The Witness Of BBC

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Dear God, our Heavenly Father, we thank you for this morning. We thank you for bringing us here together to hear your word, to worship you, and to have our hearts and minds fixed upon Jesus.
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Lord, enable us as we listen to the word and as we sing praises to you that we would be people of the word.
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We would be people who are enthralled with the beauty of our Savior. Even this time, this class, we commit into your hands.
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Teach us what you will from your word. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Okay, we will find out shortly what the class is about, but I have a couple of questions to start this
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Sunday school this morning. So when you think of BBC, Bethlehem Bible Church, and you had to say one thing that was unique about this church in this area, what would you say it is?
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Expository preaching. Thank you. I think, you know, one thing that we strive hard in this church here is to stay true to the word and to preach it and to teach it as God would have us do.
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Now, when you preach and teach, what are you doing in a church context?
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What is the leadership doing when you preach and teach? You are discipling.
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That's exactly right. So that the Saints can grow in maturity in Christ. You are equipping the
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Saints to do the work of the ministry and the work of the ministry is both within the church, within the body and there is a component of this ministry that is outside the church.
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And this morning's message is going to focus on the kind of ministry that the church has outside to the world.
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And I want to start off with a thought because I want us to have our minds aligned as we go through some scripture and go through some facts this morning.
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How many of you are familiar with the story of Jim Elliot? Can someone give me a one -minute version of Jim Elliot's story?
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Yes. Praise the
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Lord. When you hear a story, thank you, Louis.
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I can count on Louis to give you a broad summary in a very short time. When you hear a story like this, you know, it's hard not for the hair at the back of your neck to kind of stand up.
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But when you think, I mean each of you here, when you think of Jim Elliot, what are you thinking?
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What is the first and foremost thought that comes to your mind? Sacrifice.
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Here is a man who sacrificed his life, a young man with a young family whose goal was to reach these people who did not have the gospel, knowing the risk and giving up his life.
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Great sacrifice. What else comes to your mind when you think of this story? Obedient servant.
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And, you know, you could just look at the various aspects of this man's godliness in his willingness to submit to the word and go out and reach these people who were lost.
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Today's subject, you know, today's Sunday School goes through a lot of material. You know, normally I try to keep one track so that, you know, by the time you finish, you're not lost.
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But today we are going to be looking at various different things. So I wanted to give you the central theme. So you are looking through everything we look at with this in mind.
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And the thrust of today's class is it's good to see all these examples in church history and even in recent church history where people have made great sacrifices, who have obediently submitted themselves to God's word in reaching the lost.
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And to even bless them when we look back at the memory of what they have done and say, you know, praise God for such a man that obeyed
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God. But the question I have this morning for us from our text is as a church, as Bethlehem Bible Church, and as individual members of this church, what am
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I doing to the call that God has given us to go out and preach the good news?
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So we will go through some text and I'm going to give you some data with regards to a specific area we as a church are focusing on and preparing towards.
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And my call to all of you here and to the rest of the body is that you would examine your own lives and see, you know, what is
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God calling me to do with regards to spreading His word and spreading
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His good news? So this is actually an application Sunday school from the last three classes that I did.
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We were going through the book, the chapter five of the book of John. We saw three distinct phases in the book.
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For those of you who remember, we did John chapter 5, 1 through 15. There we had the healing of the invalid man.
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We see how Jesus moves with compassion, picks one particular individual out of a bunch of people who are sick.
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And we find that it is not just a single incident. It is also a pattern where Jesus goes and heals and He chooses to do that on a specific day.
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He does that on a Sabbath. And that Sabbath healing causes a controversy which we saw in the second phase, which is
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John chapter 5, verses 16 through 30, where we see that the Jewish authorities were having a problem with what
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Jesus was doing. They came and said, well, this man is breaking the law. It was not the law as it is in the scriptures, but it was the traditional law.
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And then Jesus said, well, if you have a trouble with what I'm doing, I have something more to tell you. And He comes out and lays the truth about who
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He is. He says, I am God Himself. You have a remarkable exposition of the deity of Christ, the union that Jesus and the
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Father have. And that causes the authorities to step up their efforts to get rid of Jesus.
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So we see the truth about the deity of Christ in John chapter 5, verses 15 through 30.
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And then we concluded with John chapter 5, verses 31 to 47.
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And there, in the midst of the attack that Jesus was facing, He says, well, let me give you proof or evidence that you ought to examine and worship me as God.
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And He gives them several evidences that they have right before their faces that they have to submit to.
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So some of the evidences we saw there, there were four things that I want to just quickly point out as we start to apply this text.
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The first one, Jesus pointed to the testimony of John. That's in John chapter 5, verses 33 and 35.
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He said, you sent to John, and he has borne witness to the truth. Here was someone in the community, well -respected, who had already talked about Jesus.
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People knew he was telling the truth, and Jesus was the man who had come. John chapter 5, verse 35.
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He was burning a shining lamp, and he said, you are willing to rejoice for a while.
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So John was the first witness. And then in verse 36, Jesus says, the works that the
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Father has given me to accomplish, the very works that I am doing bear witness about me that the
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Father has sent me. So the second witness that Jesus was pointing to was the works that he himself was doing in their midst, even the healing of the invalid that had happened just before.
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And then in verse 37, we have the third witness, which is the witness of God the
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Father. He says, you know, God himself, the Father himself, has borne witness about me.
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And then finally in verse 39, he said, you search the scriptures because you think in them that in them you have eternal life.
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It is they that bear witness about me, and yet you refuse to come to me. So he gives four broad witnesses and testimony about who
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Jesus Christ is and why they ought to believe in as the Messiah and as God himself. And when we concluded the last of the class, we said, well,
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Jesus, God himself, came and used these means to proclaim who he was and what people ought to do in response.
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And we also briefly examined what we as believers ought to do in the model of Christ.
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We saw, in fact, all of these examples, the works that Jesus did. Jesus, before he ascended later in John, said, greater things than these you will do because I am ascending to the
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Father. And you read in Ephesians 1, it is the Father who is called, those who will come to faith in Christ.
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And later we read that it is the Spirit that gives conviction. So it is the work of God that people come to faith in Christ.
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It is God who is our witness. And ultimately, we have the very same scriptures that talk about who
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Jesus Christ is. It is on the basis of the scriptures that we go out and proclaim the good news. Now, you might say, well, you know,
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Jesus was God. And maybe there was something special about the way he did his witnessing.
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And I'm just a human being saved by grace, sinner. And do
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I actually have to go out and do the kind of things that Jesus did in order to proclaim his good news?
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I think most of you know the answer. I can see some smiles. Yes, we are called to go out and proclaim the good news.
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Most of you, when I think of a verse, what is the verse that comes to mind? Matthew 28, 18 to 20, the
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Great Commission. And, in fact, there was something very interesting that I just found recently.
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I probably should have seen this earlier. But Matthew 28 has parallel passages in the rest of the
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Gospels. And it kind of culminates in the Acts passage. So I've heard it said that the
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Great Commission passages, you have actually five passages, very similar, all talking about this command that believers have to go out into the world.
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So let me just quickly give you those verses, and I'll read them as we get into what we are called to do.
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So the first one is in Matthew 28, verse 18. And Jesus came and said to them,
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All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the
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Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.
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And, behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. So we have here, this passage is more common because it has a more full -arbed presentation of what it means to go out as a missionary and what it means to have people evangelized and brought into the church and what it means to make disciples of them in teaching them all that Christ has commanded.
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The other passages we have, the next one is in Mark, Mark 16, 15. Jesus said to them,
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Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. Here again, you have a mandate to go to the lost, and the lost is the whole world.
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And then you have a passage in Luke 24, 45 to 47. Here it says,
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Jesus opened their minds to understand the scriptures and said to them, Thus it is written that the
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Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations beginning from Jerusalem.
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So forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed to all nations. Who's going to be proclaiming that? It is his disciples.
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And Christ says, you know, it has to go out into all the nations. And then the last gospel, John 20, 21.
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Jesus said to them again, Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.
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And that's a very powerful verse. When you think of Christ's mandate coming into the darkness, and there's a light coming into the darkness to redeem those who are lost in sin.
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And Christ here is sending us as his ambassadors to a world that is lost and in darkness.
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And finally, the verse Acts 1, 8, you're all familiar with, where Jesus says,
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But you have to wait till you receive power from on high. He says, You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses.
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Witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.
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That we should be ambassadors of Christ. That we should proclaim his excellencies. That we should be witnesses of what he has done in our lives and who he is.
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There is no ambiguity at all. We all know that that is our call. In fact, if we didn't have to do that, God could just take us right up into heaven.
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But there is components that these texts speak of.
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There is a mandate to get this gospel out into the whole world, into all the nations. And there is a
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Jerusalem, which is where you are right now. There is a Judea and Samaria, the regions around.
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And then there is the ends of the earth. So last week I asked, last time we looked at this, I asked you the question,
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What is the difference between evangelism and missions? Evangelism, does anybody know where the word evangelism comes from, the root word?
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Yes, Bruce? Yes, Evangelion, and you is good, and Evangelion is message.
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So good news, that's the good news, and you are good newsing the people. You are just proclaiming the news to those who are around you.
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And mission, mission actually comes from the Latin word, missio, which is to be sent, to go out.
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But in terms of how it is commonly understood, when we think of evangelism, we are thinking of personal evangelism, one on one.
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You have people whom you meet on a daily basis, or you meet in downtown, and you just go out and talk to them.
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Here are people who are similar to you, who can understand your language, whom you know where they are coming from, and you just proclaim the good news.
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And when you think of missions, typically it thinks of at least two barriers that you cross.
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One of those barriers is a language barrier, where somebody doesn't have the good news, and you don't speak their language, and you go there, learn their language, and speak to them, and teach them what they do not know.
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And the second barrier, does anybody know what the second barrier is? It's a cultural barrier.
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So here are people that are like the Aka tribe, you have no idea how they think, and they have no access to the gospel, and you go out there, understand the way they speak, and what their culture is, and get into their culture, and proclaim the gospel in a way that they can understand.
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And the message is the same, but there are people who do not have access to it. And that's where missions comes in, where you go out into the world, and proclaim the good news.
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Now let's look at BBC's Witness. When you think of BBC's Witness when it comes to evangelism, what are the things that you can say that BBC does?
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Does BBC evangelize? No? Yes? Nursing home ministry.
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Excellent point. We have every third Saturday, men going out and preaching, and I think it's next
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Saturday that the youth group are actually going to go with the preachers. It's a great time to serve, and to proclaim the gospel.
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Yes? Anything else? Absolutely.
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Our church is primarily a preaching and teaching church, and it is a great service to the saints, and at the same time it has the gospel.
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In fact, you're right. One of my friends recently found me on the website at BBC, and he said after 20 years, it was just amazing, and he listened to the message, and that's absolutely right.
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The street ministry, downtown evangelism, that's a powerful way to go and preach to those who are lost.
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In fact, I want to say something about this. I didn't get an opportunity to talk to this gentleman, otherwise
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I would have given you his name. I heard this story about one of our members here, where he comes back from work, and he says, well, you know,
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I have a little extra energy in myself, and I feel like I need to go and evangelize.
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So he comes back from work, changes his clothes, and then says, well, I'll see you in an hour, honey, and off he goes, and witnesses, and then comes back.
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I said, that's great. You know, that's how our minds should be aligned, where we are thinking, well, I have a few extra minutes.
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How would I use it to serve the Lord? And this person I did talk to, the other one is
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Barry, and he mentioned, I think a couple of weeks back, he said, he came back home, downtown witnessing had stopped for the season, because it is cold, but he had a little extra time, and he called
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Bruce, and said, hey, brother Bruce, can I go out to Worcester, and tell people about Jesus? He said, sure.
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Off they go, to going into downtown, and witnessing while they had the time, and redeeming the time that God had given them.
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So that's one example of how BBC as a witness, in the local area, is evangelizing.
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When you think of missions, how do you think BBC is missionary, in terms of reaching to people, who are outside our language and culture?
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PTI, yes, that is our primary focus in missions for us, is to have men who are equipped, to go out and train locals, so that they can do the work of evangelizing, evangelism in their culture, because they understand the people better, they know the language better, but they need to be fed the word, and understand the doctrines, so that they can go out and do it.
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So we are heavily invested in PTI, that we can support these men, who would go out and preach.
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Is there any other way that we, yes, the
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Plotniks, Plotniks are part of the PTI, and yes, so the same thing, PTI in Pune is the
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India, that we have two men there, and then in Plotniks are in South Africa, and that's the same goal, that we would equip them.
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That's exactly right, thank you, that gives me my lead into, the rest of today's Sunday School. So, in addition to having these men, who are long -term missionaries, located there, whom we are supporting, and doing this primary work of missions, not all of us, have that same kind of background, to be able to go and do that, and we see that, as God's work happening, in these different parts of the world, which we support, but at the same time, we also have a mandate, for those of us here, who have, the call to go out, and witness to the people, who are lost, and one such way, we are going to do, is through Mozambique.
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In fact, I was looking for the Johnsons, who are back from China here, to share a little bit about, how their ministry in China, has been for the glory of God, and I think brother
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Bruce, has been on some short -term trips, how many years now Bruce, have you been? Twice to Jamaica, and how was it, when you went there, and you came back, were you different, before and after?
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Was it just a fun, pleasure trip? Absolutely, when you go out, and when you see a different culture, different people, different context altogether, and you see the need there, for people to hear the word, and you go out, and serve with all of your life, you take a week of vacation, from your work, and here you are, you're not just going on a pleasure cruise, but you're here going out, and serving the people, not the ideal conditions, to sleep and rest, you wake up early in the morning, you stay up late in the night, but you are about the
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Lord's business, and you are there for a purpose, to serve those, who have not heard the gospel.
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Now, actually, is there anybody else here, who has done a short -term mission before? Yes Chuck, where did you go?
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Very good.
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Anyone else? Yes? Haiti, and yourself? Very good, yeah, and you'd be surprised, at the cultural differences, when you actually go within the
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US, to different parts as well, and there is a legitimate need, for us to do these short -term missions, and we'll look at that in a minute, but first let's talk about Mozambique, today's
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Sunday school, will give you a little bit of facts, about what this short -term missions, to Mozambique is, the purpose is, firstly to educate you, about why we are even doing
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Mozambique, Mozambique is a long ways away, it's not like Washington DC, where you can just go quickly, and come and it's not as, it's a little more expensive, than going to DC, and why are we going to Mozambique, so brother
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Bruce mentioned the connection, we have Steve Plotnick, who is one of our missionaries, we support at South Africa, he went there as part of PTI, and he's training young men there, he's part of a church called
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Christ Church, and that church has a missions group, called Samaria missions, and the
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Samaria missions, is doing missionary work in Mozambique, and that is how we came to know, about the need there in Mozambique, through our sister church in South Africa, and there is a need, and they've asked for people, to help out with the missions, and we felt strongly, that we should be a part of the ministry, that goes on in Mozambique, so let me give you a quick background, on what happens in Mozambique in general, and then specifically, about the spiritual need, and how we will be ministering, to these people there, so firstly the country as a whole, it's very surprising, you know somebody tell me, what you thought the religion, of Mozambique would be, predominant religion, if you haven't recently read, because of our trip, yes
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Catholicism, that's right you're good, I looked at this, and I said you know
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Catholicism, I was thinking animism, or something you know, in Mozambique in the bush, but Catholicism is 24%, and they have a version of, something called
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Zionism, which is 18 % Muslims are 18%, and then the they call
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Protestants, but they basically have, mostly assemblies of God, and then a lot of cults, and false teachers,
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Seventh -day Adventist Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, and others, that have all come there, and having churches in this area, and but as with most
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African places, there is the problem, there is a lot of syncretism, and the natural religions, mixed in with whatever, they have been taught, this country was a
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Portuguese colony, for 500 years, and it received its independence, very recently, it's less than 30, little over 30 years ago, 75, 1975 is when it became, an independent nation, and sadly since then, they've had a lot of civil war, and droughts, and it has been a very, very poor nation, it was in turmoil until 92, when the civil war ended, and since then it has been, generally on the way up, in terms of giving the people, some freedom, and ability to grow, but in 1995, it was actually the most poorest nation, in the world, and I was really shocked, to see this, but sadly that was the situation, it's a little different now, than it has been, but they're still a long ways, from being where they could be, now that's the general, political situation, but what is this, what about the spiritual state, some of the material
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I read, it says many of these areas, have unreached, or least reached people groups, what does the unreached, people group mean, should be easy come on, no contact at all, so these are people, who have absolutely no access, to the gospel, they don't have the gospel, in their language, they don't have ready, ability to just go, and okay
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I want to know, who Jesus Christ is, let me knock the nearest church, and find out you know, what they have to say, no these need these people, need someone to go into them, and tell them who
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Jesus Christ is, and then people groups, is another language, that I think most of us, may not be familiar with, when we think of missions, we are normally thinking, in terms of countries, you know does
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Africa, South Africa have a church there, or does you know
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China, have a church here, but when you realize, you know these countries, have a lot of different ethnic, and linguistic groups, which are in isolation, from the rest of the people, even within a given country, that is where the focus is, when you think of, reaching all the peoples, we are thinking of the ethnos, the people who have no access, or limited access to the gospel, and the particular group, in Mozambique, that we are going to look at, they speak this language called,
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Shangaan or Songa, so they overall, in Mozambique people speak, both
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Portuguese and English, if you are educated, and you are living in the city, but here where we are, in the tribes, these people don't speak
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English, they speak this language, called Songa, and Mozambique as a whole, is divided into 10 different provinces, and the southern part of Mozambique, borders with South Africa, so we would land in South Africa, and then cross over into Mozambique, and three of the provinces there, that we will probably touch, are
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Maputo, Inhambane, and Gaza, don't quote me on the pronunciations, but the interesting part of this is, when you go to Maputo, he says, the
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Samaria missions people tell us that, those are all like regular roads, just like we have, but once you go into this province, called
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Inhambane, we are going out into the tribal, and there you are in the bush, you basically are going out to the people, who are cut off from, the rest of the comforts of civilization, as we would see it, they don't have electricity, they don't have running water, for the most part, and we are actually going down to people, who are living in very different circumstances, than you and I are, but these people, the reason that there is a lot of effort put here, here are people, who are not necessarily close to the gospel, they are receptive, they are willing to hear what you have to say, they are eager to hear, what you have to say about Jesus Christ, there are different groups, that need to be reached, and very poor people at that, and now
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Samaria mission, where does Samaria mission come in, so Samaria mission has several agendas, the primary goal is evangelism, which leads to church planting, and then they also have a ministry, that is social in terms of meeting, some of the needs of these people, but ultimately their goal, is to prepare the nationals, who are there to start the churches, and proclaim the gospel to those, who are not reached in the region, and between 85 and 2005 in 20 years, they have about 84 churches, that they have planted in these areas, through these ministry, and their work has been partnered, with a few other people in the area, but one of the means that they do that, is through short -term missions, they need people to go out there, and proclaim the good news, now when we actually go there, they will have one of their mission leaders, it's the
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Samaria team leader, who will be present, and then from our church here, we will have a
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BBC team lead, who will also be there, and then we will also have, each of us who is going to be there, have a certain responsibility, that will be given to them, and I want to quickly lay them out to, so that you have in your mind, here is what we are going to be doing in Mozambique, when it comes to the spiritual need of missions, and some of the things, that we will be doing there, is preaching the gospel, we will need preachers, who can stand up there, and proclaim the good news,
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I know Bruce did that, when he was in Jamaica, on both in the streets, and in churches, and we will have opportunities, to teach men, teach women, and teach young children, and one of the teaching tools, that Samaria mission has been using, is this book called, the firm foundations creation to Christ, and it is a chronological
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Bible story, so it starts at the beginning, and then moves all the way to the end, for some reason I was thinking, we had week 36,
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Pastor Steve, and I just opened up quickly, to see what 36 was, and it has to do with being born again,
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I said great, I want week 36, I do not know yet, we will find out which week, we will be actually proclaiming, but that is a material, that we will be using, in teaching the good news, to those who haven't heard it, and then there will be evening services, every day of the week, where all the people will be there, we will conduct a service, and we will also have, one -on -one visitations to the homes, and that will be the way, in which we do both individual evangelism, as well as preaching, to a large group of people, and besides the
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Samaria, does other things as well, they have medical ministry, they have feeding orphans, well drilling constructions,
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I do not know, if we will be involved in any of them, but our primary focus at this point, will be to do this teaching, now the team that actually goes, we will probably have, roughly around 14 people, plus or minus, and these people will have to prepare, in a number of different ways, as I was studying in the last week, about what it involves to do this, you need to be spiritually prepared, because here you are going down, into Satan's territory, and redeeming those who are lost, and it's
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Pastor Dave here, yeah you know I remember, what Pastor Dave used to say, you know church is a hospital, but it is not just you know, back in the safety zone, it is right there, at the gates of hell, it is there to pluck those, who are you know going into hell, and redeem them, so this is a spiritual battle, that we are going to be involved in, and going right into the enemy's territory, the prince of this world, and claiming those, whom
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Christ has died for, and bringing them back in, and this is also going to be, a mentally challenging task, for many of us, as you just look at, what it involves to be out there, you're going to be living in tents, you know the comforts, that we take for granted, are not going to be there, and this is going to be, well it can be either very hot, or very cold, and I think since they are, on the other side of the hemisphere, the time we go,
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I think the nights would be cold, but there's long walks, the houses are not you know, just close to each other, so some of us, me at least,
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I think I need to go to the gym, a little more before I get out there, but so this is going to be, an intensive period of spiritual, physical, and the mental activity, that we will commit ourselves to, and be prepared to serve
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Christ in, it's going to involve a lot of prayer, it will involve a lot of change, in the people who are actually going to go, in terms of the attitude, in recognizing that you know, here we are to serve, sacrificially, and with a commitment, to serve these people, who have not heard the good news, the
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Samaria mission as a whole itself, is providing us this opportunity, to go out and do missions, you know if you ask me, you say hey
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BBC, let's go to Mozambique, sure let's go to Mozambique, and we do not know, where the people are, who have need, you know how do you get to them, what are the paperwork, that needs to happen, and Samaria mission helps us, get all of those prepared, for that time period, when we are there, and this is going to be, a life -changing experience, for those of you, who will actually go there, because you're going to see, first -hand people, who have had no access to the gospel, you are going to be prepared, to teach them certain things, that you know, maybe you haven't done so, in your whole life before, and that's going to be, a lot of preparation, leading up to that, and it's going to be a time, where it also, you're going to be stretched, when it comes to faith, yes
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Daniel, when if you think of well,
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I'll give you a quick answer, and we'll talk more afterwards, because I want to finish this, but if you think of China, for example, where you know, you have restrictions, or maybe certain parts of, other parts of the world, where you are not, to proclaim the gospel, you in one sense, you speak with acts for, where you say, do we obey
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God, or do we obey human authority, but when you are a missionary, in a different country, what happens very quickly, is you get kicked out, say well you can obey
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God, but obey God outside my country, and so in closed access countries, as they say, there are opportunities, to speak the good news, whether it is
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Muslim nations, or it is in communist nations, and that's why I wish Nick was here, where he can talk about, how he proclaims the gospel, in a way that is accepted, he goes,
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I mean that's basically, the primary means, through which the gospel, goes to China today, is you have a way, in which you can legitimately, preach the gospel, and you do that, without having to be ashamed, and yeah ultimately, for the local people, yes put me in prison, but I will keep preaching, till I die, okay, so what is this team going to do, so each person that goes there, will have to be prepared, with evangelism, they need to be able, to evangelize the people, that you meet one -on -one, they will have to be able, to talk to people, who are in a different culture, it's a cross -cultural experience, you're going to have an interpreter, every time you're preaching to somebody, or teaching somebody, and you are going to understand, where they come from, and be able to relate to them, and each one will have a testimony, about his life, how did he come to faith in Christ, what was he before, and what did
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Christ do, that made him what he is, and why is his current life, something that, the others should be desirous of, what is
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God doing in his life today, that they should know about, and ultimately, it is to show the love of Jesus, to a people who do not know, who
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Jesus is, and it will be through, the words that they teach with, it will be through, their actions that they do, it will be through, the conduct that they have, that shows the love of Christ, in the people, and even something as mundane, as the clothes that they wear, because we want to be careful, about how we present the gospel, and, but this is, this is not just, a situation where we just say, okay, some missions in September, we'll just do all the fundraising, and then we'll just show up there, and figure out, you know, and the leaders there, will tell us what to do, no, no, no, there's a lot of preparation, the six months preceding to this, is going to be very busy, for all of you who will be going, there's a lot of lessons to prepare, there's, you know, songs that we will be singing there, but we have to be careful that, we can't sing very elaborate songs, because they don't understand the language, you need to have simple enough songs, that the people can follow along, so we need to think carefully, select it, have a lot of the material, that we are going to give to them, use while we are teaching, and find out other ways, that we are going to be presenting, to young kids, handouts, memory verses, and in addition to those, who are actually lost, we will also, we may also have opportunity, to minister to those, who are in the, in the church, the local church, so whether it's a pastors, and the leadership, we would be, we would have the opportunity, to train some of them, in teaching and doctrine, so there is, depending on where, we are actually able to go, during the time frame, we may, we will be able to minister, to all of these, and we will have to be prepared, and equipped, to go out, and minister to them, so very quickly, that's a highlight, of what we will be doing, while we are in, in Mozambique, now the question, that I want to ask us is, all this is great, but if you have been thinking, until now hell, yeah,
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I'm so glad for those, who are going to Mozambique, I'll just pray really hard for them, that's great, we need prayer, lots of prayer, but before you do that, you know, pray about whether, you are the one, who should go, because many a time,
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I mean I found this, in my own life, and I know all of you, can attest to it, when, when God calls something, we always think, well you know, that calling is way too high,
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I'm not that spiritual, I really don't know, that much to start with, and you know,
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I have, I have something, that I'm, that's got going on here, and that's pretty good, I'm comfortable, no not comfortable, I, I, I'm serving the
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Lord, with all of my heart here, and that may be true, but as you pray, one of the things, that happens is,
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God, reveals his will, in your life, one of the things, that prayer does, it changes, and it changes, not necessarily the problems, that you have, but rather you, in terms of how you look at, what the call is, because,
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I've heard of some, of the missionary stories, that are just so powerful, there was this one lame man, who went and applied, for missions, and the guy there said, you know, you shouldn't be going, you're, you're disabled, what are you going to do, in the mission field, and he said,
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I see a lot of people, with two legs, and they're not going out there, and God has given me salvation, and I can go and proclaim it, with one leg, and I mean, that's the attitude, that we as believers, should have is, am
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I called, to go out, and proclaim the good news, and that brings us to a question, you know, is everyone called, everyone is called, in certain sense, in the, in one sense, all of us are called, as to be believers in Christ, all of us are called, to proclaim the good news, but whether you are, to go out, and be a full time missionary, or not,
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I think this calling, is very similar, to be a leader, in the church, you know, there is a, there is a unique calling, that God calls each of us to, but the question, that each of us should ask is, is that what
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God, would have me do, when you think of Jim Elliot, the question you want to think of is, Lord send me, you know, when
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Isaiah, in Isaiah six, you know, he sees a vision of God, and says, who will go, Isaiah, you know, and you know, his lip is going, to get cauterized, but he says, send me
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Lord, and you know, and that should be, our hearts of people, who have been bought, with a price, should be a people, that are eager to go, and do his work, in a place, where there is a need,
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I'll take a few more minutes, and give you a, some more updates, before we conclude, so what are some of the activities, that are going on here, the first one, as I said, is prayer, those who are going, need to be praying about, you know, is
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God calling me to go, and examine your own hearts, whether you should be the one, and if you are not the one, who's going to go, there is a need here, in the church, as we support those men, who are going, and primarily, it is in prayer, in fact, the
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Samaria mission says, you know, get about 20 people, who will be committed, to pray for you, for three months, and you know,
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I hope, those of you here, in the local body, when you remember, another brother, a sister in need, you constantly, keep them in prayer, and say well
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Lord, you know, this person has this need, and I pray, that you would minister to them, and that's the prayer life, that has to, be supporting one another, as we think of our needs, in the local church, and this mission, the short term mission, that's going to go out, right into enemy territory, needs that kind of prayer, just multiplied, you need to be, constantly on your knees, for these men, and these women, who will go out, and proclaim the good news, and secondly, we also need resources, so we have this fundraising, and I was just looking, at the numbers, that we currently have, and thanks to the,
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Macros keys, who've been kind of hitting it, with a few other people here, we currently have over $5 ,000, that have been raised, we need about 42 ,000, for the people, that will be going, and we have gotten off, to a pretty good start, we've got various activities, that are going on, we have the one a day can, we've got the penny wars, the can and bottle drives, outside that you can, be involved in, we've got the cake, is it the auction, or the walk, or both, that got finished, the walk, so the auction is coming, okay, and we've had the pan sale, that just finished, for Christmas, and we have a few more, for the homeschool yard night, the friendliest fun night,
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Mozambique fact night, so if you don't know, what all of those mean, don't worry, you'll find out soon enough, and we have various ways, in which we as a church, can supply our resources, to enable these people, to go out, and proclaim the good news, and in addition, to just the fundraising, we also have preparation, we've had the grace evangelism class, that pastor
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Steve taught, tremendous turnout, both in the evenings, and in the mornings, and one of the things, that happens is, when we realize the call, that God has placed in our hearts, maybe
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I'm not going to go to Mozambique, but you realize, that there is still a call, that is heavy in my heart, and I need to proclaim the news, to those whom
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I can, and so we have people, who have taken the class, unfortunately, by the time we finished the class, it was a little too cold, to go out into downtown, so when we start again, in spring, we will have those, of those missionaries, actually participate, in downtown evangelism, be more equipped, to share among those, of a similar culture, and similar language, before you actually go out, and preach to those, who are different, we'll have preparations, and material, whether it is this, new tribe material, or our own material, that we will be putting together, there's a lot of logistics, with travel, and preparations, and then there is, a broader agenda, in terms of, each missionary, what am
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I going to do, as I prepare towards, this September, what am I going to do, while I'm there, and then when
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I come back, what am I going to be, we all know, it's going to be, a life -changing experience, but here we are going to have, firebrands coming back, with a fire of, the need for the gospel, to be presented, to those who are lost, and that fire, when it comes back, for the rest of our church, while we are praying now, while we are raising funds, when we come back, we need to be prepared, to get burned, just like we saw, in John 5, with John the
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Baptist, here was a man, who burned for Christ, and we will receive, that fruit, of the passion, that these men had, so in closing,
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Mozambique, will we be doing it, every two years, the Lord will show us, there are some of you here, who may be going, on a short -term mission, and come back, and you may realize, well this is my, full -time calling,
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I want to go, and serve the Lord fully, in terms of missionary work, in Africa, or China, or somewhere else, and some of you, will recognize, the need for ministry, right here locally, in Worcester, and West Boston, Worcester County, and ultimately, each of us, needs to recognize, that we have been saved, to proclaim
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God's glory, to those who haven't heard it, and we need to remember, John 20, 21 again,
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Jesus saying, as the Father has sent me, so I am sending you, we are people, who are sent, we are people, who are to be witnesses, whether it is in Jerusalem, or Judea, and Samaria, or into the ends, of the world.
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Any questions, before we close? Let's pray.
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Dear God, our Heavenly Father, we thank you, for your goodness, and your mercy, and your grace, in saving us, from sin.
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We thank you, for your word, that teaches us, what we ought to be about, while we are here on earth. Enable us
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Lord, by your spirit, to boldly proclaim, your truth, whether it is, right here, in West Boylston, and Worcester, or it is, in Mozambique, or the rest, of this world.