The Goal Of Ministry - [Colossians 1:9-14]

Good morning.

I'm very thankful to be here to bring you greetings from Berlin, Germany from the Evangeliums

Christengemeinde in Hellersdorf.

Long name, but it's a church.

It's a Russian -German church.

We attend since quite a few years, and that's where our training center, the EBTC, the

European Bible Training Center, is at home presently.

And we are very grateful for it.

Something you probably don't know is that in Germany there are lots of Russian Germans who have returned

from Russia over the last 30 years.

And presently it's the biggest evangelical church in Germany are the Russian -German

churches.

They count about 100 ,000, anywhere between 500 ,000 to 1 ,000 churches.

So we are very grateful to be part of one church that has already started other three churches in Berlin

itself.

But today I want to talk to you about something what is on my heart, and that is how do we

do spiritually.

That's questions we need to ask ourselves all the time.

And I ask myself in Germany, how is the church doing spiritually?

Where is the church?

What is the state of the church?

And if we would look to a letter from Paul to the Colossians he wrote,

and he prays there in the first chapter to the Colossians really.

And he's focusing on five areas of their life and is thankful when he

thinks about them, especially for their faith they have in Christ, for

their love they have, the sacrificial love, which he's talking about,

for Christ and the church, the brethren, for the fruit they produce, real spiritual fruit.

And it's not only just one time that they produce fruit, but it's an increasing spiritual fruit

they produce, and the comprehension of the spiritual truth, so the word of God.

When I think about that prayer, what he prayed there in chapter 1, verses 3

to 8, then I'm thinking, could we pray this prayer today?

Would we pray that prayer today?

And of course we should pray like this because we should be thankful for other believers, but the

truth is that the state of the church is different very often in today's time.

And if I would look at the church in Germany, I'd say, well, the state of the church is so

weak that it's really shocking.

It's shocking how the spiritual temperature of the church has been steadily

going down and nobody has done anything about it.

It is shocking because on the one hand, when you read about Germany, I don't know how

much you know about Europe, but when you read about Germany, you would think about Germany usually what I hear,

well, great country because produces great cars, economy is doing well.

I mean, that's basically it holds up Europe right now with the euro, which is seemingly going down.

And Germany is doing well, and it's true.

It is doing economically really well.

We had never had such a strong economy in the last, whatever, 20 years, I believe, or more.

But when we see that and then you think about the Second World War, after 67

years, they have rebuilt that country to such a state when it was totally in rebels,

destroyed.

And today, many people think about, hey, they produce good cars, they produce good chocolate, they

produce good soccer players.

Well, they're not bad, and they have the Bavarians, they do this yodeling and stuff like this, good stuff.

But when you look on the other hand, what did happen since, and now I'm going

far back, 500 years ago, in 1517, Luther

pinned the 95 Caesars to the door of Wittenberg to do one thing, and that is to

really go against the trend of the Catholic Church and start the

Reformation by giving the Germans a few years later the New Testament in that local,

in that German language, so the common people were able to read the Bible.

We have, probably all of us have a few Bibles at home, right?

At that time, it was in Latin or in whatever other language, but not in German and not

in English too.

So he brought the Reformation about, at least it started.

But today, the same country is the most godless society on earth, according to research

done by Thomas Smith from the University of Chicago.

The title of his research was, Believe About God Across Times and Countries,

April 18, 2012, published.

East Germany being the most godless society among all countries questioned, with 52 atheist

and only 2 .5 who have a strong belief in a god, not the god of the Bible, in a

god.

So what happened?

What does all the world praise Germany for?

Its economy and its achievement, but spiritually, they are nearly dead.

Let's understand, God is much, Germany is much worse, spiritually speaking, than

Africa, Asia, or any Slavic country, and of course America.

If you want to praise Germany for anything, it's for its godlessness.

They do not believe in God.

Their temperature is bad.

It's really down.

What have they produced?

What did Germany produce in the last 500 years?

Well, I don't need to go so far back, just a few hundred years.

Humanistic philosophy, Kant, Hegel, Karl Marx, and you can name it.

Psychology, Sigmund Freud and others, very known.

Liberal theology, Tübingen, from the University of Tübingen, from the University of Göttingen.

That's really, it has destroyed any biblical theology.

Anti -authoritative education after the Second World War, which basically trained the children in the school

not to obey their parents.

Germany invented the cruelest system of human persecution in the modern times,

with the Nazis under Hitler, and everybody knows about that, but it continued.

The Stasi system in the DDR, in the East German part, until the day before the

unification, October 1990, they interrogated people in the most cruel way you ever

can imagine.

We visited those places.

We heard the testimonies of the people.

We knew how many people died.

Today, the unborn are systematically killed through abortion,

and it's so bad that the young mothers don't understand why can they abort a child

maybe a day before it should be delivered, but why can't I kill my child when it's born?

It's cruel when I say that, right?

You're shocking, but every week, seemingly, or every two weeks, you hear a testimony, you find a child somewhere,

in the fridge, in the trash can, or whatever.

Why?

Because it makes no sense for them, for the young mothers.

They don't know any ethics.

They don't know God.

Why?

Why should I not?

It's my life.

I don't want kids.

And that is strange because Germany wants to grow.

They want to have more people.

They want to have a growing society, but it's in a decrease because humanistically, they are on

the top, but godly, they are totally ungodly.

Mercy killing of the hurting and the old is on the rise without consideration of any sanctity of

life from God's perspective.

The European Constitution has no mention about God of the Bible at all.

My wife and I and some other friends, we went into the Reichstag, which is the main

government building, and visited that.

We had a tour, and we went.

There's a chapel there.

And you would try to find a cross or find the Bible there.

You don't find it.

You find every other religion there.

There's a cross on the table, a small wooden cross put on the table, so they have an alibi.

And somewhere you will find maybe a looser Bible stacked away.

But every other religion you find, everything from the Muslims, the Buddhists, and every other religion, you find in that chapel, but not

the Christian religion.

And instead, there's a big, huge sign on the floor.

It's by a humanist, but not by the god or by any biblical message.

Do we need to wonder that the German people reject God if the mind of the

Germans has been corrupted by the philosophies of man?

We don't.

That's what we have to expect.

The world's achievements come with a high price, a lost and damned society

deceived by their own philosophies.

Yes, they are in the eyes of the world successful, but by God's standards, they are lost

and need the truth more than ever.

The sad part with this development is that the church has not kept a strong footing in the truth like the

reformers when they called out for the five solas, sola scriptura, sola

gratia, sola fides, sola Christi, sola deo gloria.

That's not, nobody would even know what that means today.

If you ask about Luther, they think about Martin Luther King, but not about Martin Luther.

If you go, we went to the university to do an interview, they didn't even know what Luther

achieved.

They don't know that the university is basically based upon what Luther achieved, education came out of the

church.

So when Cheryl and I came back to Germany in 1997, I was asked to write an

article and the article was that, I named it, that the

church lost its identity.

The church doesn't know why they exist and for what they exist.

And every year when our church, our classes start at the European Bible Training Center in the three locations I'm

teaching most of the practical theology classes or also other classes, and then I usually

start with what is the function, what is the role of the church today?

And I always try to find out what do they think the church should do?

What is the goal of the church?

And I hardly ever get a biblical philosophy or understanding what the church should be.

Very often they say, yeah, they agree with the focus of the church and it should be spiritual, the

believers should grow, they should be taught maturity in God, to worship God and also to

proclaim the gospel.

But they also agree and they say, well, what are you really doing?

You know that's what's right, but what are you doing?

What is your church doing?

Well, they say we are more concerned to fit into the German culture and the society.

And that's how the programs look.

The problem is we as a church, and that includes the church here, should not

fit in.

At least that is what we read when we look at what the scripture says.

We should not fit in.

Jesus himself expected us not to fit in.

In the Gospel of John chapter 17, you might want to open your Bibles to the Gospel of John

chapter 17.

Jesus prayed the Lord's Prayer or the Disciples' Prayer, however you want to call it.

But he says in verse 14 and following, the following, I have given them your word,

Jesus prayed to God, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world even as I am

not of the world.

Verse 15, I do not ask you to take them out of the world, but to

keep them in the world, to keep them from the evil ones, sorry,

they are not of the world even as I am not of the world.

Sanctify them in the truth.

Your word is truth.

As you have sent them into the world, I also have sent them into the world.

For their sake I sanctify myself, and they themselves also may be

sanctified in truth.

So Jesus knew and expected there will be confrontation and that they won't fit

in.

Now the question is, how are we doing?

How are we doing in a hostile world?

How are we doing spiritually?

Our focus as a training center is really that man,

that they grow spiritually.

And for that, in order to even reach the world, the hostile world,

we need an army of believers who reach out and share the gospel, who share their life in

Christ with others.

The goal is to grow everyone spiritually, every

believer spiritually.

And that's even as a church and the training centers we are involved with.

In Colossians 2, a very known verse, a passage that is very

dear to my heart, is when Paul writes to the Colossians the following, and he says, Him we

proclaim, warning everyone.

It's chapter 1, verse 28 and 29.

Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom that we may present

everyone mature in Christ.

For this I toil struggling with all his energy that he powerfully

works within me.

Paul's desire was the growth of every believer in the church.

So it's not only our desire to mature men or leaders in

their ministry, but everyone, no matter what age group they are, no matter what

social background they are, no matter what education they received, our goal is to

mature them in Christ.

And that is exactly what Paul wants.

Paul wants every believer to grow spiritually at all times, at all times.

And that is a challenge.

So let's read the passage this morning, Colossians 1, verses 3

to 8.

Sorry, verses 3 to 8.

This is his prayer.

This is what Paul prayed.

We give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you

since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love which you have for all the saints

because of the hope laid up for you in heaven of which you previously heard in the word of

the truth, the gospel, which has come to you just as in all the world, also it

is constantly bearing fruit and increasing even as it has been doing in

you also since the day you heard of it and understood the grace of God in truth,

just as you learned from Epaphras, our beloved fellow born servant who is a faithful servant of Christ

on our behalf and he also informed us of your love in the spirit.

So Paul praises or prays basically for them and he is kind of

doing, he's just excited about their

growth in God.

He says about, he prays about the faith, the love, the fruit, the increasing of fruit and the comprehension

of spiritual truth and he was thankful to God for what

God was accomplishing in the lives of this growing and multiplying Christians.

He was excited about that.

He focused on that.

He basically did kind of a somersault and said, I'm just grateful

for their growth and he's excited because they

continuously grow and that is something what we need to also

focus on.

It doesn't just happen.

Growth doesn't just happen and it's not just one time when you come to know the Lord and that's it.

When I first became a believer, I thought, why do I need to go to Bible school?

I mean, why should I?

I mean, I can read the Bible and I know everything, right?

And I realized fast that there are a lot of things I don't understand in the Bible because my whole life I

was thinking totally wrong.

I had to, my mind had to be changed and by the Spirit and the Word of God, it could

be changed and was changed step at a time and I'm still growing and trying to understand things.

But this is something what the Bible teaches altogether.

In 2 Peter, verse 3, 18, he says, Peter says, But grow

in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

To him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity.

And it was something God wanted.

You see, from biblical perspective, spiritual growth is not an option.

It's not like choosing a Mac or whatever, going to a salad bar and choosing whatever you like.

Spiritual fruit is an absolute command by God.

He expects us to grow spiritually.

So the question we could ask, okay, last year, how did my life look?

Have I grown in the love for the believer?

Have I grown in patience?

Have I grown in long suffering?

Have I been growing in all those aspects of spiritual fruit?

Spiritual growth for every Christian was the very heart of Paul's ministry.

He wanted them to be complete, and he wanted them fully mature.

You know, as a parent, that's what I want my children.

I'm not seeing my children as children.

I always said, you know, for young parents, I always say to them, We are totally excited about

your baby, that you have a new child, and so on and so on and so on.

And they always, in the beginning, you know, the most important thing is to dress them right, that they look cute and all that

stuff, you know, and everybody gets excited until we realize they are sinners and rebels and we

have to train them, and it's not just, you know, giving them everything they want.

And very often parents don't see their children as adults later.

They see them as children, and we have to learn that they are adults.

They become another adult who is responsible to share the gospel

and to come to Christ and share the gospel.

I mean, those people, we need to bring them up into maturity, and that's what we want every believer who comes to the

church, who comes to Christ.

And Paul had that in mind when he said, for instance, in Ephesians 1, verse 18 and 19, having the eyes

of your heart enlightened, he said, that you may know what is the hope to which you have been called,

what are the riches of glory and inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of

the power toward us who believe.

He wanted them to grow.

Or the Great Commission, what is the Great Commission teaching?

Matthew 28.

Well, yeah, make disciples, we all agree with that, but teaching them to observe all that I have commanded

you.

And then Jesus didn't stop there.

He said, behold, I'm with you always even to the end of the age.

He said, you know, I'm with you.

I mean, I want you to do this because I'm on your side.

This is why the church must be in the business of both evangelization,

evangelizing those outside the church that they might be saved, and

preaching biblical theology to those who are known, who

know Christ as their Lord, that they might grow in the knowledge of God.

And that's the only way to do it.

There's no zapping in the spirit and you become a mature believer.

That's not happening.

You know, I tried it all the time.

It doesn't work.

It just doesn't work.

It's hard work.

It's the same thing when you're hungry, you have to eat, right?

It's not that somebody injects you or, you know, makes you.

It's just the normal thing.

A child, you need to feed.

You need to do all this thing.

I mean, it's so natural.

Everywhere else we see that, but sometimes I think the Christians want to revert it and change things.

And it's not talking about mere academia.

It's not like fill your word, read the Bible, memorize it.

That's not the issue.

It's really to be the purpose is to study God's word, is to grow in the understanding

of God, to know who the God is who gave us eternal life and

whose children we have become.

God wants us to have a big picture of him.

Why?

Because the picture of God is big.

Because the picture of God is big.

There is no small God.

There is a big God.

And in order to understand him, we need to understand the whole counsel of God.

Put another word, don't cheat yourself by not knowing God.

Don't cheat yourself by not knowing the Bible.

Don't go for the second best.

Go for the best.

The majority of believers sometimes cheat themselves just by not spending the time with

God and the word of God.

They are not committed to grow in the knowledge of God.

Okay, there are three things I want us to do today and to just be reminded hopefully

about that.

It's a priority of spiritual growth.

It's a priority.

We all should.

Then there's a path to spiritual growth and there's a purpose of spiritual growth.

The priority of spiritual growth is God.

It is God's priority for us to grow spiritually.

And we read that in the verses 9 and following, chapter 1, verses 9 and following, for this reason also

since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and

to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and

understanding.

And then he goes on.

So that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord to please him in all respects, bearing

fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.

Strengthen with all the power according to his glorious might for the attaining of all the

steadfastness and patience, joyously giving thanks to the Father who has

qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints and the light.

For he rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom

of his beloved son in whom we have redemption and forgiveness of sin.

He made it very clear, Paul.

He wanted us to grow spiritually, every one believer to grow spiritually and the

Colossians too.

The priority is to grow spiritually.

And he prayed for that.

He was so encouraged by that and he asked for that specifically that they would grow

spiritually.

And then he said he understood that it was his job to do that.

It was his job to pray for them.

He wanted that dearly.

You see, Paul was not content to see the Colossians or anybody to stop at the

first base just to become believers and that's it.

No, he wanted them to have an adding score that continuously they grow.

If I would just talk to you about your life as a Christian, there

should be a story.

There should be a story of continuous growth.

And it's not about how many classes you visited or how often you went to church.

No, it is how you dealt in your life with suffering maybe,

with patience, with problem people,

relationships you have.

You thought I should divert from this relationship.

Maybe it's your brother or your sister.

You're always fighting.

Well, maybe God gave you the brother and sister to learn patience and loving somebody who maybe not loving you,

loves you.

But that is spiritual growth.

It is when you endure the things which are difficult.

What did Jesus do?

He had to endure.

He wanted to endure.

He gave us an example.

So what do you think?

If Paul saw spiritual growth as such a priority, shouldn't you make it your

priority to walk with the Lord and grow with him and make the knowledge of God

your priority?

What are you doing about it?

What are you doing about the growth?

Are you about when you sin against somebody because you were not unpatient or you were unloving, do you go

and ask for forgiveness and repent and change your life?

Do you pray about it?

Okay, there are three suggestions I give.

They're very simple.

They are probably already practiced, but it's still a good reminder.

Develop a regular time of daily Bible study and reading.

Develop a regular time of daily Bible study and reading.

Make sure that you spend time in the Word of God systematically.

I found out that people read here and there and there and there and then hopefully they understand what God

wants and what the counsel of God is in the Bible.

Well, we have learned that it's very important to go really systematically through the Bible because

very often we leave out the things which are maybe heavy to read or difficult to read because we don't understand

the background, but that's why you have training in Bible schools or

church Sunday schools and other things here that will help you to understand.

Secondly, be in the fellowship with believers so they can encourage you to love and good deeds or

admonish you and correct you when you need correction.

Hebrews 10, 24 and 25 really calls us to do that.

And it's not only the Sunday when we come together.

The church is seen as a big family, as a body.

It's a functioning organism.

Somebody, you know, I was just in another church two weeks, yeah, it was probably two weeks or three

weeks ago, and then somebody talked about what the church is and he said it's

kind of an institution.

And I said, no, it's not an institution.

It's not like any kind of worldly institution.

Maybe you think about the church that way, and you could if you would be in Germany or in Europe, but no, it's

an organism.

It's a living organism.

It's a body that needs to be fed and grow.

So it's different.

And make a commitment to get involved in the church and the Lord's work, not to just be busy,

but to serve people, strive, do the one another's amongst you,

that the world needs to see that you love one another.

They need to see it by doing it.

Okay, the second point is a key understanding to spiritual growth is that we

understand the path to spiritual growth.

A deep knowledge of God's word, and that is very important, a

deep knowledge of God's word, to be filled with God's truth.

And I mentioned that already or we read it in John 17, 17, thy word is truth.

Matthew 5, 18 is another scripture which mentions that not even the little tiniest

point in the Bible will go away before heaven and earth will go away, meaning that the word of God is

constant, it's true, it stands.

Psalm 19, I love this psalm because it talks about the creation of

God's creation and then the supernatural, the special creation of God's word and how that has impact on the world

and everybody.

And Psalm 119, which really praises the word of God and shows it

how it's part of our life.

Paul wanted the Colossians to be filled with the knowledge of his will.

He wanted them to understand, to be filled with him.

And he prayed for that.

And you know what he did not pray for?

Isn't that interesting?

He did not pray that they would prosper in their business ventures.

Nothing like that.

He did not pray that they would be free from trouble, free from persecution.

No, he didn't pray that.

And that's important, to often make a mistake of praying for good things while failing to

pray for the excellent, for the excellent.

He prayed that they would be filled with the knowledge of God's will.

This is the path to spiritual growth.

Here, another couple of observations.

Paul knew that such knowledge must be granted by God himself and

it's not a product of human philosophy.

Be filled is a passive voice, so they will be filled.

It's not something they could do.

God is an agent who fills the people with the knowledge of his will.

When they seek it through the source he has revealed, so through

God's word.

Apart from God's word, there is no real growth happening.

You can hear about it obviously through tapes and something, but it's always based upon the word of God.

God is still the agent.

You cannot get it by obtaining doctorate or

any science or philosophy.

It doesn't happen through that.

And we know that from Germany.

I mean, you have the biggest known names from history and yet Germany is the most godless society

today.

And the same will be true probably from every other country you will investigate.

Truth is made known by God and given to us when we humble ourselves to ask him

for it and seek where he has given it to us in the word of God.

Second, he says, with all wisdom it is full.

He says he wants us to be filled with a wisdom

that we are aware of.

And he continuously repeats this in the letter to the Colossians.

He mentions this over and over again that they were, in

verse 28 he says, teaching everyone with all wisdom.

In verse 2 -3 he says, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

In chapter 3, verse 16, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom.

And then later on in chapter 4 he says, walk in wisdom and taught outsiders make the best

use out of the time.

So he wants them to understand it and he wants them to understand the truth

of God, make known to them.

And God never reveals himself to human brilliance at all.

It is always through the wisdom to the word of God and we read that in 1 Corinthians where he said to the Corinthians

that actually the wisdom of the world is foolishness

in God's eye or God's wisdom is foolishness to the world.

So we understand it needs to be spiritually minded.

It's a product God wants and it comes through the work of the Holy Spirit and the

word of God.

Seek him and he will let you find him.

Seek him and he will let you find him.

Second observation, he wants them, the believers, to be filled with a full knowledge,

not just some of it, but with a full knowledge.

He used the intense form here.

He mentioned that over and over in the epistle he said, full, fullness, filling,

constantly.

He wants them to know it all.

He just didn't want them to know a little bit, but know it all.

And why did Paul want them to have the full knowledge?

The answer is because truth is the best weapon against a lie.

Truth is the best weapon against lie.

The worldly philosophies and human reasoning and man -made religion need to be

dismantled by the truth.

If you know the truth, you will not fall into the hands of the wrong teacher or the

hypocrite or whatever.

You will be able to detect it.

He says it even in Ephesians 4 verse 18, Do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.

And he wants us to know the will of the Lord.

He wants us to be full of this.

So, in chapter 2 verse 8, he warns the

Colossians about the danger of false teaching.

And he says, see to it that no one takes you captive through

philosophies and empty deception according to the tradition of man, according to the

elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ.

He warns them.

And we need to be warned.

We need to understand that we do not go that way.

That we really understand that the philosophies of man are not even good in a little bit.

And that's what I always have in the classes when we talk about psychology versus

biblical counseling.

And we unmentionably say, well, but there are good ideas in psychology.

We say, well, but what is this based on?

Well, they might make right observation, but their outgoing point is always human.

There's something good in man.

And they don't see the man as what he really is from the Bible.

And they don't want to please God.

They want to please themselves.

And so the outcome is that people are misled.

And they turn around themselves and want to see how they do better.

They want to get rid of the problem.

They just don't want to change.

So the top priority is that we grow spiritually.

And the way to grow is through the knowledge of his will through the word of God.

The purpose of spiritual growth is to live a life that is fully pleasing to our

Lord.

The purpose is to please the Lord.

It's not just know the word of God.

It is to know him, that you might walk in a manner

worthy of the Lord, that you might walk in the manner worthy of the Lord.

Only let your manner of life be worthy of the

gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you, he says, or I'm absent, I may hear of

you that you are standing firm in the spirit with one mind striving side by side

for the faith of the gospel.

Paul wanted always the believers to strive together for the truth and stand firm

to please the Lord, to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord.

There's so much more to say how you can walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, but it's based upon what you

learn from the scripture.

Paul wanted us to walk and walk worthy, and that

needs to take place in our own life.

Walk right and be careful and wise when you walk to please God

himself.

That is actually exactly what we want to do at the EBTC, at the training center.

That's what we want to do in Germany.

That's what we want to do in every church.

We want to build up mature Christians, and that's why it's so important to pray.

Pray for your own church.

Pray for your own church that everyone, each individually, will grow spiritually and grow in the knowledge

of Jesus Christ, grow in the knowledge of God, understand the whole counsel of God.

As such, I would challenge you as a church to continue to pray for us in Germany,

to pray for the training center, to pray for us personally and for the men who work with me.

Pray for us that our church would be a church known that will

continually grow spiritually by walking worthy.

That means that we do every good work for Jesus Christ, not for ourselves,

that our attitude is an attitude of worship to God, that we are seen by our

Lord as people who love the brethren, that we are testimony outside of

the church because for our love amongst each other.

Another very important prayer is that we keep an eternal perspective on

the life and ministry because it is so easy to become complacent and

satisfied with the things of this world.

It's so easy, even as a Christian.

You get into a routine and a road and you forget why you are there.

It doesn't matter how much ministry you do.

We want to keep the eternal perspective.

And, yeah, if you just remember that, and I want to also just be thankful for your church who has stood

behind us in the years in the past and supported us

financially with prayer.

God has given us a lot of fruit, which we really didn't expect that God would do that, that

we were, and as I mentioned in the previous hours, that we have started 10 or 11 years

ago with 20 people, yeah, 20 men and women at that time, also with the training.

But only after three or four years was it when we graduated three guys of the whole group.

The rest never really went through the whole training.

Later on, one more finished his training.

Last June we were able to graduate 140 people, and that is a huge

change.

The hunger for the Word of God is there, but it's still a drop on

the hot stone, we say, when you think about 80 million

people and not even a percent of believers.

There's a lot more to be done, and it starts with reaching out to everyone.

Let me pray.

Let's stand for prayer, please.

Father God, we are reminded about your goodness and your kindness.

You have revealed yourself through your Son, Jesus Christ, the Word of God, and have

built the church on the foundation of your Son and have given us the tools and

the means to grow the church, and that is through the abiding Word and the

truth you have given us and the Holy Spirit that indwells us.

We ask that you will protect this church, grow it in such a way that it's known

throughout the area here and beyond the borders and that men and women

will be changed and trained and new churches will be

built.

God, we thank you for your goodness and your protection so far, and we ask really, Lord, that we

also honor you with our lives and men and women that are spiritually minded and

are concerned about spiritual growth for ourselves and for others.

In Jesus' name, amen.