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Rwy'n gobeithio y byddwn yn gweithio'n fawr iawn hefyd. Rwy'n gobeithio y byddwn yn gweithio'n fawr iawn hefyd. Rwy'n gobeithio y byddwn yn gweithio'n fawr iawn hefyd. Rwy'n gobeithio y byddwn yn gweithio'n fawr iawn hefyd. Rwy'n gobeithio y byddwn yn gweithio'n fawr iawn hefyd. Rwy'n gobeithio y byddwn yn gweithio'n fawr iawn hefyd. Pan fydd fy bywyd wedi'i gysylltu â'r dydd, Pan fyddwn wedi'i gysylltu â'r Llywodraeth eto, Beth sy'n mynd i'w gwneud i mi gysylltu â hyn? Dim ond y glan o'r Iawn. Dim ond y glan o'r Iawn. Dim ond y glan o'r Iawn. Beth sy'n mynd i'w gwneud i mi gysylltu â hyn? Dim ond y glan o'r Iawn. Dim ond y glan o'r Iawn. Dim ond y glan o'r Iawn. Dim ond y glan o'r Iawn. Dim ond y glan o'r Iawn. Dim ond y glan o'r Iawn. Dim ond y glan o'r Iawn. Dim ond y glan o'r Iawn. Dim ond y glan o'r Iawn. Dim ond y glan o'r Iawn. Dim ond y glan o'r Iawn. Dim ond y glan o'r Iawn. Dim ond y glan o'r Iawn. Dim ond y glan o'r Iawn. Dim ond y glan o'r Iawn. Dim ond y glan o'r Iawn. Dim ond y glan o'r Iawn. Dim ond y glan o'r Iawn. Dim ond y glan o'r Iawn. Dim ond y glan o'r Iawn. Dim ond y glan o'r Iawn. Dim ond y glan o'r Iawn. Dim ond y glan o'r Iawn. Dim ond y glan o'r Iawn. Dim ond y glan o'r Iawn. Dim ond y glan o'r Iawn. Dim ond y glan o'r Iawn. Dim ond y glan o'r Iawn. Dim ond y glan o'r Iawn. Dim ond y glan o'r Iawn. Dim ond y glan o'r Iawn. Dim ond y glan o'r Iawn. Dim ond y glan o'r Iawn. Dim ond y glan o'r Iawn. Dim ond y glan o'r Iawn. Dim ond y glan o'r Iawn. Dim ond y glan o'r Iawn. And I come to you in great shame, For I fear my work is in vain. I am moved by the sound of man's empty praise When I serve others in your name. If I give my wealth as a gift to the poor, Or my body to the flames of the fire, Still all will be lost when I stand in your sight. If my motives are not love-inspired. O Lord, how I long to be filled with your love. I lift up my dry, thirsty soul. Overcome this love that I have for myself As I yield to the Spirit's control. May the love of Christ increase in my heart And my knowledge of him ever grow. So the service I give to my King above Will reflect the love that he's shown. Will reflect the love that he's shown. I wasn't sure I was supposed to come up. I wasn't paying attention. Pastor Tinsley was talking, so amen. What a blessing to be here tonight. Thank you, Church, for receiving us so kindly. Thank you for being a blessing to us. Thank you to Pastor Tinsley for taking us to lunch this afternoon. He took us to this Mexican restaurant, and when he was in Colombia, I took him to a Mexican restaurant on the last night, and it was a little different because they served our check on this big Mary altar, and they had little gifts, like little Mary necklaces that they gave to all of us. It's like, you know, instead of Tic Tacs, you get Mary necklaces, and so I'm sure he still has that hanging in his office. But it was a blessing to be able to spend time with them and to be able to see you all. Thank you for receiving us. I wish I was able to spend more time at our church on this furlough, but we're going to be traveling for three months and visiting a bunch of churches, and so I won't see you again after tonight. I'm sorry about that, but the Lord, I'm sure, will allow us another opportunity soon to see you again. So thank you for letting me come and just update you about what's going on in Colombia. We have some prayer cards out on our table in the back. I'd like to encourage you to get three of these. I'll explain what each of them is for in just a second here. The first one is our prayer card, and I know that you already saw our update video a couple of weeks ago. I think they showed that in one of the services, and I just wanted to give you a couple of highlights then, maybe some things that weren't super prevalent in the update video. One of them was over the last couple of years, our biggest highlight is our building that we were able to purchase and remodel, and thank you for praying for us in that. That was a very long time praying and saving and trying to find the right place, but God provided a miracle in letting us buy the building that we did. We were able to buy the building for about $110,000, and it should have cost us close to $350,000. That's what that property was worth. Just some circumstances, some permitting situations where other apartment building complexes were not able to get it, but we were. It was permitted for a church to be able to be there, and that was about all that could be there. It worked out perfectly, and God just gave us that, because we just thought there's no way we're going to come up with the money to buy something, and God provided the money, and we were able to buy it cash and carry, and we're completely debt-free, even though we've put in about another $100,000 into the remodel. God just provided the money. We just built. We didn't know how we were going to pay for it, and we ran out of money. We'd have to stop, and we never stopped, because God kept providing for it. Now we have a beautiful facility there, and we're praying over the next five years to be able to double our auditorium size by doing some remodels. It's a lot of work, but we have the opportunity to make our auditorium. It seats about 150 right now, and we could make it seat probably closer to 300, Lord willing. On big days, we'll fill that up, and so we're praying that, Lord willing, we can have that remodel over the next five years. Another thing that happened recently over the last couple of years is we started a Bible and literature distribution center. Thankfully, we were able to get from some different ministries, printing ministries in the States. They sent us about 500,000 Romans with the Plan of Salvation in it, kind of a gospel tract that you would pass out with the Book of Romans and the Plan of Salvation, and 500,000 assorted variety of very nice different types of tracts with different themes, and then also 10,000 Bibles. We have more than enough literature for our ministry, but also we are officially a big distribution center for many other churches in Columbia, and those Bibles and tracts are going out to other churches around the country. There's not a lot of churches in Columbia. Columbia is the second largest Spanish-speaking country in the world, just behind Mexico, but praise the Lord, the churches that are there were able to get to the ones that want the literature. They've been going out all over the place, and the Lord's been using that. So that's been a privilege to be able to do that, and God really provided for us to get that container, and we have the storage for it and everything now with our new building. It's a blessing. We also have had a really neat thing that happened last year. We did our first VBS, and Mr. Case inspired us when we worked here with VBS, and so we thought we're going to go all out and do it really big, and I was thinking we were going to have maybe like our kids and maybe another amount of kids that was the same amount as our kids, so maybe 50 kids or something like that, because the Columbians, they're so anti-Christian there. We live in a 95% Catholic area, and it's very much like if you're a Christian, you're a cult, and they don't want to let their kids darken the door of a Christian church at all, and so I wasn't thinking that we were going to have very many kids, but we put on this cowboy-themed VBS, and we put out flyers all over the city and everything, and we had almost 250 kids come through that VBS. We had 150 every night, and most of them were visitor kids, and we preached the gospel every night, and we had a great time, and they kept coming back and kept bringing their friends, and we gave away a bike and all of that, but the neatest thing about it was, you know, I just love it when the Lord lets you see fruit that remains from something that you can see, and sometimes you don't see what God's doing, and you keep working anyways, but one of the things that happened after that VBS is a lot of the kids kept coming to church. We had one of our men named Juan Guillermo Duarte, he started a bus ministry, and he would go and pick them up with our church bus, and those kids, now it's January, many of them are still coming, and many of them have gotten saved, and they're excited, and they're going out on visitation with us now, and some of them are young teens, some of them are a little bit younger than that, but they are often there, all the services, some of them are there every time the doors are open, those kids are there, and it's just a blessing to see that, and last week we were on visitation on Saturday, and one of those girls that we first came on VBS was there, and I wasn't sure if she had been saved yet or not, but I had not heard that she had, and so I pulled her aside, and I wanted to try to witness to her personally, because she had heard the gospel many times, but I didn't know that she would make a decision, and she told me, she said, you know, last week, I've heard the gospel so many times coming here, that last week in my home, I made the decision to put my faith in Jesus Christ, and I got saved last week, not just by myself at my house, but I know for sure I'm saved, and I'm going to heaven, and that was just a blessing to see how God is doing that, and so just pray for those kids, we're going to do another VBS in June, and we're going to do a Patch the Pirates rip-off, basically, and it's going to be a lot of fun, but just pray for that, it's turned out to be something bigger than I thought it would be, and the Lord's really blessed that. Another thing that's really neat that's happening is, our church is sending out a missionary family to start another church in Colombia, and so we have a second prayer card there, this is the Duarte family, and Juan Guillermo, he was the one I was telling you started that bus route, he's been with our church now for about 10 years, and he's been through a Bible institute, he's been faithful, he is a great preacher, God's called him to be a missionary, God's called him to be a church planner, and there's a city called Santa Marta in Colombia, it's about a million people, and there is not a fundamental Baptist church in that city, and we want to go and we want to start a church there, and so our church is going to be the sending church of them, and we want to send them out as full-time church planning missionaries, and they're going to pray for us in that endeavor, we're going to be also working with them, I want to be traveling to Santa Marta and helping them establish that church, and helping them rent a building and get equipped, and soul wedding and all of that different things, but it's a big step of faith for their family, and our goal is, my goal is I want them to be able to go out as fully funded and supported, and so they're going to be doing deputation in Colombia, and there's a very limited amount of churches that could support them in Colombia, and so while we're on deputation, on furlough here, we're also presenting them to different churches in the states, we're going to be about 25 churches, and just asking that you pray for them, and just pray that maybe some of the churches would take them on for support as well, and fund that new church plant there in Santa Marta, that once again we'll be directly involved in as well, and we're just excited about that, it's a neat thing to be able to have that privilege of sending out a family as missionaries, and then another thing is we have another missionary who is coming to work with us, Kathy Jo Demkak, her prayer card is on the back table there as well, she spent the last three summers working with us at our church in Colombia, and she has been a tremendous help and blessing in so many ways, and she's coming full time to work with us, she's with BIMI as well, she was just approved, and she's just starting deputation this June, and so pray for her that she would raise her support quickly, and she could get down because she's going to be working directly with us, and just plugging into our ministry 100%, and helping us with so many different things, being able to move forward, so those are just a few of the things that we've got going on, we've got a lot of other things I could talk about, we started a homeschool group last year that's been going great, we have classes on Fridays with them, and families are getting involved in homeschooling, which has just been a tremendous difference getting their kids out of the public schools, wow, what a difference with our young people, and also too, our evangelism team has been going out, they've been doing a great job, we've been having over 30 people every Saturday, coming out and going and witnessing, people are getting discipled, people are growing in the Lord, and God's just blessing, so continue to pray for us, thank you for praying for us, we pray for you as well, all the time, and I'm just excited about what God's doing here, what God's doing there, and it's a blessing to be able to be here and tell you about it. Would you please turn with me to the book of Acts, chapter number 14, Acts chapter number 14, and I want to share a couple of verses here, if you'll remember in Acts chapter number 13, the Apostle Paul and Barnabas were sent out of the church at Antioch as missionaries, and Antioch was their home church, and God, the Holy Spirit, told them to separate them, Paul and Barnabas, for the work that I've called them to, and the church fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them, and then they sent them out as missionaries, and 12 years ago this church ordained me, and sent us out as missionaries, out of Liberty Baptist Church, and we went to the mission field, and that was following this pattern in Acts chapter 13, of what happened with Paul and Barnabas, and in Acts chapter 14, we see a really special moment that happens here, Paul and Barnabas have been around, they've preached the gospel, they've seen God work in amazing ways, they've been on the mission field, they've been many places, they've seen works established, and in Acts chapter 14, at the end of the chapter, they return to their home church in Antioch, and look what happens here in verse 26, Acts chapter 14, 26, says, And then sailed to Antioch, where, I'm sorry, from whence they had been recommended to the grace of God, for the work which they fulfilled. And when they were come, and had gathered the church together, they rehearsed all that God had done with them, and how he had opened the door of faith unto the Gentiles. Let's pray. Lord, please bless us now, as we get into your word tonight, I pray you'd speak to our hearts, and help me Lord, to say what you'd have me to say, and I pray that you would work Lord, and you just give this church a blessing, and that they would be encouraged Father, in Jesus name we pray, Amen. Amen. And so we see, they come to their church, their home church at Antioch, and they rehearse to them, they're on furlough, I guess you could say, and they are telling them about all the things that God has done, and the church is rejoicing with them, and they're excited about how God has opened the door of faith unto the Gentiles, and that's really what we're doing here tonight, is we've been, we're coming back after, like I said, 12 years since you sent us out, 10 years since we've been on the mission field, and we're just telling you about what God has done, on the mission field, in South America, in Columbia, so that you can rejoice with us, and so that we can be joyful, and all the people that have gotten saved, I got a photo this morning on my phone from our church, one of the ladies that we baptized last Saturday, she had just gotten saved through our discipleship program, she had been a Christian, or she had considered herself a Christian since 2014, but she did not really understand salvation, she didn't understand eternal security, and she thought salvation was in part earned, and she got that right, and she got saved, and we can tell you about people like her, Angela Lucia, and the people, the gal that got saved, and so many people that have been saved recently, and we can rejoice together about what God is doing, I was excited this morning to see people responding to the invitation, getting assurance of salvation, or receiving Christ as their Savior, and folks that is just such a joyful thing, that we can just be happy and joyful in the Lord in that, and so my purpose coming to you tonight as a returning missionary, who was sent out and is coming back, is I want to encourage you to keep moving forward, and tell you about what God has done on the field, and tonight I want to just share with you, not just what God has done in the ministry there, but I want to share with you a couple of things that God has done in my life, since I've been on the mission field, some lessons I've learned, many of them really born through a lot of the trials I've gone through, that God used to teach me different things, and so the title of this message, if you're taking notes at all tonight, the title is things that God has taught me on the mission field, things that God has taught me on the mission field, there's nothing fancy about this message, but they're just some thoughts, some lessons I've learned, and I hope that maybe some can be a blessing to you as well, so the first thing that God has really driven home in my heart on the mission field, is that God equips us for what he has called us to do, God equips us for what he has called us to do, turn with me to 1 Corinthians 1.26 if you wouldn't mind, and while you're turning there I'll just read you 1 Thessalonians 5.24, it's spelled as faithful is he that calleth you who also will do it, faithful is he that calleth you who also will do it, the Bible teaches us that God equips us for what he has called us to do, oftentimes we'll act like Moses when God calls us to do something, and we'll come up with a million excuses as to why we can't do it, I can't go to Pharaoh, I don't know how to speak, and the people they won't believe me, and this, that, and the other thing, and I'm too old, or I'm too young, and I'm this, and I'm that, and God just wants us to give him our heart, and just submit to his will, and just do it, and when we do that, God is the one that equips us and makes us capable of his work, and we'll say well I can't do that Lord, and God says you're right, you can't, but I can, and oftentimes what I've found is God is looking to use the people who in of themselves can't do it, because, we'll get to that in a second, but he does the work through us, he wants to use those that are not capable of doing the work in of themselves, look at verse 26 of 1 Corinthians 1, it says, you're calling brethren how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called, but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty, and base things of the world, and things which are despised have God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to not, things that are, Elizabeth could you hand me my water if you wouldn't mind, to bring to not things that are, things that are foolish, things that are weak, that's what God wants to use, and you know that is what I've found that God has done in my life, I had the privilege of growing up in a very good missions minded church, and I remember being in our missions conferences, we had big week long missions conferences, and it was a big deal, and I remember watching the missionary videos, and I'm like watching these videos of this missionary in Uganda, and he's got like these dirty streets of Africa and stuff, and I remember thinking to myself, how do these people go there and live there, and I remember thinking that missionaries were just kind of like strange people, that just like to go camping or something, like there was this certain breed of person, that was perfect for living in these types of environments, and reaching these people with these different languages, and these different customs, and these different cultures, and I just couldn't wrap my head around it, and just think, and I was sure of one thing, I was not one of those people, that would have any chance of being effective in those places, and I was afraid even of a place like that, I was one of those kids who was very shy, very quiet, I would get really homesick, I go to camp, and I was like a young teenager, and I would be like crying, I miss my mom, I want to go home, I did not like to travel, I did not like to be away from home, I did not like to get in front and talk to people, and the thought of being a preacher, was very far off to me, but even being a missionary, I thought there's no way, there is absolutely no way, I never thought I would be effective in ministering to other people, and other languages, and other cultures, I remember when I was probably 17 years old, I was at Boise State University in Idaho, and I was getting ready to take some classes, and this one professor was trying to convince me to take Spanish classes, and I literally thought in my mind, I will never learn Spanish, I will never learn Spanish, we had our Bible Institute there, and they had a few elective classes, and the only classes I did not take in my time in Bible Institute, was Spanish, that was what I did not take, and yet God has through him calling me to the mission field, and me just saying, I can't do that Lord, and just surrendering to him, God has equipped me, to be able to do what he has called me to do, even though I was weak, and foolish, and not noble, and all of the things where people say, yeah that guy, there's no, and what it taught me is, God can do whatever he wants with any one of us, and the important thing for all of us, is to just be willing to say, here am I when God calls us, and be willing to do what God wants us to do, and that applies not just for those that are called to the mission field, but many times God, there's probably people here tonight, where God wants you to be doing something here, that you're afraid to step out and do, and you think I can't do that, and the reality of the matter is, you can't, but God can, and if he can use me on the mission field, he can use you in this ministry, that he's talking to you about tonight, and any one of us, we have to understand that God will equip us, for what he wants us to do, through the years God has molded me, and equipped me, and taught me how to be a pastor, and a missionary, he's brought me to the point, where I'm almost more comfortable preaching in Spanish, than I am in English, I forget words more in English now, I'm comfortable now operating in a third world country, someone asked me about the Amazon today, and I said I'm not really uncomfortable there, it's kind of normal now, it's just interesting, but God equips you, to do what he wants you to do, and if he can do that with me, he can do it with anyone, and so what matters with God, is our willing and surrendered heart, faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it, and the second thing, that God has taught me on the mission field, and it really is in a way, related to this first point, is that pride is a dangerous enemy, pride is a dangerous enemy, look with me at the last verse in 1 Corinthians 1.29, 1 Corinthians 1.29 please, that no flesh, should glory in his presence, why does God use weak things, because he wants the glory, in everything that we do, all of it, God's not interested in sharing his glory, with anyone of us, and when he uses people that know, that it's not me, it's God, and they're willing to just give all the glory to God, God is glorified in that, he does not want to use the noble and the mighty, because he doesn't want any flesh to glory, in his presence, and through some of the more difficult trials, that we've been through on the mission field, that's been one of the central themes, that God has taught me, especially last year, we went through a really bad difficult situation, in our church, kind of a church split type of a situation, and some of the people, that were used by the devil, to instigate that, and really caused a lot of damage in our church, that was the main characteristic, that I saw happen to them, they were people that God was once using, but they got lifted up in pride, they got lifted up in pride, and God brought a verse to my mind, through that whole situation, that just engraved it in marble in my heart, and that's 1st Samuel 15, 17, let's turn there if you would, 1st Samuel 15, 17, this is the story of Saul, and if you know Saul was a man that God chose, that God called to be the king of Israel, and God used in a tremendous way, I mean he had all of the advantages, of God being behind him, the kingdom was behind him, his people was behind him, God was blessing, God was protecting, God was using him in a great way, but then Saul became lifted up with pride, and he became a monster, and he began to be used, he began to disobey God, and cause problems, and in 1st Samuel 15, 17, we see Samuel arriving, and he was told to destroy the entire city of the enemies, but he saved alive many of the sheep, and all of that, and you know the story of the Amalekites, but in verse 17, Samuel says something to him, that God really used this in my life, Samuel said, when thou wast little in thine own sight, when thou wast little in thine own sight, wast thou not made the head of the tribes of Israel, and the Lord anointed thee over Israel, what Saul had when God chose him was humility, he didn't think he was anything, he was little in his own sight, and God used him, but when he was rejected of God, is when he was lifted up with pride, and he like Nebuchadnezzar looked at his kingdom, and thought, look at all that I have done, and folks, that's a huge danger for all of us, and there's a huge danger in coming up, and saying, hey look at the work in Columbia, look what all this happened over the last 10 years, and even leaders can say, look what I have done, and can I tell you something, no you have not done it, it was God, it was God that did that, and what God requires of all of us, is that we stay throughout our Christian life, little in our own sight, and we realize God is working, and it's not me, it's not my glory, it's God's glory, he's the one that deserves the credit for it, and the second we start taking any credit for ourselves, we are going to lose that blessing that the Lord has given us, and so God has used that to really, he's taught me that lesson many times, because God hates pride folks, he hates it, and he will not bless us when we are proudful, in fact he will actively resist us, the Bible tells us, he giveth more grace, in James 4 verse 6, wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble, and to be effective in ministry, and really in any area of our Christian life, we must be clothed with humility, because God is not going to share his glory with us, and so many of us can be destroyed exactly the same way that Satan was, he lifted up in pride, lifted up in pride, pride turned Saul into a scorner, and I read the story of how Saul turned and destroyed the city of Nod, and all the priests, and just slaughtered innocent people, hundreds of them, maybe even thousands of them, including all the people that were there, he just wiped them out in his rage, and he just became just an enemy of the people of Israel, and I just realized, any one of us we can become that, if we are lifted up in pride, and I want God to use me, I don't want the devil to use me, and so we need to remember that, he's taught me to remember that, to stay little in your own sight, we are nothing, he is everything, and the second we start thinking that we're something, we're in trouble, we are in trouble, and so that was one thing that God taught me, my number one enemy is myself, and my own pride, another thing that God has taught me on the mission field, is that with God, nothing is impossible, look at Jeremiah 32.27, Jeremiah 32.27, the Bible says, Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh, is there anything too hard for me? Is there anything too hard for me? One thing I can say about my experience, over the last 10 years on the mission field, is that I have seen many miracles, I told you a little bit about our new building, that is to us a miracle, we've had some amazing things happen, I remember a couple of years ago, being in the Amazon, I had the privilege of leading this one man to the Lord, just in the village there, and witnessing, and I led this man to the Lord, and it turned out, he was the chief of the village, I didn't know, and he got saved, and from that point on, the Lord opened up some doors, and other missionaries could go into that village, because before it was closed to missionaries and churches, and I believe there is a church now established in that village, and to me that is just a miracle, I mean God brought me to that one person, in this village of hundreds of people, and he was the chief of the village, that was a miracle, that was God who did that, and that man humbled himself and got saved, I've seen people that are now, that once were, when we first got there, not just cold hearted, but antagonistic, and blasphemous, towards our message, and us, and the Bible, and God, who are now saved, and baptized, and serving the Lord, I've seen that, that's a miracle, that's a miracle, and all of those things, just seeing how God changes lives, it's just an incredible, incredible thing, just seeing how our church has just developed a heart for soul, and many times, I remember when I first got to Columbia, other missionaries, and different people, they would tell me such and such was impossible, and we would look at it, and we'd be like, well that's what the Bible says to do, and you'd say, oh it doesn't work here in Columbia, well okay, but the Bible says, so we just did what the Bible says to do, and you know what, it works, and God's done it, and God's just blessed in a tremendous way, and we'll go out, and we'll have almost half our church come out, and go soul winning a lot of times, and my biggest problem is, I don't know how to transport them all, and I happen to send people on foot to this neighborhood, and send people in three cars to this neighborhood, and it's just a blessing, to just see people just have a hunger to serve the Lord, and just see how God is just taken, and just blessed in so many ways, with Him nothing is impossible, when we have faith, when we preach the word, when we pray, when we fast, when we believe, nothing is impossible folks, I just preached last Wednesday night at our church, on Joshua chapter 11, where Joshua, his faith is so strong, he'd seen so much in his entire ministry, from the time of the plagues in Egypt, and now he's in the promised land conquering, and he's in this big battle, and he needs more time, and he just looks up at the sun, and just commands the sun to stand still, the Bible doesn't tell us that God told him to do that, he's just so full of faith, and trust in God, he does that, and you know what, God did it, God honored that, and the sun stood still, and the sun did not go down, until they finished destroying their enemies, and that was just his faith, and that's why Jesus said, that if you have faith through the grain of a mustard seed, you can say unto this mountain, remove hence to yonder place, and it shall remove, and nothing shall be impossible unto you, the only thing that limits God, is our lack of faith, Jesus said in Matthew 13, 58, and he did not, the Bible says, and he did not many mighty works there, because of their unbelief, Jesus was not able to do mighty works, not because he didn't have the resources, or the economy was bad, or whatever, this politician was in office, no, he couldn't work there like he wanted to, because of their unbelief, and that's often been the case in my life as well, often times, the greatest limiting factor, is my own personal faith, and belief in the Lord, and boy, we just need to trust him folks, because he can do impossible things, trust God to do what he wants to do, another thing that I've learned on the mission field, is that the devil is real, and spiritual warfare is dangerous, 2 Corinthians 2, 11 please, 2 Corinthians 2, verse 11, 2 Corinthians 2, 11 says, lest Satan should get an advantage of us, for we are not ignorant of his devices, you know the devil is at work, here in the United States, in a tremendous way, and you can see it in so many things that are going on, just how the devil works, but I will say this, I feel like the devil works a little bit differently, in certain parts of the world, than he does here in the United States, and in places like Africa, and South America, and where we work, there is a lot of open witchcraft, people will go, even like I said, 95% Catholic, it's amazing how Catholicism mixes with occultism, and people will all the time go to witches, to cast curses on their enemies, and all kinds of weird stuff like that, and you know, a side effect of all the open paganism, is just a lot of open spiritual warfare, and I'll be careful what I say here, but I have seen things in South America, over the last 10 years, mainly dealing with demon possessed people, that would shock and frighten most Christians, if I went into details about what I've seen, and I live by faith, I believe the Bible, but honestly, I don't think I could ever be an atheist, just because some of the things I've seen, you can't explain it outside of the Bible, the demonic stuff that goes on, and in a lot of cases, it's straight out of the book of Acts, it's straight out of the book of Acts, and I know that when a missionary talks about this, when they come back to the field, people get uncomfortable, and it gets really quiet, and people are like, what's he talking about, but my point is, the devil is real, demon possession is real, demons are real, and they're dangerous, and they're looking to destroy, and they're looking for every opportunity, to cast a snare, and to destroy us, and so we have to be vigilant, because the enemy is as a roaring lion, walking about seeking, whom he will devour, just a couple of months ago, we had a demon possessed woman in our church, and I had this full out battle with this lady, in our church, in our auditorium, for almost an hour, and where people were at the altar praying, and asking God to help this lady, and it's just frightening, when those people, some of the time you're talking to them, you're talking to the person, and then the demon will take control of the body, and they'll be talking to the demon, and when it's really bad, they'll have a voice, that's almost from hell, and every hair on your body, will stand straight up, it's crazy, and one of the things, I've talked to other missionaries there, that dealt with the same thing, is they didn't teach us about this in Bible school, they didn't, there was no class on what to do, when a demon possessed person, crashes your Sunday morning service, and thankfully other missionaries, that have been in areas, that deal with a lot of demon possession, have been very helpful, and maybe given me some advice, on what to do, some good books, have helped me with a lot as well, but I think that it's very, it would be good, if Christianity in the United States, would not be indifferent, to what is going on around the world, in this area, and to pray for your missionaries, and also realize that, even though the devil, may not have as much open things, because he has different tactics in America, there's still as many demons up here, as there is down there, and they're working, and don't be fooled, don't be indifferent, we are in a spiritual battle, and if you are asleep, the devil will take advantage of it, and so we need to be vigilant, we need to watch, we need to pray, and we need to trust God, and one thing I've learned, even though it's terrifying, as spiritual warfare can be, we have nothing to fear, because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world, so you can confront these situations, you can confront a demon possessed person, and you can see that, you can have victory, because Jesus Christ is on your side, and the devil is real, don't be ignorant, of how he operates and works, in this world, but also don't be afraid, because God is greater than him, and then also, another thing I've learned, on the mission field, is that I have to judge my spiritual health, by the fruit of the spirit in my life, Galatians 5.22 says, but the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, against such, there is no law, one mistake, that many times, we can make in our Christian life, and I've made this in my Christian life, and that's why this is one of the things, on your guided to teach me this, is that we can, often times, try to judge, how we're doing spiritually, by how busy we are, in ministry, we can think that, hey, I'm a missionary, I'm serving in ministry, I'm working so many hours a week, and doing this and that, for the church, and therefore, I am walking in the spirit, but can I tell you, you can be as bachelor, as a day as long, you can be carnal, and still serving, many, many hours in the ministry, and deceiving yourself, and you are not walking in the spirit, you're walking in the flesh, and just think of the cults, just think of how many Mormons, and how many hours they spend walking around, I saw a couple of Mormon missionaries, walking down the street, I think it was yesterday, figure out the Jehovah witnesses, and just how many hours of their lives, do these Mormon missionaries give, when they dedicate two years of their life, to go down to such and such mission field, and all of that, can I ask you a question, are they walking in the spirit? No, they're lost, they're lost, they're walking 100% in the flesh, and often times, we can be doing the same, we can be active, and serving, and busy, in the ministry, leading the songs, preaching, playing the piano, doing whatever, and we can be carnal, and walking in the flesh, and so how do I take my spiritual temperature, well Jesus said, by their fruits you shall know them, and their fruits is not just being active in ministry, the fruit that it's referring to, is the fruit of the spirit, what is the fruit of the spirit? Love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, and the Bible says the fruit of the spirit is these things, it's bringing these nine plural things into one singular form, if I am walking in the spirit, if I am filled with the spirit, if I am in obedience to the Holy Spirit, all nine of these things should be coming out of my life, and if they're not, if instead of goodness, malice is coming out of my life, if instead of love, hate is coming out of my life, if instead of patience, rage is coming out of my life, can I tell you what the problem is? I'm walking in the flesh, and I can be on the mission field, doing the mission work, and I can be completely out of touch with the Lord, and where I need to be spiritually in my own personal life, and all of us need to be careful of that, how are you doing with the fruit of the spirit in your life tonight? Are you producing those nine fruits, or are you producing the works of the flesh? That's going to tell you how you're doing spiritually, and don't fool yourself, because you're busy serving the Lord, which we all need to be. Don't fool yourself in thinking that's your spiritual thermometer. Let the fruit of the spirit be the thermometer of your spiritual health. And then finally, to finish tonight, what have I learned on the mission field over the last ten years? I've learned this, all I really need is Jesus. All I really need is Jesus. Philippians 3, let's turn there real quick here. Philippians chapter 3. I love this portion of Scripture. Paul, he's in prison, suffering for preaching the gospel, and he says this in Philippians 3 verse 8, he says, He says, Can you imagine that? Everything that I've lost for Christ, and he lost it all. He said, it's dumb to me. It means nothing to me. What is my one purpose? What is my focus on? What is my vision fastened on? That I may win Christ. And when he says, he's not talking about just his salvation. He's already saved. But look at verse number 9, And be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith. And then verse 10, That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death. Paul's urge and need and longing was just, he didn't care about the things this world has to offer. It was dumb to him. He wanted Jesus. He wanted to walk with Christ. He wanted to know Him. He wanted to experience just a closeness with the Lord that just brings out all understanding. And that is something that I found that you don't need anything outside of Christ. You don't. And when you have Christ, you have all the treasure that you could ever need. You have everything you could ever need. Look at Matthew 19, if you would. Turn to Matthew 19. Sometimes people will talk about missionaries and they'll talk about how they've given up everything. When they go to the mission field, they leave their families, they leave their homes, and they leave their cultures, they leave their language, they leave their favorite restaurant. They leave all of this stuff and they go to the mission field. But can I tell you something? It's not a sacrifice. Because what you gain in walking with Christ and knowing Christ is so much more valuable than that. Something happened this morning, actually. I was kind of not sure if I should share this or not, so if it's inappropriate, I apologize. But I was looking at houses in Port St. Lucie. And we, 12 years ago, owned a home here in Port St. Lucie. And when we went to the mission field, we had some preachers that advised us that we needed to sell our home. And we did. And we did it because we felt like that was the right thing to do, not to have anything holding us back. Wise decision, bad decision, looking behind the side of 50-50. But I was looking at homes and I realized that my home is now worth seven times what I sold it for 12 years ago. And that really just started to bother me. Like, I am such an idiot. And I thought, I am never going to recover from the stupidity of that financial decision. And I'm just thinking, and you just think of the housing market nowadays and trying to buy a home nowadays. And I remember just kind of being bothered by that this morning, looking at these homes. And then I was driving to church this morning and the Lord brought this verse to my mind. Look at verse 29, Matthew 19, 29. And everyone that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake shall receive an hundredfold and shall inherit everlasting life. You may not see it in this life, but boy, wait till I show you my mansion in heaven. You know, all of this world has to offer is dung. It's not worth anything. But Him, He's all you need. He's all you need, folks. We have gained so much, so much more than we've ever given up for Christ. He's given us. And even outside of any earthly blessing we receive, Jesus Christ is all we need. All that thrills my soul is Jesus. Who can cheer the heart like Jesus by His presence all divine, true and tender, pure and precious. Oh, how blessed to call Him mine. All that thrills my soul is Jesus. He is more than life to me and the fairest of ten thousand in my blessed Lord I see. For the love of Christ constraineth us, because we thus judge that if one died for all, then we're all dead. So, as we close, just like the church at Antioch and Paul in Barnabas, I'm here to be able to come back after ten years on the field and tell you about what God's done. I hope it's an encouragement to you. I hope that some of the things that I've learned, you can learn them through what I've spoken on tonight. And I want to encourage you to keep strong in the faith. Keep pressing on. This church has so much that God wants to do through it and use it in the years ahead. And I am excited to be able to come back next time and just see all that God's doing here as well. I'm excited to see what God's doing right now and I'm excited to see what God's going to do next time I'm here. And I'm excited to be able to tell you about the more things that God has done, if Christ carries, and we hope that He comes back soon. Amen? Amen. But grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, to Him be glory both now and forever. Amen. Let's pray. Father, thank You so much for the time tonight we've had to search Your Word and to be able to talk about how good You've been, Lord.