Missionary Heart

But I think I was 36 when I got to the mission field. In those days they didn’t want you for the mission board if you were over 25. That’s been 40 years ago. But anyway, thank God he uses what he wants where he wants. I wouldn’t do well in a university setting or a big town church but I can sure go sit in the mud with somebody and along the river in the swamp and tell them about Jesus.

And really that’s what it’s all about. You don’t have to be a college professor for God to use you. It’s all about the heart. Everything we do for God and I’ll say this probably a hundred times while I’m here this week but everything we do for God depends on how much we appreciate what God did for us. You all with me tonight? Now I’m not here to beat you.

I’m here to encourage you. The task is unfinished and there is much to do and you know you say well where do they need missionaries? Just take a dart and throw it at the world. About anywhere it’ll land they need missionaries. You read missionary prayer letters a lot of times they’ll say we sure could use some help over here. And Americans most of the time their answer is let’s throw a dollar at it.

Well sometimes we don’t need a dollar sometimes we need you. We need a body. Amen. Now sometimes it’s not a full time missionary sometimes it’s hey listen my diesel generator is broke if you’re a diesel mechanic come on over we need you or we’re putting up a building and maybe you can help us. I’ve got a friend and that’s exactly what he does. He’s got a group of tradesmen that goes into different countries and he’s been to New Guinea I think three times.

They asked him they said what did you learn? He came to my place there and dropped around the mountains a while and they said what did you learn while you was in New Guinea? He said I learned God didn’t call me to Papua New Guinea. Amen. But he’s a good brother and he can do things. He can put up a steel building or lay a floor or whatever.

He had all kinds of practical skills that he could do and he used them. And so next time you need a vacation Mongolia is going to listen brother go on to Mongolia he’s going to need a house over there one of these days and you learn to ride a pony on the steps and just go on over there with him. Amen. We talked about Catholicism and let me back up just a little bit.

The independent Baptist movement apart from the Southern Baptist and the Northern Baptist and all the other Baptist Baptist started about 1950. So we got behind a little bit and the Catholics and Jehovah’s Witness and everybody else they were taking their theology around the world before we ever got our shoes on. So we’re running behind all the time and they don’t seem to have a problem with finances.

But then again they don’t seem to have a problem with people volunteering to go either. It’s us good Baptists that we say yeah glory to God glory to God. Well who wants to go and then we sit on our hands. I had some folks in New Guinea when I first got there I was out of a church in Georgia at the time and in that church they would have missionaries in all the time and the pastor would say this missionary needs tires on his car or this missionary needs this or needs that whatever and somebody said well I’ll give it I’ll do it.

Here’s a thousand dollars go ahead and do it. Just that quick. I mean if a missionary come in with a problem and he didn’t do that we got mad. Say why is that? Because we wanted to be a part of it. We wanted to help get the gospel around the world or get this missionary to his next meeting. We wanted to be a help to God. So I got to New Guinea.

We were going to have a dinner on the ground. They dig out a pit and build a fire and heat stones and all that’s called a Moo Moo. And they said we need a pig and I said okay who wants to give a pig and nobody raised their hand. Now listen in that village of Payama there were pigs everywhere. They put up fences to keep the pigs out.

They would sharpen the stakes and then they would dig a it’s called a barret. It’s a ditch about three feet deep on the other side of that and still yet those pigs would get in there and if a pig did that twice they’d take a bamboo sliver and poke its eyes out. So pigs as far as I was concerned as an American and particularly a crazy Baptist American I thought man somebody give a pig we’ll just kill the thing and eat it.

What’s the big deal? So I told the men I said guys I said here’s what I want you to do I want you to just pray and ask God which one of you God wants to give the pig. This is Wednesday night and I said Sunday I’m going to ask you which one God spoke to. So Sunday morning I said okay guys who’s going to give the pig and nobody raised their hand.

I said okay how many of you prayed and nobody raised their hand. Do you know why? They didn’t pray. They didn’t want the answer. Mmmmm. You all with me tonight? I’m trying to help you here. All right if we’re going to get involved and I’ll tell you what I believe. I believe we’re on the edge of the church going out. That’s what I believe. And what motivates these missionaries is one people are going to die and go to hell but two becoming the Lord Jesus because we don’t know when that might be.

It might be if you’re lucky before this message is over. Amen. We don’t know so that’s a motivator. That’s what compels us to go out and try to win people to Christ. That’s why he goes to Brazil. That’s why he goes to Mongolia or wherever these fellows are going. It’s because listen we’re running out of time. If you ever thought about doing something for God man now it’s time to do it.

Now it’s time to if God leads you to do it do it because if you don’t if you just put it off and put it off and say well this meeting will be over in three days and then I don’t have to worry about it till next year. You’ll never do it. And if you never do it you will never be satisfied completely serving God. It was a pastor in Ohio.

I won’t mention his name. He’s not a pastor anymore he’s dead. But we were in his meeting and they had I don’t know two or three missionaries to Mexico there and the church already supported probably ten. And we were talking about there’s a big church. We were talking about that and that pastor got up and he said the reason that I support so many missionaries to Mexico is that years ago God called me to Mexico and I didn’t go.

So he said in effect I’m trying to buy off God to get this burden out of my heart. But he said it doesn’t work. It doesn’t work. You say well man he had a big church and won a lot of people to Christ. Yeah you can do the right thing in the wrong place. If you really want to see the touch of God and the blessings of God you get in the will of God.

And man I’m telling you it’s so marvelous to be in the will of God. It doesn’t matter what the externals are. It doesn’t matter what problems come because you know you are where God wants you to be. Amen. You can do a lot. All right. Having said all that services tomorrow at seven o’clock is that right? I’ll be done by then. Amen. Amen. Let’s look at the book of Luke chapter 14 if you would please.

Book of Luke chapter 14. I’ll just read Mark 16 15. You don’t have to turn there. He said to them go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. Sounds like a simple thing to do don’t you think. No computers no phones no television. Just take the gospel to the world. Now he didn’t say that. I don’t know how many we got in here tonight 35 or 40.

He said it to 12. One of those didn’t make it to the end. So here you have 11 men that Jesus is commissioning to take the gospel to the world and I’m thinking man what did they think when he said that. I mean listen these were rich people. These were just fishermen and just guys off the street. Just people following Christ and he gives them the commission to take the gospel to the world.

And the Bible says that they turn the world upside down. Say why is that? They were in will of God. They were doing what God wanted them to do and God blessed them. Luke chapter 14 verse 25 and they were one of a great multitude with him and he turned and he said unto them If any man come to me and hate not my father and my mother and my wife and my children my brethren and sisters yea and his own life also he cannot be my disciple for whosoever does not bear his cross and come after me he cannot be my disciple.

Let’s pray just a minute. Father we love you. We ask the Lord that you might see fit to meet with us tonight. I pray God you take this little simple message and touch hearts we pray in Jesus name. Amen. He’s not using hate in the sense that we say hate. He’s talking about the order. Christ first in our life. Christ before the family. Worshipping God and the will of God.

Doing what we’re supposed to do. He talks about bearing the cross and taking up your cross and following me that identification with Jesus that we have every single day and it’s just amazing what that simple little saying did for the world. Alright. When we talk about going someplace as a church member you see these slide presentation. I don’t use slides anymore but the presentations that we see and you see the need.

I saw the town brother I don’t know what town it was but those little where you see houses along a hill I’m not sure what they call it in Portuguese but in Mexico they call it a colonial and there’s families that live two or three families in a house. I was down in Brownsville Texas preaching and Brother Victor Alvarez he said I want to show you something and he took me to a colonial and showed me a building and it had about as big as a two car garage.

And he said brother my people are so poor. He said there’s two or three families that live in that house. And I said well brother they got windows they got a door they got a car in front of the door they got a television antenna coming out of the house of the roof. And I said they might be poor in Mexico but I said if they were in New Guinea my people would think they died and went to heaven if they had something that nice to live in.

A lot of it’s perspective. Perspective. People are different all over the world the way they look the way they think the way they act these missionaries have to go and they have to learn first of all the language and then they have to learn the culture. The language is important but the culture is just as important. You can’t just take a Bible and say okay you do this this is wrong this is wrong this is wrong or you cannot take the American culture and hold that up as the standard.

And say okay if you don’t meet this standard in Brazil or New Guinea or wherever you’re going then it’s wrong. No it’s just different. It’s just different. We are it’s just like I’m not the prototype of the great missionary I’m just the old guy in a goodwill suit trying to tell you something. We have to learn the culture why they do what they do. What they say but why do they say it that way?

How are they thinking? Because there’s things that are important to you that aren’t important to them. One of the most important things besides their pigs is their land. New Guinean looks at land it’s always going to be there. I can always go back to that land no matter what problem I got in my life. I can go to town I get in trouble I can always run back to my village and live off that land.

That’s wonderful. That’s how they view it. There’s some things you can get in trouble messing with. One of them is the land the other one is a pig and the other one is his wife. In that order. Y’all with me tonight? They look at things differently than we do. They buy their wives their wives are a possession. All right. And so as I was talking to one of these brothers today you know I bought this necktie or somebody did and whatever it cost that’s what I paid but now it’s mine.

I want to take it off and stomp on it that’s my tie you know. It’s none of your business what I do with my tie because it’s my possession I paid for it. That woman over there we paid for her. She’s mine.

They love it when the missionary comes in and he talks about Christ and the church and his bride and how he treats the bride and how the husband and wife relationship among the missionaries is. Ladies love it because we don’t beat our wives. We treat them right. We take care of them. We supply their needs and they love that. Man I’m telling you I’ve had ladies stand up so we’re so glad the missionary came.

Amen. My husband don’t beat me anymore. Amen. Used to be in the old days it was worse than that. Anyway that’s what Jesus said what Paul says what how shall they call upon him whom they have not believed how shall they believe in him whom they’ve not heard and how shall they hear without a preacher and how shall they preach except they be sent as it is written how beautiful the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things.

Now listen the local church local church has obligations. One it is to evangelize your local area. This is your garden patch if you will. These missionaries theirs is somewhere else. That’s their garden patch. They’re responsible because God has called them there and you’re responsible here for where God has put you. Now the reason for the existence of the church the reason we’re here is to reach the world for Jesus Christ.

That’s what we’re here for. Missions is not well this is just a week like vacation Bible school and when the week’s over we’ll put missions in the closet we’ll bring out whatever the next holiday is July 4th decorate for that and next year we’ll bring missions out again. It’s not like that at all. Everything we do in a church is to reach the world. We give tithes and offerings.

Why? Support the church so the church can function. The church can buy Bibles. Why buy Bibles? So we can reach the world for Jesus Christ. Why do you have this preacher coming in here and preach the gospel to you? And I’m assuming and I’m making a big assumption here that most of you are saved. Okay so every Sunday he’ll throw in some salvation verses if you have a lot of visitors but the rest of the service is quit your meanness and do right.

Amen. Oh with me brother I think I lost him right there. He’ll talk about praying. He’ll talk about reading your Bible. He’ll talk about living right. He’ll talk about witnessing. He’ll talk about coming events. He’ll give you illustrations and those illustrations are so you remember what the message is about. Generally you hold it in your mind until you get in your car and man it’s time for the football game.

Let’s go. Amen. Next week he’ll come back and he’ll say quit your meanness and do right. We need to live for God. We need to read our Bibles. We need to pray. We need to tithe. We need to give the missions. Let’s go on outreach. Jesus name amen. He might throw in a poem in there somewhere. Three points in a poem they talked about. Quit your meanness and do right.

Why does he do that? Hello. Why does he do that? Because he’s trying to help you mature in your faith. He’s trying to reach the community for Jesus Christ which is the main reason for the existence of this church. He’s trying to disciple you and teach you and have your life display Christ in your life. You change and that’s your testimony. The change in your life. Amen.

If you’re the same as you were you don’t need quit your meanness and do right. You need to get saved brother. Listen if there’s no change there’s no Christ. No change no Christ. My boys in New Guinea they would go out and they say well we won five to God this week. This Sunday morning I said where are they? They said well they didn’t come. They promised to come but they didn’t come.

You all heard that a thousand times I’m sure. Well let me ask you a question. When you got saved did they have to drag you into church? Didn’t did they? You had a real desire to go and a real desire to have fellowship and you were just had all that joy inside and those sins were gone that heavy load of sin just left you and as one of my ladies in New Guinea said she said I just feel like a leaf on a tree blowing in the wind.

Amen. That’s what happened when you got saved. Where did that go? Where did it go? You know when I got saved I wanted to witness to everybody. I mean if the devil would have stood still I’d have give him a gospel try but I’m telling you after a while that new wears off and that fire that’s burning in you it’s smoking but it’s not burning his bride anymore and the longer you put it off and the longer you resist the leadership of the Holy Ghost in your life the less it becomes real to you and the less need that you see to do the things that your pastor is telling you you need to do.

We become church members. Do you know brother in New Guinea anyway the Catholics don’t care if they come to our church but man if they get baptized they’re out. Yeah serious stuff.

But we become church members and we become happy with just the name. Somebody else say where do you go to? Well I go to church right down the road.

Said well whose church is it? They said well this is Pastor Wood’s church. Pastor Wood is the pastor but it’s not his church it’s your church. It’s your church. You ought to feel like you’re a part of it. You ought to feel like the things that you do and the involvement the way you get involved in this church this is a part of you man. This is we love our pastor but it’s our church it’s my church.

Amen. And I’m excited about it. I know we’re going to have a missions conference and I know these missionaries are coming man I want to be a part of it I want to I want to get involved in it. At one time in your life that fire was there. Where has the fire gone?

Some of it for some of us it’s just smoldering. There’s still fire but just a little bit of life just enough to be comfortable. Just that I can sit in church and do whatever I need to do.

Jesus said take up your cross and come after me. Paul said how shall they hear? Or how shall they call on him and who have they not believed and how shall they believe in whom they’ve not heard and how should they hear without a preacher? Well the missionary said this is a missionary heart. The missionary heart is care more than some think is wise. Risk more than some think is safe.

Dream more than some think is practical. Expect more than some think is possible. I was called not to comfort or success but to obedience. There is no joy outside knowing Jesus and serving him. That’s the missionary heart. The missionary heart we have to look at things listen I’m going to come down here and I might need an elevator to get back up this steps again. I’m going to get down here where I can jerk on your tie and wake you up.

Amen. This pastor, this leader of this church he has direction from God in how this church needs to go. What you need to be involved in, what you need to be doing and that’s why you have the different programs that you have. But he didn’t just grab that out of the air. That’s something that you pray about and that’s something that you get leadership of the spirit of God and to do that this pastor needs to know the voice of God from the voice of the flesh and the voice of the television and the voice of the brethren.

He needs to understand that this is God giving me direction for this church and he comes and he tells you this is what we need to be doing. Amen. You’re not there yet but he has a vision for what God wants done. These missionaries and I don’t know how many of them in the field, how many of them haven’t but God has called them out and man you think of that.

I mean brother, you were in Ohio and the God of the universe man. I mean this is the God that spoke everything into creation and he chose you and the Holy Ghost said come. And he burdens your heart to go to Brazil and turn your back on what is now but you have to reach out not for what is but you reach out for what could be.

And he has a vision for Brazil and you can talk to every one of these missionaries and it is the will of God for them to do what God called them to do. Amen. You need that in your life. You have to have that vision. You need to understand that there is more to the world than Greenville, South Carolina.

You need to care more. One of the questions that a lady in New Guinea asked me, we’re in the swamps of New Guinea and this lady got saved and she said, brother Ted, can I ask you a question? I said sure. She said well how do you get here as a missionary? And so I explained the call of God just briefly and how churches in America, churches like this one, supported our ministry and then God led us to come to New Guinea and then he led us to come here in this swamp and build this house and present the gospel.

She said but where does the money come from? And I said well it comes through the local church but it’s the individual people who give the money. And she said why would they do that? Why would they give you money for people they don’t even know? I said because those people care about the souls in New Guinea. But she said why do they care? We’re just dirty swamp people over here in this swamp.

Why would they care about us? And I said those people love God and their love to Him motivates them to give that we can go and you can hear and you can receive Christ as your Savior. Now you talk about somebody who witnessed to the devil, that lady would witness to the devil. She used to go to the Catholic church. We were on outreach one Saturday down to Market and they had a Filipino pastor, or a Padre anyway.

And he said Angeline you’re not at the Catholic church anymore. Angeline didn’t have any filter. I mean she didn’t talk to you like she was in your face. And she got in that guy’s face and she said do you want to know why I left the Catholic church and went to the Baptist church? She said I went to the Baptist church and found God. You don’t have God in your church.

Amen. She’s absolutely right. But I had to slow her down. I said listen Angeline you can give your testimony but don’t take that track and put it up somebody’s nose. You know you got to cool it a little bit. I didn’t use those words but I’m trying to slow her down a little bit. And she said well everybody ought to know I’m excited about what God’s done for me.

Amen. And we all ought to be. We need to care more than some think is wise. I bet there’s people in your family don’t want you all to go to the field. Now say oh what if you have babies and you’re going to take my grandchildren over there? Or what if I die while you’re on the mission field? My mother told me that and my mother and I had a great relationship and she was a good Christian lady.

She was my wife’s Sunday school teacher. My mother had a sense of humor. She said well if I die you’re not going to be at my funeral. And I said well mom if you want me at your funeral why don’t you just die now? Well you know I’ll be glad to go. She laughed. She thought it was funny. I don’t think my dad thought it was so funny.

But we need to care more. The question is why do you care about people you don’t know? And really you think about you’re safe. If you’re here and saved, man you’re saved forever. You’re going to die and go to heaven. So why should you care about somebody else man? You’re in. Your ticket is punched. Why should you care? That’s the way the world thinks. But that can’t be the way we think.

And we need to be brokenhearted for this world. We need to look at people. We need to see beyond their clothes and their circumstance. We need to see beyond their ugliness and their cruelty. We need to separate what they believe from the individual they are. So what do you mean by that? A lot of times we have people in our neighborhood that are Catholic. And say oh they’re Catholic.

We can’t get around them. Well how are you going to witness to them if you don’t get around them? I’m not talking about going to the bar with them. I’m talking about, listen the individual is not the enemy. The religious system is the enemy. It’s not the people that are making people go to hell. It’s the religious system that they believe that is wrong. There are only two religious systems in the world people.

That is those who get saved by faith and those that work to do it. I don’t care what you name, what cult, what church. They either believe salvation is by grace through faith or they believe there’s some work to it. That’s the only two. I’m talking about the whole world. That we independent Baptists we’ve got it narrowed down. Brother Ron Ralph said there are 205 different types of independent Baptists.

And a lot of those people think if you don’t believe just like I do you’re wrong. Man listen the issue is not do you comb your hair the same way I do. The issue is we need to get busy to winning people to Jesus Christ. We need to live a life that shows Christ shows the change in our life. We need to care and we need to make sure that we live like we care.

We need to risk more than some things is safe. Man it’s not safe. It is not safe in Greenville South Carolina. You can get shot anywhere now in America. I drove down to Houston one time when I first got home and they said how was the trip? I said man it was great. Nobody shot at me. Nobody blocked the road. It was easy trip. They said well just stick around Houston a while you’ll find out.

But it’s a risk. It’s a risk. The return on what we give is not financial. The return on what we give we’ll find in heaven. These are heavenly rewards. The reason these missionaries go and some people think well missionaries go because they can’t do anything else. These missionaries in their local church are the best of the best. They’re the best givers the best soul winners the best workers.

They’re not here because they like chicken. They’re here because God called them to go. And we need to help them get involved in their ministry. You say well we do this evil surmising thing. Well that brother is going to go to Brazil. I don’t think he’s going to stay very long. Who gives you that thought. Yeah that’s exactly right. Evil surmising. Yeah. Well this missionaries come off the field.

Let’s get rid of him. Evil surmising. Listen to me now. Yeah we’re good. I’m only on point one. Missionaries you take them on because you’ve prayed about it. And as a church you believe that God wants you involved in that ministry. That’s how you take them on. When you think one needs to come off the field or or that you need to drop his support that is not just an offhand decision.

That is a prayerful decision something that you’ve prayed about because God doesn’t listen. God’s working in their life. God’s working in your life. God’s using their testimony somewhere else to work. Hey listen if it costs us twenty five thirty bucks fifty bucks whatever you support them for that’s worth it that somebody else gets saved. It’s not going to hurt you to support them one more month or two more months or whatever.

God leads you to do the point I’m making is it’s not an arbitrary position. It is a decision that we’ve prayed about and that God led us to make. And then we make the decision. Let God work. We need to quit manipulating. Man the Baptists are terrible manipulators. Remember Jacob and his mother. She man she thought God needed help. You remember the trick and the hair on the arms and all that stuff.

Listen God doesn’t need your help. He can run his universe and his people and his cattle on the thousand hills. He can do it just fine. As I said before earlier God doesn’t ask my opinion. God gives us his word. That is his opinion. And we follow it if we are good children and we don’t if we don’t. All right. God cares. Bible says the Lord’s not slack concerning his promise of some in counsel likeness but is long suffering to usward not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.

The next verse verse 10 said but the day of the Lord is will come as a thief in the night. Listen we don’t know when that is. It might be tomorrow and people that we haven’t witnessed to people that we had an opportunity to to to be a good testimony to we didn’t do that. And we don’t know when the Lord’s come back and we don’t know when death is coming.

You always meet at any time. Do you understand that’s what motivates us to go because we care. We’re willing to risk it because God is in charge. You say well you give up your job and I walked out of General Motors been there 15 years I would have retired in five more years. They said you’re crazy. My foreman said you will starve to death if you leave here.

And I said if God is not God you’re right. You all see how much I’ve starved. Listen to me. I’m just I’m bragging on God. I have number one I don’t owe anybody in this world a dime. Not a dime. Number two on the field I never was short anything that I needed. God always supplied the need every time. Now as missionaries we don’t have a pocket full of money.

But when we need it God supplies it and you’d be amazed who he can use to supply it. Maybe even you. I didn’t hear one amen there brother. Church is drying up on me. Amen. Need to dream more than some things that’s practical. We talk about going places and starting churches and winning souls and some people think that this is just a pipe dream. No my friend.

This is a vision that God’s given us. We have a desire to do the will of God and do the work of God. We believe some things. If this church is going to succeed you need to believe some things and you need to get those things solid in your life before the time comes. You think of old Daniel when he walked in that lion’s den. You think he wasn’t solid in his beliefs before they ever opened that door.

Man he just trusted God. He was willing to risk his life for God. So I don’t believe God helped you. Listen to me. True story. We were on the road to go to Mindy. I was going to preach a little missions conference out there for the Mindy Baptist Church. It was a couple of hours through the mountains and you have to understand in New Guinea there’s eight hundred and nine different tribes on our side of the island with eight hundred and nine different languages.

So anyway you have to drive through these tribal areas and depending on if they’re fighting or not or whatever you know most of the time with missionary they’ll let us through. Well this particular time a fellow in my church just aggravated me to death an old man. He said I want to go with you. I want to go with you. I want to go with you. I kept saying no you don’t have any reason to go.

You know listen you could say I’m going to Singapore tomorrow and 50 New Guineans pick up their little B-Lim and jump in your truck. So I put him off and put him up and finally he just almost insisted. I said all right man get on the truck just an old man. Well it started to rain and we’re at six thousand feet and it started to hail. Then the lightning came and we’re driving down this road kind of like coming down here through your mountains but the road wasn’t quite as nice.

I don’t know if you all ever seen ball lightning that is lightning where it hits the ground and it becomes a ball and it rolls. Well I saw some of that and I thought man I better pull over and because I got these people in the open carriage in back of my truck and they’re getting all this hail on them and I said that you know I need to find a place to pull over.

And this storm is coming through and it just about engulfs the road and you can’t hardly see from here to the back of the church and my wife said watch out now there’s an old lady over there. So I pulled over as far as I could towards the edge of the road and kept going and that old woman had a umbrella and she put that umbrella because the rain was coming from our side.

She put that in front of her and she ran smack dab in the side of my truck. Well rule of thumb in New Guinea for missionaries is if you have an accident on the road don’t stop go to the nearest police station and let them lock you up and then you can talk about it because the relatives are not exactly friendly when that happens. I don’t know about you but could you leave an old lady lying in the road with hail and rain and I couldn’t do that.

So I pulled over and stopped and I got my door about half way open and man here comes all these young men and they drug me out of that truck and you killed our mother, you killed our mother. Beating me and kicking me and one of them opened the door and was trying to get at my wife and I just grabbed him and threw him on the ground and hit the lock and locked the door so they couldn’t get in there.

And I hear this old man in the back talking to them in their language and what he’s saying is don’t kill him he’s my missionary. This old man was a head man in that village and all these people, all these young men were related to him. Come home on furlough after that later. Marcia Farley in Houston, Danny Farley’s wife, asked Lynn she said on this particular day at this particular time, now you have to understand when it’s 3 o’clock in the afternoon in New Guinea it is night in Houston, Texas.

And she said at this time God just, I mean he just wouldn’t let me sleep and he put you heavy on my heart. And she said I just got my knees and prayed and prayed and prayed. It was about the time they were stomping me. You all with me tonight? I’m telling you God is able. God answers prayers and God looks after missionaries and God listen, the God that we serve is alive.

I mean listen, prayer is a real thing and our needs are met by God who’s not a man that’s sitting on a chair with a big stick and a long white beard looking to hit you when you do wrong. He’s a loving father and he’s wanting his children to come home just like the prodigal son. That father was looking for that child and happy that he came home.

That’s the kind of father we have in heaven and he meets our needs and he takes care of our needs and he takes care of us. Yeah, we dream. Yeah, we risk when we go. But we don’t risk it all. I’m telling you we are in the hands of the father and I could tell you story after story after story of how God to the last 28 years has supplied our needs and we’ve seen people saved, people I never thought in this world would ever receive the gospel and accept Christ and get saved.

I’m talking witch doctors and people that have killed people and people that have eaten people and the Holy Ghost of God get a hold of that heart and it becomes just as tender as yours did when you got saved. And out of that rough background, out of that, you look on my board and you see those pictures and say, man, those people are rough. Those people are scary.

But inside there’s a soul and that soul needs a savior. It needs Jesus Christ. And we have that answer in our hands. If we simply will send the gospel.

Having medicine and not willing to give it. My soul, what have we done? What have we done? How many years people have we wasted? Listen, I’m not just pointing to you. I didn’t go till I was 36. And you think about all you could have done and all the crazy things you would not have done if you’d have gotten saved earlier. But I’m telling you, the Holy Ghost of God is still speaking to hearts.

We still need missionaries. We still need workers. We still need the temporary volunteers to go. And you sitting right here can meet that need if you will.