And then today you won't, I'm not going to teach Billy
Killian's going to be teaching. And I mangle his last name.
So Billy K and so Billy and me have known each other for since
I got saved in 2001 or shortly thereafter.
He started doing missions to India in 2006, short term
missions back and forth. He, I told you a couple weeks
ago about him doing the telephone ministry or the cell
phone ministry, that he was literally leading evangelical,
evangelical conferences from around the world because it was
just on the phone and guys were translating and people were
getting saved that way. So that was a then he went full
time missions. He went full time to Hawaii in
2015 to run the School of School of Evangelism.
And he's been all over the world teaching on that since.
He's now going to be the, I don't know if it's the he's
going to be the teacher or the he's going to run the Calvary
Training Center as their missions director.
And I'm going to let him tell you about himself.
But that's what I know about him.
Really good guy, enjoy him a lot.
I'm looking forward to what he has to say today.
Come on up. Well.
Thanks. Thanks for that introduction.
I'll give you a brief little bit more information I got.
Let's see, I was born at a very young age.
You've heard that one before. Yeah.
It's really dumb. Yeah, I was.
I got saved in 1996 in Northern Michigan where I was raised and
moved to Washington very shortly thereafter and just got
discipled and trained by some guys.
As soon as I got saved, man, I was telling everybody about
Jesus. I just wanted everybody to know.
I was so blown away that God would forgive me of all of my
junk. Like I didn't deserve any of
that and I wanted everybody to know.
So I was telling, I was taking my buddies that were drinking
buddies the weekend before and now they also had a drug problem
because they got drug to church and they were, you know, I was
taking everybody to tell them about the Lord and stuff.
And how should I say? You know, I've, I've been
involved in evangelistic stuff for a long time, since the 90s,
right? Since way back in the 1900s,
kids. Yeah.
I'm ancient way back when, you know, Mount Hood was just being
formed. Yeah.
So I've, I've been doing evangelism for a long time.
My first overseas mission was 2000, and it was either six or
seven. Went to India and fell in love
with missions going around the world and preaching the gospel
to people who had never had opportunity to hear and OK, I am
up OK good so after that I went back to India every year from
Calvary Chapel tri-cities. We took teams at least 10 times
and been I've known Nick and Faye for a real long time and
let's see we joined youth with a mission 2015.
So when he says I went to Hawaii to lead School of Evangelism,
there's a School of Evangelism in Honolulu where people come
and get training and then we release them all over the world.
And we've released many long term workers into nations pretty
much all over the world, which has been really fulfilling.
Well, in the last year and a half, Steve Winery and I have
been talking about what if we took everything we do in youth
with a mission, running these missions and evangelism schools
and brought it into the Calvary Chapel family and just run it
Calvary style. So it's not a why Wham thing,
it's Calvary ministry. And we can offer that to all of
our Calvary churches because I don't know if you know this, but
around the world, there's something right around 2000
Calvary Chapel ministries around the world.
And we got great Bible schools, like a Bible college if you want
to learn how to study the Bible and preach and teach the Bible.
And there's two that I know of mission schools, but they, I
really, I'm not familiar with how their whole program works.
And so we just have, there's a need for it.
So we're introducing that this fall in Calvary, tri-cities.
And I'll tell you a little bit more about that later.
But so now you have a little history of who I am and what I'm
about. So I'm an ordained Calvary guy,
joined missions though, instead of just being a pastor.
And, and that's what we're really all about.
My wife and I, we have 6 kids, one of each.
And that's funny, stupid, dumb jokes.
I know there's more where those came from.
So we've got six kids and we live in Honolulu at the moment,
be back in Washington here probably by July.
But I don't have a picture of my family.
I should have done that. Yeah, none of them could come on
this trip because while I'm on the mainland, my family is.
We have family visiting, so my wife is out shopping and
spending all the money. So, yeah, it's expensive for me
to do a trip, but it's more expensive to leave her when I'm
on a trip. I'm just kidding, OK?
She's great. She's actually very frugal.
I love my wife. She's she's a saver.
OK, so this morning we're going to be in the book of Ephesians,
specifically focusing in on chapter 1, verses 15 to 19.
And this is part of one of the prayers of the Apostle Paul for
the church. OK, So as you're turning in your
Bibles, I will pray. So Father, we thank you that we
have the word of God in our hands and that great missionary,
the Apostle Paul, who went around planting churches, saving
souls and great works of God. You used him so mightily to
write to the churches then. And for thousands of years your
people have been blessed by how the Holy Spirit penned those
words long ago. And this morning I pray that you
bring them to life for us in Jesus name, Amen.
Amen. So in case he didn't know, these
Paul prays for people and these are the prayers of the apostle
Paul that you find in your New Testament.
OK, So different books of the Bible, these are the different
spots where he says I'm praying for you and he tells them what
he prays for them. So that's pretty neat, right?
So imagine if you got a letter from your pastor that just told
you, hey, I've been praying for you that God would do this in
your life. How encouraging that would be to
you as a believer, right? And so we have those things
recorded and these are prayers of the apostle Paul and I, I
give you that illustration there just so that you understand the
importance of prayer. And if you want to be a leader,
leaders should be bathing not just themselves, but their
ministries and the people they lead in prayer.
If you want to be involved in any type of ministry, you need
to pray about it and not just pray about should I do this but
even in the midst of it all the way through God, I need your
spirit to empower me to do this. God, would you bless people?
Would you minister to the people right, Amen.
OK, so let's get into this passage.
Ephesians 115 to 17. If you don't have your Bible you
can read on the screen. He says this.
Therefore, I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus
and your love for all the Saints, do not cease to give
thanks for you. Making mention of you in my
prayers. Isn't that great?
I don't cease to give thanks for you, but I make mention of you
in my prayers. And this is what he prays, that
the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may
give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge
of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened,
that you may know. What is the hope of His calling?
What are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the
Saints? And what is the exceeding
greatness of His power towards us who believe which He worked
in Christ Jesus when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him
at His right hand in the heavenly places?
Far above all principality and power and might and dominion,
and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also
that which is to come. So I really want to focus in
here on these two verses, 18 and 19, and there's four points
we're going to go over this morning that Paul lays out here
for us. What does he say?
That the eyes of your understanding may be
enlightened. The second is that you may know
the hope of His calling. The third is to understand what
are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the Saints?
And the fourth, what is the exceeding greatness of His power
towards us who believe? So First off, Ephesians 118, the
eyes of your understanding being enlightened, how many of you
guys have sang the song Open the Eyes of My Heart, Lord, right?
We've sang that song and you think, what do you mean?
I don't have eyes in there, right?
There's what we can see with our natural eyes, and then there are
things that we see spiritually. There are things you can see in
the natural all around you, and then there are the things that
God wants you to see, seeing the world and everything in it
through the lens of a biblical worldview, right?
How many people hold to a biblical worldview these days?
There's people who profess that they do, but how many people
actually live like they believe and hold to a biblical worldview
in the days that we live? Barna just did a recent poll and
found that among millennials and Gen.
Z, this is already five years old information.
But among millennials and Gen. Z, who wants to take a guess how
many of them hold to a biblical worldview?
And by the way, this is in the church.
This is in the Christian Church, not just in America as a whole,
but in the church people who profess the name of Jesus.
How many people hold to a biblical worldview?
6% of millennials in Gen. Z And we live in a day and age
where you have people who might call themselves sexual atheists,
that is. Hey, when it comes to everything
else, yeah, I believe that, you know, it's a saying to cheat on
my taxes. It's a city, and I have a
biblical worldview. But when it comes to sexuality,
that's off limits. That's, that's mine.
We have a young generation that's being raised and trained
and taught to believe, not just in the schools, but every bit of
content they're consuming on television and social media is
telling them that there are no foundations of truth anymore and
eroding the foundations of even to the point where you can't
tell who's a boy and a girl anymore, right?
And there are things that are true.
There are things that are right. There is absolute truth.
Absolutely. If I can say it that way and you
know what's what's happened, though, this is what I've found.
I, I work with young people all the time.
And what I've found is because of this erosion of things like
basic knowledge, we all know there's such a thing as a boy
and a girl. Everybody knows that.
But you're being told not to believe that, right?
And so many other things you can see with your eyes, but you're
being told to think something else that there's, there's no
not necessarily any absolute or foundational truths.
What it's left is a vacuum for truth.
And there's a hunger in our young generation for people who
will just stand up and say it like it is, People who have the
conviction to say this is true. Why do you think people like
Jordan Peterson and Joe Rogan, they're not even Christian
people, but they're so popular among young people.
You know why? Because they say it like it is.
And they tell the truth unapologetically.
And it's a magnet for people because everyone else is just
like, oh, there's no such thing. You know, I can't tell.
So what am I trying to get out here?
What I'm trying to say is there's a way of looking at
things in the natural, and then there's a way of things that
looking in the spiritual. There's things that the world
wants you to see. There's things that you can see
with your natural eyes. And then there's the things that
God wants you and I to see. Revelation chapter 3 in verse 8,
Jesus tells the Laodicean church, He says you have a name
that you can see, but you really don't.
You actually are blind. You think you can see, but
you're miserable and naked and blind.
But he says this in verse 18 of Revelation chapter 3.
He says I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire
so that you may be rich and white garments so that you may
clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen
and salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see.
When Jesus was on the earth and he he was sharing simple truths
with people and they were so confused.
I don't know about you, but before I was saved, I'd read the
Bible and I'd say, what is he talking about fishing and
farming? And it's like, what does that
have to do with anything? What I'm trying to figure out is
how to get right with God and he's telling me about this stuff
and he says Matthew 1313. He says seeing they may see,
hearing, they may not hear nor do they understand.
Why is that? It's because the natural man
does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, neither can
he know them because they're spiritually understood.
If we were out on the street over here and a blind person was
walking along and tripped on the curb, we wouldn't say get up,
you idiot. What'd you do that for?
You would never do that, would you?
Because they cannot see. And when we're dealing with a
world that's blind, I know it's frustrating to see people
eroding foundations of truth and morality all around us.
And we just, it's agonizing that that's happening to our nation
and to the whole world, really. But they cannot see, friends.
A blind person cannot see. Can we have compassion on them?
Instead of seeing the world merely as political foes we need
to defeat at the ballot box, could I see them as lost sheep
without a shepherd who can't see like like God says of the
Ninevites after he delivered that great city and Jonah, he's
all ticked off. He's like, I knew you were going
to save these people. I knew if they repented, you
would forgive them. And God says, shouldn't I care
for these people? There's 120,000 people who don't
know their right hand from their left.
That's how God saw them. He had compassion on that big
city. And by the way, these were vile
people. They were, if you read into the
history of the Ninevites, who were they and what did they do?
They were like ISIS. These people were vicious, and
that's why, you know, Jonah, he didn't want to go because he
knew God would forgive him. He's like, no, I want them to
get judged. And God says, shouldn't I have
compassion on this city? And Jesus looked on the
multitudes that had compassion on them.
Can you and I do the same thing when we're living our daily
lives and you go to the grocery store?
Is it just a line of people in front of you?
When it's really busy times of skiing or beaching in the
summers around here in Sandpoint and the traffic, you know how it
gets right? Now, Do you just see a bunch of
annoying pests in your way, right?
Or now when you think about maybe I should share the gospel,
Elizabeth, like, well, I can't do that, I'm so busy.
Are people an inconvenience to your day or do we see them like
God sees them? People with infinite value and
worth, worth more than all the gold in the world, right In Luke
chapter 24, Jesus, after he had resurrected from the dead, he
was walking with two guys on the way to Emmaus and they didn't
know who he was, even though it was Jesus and they were talking
about Jesus and they didn't even know it was him that was walking
with him. Afterwards, he he sat down to
eat with them and it says he opened their eyes and when they
had their eyes open, then they saw him for who he really was.
The same thing happened a few verses later in the same
chapter. He appears to the disciples in
the upper room because they were, you know, feeling
defeated. There's the Messiah was gone and
when he appeared to them, they're like, it's a ghost.
They're freaking out. But he says don't worry, touch
my hands and feet. It's really me.
He sits down and eats with them and it says in verse 45, he
opened their minds so they could understand the scriptures.
And what we need to have is a revelation from God for each of
us so that the eyes of our understanding can be
enlightened. There are things you can
definitely see in the natural, but there's things that God
wants you to see. So actually in verse 17, if you
still have your Bible open of the same passage, see here in
verse 17, what we just read that God would give us the spirit of
wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him.
You know, Jesus asked the disciples once, who do men say
that I am? And they said, well, some say
you're Elijah, some say a prophet and some say you're John
the Baptist risen from the dead. And he says, but who do you say
that I am? And you remember Peter says
you're the Christ, the Son of the living God.
And Jesus says to him, blessed are you Simon, son of Barjona,
flesh and blood did not reveal this to you.
But my father who's in heaven. See the revelation even of who
Jesus is is God-given. We can read about him, but the
the full revelation of who he is is God-given.
And So what I'm trying to get at is all of us need to have our
spiritual eyes opened by the Father, by the Holy Spirit.
And so if I want to see this world through the lens of a
biblical worldview, then I need to ask God for it.
Not just for my behavior sake so that I don't cheat on my taxes
and what else other things and behave sexually and all that,
but also so that I can see the people in it with compassion and
not feel like I'm always contending with them or not
caring about them or, or lacking compassion, but that I would
always see them the way Jesus does.
Paul says this in 2nd Corinthians 4 verse 16 to 18.
This is right after he lists all the different things he had
endured and he says, I've been pressed down.
I've been, you know, I've been imprisoned and he's, he's, he
lists all these different things.
He's been through difficulties and he says this about it.
He says, therefore we don't lose heart, even though our outward
man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day.
Yes, the outward man is perishing, right.
We all know that. And there's people who are very
young in our crowd this morning whose bodies are like, fit as a
fiddle. You can eat anything you want,
and it doesn't show up here. And then there's others of us,
and we've lost our hair. And, you know, our bodies are
continually falling apart just physically.
And on the outside. We can be, you know, oppressed
in all kinds of a ways. And Paul says the outward man,
yes, is perishing, but the inward man, this inner me is
being renewed day by day, every day, right.
And he says this in verse 17 for our light affliction, which is
but for a moment is working for us a far more exceeding and
eternal weight of glory. You know, those people who are
like, everything's working against me.
Oh the devil, he's trying to get me.
Oh, are those people at the bank, they hit me with these
overdraft fees or the police, they pulled me over.
They're just trying to find someone to give it.
And it's like all the time, everything's working against me.
Everything in their life working against them.
Paul didn't see his problems that way.
And his problems were far greater than yours, by the way.
And he says our light affliction, which is but for a
moment, OK, So that's how he viewed it, temporary, But he
says this, it's working for us. My problems are working for me.
Why? Because if God is allowing this
thing in my life, like I prayed about it and God hasn't
delivered me and he's allowing it in my life, then certainly
God must be doing something greater than the trial in me.
And that's what Paul says. He says it's working for us a
far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.
We don't look at the things which are seen, but at the
things which are unseen. For the things which are seen
are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.
God give us those eyes that we could see not just our life and
all the things in it through the lens of a biblical worldview,
but as I am sojourning in this world as a representative agent
of God to this world, how can I have my heavenly eyes opened?
You know the the expression, oh, that guy, he just sees
everything through those rose colored glasses.
You know that expression because they always look on the bright
side of everything. You've heard it.
I want to be the person who has these eternal glasses somehow,
if I could use the word that I look at everything through the
lens of its eternal value. Amen.
Save ourselves a lot of pain in this life by having that
perspective. The second thing he says is that
we would know the hope of His calling.
OK, So yes, He wants our spiritual eyes under open so we
could have spiritual understanding, but he wants us
to know the hope of His calling. So what's the calling of God on
your life, on this church, for your community?
What's the hope of His calling when the Bible uses this word?
Hope. It's not like when we say I I
hope I win the lottery because we don't know if it's going to
happen. It's like you're anxiously
hoping that it might happen. But the hope in the Bible is
that the literal translation is a confident expectation.
When I know that God has promised it, I am confidently
expecting it. When I was first interested in
marrying my wife, we were dating and I was like, this is the girl
for me. I hope that this happens.
When I asked her to marry me and she said yes, I was like, yes,
praise God, we actually eloped. I couldn't wait for the wedding.
I was took it right down to the courthouse.
We did it up. I didn't want her to change her
mind. I'm just kidding.
The the wedding plans weren't going so good.
So we just said, forget it. We got married, but I moved past
the realm of I hope she says yes into the realm of once that ring
is on her finger. Now there's a confident
expectation this is happening, right?
It's going to happen in so many other areas of our life.
We have hope where we have a faith that we're believing for
something, but it's also a confident expectation when it
comes to the things of God. I know he's going to keep his
word in my life. And that's what God is trying to
have. What he's trying to explain to
us is the the, what faith ought to be like.
So there's an example in the in the life of Abraham.
And in Romans chapter 4, he's talking about Abraham.
And he says this because Abraham was given a promise too, that
he's going to have a son. And he says, how's this going
to, how's this going to happen? I'm an old man, my wife's too
old. Scientifically, this isn't
happening right now. He had questions, but he did
have faith. He trusted, he believed God.
But it says this about him in verse 20 of chapter 4 of Romans,
it says this. He did not waver through
unbelief regarding the promise of God, but he was strong in his
faith, giving glory to God, being fully persuaded that what
God had promised, he was able also to perform.
He was fully persuaded that what God promised him, he was able
also to perform. It sounds crazy.
You're going to have a child in your old age, but he believed
him and so he became the father of faith.
So when God says he has a calling on my life and yours, do
we believe it? In this same chapter of
Ephesians chapter 1, if you if you have it in your Bible open
look at verse 13 and 14. He says this in whom you also
trusted. Obviously talking about Jesus
after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your
salvation in whom also having believed you were sealed with
the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our
inheritance until the redemption of the purchase possession to
the praise of his glory. He's using the language there of
like a down payment. Anybody ever buy a house and you
have to put a down payment. I used to build houses for a
living before missions, and when somebody would come into our
office and want a particular lot and a floor plan, we would get
earnest money from them, which is down payment.
You'd give your earnest money. That's the guarantee.
So if I'm going to go out on a limb and build this $300,000
home back then you could buy one that cheap.
If I'm going to go out on a limb and build this $300,000 home,
then that earnest money is the guarantee.
You're going to come in at the end and fulfill your obligation
to buy it, right? And the what?
Or if maybe if you bought a car, the bank wants a down payment so
they know that's like a guarantee you're going to
continue to make those payments and pay that loan off.
Well, the Bible uses this language about the Holy Spirit.
Listen to this again. In whom also having believed you
were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, Who is the
guarantee? The Holy Spirit is the guarantee
of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased
possession. You are the purchased possession
that's going to be fully redeemed when you eventually get
to be with the Lord in person, right to the praise of His
glory. So when people ask me stuff
like, Billy, why, why are you all fired up all the time?
Do you just like get in the mirror in the morning and be
like, come on, man, we're going to do it today.
You're going to be awesome. I don't have to do any of that.
Like before a football game and everybody's in the locker room
like pumping each other up. It's not hype.
It's a real confident expectation of faith in the
promises of God. I really believe that he's
forgiven all of my sins. I absolutely know I have eternal
life. And because of that, it gives me
a joy. It gives me a physical energy.
You know what the secret is to having a life of maintained joy
in your Christian walk? It's just focusing on the fact
that your name is written in heaven.
That's what Jesus told the disciples in Luke chapter 10.
They had just come back from casting out demons and stuff.
They were all fired up. They said even the demons are
subject to us in your name. And Jesus says, I saw Satan fall
like lightning from heaven, and I've given you authority to
trample on serpents and scorpions and over all the power
of the enemy. Nothing will by any means hurt
you. What a promise, right?
But then he says, nevertheless, do not rejoice in this that the
spirits are subject to you, but rejoice because your names are
written in heaven. See if my if my joy is a
Christian or your joy is a Christian is in the fact that
life is sweet, things are going good, bills are paid.
You know my health feels I'm feeling good, then you're going
to lose your joy when things go bad.
But if your joy is a Christian, is first founded in the fact
that your name is there, you have eternal life, then you're
going to maintain a peace that passes all human understanding
and a joy in the Lord even in the midst of life's most
difficult and even grievous situations.
You can stand over the grave of a friend, a loved one, and still
know this is not the end. You can have tears coming down,
real grief, and still maintain peace in your heart and even a
joy that the world can a comprehend, right?
Because we know the hope of Our Calling.
We have this confident expectation of God's ultimate
call that we're going to be home with Him.
All the promises of God are yes and Amen in Christ.
So what's His calling on your life specifically?
Many people have never even considered that I'm just going
to kind of live my life and pay my bills and acquire property,
shoot deer, shoot pheasants, catch fish, marry a nice lady.
We have some kids, reproduce, and hopefully they grew up to be
upstanding citizens. A lot of people just have that
mentality. This is what God called me to.
But what if God had other things in mind for your life as well, a
spiritual calling on your life in the midst of all that, I'd
say pursue all that. Yeah, that's like the American
dream. Go for it.
But in the midst of it, what if God had other things he wanted
for you to accomplish for his Kingdom purposes?
If you were musically talented and you said, you know, I really
love that acapella. She crushed it this morning.
That was beautiful. But I can play the guitar.
I can help you. Or I can play that keyboard.
I can help you. You guys need help standing out
front just handing out Flyers or putting stuff at the shopping
malls or if you have a shopping mall here, wherever it would be
to tell people about bridges. You know Ephesians 210 says this
about you. Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 10
God says this about you. We are His handiwork, created in
Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared in advance
for us to walk in them. You are God's creation, created
in Christ Jesus for good works which he prepared in advance for
you to walk in them. Guys, that speaks of a destiny
about your life, like a purpose that God actually has for you.
There is a call on every single person in this room.
Yeah, there's a call in your life.
In the natural. We can seek God for direction.
Should I buy this house? Should I move to this area?
Should I come and pastor a church in Sandpoint?
Right, And we can hear God and, and, and obey him in those
directions. But a lot of Christians that I
meet haven't done that because, well, first of all, we don't
want to be presumptuous. I'm special, God, what do you
have for me? We don't want to be that person,
right? Nobody.
Well, some people might want that, but we don't.
We want to be people who walk in humility.
And so there's this resistance to be presumptuous.
On the other hand, can we take God at His Word and believe that
you've created me for something special?
It may not look like anybody else's.
I don't have to try to be Billy Graham or Greg Laurie.
I can just be who I am in Christ, and so can you.
You don't have to try to mimic someone else.
You can say, God, what have you created me for?
So we all end up somewhere in life, but very few people end up
there on purpose. It's true, a lot of people just
live there without any vision for 5 or 10 or 15 years in the
future. We make those plans with our
money. Yes, we have 4 O1 KS and Iras
and those kind of plans, but what if we had a faith goal?
My God, I want to serve you. I think this year I could just
maybe evangelize once a month or lead one person to Christ this
year or maybe and have a faith goal.
God, I want to read to the whole Bible this year.
I'm going to get one of those Bible reading calendars.
I'm going to do it. Simple things that will build
your spiritual life. This is the other thing.
Why people don't pursue it is because they feel like they blew
it, like you missed God's perfect will.
It's too late for me, you know, now I'm married and I have kids
and what am I supposed to do? I'm a very busy mom or I'm a,
I'm married and my wife has kids and now I have to work my tail
off to support those kids. We have these ideas of like, you
know, I, I thought I might have had a vision from God.
You know, I joined missions with five kids.
We had a kid while on the mission field.
And a lot of people think you can't go and do missions if you
have a family. How could you do that?
If you're hearing from God and God is directing your life, you
can walk in perfect obedience. And some people think they've
disqualified themselves because of either neglect or even a sin
in their life. In Romans 11/29, it tells us
that the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.
I've always read like about Samson and thank God.
Why did you still give this guy strength even in the midst of
all of his stupid moves and sin and all that?
The gifts and calling of God are irrevocable.
And some of you might need to hear that today.
You felt like God called you to something before, but, well, I
missed it. You didn't miss it.
Here we have these really cool things on our phone these days.
We didn't used to have this, but Maps.
I used Maps to get here this morning.
And you guys use Maps. Or if you're on the dark side of
the forest and you have Google Maps and you're using a Droid,
Droid is the dark side of the fork.
It is a Star Wars joke. Told you there was more coming.
The Maps app on your phone. If you've ever like gone
somewhere and I'm driving, I'm talking to my wife, or maybe I'm
daydreaming and I get distracted, I miss a turn.
What does Maps do? Reroute, recalculate.
No big deal. If I get distracted a second
time and miss it or if I say technology is stupid, I know
where I'm going. I tried to go off and I'm way
off in the weeds somewhere. Or I stop at a gas station.
Maps just reroutes. It doesn't get frustrated and
say, you bonehead, I'm done with you and you know, call me back
when you're ready to follow my It doesn't do any of that.
But Maps just reroutes. It still knows, no matter how
far I go over here, how to get me to there.
And in your life, you may have gone off of God's perfect plan.
I mean, everybody has through sin, right?
Until you get saved, everybody's gone way off of God's perfect
intention for their life. But even as a child of God, you
may have strayed off of God's perfect plan for your life
through decisions you've made, even decisions someone else has
made that impacted you may have derailed the perfect plan.
But God still knows how to take you from where you are to where
He wants you to be. At any time in your life, you
can come back into alignment with God's perfect will and say,
OK, God, I may have neglected your call before, but I'm ready
now. I'm sorry, if will you forgive
me? And he's not a petty father.
Oh, you're on probation for six months, and then we'll see if
you really mean it this time. He doesn't do that to us, does
he? God's a good dad.
But the gifts and the calling of God, they're irrevocable.
And you know, guys, you know this.
You are alive for a reason. I used to think that I was
special, you know, when I was young growing up, like, I just
had a sense of like my life is made for more than just the
status quo. But the more that I've talked to
other people and the more I travel literally all around this
world, I'm not alone in that. Everybody has this sense of I
was made for more than just to be living out a life of other
people's expectations and the weary grind of just the status
quo and the ordinary. I was made for more than this,
and you know that about your life.
Why do I, why am I so confident in saying that?
Because it tells me in Ephesians 210 you were created in Christ
for good works which God prepared in advance for you to
walk in them. And all you have to do is
discover what they are. You can know the hope of God's
calling for your life. There's things people pursue in
this world, earthly riches. They give this illusion and
Jesus called it deception, that he called it the deceitfulness
of riches. Choke the word and make it
unfruitful in your life. If you want to pursue the world
and the riches of the world, it will literally choke God's word
and the fruitfulness he wants to bear in your life.
But our, our culture says no, no, no, actually you can.
You can, you can serve God in mammon.
It's actually a sign of God's blessing on your life with your
economic prosperity. And sometimes God blesses us.
There's no question but the heart.
If your heart is to pursue wealth and riches, it will choke
the word of God in your life and make you unfruitful.
We live right now in the wealthiest generation in all of
human history. No question.
We have so much at our fingertips.
All the information the world has ever known is at your
fingertips right now. And now with the advancements of
AI, you can ask it anything and get answers to things way
smarter than you are. You know, it's crazy, but we
have medical advancements. The world has never known food.
I mean, just our health. Even though we have all those
advancements, we're like the unhealthiest generation probably
the world has ever seen. We're the most connected
generation in history with all of our social medias and
everything. And yet why are we still?
We might be the wealthiest, but we're the most unfulfilled.
We might have the most access to healthcare, but we're the most
unhealthy. We might have the most access to
connection to other people, but we're the loneliest generation.
Why? Because those things will never
fulfill your life. It's the pursuit of all that
earthly stuff that people think. The money, the position, the
popularity, the power, all those things the world seeks after and
thinks if only if I get that, then I'll be satisfied.
And I've done it, guys. I've chased that stuff and found
it all empty. I was at the top.
Nick knows I was at the top of the ladder.
I built a brand new house every couple years.
We had to lay all of that down to pursue missions because I
know I can't pursue both at once.
I can't do it. And ultimately they, it's always
been the lie of the devil that you're going to find purpose,
fulfillment and meaning in your life through material things.
Solomon found out, just read the book of Ecclesiastes and you'll
see he got all of it. And he said it's vanity.
It's chasing after the wind. You ever tried to chase the
wind? I did this when I was a kid.
I had a cardboard box and it was windy and I was like, I'm
catching it. I tried this and I was out in
the yard on a windy day and I tried like 5 times and I'd open
the box. Guess what came out?
Nothing. And that's what your life will
be like. If you want to chase those
things, you will chase and chase and chase.
And even if you climb the pinnacle of success at the end
of your life, you'll open it up. There's nothing.
What if you got to the end of your life and you stood before
God and you chased everything that this world has to offer and
you found out that you succeeded in the things that mattered the
least. You may have had some temporary
success, but there were other things.
God called you in your life. He had a purpose for you.
He had a destiny. He had a calling on your life,
and instead you chased everything the world had to
offer. You succeeded in the things that
mattered the least. That would be more.
That's so tragic to have that be our lives, and I don't want it
to be mine. It's been said poor people chase
money. It's true, right?
Rich people chase things, getting more, having things.
Wealthy people, people who have it all chase purpose.
They want meaning. And I sat down with a guy, his
friend of mine's name is Chris. He's a venture capitalist, has
hundreds of millions of dollars and he said Billy the rich are
the loneliest people in the world.
We were in San Diego in a very just like what you see in the
movies with all these private clubs where all the millionaires
and billionaires go with their kids and play tennis and they're
all, it was real fancy. So he took me to lunch there and
he wasn't trying to show off. We were talking about how to how
to raise money for one of our youth with a mission campuses.
We had a big campaign. We're trying to raise about 20
million bucks. So he was counseling me on how
to raise money. OK.
And he turned in to be a very great friend.
But he said Billy the Rich, He said we're the loneliest people
in the world. We have everything, but we're
the loneliest because once you get everything, it doesn't give
you any sense of meaning or purpose.
It's actually empty. Ecclesiastes 712 tells us wisdom
is a shelter as money is a shelter.
But the advantage of wisdom is this.
It preserves the life of its professor possessor.
Wisdom preserves your life. Jesus says this in Matthew 6.
Don't lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth
and rust will destroy, where thieves break in and steal.
But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth
nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and
steal. Right for where your treasure
is, there's your heart. Also there's people chasing
treasures on earth. And you know what?
All you have to do is go to the junkyard and look at people's
dreams. Serious.
Go to East Pasco and look at, you know, years ago, that
neighborhood, that house, somebody overextended
themselves, acquired a loan they could barely afford.
And a few years later, it's, it's enough.
It's nothing. It's to get.
We used to build houses in a subdivision called Sunny
Meadows. OK, Sunny Meadows.
It was all the brand new neighborhood and people were
coming to buy homes. You know what they call it now,
25 years later? Sunny Ghettos.
Seriously, the name, the nickname of it, and this is
people's dreams. That's what happens to those
things. So in first Timothy, Paul says
told those who are rich in this world, people who do have
riches, to be rich in good deeds, to do good and be rich in
good deeds. Be rich in the things that
matter. If God blesses you with
financial wealth, great. So that's, that's a good thing.
But use it for Kingdom purposes. Amen.
Be rich in good deeds, be rich in the things that matter.
Some people are so poor, all they have is their money.
I got nothing else. And they're going to get to the
end of their life and stand before God.
They're not taking in. You don't see a hearse behind EU
Haul, right? No.
A U-Haul behind a hearse, That's the other way around.
I often joked if I could ever like, rent a hearse someday, I'd
just also rent EU Haul and drive it around town just for laughs.
See what people say. Yeah, what if we stopped trying
to get rich financially and started to try to live a rich
life and finding things to invest our time in in the hope
of God's calling on our life? You may not know what that is
right now. And you just seriously, we can
ask Him, Lord, what do you have for me?
So we should know what are the riches of his glory, of the
glory of his inheritance in the Saints?
We've been talking a little bit about earthly riches versus true
riches already. What are some of the riches God
has for us? If you think about it, what are
the things he's promised? What are the heavenly riches?
Well, of course there's fellowship with the life of God
that you never had before you were saved.
The whole world is trying to fill that vacuum, that emptiness
with things or with pleasure, with relationships, position,
you know, the things that people chase to try to find meaning in
their life. The whole world is looking for
that, and then as soon as they acquire, it comes up empty.
But identity and relationship with God, true fellowship with
God is where you'll find ultimate meaning and purpose for
your life. Nothing can replace that.
You get to experience His peace, His forgiveness, no longer have
any fear of death, no longer have any fear of judgement of
God, the forgiveness of God, the peace that passes understanding.
You have His promises and His faithfulness in your life.
The the just the joy of seeing God answer your prayer in little
and small like small things and big things.
I've had God answer the prayers of the tiniest things.
Just a few days ago there were four guys.
We were in the garage at Youth with the Mission in Honolulu.
One of the young guys moped. Mopeds are real popular in
Hawaii. One of the guys moped had a flat
tire. So we were trying to put a new
tire on his little rim. Little tiny tire about this big
around like this big four of us. 4B.
I've changed many tires. It's hard to get a little.
I think it's harder to get a little tire than a big tire.
Anyways, we were soaping this up.
We were trying to ratchet it on. We had the air compressor for 40
minutes. And I was like, have you guys
prayed about this when I first got out there?
And they were like, no, not yet, but here, let's do this.
And then we just kept working. And I was like, we should pray.
And then we just were like, yeah, but let's try this first.
And that didn't work. After 40 minutes, I said, guys,
we got to pray. So here's four of us standing
there in all humility. God, this little piece of rubber
has defeated us. We're stupid.
You're smart, you know. And as God is my witness, this
kid named Bauer, he bends over and hooks up the air compressor,
and it's seated on the rim just like that.
Because we prayed. Now, I know that seems like a
very trivial, silly prayer request when people are praying
for deliverance from cancer and like having very serious things
they're dealing with in life. But I've seen God answer those
prayers too. Jesus said, hey, even the hairs
of your head are numbered. Now that sounds really trivial,
but it's a truth God wants us to know.
He cares about even the tiniest things in your life that you
don't even know. I don't know how many hairs are
on my head. Well, there's, Yeah, not that
many anymore, but you don't know how many hairs are on your head.
But God wants you to know that He does.
He cares about every little detail in your life.
The true riches of knowing God. You have a rich, vibrant,
abundant life. When I came to know Christ,
that's when I really began to live in life, came alive to me.
Yeah. There's the people that God
gives us, the people we get to do life with, the people in your
fellowship. What about the promises of
eternal life? Brand new bodies waiting for us,
right? So maybe when we get to heaven,
I'm going to have this Brillo pad, right?
Or that. Either that or you'll all be
bald. Yeah, but I doubt it.
I often joke God made some perfect heads or beautiful
heads, and then he put hair on all the rest of them.
But Jesus says I'm going to prepare a place for you.
The things God has promised us, eye has not seen, ear has not
heard, neither has it even entered the mind of man.
The things that God has prepared for those who love him.
If you asked my 8 year old son Tyler, what is the greatest
experience in life? What is the pinnacle of human
pleasure or enjoyment? His whole worldview is wrapped
up in what's his latest thing? Twinkies, I think Yeah.
And we all laugh, don't we? Because it's like the we know
that there's things in life that are a whole lot more fulfilling,
a whole lot more fun, a whole lot more pleasurable, a whole
lot, you know, there's things that give way more satisfaction
in life than a Twinkie. And it's kind of funny, but I
think God looks at us the same way.
There's things that we're chasing in this world that we
think are like this right here. If I could get that, that my
life is good and God's like yeah, there's eye has not seen,
ear has not heard, hasn't even entered into your mind.
The things that I have prepared for you.
You can't even imagine what's coming.
And God has things ready for you and I OK.
The last thing is the exceeding greatness of his power towards
us who believe. So we talked about the eyes of
our understanding being opened. God, I need you to open my eyes
to see spiritual things. We talked about the hope of his
calling. I have a confident expectation
in God's promises, but I also have a confident expectation
that He has a purpose for my life.
There is a a real calling for me.
We talked about the riches of his glorious inheritance.
There's earthly riches that really come to nothing, and
there's the true riches that God offers us that we don't even
have to work for, right? We don't have to strive for.
We can receive. And then the fourth thing is the
exceeding greatness of his power towards us who believe.
You know, God delights in demonstrating his power to us.
I think he delights in that. But he also demonstrates his
power through us. He really does.
He wants to use people like you and me to demonstrate his power
to the world around us. All through the Scriptures we
see God using ordinary men and women to do the things of God
and we we hold them up on these pedestals like they're these
amazing, you know, examples and perfection.
But look at just look at some of them.
Abraham, man, he was a OK, hey, babe, just tell him you're my
sister. All right, let's his wife get
brought into the harem of the Pharaoh.
God says here's the promised land.
Abraham, you're in it. A little drought comes along.
Abraham's like I'm out of here, goes to Egypt like he's a man of
faith, but he also blew it in a lot of ways.
And you just go right down from Abraham through a Jacob.
He was a deceiver. He was a trickster.
You look at David, the royal screw up, big time murderer,
adulterer. Moses was a murderer.
And you just go through like Jeremiah and Ezekiel, like these
are prophets that God used, but they had their issues.
Jonah, God used them, but he had his issues.
He didn't want those people saved even.
And God will use people like you and me.
He'll delight to show his power through us to the world around
us, even though we may have our issues, right?
Ask my wife, she'll tell you. I got some, very few, but she'll
tell you. But God delights in showing his
power. Dunamis dynamite, the power of
God. He delights in showing his power
through us because he, he, when he said it's free from sin, he
just, he didn't just set us free from the penalty of sin.
He said it's free from the power of sin in our life.
You don't have to give in to sin anymore.
Before I was saved, I would try. I tried guys, I took the 10
commandments and I tried. Believe me, I tried.
And all it did is make me feel even worse because now I'm
really paying attention and I can't stop.
And then it made me feel recognized even more how much I
was breaking them. I guess impossible, but He set
me free from the power of sin. After I'm saved, I no longer
have to be a slave to sin, and you don't either.
But He gives us power. I'm going to give you a few
examples. Power to speak for Him.
In Acts 18, Jesus says you will receive power when the Holy
Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses to the ends
of the earth, right? You'll receive power when the
Holy Spirit comes upon you. He gives us deliverance.
He gives us answered prayer. Listen to what it says in Psalm
91. Because He loves me, says the
Lord, I will rescue him. I will protect him, for he
acknowledges my name. He will call upon me, and I will
answer him. I'll be with him in trouble.
I will deliver him and honor Him and show him my salvation.
Deliverance answered prayer. What about this power over the
enemy? I mentioned this verse a little
while ago in in Luke chapter 10, he says, look, behold, I give
you authority to trample on serpents and scorpions and over
all the power of the enemy and nothing shall by any means hurt
you. You know how many people don't
do evangelism? They're afraid that man, if I do
that, there's a target on my back and then there's going to
be a demon behind every telephone pole waiting to you
know, if I go to India, man, don't they worship idols there?
I'm going to be overcome by the enemy.
No, you will not. Jesus says very clearly.
I give you authority to trample on serpents and scorpions over
all the power of the enemy. Nothing will by any means hurt
you. You don't have to be afraid that
the big bad devil is going to overcome you, because you're
pursuing the things of God. Greater is he who's in you than
he who is in the world, right? And then there's supernatural
power to overcome obstacles in situations and difficulties in
life, especially when it comes to ministry.
You think of David and Goliath. He was a giant.
Nobody else could beat that guy. And David didn't go and use
conventional weapons. Saul was like, here, put these
on. He says, I can't wear these.
We don't have to go out and fight spiritual battles with
carnal weapons. That's what Paul says.
The weapons of our warfare, they're not carnal, they're not
earthly, but they're mighty through God to the pulling down
of strongholds. And that's how David defeated
Goliath. And Jonathan, he he was facing
an impossible army. The Israelite army was down to
like, I don't know, 600 people or something like that.
And they were surrounded by more people than it was like the
sand. And, and Jonathan says, let's
just go over there and see if God's going to do something.
It may be that the Lord will work through US today.
Nothing restrains the Lord from saving by many or by few.
That was his attitude. God can do this through.
Yeah, huge army or even just a few.
Let's see what God does. And that whole army was defeated
that day. Ultimately, God is looking for
people who will take Him at His word in our lives in every
situation, whether that's for our earthly needs like housing,
food, clothing, things like that.
We all have those needs. And why I trust and I'm not
ashamed to say I'm totally dependent on the Holy Spirit to
supply all my needs. OK, but he also will give us
what we need for godliness, for the things we say.
God, I want to serve you. You don't have to go it alone
guys, in any area of your life. You don't ever have to be alone
for another second of your life. Not good news.
He says I'm I'll be with you forever.
I'm never going to leave you or forsake you.
I will not leave you as orphans. You never have to be alone for
another second of your life. So anything you would say yes to
God do in your life, whether that's serving in your church,
doing some evangelism, going on a mission trip, you can trust.
I got to be with you friends. He really will when we see
things God's way. And So what we've looked at
today is these verses and just breaking down.
God, I need my eyes to be open if I'm going to see the world
around me the way you want me to see it and the people in it the
way you want me to see them. God, would you give me those
spiritual eyes? Because guys, I know what it's
like to just, I have 6 kids. Like I said, I could be very
busy and just doing life right and doing good things.
Really not even sinful things. But if I'm going to follow the
purposes of God, then I have to be intentional about it.
You know, I have a deal with God and I'll tell you this, I don't
tell people this a lot, but I'll tell you this because this for,
for an example, because I know my life can get very busy and I
can compartmentalize evangelism because I'm in missions full
time and we have blocks of the week that we've got scheduled
times where we do outreach, right?
We go to the Waikiki or the mall and I take teams of people to
go. And it's very easy to just kind
of have those little blocks in my life when I do this and that.
A few years ago, I said, God, OK, I'm going to do this every
single day. I'm going to share with at least
one person every single day, share the gospel.
And I was blown away by how many opportunities I pass by every
single day as I started to do that.
Because you know, if you have, maybe you're in the market for a
new car or something and you think, man, I really want a, you
know, a Ford F-150. Well, now all of a sudden you
see every single Ford F-150 because your radar is up.
Your attention is focused on that.
Well, so since I was focused on, OK, where am I going to share
the gospel today, I got to make sure I do it.
Then all of a sudden it's lunchtime and I'm thinking, my
goodness, I passed by the person at the Safeway, the bank or the
Starbucks or the wherever. All through your day, you're
encountering people every single day.
And I was like, I'm, I'm the worst evangelist because I've
been passing this stuff by all the time, right?
But if the point I'm making is I have to be intentional about
this or it won't happen. I'm intentional about my Bible
reading. I'm disciplined.
I have a Bible reading calendar and I have times blocked out for
that to make sure I'm reading the Bible every single day.
Otherwise I'll be busy and it'll be the end of the day and I will
be like trying to go to bed at night.
Oh yeah. And I'll read one verse and then
go back to sleep. Prayer is the same thing.
There are disciplines in our life.
We have to just block it out, right?
So eyes of our understanding, being open, knowing the hope of
God's calling on our life. It's not just God.
I hope you have a plan for me, but we can have a confidence in
God, knowing that God, whatever it is you have for me, I'm
willing to walk in it. Will you start to show me and
watch God start to open doors in front of you?
And you might be really surprised because in the natural
you have talents, you have gifts God has already given you that
you already know about. Some of you are gifted at maybe
public speaking or maybe you're a good salesperson, or maybe
you're different things that you just know you're good at natural
giftings. But then when God gives you a
spiritual gift, you'll know a spiritual because you would
never do that in the natural right.
Like I would never do this. Never.
The only reason I passed speech class in high school is because
Mrs. Torgeson hated me and wanted, didn't want me back.
I got AD minus, which is the lowest possible grade you can
get and still pass because I was terrified I'd get in front of
the room and go red and I, I never got through a single
speech. I would stand there and just
with my car and just and I'd and the way I broke it was laughing.
So I'd stand up there and laugh and look like a moron.
And anyways, I should, I should never be doing this.
That's how I know it's God's call because I would never do it
in the natural. And you might be surprised at
what God might gift you at that. You realize that actually went
really well, right? Sharing your faith is something
that I think we all have. But anyway, knowing the hope of
his calling, third thing, the riches of his glorious
inheritance. Don't waste your life chasing
after earthly things, guys. The whole world is doing it, and
then they end up in the same place.
People who climbed to the top, people who get halfway there and
lose everything, whatever the whole world is doing it, they
all end up in the same place and they're going to stand before
God. And I would hate to stand before
Him and have succeeded in all these other things in life, but
failed at what really, really matters.
Amen. And the third thing is the
exceeding greatness of His power towards those of us who believe
there's power available to every one of us for the Christian
life. I know you guys are aware of a
lot of this. I want to encourage you this
morning to pursue the things of God.
Have those spiritual eyes stop looking at the world and
everything in it through those lenses and say, God, give me the
ability to see things properly. Amen.
So the last thing I want to do is share with you real in like
in one minute here, what we're doing.
Like Nick had mentioned, we're introducing the School of
Ministry and School of Missions in Washington here in
tri-cities, couple hours away from you.
So we talked about bringing everything we're doing in
missions and then bring it into Calvary context, Calvary style,
Calvary Chapel, eyes, missions, whatever you want to call it.
So this fall we're introducing this School of missions.
This September, I should say it's before fall school of
missions, it's starting September.
So what that looks like is actually I have some brochures
so anybody who might be interested, if you know someone
that's thinking, I want to do missions, but I don't know where
to get started. I just need some training.
How would I go? How what would I do?
I'll give. We have some in the back and I
have some up here that you could give them and there are course
details in here that tell you what it's like.
So this is how it works. We have housing.
So this is all living together in a, you know, learning
environment where you're with a whole group of people.
So I have a house for girls, I got a house for guys.
We have a classroom we all meet at every day.
There's about 3 hours of lecture times where different pastors
and leaders in the missions world come in and give teaching
on. Well, I have a whole list of
them here. So like church planting, how to
do long term missions, how to pioneer a new ministry, how to
build a cohesive team, how to fundraise, how to pay for it.
You know, God's, if you're going to do this, you're going to need
to be sustainable long term financially.
All those little elements of how to do missions and each one is a
full week of teaching, right? Evangelism, how to share the
gospel, how to share the gospel cross culturally, if you have a
specific nation in mind, how to prepare to go there, all these
kind of elements of missions. And then we're going on after 12
weeks of classroom learning, we go learning environment, we go
on a 10 week mission outreach. And those locations are still
yet to be determined, but it'll be Asia, Europe.
We have, we have Calvary people all over the whole world,
Mexico. So I still haven't decided where
the first outreach is going to go.
Depends on the makeup of who comes.
Like if we have students who come and say, I really want to
go to Japan, well, we got places to go in Japan, right?
So all that's still to be determined where the mission is.
But it's 10 weeks of missions. So after the school is over,
you've had a mission trip. You know how to do missions and
you'll know, are you called to do this with your whole life or
not? Most people, some, a lot of
people already know. Like I'm already in.
I'm just, I need some training and let me go.
So this is to train you, send you, release you.
We're not going to try to control you, but at the same
time, we're not just going to send you off and leave you on
your own. We're going to be there to
support you. Amen.
OK, so that's the mission school.
Following that right after is a ministry school.
And the school of ministry is different.
If you're thinking I want to get into ministry but I just don't
know how. I remember when God first called
me into ministry and I was terrified of public speaking.
I didn't even know how to put a Bible study together.
I don't know what how to start, but I knew the calling was
there. It was a conviction.
Like I know I'm called to do something, but I don't know how
to start. I just got some mentoring and
training. And so this school is designed
six months, 18 weeks of, of lecture times and living
together in this environment. So we house you.
We, we got all the classrooms, everything all together.
And you learn from people who've been doing ministry a long time.
Brandon B, who's been raising and training worship leaders and
releasing them all over the place.
He's going to, he's going to run alongside of us with a worship
track. So you're going to learn how to
do ministry well, but also learn if you're thinking of being a
worship leader, he, he knows how to, you know, train in that
area. And we've got young adults,
pastors, youth pastors, senior pastors.
And in the midst of both of these schools, as you're living
in this environment, we have local ministries that were
involving our students in so that yes, you're learning in the
mornings, but in the afternoons we actually plug into different
local ministries, evangelism ministries and just service in
the Kingdom or in the body. So you get hands on experience
and you get lecture teaching and then we go on mission trips and
we actually go and do the work. So it's training to send up and
just release out the next generation of missionaries and
the next generation of, you know, Christian workers for the
churches. So I have some stuff for it.
You guys are very welcome to hang out.
Come chat with me about it and I guess it's a little bit of a
sales pitch. The message had nothing to do
with me doing a little sales pitch.
This was that was for your edification as believers.
But I also want to make sure you guys know this is available to
you and the age anybody. I've had students that were 17
years old, and I've had students in their 70s and everything in
between. Families, singles, young, old.
I get whoever you might be that you're thinking, I would like to
do that, but I feel like I'm too old.
George Mueller started the missionary phase of his life in
his 70s. Yeah.
And he went to like, how many? Like, over like 20 different
countries, 140,000 miles of travel.
This was before airplanes, you know?
So if a guy in his 70s can do it, anybody can do it.
Amen. All right, so let me pray for
you guys, and we'll get you out of here.
So Lord, I thank you for the encouragement of your word in
the book of Ephesians and how you don't leave us alone and
you're with us every step of the way through this journey in
life. And thank you, Lord, that each
of us has a calling that you made us.
You've, you've created us in Christ for good works.
Man, it's just every time I hear that, I think, wow, God, you
really have a destiny for me. Thank you for saving me, but you
really want to use me too. God, I pray that each of us
would just seek you and ask Lord, what is it you want me to
do? What's the next thing in front
of me that I can get involved in and serve the Kingdom of God
right here, right now? And yeah, I just pray that this
message would be sealed to our hearts.
Everything that came out of your word, write it upon our hearts
Lord, and help us to serve you better.
And everything that came that was just from Billy when we just
forget it, but everything from the word of God, Lord in Jesus
name, would you impress it upon us and help us to follow you and
serve you with our whole hearts in Jesus name, Amen.
Amen. Thank you very much.
Nick, do you have announcements? We didn't go over how to end
this. So this is gotta.
Say, I gotta say, I mean, he's all right.
It's OK. No, he is.
He is definitely I I enjoy, I enjoyed what he said and took a
bunch of notes. The School of Ministry stuff
guys, I am I'm excited for it just because when I was first
getting into missions, when I was first doing that stuff,
there's there's really nothing like that stateside that that I
was, I was able to find. I I found one that was a one
week online class before we went to Uganda.
But it's just feeling like you, I mean, like he said, when you
first get into, into like going and doing mission stuff, you
like you, you read about seminaries and all this stuff
you're supposed to do. And, and really it's just having
that grounding right of, of real world, real time stuff.
And that's, that's what that's going to be and I'm excited for
it. He's going to be one of the
guest speakers at the ministry conference.
So that's that's pretty much what what Billy did is what you
guys are going to get in stacks of things in at the ministry
conference April. Maybe 3rd through the 20?
5th April 23rd through the 25th. So if you're if you're
interested, we can get you the information on that.
But other than that, there is food in the back.
Be feel free to visit with Billy.
If you got any questions, come and see him come.
If you got any questions, come and see me.
Get us out of here. Lord, thank you for today.
Thank you for all that you give us Lord.
Thank you for just those that that are gifted to teach, Lord,
and just that that you'd be speaking to hearts, Lord that
that what would leave here today is your words, Lord, into
people's hearts. And Lord, that you would just be
making appointments with people that we would be out talking to
the person at Safeway and, and the person at the gas pump.
And, and Lord, that we were just sharing with people about you
and your Kingdom and your hope, Lord, that that this world has
nothing to offer an empty box. Lord and Lord that he's guiding,
direct us, go in front of us and pray this in Jesus name, Amen.