Hello and welcome back to the PHSA Podcast. My name is David Bigford. I'm the pastor
here at SalmonArm. This is a very special podcast series where I'm going to be sharing
with you messages from our most recent conference in Prescott, Arizona, the Beyond Limits Conference
with a theme of to preach the gospel in the regions beyond from 2 Corinthians 10-16. I'm
going to share all of the sermons from this conference series to include Greg Mitchell,
our head pastor, Joe Campbell, Richard Ruby, Tom Payne, and many, many others during this
series. So I'll be sharing these with you over the next couple of weeks, and I hope
you really enjoy these messages. If you'd like to see these messages in a video format,
you can go to prescottpottershouse.com where all of these will be available for you to
view in a video format. So without further ado, I'm going to pass, I'm going to go ahead
and move on to the messages and I hope you enjoy them. God bless.
Thank you. Amen. Great privilege and honour to be here. Appreciate the opportunity to
preaching on Thursday, our International Day. Praise God. If you've got your Bibles, let's
open to Isaiah 42 10-12. Isaiah 42 10-12. Just going to look at a couple of verses.
The genesis of this sermon came to me when I was in the island nation of Papua New Guinea,
had the privilege of leading a team there, myself, my assistant, Pastor Luke, and 11
other people from our church spent a number of days there to impact that nation and the
capital of Port Moresby. And we were able to do an outdoor crusade, was able to hire
a plot of land right in the centre of the capital of the city. We were able to set up,
we made a stage, began to set up our crusade. Three nights of a miracle crusade in that
nation. The team evangelised during the day in street markets throughout the capital,
the city. By the grace of God we saw 1147 decisions in three days. And thank God. 461,
I haven't started the video yet. I'll give you the key in a moment. 461 confirmed miracles
or documented miracles. And so I was there and I got the inspiration of this thought
of the islands of the sea. And so I'm going to show the video here to give you context
of kind of where this idea came from. We can show it now. Thank you so much. We'll see
you later.
I don't think that's been true.
So we asked this girl to come out to the healing crusade. So we saw her that night, Pastor
Elian actually had all these offline dives and I spotted her in the crowd. Her name's
actually Angela. And I prayed for her and then I got her to cover her good eye and I
asked her, I was like, can you see my face? And she said yes. And I was just like, can
you see my fingers? And I wiggle the monkey in my face. And she was like yes. And I was
like, how many fingers am I holding up? And she told me two. And I checked again and I
was like, how many now? And she said five. It was just such a powerful miracle. They've
just got her to be able to go on that actually.
She's
Shall we take it on from Simon?
Or do you want to leave it here?
Shall we throw it?
Throw it into the bush?
Shall we throw it into the bush?
No more walking sick needed.
Come on, because of Jesus!
Come on, bring him up, pastor!
Bring him up!
Bring him up, pastor!
Yeah, praise God!
Yes!
Thank you, Jesus!
So I met with the team just before I left on the last night,
and we had dinner together, and I went around the table,
and I just asked, you know, one sentence,
what has this impact meant to you?
What has God done in your life?
And it was intriguing to ask that question,
and one after another, rank-and-file members of our church,
many of them just regular folks, girls, and guys,
that not necessarily in high-profile ministry,
but see the impact on their life.
And one of the young men made a comment to me.
He said, pastor, I feel like I'm living in the pages of the Book of Acts.
I feel like I'm living in the pages of the Book of Acts.
And I was there, and I was thinking about that,
and I had the thought about islands of the sea.
And it reminded me of a quote in the book, The Open Door,
a history of our fellowship,
and it talked about that moment that our founding pastor,
Pastor Wayman, was filled with the Holy Ghost,
was baptized in the Holy Ghost.
And let me just read it to you from the book, The Open Door.
Instantly, Wayman Mitchell was filled with the Holy Spirit,
began to speak in other tongues.
This was an overpowering experience.
No one had told him to repeat abba dabba doo
or go through some vows rapidly.
The fact that he was almost totally ignorant of the Holy Spirit
until that moment when God moved,
yet God hit him with power and revealed his glory,
Wayman Mitchell began to prophesy,
speaking of how God was going to move powerfully
in the nations of the world and the islands of the sea.
And as he spoke, he knew that that message was to him,
but the idea seemed so far-fetched to him.
From my perspective, and from my part of the world in ministry,
it seems to me that there's a special dimension
and God's grace upon island people and islands of the sea
at this very moment.
God is moving so powerfully in these places.
And let me read this ancient prophecy from the book of Isaiah
to lay the foundation, Isaiah 42, 10 through 12.
Sing unto the Lord a new song,
and his praises from the ends of the earth,
ye who go down to the sea,
and all that's there in the isles and the inhabitants thereof.
Let the wilderness of the cities thereof lift up their voice.
The villages of Kadar does inhabit.
Let the inhabitants of the rocks sing,
let them shout from the top of the mountains,
let them give glory unto the Lord
and declare his praises in the islands.
There's a companion text in Isaiah 24, verse 15,
message version.
It says, yes, from the east God's glory will ascend.
Every island of the sea will broadcast the Lord's fame
and the fame of the God of Israel.
On this World Evangelism Day,
I want to have a look at the islands of the sea
and first of all consider distant islands and remote places.
You know, many times if you even do a Google today,
which I did, islands of the sea,
you know what comes up?
Cruise ships.
Cruises through the islands.
You know, vacations, holidays.
Get aboard a cruise ship and wander through the Pacific
or the Caribbean,
and that's what the islands of the sea are
to many in this generation.
However, when Isaiah wrote this,
this was not the perspective the Jews he would have written to.
For them, the islands were a far distant place,
something very perilous,
something no doubt beyond their comfort zone.
I found it interesting that that has been the perspective
for a long, long time.
It was in the late 1700s,
the British pastor William Kerry,
many of us know he went on to become the father of modern day missions.
He read the book by Captain James Cook,
Voyages Around the World.
Captain Cook did three epic world journeys,
quite amazing, and he visited places that the Christian West
or European West had never been to throughout the South Pacific and beyond.
He charted all the East Coast of Australia and claimed it for England.
That's Providence and the hand of God.
He went all around New Zealand, went through all the Pacific,
went up the West Coast of the United States,
and Pastor Ruby talked about this somewhat in his offering,
some of his amazing adventures.
When William Kerry read that about the people, their rituals,
their bound in darkness, their superstition,
it said that his heart was stirred for these people groups.
There's a photo here that shows James Cook's journey.
There's his three journeys in the endeavor, the resolute,
and the resolution, his journeys around,
and how he traveled around, the red, his first trip,
then obviously the green, and then the darker color,
the incredible trips of this man, and he opened up the minds of people,
especially to the islands of the sea and to these far distant places.
William Kerry was so inspired by James Cook, he decided himself,
I need to go to regions beyond.
He was considering islands, but you know in history that he ended up
by the grace and providence of God to go to that great nation of India.
Here's the man that made the statement,
expect great things from God, attempt great things for God.
The apostle Paul, I believe was the first apostle
and perhaps first person to go to the islands of the sea
in the New Testament record.
And can I say that his trip, when he went to the islands,
was not a cruise ship.
It was a dangerous journey, and you see in Acts 27, 26,
however we must run aground on a certain island.
So as we consider our text, here's Isaiah.
The whole chapter, if you read from the top as you're reading down it,
it's a messianic prophecy.
It's speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ.
It talks about a bruised reed, he'll not break a smoking flax,
he'll not put out.
It talks about being a light to the Gentiles,
twice in the preceding verses it's talking of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And a time to come when Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God,
will no doubt begin his church and his great work.
And in verse 12 of our text it says,
let them give glory to the Lord and declare his praises in the islands.
Barnes Note says, let them give glory in the islands,
let the distant regions praise God.
Wesley in his commentary says, in the remotest parts of the world.
So it's an ancient text in Isaiah talking about the islands of the sea,
the remote parts of the world, the distant regions,
where people are not going to be bound in superstition and darkness,
but give glory to God.
Perhaps a little bit of my story.
When I was young and growing up in Australia,
we didn't have a lot of choice of television when I was in an unsafe family,
we had television.
We started off with one channel.
I knew every program and every time slot, I knew everything.
Then we moved to two and that was amazing.
But one of the early programs that was done in Australia
was an Australian made production, 1967,
and it showed through the early 70s.
So I probably would have seen it in the early 70s.
It was entitled Sea Spray or the Adventures of Sea Spray.
There's a picture there just shows that there.
So here's a ship that is cruising throughout the Pacific Islands.
And this was the whole premise of the story that there was a widower,
it was his son, his daughter, and then he had a dick hand of a Fijian man.
Show the next picture.
There.
So the guy in the back is a Fijian.
I had never seen an island before in my life.
You know, when I was brought up, there was only white Australian Europeans
and indigenous people.
I never saw anybody else.
I said, wow.
And that's actually in Fiji itself.
That's where that photo is taken.
And they're travelling throughout the islands,
these exotic islands in the Pacific, having adventures a long way.
It got my attention.
In spite of young heart, the islands of the sea are a mysterious place,
a beautiful place, an amazing people.
And there's time. Thank you for that.
And time goes by.
You know, I'm saved now.
I get planted out.
I go to Sydney to pioneer a church.
God helps us build a church.
And the church was open for three years.
So in 1990, I felt stirred to do my first overseas impact team.
I'm just inspired.
Listen, three years old is a church.
We've got established now.
We've got our building where God's helping us.
Got good people. But listen, there's a stirring and I feel stirred.
And so I'm wondering where to go.
And I remember I'm pondering that.
And I speak to a fellow pastor, Bruce Callahan, and he says,
Darryl, why don't you go to Fiji?
And we just planted this Australian fellowship,
a couple out of the Adelaide Church, Jack and Anne Marie.
And Jack and Anne Marie had just gone to Fiji, probably, you know,
maybe a year early.
I had never travelled to, I'd never been to Adelaide.
I hadn't really met this couple, but Bruce says, you need to go.
So I rang Jack and I said, Jack, I'm thinking of coming and preaching
and bringing impact to you.
Oh, brother, hallelujah.
That's, you know, and he just was so welcoming.
Listen, we'll have a time, he said.
And so I took a small team of six of us there.
And listen, this was the beginning, I meant of my overseas experience.
I stayed in a hotel right there on the ocean.
My back balcony opened up and the ocean just out of Suva was there.
And listen, what adventures.
Just out from our hotel was Snake Island.
Why was it Snake Island?
Full of sea snakes.
One of the guys left the sliding door open.
A sea snake swam up and swam right into our room.
Big long thing.
And so what did I do?
I rang reception.
Excuse me, there's a sea snake in the room.
This Fijian lady just like, you tough me.
She comes in, no problem, picks it up by the tail, just throws it back out of the ocean.
I said, thank you very much.
You know, from sea snakes in your room to the confrontation on the street with the local Methodist pastor that didn't like us evangelising.
He was also the town clerk of the city of Suva.
To the third night of the revival, a breakthrough.
I felt it in the prayer room before the service.
Something changed.
Thank God for corporate prayer meetings before the service.
Something changed and immediately visitors breakthrough, salvation, healing, baptism in the Holy Ghost.
It was a breakthrough moment.
Amen.
And it was incredible.
As I'm coming back, I see the hearts of everyone on my team.
Australians, just like myself, are amazed beyond belief and astirred for the islands of the sea.
You know, the biblical record, the Apostles first missionary tour from the base of Antioch, his new base.
He finds himself on the island of Cyprus.
Most of us know as we read through the Book of Acts and he travels around that and comes to the western side and Paphos is there.
The Bible says in Acts 13 verse 16, and when they go on through the island to Paphos, they found a certain sorcerer, a false prophet, a Jew by the name of Bar Jesus.
And no doubt this early experience with the Apostle Paul of island culture and how it is on the islands.
No doubt was he was impressed.
He saw first of all, a false religion on the islands, a sorcerer, someone Bar Jesus, son of Jesus.
How bizarre.
Someone who resisted him spiritually.
But then we see power encounters like Pastor Cluck mentioned.
Secondly, season of blindness, gifts of the Holy Spirit flowing through Paul's life, miracle conversions and healing.
As you see in Acts 12 verse 13 verse 12, the procouncil believed and astonished at the teachings of the Lord.
No doubt he is Paul's first impression of island life.
He's an adventurer, Paul, a risk taker, a pioneer, regions beyond.
I wonder if he would have thought, am I fulfilling this ancient beginning to fulfill an ancient prophecy from Isaiah 42 and 24?
That a messianic prophecy that when the Christ Church, it's going to expand even to the remote places, the islands of the sea.
Secondly, then at a spiritual place, many of the island nations, as you know, well, perhaps you know or not, are developing nations.
If you have a look at it, many of them have a smaller economy are getting developed.
There's quite a sometimes primitive dimension in some of these places.
And it's no doubt the older, larger established continents and cities of the world from time to time look down at their more primitive cousins, at their lifestyle.
You know, in Australia, the media reporting sometimes we have a number of Pacific islands that come to Australia that play in sports, very talented athletic people.
They play especially in rugby, rugby union or rugby league.
They're strong, very tough, but they're very fast.
That's why they they do so well at that. And they're very quick.
And so they excel in these sports. And, you know, God bless the islanders before their before their match.
And this is, you know, a bit of an up the nose to the Australian media.
They get down and pray or they thank Jesus Christ.
You know, in Australia, athletes don't do that.
I know more in America, everybody's up the appointing and cross and, you know, you know, but they don't do that.
But the islanders come in and do that. God bless them.
And so our media mock them.
You know, it's just island spiritual life, island faith, almost, you know, sneering out their backwards superstition.
Right.
Now, thinking we more enlightened people of reason and science.
Yeah, our forefathers used to believe that.
But we're far beyond that now.
You know, Paul speaks a little bit about that Romans one twenty one.
He says, although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God, nor were they thankful, but came futile in their thoughts.
Their foolish hearts were dark and professing to be wise, they become fools.
When I was there in Papua New Guinea, New Guinea, the island nation,
I'm seeing a people that are not caught up in the mad trends of their bigger cousins in the larger continents in the Western world.
I didn't see any protests against Jewish people there.
I didn't see any free Palestine stickers.
I didn't see any defacing of monuments and idols.
They're not caught up in that madness.
And guess what?
They know who's male and female over there.
They're not even confused.
In First Corinthians one twenty six, for you see you're calling, brethren, not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many mobile,
noble of course, that no flesh should glory in his presence.
And so here is Paul saying what the world can call as foolish things, weak things, base things, God elevates.
And no doubt this text is referring to people and people groups.
Some are looking down at this certain people group, but God says, well, you look down at them.
Well, I'll elevate them.
You sneer at them.
Well, I will bless them.
You mock them.
I will save them and visit them.
Very, very powerful.
When you go to the islands, it's it's a spiritual place and a spiritual people.
I read a story about a ship was sailing past a deserted island and actually spot a man who'd been stranded there for several years.
The captain gets a rowboat, rows the shore to rescue the man.
And he notices something very unusual besides the man's cabin or house that he has built because he's been there a long time.
He notices that there's three churches on the island.
Remember, he's on the island by himself.
The captain asks, well, you just hear by yourself, I can see your house, but why are there three churches on the island?
He says, well, that's the church that I attend.
That's the church I never attend.
And that's the church I used to attend.
Perhaps that helps us understand why there are so many churches on the island.
When I had the privilege of spending five years in the North Island of New Zealand, I remember taking my daughter to the school that she was in.
And, you know, my sons come with us.
They were in primary school, middle school, high school, three of them.
And I go to their assembly that they have in Auckland, New Zealand.
Obviously, this is 2002, 2003.
And it's a public school, it's not a religious school at all.
But in their assembly, before the headmaster speaks, they begin to sing.
Can I tell you, island people can sing.
They begin to sing.
And, you know, it's not just any song.
But, you know, when I got there, they're singing, our God is an awesome God.
It's like amazing, a public school.
And these people, the whole choir, the whole school are singing with like voices that put us to shame.
I said, man, these people can praise.
You know, in our text, verse 10, Isaiah 42, sing unto the Lord a new song.
And he's praised from the end of the earth.
You know, every church should have a good island song leader, can you say amen?
Sing unto the Lord, the praise to the end of the earth.
You know, I was wondering, why are island people so spiritual?
Why is it a spiritual place?
People have documented, they've done studies on that.
They talk about in limited space and isolation.
It could be a deep appreciation for their natural environment leading spiritual values and interconnectedness of living things.
Goes on to say a sense of community, how they share spiritual values closely connected.
If you're ever reaching islands, if you can reach one, you could reach the whole family.
I remember I did a call one time in Auckland, New Zealand, island folks there.
And I felt God speak to me, amen, that somebody has got seven sisters.
And I thought, no, nobody's got seven sisters.
Something, you know, God wants to give a word or do some healing or something.
And so I said, man, I just leaped out of the edge.
I said, someone here, you've got seven sisters and got, and like three people put up their hand.
I said, whoa.
So you can win one island, you could win 40 people, amen.
And their rich culture and tradition are closely tied to their spiritual beliefs and they pass down through the generations.
You know, Paul, on his last journey, when he's on his journey to Rome, he's appealed to Caesar.
You know, the Bible says that they're shipwrecked on a certain island.
So now here's his experience with islands again, perhaps reaffirming and his understanding what happened in the first time.
And we see this play out in Acts, Chapter 28, verse one, building on his on his first two insights.
You notice a number of things.
The Bible says in verse one, I won't read the whole lot.
I'll skim over it.
But when they had escaped, they found out they were in an island called Malta.
The natives showed us unusual kindness.
Can I say that's an island attribute?
Unusual kindness.
When we went to Sydney, first of all, to pastor, we had some island people in our church and they'd invite us to fellowship.
And Gillian was pregnant with our first son and they go, eat more, you're way too skinny.
And just their fellowship, their hospitality, it's incredible.
Do you know, it's interesting, you know, Paul was bitten by a viper and they're all watching.
No doubt he's a murderer.
He's going to die at any minute.
And they're just watching all this scenario play out.
They view life in a spiritual worldview.
Through that lens, they come to those conclusions.
But number three, what I want to notice about that text as well, they're willing to change their mind.
The Bible says they watch, they expect him to swell up and fall down dead.
But then they see he shakes it off and suffers no harm.
They're not so stuck in their ways.
They're willing to change their belief structure, a radical thought.
Now they're saying he's a god.
It's a radical change, a willingness to change mind.
Number four, then you see from that moment a notable miracle.
The father of the leading man, Paul prays for one key miracle.
Amen.
Because the people are now interconnected, it just ripples through the island, ripples through the city.
And then the Bible says in the end, in verse 10, they honoured us in so many ways, we departed and they provided such things as necessary.
You see an island wide breakout of revival and a great honour given to the man of God, the Word of God.
You know if you're in an island culture, we learnt with island people, Jillian couldn't say to some of the ladies in the church
have they had a beautiful necklace or some jewellery, she couldn't say I like that.
Because they'd immediately almost take it off and give it to you.
And tragically, the phony pastors rip the people blind and abuse, it makes me so mad.
You know I come back from Prescott Conference one time, I bought a Bible when they used to have the bookstore here in Prescott Valley,
I don't know if they still do, I took it back and gave it to one of my Tongan disciples that were in the church,
island man, and he broke down in tears.
I've been brought up in church my whole life, he said, pastor, I've always given to the church and the man of God,
I've never had anything given to me, never.
They honour the man of God, they honour the Word of God, it's a powerful, powerful thing.
You know the islands of the sea are a spiritual place, spiritual people, and can I say they're open to the Pentecostal message of power
that our fellowship is fully equipped to bring.
You know I think we fit like a hand in a glove in these places.
I think we fit what has been imparted through Pastor Mitchell, Pastor Greg, no doubt our leaders,
we're perfectly equipped to go into these places and make incredible impact.
Can I have a look finally at a ring of fire, a ring of fire.
The phrase ring of fire actually refers to in geography actually at a belt or an area throughout the Pacific region of active volcanoes
and where the tectonic plates are meeting together.
I've got a photo here, just show you.
This will kind of show you, this shows you kind of the ring of fire and these no doubt are the major tectonic plates that are budding together.
In those places around there is a lot of seismic activity.
Actually they're saying that it goes for 20, 25, 1000 miles, 40,000 kilometres, can up to 500 kilometres wide
and most of the world's volcanoes are in these areas, I think 70 to 80% of them and the ring of fire,
very interesting dimension there and so I was kind of thinking about that, no doubt for many of us this is kind of a bit of part of our world to some degree
and many of the islands are through there, that's probably why the islands are there,
a lot of them have just come up out of the sea in the process of time.
And to think about from this church here in 1978 which you know, middle America and not a large city,
sent somebody their first major missionary all the way to the west of Australia, west coast of Australia, it's the other side of the world.
Do you know Australia is either the largest island or the smallest continent?
You know islands defined by totally being surrounded by the ocean right?
So it's either the largest island on planet earth or smallest continent and to actually send there and that's the spirit of, thank you for that,
the spirit of Pastor Mitchell coming and sending Ron and Susie there long ago, thank you Ron and Susie,
and coming to Perth, yes praise God.
You know and what was started then, that vision of the islands of the sea was imparted into our church by Pastor Mitchell
and you know now all around Australia we have a whole arc of island churches.
You think around Australia we've got New Zealand having tremendous revival now,
then we're looking at Fiji a conference centre, tremendous revival and no doubt you know there's other churches in Vanuatu, Solomon Islands,
then we come around to New Guinea, got a conference centre, 33 churches in that nation,
we're coming around to Timor, a powerful church planting church there and we're really beginning to see impact in Indonesia
and you know I've called this for Australia, this is not so much the ring of fire, I call it the arc of fire that surrounds our nation,
the fire of the Holy Ghost, the fire of God's moving and I thought when our team was up in New Guinea,
they went to a place up from Port Moresby, the beginning of what they call the Kokoda Trail,
it's a trail that goes through the middle of the island of New Guinea, incredibly difficult, mountainous, challenging,
they walked a little bit, maybe a couple of hours walked back, one of our guys had to be carried back, it's so difficult
but that's where the Australian forces stopped the enemy in the Second World War,
the enemy were coming across New Guinea to take Port Moresby and ultimately probably to come down further to Australia,
but in the islands the enemy was stopped. I thought that was very very powerful,
that no doubt it's quite famous for Australians in the Second World War but you know in America the mainland was never invaded
because in the islands the enemy was fought, whether it was in Guam, Saipan, Wake, Midway and in the islands the battle was fought
to safeguard the mainland. So you know what, in this nation and my nation no enemy troop ever stood foot on our soil
because of the islands, they were our defence. Can I say I think spiritually this is important as well?
Spiritually there needs to be a spiritual arc of defence, of covering, of you know there are malevolent evil forces
that would want to come down but the grace of God can protect and bless. The islands of the sea, an ancient prophecy,
Pastor Mitchell prophesied when he was baptised in the Holy Spirit God was going to move in the nations of the world
and the islands of the sea. So what is our involvement then as we bring it to a close?
Our text says in verse 12, let them give glory to God and declare his praise in the islands and then Isaiah 24 verse 15,
Amen, it says from the east God's glory will ascend, every island of the sea will broad class God's fame.
Some people could have an excuse for our non involvement, non involvement to the ends of the earth or to the islands of the sea.
We need to reach the home first, they could say. We've got a lot of work to do and no doubt there is a lot of work to do.
But you know Isaiah's two prophecies about the islands of the sea stand in direct, directly against the inward thinking.
No doubt of that generation and other generations. Isaiah 24 and 42 ask the question and ask the question of us.
We need to ask the question, is my local church truly burdened to fulfil the call to exalt and proclaim the Lord in distant lands?
To the Jewish people, the islands of the sea were the most remote part of the planet earth.
We must ask ourselves, am I personally doing what I can do to contribute to the call to these remote places?
William Carey's mind was captivated by Captain James Cook.
Even the story that Pastor Ruby used in his offering about the gifts given and the connections in distant lands just inspires something doesn't it?
He did that through all the islands. Ultimately on his third trip he was killed on the Hawaii islands and lost his life.
He laid down his life but he inspired generations, opened doors for countless other people.
William Carey was inspired for world missions by reading Captain James Cook's Adventures in the Islands.
I was stirred as a young man by a simple TV documentary about the islands of the Pacific.
Perhaps this morning I wanted to show a quick video clip, I wanted to share a few stories, perhaps there's a stirring in your heart.
I'm focusing particularly on the islands of the sea.
Maybe God's stirring people. There's many, many more islands of the sea still awaiting.
Verse 12, let them give glory to the Lord and declare his praise in the islands.
You know the closing photo I want to bring here, I've got a photo, this was the last night I was there.
And as the sun was going down, that's the American Embassy behind on the right there, the American Embassy in Suva Fiji.
And so as the sun was going down and I was seeing hundreds of people starting to fill the park, we had some preliminary music.
I thought to myself what a great open harvest.
So many islands and so many island nations, so many island people, what a privilege to be a part of taking the gospel to the islands of the sea.
In a small part, no doubt fulfilling a very early word given to our founding leader.
The nations of the earth and the islands of the sea.
It was a beautiful 28 degrees, I don't know what that is in Fahrenheit.
The sun's going and people are streaming in and we know multitudes will be saved, healed.
The kingdom will be built. What an honour.
Do you know there's other islands just like that? There's multitudes of islands.
There's 11,000 inhabited islands on planet earth. 11,000 inhabited islands.
I saw the list that Pastor Greg gave and he talked about unreached places.
These are island nations but there's even beyond island nations, even the islands of Indonesia.
There's so many.
Nauru, Niue, Tuvalu, New Caledonia and all in my area.
I need to get people there.
I had my eye on the Cook Islands. I need to go there.
Pastor Jesse beat us at his last conference.
Thank God.
Do you know 730 million people on planet earth live on islands?
There's 8 billion on planet earth. 730 million.
The islands of the sea.
It's our legacy. It's our heritage.
And to think of the exciting thing of having spiritual posts, spiritual churches,
spiritual landmark throughout all the islands.
It stirs my heart. God loves these people.
We've got the message. We've got the people that can reach into the islands of the sea.
What about you?
This is World Evangelism Day.
God's stirring people for the islands of the sea, the remote places on planet earth.
God can powerfully move.
Let's bow our heads and close our eyes for a moment.
Islands of the sea.
Heads bowed and eyes are closed just for a moment.
I want to give an opportunity for perhaps there are people here.
You've come. You're being stirred by God.
You're not saved. You're backslidden.
You're not right with God. You want to get right with God.
You're willing to turn from your sins.
Perhaps God has spoken to you, stirred your heart, challenged you.
Jesus Christ died on the cross for you.
You're impacted this morning, no doubt.
Pastor Jose's preaching, Pastor Clark's preaching.
My preaching and the Spirit of God's stirring.
You're lost. You're not right with God.
You're not born again. Oh, you're a backslider.
When no one's looking around for a moment, would you lift your hand?
Pray for me, Pastor. I want to get right with God.
I'm here in this place. There's a stirring in my heart.
Quickly lift your hand. Thank you.
Lift your hand. Yes.
Lift your hand. All across this place.
Pastor, I'm not right with God.
I want to get right with God.
Lift your hand up the back and the sides.
I need to come to Christ on this Thursday.
God's stirring my heart. Thank you for those hands.
Thank you, Ashes. Who else?
God's speaking to other people. Quickly, I'm not going long.
Lift your hand right now.
Yes. Thank you. Who else?
All those that lifted their hand, I want Ashes to help.
I want you to come to this altar. Amen.
And pray at the front. Get your heart right with God.
Lift your hand. Thank you. Just come.
Just come out of your seat.
Christians, churches, pastors.
It's no doubt. It's the challenge of Thursday.
It's the challenge of World Missions.
And no doubt we'll be stirred more tonight.
But I was especially focusing on the islands of the sea.
This may not be for everybody, but listen.
There are places, amen, especially in islands,
this is where I'm focusing in.
Oh, hallelujah, that we could make more impact,
that you could make impact.
I talked about even as a new pastor,
I took a team to an island nation,
and it so transformed me and my team.
And no doubt that church, I want to challenge people about that.
I want to challenge people about sending.
Consider the islands that are in your region,
that we could have a spiritual post, a fort,
a spiritual place of dominion surrounding our large nations,
where God is powerfully moving.
His heart is for these people.
It's a powerful thing.
Maybe God's speaking to people about even going,
and you'd lay down your life, and you're feeling stirred.
As William Carey was stirred by Captain Cook,
and no doubt I was stirred by my own life experience.
What about you?
God's stirring hearts for the islands of the sea.
Pastor Jose preached about pleasing your spouse
and the powerful about marriage
and how we need to safeguard marriage.
Pastor Jesse Clark stirred us about supernatural power.
Thank God for that in the revival God's wanting.
God Bless.