come to church as I said two nights ago that some people can't smile when they come to church and I don't understand that they don't get excited but a lot of times
[38:29] I learned a long time ago maybe to quit asking people how they're doing alright normally I don't ask anybody unless they're excited and I hope they're excited about Jesus and I want to be around people that are exciting so when someone comes to you at church especially and says hey how are you they don't need to hear about all your dirty laundry and how horrible your life is we as Christians should be like Paul and encourage people we should say God is good and he's great I mean I know there's horrible things in your life and prayer requests time and everything but we should be edifying each other and building and encouraging other people so do you encourage other Christians moving on here the next part says he says he does these things by the mercies of God mercy another word for that is compassion he said I have compassion for you I love you I want to encourage you I think about Jesus Christ himself the most compassionate most selfless person ever to walk on the face of the earth our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ he went to people and talked to them that didn't that didn't no one else wanted to go to and he went to them because he loved them he had mercy for them and compassion we should we should show the same
[39:37] Jude 22 says and if some have compassion making a difference there's people growing up I saw the video in Chile people want to make a difference in their life and you know the Bible says the way to make a difference is to love people to have compassion for people you know I'm a preacher and I know I'm not a good preacher and I don't ever strive to be the great preacher but you know something I can do I can have compassion for people I can love people I can invest in people's lives and that's what I want to do with my life especially in the country of Chile the next part of the verse it says that ye present the word here present means to take a stand there are people all over the world today in our country that are taking a stand for things that aren't godly that are not biblical and God's children the fellow believers we have to take a stand on God's word and his promises or we're going to fall for anything we need to stand on God's word and his promises the next part it says here your body a living sacrifice your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit and should be used to serve God didn't save us to sit on a pew or sit in a chair he saved us to serve he saved us to get to come to church and that's a great great thing that you're here at church today and in Sunday school and in morning maybe you come on Sunday night and Thursday night as well but you know what the way we serve is when we get outside those doors what people see us and we should encourage people in here and fellowship with believers but we need to serve Christ outside those doors and there's a lot of churches that get excited about services
[41:06] I hope you're excited I'm excited and encouraged from this missions conference but it shouldn't stop here when we get out there we need to be a light in this world that we live in if people don't see us as Christians with a light they're going to turn to anything else and we need to be true lights in this world the next part of the verse it says just one word holy here holy means dedicated God said himself I am holy be holy for I am holy we're to live holy dedicated lives to Christ believe it or not you're somebody's favorite Christian whether you know it or not everywhere you go somebody's watching you at home my wife and kids are watching me and kids their brains their brains their minds are like sponges they soak up everything they hear and see and I want to be as real at home and out in the world as I am here in the pulpit this morning we should want to be real and dedicate our lives to Christ the next part it says acceptable to God the word acceptable here means pleasing is God pleased with your life is he getting all that he paid for you've been bought with a price we're to glorify God in everything that we do with our lives if I go to Walmart or some store and I buy something and I'm not pleased with it
[42:15] I can return it praise the Lord Jesus doesn't want to return any of us we've been bought with a price but is he pleased with his purchase is he getting all that he paid for he wants you to serve God he wants you to love him he wants you to go to the beyond the regions beyond if that's if that's the will of God in your life and obviously here that's preached a lot amen praise the Lord for that the next part here it says now these things that I just read in this verse it says these things are your reasonable service another way of saying reasonable service would be your true nature of worship as Christians we receive a new nature we're a new creature a new creation in Christ old things are passed away and because we have a new nature then we're to I'm sorry then we're to be true in our worship so come to church is not the worship Paul's talking about here these people he was writing to Christians they were already coming to church and he said your worship is service your true way of worship is getting out those doors and telling other people about Jesus serving each other and serving an unsaved world we have to serve an unsaved world each person at church has a ministry at church and maybe somewhere else as our family is going to Chile that you're expected to fulfill everybody should have a job done at church whatever it is you're doing maybe you're doing something maybe you're not you're already you're not doing anything everybody should be serving in the local assembly here at this church the next part
[43:46] Romans the next verse here the first one here we just learned about what we're to do God saved us we gave our hearts to Christ but then he says Paul says hey church it didn't stop there we're to give our bodies a living sacrifice to God so we need to we need to do that the next part here it talks about our mind the verse here says and be not conformed to this world so conformed means to shape one's behavior you know when we get saved we get that new nature we're not to be like the world anymore every day we're to be less and less like the world and we should the next part of it here it says but be transformed by the renewing of your mind so how do we get away from the world we gotta be transformed we gotta be changed people have to see a difference in us for them to want what we have and you're somebody's favorite Christian they ought to see a difference in you you might be the reason why someone will come to Christ one day because who else do they have to look at you have family that's lost you got friends that's lost we live in a world that is that the majority of them's lost and have never heard the gospel before how are they going to get saved unless we the church get serious to reach our world and reach our community with the gospel the last part here what I just said what's that you may prove what is a good and acceptable and perfect will of God we heard it a lot about the perfect will in your life right here prove means to test or approve and the will means a desire a purpose so the last question
[45:12] I have is what is your purpose in life is I want to be like Paul and in Philippians 121 he said for me to live is Christ from a Roman jail cell he wrote that he said everything about me I breathe is Jesus everything I want to do I want to come minister to y'all in Philippi I want to minister to people but you know what if God took my life here in this jail today you know what it's really gain everything I did you know why because I get to go to heaven and meet Jesus but while he was on earth even in a Roman jail cell he was ministering to people he was loving people he was witnessing to people he was telling everybody how good God is so none of us are in jail here this morning we should all have a good great story and testimony of how good God's been in our life and we need to share that with everybody because we're the light in the world and everybody needs to hear and I pray that everybody finds their perfect will as the end of this verse says the perfect will how do you find the perfect will for your life you have to study God's word alright there's a lot of people that come want to be preachers or want to teach in Sunday school and do ministry at church but they can't even be faithful to church
[46:17] I don't understand that we've got to be faithful to church we've got to study God's word and we have to act like God you know the word Christian means Christ like or a small Christ so we have to act like Christ every day our main goal in life should be acting more like Jesus more compassion more love and wanting to reach the world and also we have to renew our mind our mind our bodies we have to present as living sacrifices and we have to have a new mind and say you know what I'm going to live for Christ I'm not going to live for this world anymore and have a new mind and there's no magical way to know the will of God apart from knowing God's word and I encourage everybody to study God's word stay around this church and brother Austin and you will soon find God's perfect will for your life and when you find it you'll be like me and not dreading maybe getting up out of bed every morning but getting up and saying bless God I get to serve God today I get to serve him with my life what a honor and privilege and by the way when he does that I've never been more blessed in the past year plus on deputation seeing God's hand on our lives and just protection and he's a good God and he wants people to be in the center of the will for their life but God's way and not our own desires we should all desire that as Christians thank you appreciate brother Austin and his wife Elizabeth and their family what has just been a special time and I don't know how to tell you thank you for let me be here it's been good it has been good and we weren't able to make it last year
[47:48] Karen has a real heart problem hard heart and all that so we weren't able to make it last year she was in the hospital but I think in God's great wisdom and planning he allowed us to be here today this week and how good it's been and I'm just I've counted it an honor and a privilege to be here and stand in this pulpit and get to see all of you and to see old friends and make new friends it's just been a blessing thank you so much thank you for the accommodations that couldn't have been better I'm telling you first class I was telling brother Jesse we've stayed in and rat infested places and cockroach infested places and places where you didn't really want to lay on the bed but I tell you we have thoroughly enjoyed where we have been and it's just been great every meal the steaks oh my goodness and I had to cut the baked potato in half and share it and everything that we've had has just been special international you don't find a better place to come if you want real international I mean authentic everything it was wonderful everything the songs and all thank you so much and I appreciate brother Ed letting me pick on him and I had a my bodyguard was going to beat you up today because I told him you'd been picking on me so but I appreciate everything you've done for us go with me in your Bibles to the book of Luke chapter number 15 we've been in the Old Testament for the last few nights but this morning we're going to
[49:12] Luke chapter 15 a very familiar portion of scripture three I think three essential parables that you find in the word of God in this chapter we're only going to read a few verses to bring the message this morning because I'm excited to get to see what the faith promise is going to be so looking forward to that I appreciate brother John and his wife Sandy and their girls I appreciate what the Lord has used them to do over these many years a heart you don't find a bigger heart than John and Sandy and I appreciate God using them in a great great and mighty way only heaven will reveal what you have done only heaven can reveal honestly what you have done and what's going on around the world because we're too finite to comprehend the lives that are being touched even today that go beyond even your personal abilities it goes so much farther than that it's like a tree where the roots you don't see the roots you don't see how far the roots go but I'm glad they go a long ways and they go deep praise the Lord well let me ask you to stand one more time that I'll give you just a moment
[50:21] I know the pews are padded but you know what I think there's metal or something underneath there because my I guess I could say my backside it found the bottom of it somewhere down there let me give you just a moment to relax verse number one the Bible says then drew near unto him the publicans and sinners for to hear him and the Pharisees and scribes murmured saying this man receiveth sinners and eateth with them and he spake this parable unto them saying what man of you having a hundred sheep if he lose one of them doth not leave the ninety and nine of the wilderness and go after that which is lost until he find it and when he hath found it he layeth it on his shoulders rejoicing and when he cometh home he calleth together his friends and neighbors saying unto them rejoice with me for I have found my sheep which was lost I say unto you that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth more than over ninety and nine just persons which need no repentance and let's pray Father our hearts are just filled to overflowing this morning as we think about all you're doing and Father we're just so glad that we can have a small part in this great and eternal work of God and I pray you'll bless this congregation of folks
[51:29] I know they're praying they're searching and Lord they want to do something to reach one person with the gospel of Christ and for the cause of Christ and so I pray that right now you'll just give clear direction I pray that if there's one in our midst that doesn't know Christ as Savior today would be that awesome glad day that they'll find that peace that Brother Miguel talked about that so many people the world all over the world people are searching for peace and they can't find peace except in one person and that's Christ and so I pray if there's one today whether it's here in this auditorium or in a class somewhere that they'll find that peace today so please have your way in all that we do may we honor you with our lives and with our lips in Jesus name I pray amen and you may be seated you know in verse number one of this chapter what a glorious thing the Lord Jesus was there with the Pharisees and the scribes and he was talking to them but in verse number one we find that all of a sudden now here comes a different group of people the off scouring the despised the refused the rejected and all of a sudden the Pharisees were having to make way for the publicans and sinners as they're coming this whole chapter is based upon verse number two the reason for these three parables they're not even though they're three different parables there are three parables that make up a whole that talks about the lost sheep the lost silver and the lost son they're all three that make up a whole and all three of these parables have to do with the statement that's made in verse number two and that in that verse in verse number two this was no nothing short than an indictment against the Lord
[53:12] Jesus Christ it wasn't said with honor and praise and glory saying oh hallelujah glory to God this man receiveth sinners and eateth with them that was not what this meant this man does he not know who these people are this man receiveth sinners and eateth with them this was an indictment against the Lord Jesus Christ but can I tell you what it is for me it is a glorious truth of the great love of God that he indeed does receive sinners and eats with them and so I'm glad that based on that indictment against him the Lord Jesus wanted these men to understand that all are lost and so in this parable in these three parables he's talking about lost things and so what I love it is he makes it pertinent just like the Lord Jesus wants to make it pertinent to me and you to understand that the world truly is indeed lost without a savior makes it pertinent we need to understand this morning our next door neighbors all around the world everybody has a soul and is precious to God everyone but the second thing he does he makes it practical now we've heard this week 7.4 billion almost you know the world population just exploded and when I was born in 1952 19 not 18 1952 the world population was 2.5 5 billion people the world population has tripled in 63 years tripled
[54:52] I don't understand that 7.4 7.5 billion people it boggles my mind we've heard about 1.4 billion people in one country 1.2 billion in one country I think about the world's largest Muslim country 2.5 billion almost 2.6 billion that just blows my mind I can't figure that out but you know what the Lord Jesus did he made it practical in these parables he doesn't talk about a billion lost sheep and millions of lost sheep or millions he talks about one lost sheep one lost piece of silver one lost son you know I hope you understand that Hanby's we're not smart but we are good looking okay not smart when I was up in Quebec I said that all the time les zombies sont tellement beaux mais nous sommes pas tellement intelligents and when Jason when he came in and on the last service that I was going to be there I told Jason I said now listen Jason these folks they have learned
[55:53] I've taught they've learned great people and so I said les zombies the hambies are and everyone handsome you know so when I leave if you don't understand anything else you understand handsome I start to say bo but handsome we're handsome okay I can understand one I can understand I can get that one one one and you know what I love this week I love brother your video last night wow you know Alex you know what Alex is he's one Caleb he's one we've heard about a lot of ones we saw pictures of one and you know what that's what it's all about just one so he made it practical you know what God wants he wants you one to do something for one that's what it's all about it makes it practical but thirdly he makes it personal he says in this parable what man have you okay these scribes and Pharisees are saying they're murmuring they're complaining the Lord he's receiving sinners and he's eating with them and well they don't even say Lord they said this man an indictment but what man have you if you had a lost sheep what woman had a lost piece of silver and there was a man that had two sons he makes it personal can I tell you this thing is personal it's absolutely personal and you know one of the problems that we have is God wants that we're all we're all self-centered it's my life it's my family but you know what happens and I couldn't have heard it any better couldn't have said it any better than what brother John said a little bit ago can I tell you when you begin to do when you begin to give your heart just goes out and all of a sudden it really does become personal it makes a difference when you participate in a world that is dying and all of a sudden now somebody you've been praying for somebody you've been giving the money to for the missionary to go to and you hear about somebody getting saved all of a sudden it becomes personal to you now let me give you three thoughts and we'll be done number one I want you to look with me in these verses of scripture about the work for just one look at verse number four it says what man of you having a hundred sheep if you lose one of them does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after that which is lost until he find it can I tell you what the mentality of this world is today well good grief he's got ninety-nine why worry about the one that's lost you know everything's good on our side forget about the rest that is the mentality but
[58:27] I love this you know in the part of this in the shepherd's work there are three parts of this shepherd's work number word number one the first part of the shepherd's work was to go you know you're never going to get anywhere that you want to go unless you go you got to take the first step and so when the shepherd got up that day and he began to make his count of his hundred sheep one sheep two sheep and I personally believe he knew all of them by name and he's counting the sheep all of a sudden now there's one missing there's one that is gone when I look at this I find something interesting look at this verse of scripture it says in that verse verse number four what man of you having a hundred sheep now look at this next part these next four words if he lose one would you look at the word lose for just a second Isaiah chapter 53 verse number six the word of God tells me all we like sheep if you know the verse all we like sheep have gone a what astray Isaiah 53 verse number six puts the entire responsibility for the lostness of a man on the man it's my it was my
[59:33] I'm a sinner because I chose to be a sinner I choose I chose to walk away from God for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God there is none righteous no not one we're lost we walked away from God it's not God it's us but would you look at verse number four of chapter number 15 the word of God says if he lose one if he lose one it was our fault that we're lost but can I tell you what this verse of scripture is telling me and glory to God for this that God has taken upon himself the responsibility for the lostness of mankind because had he not done that can I tell you what this sheep would have remained lost if he lose one if he will this this sheep wasn't misplaced okay I want you to know this sheep was lost and this sheep was ruined this sheep would be forever lost had the shepherd not taken the responsibility for the losses of that sheep and that's why God so loved the world that he did give his only begotten son he did send him into this world that's why the Lord Jesus did voluntarily leave the glories of heaven and did come into this world and die upon that old rugged cross he laid down his life he gave his life he took the responsibility he could have said yeah I've got some but I'm glad he said I got a whole lot more I want to see saved he took the responsibility for the lostness of mankind and you know what he did I love I love the theme this theme of this conference is beyond the regions beyond you know what he had to do he had to go beyond where he was beyond the sheepfold beyond he had to go beyond the comfort zone he had to go to the regions beyond maybe places where he had never been before he had to go to the unknown to the unsure to find that which was lost I like the second part of the of the shepherd's work it says if he lose one of them doth not leave the 99 in the wilderness and go after that which was it which is lost now look this now until until I love that you know what that is the faithful part so you have the first part you know if you've never given a faith promise you ought to start today there's got to be the starting point in your life if you've never witnessed you've never passed out of track if never won anybody God you need to start but I like this I like this until there's a lot of people that start but they never finish I like people 29 years I mean he he looks at me and he says you're just as ugly as you are the first time I ever saw it
[62:12] I like people that 32 years brother John I like people that when I I see them they're still in church the co-filled kids and different ones I know around here I like it I like it until you didn't just take a first step and then a second step I'm glad he didn't take a hundred steps you remember the story of Joseph do you know why Joseph ended up in Egypt do you know why his father sent him on a mission and he didn't stop after the first day or the second day he didn't stop and say you know what I've looked I've done my best I'm going back home to my father I'm glad he went all the way until he found him a man found him wandering in the wilderness wandering around him and he had have you seen my brother here he goes he ended up in Egypt because he went all the way until he found them and they sold him into
[63:13] Egypt can I tell you what we got to do we're going to have to go all the way this thing is a continuous thing it doesn't stop it isn't well we've done enough we've paid enough we've given enough we've witnessed enough and so we can stop there's no retirement in this thing there's no time that there's no place in our life where we you know I look at this old guy right here on the third row back here good night what I know codger you know but you know what I love the I love the passion brother that sounds like fresh passion he may not have the the vigor of a young man but boy he's got the drive of a young man he's got the passion of a young man I like it I like it and so he went until he found it I like that faithful part but I like the finished part he went until he found it until he found it he's went and all far enough and he did the finished part we know the Lord Jesus the word of God tells us in the book of John chapter number 19 verse number number 30 it is finished and aren't you glad those three words it is finished is not the cry of desperation and hopelessness and helplessness oh I'm so glad that that is the it's the cry of victory there's a great old preacher that's gone to be with the Lord James
[64:30] Dr. James Crumpton that says the words the the Greek words that the Lord Jesus spoke they were the Greek words that a shepherd would cry out at the birth of the lamb or the farmers cry at the harvest when it was bountiful or the warriors cry when he came home from battle oh I'm glad that we have a Savior today that finished the work on the cross of Calvary and I want you to know this morning the reason you are still here the reason I am still here is because our work is not finished he wants us to be faithful until and go and find and not be complacent and not be never become never come to the point where we're satisfied that it's enough the reason if you're saved today it's because somebody wasn't satisfied but they were willing to pass out one more track they were willing to knock on one more door they were willing to preach one more message they were willing to give one more dollar they were never satisfied and that's the reason we're all saved today is because somebody was still hungry until they could find that sheep which was lost you know somebody has said this that the heavenly father bankrupt the coffers of heaven to send the Lord Jesus into this world our salvation is free but can I tell you it's absolutely not cheap and you know what he did he did this all for just one now you may brand me as a heretic and that's okay but I am persuaded to believe that if there had been only one that was lost I believe I believe the Lord
[66:11] Jesus would have still come I believe he would have still suffered all of the torment of the cross and shedding his precious blood he would have still gone to that borrowed tomb and on the third day he would have still risen I believe he would still be seated at the right hand of the father until that one came I want you to know today I'm glad for the work of just one and I'm one that he saved number two the weight of just one I love this verse number five it says and when he hath found it he let it let it on his shoulders rejoicing let me read you a verse of scripture Isaiah chapter number six chapter number nine verse number six listen to this for under us a child is born under us a son is given and the government shall be upon his shoulder do you know you know the word of God is so precise in its in its wording I love the preciseness of scripture Isaiah chapter number nine and verse number six is a is the prophecy of the Lord Jesus as he reigns on earth for that thousand years and look at this it says that that the that the weight of the of the governments of this world shall be upon his shoulder singular would you look with me back in Luke chapter number 15 and verse number five and when he hath found it he layeth it on his shoulders plural here's what I believe I'm a heretic I know but here's what I believe I believe that one sinner one sinner is more important to the to the lovely Lord Jesus
[67:54] Christ more than all of the administrations of the government of this world one sinner on one shoulder he will pull he will pose all of the administration of this entire world for that thousand year reign but the moment that you get saved who he picks you up and he puts you on his shoulders you know I think about the weight of a of a of a sheep and I think about those shoulders that are able to bear that sheep can I tell you first of all that's the place where that sin was born can I liken it this way it's a bad illustration but miss Betty I was looking to see what kind of shoes you got on I don't know if we have any ladies in here with stiletto heels but they tell us and I looked this up on the internet you know Wikipedia is good for everything you can believe everything you find on the internet but here's what I found they tell us that a hundred pound woman wearing a pair of stiletto heels which is you know about a you know a little bitty little bitty square like that that the force the the pounds per square inch the force of her heel when she steps on you is is fifteen hundred pounds it converts from a hundred pound woman to fifteen hundred pounds per square inch anybody ever been stepped on by a lady's high hill wow fifteen hundred pounds well they tell us that an elephant a six thousand pound elephant because of the way it walks and displacing because it's always got two feet on the ground two feet on the ground a six thousand pound elephant only only has by force seventy five pounds per square inch that tells me that a hundred pound woman weighs more than a six thousand pound elephant okay but can I tell you what what God the Father did in a few short hours he took all of the sin of all men and all of the wrath of God for all eternity and he compressed it and he compressed it and he compressed it and he laid it all all the wrath of God he laid it on the Lord Jesus Christ and it's no wonder he cried out my God my God why has thou forsaken me the weight of sin but can I tell you what else it is it's that it's that place of security those shoulders that are there you see that lost sheep had ventured out on its own I know better I know my own way I can find better
[70:34] I can find better grass I can find better grass I can find better place to water I can find everything better and that's what mankind did walked away from God here and but the shepherd comes looking and he picks up that sheep which is worn and tired maybe bruised and broken puts it on his shoulders and off he goes and can I tell you number one it's the place of rest that sheep is not having to walk anymore Miguel I'm telling you that's peace when I don't have to walk anymore he's carrying me all the way but it's also a place of security in that on his shoulders every danger that the sheep would ever confront would have to go through that shepherd to get to him and I'm glad that I'm glad that I'm glad that I'm glad that I'm glad that his shoulders are just right for me and he carries me I don't know about you I don't even know you know I'm glad he loves me he loves me more than he loves you I believe oh I'm glad he loves me last of all the wonder of just one and when he hath found it he layeth on his shoulders rejoicing rejoicing and when he when he cometh home he calleth together his friends and neighbors saying unto them rejoice with me for I have found my sheep which was lost I send you that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth more than over 99 just persons which need no repentance rejoice with me the wonder of just one I mean you're talking about one old one old sheep that was a rebel was no good he comes back with with his wool matted with the things you know all this filth and nastiness and everything but here he comes rejoice with me but here he comes rejoice with me rejoice with me I found but what about all the trouble you went through to find it what about all the expense rejoice with me that's what the Lord Jesus said I like it when people can rejoice over just one getting saved have you ever have you ever had the joy of knowing of knowing of knowing that somebody now can I just explain something just a second the process of the salvation of a sinner sometimes you have been the one who planted the seed and you watered and you got to get to see the fruit but it's not most of the time it's not that way most of the time somebody planted and you get to come along and you get to water or you get to come along and you get to reap the fruit but we can still rejoice but we can still rejoice it doesn't matter if I got to if I'm the one that planted or if I'm the one to water even if I got to be the one to to to to reap the benefit to reap the harvest we all get to have part the thing that he wants us to do is just do something just do something and to be able to rejoice let me give you something I'm talking about just one um please forgive me I'm I'm just I'm just a proud papa I reckon I'm a proud dad I guess I could say I'm going to give you I'm going to talk about one for just a second if you go on the website I mean go on google maps today I went I went to look today because google is always refreshing their their street views you know but a few months ago my daughter-in-law Amanda called me up and she said I want you to I want you to look at something if you go to the website of our son's church now our son lives in the building and that's how they were able to get the building and make the payment but they and they still live in the building but um they were getting ready to go on a trip they just bought a little rv for five thousand dollars and in order to kind of get away from the church there's campgrounds all around the city of toile river and and they had they were out there working well here nobody knows that they live in the church pretty much except the church members and and so one day a little boy comes up to the door and and um he he knocks on the door and um jason um introduces himself to this little boy and this little boy just thinks it's a church but jason he was wanting some water and jason gave the little boy a bottle of water but he gave this little boy a track and uh amanda i don't even remember why she was looking oh well she just wanted to see what the update was on the website
[74:54] and it's found in the city of toile river and if you want to look at it afterwards you sure can but um amanda went to look at this at the view because when you when this little boy came jason gave him a bottle of water and gave him a track you don't know what happens to tracks you don't know what happens but this little fellow look jason said was 12 13 14 years old and when you go to the street view of jason's church you're going to find this little boy sitting at the telephone pole reading this little gospel track when you pull it up close you can even see the track in his hand can i tell you i don't know what happened to this little boy but for five weeks i mowed that grass i mowed i mowed around that telephone pole and i prayed for that that's just one just one when jason started the church he had folks coming that didn't know anything about church they didn't know how to discipline their kids in church this one family that began to come they had a little girl her name is kellyan this she was just a little thing just just about probably 15 months old or so and she'd walk all over while jason's preaching she'd get over and bang on the piano well jason could have said would you control this child or leave you know what jason would do he would go and he'd pick kellyan up and he would walk around with kellyan and he'd just preach when she got to when she was able to talk you know what she called my son she called him pastor jesus that's all jason talked about kellyan she's now nine years old last um last year she called jason up i think it was october november about a year ago she called jason up and he said she said jason can i bring kellyan over kellyan wants to be saved so they bring kellyan over because she wanted to talk and she just calls him pastor now and she found out he's really not jesus but but um jason got to lead kellyan to the lord and she she goes to an english speaking school her mom speaks perfect english and she wanted her to go to english speaking school and she had an assignment in school uh this past year and this the assignment is to write a short paragraph about an important person in your life she got 90 on the great on her grade this is the copy of it she got 90 on her grade because she had a few misspelled words here's what she wrote the most important person in my life is a person who christians believe in his name is god as christians we believe that he created the world or the whole world including us we also believe that he is the king of kings to communicate we do something called praying to tell some of his stories he sent us a book called the bible to all christians he is the most important person in our lives we we love our god can i tell you what that is that's just one can i tell you another story i and i will close with this i told you the other day that our son joshua he um on this trip he called me up and said that the lord had he'd surrendered to preach the last church that they were going to visit was a church in illinois flora illinois and um there's a little bus kid in in church that when he saw joshua the little kid's nine years old and when he saw joshua he just clung on to him you know didn't want to leave him and and so during the morning invitation the little boy went forward and he said something to the pastor and any of the little boys pointing back at joshua and the pastor motioned for joshua to come up there to talk to him well what the little boy wanted he wanted to be saved and he wanted joshua to lead him to the lord and so joshua got to lead him to the lord a little bus kid well that night guess what happened that little nine-year-old boy that rides the bus in the mornings just comes to church in the mornings he was back at church with
[79:01] his whole entire family and he went around he said let me tell you what happened to me this morning i got saved and he was just going i got saved this morning just telling everybody and uh the pastor had said to him that morning he said you want to tell everybody about happened to you and he said no i don't want to but that night i got saved everybody and he went to the pastor he said pastor can i tell everybody what happened to me well they had an ice cream social afterwards and uh and uh he was going around everybody he said they got special ice cream for everybody that got saved this morning can i tell you what that is that just one but that's one that jesus loves a little bus kid that somebody loved enough to pick up on a bus and somebody sunday after sunday told about jesus all joshua got to do is just reap the glorious benefit of what somebody had done in laboring but you know what it was just one but that's one that's not going to have to spend eternity in hell rejoicing over one the wonder of it you know what you are you're just one but the day that you got saved there was rejoicing in heaven over you and if you get saved today can i tell you guarantee you there would be rejoicing over you if you'll just come let's stand to our feet our heads or bow as your pastor comes this morning father i pray that you this message was recorded at vision baptist church in alfred georgia for more information log on to www.visionbaptist.com where you can find our service times location contact information and more audio and video recordings things you