Speaker 1: That's been going on over the last year or so.
Speaker 1: I am just excited to be able to be in here.
Speaker 1: Maybe you haven't. If you're new here, you haven't had
Speaker 1: me much in here. I've been in the back a
Speaker 1: little bit more with the kids, leading the most awesome
Speaker 1: children's ministry back there on the planet in the world. Amen,
Speaker 1: because of you and all that you do, and you're
Speaker 1: volunteering as well. But today we are going to focus
Speaker 1: on our missions. And you need to know that as
Speaker 1: you are coming to church and you're living your life
Speaker 1: and you're participating with what we do around here as
Speaker 1: a church. Are you never go to sleep? The sun
Speaker 1: never sets on the Kingdom of God here at New Horizon.
Speaker 1: How does that sound? Because you are finance, you're giving
Speaker 1: the things that you do go around the world and
Speaker 1: they're constantly at work. And I don't think any of
Speaker 1: us truly understand the full extent of our impact around
Speaker 1: the world. And we're just a little, itty bitty, teeny
Speaker 1: tiny church tucked away in five one, Washington. And if
Speaker 1: we are doing what we're doing, can you imagine the
Speaker 1: light of the Lord going forth out of all the
Speaker 1: churches around the world. Amen? God is good. His kingdom
Speaker 1: is on the move. And so here today I'm gonna
Speaker 1: share some things with you. I am sure hoping that
Speaker 1: you all got a magazine as you came through the door.
Speaker 1: Did you get a magazine? If you did not raise
Speaker 1: your hand, the ushers are going to bring you one,
Speaker 1: and you want to have one of these. This magazine
Speaker 1: is all about our missions, okay. So these are the
Speaker 1: things that we do, the people that we support, the
Speaker 1: different ministries locally and abroad. And the pictures, all the
Speaker 1: pictures in here are from us, from our teams, from
Speaker 1: things that we've done and that the missionaries that we
Speaker 1: do to have sent back. So everything no AI here people,
Speaker 1: no AI. So those are all real. I the picture
Speaker 1: on the front, I took that in Knackapir Piot up
Speaker 1: in the Caramel Jung tribe in the northern reaches of Uganda.
Speaker 1: So we have a very busy, wonderful missions department. I
Speaker 1: operate the Missions department with our Missions Board and this
Speaker 1: year it has been Sandy Simms, Karen Conley, Stephanie Owens,
Speaker 1: and Tammy Fawcett. And for various reasons, some Karen, the
Speaker 1: just various ones are stepping down. So I need a
Speaker 1: few more of you to step on up and help
Speaker 1: me out. It's not a huge commitment, so come up
Speaker 1: and talk to me afterwards if you might be interested
Speaker 1: in being a part of the missions board here at
Speaker 1: New Horizon. But I want to bring your attention to
Speaker 1: a few things in the magazine. At the very front page,
Speaker 1: there's a little magnet. So if this is your first
Speaker 1: time here doing missions with me, I'm going to give
Speaker 1: you a magnet. Every year, you're gonna take that magnet.
Speaker 1: You're gonna put it up on your refrigerator. You might
Speaker 1: have to tape it if you have a stainless steel refrigerator.
Speaker 1: Those things ruin magnets. Those that the whole magnet thing
Speaker 1: kind of went away when we got those fancy refrigerators.
Speaker 1: But also you can take it out and on the
Speaker 1: other side is a giving pledge card. I want to
Speaker 1: introduce you to that because the cool thing here at
Speaker 1: New Horizon is we have such a high percentage of
Speaker 1: our people that give above and beyond their tithe into missions,
Speaker 1: and our missions budget here this year is has been
Speaker 1: twenty fourth twenty four hundred fifty dollars, and we have
Speaker 1: been giving that away, sending that out every single month
Speaker 1: because you have been faithful. The cool thing is is
Speaker 1: that not only have you been faithful to your monthly pledge,
Speaker 1: but we've had people giving into missions here and there,
Speaker 1: and that has bumped my buffer up. And so we
Speaker 1: have had quite a bit of finance come in on missions.
Speaker 1: And I am so, so, so so proud of you.
Speaker 1: In fact, Devin, if you would go to the giving slide,
Speaker 1: I know I'm gonna. I gave him a list and
Speaker 1: a schedule of all the slides and I'm bouncing around.
Speaker 1: But here is the giving from you folks into missions.
Speaker 1: Do you see that slide, the giving slide? Devin, Yeah,
Speaker 1: there it is. Okay, So two four hundred and fifty
Speaker 1: dollars every month has come in and gone out. On
Speaker 1: top of that are projects that we have presented to you.
Speaker 1: Plus additional giving comes to one hundred and fifty five
Speaker 1: thousand dollars people come on for a total of one
Speaker 1: hundred and eighty four thousand dollars has gone through this
Speaker 1: church out into the world for missions. Let that sink in.
Speaker 1: Let that sink in. That sets this house apart. Because
Speaker 1: you have opened your heart up to be a generous
Speaker 1: spirit and looking around, I think that you're all still
Speaker 1: going to Starbucks, and I think you're all still eating,
Speaker 1: and y'all still have a house, a roof of your heads.
Speaker 1: Because the God of the universe has promised that when
Speaker 1: you have a generous heart, he blesses you back. And
Speaker 1: God is good. He's taken care of us, and through
Speaker 1: our hearts, through our hands, through our giving, we have
Speaker 1: been able to make that much impact. Amen. So that
Speaker 1: twenty four hundred and fifty that monthly support, I really
Speaker 1: want to bump it up. I want to bump it
Speaker 1: up to three thousand this year. I want to be
Speaker 1: able to increase what we give to our missionaries. Just
Speaker 1: like you know, inflation is hit, it's hit there and
Speaker 1: I want to raise that up. And I also our
Speaker 1: plan is to add a missionary. But before we go there,
Speaker 1: I want to show you the list of the ministries
Speaker 1: that we cover and we support every single month, So Devin,
Speaker 1: that will be our missionaries there we go. So those
Speaker 1: are twelve different missionaries and ministries that we give into
Speaker 1: on a monthly basis that are giving monthly keeps them
Speaker 1: doing their things monthly, and if we didn't, they would
Speaker 1: have to come home they'd have to quit cut, you know,
Speaker 1: do all the things, and but this is you, this
Speaker 1: is you, this is so you. Okay, So that that
Speaker 1: covers that. Yes, we want to add a new missionary
Speaker 1: this year and his name is Their names are Dennis
Speaker 1: and Anya Melnachuk, and they are in the wonderful country
Speaker 1: of the Ukraine. You can go to the picture that
Speaker 1: shows the side that shows their picture. Yeah, there you go.
Speaker 1: So they're friends of Roman and ENAs And a couple
Speaker 1: of years ago I got a knock on my office
Speaker 1: door and Roman was standing there and he said, hey,
Speaker 1: Pastor Joel, would you marry a couple for me? Okay,
Speaker 1: like right now, I don't typically do that. We have
Speaker 1: six months worth of pre marriage that we must go
Speaker 1: through and all the things. And he said, no, this
Speaker 1: is a couple that is being sent out on the
Speaker 1: mission field. They feel like now is the time to go.
Speaker 1: We just they feel like it has to be now.
Speaker 1: So they want to get married before they go, And
Speaker 1: so I performed wedding out in the foyer. Absolutely sent
Speaker 1: them to Ukraine just in time for the war to start.
Speaker 1: They were in place. They did tons and tons of
Speaker 1: work right in the middle, right in the heart. They
Speaker 1: would drive vans in and load up people as the
Speaker 1: bombs were falling and drive them to safety. They were
Speaker 1: taking out women, children, the elderly, they were feeding people.
Speaker 1: They just they hit the ground just in time. Everybody
Speaker 1: say amen, And so we want to start serving them
Speaker 1: and including them in our monthly support. And they have
Speaker 1: a video for us.
Speaker 2: Hi I knew Horizon Church. My name is Dennis Melnichuk.
Speaker 2: My wife and I are internople Ukraine and are doing
Speaker 2: a work here with orphan care. It's also with young adults.
Speaker 2: We're seeing the Lord doing an amazing thing in this
Speaker 2: country during this war, and we just want to thank
Speaker 2: you so much for your partnership. Every single month that
Speaker 2: you give and the help that comes through that has
Speaker 2: been really giving us the opportunity to change people's lives.
Speaker 2: Every single week, we have kids from the orphanage and
Speaker 2: kids who've aged out from the orphanages coming to us.
Speaker 2: We also are able to run conferences in schools. We
Speaker 2: have evangelism taking place almost weekly on the streets here,
Speaker 2: and we're seeing the Lord raising up with people that
Speaker 2: are hungry for the things of God. So even though
Speaker 2: we might not see these headlines on news. Ukraine is
Speaker 2: experiencing a move of God and you are a part
Speaker 2: of it. Thank you so much for your hand in
Speaker 2: the gospel. We bless you and we thank you for
Speaker 2: your partnership.
Speaker 1: All right, so are you in shall we add them
Speaker 1: to our list, our roster. Let's do it. Let's absolutely
Speaker 1: do it. Okay. So last year we love to do projects,
Speaker 1: you know me and my mission projects and every time
Speaker 1: you guys come through. So last year during the Mission series,
Speaker 1: I brought to you a young couple, a new pastoral
Speaker 1: couple that were from the Democratic Republic of the Congo,
Speaker 1: remember the DRC. And it was right at the time
Speaker 1: where just a week a couple of weeks prior, there
Speaker 1: had been a very heavy persecution breakout and I think
Speaker 1: ninety Christians were beheaded and all of the refugees from
Speaker 1: that area were running for safety, and they were coming
Speaker 1: right through where this sweet pastor Gotina was in the DRC,
Speaker 1: and they would be having church in a rental facility
Speaker 1: they didn't have. You know, when I say rental, it's
Speaker 1: just a little shack, right, And so they were crying
Speaker 1: out for land and a temporary structure and seed to
Speaker 1: start an agricultural program so that they could not only
Speaker 1: feed their own church members, but feed the refugees that
Speaker 1: were coming through. You raised up last year and you
Speaker 1: I was able to send finance to do that. So
Speaker 1: I want to show you some pictures of what you
Speaker 1: guys did last year. Okay, you ready. So there's a
Speaker 1: picture of a road there. Show the road. There is
Speaker 1: the road. The road is going out to the tract
Speaker 1: of land that we purchased, and I want you to see.
Speaker 1: It's kind of jungly, it's a little rough, that's what
Speaker 1: it looks like. Okay. So then go to the next picture.
Speaker 1: That is Pastor Goutina and the red sweatshirt there and
Speaker 1: they are clearing the land and they are planting their
Speaker 1: first crops. And this is vital that churches. Yes, churches
Speaker 1: have to be able to support themselves as well as
Speaker 1: have food to give. And you don't understand these places
Speaker 1: where we go to. They don't understand the idea of
Speaker 1: a grocery store. I was talking with one pastor. We
Speaker 1: were out in the bush and he was I said,
Speaker 1: what do you do during the week, and he goes, well,
Speaker 1: we're growing our food. You know, he was talking. It
Speaker 1: was all agriculture. He was talking about all the agricultural things.
Speaker 1: He said, well, don't you do that, don't you grow
Speaker 1: your own food? I'm like, not really, I just kind
Speaker 1: of go to the store. The store. Yeah, there's a
Speaker 1: store that has everything. Really, you know, it was the
Speaker 1: funniest conversation I've ever had, and it was you know,
Speaker 1: it was. It was difficult too because the language barrier.
Speaker 1: But anyway, I don't think we understand the viteleness of
Speaker 1: land for agriculture for these people. So go ahead to
Speaker 1: the next one. That was the first structure that he built.
Speaker 1: And he's been doing some schooling out of that, and
Speaker 1: he's been doing some teaching and some training. And then
Speaker 1: I heard I heard back from them the last couple
Speaker 1: of weeks ago, and they were getting ready. They were
Speaker 1: wanting to have church in their own structure, but the government,
Speaker 1: believe it or not, out there in the jungle, the
Speaker 1: government was requiring sixteen hundred dollars worth of fees before
Speaker 1: they could meet in their building. And I said, you've
Speaker 1: been waiting for sixteen They don't have six hundred dollars,
Speaker 1: but I did because you have been so faithful with
Speaker 1: your giving. I said, Annie, how much money do we have.
Speaker 1: She said, we got twenty four hundred dollars left in
Speaker 1: our mission's fund. I said, okay, serve it up. We're
Speaker 1: gonna send it off, right, And so we were able
Speaker 1: to send that money. And this next picture is their
Speaker 1: first church service in their building. Go to the next one.
Speaker 1: This was last week. This is what you did. Look
Speaker 1: at what you do. Look at you. So it's just
Speaker 1: I don't know about you, but you just gotta you
Speaker 1: gotta feel good about the Kingdom of God because it
Speaker 1: is making headway and making strides. So that was last
Speaker 1: year's project. Now I want to talk to you about
Speaker 1: a project this year. You're like, oh, I knew that
Speaker 1: was coming. Absolutely so last dessert dash in November. Well,
Speaker 1: in September we took a mission trip and we went
Speaker 1: up to the Carama Jung tribe in northern Uganda. We
Speaker 1: found a church. I'm going to show you in the video,
Speaker 1: and uh, well you know what, I'm just going to
Speaker 1: show you the video forget me talking, So go ahead
Speaker 1: and show the video. On this year's project Horizon Missions
Speaker 1: is on the Move.
Speaker 3: The twenty twenty five mission trip included a trip into
Speaker 3: Northern Uganda and the Caramel Jung tribe. This tribe is
Speaker 3: one of the most remote and unreached in Uganda, being
Speaker 3: so primitive, even the Ugandans avoid traveling into this region.
Speaker 3: When we visited the village of nakapir Pirit, we found
Speaker 3: great need as well as a very beautiful people. Their
Speaker 3: stories were filled with tragedy and suffering, yet it became
Speaker 3: increasingly apparent that God loved.
Speaker 4: Them and that God was the answer to their needs.
Speaker 3: Our vision for missions here at New Horizon is for
Speaker 3: community transformation that only the spirit.
Speaker 4: Of God can bring forth.
Speaker 1: We believe that it all flows out of the local
Speaker 1: church and the leadership of incredible pastors.
Speaker 4: Meet past our lineups.
Speaker 3: He and his family live in this beautiful compound in
Speaker 3: Nakapira Pirit.
Speaker 1: Not pastor Pastor sleeps here, but.
Speaker 4: Here is their incredible church.
Speaker 3: At the time of our visit, they were renting this
Speaker 3: land and gathering under the shade of this tree. Last
Speaker 3: November we raised funds to purchase this land and build
Speaker 3: a temporary church structure. The next step is to put
Speaker 3: in a water well to provide the miracle of clean
Speaker 3: water for this little church.
Speaker 4: Clean water is so vital to life and is so scarce.
Speaker 3: In Africa, people will walk miles each day for water.
Speaker 3: Wells become the gathering place for the whole community. When
Speaker 3: a well is not available, that people are forced to
Speaker 3: gather water from swamps and purify.
Speaker 4: It for daily use.
Speaker 3: Sicknesses and disease are rampant due to poor water quality.
Speaker 4: This well is vital for the practical things of life, but.
Speaker 1: Also becomes the Kingdom's calling card as the true church
Speaker 1: is then able to offer water for the soul.
Speaker 4: Let's jump in and.
Speaker 3: Make this miracle happen. The cost for this well is
Speaker 3: thirteen hundred dollars. This well will make a difference for
Speaker 3: many years to come. Thank you for partnering with us
Speaker 3: in this project. You want an opportunity to give health
Speaker 3: for the body and healing for the soul in this
Speaker 3: far away village called Knockapre of purit.
Speaker 1: Amen. That, by the way, was a well that you
Speaker 1: put in two years ago. So that well I love
Speaker 1: going to visit them, and all the people are coming
Speaker 1: from all over the place. We want to put this
Speaker 1: well right smack dab in the middle of where this
Speaker 1: church is going to be built. And because that way
Speaker 1: that when the community comes to find clean water they
Speaker 1: get also the water of life. Amen. And so we
Speaker 1: want the church, we want the Kingdom of God to
Speaker 1: be the center of all of that. This is how
Speaker 1: we transform communities. Amen. So that is something we're gonna
Speaker 1: do a little bit later on. I want you to
Speaker 1: be considering maybe what you might be able to give
Speaker 1: into this incredible project. Amen. All right, Well, we do
Speaker 1: things all over the world, but we also do things locally.
Speaker 1: I've had so many people come to me over the
Speaker 1: years and say, passer, Joe's so cool, will we do
Speaker 1: over there? But you know what, we need help right here.
Speaker 1: There's need right here.
Speaker 4: And I agree.
Speaker 1: And so we support quite a few local ministries. And
Speaker 1: one of them is a group that a couple that
Speaker 1: we sent out from New Horizon just a few years ago.
Speaker 1: So we have John and ste Soulier. They come on up.
Speaker 1: They are working through Wywham. They've been with y Wham
Speaker 1: working at maternity homes, keeping single moms out of the
Speaker 1: abortion clinic. Can I get a n Amen, keeping single
Speaker 1: moms out of the abortion clinic. And you know when
Speaker 1: they have no hope, they're going to go, Oh that way,
Speaker 1: that is such a welcoming, easy path. But these people
Speaker 1: have dedicated their lives to diverting that and helping single mamas,
Speaker 1: So let's hear from their heart.
Speaker 5: Thank you for having us, Thank you, Pastor Joel, and
Speaker 5: thank you for your heart for missions and for supporting missionaries.
Speaker 5: Just to share a quick story with you, a few
Speaker 5: years ago, I quit my job, the career I had
Speaker 5: been working for a really long time, to move into
Speaker 5: missions full time. At that point, I started to raise
Speaker 5: support for our family and reached out to people I
Speaker 5: was closest to. I was met with heavy skepticism. They
Speaker 5: asked really hard questions like how are you going to
Speaker 5: support your family? What about health insurance? And didn't you
Speaker 5: just quit your job and now you're asking for money.
Speaker 5: I was disheartened, to say the least, but God, a
Speaker 5: few weeks later, we came to church. Pastor Joel was preaching,
Speaker 5: and she was preaching a sermon called holding the Rope.
Speaker 5: It was it was a good one, I remember it.
Speaker 5: It was about the partnership between missionaries in the field
Speaker 5: and the home church supporting them. And I just wanted
Speaker 5: you to know how encouraged I was by that and
Speaker 5: how I just felt bold afterwards knowing that we had
Speaker 5: your support as well as the whole church behind us
Speaker 5: and the work we were doing. So thank you for that.
Speaker 4: So true.
Speaker 6: Our pastors, Pastor Jole and Pastor Dwayne. Seven years ago,
Speaker 6: we came here to this church and we were really
Speaker 6: looking to grow and be challenged and to learn more
Speaker 6: and have a deeper faith.
Speaker 1: And we've gotten that here.
Speaker 6: We've gotten that because we've had incredible leadership from both
Speaker 6: of you.
Speaker 1: Pastor Dwayne.
Speaker 6: One thing that I remember, I was on staff here
Speaker 6: actually for a while too, and my first day working here,
Speaker 6: I walked through the front doors on a regular Monday
Speaker 6: morning and Pastor Dwayne was vacuuming. And so I just
Speaker 6: want to sit point that out that this the way
Speaker 6: you've modeled servant leadership for us, has shown us how
Speaker 6: to live a laid down life. I've just shown us
Speaker 6: how to give and step in wherever you see the need.
Speaker 6: And we just thank you for that from the bottom
Speaker 6: of our hearts. Yeah, this church has been incredible to us.
Speaker 6: You are our family and we love you all. Yeah.
Speaker 5: And just to add to that, prior to coming here,
Speaker 5: we had been shopping churches for a while. We probably
Speaker 5: visited half a dozen churches and that's hard, and walking
Speaker 5: through the doors here for the first time, we could
Speaker 5: feel the presence of the spirit. And I remember being
Speaker 5: greeted as we enter the auditorium by this kind, sweet
Speaker 5: man named Maury. I went in to shake his hand
Speaker 5: and he just embraced me. He just grabbed me and
Speaker 5: just gave me this big hug. And I just knew
Speaker 5: at that moment that knew Horizon was our home church.
Speaker 6: Yeah, and then Maury's with Jesus now, but some of
Speaker 6: you might remember him. So who's missing from us at
Speaker 6: the moment is the third party of our family.
Speaker 4: Arelli.
Speaker 6: Our son is five years old, and he also loves
Speaker 6: New Horizon Church. There's actually a couple photos coming. He
Speaker 6: also loves this church. He's served in this church. He's
Speaker 6: in pick one. He's been a greeter in this church.
Speaker 6: In the next one, he's also been an usher in
Speaker 6: this church. He's happily with Grandma right now having lunch.
Speaker 6: So as a family, we are just so blessed to
Speaker 6: be part of this family.
Speaker 1: We love you guys.
Speaker 6: What we are getting ready to do now and what
Speaker 6: I wanted to share a little bit more about is
Speaker 6: our calling and we found it. In fact, we realized
Speaker 6: it all of the sudden. One day, February first, twenty
Speaker 6: twenty three, that was the day as house parents in
Speaker 6: a maternity home, we welcomed our very first two pregnant mamas.
Speaker 6: And we've got a photo of those ladies. They're stunning.
Speaker 6: I know, yes, we we welcomed them, and they changed
Speaker 6: everything for us. What we thought was going to be
Speaker 6: like a transitional part time, like we were going to
Speaker 6: do this for a minute kind of thing became our
Speaker 6: calling for our life and our family. Being able to
Speaker 6: provide a home that welcomes moms that are experiencing hardships, trauma.
Speaker 6: They may be homeless, They may come from a past
Speaker 6: so that's very broken, could be addiction in their history.
Speaker 6: There could be all sorts of different things. But they
Speaker 6: have chosen life, and we love life, and we want
Speaker 6: to come around that. We want to support that. We
Speaker 6: want to give mothers that are choosing to carry on
Speaker 6: the life of that pregnancy to have a path of stability,
Speaker 6: to have a way to be protected and surrounded, and
Speaker 6: so they get to often live with us. And I've
Speaker 6: given tours to women who cry the moment they see
Speaker 6: the kitchen table, and I tell them that we eat
Speaker 6: meals together because they've never had that, and so being
Speaker 6: able to have a family come around them is amazing.
Speaker 6: I often tell people that the most important job in
Speaker 6: our house is my husband's being a house dad. Being
Speaker 6: a male father figure who loves the Lord is incredibly impactful.
Speaker 6: By him just being himself, He's changing lives and generations,
Speaker 6: and I truly believe that I love that we get
Speaker 6: to do this serving these mommies and all of their babies.
Speaker 6: The two that you're looking at there, they also gave
Speaker 6: us our very first grand baby girl and our very
Speaker 6: first grand baby boy, who was an angel baby, and
Speaker 6: his mama went on about a year later to have
Speaker 6: another child who is a beautiful, thriving little girl, and
Speaker 6: we do have a picture of them also, so this
Speaker 6: actually is both those same mamas, and this was just
Speaker 6: in February. We've gotten to come back and visit and
Speaker 6: we held a little family reunion. We had a bunch
Speaker 6: of ladies and their children come back and visit with us.
Speaker 6: And being able to walk alongside them even after they've
Speaker 6: left our home is incredible privilege. But what it's doing
Speaker 6: is it's really we want to show God's love. We
Speaker 6: want people to know that there's hope in Christ, that
Speaker 6: there is an anchor for your soul. And being able
Speaker 6: to share the Gospel, to share hope, to see lives transformed.
Speaker 6: It's amazing privilege and we are so honored to be
Speaker 6: part of it. God is moving and doing amazing things
Speaker 6: in their lives and in the other thirty two women
Speaker 6: that have also lived with us in the last few years.
Speaker 6: So what we're getting started now back here in the Northwest, Yay,
Speaker 6: so glad to be here. We have joined Road to
Speaker 6: Hope Maternity Homes. They for twenty seven years have had
Speaker 6: a maternity home in the Portland area. There is such
Speaker 6: a desperate need for more housing and so we have
Speaker 6: been invited and answered that with a big giant yes
Speaker 6: to help them open a brand new maternity home in Salem,
Speaker 6: Oregon where we will be able to serve more moms
Speaker 6: in need. Yeah, we're super excited. New Horizon. Thank you
Speaker 6: with this is our fourth year. You're in the Missions magazine.
Speaker 6: You can read more about us after the service because
Speaker 6: we're going to pay attention first. You can also stop
Speaker 6: by the table in the lobby. We would love to
Speaker 6: send you our once a month text update where you
Speaker 6: could just read more about what's going on and see
Speaker 6: what's happening at road to Hope Maternity Home. So thank
Speaker 6: you all so much. We'll see you out there after.
Speaker 1: All. Right, stretch your hands to them, Father in Jesus name,
Speaker 1: lor God, once again we set this incredible couple apart
Speaker 1: for you. In Jesus name, God, I pray that every
Speaker 1: need is met. Lord God, I pray right now that
Speaker 1: you are calling women into this house, into this home,
Speaker 1: and into these hearts. Lord God, you are preserving life
Speaker 1: in Jesus' name, and God, I thank you right now
Speaker 1: that theirs is not just a quick get that baby
Speaker 1: born and send them out, but they are going to
Speaker 1: parent these women and children into their futures in Jesus' name.
Speaker 1: And everybody said, Ameneluia, isn't it encouraging, so encouraging?
Speaker 4: Hallelujah.
Speaker 1: Well, I want you to pull your bibles out, and
Speaker 1: while you do, I want you to be considering once
Speaker 1: again your pledge card. I want you to be considering
Speaker 1: what maybe you could do for the project this year.
Speaker 1: We're gonna take some time at the very end, hopefully
Speaker 1: I'll have time, but I just yeah, missions I pray
Speaker 1: that your heart bursts for missions. I pray that our
Speaker 1: life swirl, that we are presently in that we are
Speaker 1: able to conquer it, live well, and have enough bandwidth
Speaker 1: to where we can do for others. Amen. Okay, So
Speaker 1: I want you to open your Bible to Genesis one one.
Speaker 1: You know, the question is is where to start, And
Speaker 1: so I start at the beginning, which is Genesis one one.
Speaker 1: I do that many times when I'm preaching. So Genesis
Speaker 1: won one. If we can get that up on the screens,
Speaker 1: I would appreciate it. It says, in the beginning, God
Speaker 1: created the heavens. Is it working, Devin, Genesis one one.
Speaker 1: In the beginning God created there you go, the heavens
Speaker 1: and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty.
Speaker 1: Darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the
Speaker 1: spirit of God hovering over the waters. And God said,
Speaker 1: let there be light, and there was light. Let's say
Speaker 1: that again. Let there be light, and there was Amen.
Speaker 1: So biblical scholars have always taught that whenever something is
Speaker 1: mentioned for the first time in scripture, you need to
Speaker 1: pay attention because it means something very important. And this
Speaker 1: verse theses are not only the first time that light
Speaker 1: and darkness and God are mentioned. This is the first
Speaker 1: time anything is mentioned, so this is the first mention
Speaker 1: of any mention. So we have to believe that there's
Speaker 1: something very powerful in these first three verses, and in
Speaker 1: these three verses is darkness, light and God. Darkness, light
Speaker 1: and God. Darkness is significant. Darkness has a very strong
Speaker 1: imprint in a human soul, the most primal fear of
Speaker 1: every human being. Though some of us have overcome it,
Speaker 1: you might still remember it's the fear the dark. Darkness
Speaker 1: has fear rooted in it. I don't know about you,
Speaker 1: but I remember being a little afraid of the dark,
Speaker 1: and my mom would come in and she'd flip the
Speaker 1: light on. It's like, oh, well, just my bathrobe. What
Speaker 1: am I thinking? Darkness? I told a story a couple
Speaker 1: of years back, So if this is the second time,
Speaker 1: just smile and nod and remember the story because it's
Speaker 1: a great one. But if this is new to you,
Speaker 1: then come along and enjoy. So a few years back,
Speaker 1: probably boy, it's probably been ten years now, I took
Speaker 1: our family, we all join and I and the kids
Speaker 1: went on a bike ride and we always love adventures.
Speaker 1: And on the border between Idaho and Montana, there's a
Speaker 1: bike trail called the Hiawatha Trail. Everybody has to try
Speaker 1: it once. So on the website it says though that
Speaker 1: you must have a light on your bike to do
Speaker 1: the trail. And the wolves are a little rogue, a
Speaker 1: little maverick, and you know, we kind of do things
Speaker 1: like yeah, right, but cooler heads tended to overcome the
Speaker 1: whole thing. And I won't tell you who that cooler
Speaker 1: head was. So we stopped at the dollar store and
Speaker 1: we bought some little flashlights and we duct taped them
Speaker 1: to our handlebars, and so we get to the top
Speaker 1: and it's a down downhill ride all the way down.
Speaker 1: And you start at the top of the mountain and
Speaker 1: you go through tunnels and you go over train trestles.
Speaker 1: It's actually really cool. Well, the tunnels are really fun,
Speaker 1: but there's one tunnel that's over a mile long and
Speaker 1: it's curvy, so we didn't really take that into account,
Speaker 1: and so the kids were turning on and off their
Speaker 1: flashlights and shining it, you know, and all the things.
Speaker 1: So when we came to that tunnel, I said, okay,
Speaker 1: everybody turn your flashlights on. Blink, and only one came on.
Speaker 1: So now we're down to one. We went from four
Speaker 1: to one, and the one was very dim and we
Speaker 1: got into the tunnel and we're going around the corners
Speaker 1: right now. Let me describe the tunnel. It's got about
Speaker 1: a six foot wide rock gravel road kind of thing,
Speaker 1: and there's big ditches on the sides like that deep
Speaker 1: like if you went into it, you would you would
Speaker 1: be painful. Right. The walls and the arch and the
Speaker 1: ceiling are just dynamite had blasted out granite, so it's
Speaker 1: all rough and get jagged, you know, and all this
Speaker 1: kind of stuff. You just don't want to touch it. Right,
Speaker 1: Drips of water are coming down kind of thing. So
Speaker 1: we're riding along. We got one little light and it's
Speaker 1: barely on, and so we're pedaling away and that person's
Speaker 1: up front and we're like me, and all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: that light goes out. Now we are in utter darkness,
Speaker 1: and all the fun is sucked out of the tunnel.
Speaker 1: There is no fun anymore. We stop, we can't make
Speaker 1: any forward progress. We're kind of with our toes going
Speaker 1: like this. All of a sudden there's fear. What if
Speaker 1: we fall into ditch? I don't know, maybe there was
Speaker 1: a curve. There's a curve coming up here pretty soon.
Speaker 1: But we don't know where the curve is, and so
Speaker 1: we're disoriented and we're confused and we don't know what's
Speaker 1: going on, and we're like'ful and it's weird, and the
Speaker 1: kids are you know, like you know, it's it was
Speaker 1: a moment, and so we're like, okay, guys, we just
Speaker 1: got to inch along. We just barely have to inch along.
Speaker 1: And so we're kind of doing our best, and I mean,
Speaker 1: it's black, you can't see your hand in front of you,
Speaker 1: and all of a sudden, up from behind us comes
Speaker 1: another little bicycle rider and they had obeyed. They had
Speaker 1: a light, and so they came up and we're like,
Speaker 1: don't say nothing, don't hurry up, kids, let's go. And
Speaker 1: so we we platstered ourselves right behind them, like we're
Speaker 1: not here, don't notice us, but don't go too fast
Speaker 1: because we got to stay right with you. And so
Speaker 1: we were right on their heini and we made it through. Hallelujah.
Speaker 1: Light changed everything. When we had light, it was fine.
Speaker 1: The light goes out, darkness, fear, disoriented, confused, not knowing
Speaker 1: what's going on. Light comes along and all of a sudden, Wow,
Speaker 1: this isn't half bad. We can do this. We know
Speaker 1: where to go, We can see our future. Did you
Speaker 1: know that light carries all beauty? Did you know that
Speaker 1: if you did not have light, you would never see beauty?
Speaker 1: Think about that. Did you know that light carries all color?
Speaker 1: If you didn't have light, you wouldn't have color. Did
Speaker 1: you know that light carries all life? If we did
Speaker 1: not have the sun shining every day, the food chain
Speaker 1: would be interrupted and we would all die. Light carries
Speaker 1: life like life. Light is essential. The speed of light
Speaker 1: is a constant that the physics of the entire all
Speaker 1: the laws of physics rest on the constant of the
Speaker 1: speed of light. Einstein's theory of relativity is m e
Speaker 1: equals mc squared. Energy equals mass plus constant changes. Mass changes,
Speaker 1: but the constant never changes. What is that constant number,
Speaker 1: It's the speed of light. Light undergirds the very foundations
Speaker 1: of all the physics of the universe. Light is essential.
Speaker 1: Light is the most incredible thing, and we take it
Speaker 1: so for granted. Light is created from God. It's rooted
Speaker 1: in God, and it's sustained in God. Darkness is the
Speaker 1: absence of light and my final thing that I will
Speaker 1: just declare even now before we go any further. Light
Speaker 1: always wins. Have you ever seen darkness like beat up light?
Speaker 1: Does darkness ever come in and turn off the light? No,
Speaker 1: you turn on the light. Darkness flees. Light always wins.
Speaker 1: Light always wins. So that's Genesis one one. Now I'm
Speaker 1: going to get you all the way up to Jesus
Speaker 1: because that's where we got to go, right. So all
Speaker 1: through the Old Testament, light is important. Light is a
Speaker 1: central theme. You got the burning bush, You got the
Speaker 1: pillar of fire that led the children of Israel in
Speaker 1: the night darkness in the wilderness and gave them trust
Speaker 1: and safety. You got the light and the power and
Speaker 1: the fire and the glory that fell when Solomon dedicated
Speaker 1: the temple, and that light came down in and it
Speaker 1: resided in the temple, and the people of God could
Speaker 1: come to the temple and they could see and sense
Speaker 1: the light of the presence of God. So from Solomon's temple,
Speaker 1: it's a thousand years before Jesus shows up, and some
Speaker 1: things happen in Israel between when the temple is filled
Speaker 1: with the light and the glory of God and Jesus
Speaker 1: some things happen, and there was a moment in time.
Speaker 1: Ezekiel tells us that in the Temple of Solomon that
Speaker 1: glory light lifted and left, and from that point on
Speaker 1: the light in the temple is just human made four
Speaker 1: hundred years of silence from God, Jesus comes on the scene,
Speaker 1: and in John chapters seven and eight, it's the story
Speaker 1: of Jesus where he finds himself in Jerusalem during the
Speaker 1: week of the Feast of Tabernacles, where they light a
Speaker 1: huge candelabra at the front of the temple to remind
Speaker 1: the people of the pillar of light that led them.
Speaker 1: But at the end of the night they blow out
Speaker 1: the candles and the temple becomes eerily dark. Well, on
Speaker 1: the last night, Jesus stood in the courts of the temple,
Speaker 1: in front of the Temple of God and made an
Speaker 1: audacious claim. He said to them, he said, I am
Speaker 1: the light of the world. He said that I am
Speaker 1: the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never
Speaker 1: walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.
Speaker 1: And when Jesus declared that, he set off a firestorm.
Speaker 1: The religious leaders and the government people of the day
Speaker 1: heard that, and they started like gnashing their teeth, and
Speaker 1: they came up to him, and they began to fight him,
Speaker 1: and there was a clash. When Jesus declared he was
Speaker 1: the light of the world, he came up against darkness.
Speaker 1: The darkness thought it had won. The darkness put Jesus
Speaker 1: on the cross and then into the tomb. But I
Speaker 1: am here to say that the light always wins. And
Speaker 1: Jesus rose from that grave and with healing power in
Speaker 1: his hands. But I will tell you that was an
Speaker 1: audacious claim. I am the light, not just of Israel,
Speaker 1: not just of the Jewish people. But Jesus declared he
Speaker 1: was the light of the world, the entire world. And
Speaker 1: then before he was put on that cross, he made
Speaker 1: another audacious claim. He got up in Matthew five, verses
Speaker 1: fourteen and sixteen through sixteen. Can you give me that, Devin?
Speaker 1: He said, you are the light of the world. Another
Speaker 1: audacious claim. What in the world, Jesus, you be the
Speaker 1: light of the world. Will just take your light? And
Speaker 1: Jesus said, absolutely not. He said, I'm flipping it now
Speaker 1: and I am going I am here to say that
Speaker 1: you are the light of the world. You are the
Speaker 1: light of the world. A city on a hill cannot
Speaker 1: be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put
Speaker 1: it under a bowl. Instead, they put it on a stand,
Speaker 1: and it gives light to everyone in the house. In
Speaker 1: the same way, let your light shine before men, that
Speaker 1: they may see your good deeds and praise the Father
Speaker 1: in heaven. This is the heartbeat of missions. Jesus is
Speaker 1: the light up against darkness. He walked this face of
Speaker 1: the earth, and he did his thing. And when he
Speaker 1: died and went to heaven, he declared that all authority
Speaker 1: has been given to me in heaven and in earth.
Speaker 1: And I say to you, now, you are the light
Speaker 1: of the world. Go and make disciples of every nation.
Speaker 1: You are the light of the world, not in and
Speaker 1: of yourself. It's the light of the Kingdom inside of you.
Speaker 1: You no longer live, but Christ lives in you, and
Speaker 1: He is our hope of glory. You are me us.
Speaker 1: We are the light of the world, and we must
Speaker 1: be that. We must be that. I'm gonna tell you
Speaker 1: a missionary story. Do you mind. I'm gonna be a
Speaker 1: few minutes late. We're gonna go a little bit late.
Speaker 1: Just be prepared. Yeah, everybody's like, oh boy, what's she
Speaker 1: gonna do to me. Oh, you're gonna love every minute
Speaker 1: of it. Okay, you ready. You are the light of
Speaker 1: the world. I am the light of the world. There
Speaker 1: was a Massi warrior in Eastern Africa. Now I've been
Speaker 1: able to be around these Massi warriors. Look them up.
Speaker 1: They're very fierce. They're warlike, they are vicious, they are violent.
Speaker 1: They know how to kill, and they know how to
Speaker 1: keep a grudge. They are not what you would say kind.
Speaker 1: Have you met the Massi? Absolutely am I right in
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. Yeah, they're from Kenya, So the Messiah
Speaker 1: are all in Kenya. They come down into Uganda, and
Speaker 1: I believe they're in Tanzania too. So there's a guy,
Speaker 1: one of the warriors, his name is Joseph. He's walking
Speaker 1: down the road and he's kind of a leader in
Speaker 1: his village, a Messiah warrior. It's all he's lived, it's
Speaker 1: all he's known. Someone we don't know who this person is,
Speaker 1: stops him on the road, the dusty road, and shares
Speaker 1: the gospel. How beautiful are the feet of those who
Speaker 1: bring good news? How will they know unless they hear?
Speaker 1: How will they hear unless someone is sent? So he's
Speaker 1: walking down the road. Somebody shares the gospel. His heart leaps. No, people,
Speaker 1: you don't understand. It's not like this man was raised
Speaker 1: in church. This man was raised with a spear in
Speaker 1: his hand. His heart leaps, his heart is stirred, his
Speaker 1: heart has changed. He receives Jesus and they sit and
Speaker 1: they talk, and just this exchange happens. And the first
Speaker 1: thing that goes into Joseph's mind is, I gotta share
Speaker 1: this with my gosspel, with my tribesmen. This happened about
Speaker 1: twenty years ago. This is recent. So he goes into
Speaker 1: his village and he starts going knocking door to door. Hey,
Speaker 1: and he starts sharing the gospel. But he's not met
Speaker 1: with the same reception that he had for it. He's
Speaker 1: met with kind of a hardness. And he goes from
Speaker 1: house to house, and after about four or five houses,
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, the men of the village come out,
Speaker 1: grab him, throw him to the ground, hold him down.
Speaker 1: The women get barbed wire and start thrashing him until
Speaker 1: he passes out. They drag him out of the village
Speaker 1: and leave him to die. Miraculously, he does not die.
Speaker 1: He recovers, he wakes up he comes back to consciousness,
Speaker 1: He's able to drag himself to water, and by the time,
Speaker 1: once his wounds were healed enough to be able to
Speaker 1: get up, he thought to himself, maybe I didn't share
Speaker 1: g Jesus correctly. Maybe I'm gonna try it again. So
Speaker 1: he gets up. This is a true story. I'll show
Speaker 1: you the articles that talk about this. He goes back
Speaker 1: into the village and preaches Jesus. Those same men grab him,
Speaker 1: throw him to the ground. The women come around and
Speaker 1: thrash him with barbed wire, ripping open those freshly closed wounds.
Speaker 1: He passes out again. They drag him out and leave
Speaker 1: him to die, but the light of the kingdom is
Speaker 1: insight of him. He comes back to consciousness, and when
Speaker 1: he is able and gathers enough strength, he says, one
Speaker 1: more time. My people must hear about this. They are
Speaker 1: living in great darkness. And so he goes back into
Speaker 1: the village and he shares one more time. One more time.
Speaker 1: They throw him to the ground. They get out their
Speaker 1: barbed wire, but this time the last thing he sees
Speaker 1: before he passes out is that the women are beginning
Speaker 1: to weep. And when he comes back to he is
Speaker 1: actually in their arms as they are nursing him back
Speaker 1: to health. And as soon as he comes back to
Speaker 1: they said to him, Joseph, what is it that has
Speaker 1: helped you through this? What is your message? We want
Speaker 1: what you have. And their entire village came to Christ
Speaker 1: the light, the light. He was the light for his village.
Speaker 1: And let me tell you something, people of God. Joseph,
Speaker 1: his light was not on a dimmer switch when it
Speaker 1: gets tough. His light was on. And I want to
Speaker 1: encourage every single one of you. You are the light
Speaker 1: to your world. And when we do things with missions,
Speaker 1: we're being the light to the world. But I am
Speaker 1: here to say that you are the light of your
Speaker 1: world and you are in conflict with darkness, and it's God.
Speaker 1: It's God that gives you the strength and the power
Speaker 1: to move darkness because light always wins, always wins. Thank
Speaker 1: you Jesus. Remember go into all the nations and disciple them.
Speaker 1: I'm going to close with this. You are the light
Speaker 1: of the world. You are the light in your world,
Speaker 1: You are the light in your family. You are the light.
Speaker 1: But you're not just the light for your little patch.
Speaker 1: Don't forget you're the light of the world. Missionaries have
Speaker 1: been going out since the Apostles, missionaries have been going
Speaker 1: out shining their light in the midst of darkness. I
Speaker 1: could tell you story after story after story. I love
Speaker 1: missions stories. But the question is, after two thousand years
Speaker 1: have things changed. What's been the effect. They did a
Speaker 1: huge study, believe it or not, let me read this
Speaker 1: to you. This was just recently in the last few years,
Speaker 1: at the end of a decade long statistical analysis of
Speaker 1: the health and development of nations. So the whole point
Speaker 1: was to figure out how low income, poverty level nations
Speaker 1: can actually rise up. Is it through the government, is
Speaker 1: it through NGOs? Is it through money? What is it?
Speaker 1: What a need to rise up? Sociologists Robert Woodbury and
Speaker 1: his fifty person research team, and this is a decade
Speaker 1: long long analysis published a shocking discovery. Missionaries are actually
Speaker 1: the greatest catalysts in the development and stability of nations.
Speaker 1: Go figure. In an interview that he gave, he said
Speaker 1: that areas were Protestant, and these missionaries, they're not just
Speaker 1: any missionary. They're conversionary Protestants who preach the Gospel with
Speaker 1: the intent of converting others and forming churches, who encourage
Speaker 1: everyone to read the Bible in their own local language.
Speaker 1: So therefore missionaries are writing languages for just verbal languages.
Speaker 1: They don't have a written they're doing that. They're doing
Speaker 1: it in the Bible. The people are learning to read
Speaker 1: and write. This is what missionaries are doing. He says
Speaker 1: that areas where Protestant missionaries had a significant presence in
Speaker 1: the past are on average more economically developed today, with
Speaker 1: comparatively better health, lower infant mortality, lower corruption, greater literacy,
Speaker 1: and greater educational attainment, especially for women. The church and
Speaker 1: missions has been making a difference in the nations over
Speaker 1: hundreds of years. You need to read these articles because
Speaker 1: it is just impactful the way they came to this conclusion.
Speaker 1: And this was not a Christian study. It's the light
Speaker 1: of the kingdom. When set against the kingdom of darkness
Speaker 1: and God is presiding over it, light always wins. And
Speaker 1: this is missions. Would you with me pull out your
Speaker 1: Missions pledge card? Would you with me consider We're gonna
Speaker 1: I'm gonna give you opportunity over the next three weeks,
Speaker 1: but I'm gonna give it to you today because what
Speaker 1: if you don't come back next week. I want you
Speaker 1: to consider and uh, ushers, would you bring some buckets
Speaker 1: up front? I want you to consider what could you do,
Speaker 1: What could you do on a monthly basis for this
Speaker 1: coming year? What could you do twenty forty fifty one
Speaker 1: hundred for the spread of the gospel, for the support
Speaker 1: of the missionaries. And then lastly, also, would you consider
Speaker 1: giving into our project here today? Maybe you might not
Speaker 1: be here next week and you're gonna need to do that,
Speaker 1: or go ahead and go home, think about it, and
Speaker 1: come back next week and give double how's that sound
Speaker 1: because you're gonna think about it and it's gonna go up. Amen,
Speaker 1: you are the light of your world. Turn that dimmer
Speaker 1: switch all the way up. When you are opposing darkness,
Speaker 1: light always wins. Please know that let's all stand missions.
Speaker 1: We love missions. Put your hand over your heart Father
Speaker 1: and Jesus name God. I pray right now that the
Speaker 1: hearts of this body, this church beats with your heart.
Speaker 1: Father God. Jesus is the light of the world, and
Speaker 1: he is in me, and he has declared over me
Speaker 1: that I am the light of the world. Father God,
Speaker 1: I pray right now that my heart is aware. It
Speaker 1: beats with hope and with faith. It beats with generosity.
Speaker 1: It beats with love for every nation across the planet.
Speaker 1: And Lord God, I thank you right now that every
Speaker 1: missionary that's out there even now, in every nation, their
Speaker 1: needs are met, their prayers are answered, their desires are realized,
Speaker 1: their vision is accomplished in Jesus's name. And everybody said, Amen,
Speaker 1: have Alujah, get the Lord a hand.