Missions - The Biblical Imperative

[00:00:00] This audio sermon is provided by AnabaptistSermons.com and may be freely copied and distributed. You may not sell or edit this sermon. Our prayer is that you would be blessed by this ministry. Anabaptist, anabaptist, anabaptist [00:01:00] I always say that you get out to the field and you get started and every round of the wheels you cover a little bit of the ground, a little bit of it's behind you. You have less to do. And somehow or another in our world of fast foods and get everything done fast and make one round around the field and you're done. Or they're even talking about the day that you sit in your office and just kind of push the GPS equipment and it goes out and does it itself. I tell you it's going to affect the character of our people. I don't know how but it is going to do something to us and I don't know that it will all be good. [00:01:38] So thank the Lord for that. Those piles of dishes and those fields really is true that the Lord needs people who have learned something about that kind of perseverance. I'm almost chuckling to myself because my dad used to have us clean out what we called the dry cow pen by hand. And we boys all thought that was the craziest thing ever because you could easily get in there with a manure loader, you know, and dig it out that way. [00:02:11] Oh no, my dad said, you have a few things to learn. And so we went back in there on a rainy day or when we couldn't do anything else and start to fork it on, you know. And I see those as good lessons today, but I'll confess to you, they didn't feel very good at the time. We've been talking about education and church planting, you might call it a missions emphasis, and I would just take a few moments to tie some of that together. [00:02:42] Last night I discussed with you a bit the idea of the Chinese bamboo and infrastructure and the hard work that needs to go into thinking about what are we planting. Hence the questions, what is the church, who are its members and who says so, and trying to get us to think that it's not just a matter of saying, well, let's just do this or that. There really does need to be a lot of thought going into it. A connection I would make here for you is this. [00:03:14] We do try to touch our world where there are places to touch them. How do we communicate with them? And I'll be talking here in a few minutes about the ideas of accommodation and assimilation. Very much, I hear a lot of times, you have to somehow get on their page. Well, I agree with that from one angle. From another angle, I don't. You don't just agree for agreement's sake. [00:03:46] Okay. But I have found two things in my years of being involved in various kinds of ministry. Probably the two or three primary things I've done is when I lived in Chambersburg, my wife and I, well, I was involved in a prison ministry there on a regular basis for 15 years. and we often had prisoners stay in our house sometimes five months, sometimes six months, sometimes less than that [00:04:17] and this was part of our ministry we did some of that, of course I taught school and in addition was involved in various levels of mission work boards and so forth and so on here's what I discovered the two things where our world And they're open to hearing you talk and engage with them. The one is family. Repeatedly, they want to, this is where they live. [00:04:51] They've got families too, you know that. And they struggle with the issues that families struggle with. And when they look at a Christian home, they immediately have questions. This has happened to me repeatedly. This is for you sisters again and your encouragement. At prison we would be in there talking about a prison Bible study perhaps and talking about life and I've always made a habit of trying to make it just as real and practical as can be. [00:05:22] I mean, life is story. So, you know, I would tell them, I only ever but kissed one woman passionately in my life. Where are you from? and at first as you would begin to unpack that a bit and talk a little bit about how Christian men relate to the ladies of both the world and our family and so on, almost a scoffing attitude at first but I would notice the more you talk the quieter they would get. [00:05:57] And I would describe to them how well my wife wears a long dress and she veils her head And again, of course, I might have maybe passed a picture around. And oft times, not always, but oft times after about a half hour of trying to unpack, this is what the Lord's will is for us. And this is how he would have us live. They would quietly say, are there any other women like that in the world? And I would very gladly say, yes, yes. [00:06:30] Yes, and then you could guess what the next question was. When I get out of prison, can I come and see your family? I've been asked that many times. And I would always say, of course. And I say this to say that in this issue of church planting and of touching the world where it counts, it's not a question of us changing our clothes or doing this or doing that in order to connect [00:07:05] listen there are points of connection I just gave you one they connect immediately when you talk about real life now if you act gentlemen like you never oh you just never have any struggles with your wife or your children at all it's just a wonderful thing day in and day out they don't connect with that at all because they know it's not true So don't even try that. Just talk to them about the way life is. And talk to them about the way you do under the authority of God [00:07:40] when indeed you and your wife do not agree. What do you do? And then you go to the passages and you don't act like you don't have any of those issues. You just say, we do. But here's what we do. and we don't always win but by God's grace time and time again I subject myself to what the Lord has taught me as I come and relate to my wife and lead my family in godliness my children included [00:08:11] and so on that connects, it really does the second one is education there are two things that this world is very interested in the one is family and the other one is education I don't care where you go, they want to talk about how to train up children and how to educate and many of them want education. In just this winter term, there is a man coming from Poland, his name is Tadeusz, he's coming to Faith Builders, he's 61 years old. [00:08:43] He got connected with us in Poland through GTE, Gateway to English Came for English lessons because he's a businessman And the more he talked to the men in conversational English The more his heart was drawn to the content of the discussion Not just the educational aspect of learning more English But, well, what is this? As soon as he began to study more, mind you, he came to know the Lord at 61 years of age. [00:09:19] And now he's, I don't know, we need to learn something here. Now he's saying, are there really whole communities of people who live this way? And he happens to be a businessman who's wealthy enough when we said, well, yes, there are. He said, well, where can I go to see a community of people where there are many families like this and where there are children, where there are young people? And by the way, young folks, they want to see that too. [00:09:55] At Meadville Mennonite Chapel, where we just got started just two years ago, this has repeatedly been our experience. I have five sons, and three of them go to church there regularly, and there's a couple other families, John Koblenz's I believe have a number of four or five boys, and their boys are there anyway, and Meadville Chapel, even though it's just a small chapel, the two front rows over here are full of young boys. and from, I don't know, 15 years to 23 years of age, something like that. [00:10:27] A family that had been from one church to another church to another church came by and the brother told me he was from the holiness background, actually Quaker background at one time but then joined the Pentecostals and became very disillusioned with the way things were. And his daughters came for a couple, I don't know, a couple of months to our church. And then he finally came. And about a few months later, he cornered me and he said, he said, brother, I just want to tell you something. [00:11:05] He said, I have been so disillusioned with Christianity that you wouldn't believe it. But he said, I'll tell you what has given me great hope as I come into your congregation. And he pointed to this two rows of boys. He said, I have never been in a church where there have been two rows of young men who sit attentively and quietly and they're listening and from what I can tell, they're trying their best to do what the Lord has done. He said, that is attractive. [00:11:39] Well, I told him, we've got warts, you know. Just so he knew that. He said, I know you do, I know you do. But I know something, and that is, if I go somewhere, if I enter into a congregation somewhere, and I see healthy young people, I know something is going right. Something is being done right. It's been a long time since I saw young men like this. I'm just saying that for you young men. You bear a testimony. [00:12:10] You young ladies, you bear a testimony like those of us with gray hair just can't offer. So bless you as you stand up for the Lord in your day and in your year. So I'm hoping you're what I'm trying to tie together here for you just a bit is some of the themes of the weekend here. Your education and missions are not all that far separated. There really are places where we can touch our world. I don't know what you're doing in your community, but there are all kinds of programs out there where you can touch your community. [00:12:43] I would guess you can go into any of your towns here where the public schools are, and if you ask, they'll have read programs, they'll have after-school programs, they'll have all kinds of different things that if you're interested, you can go one-on-one and sit down and help maybe a 12-year-old, a 13-year-old, or whatever, With their homework or some, if you happen to be fairly proficient in mathematics or something like that, you don't need degrees, you don't need anything like that. They welcome you. At least they do in Pennsylvania. And for my part, I just want to, I would encourage our 23-year-olders, our 24-year-olders, if you've got a little time in your hands, you ought to check into this. [00:13:24] It puts you right face-to-face with people. And as you begin to talk with them and help them to understand something about mathematics, I'll guarantee you the questions will come. And the interaction, listen, it's about the modern world, the modern term in our world is networking. Connections with people and networking, who is it that you know? And those are built, you can build those left and right in the field of education. [00:13:58] And I hope you heard me, you don't need degrees to do it. All you have to do is make yourself available at the right places and it won't be very long until people are knocking on your doors. Can you help me with this? Can you help me with this? Can you help me with this and that and the other thing? Really, for my part, we need to develop some strategy and leverage where the places we can really touch the world with no compromise. Enough said there. I'd like for you to turn this morning to begin with to Romans chapter 1, verses 16 and 17. [00:14:36] Very, very pertinent passage here. Remember, when I offered these messages at Penn Valley a number of years ago, or at least I'm drawing most of my thoughts here from these notes, I entitled this one, Missions, the Biblical Imperative. Last night with the bamboo story and commenting on the dismantling of the Berlin Wall [00:15:06] and our seeming lack of preparation, and maybe more than that, lack of conviction in the face of tremendous, or in the, yeah, as we faced tremendous opportunity and opened doors. I have really felt challenged about this, but I want to offer you this verse. And this is one of my life verses. For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. For it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. [00:15:46] Question for you, do you believe that? Amen, I heard. I am an educator. I like to read books and I've read slugs of them. Some of them not worth reading. Some of them very, very, very good. But I have come to be wary of all of the answers that have been given to this world's problems. I don't have great big issues with certain kinds of counseling [00:16:17] But I'm amazed at how we have turned everywhere for the answers to life I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ Why? For it is the power of God unto salvation It really is the answer Now I'll confess that we have twisted around and messed around and sometimes don't present it properly and all that kind of thing. But I want to tell you, it is the power of salvation. [00:16:49] It has within it the seeds to change the world in which we live. You know it changes us. And it is the seed which changes those around us. Don't rest on anything else. It won't work. As much as I just get done telling you that education is a point of touching our world, but education in and of itself doesn't solve a thing. The power of the gospel of Jesus Christ is that which turns the heart and changes the life forever. [00:17:30] However, it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. I believe that. I'd like for you to turn to Matthew chapter 5, continuing to look at a biblical basis. Why should we be out preaching the gospel? Why should we be planting churches? Great passage here. You're very familiar with it again. I hope you understand by now. I like familiar passages. I like to just mine new things from there. [00:18:01] That's all. You're the salt of the earth. Who's ye? Well, go read the preceding verses. You'll see the Beatitudes. You're the salt of the earth. But if the salt have lost his savor, wherewith shall it be salted? It is thenceforth good for nothing but to be cast out and to be trodden underfoot of men. Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick, and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. [00:18:41] Let your light so shine before men, I want you to underscore the next phrase, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven. Come back to that in just a moment. I have a statement here. The answer to the lack of relevancy Now this is fingering again the question of irrelevancy People will say Christianity is not relevant today Particularly conservative Mennonite practice is not relevant You can't bridge the gap into the culture [00:19:13] I beg to differ The answer to the lack of relevancy is not accommodation and assimilation Rather, listen carefully, it is a deliberate, consistent, and loving application of the doctrine of separation as taught in the scriptures. Now why do I believe that? Ye are the salt of the earth. But if the salt have lost its savor, wherewith shall it be salted? [00:19:45] What good is it? What difference will it make? Brothers and sisters, I have worked hard at trying to sit under the Lord and receive the instruction that it is of God to be different. I don't mean just some arbitrarily chosen difference. That's not my point. I know. I know something about some of our issues and now and then we think that if we just do this or that, that makes us different. [00:20:19] I'm not really talking about that. But the idea that God has called us out and separated us unto himself that we may be salt in this earth is a godly idea. And hence my statement, the answer to the lack of relevancy is not accommodation and assimilation. Don't ever get that in your mind. It's not. If anything, get more salty. And again, I don't mean arbitrarily. I just mean by the way you actually live and conduct yourself. Francis Schaeffer said one time that he thinks probably one of the most radical things [00:20:57] of course he's coming from a different perspective than us one of the most radical things that you can do and one of the most salty things you can do in this generation is to live with one woman all your life that alone is astounding to find a man who for 70 years now and then you'll find one who To a couple who are celebrating their 70th anniversary, you know that that is such a rarity in our world. That it's incredible. [00:21:32] The position against divorce and remarriage has been the right position. And if we change that, we only reduce the saltiness. We only reduce the saltiness. Let me give you an example or so here. I do not give these stories to salve anybody's conscience, but to illustrate to you that, to give us some courage in what we're doing. And these stories are not going to have actually good endings, simply because I want you to understand that sometimes I think we miss what our mission in this world is. [00:22:06] So we are to plant churches, and if we don't see visible results again, sometimes we wonder if we're doing anything right. Harking back again to our years in Chambersburg, we lived in an area where there were a lot of apple orchards and so on. And so back in the 70s, there were a lot of migrant workers. Now, I don't think there are hardly any of those anymore, but back then there were. We traveled into our area, and they had children, and they picked apples, and of course lived the life of a migrant worker. [00:22:42] Well, one of the things that needed to happen is somebody needed to take care of their children while they worked to make a living. And so my wife, in her busy schedule, said, you know, I think I wouldn't mind actually babysitting some of the migrant children. So she did. And I'll never forget this as long as I live. These little, little girl about, I don't know, 10 years old or something like that would come into our kitchen at 8 o'clock on Monday morning and she would just stand there, little black girl. [00:23:17] She would just stand there and I don't know that I ever heard her say a word. Tears would just start dribbling out of her eyes down across her face. And she would just stand there just crying. Why? We never did find out why. But my wife would love her and care for her during the day and periodically again, just tears. Never said a word. I mean, not one word. And evening would come and her mom would come along and pick her up. Her mom was white and her dad was black. Well, through that avenue, we struck up a friendship. [00:23:59] And so we had them for supper one evening and after supper we sat down in the living room and I was talking to this brother or to this gentleman and we were talking about spiritual things and oh yes he said right now I see a spirit up there in the corner of the room. Now, what would you do with that? Well, I tell you what I did. I did nothing. I said, OK. [00:24:30] And we continued it. And then he saw another spirit in the other corner of the room. He said they were good spirits. So that was at least heartening. So we continued in the discussion and somehow we got on the discussion of nonresistance. Got around to that, and I said, well, you know, the Lord taught us that it is, oh, I know how we got on to it. He said there was somebody who was going to kill him from back at the migrant camp, and they did. It was just a stabbing the night before that. And so I said, well, you know what the Lord has taught us? [00:25:02] And I went on to explain that and so forth and so on. Went, I don't know, a week or two weeks, and I hadn't heard from this person. So I said, told Sheila, I said, I'm going to go back to the migrant camp and look up Jim. So I went back, and I'm telling you what, I wandered through hallways, smoke-filled rooms, pounding music, and wondered what in the world is going on in this place. What kind of spirit inhabits this? Finally found him playing a game of poker there with some other friends, and then talked to him for a while, went out and sat down. And he said, Melvin, I want to tell you something, what happened here. [00:25:34] I said, okay, what's that? He said, just last week, since we don't have a car and we needed a few things, my wife was walking to town. And as she was walking to town, one of the other migrant workers here, he named him and I didn't know him, came along and tried to force her into the car to take advantage of her. He said she ran and got away and so nothing happened. But he said, I'll tell you what, when I found out about it, and he took me outside the door [00:26:05] he said you see that tree over there I said yeah I see the tree he said I got my nunchucks I don't know if you know what they are or not but some kind of clubs that they use in close combat and he said I got behind that tree and I made up my mind that when that gentleman came home and got out and started to walk in that lane right there I was going to kill him and then he said somewhere I remembered Anabaptist, Anabaptist, Anabaptist, Anabaptist [00:27:02] There are changes that one might think ought to be made. I'm not even trying to make him into a Christian. All I'm telling you that for one moment, a few words from Holy Scripture prevented a man from killing another man. Ye are the salt of the earth. But if the salt hath lost its savor, wherewith shall it be salted? There is nothing to be ashamed of. I'm not ashamed of the gospel. It is the power of God unto salvation. It saves. [00:27:37] Now I think what we do is we restrict its saving power or its power to make a difference in the world we live in when we measure it by the idea if they don't come into our church and don't sit down and become members here, then it was all worthless. Not so, brethren and sisters. Not true. It's just not true. Remember, when the gospel is preached throughout the world, it makes a difference. [00:28:07] Remember we read last night, we don't know how, but it does. It just simply makes a difference. Sisters, you heard what I said. This was my wife just making the simple decision to care for a child who wouldn't even talk to her. Care for a child for a couple of weeks, see to it that she was fed while her mom worked and a few things like that. That was what the path that led toward just for one moment restraining a man from doing violence to another man. [00:28:43] I would have us take courage this morning with the power of the gospel. It really does transform and change lives. If I can give you just one more example, I don't know where this story will end. And one of the young ladies who is in Poland teaching English. And oh, by the way, if the Lord would move any of you to be interested in teaching English in Poland, you should let me know sometime because we're always needing people for this. A young lady over there teaching Polish got to know a lady very well [00:29:17] and began to lead her toward the Lord and encourage her to think about what God was doing only to have her on one day make a homosexual advance on her. What would you do? This is the world in which we live. And now again, let me say something to you parents who wonder about the hard work that goes into training a child if you ever made a difference. Well, there was a girl in a foreign land, and by the way, she happened to grow up neighbors to us, family, friends, and all of that. [00:29:51] But here's a girl, foreign land, 6,000 miles away, spreading the gospel, teaching the truth to be confronted with that kind of evil. but able to stand and say my dear friend I do care about you deeply but you have misunderstood me sorely do you know what the scriptures say about that kind of lifestyle and I'm very sorry that you have taken this liberty [00:30:22] but I need to tell you that our friendship is on the basis of what God has said not on any basis like that you know what happened Hanya got angry that's not the end of the story a month or two later Hanya calls and says you know, you know, can I talk with you? can I talk with you? I know that what you're speaking is the truth do I know the end of the story? No [00:30:55] Hanya is not yet a member of the church in Poland Hanya is closer to knowing the Lord than she ever was. If for some reason, my dear, the dear young lady who grew up neighbors to us, if for some reason she had given in to assimilation, accommodation, and all that flim flam that goes on today, instead of being the salt that says there's a time to say no. [00:31:27] It wouldn't be that way. Ye are the salt of the earth. Listen, it's time for us to stop shouting into the wind about the wickedness of this world and to run straight up against it and let the salt be salt and let the light be light and let that affect our world as God would have it. God can use people who are in contact with other people. He can't use people who are just out here criticizing and going on and telling all the bad stories they can tell in all the various places, but never confront it. [00:32:03] Never actually run into it. The reason we had prisoners in our home is because time, I mean, my children got a first-rate education about what this world is about in a safe environment, relatively safe. Now, I will admit that now and then I got awake in the middle of the night and wondered, Melvin, what are you doing? You've got these people in your household. Tried to quiet myself before the Lord and say, God, it's in your hands. [00:32:38] It's in your hands. I'll never forget the night. We had a bipolar fellow there. And he was not permitted to go some places. And the agreement was with the law enforcement that if he broke parole, I would turn him in. I would just report that he had broken parole. And so I knew that this was about to happen. And we were down in my basement. And it's like 10 o'clock at night. And John says to me, he says, you're not going to call the policeman. [00:33:12] I said, John, I made an agreement and I keep my word. If you leave, I'll call him. You can't. You're not going to call him. You can tell I'm not a very big man. He was a pretty big guy. And I said, John, it's not only a matter that I, it's not a matter of can or can't. I must. It's my word. It's my honor. I said I would and I will. [00:33:43] And he said, well, I'm leaving. I said, well, leave. I guess that's your, I really thought he was going to hit me. I honestly, I thought that's what the end of this was going to be. He stalked out of the room, out of the basement, went over to his room, and I don't know what he did. I went to bed and got up in the morning, and John was still there. And we prayed together and so on, but that story didn't end that way. The story went on and on and on. [00:34:14] Our house was surrounded by policemen one time in search of John. It was quite an experience. but this is what we mean by salt and light confronting the world confronting evil I don't mean recklessly I don't mean shamelessly I don't mean unwisely but I mean confrontation you're the light of the world a city that is set on a hill cannot be hid [00:34:49] I know we're the quiet of the land and I agree with that in many ways but I want to encourage you we are not only to be the quiet in the land who live good godly lives and upright we are also to be light and it says look you don't take a light set it on a hill it can't be hid men don't light a candle put it under a bushel but on a candlestick and it giveth light unto all that are in the house [00:35:19] let your light so shine before men and then I underscore that they may see your good works for all of the bad talk that good works has given I challenge you sometime to go throughout the scripture, particularly the New Testament, find the number of times that we are encouraged to do that which is right that's right here and glorify your father which is in heaven, of course that doesn't mean parade them around, it just means be that So let me say again, the answer to the lack of relevancy is not accommodation and assimilation. [00:35:54] Rather, it is a deliberate, consistent, and loving application of the doctrine of separation. And I want you to understand that is a broad idea, the doctrine of separation, not narrowly interpreted just by the way we dress, but by a lifestyle as it is taught in the scriptures. And I will close with a passage from Isaiah chapter 40. If you will look there, this is one of my favorite passages in the Old Testament and greatly encouraging to me and I offer it to you for encouragement as bearers of the salt and light in our day. [00:36:37] Very familiar passage again, at least one of the more familiar passages from the Old Testament. But let us listen carefully. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. The opening words are words of comfort. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her. That her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned, for she hath received of the Lord's hand double for all her sins. [00:37:16] The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain. Three and four. Let me tell you, how does that happen? Let me ask you, how does that happen? Prepare you the way of the Lord [00:37:51] Make straight in the desert a highway for our God I want you to think right now of the masses around you Try to think of individuals if you can People who need to come to know the Lord You know them They need to come to know the Lord And then think next about what you are going to do as a person to prepare the way [00:38:21] To fill up the valleys To smooth it out I couldn't help but think this morning Indiana is the right place to be At least parts of it I think I already got the valleys filled up and the hills are torn down It's as flat as can be Just build the highway Well, I'll just translate that into now this neighbor, this person that needs to come to know the Lord. We're going to fill in the valleys. We're going to flatten it out. We're going to prepare the highway of our God. What are we talking about? [00:38:55] Well, I can't help but bring up the word educate again. I don't mean just educate in the formal sense. I mean make aware. If I can reference the prison ministry again, I was there long enough to see a dramatic change. In the first years of our prison ministry, if you walked in and sat down for Bible study, and you passed out the Bibles, and you said, would you please turn to the book of John chapter 1? They would actually pick the book up, and they would actually go to the back of the Bible and start leafing through. [00:39:31] So they knew about the Old Testament and the New Testament, and they knew approximately where to kind of look for the book of John. It occurred to me some 12, 15 years later, I would go in there, you sit down, you pass out the same Bibles, and you would say, turn to the book of John, and they would look at each other. And you could see them wondering, what are you supposed to do here? and some of them would know enough to look in the fly leaf and find a page [00:40:03] and then they would say page 962, page 962 and so then they would start to look what was the difference? I'll tell you what the difference was 15 years early, this would have been the mid-1970s most people, most young men between the ages of 20 and 30 at that time had either been to a Bible school, a summer Bible school, or maybe their grandparents took them to church. They knew a little bit about the Bible. [00:40:36] They knew something about it. Do you realize that the generation that is growing up now is literally illiterate in the Scripture? They know nothing about it. And I don't know what you're doing here, but all across the land, summer Bible school after summer Bible school closed down for lack of interest and so forth and so on. We need to revive them. I'm telling you, prepare ye the way of the Lord. I know the Lord can do the impossible. He truly can. But somehow or another, he tends to use that scripture verse, that song that that sinner heard one time when he happened to be at a church service or walking by the door front of a church or something like that. [00:41:19] And somehow that rings in their mind. And he uses that seed, that preparation to actually get to their hearts in a time of great need. And that's what I'm saying here. The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, prepare you the way of the Lord. Make straight a desert, in the desert a highway for our God. Let's work at this. Look at verse 5. If we do this, then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed. [00:41:56] And all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it. Let me give you one more example here that you're very familiar with. One of Laverne's boys asked me if I had read the book. What is the book about the Nickel Mines event? The Awakening? No. The Happening. Unfortunately, I haven't read it, but I've read a lot about the various things. And clearly, that story has gone around the world. [00:42:29] And I understand, as I understand it, in a positive light. How in the world is it that here is a group of people who would be treated in this fashion? and somehow or another turn the cheek the other way and actually bless the family that were the perpetrators of this event. How could that be? Prepare you the way of the Lord. Make straight a highway for our God. Open the eyes. [00:43:00] Live such a life that there is a preparation that is being done. I dare say that story alone in the hearts of some around the world is preparatory. It's a highway upon which that person can walk to know the Lord. The glory of the Lord shall be revealed. In all flesh shall see it together. I, as atrocious as that event was, it's like all flesh has seen it. [00:43:40] For the mouth of the Lord has spoken it. But he's not done. He's not done. The voice said, cry. And he said, well, what shall I cry? Have you ever been in a place? It's like you ought to say something, but you don't know what to say. Well, what shall I say? And he gives the reason. He says, I don't know what to say. All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field. The grass withereth, the flower fadeth, because the Spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it. [00:44:14] Surely the people is grass. Have you ever felt like giving up? It's hopeless. I mean, nobody wants to hear. That's what I hear him say. When the voice said, you cry! He said, well, what should I cry? I mean, it's hopeless. I want you to read the next verse. Ah, it's true. The grass withereth, the flower fadeth. That's true. But the word of our God shall stand forever. Here's a simple verse that is often forgotten. [00:44:48] So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. I don't have time to read this story this morning and I forgot to bring the book anyway. I read this one all over the country if I get a chance. I don't know if you're a fan of Ravi Zacharias or not. I like to read some of his information. He writes a book called Deliver Us From Evil. It would be worth you purchasing the book. And I'm not a book salesman. But it would be worth you purchasing the book just to read the story in there about the Vietnamese boy who came to know the Lord through picking up what his atheistic officers had decided was not worth anything more than toilet paper. [00:45:31] The officers who overseen him in prison tore papers out of a Bible, used it for toilet paper, threw it in waste paper cans. This boy who was in prison prayed that if there really was a God in heaven, he would show himself to him. Mind you, he was given lavatory duty. He said, please give me a Bible, something. He knew something, that there was a book somewhere about God, and he prayed for it. [00:46:02] And mind you, he found it in the trash can. and he got those things out of there and he unfolded them and he washed them off and he read them and he was converted. Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Translating the Bible, translating it a number of ways, yes, literally into the languages, but not only that. Speaking it into our generation so that they hear it is absolutely important. [00:46:37] I see no point in doing church planting without making the word of God the central message as it portrays Christ. There's too much of even people talking about portraying Christ, but the Bible is set over here off to the side somewhere. It really means nothing. There is, listen, from what I can tell, the most effective ministries going on today are Bible studies happening in homes all over the countryside. Those are the ones that really count, from what I can tell. And I would encourage it just as much as is possible. [00:47:09] But let's go on. We're not finished here yet in Isaiah 40. We're getting hungry, right? I'll finish here in just a minute. The grass withereth, the flower fadeth, but the word of our God shall stand forever. We are people of the book. And we have not given up because we believe what God has said. Once he understands that, look at verse 9. Oh Zion, that bring us good tidings. [00:47:41] And the New International says it just a little bit differently. You who bring good tidings to Zion, go up on a high mountain. My first question is, are you convinced it's good tidings? Brothers and sisters, I am. It's good news to the nations. It's the best news they have heard. Go up on a high mountain. Lift up your voice with strength. [00:48:12] Lift it up. Be not afraid. Say unto the cities of Indiana, I don't think I'm doing this service here to the scripture. Behold your God! Listen, it's time for us to quit being timid. It's time for us to quit taking a back seat, being ashamed. No, no, no, no, no. It is the power of God unto salvation. Verse 10, Behold the Lord God will come with strong hand, and his arms shall rule for him. [00:48:49] Behold his reward is with him and his work before him You notice that? Get up and declare it and God will do the work A bit of encouragement here See we want to make it happen our way Push all the buttons Get everything to work this way, that way, the other way And I believe in strategy, I really do Listen, Anabaptist International Ministries has labored over How would the Lord have us do things? But we know one thing, when the word of God goes forth, when it truly goes forth [00:49:23] He shall feed his flock like a shepherd He shall gather the lambs with his arms And carry them in his bosom And shall gently lead those that are with young Now maybe, maybe you'll take issue with me But let me go back to the prison thing again Repeatedly I would have people come to our home And after they'd been in our home for a while They would go to our church and after a while they would say, well, Brother Melvin, what church do you think I should join? Now, this may surprise you. [00:49:55] I would say, well, Brother, you know, I don't know. You say, well, why did you say that? He shall feed his flock like a shepherd. He shall gather the lambs with his arm and carry them in his bosom and shall gently lead those that are with young. I followed up with more comments and certainly welcomed him and certainly try to have them understand that here we're trying to live the gospel the best we know. But brother, I really, maybe you're from, maybe he's from Pittsburgh. [00:50:26] It may be the best thing for you to do is to go home to that church that your grandfather took you to and at least start there. Just stand up and make a declaration of what God has done in your life. It seems to me as though, from what I can read in scripture, Very often people went back to their own homes and said, God has changed me. Now that may lead you somewhere else, but see, now don't misunderstand me. I was very happy to bring them into our congregation and several did come into our congregation. But the point is, is when we grab a hold of things and we're going to make them work our way and it's got to be my method and it's got to be my church. [00:51:04] And I don't know what God wants to do in the hearts of some of these people. I really don't, but I would like to lead them to think about it and to consider it in their heart and as God leads them and if he leads them into our, if he gathers them into the church of my choice, well praise the Lord, I'll put my arm right around him and say God bless you here, let's think about how life, here's what the congregation does and here's how we understand, but if God leads them elsewhere, I want to say to them [00:51:35] If the Lord is leading you, then go, brother, go, preach, teach where he has led you. He shall feed his flock like a shepherd. He shall gather the lambs with his arm and carry them in his bosom and shall gently lead those that are with young. Now, any of those of you who know me, I just want to be sure I'm not misunderstood. I believe very much in the Anabaptist position. and so just so you know I keep I would always teach that but I'm not the Lord I'm not the Lord [00:52:13] of Joe and Jim and Bill and so on let Jesus truly be Lord so I encourage you as salt and light And as people of the book, of the scripture, let us take up the work of Jesus Christ in our day. And more about that this evening. Let's pray.