Well, guys, go ahead and just keep your finger at Luke 15.
I just want to encourage you guys, man.
It it has been such an encouraging season as we
launched into 2026 so far just in Acts 931, we had this word
about strengthening our families to multiply and there's a way to
do that. We're not just presuming upon
God to grow our church just without partnering with him,
right? And so Act 931 is very specific,
right? It said.
There's four things that we are to focus on, two of which we're
going to focus on this spring, and then two, which we'll focus
on when we come back from missions in the fall.
And of course, you, we could focus on all four of them.
But just specifically, we, we really felt like the Lord wanted
us in light of, you know, what God has called us to what God
has called us to, you know, reach the nations and, and reach
our own city, but also in our personal lives.
We're, we're called to grow where God sanctifies us.
And there's so many different distractions the enemy puts in
our way. And there's so many different
ways that the enemy attacks us personally and corporately that
we just really felt like we needed to do a spiritual warfare
series. And today will be the last day
of that. Can you believe it?
It's it's going so fast. And we just completed that
second part of Act 931, which is to build one another up and
encourage. So it's said that all the cities
in the regions experience, they experience growth, but they
experience this peace of God, they experience protection of
the Lord. And we took that as all right,
Lord, how do you want us to prepare for that?
We need, you know, there's when there's a peace in the church,
that there's a peace in the land, the church can flourish
and grow and we're praying for that protection.
But how many, you know, that is not automatic.
It's not automatic, like, you know that in your own life.
Like as soon as we're done with the spiritual warfare series,
some of you kind of took that as like, oh, cool, we're going to
do something new. Some of you took that as like,
oh, no, we're not going to be reminded that we're in a war.
And I might lose. I might be more susceptible.
I like this series because it's reminding me over and over again
both what the enemy does and how we can combat the enemy, how we
can fight the enemy back with the tools that he's given us in
the Scripture, right? We are always in a war.
The the Bible continually reminds us of that.
And so don't lose focus. All right, you are victorious in
Christ, but it's not automatic. It's not it's that's why it says
daily put on the armor of God, right, because the enemy is
attacking you individually, your family and the church at large,
right. So we felt that we wanted to
equip the church, not just inspire them to go and be that
we're going to be multiply, you know, gods and multiplies.
He's going to strengthen us. He's going to grow us, but
there's a way in which that's going to happen and we really
felt the Lord put on our heart this series and I can't believe
it's over, but it's not over. You can always go back and
listen to messages. We have a book list that you
can. Again, there's about 3 or 4
different books that we recommend that you continually
read if you want to know more about spiritual warfare.
No way did we exhaust this topic.
Just want to let you know, I mean, I know that.
I think you know that already. There's so much and the
storyline of scripture, I think it's called Spiritual Warfare.
The Storyline of Scripture by Chuck Lawless, that is a great
book to read and in fact, he gives a lot of recommendations
in that book as well. And so really want you guys to
to lean into, you know, spiritual warfare because we're
in a war. Second thing, which was
incredible to see that we've, we've done a 40 day campaign of
encouragement and it ended on February 26th.
How many guys encouraged the last two days even when it was
over, right? We should be.
That's the point of it. The point is we put training
wheels on so that when the training wheels come off, it's
not that you just stop riding your bike.
It's just that it's, it's training you right to do this as
a lifestyle. It's, it's so that you can you,
you as a lifestyle. It's not just a trickle, but
it's a literally a fire hydrant of encouragement for the rest of
our life. We need this.
The Bible is clear about that. I'm not going to stop setting my
alarm for 10:25 personally because I need that reminder to
spur one another on and good deeds, right?
And encourage one another. And so I want to share one
story. There's a girl in the young
adult ministry. She was asking a simple prayer
and maybe you guys asked this too.
She's just said, I want to feel near to God.
I want to know more of it, which like what God calls me to my
identity, my purpose. And and so she just started
opening up to the Lord and say, all right, Lord, use this 40
days, not just as a way to bless me.
I want to be blessed. These are questions that I have,
but I want to bless other people.
So she came into it with the right heart.
And then she, she started getting verses from people from
her peers. She didn't tell anybody.
She just told, she just told the Lord that.
And because God's a big God and he answers our prayers, he hears
us. She started receiving texts from
her friends that said, Hey, you know, here's a here's a verse
that I felt like the Lord put on my mind.
And it was verses that was meeting that need in her heart
to feel the nearness of God. Isn't that awesome?
Not only that, but then the overflow, which is the whole
purpose of this, the overflow of her heart from receiving those
encouragement, She decided to say, Hey, I want to go bless
other people. I want to do that physically.
I want to do that, yes, with sending other texts and
encouragements and voice memos, but I want to serve
sacrificially. So she began to do that.
And then she just had another prayer.
She said, Lord, I want to go to awaken.
And it's $295 doesn't seem like a lot to some, but it is a lot
to some people, right? And she just said, hey, I, I
want to go. And so little by little, she
restarted receiving donations to go.
And at the end, the kind of the, the, the, the last one to get
her there was, was given by somebody that had a need of
their own. And so in this church, it's just
encouraging to know that people give out of the place of their
own need so that others can go. And that awesome.
I was just so many, so many crazy things.
Like I could tell you like throughout the, I mean, I,
they've sent me a list of just different testimonies.
I can't share them all, but just I, I wanted to say this, please
don't stop, like please don't stop encouraging each other.
Just that was one life that got touched and out of the overflow
of being touched by God, they began to bless other peoples.
And then she was touched by God again and she's blessed other
people. It's just the way it should work
all the time, every day in the Kingdom.
Amen. So good.
All right, well, hey, I got 5 you guys like list.
You told me that. So here's 5 things.
OK, so here's five ways the enemy attacks us as it relates
to missions. All right, so last week, you
know, I I was telling this to the back rail.
I was telling to the guys as we were praying.
One of the things I said is, you know, when, when you're, when
you're teaching, when you're preaching, one of the ways you
know, you're effective is not just people say, oh, you're a
communicator, all that inspiring, whatever.
But do they do the work? Do they do they actually take
the word and do something with it?
Well, this week, because we talked about it last week, last
Sunday, we talked about what, you know, why is evangelism so
challenging? And we just gave people just
simple challenges to go out. And pretty much every life group
and people flooded the campus this week.
And every life group was out on campus, out on the streets,
sharing the gospel. And they came in this morning.
And it was so funny because everyone just seemed like in a
good mood this morning. I don't know if it's just like
the, you know, someone said, well, the last two days it's
cloudy and, you know, it's sunny today.
I'm like, OK, yeah, all right. But I'm like, there's more.
There's more. You know who you are.
OK, so there's more than that, right?
There's there's, there's a, there's a reason for that.
And I just immediately when they said that, 'cause everybody was
just like, and everybody I talked to, I was just like, man,
I they're just full of life. It's great.
We were together as a church this week, maybe more than
usual. I don't know.
There's just so much encouragement happening.
It could be the 40 days encouragement.
I I used to be a biology major, so I understand science to some
degree and did experiments. And so there's variables, right?
There's lots of different variables, but I would say this
is probably the top variable. You guys all week got outside
yourself and look, didn't look at yourself this week and gave
what you have away. That's why you came in joyful.
I believe that. I believe that's the reason why.
And we could do that every week. Every week we can do that.
And you know what? We're made to do that.
We're made to do that every week.
Don't you? I mean, I don't know about you,
but you get it. Once you experience joy, it's
like it's addicting, right? It's like, I want to, I want to
experience that all the time. And the Bible's like, well, you
can. I want to experience this peace
like every day of my life. Is that possible, God?
Yes, it is. That doesn't mean trials and
tribulations don't come. That doesn't.
I mean, you know, what's crazy is that no one was saying all my
trials went away this week. Everybody had the everyone had
the same trials. I don't think anybody's trials
went away. Just miraculous.
I mean, maybe yours did. That's great.
You're going to have another one.
I mean, I don't want to be the bearer of the bad news, but
that's just going to happen. But it was in the midst of just
living your normal life, right? Just trial, tribulations, things
that are happening. The reason why you experienced
joy is because you got your eyes off of yourself and on to
others. And by getting your eyes off of
yourself and on to others, God blessed you with his joy and
bless you. And you don't realize you're
even in a trial. You're like, wow, this is
amazing. You still have a crime baby,
still got to change the diaper, still got to get up in the
middle of the night, still got to go to class, still got to
take the test. I mean, all the things still got
to go to work, all the things still happen.
You still got sick. I got sick this week.
I was like, all right, well, but there was a joy in giving out
that you don't get when you're occupied with your trial and
you're at home wallowing and complaining.
It's amazing. Like choice is yours this week
again, it's amazing. All right, so #1 the number one
reason why, OK, there's a five of them.
The number one reason why missions can be so challenging
and people give up is because when we see missions as a waste,
optional and uninterested, we stop, right?
So some of us, in other words, we might be, we're bored with
it. We're, we're, we're uninterested
in it. There's apathy.
We talked about that several weeks ago.
Apathy is a, is, is a, is a joy killer.
It's just you're occupied with your own pleasures, right?
And so when you see missions, this is the way the enemy
attacks us. When we see missions as a waste,
optional or uninteresting, uninteresting, the opposite that
we see Jesus, he says this. He was like looking down a
mountain and he saw crowds as far as the eye can see, and he
was looking out and he was noticing something.
He was noticing there was an observation.
He was noticing how lost people were distressed because they
were without a shepherd. Do you ever just like observe
the lost? What happens when you observe
the lost? I'll tell you what happens with
Jesus when he observes the lost. What happens is he feels what
they feel. It says that he had compassion
because he felt spleck nizomi. That's just the Greek word means
he felt deeply, felt deeply what they feel.
So he got into the mind of a lost person because Jesus said
he came to seek and save the lost.
He lived out the mission of God. So he saw people and he's like,
I'm not going to ignore that or look at that as uninteresting
because I'm going to go do my own deal.
He looked out and he says, he says, I had compassion.
And so therefore when he observed, that led to a place of
compassion, that led to a place of urgency.
So when he so next time you observe the lost, you should not
feel indifferent from that experience.
You should say something along the lines of Jesus.
I feel compassion for them. And and he says he gives us
something to do. What does he give us to do Not
not even going to share, not not not yet.
What does he say first? Matthew 935 to 38.
What does he say first? Pray, pray to the Lord of the
harvest because he's saying the harvest is ready.
He's looking at the people who were lost without a shepherd.
He's like it is ready. If I had 5000 troops ready to go
boom, they go and share the gospel 1 to one ratio.
I mean it's ready. They're ready to hear.
It's just but he says the workers are few.
The workers are few. Does that bother anybody here?
Do you look at the nation's like you look at the news like I
have, I had, I have two trips planned this, this this summer.
Well, I mean, besides Italy, but on the back end of Italy.
I'll start with the first one. The first one was to go to
Puerto Vallarta. You know anything about Puerto
Vallarta this week or last week? I can't wait.
I we can't go. They, they cancelled the trip.
State Department says no good, no bueno.
So I said, OK, we're not going. Second trip.
I planned back into the summer of Italy.
We're going to Israel. Anybody read anything about
Israel this week? I'm like, well, Lord, I hope we
can go to Italy. You know what I mean?
But do you look at nations? When you see nations, do you
look at them as just a geopolitical landmass, right?
Do you just look at the map and say, OK, that's just a nation,
or we don't like those people because they're United States
enemy? Or do you look at them in such a
way, the way that God looks at them and he looks at the map, he
looks at the globe. He's, he's, he's with people all
the time, all day. He's omnipresent.
He's with people right now in Iran.
I don't care about enemies and this and that and the other.
I, I, I don't that it's not what that's irrelevant right now.
What matters is that in people in Iran right now did not wake
up in the morning, meet with Jehovah Jireh, meet with God the
provider meet with meet with their God Yahweh.
They did not get up in the morning and what I I began this
service with Exodus 33. Meet with me in the morning and
find out this I am a loving God. I am compassionate and then
everybody got rowdy for the rest of the morning because they were
excited about that truth and they worship God.
The people in Iran woke up today without that truth.
There are many people who have because it's supposedly it's one
of the fastest growing churches. So they do have church.
They do have believers. But I'm just, I'm making the
point. Do you look at Iran as a enemy
or do you look at Iran as people that need Jesus?
That's what we got to look at the we, we look at all those
flags, we're not looking at like, oh, they're, they're OK.
They're not OK State Department says this, this, that, the
other, they're all these people are people.
They're either going to heaven or hell and there'll be
thousands right now as I preach this message that are going to
hell. I I I wrote a book called
finishing the race. It's just in the beginning.
I sure vision on why this is important to finish the race,
why it's important to reach the lost all that and I gave like
AII forgot the status you know it, but it changes everyday but
just how the how many people die in in a day, how many people die
in a year? How many people die in a second?
Just a second? Every second somebody is dying
around the world right now, either with Jesus or without
Jesus. Every second I think about that.
Do you think about that? I'm going to ask you a question.
How many grieve over lost souls When we we read about wars,
disasters in the news, like a challenge for you, you, you woke
up. My mom likes to remind me of the
places that I go. And she just sends me a text
saying, do you did you read about this?
And I love her. She's trying to protect our
family, the grandkids. She don't care about me, but the
grandkids, she's like, are you going still?
I'm like, I don't, I don't know, mom, we'll see.
I mean, like, you know, I'm 44 years old.
My mom's still like, you know, she sure you want to go there.
Are you sure there's other places in the world?
Thank you, Mom. But when you read about these
nations, many grieve over lost. Do do do you grieve over the
lost souls? When you think about these
nations like Yemen? When's the last time you thought
about Yemen? When's the last time you thought
about Saudi Arabia? There was bombs that went off in
the UAE, which is very rare. Like when's the last time you
thought about Dubai? How much time do we set aside to
pray for the nation's? Not we will.
I mean, we got March 2nd, 4th this week, just at least fast.
One meal this week, just one meal, just one.
Like what? I don't know, Like a lot of us,
you know, we'll sit down and watch people sit.
They'll sit down and campus, they'll have their phone out,
they'll have their meal. They're eating and they're
scrolling just just for one meal, fast from the phone, fast
from the food, and just say, all right, Lord, I want to pray for
Israel. I want to pray for Iran.
I want to pray for the United States.
I want to pray for Canada. I want to pray for Brazil,
Italy. I'm just looking at nations in
the back right now. Turkey, whatever.
Sweden, just pray for the nations.
And what are you praying for? Salvation.
You're like, I don't know what to pray.
We, we're, we're going to give out resources this week and
there'll be plenty to pray. So just even read those.
And I'm telling you something will shift in you that morning
or that afternoon or that evening or maybe even all day.
Some of you guys were like, I'm doing all three days great.
You will feel different. You'll feel hungry, but you also
feel different. You will feel different because
you're beginning to think like God.
You're beginning to feel what God feels.
Do you not think I want to ask you this question?
Do you still think? I know this is going to be
sounds. This is going to sound crazy, I
know, but I wonder if this is how the enemy hinders us from
going on the mission field. This is rich. close your ears
right now. But do you still think people go
to heaven by being good? If you answer no to that
question, then what are you doing staying home and not going
on mission? What are you doing from not
sharing the gospel in our city on our campus?
Because if that question is yes, then let's all stay home because
we know more people go to heaven because you know pretty much the
they're good people, right? But if you answer no to that
question, which we all know is the truth.
The goodwill never outweigh the bad.
Then someone has to share the gospel with them, otherwise they
won't be saved. The easy places like Saint
Thomas. You ever think when's the last
time you thought about Saint Thomas?
Like the Virgin Islands, you don't need a passport to go
there. You can take a cruise there or
Yemen with the State Department. I look at it all the time.
I'm always, I'm on there. I'm looking at the Do not travel
zone. We've been as a church to the
number three level. Never.
We've never done level 4 yet, but Level 3 for sure.
Saint Thomas is 1, if you're wondering.
It's like a level 1. Just normal precautions.
Yeah. It's sobering, isn't it?
Just to think about it, Spurgeon says this.
Our pulpits are well supplied around just talking about the
nation, right? United States, England.
But we need men who will build on new foundations.
Millions have never heard of the name of Jesus.
Millions have seen a missionary only once in their lives and
know nothing about our king. So we let them perish.
Can we go to our beds and sleep while China, India, Japan and
other nations are perishing? Who's going to go?
I thought about this the other day.
I was like, man, Lord, like I'm just thinking, I'm like, if God
is calling every, like he's calling believers all the time,
make disciples, make disciples, make disciples, like go to the
nations, like all the nations, like plant churches, like all
the time. I just, I often think I like,
OK, we've been at church for 14 years.
I often think I'm like, OK, maybe maybe he's not calling
anybody here. Maybe he's not calling people to
plant churches. Maybe the reason why we're not
planning more churches because maybe God's really not calling
anybody. And I thought about that.
I'm like, wait, no, I wonder if he's called somebody in the room
or many in the room and they've ignored his voice.
So I think that's what's more, I think that is probably what's
happening, don't you think? Or maybe he just doesn't think
anybody's called and he doesn't want to call anybody.
He just kind of let's move on to the other church next door.
No, no, no. I think, I think weekly you're,
you're feeling that tug and every time you say no, no, no,
or maybe you're, you'll find yourself in one of these reasons
or one of these reasons why perhaps missions are so
challenging and why people don't go is because, I don't know,
maybe that's really, maybe that's why and we're going to
fix that. But 3.1 billion people have
never heard of Jesus. 3.1 billion people, that's with AB
The Joshua Project says that about 7000 people groups remain
unreached. That's a lot of people.
All right #2 to #1 we see missions as a waste, optional
and interesting number 2, when we allow the enemy to divide our
teams. So you just bring so much
division, not just our mission teams.
I think it's a church, but we've addressed that before, but
specifically on our mission teams, there's five
characteristics of a mission culture.
I'm not going to, I'm not going to belabor that.
I'm just going to share them. One is prayer, thanks,
thankfulness, encouragement, humility, honor and love.
And we say that again, prayer, thankfulness, encouragement,
humility, honor, and then love kind of encapsulates it all.
But I, I shared, like I just shared this.
It's like an hour and 40 minute teaching.
It's the culture of the team, what makes a team.
It's just so important we decided to do this because I've
taught on this like dozens of times to the point where I'm
like, I don't ever get tired of teaching.
I'm just like, we just need to make a video at this point and
we just need to send this out to everyone.
Because when you go out, how many know it's not just why you
go out? Because we want to care for the
lost. It's not, you know, there, there
what we, what we carry when we go out and that's the gospel.
But it's how we go out. It's actually how we do this.
And we're either going to be well received or not in a
country. And so, so many get discouraged
because once they go over overseas, I don't think this has
happened as much in our church because I think we we do do
trainings like this. But as we scale out, I'm
thinking like, as we scale, like I looked at the room full of, I
don't know, it's like 60 people that are going in the Italy
based team. I'm looking at how I'm like,
this is amazing. But I, I'm thinking in the next
5 to 20 years, all you guys are going to lead base teams
somewhere in the world and you're going to need to carry
this culture. And so we just we made the
video. It's online.
You can ask Jessica. Yeah, ask for administration if
you're going on mission with us, which I believe pretty much the
good majority of you guys are like 250 people going on
mission. Amen.
But like, you're going to, you're going to watch this
video. And because it's, there's a
passage in Acts that is so dear to my heart that I, I really
want being said about Antioch, Orlando, no matter where we go.
But it's from Acts 413. It said they were untrained,
unschooled men and the people observing these people, which
are the disciples and the the people who are the 120 that were
with Jesus and they were filled with the spirit.
They said they are unschooled and untrained, but we knew that
they had been with Jesus. Amen.
So when we look at the the training, when we look at like
prayer, that's what Jesus did. Like when they're praying,
they're depending on God, they're they're walking like
Jesus. When they're thankful and they
have, they're full of gratitude, which is like the number one
motivation, by the way, to share the gospel is out of gratitude.
I'm just thankful to be alive. I'm thinkable to have Jesus.
I'm thankful to have what I have and I want to give that away.
Encouragement. People need encouragement daily.
As we talked about humility, that it just means be teachable,
be dependent, and then honor, Honor not only just leaders, but
honor one another. Because a relational ministry
requires us to resolve conflicts, help people and
clarify misunderstandings. We are committed to a fam to be
a family on mission and it's going to get messy as we go.
So we're like, OK, we're, we're not even on mission yet.
I don't see the messiness. It'll come.
You'll remember this, that it's just messy, but we're called to
it and we're going to continue to be committed to resolving
conflicts, helping people and clarifying misunderstandings and
training teams. Amen.
All right, so #3 when we are defeated through discouragement,
we're just defeated through how many know when you soon as you
go on mission, it's like, OK, now I just got sick, you know,
right, stomach bug, whatever it is.
I mean, we, I mean, pretty much every mission trip, it seemed
like sickness plagues every team.
It just comes with the territory.
But you're going to get sick here.
I mean, you know, so don't let that keep you from going.
But it does discourage us. It makes us feel defeated.
And not only that, but maybe family is not supported.
I've talked to many of you guys and I say this with great love
and compassion. I I know how you feel like
you're fired up, ready to go as a college student.
And then you go home. You're like, this is where we're
going. And it's just as simple as Baton
Rouge. Like, no, you're not going
there. It's too dangerous.
I mean, Baton Rouge is, you know, Baton Rouge, but it's
nothing more dangerous than Orlando.
But I understand the fears that come.
There's a lot of fear. There's a lot of, I mean, Jesus
has called us to leave jobs. Drop your Nets.
Remember that one, drop your Nets and follow.
I'm not saying that you need to quit jobs, but some people are
and we're not even telling them to.
They're just like anytime I hear like, oh, they're going on base
team, they're quitting their job.
Like what? No, like who told them to do
that? And they're like, we just felt
like God said to do that. Like, OK, as long as it's the
Lord. I'm not, I mean, like we're not
telling people to quit their jobs.
But I want to say this, Jesus did, he said, drop your Nets and
follow me. And they did.
Sometimes that is going to be the case, especially if it's
long term, drop your Nets. It's worth it.
Some of you guys right now, even by hearing this, somebody just
maybe the Spirit of God is like that's you.
I want you to drop your notes. I want you to leave your
workplace. I don't want you to go.
I'm calling you to go to go to go where like where do you want
me to go? I will show you not only that,
but leaving homes, you leave your home.
Jaden Phil. I've, I've talked to them many
times in the last couple weeks. They're just going through
things. We're just praying.
We're talking through stuff and it's been great.
They're responding well. The churches seem to be doing
pretty good, but they're regularly counting that cost of
like, man, I left home at one point.
They're like, oh, like if John, if you just told me to come home
and work with the college ministry, we would do that in a
heartbeat, you know? But at the same time, we know
that's not what God's called us to.
We left home, we left jobs. You leave friends, you leave
family. You leave the comforts of
America. It's very comfortable here.
But do you know that God has called us as a country because
we're so equipped? We have bookstores, we have so
many resources. We have churches on pretty much
every block. I'm like, come on, we are called
to it. So, so is our partners in the
Uki mean they're made for it as well.
The soil is rich of missionaries.
So is Korea, so is Portugal. I mean Portugal, so is Brazil.
I mean, they're they're like the number one sending countries in
the world. I mean, just between the four of
us countries, we should, we should literally see Jesus come
back, right? I mean, let's go.
God's called us to this and I believe it, but it is costly and
we could be defeated through these things.
It all sorts of challenges come up.
I mean, language learning, you know, it, that's not hard.
That's not, it's, I mean, Jay just finished.
She doesn't speak fluently, just so you know, she just went
through the first round. But it was hard.
It was costly. I mean, leaving Phil at home to
be a stay at home dad for a, you know, a few hours and it was not
easy to do that. So they had to do a bunch of
different things and to learn the language.
Why are they learning the language?
So they can be effective in sharing the gospel with the
people that they love and they came to serve.
It's not easy. It's not I'm, I see it first
hand. I see, I watch it, I see, I
watch it first hand. I watched every step of the way.
It is not easy, but there's so much joy, so much blessing, so
much provision, so much fruit that comes from that.
Maybe that's you. Maybe someone's being called
even right now as we speak, even as you're listening, you know,
Tuesday afternoon on YouTube, somebody will go, somebody will
say yes. And he says, and, and I love
what the disciples said. They're like, all right, Jesus,
just let us know this. We've left everything for you.
We left moms and dads and houses and jobs and all these things
like what's in it for us? I mean, it was kind of like, and
Jesus said graciously, he's like, man, yes, you have left
all these things and you will receive a hundredfold in this
life and the life to come. You will be blessed.
I will make sure that if you say yes to me and give up all these
things, I will make sure that your life is blessed beyond
measure. He says if you let like if you
hold on to everything, you know, just holding on, controlling,
you'll lose your life. It's elusive.
I love this. It says here that, you know,
people will continue to reject Jesus.
This is also a hardship. People feel defeated on the
mission field and even on short term.
Short term, I hear it all the time.
We come back, people are like, why are we still here?
You know, people say that why are we still here?
Like what are we doing here? Can't seem to gain ground.
Every time we we, we try to share the gospel and somebody
seems to be somewhat interested and then two or three steps back
and it can feel like that. You know what Paul said in First
Thessalonians 218? He's like, we wanted to come to
you. I Paul more than once.
But what does it say? But Satan hindered us.
The enemy does hinder us. He doesn't have the last say, of
course. But if that's what makes
missions so challenging is we have an enemy who does not want
people to know the gospel and will throw at us sickness and
throw at us, defeat the feeling defeated.
And he would throw us all, everything possible to
discourage us, distract us so that we press the eject button
and go and don't see why, why God had sent us there in the 1st
place. And then #4 when we are
distracted and in many directions, our phones,
sometimes I just want to throw it across the room.
Anybody with me? Just like throw the thing across
the room, like I'm done with it. But yet you after you throw it
across the room, you hear it ringing, you have to pick it up.
So it's like right there might be something really important
like my mom telling me I can't, I shouldn't go on on mission.
So I don't know. No, just I'm kidding.
I love you, mom. You're amazing.
I I I know you care. OK, so but the media and the
news and the worldliness, it just takes her, it just takes
her attention away, doesn't it? Like constantly, like I watch
people being taken out. I see college students who are
so passionate, so hungry, so ready to go.
Like they're they're on campus, they're sharing the gospel.
And then something distracts them.
And it might be, maybe it is school, maybe not, I don't know.
You have to have discernment. That's why you need community.
You need the people of God to say, hey, let's pray about that.
Don't just assume something's distracting, right?
Like it could be your kids. They're not.
I mean, they're not just they're not distracting.
They're your kids. You should care for them.
Your wife is not just honey. Have I ever said you're
distracting? Maybe sometimes.
Yes, I have. I have said that I have, so I
admit it. I I right.
They're your family, your friends.
They're school. You need to go to school so you
get a job. Yes, that is a good thing.
Like you need a job, you need to pay the bills.
There's those things are not distracting and thinking in our
immaturity, we're like just just like I'm not going to class and
I'm just going to spend time with Jesus and whatever.
No, no, no, like in your busyness, whatever.
God's called you to just discern.
Lord, I don't want to be distracted.
Help me, help me to discern. I don't want to be taken out by
the enemy in this area. You know, sometimes, you know,
I'll challenge somebody and then they'll be like, man, I'm just,
you know, I just have no time. I've no time, I've no time.
And I'll challenge somebody. I'll be like, hey, you know,
I'll throw that challenge. I was like, what about this?
And they're like, man, because you challenged me, it made me
think maybe I do have two hours over here.
Maybe I do have an hour over here.
Maybe I have wasted my time on YouTube.
Maybe I have just and you just re evaluate your schedule and
your life because you got to make the most of every
opportunity because the days are evil and the date that Satan
wants to distract you from the things of God.
Right. OK, here we go.
We got to finish this thing when the enemy takes us out.
That's the last one. All right, the enemy takes us
out. Maybe that's through like bad
theology. Maybe you start, you know, I
heard a missionary one time. He worked in France, his family,
and they just met a lot of nice people.
They met a lot of nice, friendly people.
And they began to say something like, how can a loving God send
people to hell? And all of a sudden the enemy
started distracting them away from the Scriptures and they
just started falling trap and then believing lies.
And they said, you know what? I don't even know if I want to
be a missionary anymore. These are nice people.
What am I doing? Harassing them?
And then they go back to the United States and they're not
only taken out from being a missionary, they're taken out
from following Jesus. I know that person.
Sad, but it can happen. Not only that, but enticing
missionaries to moral, moral failure.
It's not just bad theology, but it's also just being gullible,
lack accountability. You, you neglect quiet times,
isolated, vulnerable. Do you know that they did some
survey and 100% there is like other reasons why people fail,
but 100% of the reason why missionaries get taken out or
pastors get taken out, number one reason and it was 100%.
The rest were like 80% here, 70% here.
Number one reason they neglected spending time with Jesus.
That's it. Did you spend time with God
yesterday? I just think about Saturday.
You're like, dude, I deserve a day off.
I don't want to do anything. I've worked all week.
You start buying into that lie. You've deserved something and
you'll find out by the end of the week you've royally screwed
up in every area and you're in danger.
You're in the danger line, the zone.
It's not good. That's crazy when you think
about it, 100% of people that come home will tell you like,
oh, why'd you come home? It's because I stopped spending
time with God. OK, we fear persecution,
sickness, maybe bureaucracy that just takes us out, you know,
like just, I can't handle all the laws of the land and just
too hard. I, I mean, I, we got a little
taste of that in the nation's right.
Maybe they were ordered not to preach Acts four and five says,
but they pressed in and they continued to preach the gospel
even though they were ordered to stop not not to preach anymore.
That is what God's called us to, to keep persevering, keep
pressing on no matter what. I want to, I'm going to give you
guys this. We're going to close here soon.
We're going to we're going to have people pray for the
nations, but in the last days and we've been in the last days
for the last 2000 years, OK. So I'm not like making a
statement that says, OK, this is it.
This is it, you know, but I'm just saying this is what the
Bible says happens in the last days.
I'm going to give you 7 lines that you can meditate on this
week, OK? So hopefully it'll motivate you
to want to share the Gospel because it says something really
interesting. And Matthew 2414 says this, that
remember that Joshua Project STATS 7000 people groups have
not heard. They estimate in the year 2033
that those groups of people will hear.
And that is the two thousandth anniversary of Jesus's death,
burial, resurrection, and the birth of the church.
That's in seven years. So I want you to listen to
something. I want you and it says this
gospel will be preached to all nations, all ethnic groups, all
people groups to 7000 people that are remaining, seven groups
that are remaining, not people, but seven groups that are
remaining. And then the end will come.
So you're like, well, I, I mean, I, I have nothing to do with the
incoming God only knows yes and no, yes, you do not know the
date. That's true.
But no, you're wrong in that if you continue to share the
gospel, especially to unreached places, you can usher in the
second coming of Jesus to your eyes.
Like, whoa, this is crazy. I didn't know I came to an end
times church. You didn't.
But this is in the Bible, So this is, let me give you #1 OK,
last days #1 so many levels of crisis.
Crisis and drama will arise. The enemy wants to wear you out.
Do you remember that passage? I think it's in Daniel the the
the enemy wears out the Saints. So there will be crisis after
crisis, drama after drama in the church in the church.
Like some of your leaders are like, Yep, I believe that one.
Some of your like, I don't want to hear that.
I'm so tired of like living from drama to drama.
Well, you don't need Netflix to do that.
You literally see that every day of your life in the church.
I'm not talking about the world, even in the church, in the
church #2 rumors of wars and the volume will be turned up and
drown out the important. So if we just like pay attention
all the, I mean they're how many know there's rumors of wars?
I mean, like now you see it, right?
It's true. Rumors are war and there will be
more and increasing more and more and more and it will always
feel like we're on the brink of World War three because that's
what it feels like to live in those times.
Jesus is saying towards the end of the gospel as he starts to
break this down and it will drown out the important, it will
make you focus, hyper focus on CNN or Fox News or whatever.
It'll help you focus on that. But don't be fooled.
Turn it off and say, Laura, what do you want me to be?
What do you want? What do you want to be the most
important in my life right now? Pray for the nations.
Go share the gospel. That's what's important #3 sin
will compound and increase. We've seen that happen.
Just seems like it just keeps getting worse and you hear more
horrendous things over and over, like just in the news or even in
your own life. Be careful of that.
The enemy wants to take you out by luring you into sin that will
destroy you #4 Life will be busy and people will be running all
over. But listen to this.
How will we reach a people that are too busy to believe?
How will we reach a people that are too busy to even hear us
because their world is so noisy #5 Knowledge will increase.
Full of facts on the Internet, right?
I mean, you can't not find something that you want to find.
And it's only going to get more, only going to get worse.
I, I guess you can say, or better.
I mean God can use that stuff, AI and all that, but it will
distract us again from the important.
Knowledge will increase, it says in the last days.
Does that not wake anybody up? Knowledge will increase.
We're watching it happen right before our eyes.
Guys, we're like in the midst of knowledge increasing like crazy,
but yet it's not important. Number six, many will fall away
and abandoned the faith. You will watch your friends,
even the person, perhaps even next to you, fall away from the
faith because it'll get so bad and so intense that people will
say it's not worth following Jesus anymore says this.
I'm not making this up. They will give up on God's
institutions like marriage. They already done that family,
the church, who needs it. People will say we don't need
marriage anymore. Marriage between a man and
woman, no problem. We don't need that.
We need more. We, we, we need to UN unhinge
ourselves from unstrap ourselves from this oppression or
whatever. You know, you hear.
And then same thing with the family, you know, and it was
funny. One of our kids, we're watching
some like something the other night and it's just like one of
those like shows that like I'm baking and you know, like, it's
one of those like, what do they call those like a reality TV
deal? All right, so we're watching
that. And it, it these shows have
gotten so bad because they're literally trying to put in your
face like, this is what family is.
This is what marriage is. This is what culture, this is
what, you know, just kind of in your face.
And we're like, we ain't falling for that in our house.
So we'll say it out loud. We're like, that's ridiculous.
Because you know, sometimes you're silent and you're like,
just, you know, like little ears are listening and watching and
like, no, that's not what a family is.
No, no, no, right. And so we're watching it and it
was so cool because like all the contestants and, and one of the
one of the kids said, that's my favorite.
And I'm like, why is that your favorite?
Because it's just so wholesome. They love they love their their
husband as a as a the wife was on the show, love their husband,
love their kids. They're praising their kids,
praising their husband. And it does it just warms you.
It's like that's the way God made it.
The presence of God is on the stage and they don't even know
it, but that's what's going to happen.
Just more and more that like you're going to, you're going to
see that because it's gotten so dark.
But the beautiful thing is, Isaiah 60 says it's going to get
dark, but as it gets darker, the lights going to shine brighter.
And you're like, you're going to pick out from all the darkness.
Yes, that's beautiful. That's good.
I want more of that because it's so rare.
And then #7 people will pursue personal preferences.
In other words, they'll leave this church to go find something
that will itch their ears. Guys, if you don't think I'm
kidding, I have literally watched that people like you
sitting in those maroon, purple, whatever the color they are,
chairs, they're kind of comforting, aren't they?
But I've watched people leave a good biblical church that will
not just tell you what you want to hear to leave so that they
will just find people to suit their needs.
Don't do that. But that's what's going to
happen in the last days. People get sick of hearing the
truth and they'll want to go find other places where people
just tell them what they want to hear.
So what should we do? We're going to keep the nation's
before us as much as we possibly can.
We're not going to we just we're going to do night for the
nations. You guys, just this week, if
you're born in your life group, just do a night in for the
nations. Just let's pray for the nations.
Put up maps, put up flags, whatever the cakes to get your
eyes off yourself to say this is what God's into right now in
this hour saving nations and then #2 ground us in the Word.
We need to remind ourselves over and over Jesus is the way, the
truth and the life. No one goes to heaven apart from
him. No one does.
And we have to remind ourselves of that often because we'll be
like that guy, that missionary that went to France and came
home. He left as a believer so-called,
and came home an unbeliever because he did not root himself
in the truth #3 building strong mission teams.
Do not go alone, never go alone, never go alone, always go with
somebody. Jesus always sent out two by two
number four, remember it is God's battle.
He is fighting for us. Exodus 1414.
We used to have that somewhere in our house that just reminder
like up on the wall like God fights for us.
Guys, this might like sometimes I don't know if this makes sense
to you, but like sometimes this is so overwhelming to think
about the nation's to think about how many people, 3.1
billion people, people dying like every second.
Like that is overwhelming. But what is not overwhelming?
What puts courage back in me as God is fighting this battle, he
is saving people and he wants to use us, which is crazy when you
think about that. Do you think David could have
fought the giant on his own? No, I mean, we, we look at that,
we look at that story and he's like, he slings the the rock at
the guy and he falls over. That is impossible, is
impossible. There's no way he could have
done that on his own strength. And just a reminder, we cannot
go in our own strength this summer, guys.
We cannot defeat giants in the land.
They are literally giants in the land.
You know what the giants are, Islam.
It's about to crumble before our eyes.
Hinduism, Buddhism, these are real giants.
These are real gods, small G that will be defeated and
everybody else who follows these gods.
But as we remain in Christ, it was remain in Him.
He will give us strength to defeat these giants.
It says in Second Chronicles 21 through 29, the battle is not
yours, but the Lord's. This is overwhelming.
He says Joseph, he's like, this is overwhelming.
I don't know what to do, but I'm going to keep my eyes on you.
And he fought that battle #5 remember, God is with us.
The Great Commission comes with the promise.
Matthew 2816. I will be with you to the very
end of age, right? 16 through 20.
He says that in all the Gospels. Acts 18, He's going to give us
strength, rely on his strength when we're weak.
When you go this summer, when you go this spring to awaken.
I mean, guys, we can't do this out of our own strength.
The guys from Baton Rouge I talked to this week, they have 6
people in their college ministry.
They're like, we need a breakthrough and you guys are
coming at the right time. You're bringing 150 people.
That's a little overwhelming, but we need a breakthrough.
And just to hear their leaders say, you know what, we don't
know what to do, but we're believing for a breakthrough.
And we thank you because they're like, I don't know why a people
from Orlando would want to come to the to Baton Rouge, LA, but
you guys are coming. And it's so encouraging.
Our whole staff is so encouraged.
We can't wait. Jesse's parents are flying out.
That's amazing. Like they're flying out to do
what? To do what they do best, cook.
It's amazing. I mean incredible.
They don't even go to our church.
We got people that go to our church are still not serving and
they don't even go to our church.
Not good. That's amazing because why?
Because they love their daughter, Yes.
And their new grandson and maybe their daughter-in-law.
I'm just, I'm just kidding. Sorry, Lori.
All right, They love you, but they're coming to.
They love the church and they're doing what they know how to what
to do on mission. We're called to pray, give, go.
Sometimes all three, sometimes one.
I think the default is go, by the way, that's what I see here.
All right, All right. So I'm going to, I'm going to
have the band come up and we're going to, we're going to do
something a little different. We're going to have people pray
for the nations in their own native tongue.
We got a few people that do that.
I think we're going to pray in Korean this morning.
Chinese, I think. Right.
OK, awesome. I'm going to interpret that.
What else we got? We got Portuguese, Portuguese,
Italian and Spanish. Can't forget Spanish, and I
don't know if we got anything out.
Anybody else. We got Dutch.
We could do Dutch, I suppose, if she's here.
But OK. SO11.
Last thing here the church is always reproduced itself, you
understand that, right? Is always gone to places it has
not ever gone before. In 8042, Mark went to Egypt.
Mark, writer of the gospel, went to Egypt.
Paul went to Turkey, Thomas to India, 174 to 280.
They went to northern Italy, where we're going, and Austria.
Let's see it again. Lord, come on. 4/30 they went to
Ireland, 600 to England, 635 to China, then 740 they went to
Iceland, 900 to Norway. Then in 1200 AD the Bible is
available now available in 22 different languages in 1500.
Then they went made their way into Kenya 1544 they were the
first believers about 1500 them in Thailand in 1722 the
Moravians if you guys know under Zinsendorf in Germany.
He, he looks at this painting and he, he's just a kid.
He's I think he's a teenager if I remember early 20s and he
looks at this painting and this painting is Jesus.
He's all bloodied up. He's hanging on the cross.
He's like, this is what I do for you.
What now will you do for me? Wrecked him.
It wrecked him. He's like, man, I got to give my
life. So he spent the 1700s of just
radically like going, sending hundreds of people all around
the world. They, these Moravians were
absolutely crazy. They sold themselves into
slavery in the West Indies, like where we go and take cruises.
These people decided to come from Europe to sell themselves
into slavery in order to reach these people.
That's amazing. All this I do for you, he says.
What will you do for me? And then the 17 hundreds, 1800s
this these people, the Moravians influenced Wesley Whitfield and
Edwards and the church planning began all over the Northeast and
then spread through the United States and to the South.
And in 1923 Highland Baptist in Waco, TX was birthed.
And then in 1986 Jimmy started tonight named Jimmy started a
training school and it turned into Antioch in 1999.
And then in 1999, they just started to plant churches.
They planted a church in the northeast.
And then this church was planted in 2004 in a place called
Wheaton, IL in 2004. And then in 2011, we're asked to
plant this church in Orlando, taking over 40 plus short term
trips now one long term trip to Japan over the last 14 years.
And in 2019, we plant Kyoto. And then in 2026, they decided
to go to Southeast Asia for their first scouting trip and
plant this summer. The church has always gone to
places, always gone to places where it has not gone before.
We're committed to that. We're committed to that.
To go, to pray, to give. Is this our vision?
No, it's not our vision. I didn't come up with this
stuff. He did.
Jesus lay down your Nets. Go make disciples.
I'm with you to the very end of age.
I'm with you. You guys can be a part of this.
This is amazing. Like do it.
Please be a part of this. Let go.
Just what are you living for? I mean this you're seeing
literally rockets go off in the Middle East.
People are dying. Like you never know when the
last day you don't know you don't know and it's not to scare
people in the mission. Jesus never scared anybody into
mission. He calls people in the mission.
He's calling every single one of you to go to mission.
He's calling every single one of you to be a part of this this
summer, this spring. Go.
There's still a few more slots left to Baton Rouge.
If you're a college student, just go.
What have you had to lose? Cole was on his way, you know,
you know Cole. Where's Cole at?
There he is. He was on his way just to go get
drunk, to go hang out with girls, go get on a just a beach
somewhere and just literally destroy his life.
And someone just said, hey, I think you should come to awaken
with us. Where's that at?
What's awakened? It's in Miami.
Miami. This is like a few hours from
us. Why'd it go there?
All right, fine, I'll go. He's literally never been the
same. Never been the same.
What did he do yesterday? He just gave his life to just
pouring into young students and wrestling.
There's a guy now reading the Bible for the first time.
He's sharing the gospel. He's doing what he's called to
do. What are you called?
Where are you called to go? Where's God calling you?
What's he doing? It was Ricky that was, I don't
know, a number of years back, and John Evans, where we used to
meet there before it maxed out. He was up at the front.
We just had a similar service like this early on.
It was, I don't know, probably 201516, something like that.
We're ready to go to Belgium and meet the, the needs of the
crisis, the European crisis when people were coming from Syria,
from Turkey, from all over. And they were, they called it
the, the graveyard, like the mission, the, the, the life
jacket graveyard. I mean, literally like people
got off the boats from from the Middle East and they're headed
to Greece and they just threw their life jacket.
Many people died, but they, they, they threw their life
jacket there and they started a new life.
And these people came and they've never heard of Jesus.
And we just took a team of 20 there.
Cole was on that, Michaela was on that.
Many of you guys were there. And we just got to go from 9:50.
And I remember like Cole was just like, hey, I want to, I, I,
I want to still forget this. Like he's like, I, these people
have never have no grid of Jesus, no grid of Christianity.
He's like, hey, I really feel like we need to wash your feet.
These Middle Eastern guys in a tent in France and he's they're
washing this guy's feet and the guy just is touched by that
because Jesus says, I give you an example.
You do the same. You go and serve the nations and
the nations will come running and obey because I put glory on.
Set your alarm for 555. Let's go.
Let's pray for the nations.