Mission Speaker

The speaker talks about their church in Promised Land, their plans to build a new building, and their goal to have the slab done by Christmas. They mention a yard sale they attended to meet people and invite them to church. They express gratitude for being called back into mission work and their desire to start a church that starts other loving churches. They ask for prayers for a woman named Michelle and someone who needs to be baptized. They mention a video on YouTube and their upcoming Easter service. They discuss the book of Philippians and how Paul wrote it while in prison, finding joy and using his circumstances to encourage others. They reflect on their own experiences and how they should look to Jesus in difficult times. And our church at Promised Land has sent the letter, and we are on the schedule for next year in the summertime, that building team coming and us getting the building. And our current goal right now is to have the slab done by Christmas, I would say. And then once we get the slab done, it'll be set up. The longer it sits, the better it gets, if you're not familiar with buildings. So it'll be set up good and sturdy so that by the time summer rolls around, that building team can come in and we can get moving. And it's kind of like field of dreams. If you build it, they will come. And, you know, so we're really praying and looking forward to what the Lord's got in store for us and in store for Sterlington. So many opportunities and people to meet. Yesterday, there was a big yard sale in town at one of the big communities, 600 house community. And it's the one time a year that the HOA let anybody come in. And so anybody went yesterday, and I went and just got to meet people, hand out my contact information, invite them to church, you know. And it's just been a blessing. And I'm so thrilled that I have this opportunity and that the Lord has, you know, been so gracious to call me back into mission work. Whenever I left the mission field in Romania, I thought, oh, man, now I got to be a preacher. You know, I don't know what I'm going to do. And then the Lord was kind enough to lead me back into mission work. And I'm so thankful that's where my heart is. I'm a missionary at heart. And I love missions. I love missionaries. And I can't wait to be on the other side of, I've told the church, it's faith this. You know, our day is coming. And Lord willing, y'all need to be praying about that now, that we'll be doing what Promised Land is doing for us. That's our end goal, is to be a church, started by a church that starts a loving church, and then keep that going because that's what we're commanded to do. So Lord willing, that's what we're going to do. And if you have any questions afterwards, you know, I'll be glad to answer those questions. The video that you've seen, it's available if you, you know, need it again or would like to clear something up. It's on YouTube under the Worldwide Literature Services page. Joel Campbell filled it, filmed it for us. So you can watch that. It's on our Facebook page, Faith Baptist Church Sterlington. You can like and follow us on there. We sure would appreciate that. And keep up to date with what we've got going on, some neat things on the horizon. Another big community event on April the 1st, our first Easter service, you know, since I've been there. A lot of big things coming up that we're looking forward to and want to ask you to pray with us about. There are two things I would like for you to pray specifically about. One of those, there's a lady that comes and visits our services. Her name is Michelle. She hasn't been in a while, and that's because she's under conviction. She told me and another person that she knows she needs to be saved, that she wants to be saved, but she wants to get saved at church. Well, the problem is when you want to get saved at church, you kind of quit coming to church. She hasn't been in a while because she's got to work or she's got some bills that need to be paid. And so I would ask you to pray with me for Miss Michelle. She sent an offering last week in an envelope. She sent her tithes, even though she's not a member. She just felt like she needed to give some money to the Lord. She sent her money in an envelope, and on that envelope, she put her address. She doesn't want us to come visit her, I think, because she might be embarrassed of her living arrangements. But I've got her address, and I sent her a card, just letting her know that we mentioned her and we're thinking about her, and we'd love to have her back. So you pray for Miss Michelle, and pray for another one that has made a profession of faith and just needs to be baptized. If you pray for him, I would certainly appreciate that. I know you've got business meeting coming up. I know that the mind can only comprehend what the feet can endure, and they taught us what a devotional is. It's five to ten minutes, and I promise you, you won't be here longer than nine, okay? So if you've got your Bible, go with me quickly to the book of Philippians chapter one. The book of Philippians chapter one, this is my favorite book in all of the New Testament. You start looking at me weird, and you're about to find out why. This book was written while Paul was in jail. And I love this book because if you don't study history outside of this book of Philippians, you would never know that Paul was currently in prison while he's writing this book because the dude's so happy and so full of joy, doesn't bellyache, doesn't moan, doesn't groan or complain. Takes the time that he's got and encourages a church, mind you, that he thought considered to be the greatest, that gave from their poverty, and encourages them from a prison cell. And I would like for you to look with me at verses 12, 13, and 14. Paul says this, Philippians 1, 12, 13, and 14, I would, you should understand, that the things which happen unto me have fallen out rather under the furtherance of the gospel, so that my bonds in Christ are manifest in all the palaces and in all other places. And many of the brethren in the Lord, likely confident by my bonds, are much more bold to speak the word without fear. And here you've got Paul using his own imprisonment and the things that have happened to him for the betterment and to encourage and exhort the other brethren. It looks like this, when you go through a difficult circumstance or that I go through a difficult circumstance, what's the one thing we're all focused on? The end. How long is this thing going to last for? When I'm going through something that I know I can't control and I know it's going to cause me some grief, the only thing I want is the end of that thing. Kind of like last night in the Arkansas game, and it looked like they weren't going to go any further, and then they finally, and you thought, just come on and stop, Paul, because we got together, right? By the way, if you pulled for Arkansas last night, you were in church this morning, right? The churches in Arkansas should have been slapped full this morning, I'm telling you right now. You understand, you want the end, and I'm so focused when I go through that on the escape and overcoming that, that I barely stop to take the time and think that God is probably most likely trying to teach me something, that there's something in my life, something that I've got that needs to go away, or something that I need to grow in, and the Lord is allowing this thing to happen to me because He's trying to teach me something, and I'm definitely never thinking about how this instance could be the instance that triggers somebody else and opens the door for me to show them and witness to them about Jesus Christ. When we moved to Romania the very first night, we moved into our apartment, the lady that owned the apartment said, could y'all spend the night at your mother-in-law's house because we want to pour some concrete in a room and even the floors. In the old days, the apartments were built, there was an entryway, and you stepped up into the living room and stepped up into this, where they wanted it all one level. So we said yes. That night, somebody broke into our house and stole everything, and when I say everything, I mean shower gel, toothpaste, toothbrush, deodorant, they went through my Bible, they went through our dirty clothes, they went through, they took the computer, everything, gone. Got a call the next morning at 7 o'clock and said, did you leave the door open? Absolutely not. Will you get over here, click. And we went over there, there's police everywhere. We'd been robbed, and I was mad. And I thought to myself, I can get robbed in my own country. I mean, matter of fact, I've never been robbed in my own country, and I've lived in some shady places. I mean, shady places. Nobody ever gave me a trouble. And now, you know, I can't even so much as go in there and put on deodorant, because they stole it. I can't take a shower, because they've taken all these little silly things, they're gone. And I got mad, and my pastor's wife at the time, we called the church and let them know what happened, and she said something to stuff with me, and it was just simply, Kevin, why can't you act, because folks are paying attention, and wouldn't you know it, that opportunity was used for me to talk to many a person about the Lord, because people could not fathom why I wasn't yelling, screaming, cussing, etc. They just couldn't understand. How can you be so calm and collected? They took everything. Well, they didn't take everything. They took most of our stuff, but they didn't take everything, and the Lord really did use that for an awesome thing. But for a minute there, all I could think of was, just get me through this, I'm buying a ticket, and I'm out. I mean, the end of this thing. So I understand, but Paul wasn't like that. He didn't just endure it, he didn't just anticipate the end of his imprisonment, he used that experience to be a witness to Christ. It blows my mind that he's writing this while he's in jail, and this is not the kind of jail that we're thinking of with three hot and a trough. This was jail jail. They beat you, spit on you, covered you in whatever they wanted to, made sport of you, and he's not crying or complaining. He's encouraging the church in Philippi. It just absolutely blows my mind that he could be so joyful in the midst of such a situation. And you have to think, what makes a person willing to suffer like this? Well, the only answer that could be is Jesus. The only way I could ever take any kind of joy in any kind of tribulation is because no matter the outcome of that trial, or no matter what's going to happen when it's all said and done, my status as a child of God in my eternal life that's secure in Jesus Christ hasn't changed not one bit. He's still awesome, he's still good, he still sits on the right hand of the Father, God's still the omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent God that he is. How could you not be joyful? So what would make this message worth imprisonment? Well, there's blessings in suffering. I know that sounds weird. It sounds, as a matter of fact, that goes against the grain of our entire society. But I'll use the best example I know. My nanny, which is my mama's mama, she died back in 2015. She was diagnosed with breast cancer in the year 2000, and then a week later they diagnosed her with Parkinson's. And she got over the breast cancer, but for 15 years, I watched Parkinson's ravage her body. And in 15 years, I never heard nanny complain. I never heard nanny ask God why. I heard nanny tell people about how good Jesus is, why she couldn't even eat the peas for her handshaking. I watched nanny go to the church that she was a member of and clean it up until the point where all she could do was lay on the front pew and cover with a blanket and put her head on a pillow because she couldn't even move, but she wasn't going to miss the opportunity to be a part of the work at her church. And when she died, she died at complete peace. She had no anger with the Lord, and the only thing she could say was, I'm ready to go to the house. I've done all that I know to do, and she was happy. And I thought, nobody else can do that except Jesus. It's impossible. And just like the Apostle Paul, nanny was in a prison of her own body. Nothing that her body did was of her own volition. It was just crazy the things that she went through. And what made it worth it? What made it worth it? Well, she would have told you it was Jesus. What made it worth it for Paul? He tells you here that those that would hear his story, that those that would see what he went through would come out the better and more confident and able to preach without fear. There's the boldness there of suffering, and it didn't just create waves for the Apostle Paul that he was testifying to, but you can tell that other believers were emboldened by this, especially in our time. We have not even the slightest threat that the Apostle Paul faced. There's nobody coming to lock us up. There's nobody coming to throw us in jail. We are completely free to stay in this place for as long as we want, for whenever we want. The Apostle Paul in their time, they had to meet in secret, and they did it willingly. And the Apostle Paul suffered willingly, and it begs the question, how can it be? It's not natural to be filled with joy in the midst of difficult or uncertain times, and it's not normal to have a sense of purpose when everything appears to be going wrong. But it's not so when you've got Jesus Christ. There's a reason why Paul suffered the way he suffered, and we can see that reading this writing and others, that Paul's boldness and the blessings and the bonds that he suffered have, if not, if they didn't make the Christians better then, I believe they can certainly make the Christians better now, because look at what he did, how he was used. I mean, goodnight up until his death. The things that Paul experienced and the things that Paul wrote about. We don't expect much from ourselves and others during these hard times, I know that. But God wants to refine us and use us. Gold's got to be heated up before it's turned pure. Silver's got to be tried before it reaches that very high property, and he's given us a chance to display the peace of God that passes all understanding. And I'm telling you, when Nanny was on her deathbed, I remember thinking, this world's going to be empty without her. And then I remember after we left, and I kind of figured that'd be the last time we would see her, I got the phone call and Dad said, Nanny's gone. And I remember my response. I didn't even want to say it, it just came out, she's not gone, she went to the house. That's all. She just got promoted. And her example has lived on for these past years. And I think about what she went through and how close it is to what the Apostle Paul's saying here. So I would encourage you as we close here, how can you use those difficult circumstances or the circumstances that appear out of control to point others towards Christ? Well, you can certainly use them. I mean, imagine somebody seeing you going through what you went through, like when we got robbed and talking to that police chief after the anger had gone, and after all that is decided, talking to those people and them saying, how can you hold it together? They took everything you had, and like I already said, no, they didn't take everything. They took most of it. And I'm so thankful that no matter what comes and goes in this life, and this life changes and ebbs and flows, the Lord does not. It's the same yesterday, today, and forever. And that Lord, the Lord, is the one that we're preaching down in Stirling and that we've got the opportunity to show to folks down there. And I'm so thankful for this church and the other churches that have been so faithful in their support, in their prayers, in their involvement. I know this church is one of several that have physically been down there and helped out. And if you want to do it again, you've got an opportunity. In July, third week of July, we're having a Bible school. I've already got, there's already folks coming, but you can never have too many. So if you've got some time and you'd like to see Stirlington and get an idea of what's going on down there, you are more than welcome to come on back. And I thank you so much for your support, for your prayers, for your involvement. If you ever need anything, have any more questions, you can contact Promiseland. You can contact me via Facebook or however, I can give you my phone number if you need it. But we just thank you so much. I appreciate this opportunity to give a report, update, and to open God's Word and hopefully encourage you a little bit. God bless you. Thank you for the work, Kevin. Paul starts out that chapter with confident in what Christ has begun in us that he'll be able to finish. And that's what we praise God about tonight. Anybody got any questions or anything for Brother Kevin? All right. If not, then I told them that they're free to leave if they want to. The rest of you got to stick around because we have a business meeting this month. But at this time, we will call.