Good morning. It is a joy and an honor to be
here with you this morning. My name is Jeffrey
Woods. I grew up not far from here. Manchester,
Connecticut is where I called home till I left
to go overseas. My wife and I and our kiddos,
we live in Africa in a country called Kenya.
But it is always nice to come back home. And
I bring you greetings from my wife. Not so much
my kids. They didn't send any greetings, but
I think they meant it. They're little, and so
they're in Mombasa, Kenya right now. So Kenya
is the east coast of Africa. It is known for
animals. They've got great safaris. But it's
a place my wife and I have called home for the
last couple years. My wife and I have lived,
I actually went to Africa as a single guy. I
went to college in Pennsylvania. I came back,
lived in Manchester for a couple of years, and
then I moved overseas because I felt like the
Lord was calling me into missions or asking me
to go into missions. And so I went single. I
went to a little country called the Comoros Islands,
and I was there for a couple of years. And then
I went up to a much bigger country called Sudan,
which used to be the largest country in Africa
until it split into two. So I lived in Khartoum,
Sudan, and that's where I met my wife Stephanie.
And so my wife is from West Texas, a little itty
-bitty town in the north of West Texas, and we
met there. We got married after... a little while,
and then we went back to Comoros where we have
three beautiful kids. All of them were born overseas.
Titus is 13, Nathan is 10, and then our youngest,
Hannah, is 8. And so I apologize, they couldn't
be with me this morning, but they're doing well
overseas. And I fly back, Lord willing, tomorrow.
I fly back to Kenya, and I'll be with them early,
early Wednesday morning, if all goes well. My
wife and I, we love missions and we love that
we get to serve a missionary God. A God who is
excited about all peoples. He's excited about
you and he's excited about me and he's excited
about people who look like us and who speak the
same language as us and he's excited about people
who don't look like us and who don't share the
same language. My wife and I have spent our entire
missions career focused on one thing, and that
one thing is people groups who have no access
to the gospel. So again, in Connecticut, my wife's
from Texas, so like again, there's a massive
difference between Connecticut and Texas. Texas,
there are churches literally everywhere. Connecticut,
there are churches, maybe not as common as in
Texas, but we love to serve amongst people where
there are no churches. Where there's no Bible,
and where there's no Christians. And you're like,
well, how did you end up in Kenya? Kenya is a
bit of a Christian nation, and I'll explain that
in a minute. But first, we ended up in Comoros.
And Comoros is one of these places. It's 99 .99
% Muslim. Nobody knows about Jesus as in the
true Jesus. They have an idea about Jesus in
the Islamic tradition as a prophet, as a good
person, as someone they really love. But they
completely deny the essence of who Jesus is as
the son of God. And God just put something in
my wife's and my heart that said it is totally
unfair that so many people are born, live, and
die without ever having the chance to hear the
good news. And so we felt like the Lord is asking
us to do something about that and so we went
overseas and we've served on a church planting
team where our whole goal has been to establish
a church amongst a people group that doesn't
know him, a place where it's illegal to be missionaries.
And so we set up a business and we did some different
things there, but we always aligned ourselves
with Jesus, with the Bible, and with the church.
And we wanted no one, no one, to be confused
as to who we are. That we are people of the Bible.
That we're people who love Jesus. And we're people
who represent and are part of his church globally.
We are, you guys, we're just you guys overseas.
And there's this vast body. of the church that
it's just a privilege to be part of. And so after
about 15 years in Comoros, we moved from there
to Kenya. And I'll share a little bit about what
Comoros was like. But we moved from there to
Kenya. And Kenya, right now, we've got a beautiful
house. It's a somewhat Christian nation. It's
like 50 % Christian. But if you sit on my back
porch, which all of you should do, it's gorgeous.
You are welcome to come visit. My mom is here
today. She'll bring you with her. It's great,
but when you sit on that porch, it's green, there's
monkeys that play in the yard, but here's what
you see and hear, or here's what you maybe don't
see. About 200, 300 yards across this little
quarry, five times a day you hear this massive
call to prayer going off, because there's a huge
mosque from the Middle East that's right there.
If you go out our gate, you will find two Hindu
temples right across the road. If you go another...
20 yards, you will find a witch doctor training
school. And then eventually, you're going to
get to a church. So we live in a place where
there's all sorts of need. And we've built our
career just trying to reach Muslims with the
gospel, trying to have good conversation, trying
to build a good reputation, but trying to be
very clear about who Jesus is and why we love
him so much and what he has to offer. And so
we live in Kenya right now. And now, if you're
coming with our organization, you want to work
amongst unreached peoples or people with no access
to the gospel. You're going to come through Mombasa.
You're going to stay with us for a year. We're
going to train you in all sorts of things. In
the classroom, we're going to train you in missiology
and theology and all of these things, the study
of missions. Then we're going to go out in the
streets, and we're going to train you there.
And we're going to show, here's how you share
the gospel with someone who is... Nothing like
you and their worldview is nothing like you and
we're gonna teach you how to learn a language
because We find that a lot of times anyway, if
you're coming from the US, you know English somebody
taught you Spanish or French back in in high
school But you don't remember any of it And then
we're gonna teach you how to learn a new language
And so we spend a year with people then we launch
them all over so we've we launched them to any
Basically any country you can think of in Africa
that has Muslim peoples we send people there
and we do leadership with that as well But this
morning I want to introduce you to a passage
of scripture which I'm sure is familiar for most
of you. And this passage of scripture is extremely
important to me because this passage of scripture
I firmly believe God used to completely save
my faith. And you're like, what does that mean?
He didn't use it to get me into the faith. He
used it to keep my faith. And you know, the Lord
is really good about revealing himself to us.
And he does it in all sorts of ways. But we know
that one of the primary ways he does it is through
his word. And so I want to read a scripture.
It's from Luke chapter 7. Luke chapter 7. And
it's a story about John the Baptist. And we're
going to talk a little bit more about John the
Baptist. But God used this passage at a time
where I desperately needed something from Jesus.
What he gave me So we'll look a little bit more
at this story, but I want to read these five
or six verses Luke chapter 7 beginning in verse
18 Alright, so Luke chapter 7 beginning in verse
18 and it says the disciples of John that's John
the Baptist reported all these things to him
and John Calling two of his disciples to him
sent them to the Lord saying are you the one
who is to come? Or shall we look for another?
and when the men had come to him they said John
the Baptist has sent you to us saying are you
the one who is to come or shall we look for another
in that hour he healed many people of diseases
and plagues and evil spirits and many who were
blind he bestowed sight and he answered them
go and tell John what you have seen and heard
the blind receive sight the lame walk the lepers
are cleansed and the deaf hear The dead are raised
up and the poor have good news preached to them.
And blessed is the one who is not offended by
me. And I want to talk a little bit more about
this thought of blessed is the one who is not
offended by me. The NIV says blessed is anyone
who doesn't stumble on account of me. The NLT
says blessed, God blesses those who don't fall
away because of me. And so what does that mean?
What is Jesus saying to John's disciples and,
in essence, to John? Blessed is the one who doesn't
fall away on account of me. And I want to weave
three stories together. I want to weave the story
of John the Baptist, which we're going to look
at from Luke 7 and a little bit elsewhere. I
want to tell you a little bit about my story,
specifically my story in Africa. And then I want
to just throw out some questions for you and
your story. Because we all have stories. We're
all living a life orchestrated, written, authored,
ordained by God. So let's start with John the
Baptist. So in Luke 1, verse 5, we read that
John had a miraculous conception. Zechariah and
Elizabeth couldn't have a kid, then all of a
sudden an angel comes, Elizabeth gets pregnant,
there's a story about what they should name him,
things like that, but it was a miracle. Then
a little while we get... A little while later
we get the story of Jesus' conception and Mary
and Joseph. But then we get this wonderful story
where Mary visits Elizabeth, both have babies
in their womb, and somehow the babies recognize
each other. Something's going on there, right?
And it says that the baby leapt inside Elizabeth's
womb. So we're talking about John. John leapt
in Elizabeth's womb when Mary pregnant with Jesus.
came in. So there's something going on there.
In Luke 1 to 80, and then also in Matthew 3 -4,
we learn that John the Baptist, he lived an aesthetic
life. He lived out by himself, but not totally
alone. He had his disciples with him, but he
forsook the town. He forsook the normal way of
living, and he became a little bit more By himself
with his disciples and he for it for sook some
of the finer things that life had to offer Said
he had that clothes that were made of camel hair
and and he ate honey and locusts and things like
that then in John chapter 1 John the Baptist
is with his disciples and Jesus comes by and
John says something very interesting. He says
look The Lamb of God who takes the way the sin
of the world and he's talking about Jesus John
knew Jesus. John knew something from the womb
about Jesus. And then in life after the womb,
as they were ministering and going about, John
recognized, look, Jesus, that guy over there
to his disciples, he's the one who takes away
the sin of the world, the lamb of God going back
to the Old Testament. John even gives up some
of his disciples and says, go follow that guy.
And they do. Matthew 3, we get the story of Jesus'
baptism, which John is the one who baptizes.
And as Jesus is baptized, you get this image
of a dove coming and you get the voice of the
father who says, this is my son, listen to him.
John had wonderful experiences with Jesus. And
all of that happens before we get this passage
where John is in prison and he tells his disciples
and says, disciples, go ask Jesus. Is he the
one we should expect or is there another? So
what's going on in John's mind? And I think if
you've been following Jesus for a little while,
you probably understand what's going on in John's
mind. Because all of us, again, we have stories.
You have stories that would make us cry. You
have stories that would make us laugh. You have
stories that would make us joyful. You have stories
that would make us confused. But they're your
stories. It's your life lived. It's what God
has done with you and in you and through you.
And there are days where we know Jesus is so
real. And then there are days where, if we're
honest, I think sometimes we can't find Jesus.
And so, in our own lives, we recognize this.
People will often ask me, how on earth did you
go from Manchester, Connecticut to East Africa,
to Sudan, to Comoros, to Kenya? How did that
happen? And I'll say, Jesus just kept speaking
to me. And I just kept asking, God, give me ears
to hear whatever you're saying. and give me the
courage to follow whatever you say. And as I
read scripture, as I listened to sermons, as
I talked with people, I realized there was a
world out there that didn't know about him. And
I realized from scripture that the entire church
is responsible for the entire world. And I realized
Jesus was asking me to do something very specific
about it. He was asking me to pray. He was asking
me to give. He but he was asking me to go and
he was asking me to leave and forsake the comforts
of life here Which some of you are like, oh,
it's not so comfortable but Leave and say, okay,
I'll give up everything familiar I'll give up
family friends the language I speak all of these
things and go follow him somewhere else and it
was a slow journey of simple yeses Because at
first I felt like God was calling me into ministry.
So I said yes But I didn't know. I was hoping
it was youth. I was really hoping it was camping,
because that sounded really fun. But both of
those doors closed, and it became, God is calling
me into missions. And then it became, God is
calling me to Africa. And then it became, not
just to work with a church in Africa, to work
with people where there was no church. And once
that door opened and I walked through it, I said
to Jesus, I will never do anything else again.
I love this. And it's an honor and a privilege
to do it. But again, it was rooted in the Bible,
in this command that God gives us to make disciples
of all nations. And that a biblical view of heaven
is a view of all nations worshipping Jesus. One
of the most painful experiences I've had in missions
was talking with an Islamic leader. And again,
I don't think he represented... mainstream Islam
but he was sitting there he was teaching our
group of missionaries and he said one of the
great things about heaven is we're gonna get
there and it's gonna be a non -stop fun and party
and all of this and so we asked where's God in
all this he's like oh God leaves he's not with
us and the idea that heaven without the Lord
is no heaven I want to be part of but at the
same time heaven without the nations is an incomplete
it's incomplete because there has to be people
from every tribe, every tongue, and every people
group. I love the work the Lord called me to
do. And my wife does. And one of the things I
love about meeting my wife overseas is if one
of us wants to leave, we're going to have to
convince the other one that Jesus is really telling
us to leave. Because we both went in on it together,
in on it separate. And so now we are in together.
So let's go back to John the Baptist. So if you
look earlier, I want to read an earlier scripture
in Luke chapter seven, because I just read verses
18 through 23, which is a snippet. But every
snippet comes from context, right? There's context
around it. So if you look at verse 18, it says,
the disciples reported all these things to John,
or to him. What did he report? We'll look back
on chapter seven. Verse one through 10, we get
this story about a Roman centurion who had a
sick servant. And so they go and they say, Jesus,
come and heal him. And so they go, but the servants
go and they get Jesus. But Jesus doesn't make
it in time. And so the servant dies or whatever.
And Jesus, go. Just go. No, the centurion doesn't
say that. He says, I understand authority. as
I am a man under authority and I have authority.
Jesus, all you have to do is say it. Just say
the word and let my servant be healed. And you
know what Jesus does? He says the word. That's
the Jesus we serve. His word is so powerful that
when he says it, nothing is impossible. Then
let's look at verse 11. I want to read this one
because there's a detail in this I missed. I
mean, maybe I saw it, but it stuck out to me
in a new way as I was prepping for this morning.
So it says, verse 11, chapter seven, soon afterward
he went to a town called Nain, and his disciples
and a great crowd went with him. And as he drew
near the gate of the town, behold, a man had
died and was being carried out, the only son
of his mother. And she was a widow, and a considerable
crowd from the town was with her. And when the
Lord saw her, he had compassion on her, and he
said, do not weep. Then he came up and he touched
the... He touched the buyer, and the bearer stood
still, and he said, Young man, I say to you arise.
And the dead man sat up and began to speak. And
Jesus gave him to his mother. And fear seized
them all. And they glorified God, saying, A great
prophet has risen among us, and God has visited
his people. And this report about him spread
through the whole of Judea and the surrounding
country. Both of these people, the Roman centurion
and the widow, had very difficult circumstances,
and God spoke in through Jesus, and their situation
was totally reversed. And then you get John the
Baptist, this person who knew Jesus from the
womb, who followed Jesus, who baptized Jesus,
and he was in prison, and we're gonna find out
why he was in prison in a minute, if you don't
know already. And John is like, Jesus, where's
my miracle? Are you the one we're to expect?
What's going on? The widow got her miracle. And
the Roman centurion, not a Jew, got his miracle.
And John the Baptist, this wonderful prophet,
is like, what about me? What about me? As I look
back on my missions career, my first two years
were brutally difficult. I went to Comoros. I
was 24 years old. I knew so much and yet I knew
absolutely nothing. I got off the plane and there
was a red carpet and there was a band and that's
when I realized the president was on the plane.
That red carpet was not for me and the band was
not for me. The president got off, he had his
wonderful fanfare, the plane moved 50 yards this
way, we got off to nothing. We went to this nasty
little motel where we stayed for the first week
and we learned some language and we figured out
how to live. We went in January, which was the
hottest time of year. After we survived that
week, we got rewarded with a homestay where they
put us with a local family for one week. I know
how to say basically, hello, my name is Jeff,
I'm learning your language, I don't speak your
language. That's basically all I knew. I didn't
know how to say, where's the bathroom? I didn't
know how to say, I don't like that. I didn't
know how to say, what are we doing today? And
so I end up in this little island village for
one week. And it was so hard. It was so hard.
Then I got finished that week, and I got rewarded
with two more years of difficulty. I had malaria
at least eight times. I couldn't get rid of it.
It just kept coming back. I lost weight. I was
sick over and over again. When you're sick over
and over again, language learning is brutally
hard. It's this temperature every day of the
year, and we had electricity a couple hours a
day. Life was challenging. That house had great
running water, but then when I got married, that
house had no running water. I would tell my wife,
listen, I've given you the most beautiful house
in the entire island. We could see dolphins in
the ocean. outside of our window. And she would
look down and there would be rats running on
the ground. And she would say, yeah, but we have
rats. And I said, but we have dolphins. We agreed
to disagree on that house. But my first two years
were hard. Physically, I was sick all the time.
Mentally, I realized something about missions.
I was not good at it. I wasn't good at language
learning. And I wasn't good at sharing the gospel
with strangers. And I wasn't good at just persevering.
And relationally, it was really hard. I've got
a twin brother. So again, we talk about John
the Baptist in the womb. I had someone in the
womb with me. Then I had someone in my room with
me. And then I go overseas. I've got no one.
And I was lonely every single day. And those
three things were OK. But then the hard part
was they were the most difficult years spiritually
of my life. Because I would read this same Bible.
And I would read Acts, or like this passage in
Luke. And I would see miracle after miracle.
And then I would go out and I would do it. And
I saw no miracle. And I just kept saying, God,
where are you in this? And that's when I found
this passage about John the Baptist. And it just
jumped off the page to me of, do not be offended
by me. And the Lord, through his spirit, just
spoke, Jeffrey, you are choosing to be offended
by what Jesus does. Or in my case, maybe what
Jesus is not doing. And so then I credit Jesus
through this passage of John the Baptist just
saving my faith. I'll often tell people I've
never been closer to leaving my faith than when
I became a missionary, which sounds terrible.
And it is terrible. But it was the honest truth.
So many things seemed stacked against me. And
yet Jesus is so good. If you were going to design
the most formative transformative years of your
life. How would you design it? Often it's the
hardest seasons that God uses to bring the most
change and the most transformation and the most
blessing into our lives and then through us to
others. I would never have designed my first
two years in mission so difficult and yet I wouldn't
change it for anything. The reason I'm still
here 20 years later is because God was so good
to me in those two years by taking all these
things away. by allowing it to be so much more
difficult than I thought it should have been.
Because I could identify with John and say, whoa,
where's my miracle? I'm reading it in the scripture,
but I don't see the scripture in my life. But
it's another important part of following Jesus,
when our experience can't be the lens, the most
important lens through which we view faith. God's
word is a rock. It never changes. If my experience
says Jesus has abandoned me, I know by scripture
it's not true. If my experience says I don't
see the goodness of God, I know God is good because
I anchor in his word. So we go back to John the
Baptist. In Matthew chapter 14, we read how John
the Baptist died. And Herod the Tetrarch, he
hosts a party. And they have a lot to eat and
they have a lot to drink. An important note to
know about him, he's living in sin. He's currently
taking his brother's wife as his own, or at least
he's sleeping with his brother's wife. And so
this young lady comes out and she dances and
she does a wonderful job for the dinner party.
And Herod the Tetrarch is so pleased, he says,
I'll give you whatever you want. And so she goes
back, talks to her mother, Herodias, and they
say, we want the head of John the Baptist on
a platter. You know, it seems like Herod wasn't
super excited about that, but because he made
a promise, he couldn't be ashamed in front of
all his friends. So he goes and he has John the
Baptist killed. Imagine being John the Baptist.
You are faithful every second of your life. You
are an amazing prophet. You forsook the niceties
of life in Israel. You lived in the desert. You
baptized Jesus. You knew Jesus. Jesus, just say
the word and I'll be set free. And we read throughout
scripture, God was pretty good at getting people
out of prison, Old Testament and New Testament.
And yet John the Baptist didn't get that. Instead,
this dinner party went wrong and John the Baptist
lost his head. Where is God in that? But I'd
like to suggest God is as much in that as he
is in the miracle. the miracle release, the miracle
salvation, the miracle whatever. But John the
Baptist had a difficult calling. When I finished
my two and a half years in Comoros, I made a
very simple decision, which shocked most people
around me. And my decision was this. I'm going
back. Most people thought I would be done. I
remember standing up in front of, with our pastor
at our church in Manchester, and I remember sitting
there, standing there in front of the congregation,
and the pastor says, we never thought you'd make
it. And I remember, again, like, I'm not gonna
say anything about him. I remember looking at
him and being like, I didn't know quitting was
an option. Like, it never occurred to me. And
then, it never occurred to me not to go back.
Because if the Lord is asking me to do it, He
was with me through every difficulty. Had I not
gone back, I never would have met my wife, we
never would have had our kids, and we never would
have been having the impact that we are amongst
people groups who have never heard about Jesus.
I love what God has called us to do. People often
say, wow, you've sacrificed so much to live in
Africa. And I say, oh no, it has been no sacrifice.
It has been a complete privilege. To live over
there when you get to sit down with somebody
and share the gospel with somebody who has never
heard it ever You sit there and you say Jesus
why on earth did you give me this privilege?
How could you let me be part of that? So before
I close I want to just look at a couple of lessons
lesson number one from this this story of John
the Baptist I Tried to make a point to emphasize
John lived out in the wilderness But the Bible's
very careful to tell us he didn't live alone.
He had his disciples. Friends, as people who
followed Jesus, were not called to be alone.
It's why I'm absolutely in love with God's church.
And it's a privilege to be part of it overseas.
And it's why I want to see it planted amongst
people groups that don't have it. Because we're
supposed to live in community together. Another
lesson we take away is authority. I think as
Americans, in our view of the material world
versus spiritual world, we underestimate the
authority that God has just by his word. It's
why I ask you to pray with us for the work overseas,
because I think you guys can do more in your
prayers than you will ever know this side of
eternity. Most Muslims come to faith because
of dreams. I think that's firmly tied to people
around the world praying for them. Again. We
can pull back that curtain when we get to heaven,
and God shows us some amazing picture of how
he was orchestrating all these things. But don't
doubt for one minute your ability to influence
the nations from here. So please keep praying.
Another lesson, which I bring out just slightly,
but I think we get this wrong so much as believers,
I reference Jesus' baptism with John. When John
baptized Jesus, God could have come and said
anything. But he emphasized his delight over
Jesus. This is my son Whom I love Friends Jesus
the father the spirit their disposition towards
us is delight and the enemy would love us to
to have shame and to say we're not good enough
or God must be so Displeased with me because
I should do better or this but God just delights
in his people He just delights in us. Another
lesson. We've talked about so many people. The
widow, the centurion, the widow's son, the centurion's
servant, John the Baptist, the disciples, Jesus,
Herod, all of these people. I'd like to encourage
you, whatever role God gives you, be willing
to embrace that role. If the role is one of suffering,
Somebody in the story had to die. And I'm not
talking about Jesus had to die. But no one gets
raised from the dead if the son of the widow
of Nain doesn't die. The widow had to lose her
only son. Those are tough roles. John passed
away. The Roman centurion servant was sick. But
so often we don't want any of those roles. We
want the role of Jesus. We want the one with
the power or the authority. And yet Jesus says,
will you trust me in life or in death? Will you
trust me in sickness or in health? Will you trust,
that sounds like a marriage ceremony, will you
trust me no matter what I'm doing, even if you
can't see what I'm doing? Friends, as a church,
our answer should be yes. But then the primary
lesson I want to pull out is where we started.
Don't be offended by Jesus. Don't be offended
by what you see him doing. Don't be offended
by what you see him don't doing. If you hang
your hope on a miracle, you hang your hope on
the wrong thing. If you hang your hope on Jesus,
you hang your hope on the right person. If you
hang your hope on a certain answer to prayer,
you hang your hope on the wrong thing. If you
hang your hope on Jesus, the one who answers
all prayers, you hang your hope on the right
person. What do you expect of Jesus? His word
tells us so many wonderful things. We don't doubt
his goodness. He's more than enough, always.
Pastor Jared prayed it earlier today. We have
all these blessings and things are wonderful,
but if we had none of it, if we just had Jesus,
that's enough. That was maybe the most important
little... missions lesson I learned in my first
two years was all I need is Jesus. And if I have
Jesus, if my hope is set on Jesus, if my vision
is set on Jesus, if my desire is anchored to
Jesus, I will never be disappointed. And I could
have set my desire on good things like the church
being planted, or physical health being well,
or avoiding malaria. or the water turning on,
or the electricity staying on, or things like
that, those things will always disappoint. But
if my highest hope was just simply knowing Jesus,
and being with Jesus, and wanting whatever Jesus
wanted, I learned I'll never be disappointed.
So if you look back over your life, I'm guessing
it's the same as if I look back over mine. My
biggest moments of disappointment are where Jesus,
where my... my desires didn't align with Jesus',
even if I thought they did. And as I look back
over my life, I've suffered different defeats,
heartaches, and disappointments. But when I spend
time with Jesus, I realize he's never disappointed
me, not once, despite the difficulty and despite
the pain. Walking with Jesus is not a pain -free
life, but I love we sang the hymn, about he leadeth
us. Always. Everywhere. We say even death isn't
to be avoided. That whatever our lot is, we're
fine with it. Those two years in Comoros shaped
the rest of my life. They were painful, they
were difficult. The last 18 have been nothing
like that. But if the next two years are exactly
like the first two, I want to be someone who
just says, Jesus, thank you. Let me end with
a real life example of what I'm talking about.
In Comoros, we labored for 15 years to see a
church planted. And at about the 13 year mark,
we saw a whole bunch of fruit. People started
coming to the Lord. A family came to the Lord.
Singles came to the Lord. They started winning
people to the Lord. It was beautiful. This family
that came to the Lord the Easter before we left
so we left in summer of 2024 to move to Kenya
But so Easter so that would have been April 2024
we sat in our living room with our missionary
team and with these local believers and We had
kids we had old people. We had young people and
we just sat and we just walked through the Easter
story. We sat on the floor. We ate dinner out
of platters together. It was a very cultural
experience and a very biblical experience, and
it was beautiful. And as I looked, I'm like,
God, I'm saying goodbye to this because our time
here is finished, but man, you are capable to
keep this thing going. And so it kept going,
and a new person came to faith, this middle -aged
lady who in our society doesn't have a lot of
status, and yet she's on fire for Jesus. And
she's... seeing wonderful things happen in her
community. This week, today's Sunday, on Wednesday,
I get a message from the team that is still on
the island. And this is what the message said.
It's with heavy heart I pass on this news. The
father in that family with six kids has passed
away. He's got six small kids. He loves Jesus.
And he died from an infection that in America
you could have dealt with easily. But he didn't
have access to good medical care, and he passes
away. And I just look back to the heavens and
I say, Jesus, I don't know what you're doing.
Because if I was thinking of how to build a church
in this place without one, I would keep these
people alive. But I just say, Jesus, you're good.
And I'm mourning the passing of this guy. But
my hope was not hung on this person. My hope
is in Jesus. The widow of Nain's story. Did you
guys catch the widow of Nain? The son she lost
was her only son. Well, who was John the Baptist?
John the Baptist was the miracle baby of Zechariah
and Elizabeth. He had every right to claim that
small detail. He had every right for Jesus to
look on him with the same compassion and the
same grace. And yet the widow of Nain's son gets
raised. and John the Baptist passes away. And
either way, Jesus is glorified. And as we work
to see God's church planted amongst the nations,
no matter how it goes, if we are faithful, he
will be worshiped and he will be glorified. And
that's the same in your lives. No matter what
you face today or tomorrow, whatever you brought
into church with you this morning, if you stay
true to Jesus, If you say, Jesus, I don't understand,
and I would sure love to understand, but I'm
okay with not understanding because I know you
are good and I trust you, then Jesus gets the
glory, which is what we want. Let me pray for
you. Father God, I thank you and I pray this
morning that you would be glorified here in this
church as a spiritual community and as individuals.
Lord may our trust and our hope be in you may
you continue to amaze us may you continue to
wow us may you continue to do things we just
didn't see coming and Lord help us help each
and every one of us to walk through difficult
seasons and may our response be instead of running
from you may our response be to just anchor into
you and say I don't understand but I trust and
I don't know what's gonna happen, but I know
you Jesus, and I know you are good Jesus, we
thank you that the same one who is king here
is king everywhere and that your kingdom is coming
and that your will will be done on earth as it
is in heaven and that one day we will worship
you forever with people from all nations. In
that name, in your name, in the name of Jesus
we pray. Amen.