Sunday Evening Service

All right, good evening. Well, welcome back. Welcome back tonight to our little

Journey to Ireland a little bit So I'm sure we'll hear about some ministry in Ireland here in just a few minutes

We're gonna first sing a song that comes from Ireland. At least the tune does number 374 in your hymnal

So we'll have a couple songs this evening We give the missionary as much time as possible and both of them have an

Irish connection now I don't know if Be thou my vision the tune comes from The Republic of Ireland or Northern Ireland.

I'm sure when the tune was written There wasn't there wasn't the two sides It wasn't my guess is from what

I little I know of Ireland It probably came from the north, but that's just a guess so From an optometrist.

Oh Have you been you and have you and Jim been kind of hanging around too much to get

Okay, well let's turn to 374 and let's stand as we sing shall we be thou my vision

I Thank you our father that You are the high king of heaven and that our victory is won in Christ our

King our Lord our Savior our master We thank you that because of his merits we shall by your grace reach heaven's joys

We thank you for the joy of this song and for the prayer that it contains father we thank you for the the burden of heart that you've laid on Dan and his family to go to Ireland and to minister the gospel there and father

The the need is great it's far greater than we might even think and I pray that as we hear about that tonight we would

Be burdened to share in a prayer work of prayer and ministry through this ministry for the people of Ireland Father bless our time together challenge us with the presentation this evening and we pray it in Jesus name.

Amen All right. Thank you. You may be seated So just a reminder that after the service we'll

Have a Finance Committee meeting just wanted to remind the men of that tonight We get wrapped up in what we're doing and it's easy to kind of forget that and slip out

So the other song that has an Irish connection is number 20 in your song supplement. It's the mission song

Facing a task unfinished on one level you might think well, it doesn't have anything to do with Ireland Frank Houghton as I recall was with Was with China Inland Missions.

I think that's right But the connection is that the the refrain that's added to these words

Was written by Keith and Kristen Getty and they did the tune to that part, too so that the the main music for the text the the stanzas is familiar tune to us, it's

The Church is one foundation. Yeah, but then they added the refrain and they're from Ireland and I'm assuming

Northern Ireland All right, that's that's an assumption But anyway, so we're this is not not an unfamiliar song to us.

So let's sing it together Facing a task unfinished number 20 in your supplement book a

Sing a task Unfinished that drives us to our knees

Diminished rebukes our slothful ease we who rejoice to know

Before thy throne The solemn pledge we owe

Where other lords beside me

Where forces that Defy thee still

With none to Cry We got

Jesus Christ To game

Proclaiming that Jesus died and roars is the same

Same Same All right this morning in the morning service

I mentioned these Baptist believers in Nigeria who were captured about a week and a half ago kidnapped and Belligerence I saw a report today after got home from church from church and so forth that to the the the captors

Have killed two of those 60 people Within the last 24 hours.

So that remains of a serious and dire situation I think I I was reminded of that even singing this song that That the task is indeed unfinished that there are those who hate

Christ And yet need Christ. So let's remember them

Remember them in prayer so again, we meant we met the

Dan this morning Herman and Heard a little bit about his testimony heard a good challenge to remind us of the privilege and opportunity we have to Share the gospel with others and I want to remind you about the love offering that we're receiving for him that there's a little tray on the side of the

On the side as you leave If you didn't get it have a chance to give you might want to do that on the way out

And whatever is put in that plate will go to him. So plan accordingly, so basically the rest of the time is yours brother

Herman so you can come and Use it. Well, great.

Well, thank you for having me Come and share our story and hopefully minister to you at the same time.

We're excited about being here My name is Dan. My wife's name is Jean and her first name looks like it has

Jean and in it But it actually is the long spelling of Jean. It's the French way of spelling it last name is

Herman so I jokingly say that I am married and I am Her man, there you go.

All right, but I'm bump bump So I have a information packet for you one per household

So if I can get two strong men to help me hand these out, all right Jim He looks pretty strong and anybody who cuts grass must be strong, right?

All right. So and if you're here as just a single person grab one of those two and also

I'll pass around a sign up sheet here If you would like to receive our email updates, we're gonna send those out six

We've been sending them out six times a year and they're nothing really long only about two minutes long and what we'd like to do is to have

Put in there a gospel conversation that we've had over the last month or so and then a prayer request and praise

So it's nothing extremely long But if you'll sign your first name and last name and then your email if your email bounces back if I have your phone number

I can text you and say hey your email didn't go through but if you do have an email that has like a 1 and I or an

L if you can make that very Specific that would be helpful. So that that goes through So this is our story.

We have three parts to it Our ministry in Ireland part number two is our spiritual journey and then our team of partners

So this is how it all began back on December 12th 2018 I was sitting in my vehicle there in the parking lot of Edward Jones and so I had been in full -time paid ministry for about 22 years doing a variety of Ministries and I'll share that with you later

But for this period of my life God had me in the financial industry before that I was at TD Ameritrade as a stockbroker for people's individual accounts

They would call in I'd place the trades for them and then I became a financial advisor with Edward Jones So as I was sitting in my car here

You're self -employed with ever Jones with Commission. I was praying God. What do you want me to do next?

Basically it was What subdivision should I go into that have money that I can help them invest so that I can make money as a financial advisor?

But as I prayed that prayer just a generic prayer I said God what do you want me to do next and at that time

God began to lead me to get back into full -time vocational ministry and It was so evident at that time.

I took out my phone and I typed it into the date I was like, I really feel like God wants me to get back into full -time ministry and Vocational ministry and but one month before that I was thinking about Luke chapter 10 verse 2

Which says and he Jesus said to them the harvest is plentiful, but the labors are what labors are few therefore

Do what? Pray that's like, you know do a seminar do a message

He says pray God Jesus Christ says pray the Lord of the harvest to send out labors into his harvest so I was following a white truck with an ear of wheat and Many times

I've been to conferences and you'd see like an ear of wheat and then they heard this verse there So it reminded me about praying for labor

So at that point as I was driving like Lord send forth labors help them to respond May the the loss come to Jesus Christ And then a couple weeks later as I was driving again in Omaha I was thinking about Isaiah 6 8 which says and I Isaiah heard the voice of the

Lord saying Whom shall I send who will go forth then? I said here. I'm here.

I am send me so as I was driving I Just said to the

Lord Lord if you want me to get back into full -time paid vocational ministry I am more than willing to do that and I had done it for about 22 years and then for six years

I was doing Ministry outside of being a pastor or something like that And and so some guys they do 20 years in secular work secular

Ministry and then they become a pastor or a missionary something like that from 40 to 60 or 70

And I just thought Lord had a flip -flop for me I was always willing to go back into full -time paid ministry.

I just didn't know if that's what God wanted me to do so at that time I continued to pray at Elmwood Park in Omaha, so we had seven kids and we were in ministries that we didn't make a whole lot of money and that's kind of typical and But with Edward Jones the two guys that had recruited me from TD Ameritrade They told me that after ten years they were making two hundred thousand

So if you're making fifty thousand a year, that's pretty good These guys are making four times the amount and so I told my wife said as we do this

You know be able to provide for our family and a home and church and missions and so now

I'm going from a conversation of two hundred thousand back down to being in full -time ministry and So then

I began to tell her family and beginning with my wife. She's the redhead there she always prayed for a redheaded child and I guess how many we got none.

So if you have a prayer request you may not want to Ask her to pray for you. I'm just kidding.

So But our oldest is Carol and then we had Audrey She married Caleb and then

Daniel Stephen Nathan autumn and Sophia and then we have four grandkids and the three are

Listed there, but after much prayer God led me to resign from Edward Jones investments on December 27 2018 to pursue full -time vocational ministry how many days after Christmas?

Can you imagine Christmas break telling your wife that you're going to resign from your job or you're making 45 ,000 at the time and I told her

I said, well Edward Jones wants me work 70 hours a week. They don't want me to go look for a ministry and So the only thing

I could think of was dating. I said, it's kind of like when you're dating it's like if you're interested in this girl here, you have to stop dating this girl here and And I was reminded of my grandfather

He said dating is a lot like getting pickles out of a jar if you try to get two on a fork at the same time and pull them out you lose them both and So I was like, all right

We need to get rid of Edward Jones here and I resigned but it's very hard exciting scary all at the same time and the biggest step of faith that we've ever taken and this biggest step of faith that we took was in the beginning years of In our 50s and our early 50s and so sometimes we will think well,

I'm older God doesn't have anything else for me to do but God has a will for each of us

We just have to find out what the next thing that he wants us to do if he's wanting us to move on but the comforting verse in the

Bible and whatever Ministry or any of their full -time vocational or you you are at a secular job in your ministering there

It's Proverbs 3 5 & 6 trust the Lord with all your heart. Don't lean on your own understanding

Not just on your own thinking but in all your ways all your ways Acknowledge him talk to him read his word

Talk to other people And he will make straight or he will direct your path. So that is extremely encouraging.

Well, then I began to pray After I had resigned Lord, do you want me to serve here in the

United States or foreign country? And I was in Omaha and So I know I didn't tell anybody

I kind of thought well Maybe the Lord but just make it easy on me and I'll minister in Omaha, right? Wouldn't that be great?

Not fruit basket upset. My wife could continue to work at the Christian school where she's at kids could go to the

Christian school We can stay at the same apartment. We were living in and So as I prayed and said

God, Omaha, Nebraska United States or even foreign missions the

Lord laid on my heart for missions and it's something that it's when you talk about this you kind of you get into the leading of the

Lord and sometimes we make it really complicated to try to explain it, but You know, obviously

Satan tempts us when we say no to some Satan's temptation The Holy Spirit leads us right if we do wrong the

Holy Spirit convicts us. So how does the Holy Spirit lead you? Well, I think most people at times have been

Directed in their thinking to give somebody twenty dollars or a hundred dollars, right? And it keeps on coming back to your mind until you finally go and do it and you say hey

Jim God's laid in my heart to give you a hundred bucks and he's like wow praise the Lord and it's something that until you do

It it just keeps on coming back to your mind And so that's that's the way this was foreign missions

Just kept on coming back to my mind didn't have peace about doing anything else And then I began to pray what country and the same thing happened the

Lord continued to bring to mind Ireland and specifically the Republic of Ireland So Ireland is here with the green part is

Northern Ireland the mostly southern on a regular map

The the southern part kind of goes up like the number six above Northern Ireland So they don't call it

Southern Ireland. They call it the Republic of Ireland now the green part Northern Ireland is 85 %

Protestant which would be Presbyterian Anglican the Church of England and the yellow part the

Republic is Catholic what percentage same amount 85 % so it's just flip -flop and in this yellow part the

Republic of Ireland only 0 .5 percent half of 1 % are evangelical and Baptist would even be smaller than that So it is very much an unreached people group.

You would think well, you know, they're Catholics. They know about Jesus They know about the resurrection Well, my wife was

Catholic growing up till she was 15 and she didn't have a personal relationship with the Lord And so they have they know about Jesus Christ, but they do not have the true gospel

They haven't been told that and so God is directing us to go and do that.

How do you get to Ireland? Well, if you're here in the United States in Illinois, you would fly up to go back to Newfoundland That's how they pronounce it and then take a hard right and there's

Ireland So if God called you to be a missionary halfway up into Canada, what would you think?

That is going to be very very cold, right? But because of the ocean effect it doesn't get really cold

But when it would normally be snowing guess what it's doing instead It's raining.

So how many of you love rain anybody here love rain? All right. We got one person here You're coming with us to Ireland, but Ireland has beautiful landscapes.

These are the cliffs of more And I could see a teenager if the tide was right jumping off this one here

But over 30 ,000 castles or castle ruins beautiful of edifices

This one here. The rent is really cheap Anybody here like to rehab homes come over to Ireland and turn some of these into bed -and -breakfast then stunning cathedrals built by the

Catholic Church But because of the sins and indiscretions of the priests and also their orphanages

They found a mass grave at one of the orphanages there in Ireland so it's like we're against abortion, but they didn't claim all the babies and Children out in those graves and so when the people found out about that they were very very upset and frustrated with the

Catholics The administration there the Pope and the bishops and things like that But they also have millions of sheep about four million on average and they mark them on their backs with paint for herding purposes and mating purposes and the sheep do get out in the road

So if you ever come over to Ireland and you rent a car, which I would not suggest

But if you do have the guts to do it remember to drive on what side of the road?

The left side not the wrong side that would be that would be offensive but it's the left side of the road and watch out for sheep because Sometimes they do get into the road and if you're not careful, you might get into an accident.

What kind of an accident a bad Accident so be very very careful.

The skies are completely covered by clouds almost half the time and rains up to how many days?

to 225 Wow Days the years compared to Rochester and Buffalo at 167

Portland's at 164 and Seattle's at 149 So if you like rain move to one of those cities if you love rain come to Ireland with us

All right, and you have the Auburn hair going for you. So that's that's good So Jean and I had the privilege of visiting

Dublin Ireland in August 2019 and we both have ancestors From Ireland and so Jim he went to a website today and actually found out that they're specifically in Northern Ireland Antrim and so he printed out some stuff for me

So thank you very much for that But the green portion of their flag represents the majority Catholics on the island the orange side the minority

Protestant and the white middle part the desired peace between them Did Jesus Christ ever say that he was going to bring international peace?

Yes, or no No, he said I came not to bring peace but a sword and they talked about the gospel and how the gospel divides even families

But when you receive Jesus Christ into your life You receive the peace of God which passes all understanding.

So that's the piece that we're going to bring There's a frustrated teenager holding up the green which represents the

Catholics and the orange which represents the Protestants and the troubles Was a violent conflict between 1968 and 1998 30 years in Northern Ireland and It was between the protestant unionists the loyalists who were they loyal to?

Basically england They were loyal to england who desired northern ireland to remain a part of the united kingdom

Because some of their parents came over from scotland england wales and they had them as children there in northern

Ireland kind of like the dreamers here in the united states and so The 85 protestant don't want to leave northern ireland

But the roman catholics the nationalists the republicans they wanted northern ireland to become a part of the republic of ireland

And I can see their point because if you have a king james version bible and you open it up It says king james king of england and what?

Ireland back in 1611 england was coming over there even before then and Raiding ireland and taking things from it and sending it to england and to europe and so basically ireland wants

England to go home Now did anybody else? In the world ever want england to go home

Yes all over You know, they're called great britain But india didn't want them china didn't want them in hong kong

We didn't want them here in the united states. So when you think about it, you're like, why are they still there?

so Three thousand six hundred people were killed and more than thirty thousand were wounded before a peaceful solution was reached

How did they kill people they would pack a car full of explosives and drive it into a catholic

Designated area in northern ireland and detonate it blow it up And then they would send it into a protestant area and fight back and they were killing each other just with these car bombs

The peaceful solution is this England has said that if you and northern ireland vote that you want to become a part of the republic

You can Is that ever going to happen? 85 protestants going to vote to become a part of the republican

Uh, no, not at all. So what is probably going to happen with any peace treaty? Why do you have to have a treaty if everything is going fine?

They're probably going to go back to war, especially now after brexit. So There's a possibility that while they're while we're there

Uh war could break out. Hopefully not the weekend that you guys visit. Um, but but the median ireland have turned their backs on god for a variety of reasons

Um, and they try to find hope and satisfaction drugs drunkenness and immorality materialism similar to here in illinois

And it made us very sad when we discovered that the republic of ireland is one of the lowest populations in europe

That understands the gospel and how to respond to it That's by god's grace that we're saved through faith and what jesus did for us on the cross

And it's not of our own doing but a free gift from god. Amen I found this picture of this irish girl and my wife said wow that looks a lot like me when

I was a teenager So I didn't want to feel left out So I found a picture of a guy that would look like me when i'm like 90 years old in ireland

So my first point of business over in ireland is get a little green hat But salvation jesus christ is not a result of our own good works so that nobody can boast on what they've done

As I said in short half of one percent That's 0 .5 percent has responded the gospel in the republic of ireland according to the gospel coalition

So that's one person for every 200 people Or a half a person for every 100 people but compared to the united states

Those who've responded the gospel can be as high as 35 According to wheaton college in illinois

Where your pastor and his wife grew up when they were younger in the lombard area And that's 70 people for every 200 people according to wheaton

So for example If you had a room of 200 people you could probably fit easily 200 people here standing up And if you say all right those who respond to the gospel in the united states, please stand over here

On your left my right so it'd be 70 people out of 200 You say all right those who respond to the gospel in the republic of ireland stand over here

That's what it would look like and so this slide here is a reminder to me

And a motivation to me to understand that sometimes god wants people from the united states to leave what's convenient

Comfortable and familiar and go to the ends of the earth not only to ireland

But to other places where christ has not been heard and maybe there's somebody here tonight that god wants you

To go to some other country and be a missionary yourself So our passion is to serve the lord in the republic of ireland with abwe association of baptists for world evangelism and existing irish churches now a few years back

The republic got this great idea that they are no longer going to allow missionaries in and if you want to come to ireland to work in a church you have to Get a minister of religion visa

And you have to be hired by an existing church over there in order to come and work at that church

So that is the only way to get in there to do this full time and to get a work visa over there is extremely hard Also the law over there to get a work visa is they have to first offer the job to an irish person then to an

European and then anybody else so it's very hard to get a job over there And if you want to start a business, you have to bring a million dollars over to start a business over there

So to get in the missionaries are partnering with existing baptist churches

That abwe is vetting So a missionary over there is vetting them and they have to want us and we have to want to be a part of their ministry and they will also

Need to want to be a thriving ministry also a ministry that wants to plan a church 30 minutes to 40 minutes away

So that's how we would get in to do that and there are three kinds of bible -believing churches worldwide

You see them even here in the united states those that are thriving those that are maintaining and those that are dying

There are two churches in grbc in omaha that died over the last couple years And so it's very sad as a missionary to try to call churches

You got a list of churches and you try to find out their website. No website That's the first indicator that that's not a good situation

No website if you're a plumber and you didn't have a website people think are you really in business?

or any type of Business and so people want to go to a website and see what you guys are all about You guys do have one.

So that's great. But then you find their phone number and you call and it's beep beep beep It's been disconnected very sad.

Somebody went into that town and planted a church They had gospel conversations.

They had bible studies in their home and then they rented a small facility Uh, and and they they started a church there and then they saved up enough money

To build a building similar to this. So I got a mrs. Dean this morning. She was here back in the beginning and So it would be sad if at some point this church gets down to about 10 people

And very very sad and but sometimes what happens is churches. They just want to maintain

I just want to sing three songs Maybe four songs have the pastor speak for 25 30 minutes and do nothing else and leave

And if everybody has that type of thought then a church eventually will die But as one of the pastors at brookside baptist church in brookville, wisconsin

We saw god grow the church from 300 to 707 years as we focus on evangelism trained discipleship and guest assimilation for god's glory and so It's not about the numbers

But the 400 new people that came to the church at brookside We were able to disciple them and equip them and they in turn were able to share the gospel with other people

So they are souls for christ and so we we were in a small building We had three services and the lord helped us to be able to buy build this newer facility and we saw

Many people come to know the lord One of the things that I did as an assistant pastor there is I was in charge of discipleship class during sunday school

We went over 20 topics. We took two weeks per topic And so anybody was new to the church or a new believer if they'd never been discipled before they could come to that class and get grounded because during the church service our pastor was going through ephesians or romans or First john and it was like we were in that book for a long time

So if somebody's a brand new christian not everything about prayer is in ephesians And so we would have them go to this sunday school class before church

Then during the summertime we would shut down the discipleship class and we'd have evangelism training for 14 weeks

The program that we used was evangelism explosion We taught it during sunday school and on wednesday night for one hour

We'd take a group out of three or four and we would show them how to do that By just knocking on a few doors around the neighborhood and do a questionnaire and most of the time the teams

Each gave the gospel to one household just either brief for two minutes or one hour or more

And so it was great to see people equipped in giving the gospel Then once they were done with that training through the discipleship and evangelism

We would encourage them to go to another adult bible fellowship group So this was really helpful and foundational for many of our people and we put together a plan of 30 things

Three which I just showed you that we would offer our guests to assimilate them into our church

So our mission statement is to see god's work thrive in ireland by multiplying disciples multiplying churches and missions movements

By god's grace and for his glory a mission's movement would be this So if I went over to ireland and gave the gospel to jim and he got saved discipled counseled and trained

And he says, you know what? I feel like god wants me to go to afghanistan to be a missionary that would be a missions movement

According to abwe and we do this by god's grace with his help and for his glory And we'd love for you to come and see ireland and be our special guests if possible

On the back of the prayer card that we handed out It says, you know come to ireland be our special guest how you would do that is our phone number is going to change

But if you'd like to come over for a week or two and have a place to stay for free Uh, just email us there and our email is not dot com.

It's dot cc That's how abwe put it. So if you send it to dot c uh dot com it will not come to me

So send it to dot cc and we'd love to have you be on a first come first serve basis

But our goal in ireland is to share jesus verbally in written form to as many people as we possibly can

And to disciple everyone that god brings to us and to plant churches as god leads for a total of 10 years or more

How do we plan to start this? Well, we plan to do this for uh By god's grace and for his glory by meeting people while doing the things that we enjoy

And inviting them over or going out when i've talked to the missionaries in ireland I say what do you guys do you guys do vacation bible school?

Door -to -door. What do you guys do? And they say well, they see you as a cult coming from america

They won't let their kids children typically come to those things So what we do as missionaries is we just get involved in some of the things that we enjoy doing

And we meet people and then we show them christ's love by and pray for them And so we can do that even here in america with the people that we work with or things that we get involved in And as people share their concerns

We can pray for them right then or pray for them later Show them christ's love and then asking them about their worldview and their religious background one of the questions that I ask

Many people if I have more than a five ten minute conversation i'll ask them So if you don't mind me asking what's been your spiritual journey?

And it's great to listen to people's spiritual journey and they'll share it with you whether it's been negative or positive

Whether it's been spiritual even maybe satanic they'll share it with you And i'm by asking if we could share with them how we receive eternal life

So if you listen to somebody Share their spiritual journey for 30 minutes or 10 minutes Then when they're all done you say hey, do you mind if I share my spiritual journey?

And that's when i'm going to give them the gospel And then also you could share with them the story of hope the story of hope is something that abwe put together because they're

Missionaries were coming from different colleges and seminaries Some of them were trained well in evangelism.

Some of them were not trained very well at all Some of them had materials to use Some of them didn't so abw missionaries got together and they put together what's called the story of hope

And the story of hope begins with 20 events that follow the bible's redemptive story And it comes in a free phone app like this called the story of hope condensed.

I actually went through these 20. I actually had 23 Pictures and stories that I went through with the children today in In children's church and so it's something that you can use with any age and it also comes in a pocket size version

Like this if you don't have an app for your phone And then when people show interest we continue with this booklet and share god's plan to bring hope and eternal life

So this one has 40 lessons in it. It's about 15 minutes each It has a passage of scripture that you go to and answer five questions per story and so this would be uh great for churches to do and we we have a lot of bible studies for edification

And iwana and vacation bible school is geared towards kids. This would be something that would be geared toward adults and Some churches they meet on sunday night.

Some are doing small groups and various grbc churches. I think it would be great if uh, if You know not saying that you guys

Have to do this but just as a thought What if once a month the last? Sunday We were to tell our people.

Hey If you can invite somebody over to your house or go over to jim's house And we're going to do this and invite lots of people to jim's house and just once a sunday

Uh once a month, that would be awesome then we continue with the way to joy to share about god's path to to uh,

Happen true happiness and life -full meaning purpose. So this one has 10 lessons in it. So it's some follow -up material

Abwe has put these together in 20 different languages. So if you wanted to even start a hispanic

Gospel bible study you could do that through them. So it's abwe specifically a good soil

I had the privilege of sharing the story of hope with jamal moses and nico in baltimore. Uh, I was at a

Uh seminar for missionaries with abwe and the very first day I went to the back

And uh, I saw this guy helping out with water And so I walked back there. I want some water and I said hi.

I said my name is dan. What's your name? He says my name is jamal. I said hey, thanks for bringing the water out here helping us out this week

And he says hey, no problem. I said, what's what's your name? Jamal? I'm like, hey great. Nice to meet you How long you been doing this job eight years eight years working there

Uh at the hyatt I said do you want to do this for your the rest of your life like a career? He goes. No, I want to get into nutrition

And so I was about, you know, I was drinking my water. I was about ready to leave And as a good baptist, I was about ready to say hey, well i'll pray for you about that But instead of just kind of saying that and walking away

I just said to him and say hey, do you mind if I quickly pray for you about that? And he said sure

And so I just said god I pray that jamal gets a job in nutrition And thank you for his work here and bless him in many and great ways in jesus name.

Amen I mean, it was like less than 10 minutes 10 seconds Guess what happened the rest of the week every time he saw me he would wave at me and my wife

My wife she would say hey, there's jamal. He's waving at you again. They're like hey So I was upstairs on friday and I was like lord

Give me an opportunity to go through the story of hope with jamal and so at nine o 'clock at night

Right here. There's a round table and jamal. He walks by he's waving at me again.

I said hey jamal Can you come here a second? I said hey if once you're done with work if you have 10 minutes

I would like to show you something For 10 minutes and I said if if you listen to me i'll give you five bucks

I've done that before with people i'll never pay for them to to pray the sinner's prayer But it's like i'll take somebody out for a steak dinner dinner

Right pay 20 bucks to give him the gospel So I was like hey for your time of 10 minutes. I'll give you five bucks.

He goes really you'll do that I'm, like sure he didn't know what I was gonna say and then moses sat down next to him

And he said hey, he's gonna give me five bucks if I listen for 10 minutes Moses said will you do that for me? I said sure and then nico he sat down on the other side.

I'm like hey I can share the gospel with three people at one setting i'm like hey nico i'm gonna give him the i'm gonna

Share something with these guys for 10 minutes. I'll give you five bucks He goes i'm in so we went around to the other side where nico was at because he was the least interested

And I took out took out my phone and started going through the story of hope come to find out Jamal was a christian moses and nico did not want to respond to the gospel

That would have been a perfect setting if I lived in baltimore To follow up with an evangelistic bible study with them at a coffee shop or at their apartment or wherever During covet

I put together this youtube Uh landing page the truth about eternal life and then

I put together a 22 minute video What the bible says about eternal life as a follow -up for people and I also put it labeled on the back of uh, our booklet, uh here that this booklet

I put together back in 2006 and So if you didn't get one of these or if you want more there's actually a guy in Omaha that prints prints these out for me folds them and And sends them to me for free so praise the lord for that So we've given out one of these to almost every person in every church that we've been a part of Not to collect dust but to give it out to a lost person

But right now i've been teaching churches a very helpful message on how to share jesus without fear

And if you didn't get the notes for that because we were only able to get through about three quarters of it this morning

You can come up here and get that also or if you would like the powerpoint of it

I can email that to you also But in addition to the ministries mentioned gene and I have served in the past in the following ways

We're asking god to open up many opportunity opportunities for us in ireland So some people kind of know our past they know of all the different things that we've done

Some people were brand new to them and they're like, you know, are these guys fresh out of college? What have they done?

Do they do they know what they're doing? uh, so we don't say this in any type of you know pat on the back or We try to I want to say this in humility, but just to let you know

Kind of like as a resume. These are the things that we have done, but my wife and I She was a christian college teacher at northland baptist bible college when dr.

Ola was there Then she's been an elementary ed teacher now for Six years and we've done homeschooling also, but also a ladies bible study teacher evangelism explosion trainer individual discipler

She's done cef sunday school wanna kids for tooth and vacation bible school for me

I've been a teaching pastor an assistant pastor christian school administrator christian college teacher and dean of men at northland baptist bible college evangelism explosion teacher trainer men's jail ministry coordinator and teacher

Dalton children's sunday school couples bible study individual disciple or counselor vacation bible school wanting kids for truth

So those are some of the things that god has directed us to do Over the years not all at the same time

Praise the lord, but part number two is our spiritual journey similar to your journey of coming to christ But my wife was born in huntington, new york, long island and grew up in a catholic home.

So having a catholic background Uh and red hair. She she will really fit in well, uh with the people there in ireland and she responded the gospel

Uh at age 16 while attending word of life camp in schroon lake, new york. So she grew up in a home

Uh that was going to catholic church Frequently every week and actually when her parents got saved they started going to a baptist church on sunday morning

And they go to the catholic church on saturday night. So they're doing, you know double duty and Before my wife was saved.

She was like totally frustrated And then the catholic priest told my father -in -law that he should not be going to the baptist church

But he was learning more at the baptist church. So that was his last sunday at the catholic church and so, uh, so she they uh uh came to christ and uh

Influence their children in the things of the lord But she's always been supportive and serving And all the ministries that god has led us to be a part of and she is supportive and will be serving in her ministries

In ireland. So this is our wedding picture Sometimes people say who who are those two people and that was my wife and I way back when so we we rented the vehicle

Um, but uh, you're like you look nothing like that anymore I'm, like, I know

I say that every morning when I look in the mirror I'm, like you're not the guy that I grew up with but I was born in peoria, illinois.

My dad worked for caterpillar Grew up in a christian home went to church whenever the doors were open and I responded to the gospel as I said this morning

Um at a young age in decalb, illinois And when we made the decision to follow christ, we prayed something like this at the time

So I always like to have the gospel presentation in here and the gospel's seen in a in a sinner's prayer here

But lord jesus, I know the eternal life is a free gift is not earned by my good works. Amen That is the difference right there of all the religions in the world.

They say do good works Whatever we say to get into whatever heaven they say, but this is how christianity is totally different And then

I understand i'm a sinner. I can't save myself from eternal destruction I believe you died on the cross rose from the grave to save my soul

I place my trust in you for my salvation lord. Jesus. Forgive me cleanse me of my sins and save me

I am willing with your help to turn to you from sin with the holy spirit's help I accept the free gift of eternal life.

Thank you for saving me and preparing a place in heaven for me in jesus name Amen, so gene and she graduated with certificate in bible from word of life

Which is where she uh came to know the lord at the camp and went to the the bible Uh institute for a year and then she has a degree in early childhood development that she got at bob jones

Then she came up to northland and got a degree in elementary education So i'm glad that there was no guy that snatched her in all those other places

So the lord preserved her for me praises the lord But I graduated with a major in youth ministry and bible with a minor in new testament greek and communications

Then I began working on a master's in biblical studies Our sending church is gretna baptist church in gretna nebraska and our missions agency is abwe and harrisburg pa

Abwe is making a difference with over 1 000 missionaries right now in over 70 countries.

So They if they weren't doing a very good job with their missionaries The missionaries would not stick around and use their services

So they they help out in a variety of ways and they planted over 5 000 churches over the last 94 years since august 1927 with their national partners and for those that are curious about exploring missions

They can go and visit Abwe .org. So if you'd want to do a one week mission short -term mid -term or long -term mission

You can call them up and fill out whatever application online that they would direct you to so people would ask us

Well, why would you go and serve in ireland? You were a financial advisor on your road to potentially making 200 000 and now you're going to churches

And on deputation and raising missionary support Why why would you be such an idiot to do that, right?

That's what some other financial advisors, uh would be saying to me But one of the greatest gifts that god gives to each of us is what?

Our potential and one of the greatest gifts that we can give back to god is to fulfill our potential pastor bison his wife chris they are

Seeking to serve god and live up to their potential Could pastor be doing something that would be a little bit easier maybe make more money

Yes, but this is what god wants him to do and he's living up to his potential And you need to find out what god wants you to do or continue to do

But if you're not doing what god wants you to do find out what he wants you to do Maybe talk to your pastor and then pray toward that end and go do what god is laying on your heart

But at the end of our lives as believers many of us will ask three questions Did I let did

I live my life with meaning and purpose? So if you are at a job right now, even though it may be a hard job

You can live out your life with meaning and purpose by the relationships that you're developing there

And you can talk to those people at times at work if if it's allowed but you could also ask some questions and maybe meet with them on a saturday or a day off and You can build a relationship with them and share the gospel with them

Also number two is did I influence other for others for christ or was life all about me?

Was it at all about jesus christ? And then did I glorify god and make him look great or was it all about making myself look great?

So in daniel chapter 12 verse 3 the prophet daniel heard the prophecies from god's messenger about future eternal rewards

Now this verse is tucked back in the 12th chapter of daniel Maybe a while since you've read daniel chapter 12, but this verse here has motivated me over the last 25 to 30 years

I had read through the bible At various times, but I I kind of skipped over this verse.

I didn't really know it was tucked back in there But it has been very motivational To me in one specific way.

It says and those who are wise Shall shine like the brightness of the sky above and those who turn many to righteousness like the stars forever and ever

So is this an eternal reward? Yes, it is for how long? forever and ever

Then what does it say? It says we need that that the reward is that we're going to shine like the sky and the stars

I don't know all that that means but I do know stars reflect light and when we're giving the gospel here

We're reflecting god's glory. We get to heaven. We're going to be reflecting god's glory But it may be mean more than just that.

I don't know specifically But it says to do two things It says to be wise and to turn many righteousness.

How do you get wisdom? You get in god's word and you apply it to your life and you live it out. That's wisdom and he says

Don't just sit on your wisdom Get up and do something with your wisdom go and talk to people

Turn many to righteousness now All we have to do is speak and the holy spirit is the one that will convict them and convert them

So he's the one specifically that is turning them and it's turning them to righteousness. It's not their righteousness

It's christ's righteousness and we we evangelize them. We give them the gospel. We disciple them we counsel them

That's turning people to righteousness, but the word that bothered me or challenged me the most on this verse

What word do you think it was? anybody the word many Many How many is many many is a whole lot

Are you ever done with this verse? It's like oh i'm 70 i'm done

Now now frankly I being involved in ministry for many years I could say

I have turned a few To righteousness and i'm like i'm done but And I probably wouldn't be here tonight.

But because this verse says many my job is not done until I die And god wants me and you individuals to turn many to christ and not just your pastor and his wife

Everybody here. This is what he wants us to do And if you do that, he says you will shine like the sky and like the brightness of the stars

Turn many to righteousness Wouldn't it be awesome? if uh

It wouldn't be awesome that you passed away, but let's say you pass away and you're you're uh,

Being uh lowered there into the grave at at the uh cemetery and somebody

Puts a gravestone there Where where you lie, you'll be in your soul be in heaven

But what if on your tombstone said your name? And it said he or she turned many to righteousness by god's grace and for his glory

Wouldn't that be interesting wouldn't that be amazing wouldn't it be exciting that somebody that knows you

Would say that was a person that we saw turned many to righteousness so second

Jesus promises disciples and other believers in mark chapter 10. He says truly I say to you there is no one

No one who has left house or brothers or sister or mother or father children or lands

For my sake and for the gospel who will not receive a hundred fold a hundred times as much now in this time houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands

Some people say well if I become a missionary I might have to give up my house Give up my land give up my cars and go to another place

And i'm not going to be able to see my grandchildren as much won't be able to see My children as much and that would be very difficult and uh

Where do I stay? Well? God what does god say if you give up?

For him to do what he wants you to do. He's going to give you a hundred fold a hundred times as much

Last night I stayed in a beautiful home of a church member here I don't own that home

That's where I stayed last night I had to leave my wife and my kids

But I also got to meet your pastor and his wife And become friends with them and so as you give up things

For the gospel you will also receive blessings from god But I could have left this out

But you know what the next verse says you better know what the next verse says It's not very exciting

The first part of it. This is what it says with persecutions And the exciting part it says in the age to come eternal life so If you were to ask your pastor, have you ever had any persecutions in ministry?

What would the answer be? Yes There are trying times that that happen

Uh, because people are not always led by the holy spirit and they do mean things at times

So it's not always easy third and lastly jesus encourages disciples Not to worry about their needs by saying in matthew chapter 6

Therefore don't be anxious. Don't be worried saying what shall we eat? What shall we drink? What shall we wear?

For the gentiles the lost people the unbelievers they seek after all these things and your heavenly father knows that you need them all

But seek first the kingdom of god and his righteousness make this your primary concern

And all these things the food the drink and the clothing will be added to you. So Coming up here in december 27th will be three years that I resigned from edward jones as a financial advisor and guess what?

for the last three years I have had Something to drink. I've had something to eat and i'm wearing clothes tonight.

Amen Has god provided? Yes, he has so some of you may be thinking god wants me to go do this

But is he going to take care of me? And yes, he will you have to step out in faith part Number three is our team of partners.

So we're inviting We're ready to go and we're inviting others to partner with us impacting the world for christ

And every believer must do his or her part to take the gospel of jesus christ to the end of the earth So the bible says go into all the world and preach the gospel

You're like, why can't I do that? I live I live here in illinois. Well, you can pray for missionaries

Everybody can pray. That's a believer and Some people god wants them to go and some people and some churches god wants them to give and that's how it can be done

But if the lord wills our prayer and goal is to be fully funded by february 28 2022 and then to apply for our visas so For what people have verbally told me they're going to help us with we're at about 33

So praise the lord for that and for one year we weren't able to get into churches So we're at 33 doing this in churches for a little bit over a year now some people say well

That's coming up. So what if you're not fully funded by that time? Well, if you introduce me to a millionaire tomorrow, guess what we'll be fully funded right a hundred thousand a year boom.

It's done Or it's churches or other individuals But if it comes february 28th, and we're not fully funded

I am not going to cry and I am not going to quit right? I am not a quitter I think most of you are probably not quitters either

Uh, but I will continue to pray and I then I only need to do one other thing. You know what it is change this slide

Right. It'll now say august 31st 2022 six more months to get the job done

But those who partner with us make a significant difference in the lives of many people and god will greatly reward them

It's an opportunity for our partners to have spiritual fruit credited to their account in heaven according to philippians chapter 4

When you give in the offerings on sunday and that money goes to the pastor and other ministries and missionaries

To do work and spiritual fruit takes place Philippians chapter 4 says that that spiritual fruit that they did is credited to your account in heaven

Do you believe that? Are you giving money on a on a sunday morning for the budget?

Are you doing it for spiritual fruit that's credited to your account? It's an amazing principle if we really understand it and buy into it

But we're asking friends and family churches and others if they would pray About partnering with us this partnership has two parts our part and our partners part

Our part would include serving for our partners as their hands and feet in ireland by helping plant and strengthen churches

Number two by sending them ministry update emails six times a year as I had mentioned

And if you didn't sign up and you would like to find the clipboard and sign up, please And I actually have about 600 emails on our email list right now

So praise the lord for that and then also by praying for them and their families So as I send out an email if you have prayer requests send them back to me and we do pray for Our partners so our partners part would include this

Reading our email updates and praying for us if you get an email update from a missionary

He probably put about three hours into thinking what he's going to say Editing it and sending it through mailchimp three hours.

That's how fast it takes or that's how long it takes for most updates and our updates is only going to take two minutes to read and so And actually just as a secret mailchimp allows you to know who actually opened up your email and so Encourage your missionary by opening up his email and reading it for two minutes and praying for them

Uh, they they put time into it and then also making a monthly financial commitment if possible and god allows

So there are some churches that can take us on right now. Some of them. Uh, it may be down the road and And there may be some individuals that could take us on or down the road

And then number three is by being an advocate for this ministry by introducing us to Other individuals or other churches of like faith and practice.

So we believe god's glory and his plan are worth it, right? Amen is god's glory worth it

No matter what happens. God is glorified by our obedience and our faith

No matter what the results are and we believe the unbelieving lost are worth it, right? They need to hear the gospel

I got saved when an evangelist came when I was five years old in DeKalb, Illinois, and I am so glad he spoke

But he didn't live in DeKalb He had to leave his town and go and speak to us there in that town

And so the unbelieving lost are worth it I am so appreciative for Al Northrup speaking that night and then we believe this ministry in Ireland is worth it 0 .5

It's very much an unreached people group So we'd love for you to join us and to be a part of our team and ask god about partnering with us

Join our team of partners. Just please complete the ministry partner information half sheet that I gave to you in our information packet

At the beginning and then also please visit our website servingireland .com

Some people have asked me if I want to give individually to your ministry. How can I do that? If you go to our website, there's a tab on how to support them and you can read that So thank you for listening and may god bless you and many in great ways and I don't know if you have any questions or comments or suggestions that would be

Needed here for the entire congregation. I will be in the back At the exit there if you want to talk to me afterwards if you have an individual question, but is there any question or comment idea suggestion

From anybody here this quickly Yes, sir They mostly speak english with an accent

They do have gaelic which would be over on the western side closer to the united states But it's just a very small sliver sliver around the coast.

It's with older people If I do come in contact with them I would probably use an interpreter that knows gaelic really well

Just like a preacher would use an interpreter interpreter over there So to spend many many years to learn their language.

I don't feel like would be the best use of my time but when you go over there if you listen to the missionaries speak on youtube or whatever

They sound just like me. They sound like midwesterners And when you go over to ireland and you're spending money, they don't want you to talk like an irish

They they they look at it as you're making fun of them It'd be similar for you to go down to texas and try to talk like you're texan

And then all of a sudden you say a couple words that are not texan And they're like you're not from around here. Are you you're like?

No, i'm not like well Don't try to talk like us right? That's what they would say here in the united. That's what they do over in ireland

They just like talk like any so we will have to train our ear toward what they're saying and also

Use the language that they use so they don't call them lawyers over there. I guess what they call them. They call them solicitors

That's a that's a that's a lawyer over in ireland a solicitor So you have to you have to learn their language of what words they use for certain different terms

But did that answer your question? All right. Good anybody else great question And you can talk to me, uh afterwards also anyone else

All right, great pastor All right.

Well, thank you Diane appreciate that presentation very well done gave us a lot of information a lot to digest and uh, it's very helpful, uh, the fact that there weren't any any questions is uh,

It means you answered a lot of questions. So i've got one for you. I'm gonna i'm gonna i'll talk to you later about that but Well, very good

So do greet him as he leaves tonight and we'll have a word of prayer and be dismissed

And let you spend some time talking to uh, dan Um, we'll let the finance committee do our thing and do the other things we have to do before we go home tonight

Okay so heavenly father we do thank you for this opportunity to gather tonight for A hearing of this ministry in ireland.

It's intended and desired We do pray for dan and his wife pray that you would bless them in the in the deputation ministry

And thank you for How you've trained them and used them in the past and prepared them for this stage of life

We pray that you would speed them on their way That the door to ireland would open fully for them

And the support would come in completely for them as well So father provide meet those needs

And bless us here in our mission field And give us eyes to see that which you've

Given us to do Help us to be faithful in the doing of it and to be investing in eternity with our time and resources here in sterling

So thank you father for this day and the blessings of it and bless us now as we go our separate ways and I pray