Bill Smith Missionary with Youth For Christ

The Ministry of Youth for Christ and Serving Troubled Kids

As Rob was saying, I'm a full-time missionary with Youth for Christ. Sometimes you may have noticed that I walk in a little bit late on Sunday mornings. That is because I'm either usually at the juvenile home, leading chapel services, or at a place that we call Lakeside Academy.

And I get to serve as a chaplain at both of those facilities. Bringing the Word of God to some really lost, hopeless, and hurting kids. And just seeing young people come into Christ every week through our ministry at Youth for Christ.

My brother Art was at Lakeside for me this morning. Normally, it was my turn to preach. I said, hey Art, could you take my Sunday so I'm not late coming in to recast? And that was really nice, so thank you.

Also, my minister at a place called The Ark. I meet about 250 young people a year through that place who are going through a crisis in their life. And I get to come in and bring the love of God and the hope of eternal life to these kids who think there's no hope.

Just so blessed to be part of Youth for Christ. And just what an honor to be able to serve. Just a little bit about myself before I start preaching and my family. We were looking for a change about a year ago and we just stopped in recast and we have been coming ever since.

We just really love it here. My wife Cheryl waves. Tomorrow we celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary. I know I don't look that old, right? I married a young woman. She looks much younger than I do. We have three kids.

This is Bethany, our oldest, waving Bethany and her husband Tyler. They have a two-year-old in the nursery. And then Josiah is my 20-year-old, my baby, sitting with his sweetheart, Abby. And then Elisa and her husband John and our grandson Rowan are in Louisville, living down there.

And my son-in-law is going to seminary. Any time I'm going to speak in a church, and I preached in a lot of different churches in the area over the years, I always think about the culture of the church and what should I wear to preach in, right?

And I remember my kids, I'd wear suits maybe at funerals and when I was going to preach, and that was about it. So whenever I'd put a suit on on a Sunday morning, my kids would be like, Dad, are you preaching?

They just knew it, you know? But I'll have to say, I preached a lot in shorts and sandals and t-shirts, of course, in the juvenile home in Lakeside. But this is the first Sunday morning. I thought, you know what?

There's Don preaching. I want to be like Don. And so shorts, the recast shirt, kind of the uniform. But actually standing up here, I kind of feel naughty. I really feel a little bit naughty, you know?

Now that's one of the things that I love about our church is it doesn't matter what you wear, it's that you're here and that together we can learn and grow in Christ and experience His love and His healing power.

I just want to thank Don for letting me speak this morning. I know what it takes to put together a message. A lot of people don't realize how much work goes into preparing a good message. I've sat under a lot of preachers and we are so blessed, Don, by your teaching.

And I know that you put hours into your prep and it really shows. And every week I just look forward to what you're going to bring forth from the Word. So thank you so much for that. I'm just going to pray.

Yeah, thank you, Don and Linda. He asked me, he said, Bill, because he thought maybe you wouldn't be here this morning. You can tell me if... I was thinking about coming and I don't know if you want me there.

I don't know if that would make you nervous. So yeah, I'm really nervous. Thanks a lot. No, I'm excited that you get to enjoy this message that God has given me. And this is something that has been growing in my life for many, many years.

I came to Christ at the age of 20. My life was so messed up. I had taken a really bad path in high school. My life was full of addictions. It was full of emptiness and darkness. And there were lots of times when I wondered if life was even worth living.

And then I saw my best friend's life transformed and set free. It was so miraculous that I knew... I always believed that God was real. I believed that my whole life. But I did not know that He could care about someone like me or my friend John and lift us out of the pit that we were in and set us free.

And wow, the miracle of a changed life is so incredible. And God is the Master Life Changer. I love that. So let's give Him some praise and then we'll get into His words. Father, just thank You so much for Your holy Word and what a treasure Your Word is.

And Father, we just ask now that You would speak to us, that it would be Your Holy Spirit enlightening our hearts and minds with Your truth. Father, that we would walk out of here knowing that we heard a word from You this morning.

Hallowed be Your name. Father, in this time, Your kingdom come. Right now in this time, Your will be done. Father, in this time, please teach us. We so desperately need Your Word. And so I pray that You would be our teacher this morning.

And thank You that You have given us the treasure of Your Word. And may it bless us all this morning in Jesus' name. Amen. I've done lots of things in my ministry at Youth for Christ over the years. And I used to run an after-school program at a place called Fine Alternative School in downtown Kalamazoo.

And this was where all the kids in the Kalamazoo public schools who got kicked out of their regular school would be sent to Vine for another chance. And so there were a lot of troubled kids in that school.

And we used to go there every Tuesday and eat lunch with the kids and hang out. And then we'd do a club after school for whoever wanted to come. And I used to like to walk around the halls and classrooms and look at their artwork and their poems.

Some very creative kids. And I remember looking at an essay or a poem or a story on the wall entitled, My Hero. And I started to read it. And it was written by a young man named Jesse. And it was a story about his dad.

And all the kids I knew at Vine, their dads were really not in their life or if they were in their life, it wasn't very good. And so the story immediately caught my attention. And in the story he was saying how when he was young in elementary school his family moved to Kalamazoo and he couldn't speak English very well.

He was Hispanic. And the kids at school would tease him about the way he spoke. And they would harass him. But on the way to school and on the way home, nobody would mess with him. And he walked to school.

He lived close to his elementary school. But what was going on is his dad walked him to school every day. And his dad would be waiting outside of the door when he came out to walk him home. And as long as his father was with him, he felt safe.

And nobody would mess with him. And I thought, the presence of the Father makes all the difference. And I'm talking now the presence of the Heavenly Father. And Jesus in Matthew 5 .48, He described God with this word, perfect.

And I love that. I have to constantly be reminding kids I work with that God is the perfect Father. Because for many of them when I say dad or father, they just shut down because that's negative. And so I have to clarify, He is the perfect.

He is the best. You know, to have the presence of the Father, to know that He's there, what a difference that makes. We live in a crazy world, don't we? I mean, lots of crazy stuff going on in our cities, in our country, and in the world.

Tragic, hard, difficult stuff. But the presence of the Father makes all the difference as we go through this crazy world. I love what 1 John 4 .18 says. It says, Perfect love casts out fear. And that's talking about the Father's love.

My kids always felt safe when I was there. I mean, not that I'm some big protector or anything, but they felt safe because they knew that I would do whatever it would take to protect them. And I think of, okay, I know what I'm like as a dad, how much I love my kids, how much I would do for them.

And then I think, wow, I'm so far from perfect. And the perfect Father loves you so much. And He will be there for you. So I want to talk about how to experience the power and blessing of the Father's presence in our lives.

That sound good? Okay, alright. If anyone was faced in a tough world, it was the disciples. You know, we think, wow, we got it tough. People may make fun of us if we try to talk about Jesus. It's a crazy world, but think of the disciples and what they were facing.

What their world was like. Remember just a few weeks ago what they did to Paul? Remember? They stoned him to death because he was talking about Jesus and they didn't like it. And they left him for dead.

They're thinking, wow, they just murdered our Lord. He had risen from the dead. He was alive again. But I mean, they had murdered the Son of God. And now Jesus is telling them, I want you to go and preach the Gospel to every nation.

And they're like, we're going to get killed. I know it. And that was the reality because most of them died torturous deaths. They were stoned. They were whipped. They were beaten. Crucified. How were they going to make it through that?

How were they going to face such a daunting mission to take the Gospel to the nations? It was by a promise that Jesus made. And I want you to look at this promise. And I've got some Scriptures. So if you're not familiar with your Bible, you might want to grab one in the chair because I'm going to give you page numbers and we're going to check some of these verses out.

So we're going to go to Matthew 28 on page 712 in the Church Bibles. Matthew 28, verse 20. You know, last words are pretty powerful. And if you had someone you highly respected and you knew that they were on their deathbed and they were going to pass on some last words to you, you'd be really attentive.

Now, these really aren't the last words of Jesus because He had so much more to say. We have the book of Revelation and the whole New Testament. But basically, He was saying goodbye to His disciples here in this setting because right after He spoke these words, He rose up to heaven.

So He gives them their mission. We'll start in verse 18 of Matthew 28. It says, And Jesus came to them and said, 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 Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.

And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age. Look for the promise that Jesus just made there. He uses this word behold and it's a word to get your attention. It's like listen carefully. Check this out.

You've got to hear this. He says behold. He says, I am with you always to the end of the age. You know, I love the tools we have for study. I didn't go to seminary. I don't know Greek or Hebrew. But I've been using the Strong's Concordance for years.

And my son-in-law gave me this program for my Bible that I'm so excited about. It's called Bible Explorer. And now not only can I look up the words, and I would try to guess how to say the Hebrew and Greek, and you've got to say it with authority like you know.

And they kind of break it out phonetically or whatever so you can kind of try to say it right. This program, I look up my Hebrew and Greek words and all I've got to do is click on the little speaker and it says the word.

It's awesome. Cheryl was laughing at me because I was listening to these Greek words and Hebrew words. Paw-neen. Paw-neen. Paw-neen. So it's a great way to study and to dig deeper. It's a simple tool like the Strong's Concordance.

You can look up and see what the Hebrew or Greek word was. And of course I do that a lot. And this word always is actually two Greek words. And the first one is pas. I kept pushing it. Pas. Pas. Okay, I got that.

And it means all or every. The whole thing. So the first word means all or every. And the second word is hemera, which simply means days. And Jesus was saying, I will be with you every moment of every single day for the rest of your lives.

That is the promise of Jesus. This is the promise of His presence that He would be with them, that He would give them the strength that they needed, that He would give them the courage that they needed, that He would give them the wisdom.

It wasn't up to them. And I'm so thankful that this life of being a disciple is not up to us. Yeah, we have to cooperate with the Lord, but He will be there always. And He is so ready to meet our every need.

I mean, I think of it this way, He is a prayer away. But He's not even a prayer away. He's there even when we're not praying. I want you to look at another promise in Hebrews 13, 5 and 6. On page 867.

This has been one of my favorite verses for many, many years. And really, it's the second part of the verse that's my favorite. But the first part has some good advice. So if you look at Hebrews 13, 5.

He says, Keep your life free from love of money and be content with what you have. Be content, He says. Why should I be content? For He has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you. So we can confidently say, The Lord is my helper.

I will not fear what can man do to me. He says, I will never leave you nor forsake you. And the Greek is really interesting in this. I have another tool. It's called Weiss Word Studies. He's a Greek scholar and he goes through and he breaks it down.

And there's like these double negatives and all of this stuff. I'm not going to read all that to you. I thought I would, but no, I'm not going to. But I'm going to read you his expanded translation of this verse.

And this is how the Greek actually would read if we understood Greek and we were reading it in Greek. He says, Let your manner of life be without love of money, being satisfied with your present circumstances.

For He Himself has said, and the statement is on record, I will not cease to sustain and uphold you. I will not let you down. So that being of good courage, we are saying, The Lord is my helper. I will not fear what can man do to me.

He's like, I'm trying to make that so clear to you that I am with you always. And when you study those words, I'll never leave you or forsake you. He's saying, I'll never turn my back on you for a second.

I'll never let you down. I will always, always be there for you. And of course, this is a promise to His children. Those who have come into that personal relationship like I did when I was 20 when I asked Jesus to come into my life.

And I became a child of the King of kings and Lord of lords. And this awesome, mighty God, He is there and He is powerful. He's the same God that we read about in the Old Testament doing miraculous things.

The same God that we read about in the New Testament. He says, I will be with you always. If you're taking notes, I'm going to throw out some Scriptures, but we're not going to look them all up. Isaiah 41 .10 is one of my favorites.

I had to memorize it just because it ministered to me so much. He says, Fear not, for I am with you. Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you. Yes, I will help you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

And again, the promise of His presence. This next one though, I really want you to see Psalm 139. And that is on page 443. This is one of my favorite psalms. I love this psalm. How well does God know me?

Does He really know what's going on in my life? Does He know what's going on in my heart? Does He really know what's up with me? Does He know what's up with you? Just look at Psalm 139 verse 1. O Lord, You have searched me and know me.

You know when I sit down and when I rise up. You discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, You know it altogether.

You have me in, behind, and before and lay Your hand upon me. Wow. He says, I see every move that you make. I know every thought that you think. I hear every word that you speak. This is how all-knowing our God is.

He knows what's up with us. He knows our needs. He knows our struggles. And because of His amazing love, I can be honest with Him. I tell God stuff that I wouldn't want to tell any of you. You know, struggles that I have.

Feelings. I'm like, I'm real with my Father because He already knows it inside and out. It's not like I'm hiding anything from God, right? And because of His amazing love, I know that when my kids have struggled with different things, man, I want to do so much to help them.

And sometimes I can't. But I know that the Father, He so much wants to help us. He knows what's going on in our lives. He has complete knowledge. So the question comes, okay, we're up to six billion people now on the earth, something like that.

Is it six? Does that sound right? Okay, that's a lot of folks, isn't it? So God, alright. I can kind of see what's going on in this room a little bit because I'm present here. But my knowledge is limited.

I don't know what you're thinking. Oh wow, I wish He'd hurry up and get done. I'm hungry. I don't know what's going through your mind, but God does. But how can He know? This is astounding when you think about it.

Right this moment, He knows every thought that all of us are thinking together. And then multiply that to six billion people. And God knows what every human being is thinking. How can this be? And that's what I want to talk about for the next few minutes.

Theologians would call this the omnipresence of God that I'm talking about. So we continue in Psalm 139. And I love that the Word explains itself. The more that you're in this Word, the more it's going to fit together.

When I first started reading the Bible, I was like, I don't know what this means. And what is that talking about? The more I've been in the Word, the more the Word answers the Word. The more it fits together.

And God wants us to hear His voice. He wants us to hear His Word and to understand. And sometimes He puts the answer right in the same passage. He does that a lot. I like that. So He's going to tell us how can He know everything that's going on at once.

So if you look at verse 7, here is the answer. Well, it's really kind of in the form of a question. Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from Your presence? This word Spirit is the key to answering the question, how can God know, have this complete knowledge of my life and what's going on?

I like this Hebrew word. I looked it up in my new Bible discovery. I didn't have to get my old Strong's book that's fallen apart. And the word is ruach for Spirit. And it's a really interesting word because in the Hebrew, it's translated in the Old Testament Scriptures wind, air, and breath.

And this tool that I have, it told me that it's translated 92 times wind. So they use the same Hebrew word for wind and Spirit. It's this exact same word. They use it for the word breath 27 times. It's translated breath.

And it's translated air once. And it's translated Spirit 232 times. So this was the definition that Strong's gave. Wind, air, breath, by resemblance, Spirit. By resemblance. So what it's saying is that Spirit is like the wind.

Spirit is like the air. Spirit is like the breath. Well, let's think a minute about how are these things similar to Spirit. The wind is invisible, correct? We can see a little breeze out there, right?

Actually, we can't see the breeze. But we know it's out there. Because we can see the leaves moving a little bit, right? But the wind itself is invisible. But it's so real and so powerful. I mean, wow, the hurricanes that came through the South.

Wow, the wind is a powerful force. In the same way, Spirit is invisible and powerful and it moves within creation. Spirit is like air. Life-giving. In fact, Job said, he called the air that we breathe the breath of God.

That's what Job said. As long as the breath of God is in my nostrils, I will praise Him. And then Spirit gives life. Like breath does. It's invisible, but it's real. I used to work in Iwanas for many, many years.

We worked kindergarten through second grade. We were Sparks. Sparkies. And I loved to teach little kids. And there's a little rhyme that has always stuck with me. And it goes like this. Just like the air, God is always there.

Just like the air, God is always there. Right now, you're surrounded by air. Is it real? Well, you can't see it. Some people say, I won't believe in God unless I can see Him. Really? You believe in air?

Well, yeah. Do you see it? Well, no. But I know it's real. Spirit is like the air, is like the wind, is like the breath, in that it's invisible, life-giving, and powerful. And we're going to explore that a little bit more, this idea of Spirit.

And then this word presence, he says, where can I go from your spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence? This word is paunim in the Hebrew. And it's translated 392 times with the word face. And it literally means the face.

It's translated 40 times with the word sight, and 76 times with the word presence. And so the idea is, okay, are you getting uncomfortable? I know you, so if I went up to a stranger maybe, especially any first-time visitors here, you'd probably get a little uncomfortable because I'm right in your face, okay?

And that's the word for presence. And God says, you can't go anywhere without Me facing you, without you being in My sight, in My presence, okay? So we have God, the invisible Spirit, and then we have the face of God, and He uses words that we understand to help us understand the concept of Spirit.

And He says presence. He says face. He says, I am facing you. I know what's going on in your life. I care about what's going on in your life. Okay, so is there anywhere where I can go where His Spirit isn't there?

I guess would be the next question. Well, He's going to answer that in verse 8. If I ascend to heaven, you are there. If I make My bed in Sheol, you are there. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead Me, and your right hand shall hold Me.

If I say, surely the darkness shall cover Me, and the light about Me be night, even the darkness is not dark to you. The night is as bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you. And He says there's nowhere you can go where you're not surrounded by the Spirit and presence of God.

In Jeremiah 23, Jeremiah had a difficult mission. He was rested. He was put in a dungeon. This guy went through some stuff. He knew that his nation was in deep, deep trouble because of their disobedience and worship of idols.

And his world was really scary. And God had told Jeremiah that an invading nation was going to come in and take His people captive. And for the Jews, they thought that the presence of God was centered in Jerusalem around the temple.

And that if they were taken away from the temple, that they would be taken away from the presence of God. And so in Jeremiah 23, 23, and 24, God comes to Jeremiah and He says, Am I a God near at hand, and not a God afar off? says the Lord.

Can anyone hide themselves in secret places so I shall not see them? says the Lord. Do not I fill the heavens and the earth with My Spirit? says the Lord. Well, the answer to all those questions is no, no one can hide from you.

You're everywhere. Yes, you do fill the heavens and the earth completely with your Spirit. Okay? Completely. If you think of God as this way, the Spirit of God, okay, let me ask you a question. What is the atmosphere of a fish?

Water. A fish lives in water, right? Surrounded by water. Our atmosphere is the Spirit of God. That's the only reason we're living and breathing right now. Because He is our atmosphere. We live within the Spirit of God everywhere we go.

Remember, just like the air, God is always there. So He fills this room right now with His Spirit. In fact, I'm not going to quote this one. I want you to see it. It's in Acts 17 .28 on page 793. Acts 17 .28 Paul was preaching to some pagan people who had all kinds of idols in their city.

And he found an altar that was in honor of the unknown God. And he started preaching about this unknown God. At least this God was unknown to them, the true God. And he's explaining the nature of God and who He is.

And he says in verse 28, "...in Him we live and move and have our being.". Okay, you could say of a fish, in the water a fish lives and moves and has their being, right? Here it's just so clear. In Him we live and move and have our being.

So, the atmosphere that we live in is the Spirit of God. I mean, His presence. He fills completely the heavens and the earth. It says in Hebrews 4 .13 that no creature is hidden from His sight. And this takes on an even deeper truth for the child of God.

1 Corinthians 3 .16 Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you? So as a child of God, His Spirit not only surrounds me, His Spirit lives in me. This is kind of an obscure verse right here.

2 Corinthians 13 .5, but it's so powerful. Paul asks the question, do you not realize this about yourself that Jesus Christ is in you? Okay, so He surrounds me, but as a child of God, He is in me as well.

Okay? That's the omnipresence of God. And God calls us to live in recognition of that presence. And that's what I want to talk about now in closing. How should this truth affect our lives? Should this truth affect our lives?

You know, it's kind of like if someone's watching you, you kind of sometimes do things a little differently. I don't know. It's not that I'm afraid because God is watching me now, so I'm going to stop doing this particular behavior.

Although, that should maybe make us think that. But that's not what this presence is about. The Father of the faith is often referred to as Abraham. And I want you to see a calling that God brought upon Abraham's life.

And Abraham had been walking with God for quite a few years. We're going to go to Genesis, first book of the Bible, 17 .1. Genesis 17 .1. When Abram was 99 years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, I am Almighty God.

Walk before me and be blameless. Walk before me. This word before is the same word for presence in Psalm 139. It's the same Hebrew word panim. It means the face. It means the presence. And he was calling Abraham to a deeper walk of fellowship.

He was calling Abraham to a deeper recognition of the presence of God. Walk before me, God said. Walk with me. Walk in my presence. Walk facing me. Be aware in your life of my presence. God calls us to this, to live life in His presence.

1 John 1 .3. John was known as the disciple whom Jesus loved. He probably most likely out of the whole group was closest to the heart of Jesus. I mean, not that Jesus loved him anymore, but I think John loved Jesus more than maybe the other disciples did.

That he had a deeper love. And John wrote in 1 John 1, he said, you know, what we have seen and touched, we proclaim to you that you may have fellowship with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ.

What a privilege, okay? That we're called into personal relationship. That we're called into friendship. Abraham had the honor of being called the friend of God. He's called that several times in Scripture because Abraham was obedient to this call and he began to live his life in recognition of the presence of God.

One of my favorite authors, and he was a pastor in the 1800's in South Africa, and then he became well known throughout the Christian world as a deep Bible teacher and thinker. His name is Andrew Murray and he wrote these words and these words have impacted me.

He says, Who would, after seeking the King's palace, be content to stand at the door when He is invited in to dwell in the King's presence and to share with Him in all the glory of His royal life? Oh, let us enter in and abide and enjoy all the full and rich supply His wondrous love has prepared for us.

He's saying, okay, you're coming to the King of kings' palace and you make it to the palace and you're like, wow, that's amazing. But you stop there and you don't go in when the King is inviting you into His very presence.

He's saying, come on, let's enter into that presence. Let's go deeper with God. Jeremiah 29 .13, He said, If you seek Me with all your heart, you will find Me. That's what He said. Seek is an action word.

It takes some effort. I mean, you ever lose your keys? Right? You don't just sit on the couch. Hmm, keys appear. Well, maybe you've got one of those clapper and it beeps or something. You've got to get up and you've got to look and you've got to search, right?

And God's like, search My Word. Look for Me. I'll reveal Myself to you. I'll show you My glory. You know, one of the prayers I pray every day, I found this prayer from Moses, and it's so simple. He just said, show Me your glory.

That's all. He prayed that prayer, show Me your glory. And then you know that incident where God's like, well, if you see all My glory, you'll die. You can't take it. Your heart will explode. He said, what I'm going to do is I'm going to put you in the cleft of this rock and I'm going to put My hand and I'm going to shield My glory so that you don't die, because I still have a purpose for you on this earth.

And God passed before Moses and Moses got a glimpse of God's glory. It was all from that simple prayer. Show Me your glory. I pray that prayer every day. Father, show Me your glory. I pray it over my kids and my son-in-laws and my grandkids even.

They're just babies. But Father, show us Your beauty and Your glory. I want to know You in deeper ways and to begin to seek Him. Okay? Man, here's the difference His presence can make. This is a copy of the letter that I got from a young man.

Well, now he's an older man. That I knew from the juvenile home. He got in trouble when he was a kid. Came into the juvenile home. Started coming under our teaching. Learning about who God was and what Jesus had done.

But never made that commitment. You know, just beginning to learn. Got out. Turned 17. Got in trouble. Ended up in prison. Him and I started corresponding through letters. And I sent him... He actually came to know Christ while he was in prison.

Through their ministry there where he was at. And he gave his heart to Christ. And I sent him this card that had all the names for Jesus on it. And then he wrote this back to me. And this is just part of his letter.

But he makes an amazing statement. I want you to hear it. He says, Dear Bill, my brother in Christ and friend for life, I won't even ask how you are doing because I know you're doing great. How can you not with God on your side?