The Laborers' Podcast- Missions

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Welcome to the laborers podcast. Thank you for joining us tonight. We are going to be talking about Missions stay with us

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Welcome to the laborers podcast, which is a part of the truth in love

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Network Join us as together we strive to grow up together in all things into Christ subscribe and follow the truth in love

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Network on Facebook YouTube Rumble Spotify and iTunes now, let's join our laborers for tonight's broadcast

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Once again, welcome to the laborers podcast. Thank you for watching If you don't mind, we would appreciate a like a share subscribe and most of all we appreciate your prayers

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Thank you guys for joining me. This is the second episode for the laborers podcast in 2023

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And I'm glad to be back with you guys.

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How you doing? How's it going guys? Doing good

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John your beer big John your beards back Jack Yeah, they don't it don't grow very fast

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It's looking anyway looking good Thank you That was just Christmas Good New Year's good.

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Yep. Praise the Lord Well, I'm glad to be back with my brothers on the laborers podcast and tonight we're gonna be talking about missions

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And I'm looking forward to hearing what they had to say as they have studied and practiced missions serving the

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Lord in their local Geographical areas, but before we get started I do want to share with you

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Hopefully it doesn't take too much time for in each broadcast to share with you friends of the ministry churches

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Christian business owners ministries that say We like what the truth and love network is doing

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We appreciate them and we also in return appreciate what they're doing

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So we want to advertise if you are a ministry a church or a Christian business owner

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We would love to promote you Nothing financial. We just want to support each other

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And so here are the folks so far who say that we we verbally at least support

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What you guys are doing and I want to share with you guys. You can go on the website truth and love network .com

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and Go to the friends of the ministry page and click on Their little business card and go there's a link to their website so you can see what they're all about Two that I want to highlight really quickly is

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The Carolina theater in Hickory, North Carolina is graciously playing the labors of the truth and love network labors

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Podcasts, whoever we are the the gospel presentation that we put together promoting

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Lifting high Jesus Christ and his gospel and they're playing that gospel presentation before every movie

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Every week and we are so thankful for what they're doing. So if you're in the Hickory, North Carolina area, please go and Support the

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Carolina theater and let us know that you saw that gospel presentation there The second one is 1689 designs if you if you like Christian apparel if you want to get some apparel of a

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Few of the laborers have their apparel in there go to 1689 designs and get your truth and love network or A Kingdom keep

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King of contractors is on there bread of the word is on there is Theology here.

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I stand theology. Are they on there yet? No, sir. Not yet. Okay, okay Gotcha, but go to 1689 design and take them out.

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So here are the Ministries churches and businesses that that support the ministry check them out

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We do that taking a chance Telling me to dance taking a chance

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Telling me to dance taking a chance There they are go check them out guys awesome and Rob I've not

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I've not got to it'll be premiering the the 20s

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I'll be interviewing Ryan Denton the 26 I'm gonna be preparing the kingdom contractors little promo spot can can

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I play that right now absolutely real quick yeah okay okay we'll see if it'll work you

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I don't know what how this will work me do and present from my end but I'm gonna hit open and then maybe you can add it there

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I think you can probably add it we are a group of Christian businessmen working together to have very profitable businesses with the end goal of glorifying

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God by making tangible differences in our region and around the world for the glory of God tangible things include but are not limited to giving generously to local churches meeting immediate needs of people that are in crisis investing in and starting other businesses mentorship discipleship creative housing opportunities and many other ways we are always open to more partners in ministry and in business and willing to do our best to meet what needs may come you can reach out to us through our website at kingdom contractors comm that's kingdom hyphen contractors comm see that's what we're all about all right and so that's

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Jonathan Foster down at the bottom right that's right that's right

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I think God is bringing us together to show that when even though we have big differences little differences we we stand on the core values of Christianity but we come together in unity and we're supporting one another we're building each other up for the glory of God and that's that's what we're about and I'm this is a blessing to see all this going on and us supporting one another is fantastic so thank you for doing that just to go through everybody

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Claude Ramsey here I stand theology podcast Tyler Noe he is bread of the word podcast real talk with big

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John go check him out and and Jonathan he's gonna be starting a bird a cast but he's also a vertical life church in Newton North Carolina so check him out so tonight let's talk about missions what does the

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Bible say about missions and Jonathan helped me out with a lot of the questions this week so let's start with the first one we want to define missions and I'll start at the top but everybody feel free if if you've read other questions and you have you know you want to dive in on that one

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I know some of them I really want to dive into myself and at least get my thoughts everybody please take your chance to share your thoughts but the

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Claude let's let's define missions all right so I'm gonna define it by quoting

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Burke Parsons he said this evangelism isn't the end but a means to the end so I would say missions is the end and evangelism is the means to the end which

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God's glorious rescue of his people to know him truly worship him purely enjoy him fully and glorify him eternally we evangelize in order that God might gather for himself worshippers from every tribe tongue and nation for his glory evangelism is a temporary necessity hallelujah but he perk

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Parsons didn't say hello you have I included that evangelism is a temporary necessity but worship abides forever although we certainly need to be discipled in our knowledge of the gospel and equipped to proclaim the gospel we must not forget that gospel proclamation isn't first and foremost a program it's a way of life it's not something we only do on a particular day of the week when our schedules allow it it's something we do every day of our lives

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I would say in short the mission was given to us by Jesus in Matthew 28 go and teach all nations baptizing them the name of the

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Father Son and Holy Ghost making disciples of all nations and how that's done evangelism

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I'm gonna make a clarification because we we have branches especially and I know you have someone of a

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Southern Baptist background as well and so the Southern Baptist are really big on missions I can't speak for every denomination but Southern Baptists have always been big on missions and and so just to make a distinction you you have what your your mission is which is you know you kind of lay that out for us but then you have what people see when they hear the word missions they're thinking missions trips good service service service works so kind of flesh that out the difference between our mission missions going on missions and then evangelism what are the what are the differences anybody can put a tag in right before you do that I think

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I think as y 'all think about answering Rob's question right there I don't want to distract us from that I think it's really important for us to distinct make a distinction between the commission and missions that's really important because we have the

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Great Commission and everybody wants to use Matthew 28 19 and 20 to define missions so the commission is is this really ascending it's it's ascending so really the commissioning of the church the commission of the apostles is to go into all the world to go so they're sending there's this commissioning and then

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Jesus gives the mission going to all the world and then the mission is make disciples that so the mission is really defined as the task that we are commissioned to accomplish so we're commissioned to mission so commission is being sent to the task of making disciples and then

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Jesus gives us the instruction of how he wants the mission accomplished that's good so we want to commission into all the worlds with the mission to make disciples and how teaching them to observe all things which

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I have commanded you baptizing them in the name of the Father Son of the Holy Spirit and then

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I'm with you always is like the security that we have in the mission so so we really do have a good text there but the problem is a lot of times people take that text and say this is the mission but it's the

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Great Commission you know so sending with a mission and then here's how he wants his mission done so I just I just think it's really important in light of like using terms like evangelism

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I debate this with guys all the time is is it discipleship or is evangelism and I tell people all the time it's the answer in my opinion is yes they're so like close related that you're discipling that's right and so I tell people

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I'm discipling people that aren't saved but I am training them in the gospel I'm developing in the gospel but I understand

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I'm overplaying semantics a lot of times with those guys because they're like well evangelism is the same thing it just means you're not saved yet and then it transitions to discipleship once they are saved because you're making disciples but Jesus didn't use the word evangelism he just used go make disciples so that's that's our mission and then evangelism is the vehicle by which we ride it's the horse that we ride into battle you know those kind of tools but I just think in defining it

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I think it's important to give some just simple clarification that makes sense so absolutely now jump back into Robert's question sorry yeah well and the reason for that question is because of the the misconceptions and the myth uses like we're talking about because we have missions and then we have the the commission and when what's been neglected has been the the gospel in our missions in in some circumstances and so that that's why

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I think it's important to to note the difference which which is what you were drawing out yeah is how those things work together and so does anybody want to hit on that how how they work together what we're missing why we can't leave out one of the other talk to us how that works as as we go out what it should look like like that about it

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I've always thought about it yeah yeah all thumbs or fingers but not all fingers or thumbs right we a lot of ways if the missionary isn't an evangelist what is right but not all evangelists are missionaries yeah right while the while the obligation is

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I think the biggest difference between them going to be location most evangelists go home mid mid their their ministry as most missionaries have extended stance away from home and we can you can

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I there's a lot of words I don't understand but I know that the big difference whenever you're away from home for an extended period of time and it wears on you a little bit different and I believe that's not something you take lightly or that's not an office or a role or responsibility or you pick the words you want to do there that you just jump into you need to be prepared before you do that it's a

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I think it's a call that God puts on your life do that kind of thing even

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Paul said John Mark ain't ready right one of us disagreed with so much so that they went ahead and took two different trips and that's not to say that John Mark would never be ready but in that moment

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I'll just disagree with his purity I think there's a lot of evangelists that are really good that may not make good missionaries yeah

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I think I think when it comes to the the the missionary work I think like you you made the point there to connect to Jonathan's point that it's a locale right it's a it's a for example indigenous missionaries is an important term right it's a it's a it's a it's an individual who is familiar with the you know the the

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I say the climate I'm just speaking of just in general terms right not the weather but they they would be acclimated to the climate the local climate they would be in tune in touch with what's going on in the local town in the local area so they would be indigenous or be be familiar with the area and familiar to the people yeah so missions is something that I'm really passionate about so I hope no one tonight feels like I come at this as a know -it -all

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I am still learning so much about this I want to press you guys just a little bit on what you're saying okay okay yeah so who can quote for me

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Acts chapter one verse eight go ahead go ahead and you will be my witnesses

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I was just reading that in Judea and Samaria to the ends of the earth you shall receive power when the

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Holy Ghost has come upon you and then when you have that Holy Ghost he's going to make some witnesses or missionaries in the hometown and a little further out for me my hometown may be

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Maiden Newton a little further out North Carolina maybe somewhere in the

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United States or even to the uttermost parts of the world and so I get it

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I think I think we've all been raised with this ideology that missionaries when

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I think of a missionary because I was raised good old southern baptist and in RAs and every single

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Wednesday night at RAs we read about missionaries in a foreign country and they're living in mud huts eating bugs and preaching the gospel and so so that's you know that's a missionary yeah then no one dares want to be a missionary because oh man that's that's that's that's for this radical people so there are those that are called to be witnesses unto the uttermost parts of the earth and when

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God empowers them with the Holy Spirit there's not a begrudging obligation there's a zeal there's a zealousness to a people group just like Paul had a zeal toward the

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Gentiles he's going to the Gentiles so he starts his missionary journeys and actually all the apostles according to history have some form of foreign missionary journey they end up going somewhere that they preach the gospel but is that of a less of a mission than Acts 2 where they had all things in common they were breaking bread house to house and they were souls added daily so which one's the greater missionary the ones that are reaching people at home or the ones reaching people in Africa so so that's what

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I'm trying to say is so there is a calling of an empowerment of the Holy Spirit to be a witness and where he gives some a passion to a foreign country and some a passion to to their back door there is still the same commissioning with the same mission and so so then we can get into vocational things just like you know

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I think all are called to preach the gospel but not all are called pastors and preachers in the pulpit you know

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I mean like that gets into semantics and it's vocational calling so I praise God for vocational missionaries yes and I think that's what you guys were distinguishing out there are those vocational guys that there's a unique calling on their life that God has sending them to unreached people groups that's not the universal call of every

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Christian that's right but we would I think all agree according to scripture the universal call of all

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Christians is we are all commissioned to be missionaries to be on mission with the mission to make disciples now the question is where so so that's so that's where I like to push back just on our thought processes a little bit of even how

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I was raised because I'm afraid a lot of our churches don't realize that they are all empowered by the

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Holy Spirit missionaries I tell my kids all the time my kids are in public school there's your mission field right there you know when you go you have a huge mission field

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God has empowered you to be light and salt in that mission field the workforce where you go to work and so I just I just want to make sure

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I think it's important that we equip people with with that missional living missional mindset that they are missionaries and we praise

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God for those that God has sent and we praise God for those missionaries as he said stay God told

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Paul, Paul wanted to go to Asia and the Holy Spirit permitted him to go said stay in the land you know so so now he's become a home missionary for a little while so anyways

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I just wanted to press on that just a little bit does that make sense and yeah yeah that doesn't sound like I know it all but missionology is something that is just very near and dear to my heart and so I'll share more later well

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I would like to I would like to expound a little bit more on that but I want to clarify what

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I was meaning earlier just so we can I think we can move away from that that first set of questions just thinking about the critique of missions in in our lifetime the critique of missions is going to dig a well is that fulfilling the the missions trip that God has sent us on we go and dig a well or we you know is

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Red Cross fulfilling the you know the mission of God the missions is often associated with good works service ministry and that's what it's associated with and the critique is that we go out on a missions trip and we we dig a well or we you know we provide food we we build something and and we fulfilled we were successful on that missions trip but the critique is did you was the gospel present did you use that as a means for the gospel because the gospel is oftentimes absent in those in those endeavors but they feel successful and they claim success because they they did those service ministries because the the concept or the mindset is missions is service work yeah so have we have we got off track and how do we get back on track in that area

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Tyler do you have any thoughts well I was uh reading Acts chapter 20 earlier today um

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I had come across that verse address on Facebook and so I looked it up and it was it was so good and uh

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Acts 20 22 through 24 reads and now I am this

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Paul speaking and now I am on my way to Jerusalem compelled by the spirits not knowing what

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I will encounter there except in every town the Holy Spirit warns me that chains and afflictions are waiting for me but I consider my life of no value to myself my purpose is to finish my course and the ministry

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I received from the Lord Jesus to testify to the gospel of God's grace when was the last time we heard a mission message cover that verse there are chains and afflictions waiting for me um often when we talk about missions um at least in my personal experience uh with the more than the millennial youth group crowd um we often get almost like this this emotional high when we start talking about missions and we're gonna go be the next

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Paul and then we read about his sufferings and wait a minute I don't know about that I don't know if I want to go here

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I don't know if I want to do this um and honestly there's there's got to be a balance somewhere that uh sometimes missions are hard um there was one mission trip

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I went to in high school where I spent the majority of the trip struggling to breathe there are times where God is glorified in us struggling through something like that in us going where it's not comfortable and working in us nonetheless and while we're doing home repairs and all of that um it was still a segue for the gospel and gospel conversations but the reality is part of what we should be looking at with these what we call a mission trip is being emptied of ourselves um as John Wesley once put it spend and be spent in this work but to um but to what end would the um what does being spent look like other than just physical suffering to that yeah

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I think that's where I was going with it you know do we do we feel like we were faithful because we're exhausted or do we feel like we were faithful because we completed the the biblical mission so which is evangelism right right so go ahead humanitarianism versus gospel preaching right and so I've been preaching straight through the book of Luke for almost a year now we're about halfway through been we're doing bible reading right now

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I'm starting the year off I'm about halfway through the book of Acts right now I don't I think the problem with either case is if you do in either or you miss the mission

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Jesus Jesus preached the kingdom of heaven is at hand repent for the kingdom of God is at hand but then he's also healing the sick and feeding the hungry so you don't see an either or in his life it's always a both end and I think so we we have a long -term commitment even though we do a lot of short -term missions we have a long -term commitment to a village in Honduras and with the exception of COVID years

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I've been going four and five times a year to that village to that same place over and over and over and we feed 120 kids five days a week there we built a school we've got 160 kids in the school because we found out 80 percent of that village can't read or write they they had terrible water and so we popped water in from over a mile away up the mountain and the water runs down the mountain and it had so much gravity forces blowing their pipes apart so then we had to put in a retention tank you know to catch um so I could go on and on and on with stories about the humanitarian effort that's been put in there but the most important effort has been when we started working in that village um it's been almost uh

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I think it's been eight years ago now that we started working there there was a 16 no he's 14 a 14 year old kid there that just hung on to our coattails it didn't matter where he went and so fast forward this young man now is our pastor in that village he is the church pastor in that village and now the church oversees all of those ministries we gave it to the church so now that every aspect of those necessities to for them to be able to develop in culture and get out of poverty every one of those things now the gospel is actually the center of that and we have we have the church that now has a school with 160 kids with all christian teachers that actually