Speaker 1: But I just want to take a moment and turn
Speaker 1: to the word. Amen. We have such a beautiful thing
Speaker 1: in the word of God. This past week, I helped
Speaker 1: facilitate a women's Bible study in our neighborhood. And there's
Speaker 1: eight gals that come. And of those eight gals, quite
Speaker 1: a good chunk of them have never been been to
Speaker 1: church and really don't know the Lord. In fact, when
Speaker 1: we started this Bible study there, the one girl came,
Speaker 1: she had, she had her book because we were going
Speaker 1: to do a book at a study out of a book.
Speaker 1: And she said, I don't even know what a Bible
Speaker 1: study is. What do you do? Well, you study the Bible,
Speaker 1: you know, and every Friday morning, when we open that
Speaker 1: thing up, wisdom just floods out of the pages of God.
Speaker 1: It's just so amazing. So, and it's the same for
Speaker 1: us here, you know, Here on Sunday mornings, we open
Speaker 1: up the word and wisdom flows. You are the light
Speaker 1: of the world is the theme. No, don't quite go
Speaker 1: there quite yet. That's the theme for our missions here
Speaker 1: at New Horizon. And so the whole theme of these
Speaker 1: last few days has been that. And we heard a
Speaker 1: few weeks ago how in the very opening verses of Genesis,
Speaker 1: how the world was dark. The earth was without form.
Speaker 1: It had nothing there. It was chaos. And the word
Speaker 1: says that the first things out of God's mouth were
Speaker 1: let there be light. Because in light comes life. In
Speaker 1: light comes the ability to see and to know and
Speaker 1: to have vision and to be able to do the
Speaker 1: things that need to be done. In light there is
Speaker 1: color and embedded in light is beauty. Everything that we
Speaker 1: need is in light. And that is why the very
Speaker 1: first thing to come into the world is light. Light
Speaker 1: versus darkness. And I will tell you that darkness is
Speaker 1: merely the absence of light. And even today, when we
Speaker 1: look at the world, we listen to the news, it
Speaker 1: seems so dark. It seems so chaotic. But I will
Speaker 1: say that the darkness in this world is only missing
Speaker 1: one thing. It's one light away from not being dark
Speaker 1: any longer. The only difference is the presence of light.
Speaker 1: Let there be light. And when Jesus came, he stood
Speaker 1: before the masses and said, I am the light of
Speaker 1: the world. He was saying that inside of me is life.
Speaker 1: Inside of me is beauty and guidance for your path
Speaker 1: and all the things. And then he said, actually, let's
Speaker 1: throw that up there. Then he said, you are the
Speaker 1: light of the world. Can you imagine that? He doesn't
Speaker 1: just stop with declaring that He's the light. He's God.
Speaker 1: Of course he's the light. But he's saying he wants
Speaker 1: to come and live inside of you. And now you
Speaker 1: are the light of the world. Those of you who
Speaker 1: have Christ inside of you, you are not just a
Speaker 1: normal human being going about your day any longer. Now
Speaker 1: you are the light of the world. And it's in
Speaker 1: you that he is going to shine his light abroad. Amen?
Speaker 1: So it says, you are the light of the world.
Speaker 1: You are a city on a hill that cannot be hidden.
Speaker 1: When we come together, not only are we one little flicker,
Speaker 1: but when we come together, say here at church, we
Speaker 1: are now a city. And this city is meant to
Speaker 1: be set on a hill. The hill in Israel, they
Speaker 1: used to build their towns, their cities on the tops
Speaker 1: of what's called tells or mountains. Well, you know, over there,
Speaker 1: their mountains aren't very mountainy. If you look at Mount Rainier,
Speaker 1: then they're, you know, just a little bump, but they
Speaker 1: would put their cities on that bump. And if there
Speaker 1: was a traveler, if there was someone traveling, they could
Speaker 1: look and see up on the hill. Oh, there's light.
Speaker 1: I need to get there. And that's what this is together.
Speaker 1: A lot of lights coming together. Now we are a city.
Speaker 1: Now together we can do things for this world and
Speaker 1: for missions like you can't do by yourself. You are
Speaker 1: a city set on a hill. That cannot be hidden.
Speaker 1: Neither do people light a lamp and put it under
Speaker 1: a bowl. Instead, they put it on a stand and
Speaker 1: it gives light to everyone in the house. In the
Speaker 1: same way, let your light shine before men that they
Speaker 1: may see your good deeds and praise the Father in heaven.
Speaker 1: And that is you. You are that light to be
Speaker 1: set on a stand. Amen. Not to shrink back. Not
Speaker 1: to look at darkness and say, oh my goodness, what
Speaker 1: are we going to do? And hide. No, darkness is
Speaker 1: darkness because it needs a light. And when darkness and
Speaker 1: light meet, can I just tell you something? Light always wins.
Speaker 1: Light always wins. Even Jesus, who said he was the
Speaker 1: light of the world, Darkness put him on a cross.
Speaker 1: But I'll tell you what, darkness did not win. Because
Speaker 1: three days later, he rose again. And when light comes
Speaker 1: into darkness, it will find its enemy. Darkness does not
Speaker 1: like light. But light always wins. Light always wins. Matthew 1.8, sorry,
Speaker 1: Acts 1.8 says... That you will receive power when the
Speaker 1: Holy Spirit comes on you. And you will be my
Speaker 1: witnesses in Jerusalem and all of Judea and Samaria and
Speaker 1: to the ends of the earth. This is his call.
Speaker 1: He comes and he fills you with who he is.
Speaker 1: And then he says, go and be my light everywhere.
Speaker 1: He says to go. Mark 16, 15 says, go into
Speaker 1: all the world and preach the gospel to all the creation.
Speaker 1: This is our mandate. This is our job. It is
Speaker 1: our position, according to the word, that we are to
Speaker 1: engage in. with the world. We are not to step
Speaker 1: back from the world. We are not to hide from
Speaker 1: the world. We are not to make our own little
Speaker 1: spot over here and keep the world away. No, we
Speaker 1: are to go into the world and engage it because
Speaker 1: you are his light bearer and light always wins. I
Speaker 1: need you to see yourself as God sees you. You
Speaker 1: are the light. And maybe you've made a few boo-boos
Speaker 1: in the past. Maybe you've done a few things that
Speaker 1: maybe wasn't very lightish. But God doesn't care. He's a redeemer.
Speaker 1: He is a redeemer. Our dear Margaret, are you kidding me?
Speaker 1: What a story because light always wins. And I want
Speaker 1: you to say that over your life right now. I
Speaker 1: don't know what you're up against. I don't know what's
Speaker 1: pushing you back. I don't know what's pushing you down
Speaker 1: and away because darkness hates light because it knows it
Speaker 1: will have to flee. But whatever that is, I want
Speaker 1: you to say to yourself, light inside of me will win.
Speaker 1: You are meant to win because you have him in you.
Speaker 1: Praise the Lord. It's our job to engage. And ever since,
Speaker 1: you know, 2000 years ago, when those verses were written,
Speaker 1: missionaries have gone forth. Those scriptures have been obeyed by
Speaker 1: so many human beings. So many amazing stories. So many
Speaker 1: heroes of the faith. The Bible says that we are
Speaker 1: surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses. That great
Speaker 1: could be size, but I also think it means stature
Speaker 1: of heroism. I love those stories. I love the stories
Speaker 1: of the missionaries of the past. I love them. But
Speaker 1: there's missionaries now. Did you know that there's 450,000 missionaries
Speaker 1: right now on foreign land? 450,000 of them out there
Speaker 1: right now. And you might say, I'm not out there.
Speaker 1: What am I? I'm just a normal human being. No,
Speaker 1: you are a part of God's vision for missions. Did
Speaker 1: you know that? You are a piece of it. $ 17, 000
Speaker 1: worth of a piece of it. Because behind every missionary...
Speaker 1: There are people. not traveling, but missionarying by giving and praying.
Speaker 1: And if we didn't have that half of the mission story,
Speaker 1: we would never have the half that goes. Does that
Speaker 1: make sense? As we were in worship again today, Just
Speaker 1: like last week, and I shared last week, I was
Speaker 1: overwhelmed with the sense of significance of every soul sitting here.
Speaker 1: You might not be on the mission field. You might
Speaker 1: not be doing some of the things that the stories
Speaker 1: that I've read, but you are so significant because you
Speaker 1: are a piece of it. You are a mission. You're
Speaker 1: missionarying every time you give. You are missionarying every time
Speaker 1: you pray. You are missionarying. You are a piece of
Speaker 1: the chain that makes it happen. These local, these current heroes,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna tell you a quick story. I didn't tell
Speaker 1: it to the first service because I was in a hurry,
Speaker 1: but I'm not in such a hurry, right? Nobody's in
Speaker 1: a hurry, right? Okay. Well, there was a lady named
Speaker 1: Karen Youngblad. She's a YWAM missionary. And this was in 2017.
Speaker 1: We got a little YWAM missionary sitting right here. You're
Speaker 1: gonna go out in just a few little bits. Praise
Speaker 1: the Lord. I could stop and just preach on her
Speaker 1: right now. But I gotta tell my story. Someday there's
Speaker 1: gonna be stories about you And I'm going to tell them.
Speaker 1: But anyway, this lady, she's a nurse. She was retired
Speaker 1: from here in America. And she's leading teams, medical teams,
Speaker 1: into Peru on a regular basis. as she's going in,
Speaker 1: typically has a doctor's and nurse, you know, all the things,
Speaker 1: and she's an RN, and she facilitates them and would
Speaker 1: take them in. Well, this one particular team that was
Speaker 1: going to go very deep in the Amazon jungle, she
Speaker 1: finds out last minute the doctor's not going, and she's like, well,
Speaker 1: I'm not going to go if the doctor's not going
Speaker 1: to go. What use am I to do this if
Speaker 1: I don't have a a doctor, but the Lord kept saying, go, go, go.
Speaker 1: It's okay. So she packed up her little team, flew
Speaker 1: down to Lima, eight hour boat ride into the Amazon
Speaker 1: and goes to their village that they're gonna minister in.
Speaker 1: While they're ministering, a man comes and he says, I
Speaker 1: got a lot of pain. So she had nothing to
Speaker 1: give him but ibuprofen. She gave him some ibuprofen and
Speaker 1: sent him home. Few hours later, his daughter comes back
Speaker 1: and says he died. come help. Well, she's like, he's dead.
Speaker 1: So she goes there and everybody's mourning on the outside
Speaker 1: of this hut. And she tells her people that the
Speaker 1: daughter said he did not know Jesus. He was a
Speaker 1: total non-believer. So she goes into the little raised floor hut,
Speaker 1: leaves her team outside and she just says, pray, just pray.
Speaker 1: So she goes in And she looks at, he's dead
Speaker 1: in a doornail, no pulse, no respirations. And the only
Speaker 1: thing she had to offer was CPR. She had no IVs.
Speaker 1: She had nothing. So she starts doing CPR on this
Speaker 1: guy and he, she ends up getting a pulse. She
Speaker 1: ends up getting a pulse, but he's non-responsive and he's
Speaker 1: breathing a little bit on his own. So she's like, okay,
Speaker 1: I have nothing more to do. I don't, I can't
Speaker 1: give him fluids. I can't do that. So she said, okay, God,
Speaker 1: he's yours. She goes out and she's like, well, His
Speaker 1: heart's beating again. You know, she didn't have enough oomph
Speaker 1: inside of her to say, he's raised to life. You know,
Speaker 1: her faith was not very high. And so they leave
Speaker 1: and they're kind of cheering and like, oh, wow. You know,
Speaker 1: what was that? And then message came back that he
Speaker 1: died again, that his heart stopped. And so she goes
Speaker 1: back and they do the same thing. She's doing CPR
Speaker 1: on him. And he comes back. He starts, she gets
Speaker 1: a heart rate back and all that kind of thing.
Speaker 1: And the first word out of his mouth, he actually
Speaker 1: is able to talk this time. And he says the
Speaker 1: word Jesus. And so she leaves and says, God, he's
Speaker 1: in your hands. He survives the whole night. The next
Speaker 1: day he gets up out of bed, finds them and says,
Speaker 1: I have been a very bad person. I will never
Speaker 1: live another day of my life without Jesus. And he, yes.
Speaker 1: This woman, this woman who thought she had nothing to give.
Speaker 1: She's a hero. She's a missionary. She's doing what she
Speaker 1: knows to do. God is so good. God is so good.
Speaker 1: We must, we must partake in missions. So that's a
Speaker 1: story of the here and now. I have one last
Speaker 1: story to share. I got lots of stories. It's hard
Speaker 1: to pick. But there was a gentleman in the 1800s, mid-1800s,
Speaker 1: named George Muller. Anybody heard of George Muller? A few
Speaker 1: of you. Yeah, he's a wonderful guy. He was pastoring
Speaker 1: a church, and he felt that he should quit his
Speaker 1: church and go into the slums of Bristol. England and
Speaker 1: gather all of the children, the orphans in this highly
Speaker 1: industrialized area where kids were just feral. They had gone feral.
Speaker 1: Basically children were just, it was a terrible situation. And
Speaker 1: so he went in, he never told him, never asked
Speaker 1: anybody for money. And he just said, Lord, if this
Speaker 1: is you take care of me. And so people started
Speaker 1: coming up to him and handing him stuff and saying,
Speaker 1: I don't know why I'm giving you this, but I
Speaker 1: feel like I need to give you this. They don't
Speaker 1: even know what he's doing. So he begins to gather
Speaker 1: children and he starts an orphanage. And at one point
Speaker 1: he has 400 children and they're all in this building.
Speaker 1: And he has helpers that come and help. And one
Speaker 1: evening the cooks came to him and said, we have
Speaker 1: no food. Look in our cupboards, nothing, right? Literally nothing.
Speaker 1: I don't think any of us know what that's like.
Speaker 1: Because even when I opened my refrigerator, I said, there's
Speaker 1: nothing to eat. Are you kidding me? There's piles of
Speaker 1: food to eat. No, these guys had nothing left. And
Speaker 1: he said, okay. He spends the night praying. He's not
Speaker 1: telling anybody. He's not getting the word out. He spends
Speaker 1: the night praying. The cooks come back in the morning,
Speaker 1: hoping that a miracle had happened. And sure enough, no miracle.
Speaker 1: So they go to him and he says, it's okay.
Speaker 1: Set the tables for the children. 400 plates, 400 sets
Speaker 1: of silverware, 400 children getting their shoes on and getting
Speaker 1: ready for school. 400 children coming down excited for what
Speaker 1: they're going to eat. And the adults are all looking
Speaker 1: at each other like, what's he going to do now?
Speaker 1: Shouldn't we do this? Shouldn't we do that? Maybe we
Speaker 1: should quit. Maybe we should give up. Maybe this isn't right.
Speaker 1: But George Mueller kept his faith. And he said, we're
Speaker 1: going to pray and bless the food we're going to eat.
Speaker 1: And so he had all the children. The He said,
Speaker 1: let's all bow our heads and fold our hands and
Speaker 1: pray and bless the food we're about to eat. And
Speaker 1: in the middle of the prayer, there's a knock on
Speaker 1: the door. And one of the cooks opens the door.
Speaker 1: And who's standing there but the village baker. who said,
Speaker 1: you know, I was sleeping, just minding my own business,
Speaker 1: when I woke up and I felt like I should
Speaker 1: start baking bread for you this morning. So he turned
Speaker 1: around and behind him was an entire cart filled with fresh,
Speaker 1: warm bread. Before he was done blessing the food that
Speaker 1: he didn't have in faith, calling those things that are
Speaker 1: not as though they are. And before he was done,
Speaker 1: he looks up and there's another knock at another door,
Speaker 1: you know, the other side of the building or whatever.
Speaker 1: And the ladies go over and answer that one. And
Speaker 1: sure enough, right there was the village priest. dairy man,
Speaker 1: I guess. I don't know what you call him, but
Speaker 1: he had a whole cart of fresh milk, big, huge
Speaker 1: bins of milk, but his axle had broken right in
Speaker 1: front of the orchard, orphan, orphanage, whatever it is. And
Speaker 1: he said, you know, I can't get this fixed. By
Speaker 1: the time I do, the milk's going to be no good.
Speaker 1: So do you have any need for some milk? And
Speaker 1: they're like, yes, bring it in. And so those children
Speaker 1: ate until they were full, fresh bread and warm milk.
Speaker 1: But I say that to say, where would George Muller
Speaker 1: be with his obedience and his faith without the baker
Speaker 1: and the dairyman? being faithful and generous to do what
Speaker 1: they do and to be faithful to give. Where would
Speaker 1: it be? He is credited with over 5,000 children that
Speaker 1: were raised, clothed, fed, housed, and educated into becoming doctors
Speaker 1: and lawyers. But how could he do it without those
Speaker 1: that give. Now that baker wasn't called to go and
Speaker 1: to do all that, that baker. was called to bake.
Speaker 1: But he was a part of the miracle. You might
Speaker 1: not be in Africa. You might not be in Thailand.
Speaker 1: You might not be working for Teen Challenge. You might
Speaker 1: be going to your job, doing your work. But I
Speaker 1: will tell you the significance of what you do day in,
Speaker 1: day out. You are a light for him. And when
Speaker 1: you are called upon and you hear of something and
Speaker 1: you sense something on the inside and you respond instantly,
Speaker 1: You are being a part of that miracle. You are
Speaker 1: being missionaries. Amen. Let's pray right now. Would you pray
Speaker 1: with me? I want to pray for every missionary out there,
Speaker 1: every ministry that's local right now. Maybe they're praying over
Speaker 1: something right now. They're calling something that is not as
Speaker 1: though it is. just like he was needing bread for
Speaker 1: those children. There are ministries and missionaries right now around
Speaker 1: the world that are in need. Father, God, in Jesus' name,
Speaker 1: we pray over the nations. We pray over those that
Speaker 1: have been so faithful. We pray over them who are
Speaker 1: standing even now in need, in want, with struggle. Lord God,
Speaker 1: I ask you right now to put strength in their bones.
Speaker 1: and faith in their heart, and finance in their pockets,
Speaker 1: and the ability to do the things that you've called
Speaker 1: them to do. God, I call the unsaved to come
Speaker 1: to them for the answers. God, I pray right now
Speaker 1: for your Holy Spirit to just permeate the world. For
Speaker 1: Father God, you are the light of the world. And
Speaker 1: we come against darkness. We come against every power of
Speaker 1: the enemy. And we say light always wins. May this
Speaker 1: be a year of great harvest. May this be a
Speaker 1: year of great harvest. Praise you, Jesus. Would you please,
Speaker 1: for me, consider giving into this offering. If I could
Speaker 1: have the ushers come forward. The giving slide needs to
Speaker 1: go up. I want you to do two things. I
Speaker 1: want you to consider your monthly pledge. That QR code
Speaker 1: on the orange band is a QR code link to
Speaker 1: a pledge card. And if you have been a monthly
Speaker 1: pledger here at New Horizon, I've had a few of
Speaker 1: you ask if you need to fill that out again,
Speaker 1: I do need you to fill that out again. So
Speaker 1: we kind of know. So you can use that upper
Speaker 1: QR code there for a digital pledge card and let
Speaker 1: us know. I will tell you up until now, I'm
Speaker 1: about halfway to our pledge need on a monthly basis.
Speaker 1: So I want to encourage every single one of you,
Speaker 1: 100% New Horizon participation. Be it $ 10, $ 20, $ 50, $ 100, $ 200,
Speaker 1: $ 500 a month. I don't know what you can do.
Speaker 1: But let's all be involved. Every one of us. The
Speaker 1: other QR code is for project, our project income. So
Speaker 1: if you would like to give online, you can do
Speaker 1: right there into this $ 7, 000 challenge that I'm putting out.
Speaker 1: If you haven't given yet, go ahead and do it.
Speaker 1: If you gave in the past year, Couple of weeks,
Speaker 1: but you still want, you know, throw on another whatever.
Speaker 1: If you want, that'd be great. But so you can
Speaker 1: use that QR code. You can also use the envelope
Speaker 1: in front of you. And cash and check is fabulous
Speaker 1: as well. This whole entire offering will go towards missions.
Speaker 1: Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Father, in Jesus name,
Speaker 1: oh God, I thank you right now for this church. God,
Speaker 1: I thank you that you planted this church as a lampstand.
Speaker 1: You've called churches lampstands. Funny thing, lampstands give light and
Speaker 1: light always wins. Father, I thank you right now that
Speaker 1: this church, our light will not go out and we
Speaker 1: will shine like a city on a hill that the
Speaker 1: lost can come here. Father God, I thank you for
Speaker 1: that in Jesus name. Thank you for the faithfulness of
Speaker 1: the givers in Jesus name. Amen. Hallelujah. Thank you. Thank you.
Speaker 1: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. So go ahead. We're
Speaker 1: going to pass buckets. I'm sorry. I didn't, if I
Speaker 1: didn't make that clear, we're going to pass the buckets.
Speaker 1: We're also going to put the buckets up here. So
Speaker 1: if you're not quite ready, that's great too. Praise the Lord. Okay.
Speaker 1: So we have some wonderful nations around the room. People
Speaker 1: who are from those nations who have spent their week
Speaker 1: this week cooking for you to give you a taste
Speaker 1: of their culture. If you have done a table, I
Speaker 1: would love for you to stand up and go to
Speaker 1: your table right now. So we've got Uganda. We've got
Speaker 1: the Philippines over here. We've got Ethiopia. We've got Kenya.
Speaker 1: We've got two Mexicos. Boy, they're showing up today. We've
Speaker 1: got Spain. And we've got Guam over here. So these
Speaker 1: are people that are a part of this body. So
Speaker 1: I want you, when you go to these tables, if
Speaker 1: you don't know their name, learn their name. Ask them
Speaker 1: a little bit about who they are, what they do.
Speaker 1: Because quite often, those who come to church that are
Speaker 1: from other nations, they quite often, you know, sit in
Speaker 1: the background and they're quiet. You know, ours is a
Speaker 1: different language. Ours is a different culture. But I'll tell
Speaker 1: you what, we are here to embrace all the cultures. Amen.
Speaker 1: All the nations. God, I pray right now over Mexico.
Speaker 1: Fill Mexico with your spirit. Fill Mexico with your life
Speaker 1: and your love in Jesus name. God, transform Spain. Transform
Speaker 1: Guam in Jesus name. Fill Guam with your spirit. May
Speaker 1: the churches and the pastors of Guam be strong. God,
Speaker 1: I pray over the Philippines, Lord God. What a beautiful
Speaker 1: country it is. Father, I pray over the Philippines. Give
Speaker 1: it a breakthrough. Breakthrough in the Philippines. Breakthrough in Jesus name. God,
Speaker 1: I pray over Uganda. Once again, Lord God, I thank
Speaker 1: you right now that the missionaries and the people of
Speaker 1: Uganda are touched by you. Father, I pray over Ethiopia.
Speaker 1: Hailu and Sible over there, they work with the blind
Speaker 1: over there. You want to get to know them. You
Speaker 1: want to get to know them. They have stories to tell.
Speaker 1: And our lovely Kenya ladies over there. Hallelujah. God, I
Speaker 1: pray over Kenya. God, I pray right now that Kenya
Speaker 1: is filled with the Holy Spirit, that there is a
Speaker 1: mighty move in the Maasai and in Kenya, Lord Jesus.
Speaker 1: I thank you right now for that nation. God, I
Speaker 1: pray for all the other nations in Jesus name. Hallelujah.