A few years ago I was, well now it's been more than a few years ago now that I think
about it, but I was holding a revival in northern Illinois.
There was this long, tall, lanky guy that would come up every night, had hands that
seemed like they were that long.
He would shake my hand and he wouldn't shake it, he'd pump it.
And he'd say, ain't God good.
Long whippersnapper that I was in my mind, I thought that sure is bad grammar.
But by the end of that revival I began to understand what he was saying.
Ain't God, say it with me, ain't God good.
Give him another clap of your hands this morning.
Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah.
Praise the Lord.
You may be seated if you can as they say.
I am so glad to be in the house of the Lord this morning.
So glad to be among my family.
I was thinking a few days ago how grateful I was that the Lord brought me to the Hopewell
Church family.
And you've just opened up and accepted Sandra and me and we are so glad to be here.
We talk about it often, how glad we are that God has brought us into this family.
Brought me to sit under a pastor.
You know when you give out for almost 60 years you need some pumping in.
And pastor you've been pumping in to me every Sunday and I enjoy it.
That's alright, go ahead and give him a praise.
I want to show you some pictures here in just a moment.
You can go ahead and start that back there and get the first slide up.
What we're going to be doing is traveling in four weeks from yesterday.
We'll start our journey.
Guys did you realize it was that close?
It's really coming on to us.
And we're going to be traveling to the country of Zambia which is you can see the colored
marks there.
That's the country of Zambia.
And the circled part is the area of Zambia that we're going to, the eastern province
of Zambia.
Provinces are like our states.
This one is called the eastern province.
We're going to a town called Katete.
K-A-T-E-T-E in case you wanted to write it down and pray for us.
Katete.
We're right on the border of Mozambique and on the border of, I want to say the name,
Malawi.
The border of Malawi.
In fact, we'll be about 20 miles from the country of Malawi.
The Lord has opened this area for ministry several years ago.
While I was in Zambia as the overseer, the missiologists were calling this group, this
tribe that lives in the Katete and eastern province area, they were calling them an unreached
people group saying that there was no gospel there.
Well, I didn't understand that because at that time we had about 70, 75 churches among
that tribe already.
And so that was kind of a puzzle to me.
And as time has gone on, the Lord has blessed us.
In 2007, while I was there, one of my friends that I've known since we were both teenagers,
pastors in western North Carolina, he wanted to come over and do some ministry and so he
brought his entire staff over there.
And I set up for him to go to the eastern province for their provincial convention.
And I found out that there was only one preacher in this area that had a Bible.
They were grabbing any and everything they could think of to preach from, even watch
tower stuff they were getting and preaching from it.
And so when Roger heard that, he said, before we leave town, let's get some Bibles.
And so we scoured the whole town, went everywhere we could find anybody that had a Bible and
we took them up there with us.
And we gave every pastor at that time a Bible.
You ought to have seen those people.
I'm telling you, we were outside hot and dusty.
That was nothing but dust on the ground.
They got to dancing and the clouds of dust began to fly up in the air because they were
rejoicing there.
Pastor had a Bible.
Hallelujah.
And that began a ministry that has come out of the Kings Mountain North Carolina Church
of God that every year they do a Bible school in this area.
Also they sent one of their staff members and family to live there for a year to put
things on the, put roofs on the church buildings that were falling in and to dig wells and
all of those kinds of things.
And we've just seen the Lord minister and move in that area.
We've grown from about 75 churches to now we've got about 165 churches in that area.
The Lord has thoroughly been blessing.
Go on to the next slide please.
This is, it's kind of dark in the building, but the one in the back shows it much better
than this one up here.
But you can see the pastors, they kind of separate themselves a little bit.
I don't know why, but most of them hang out on the right hand side and then on the left
hand side are some of the church leaders, some of the women and some of the church leaders.
This one was right after the, right after COVID and the crowd was not quite as strong
as it usually is and hopefully will be much stronger when we go this time.
But this is a part of the group that we'll be teaching.
Move on to the next one please.
Let's give you just a different picture of it.
If you look way in the back right hand corner, you'll see motorbikes and bicycles and all
of that.
They don't leave them outside because somebody will come along and drive them away and push
them away.
So they park them inside the church building, except on Sunday morning we move them out
and because we fill the church building up on Sunday morning.
Move on to the next one.
I don't want to say a whole lot about each one, but you can see that the building, this
building was built by the Kings Mountain North Carolina Church so that we could have this
kind of meeting.
Move on to the next one.
You can see me and my bald head standing there.
You see the crowd.
This is on Sunday morning.
You can kind of see the children there.
They put, just stretch out some tarps and they'll sit down on the floor because there's
not enough pews.
Go on to the next one.
This is from the other end of it.
You can see what's going on.
Next one please.
This is one of the evening services.
These are the pastors.
Sometimes we get to go in and it's not just teaching.
We get in the Spirit.
I mean to tell you when they get in the Spirit and start singing, they'll start dancing and
they'll start moving with the power of the Lord moving in their midst.
We've seen miracles in these meetings as well.
So we're not going just to teach, which we do and we do it as well as we can and we want
them to have as much knowledge as they can to take back with them.
But yet at the same time we just let the Lord move and I believe he's going to move.
Go to the next one.
This is what we're going to be giving just to give you an idea.
This is a big bag of what they call Mealy Meals.
It's 25 pounds.
It is their staple diet.
They will eat this with just about every meal.
If you like grits or you know of grits, it's a real fine grits.
It's really finely ground and they make it and they'll press their meat or vegetables
or whatever into it with their hands and they will pick it up and eat it just like that.
But this is a staple.
They live off of this.
Go on to the next one.
Now you can't see that very well, but it's a hoe.
It does not have the handle on it.
We're buying that part of the hoe and they will go home and they will go out into a bush
somewhere and cut them down a small tree and they will make their own handle to that.
Go on to the next one.
And then what we're going to do is give them 25 pounds of seed.
Last year they had too much rain.
The year before they had a drought.
Last year too much rain.
It just wiped out their crops.
They do not have any seed to plant this year.
Now just think about it.
Most of our pastors are subsistence farmers except those in the cities.
They're subsistence farmers.
They just raise enough to get by on.
And so what we're going to do because the pastor has jumped on this and said we're going
to send home a 25 pound bag of high yield seed corn so that they can take it home and
have something to plant this year.
So we're not thinking of just feeding them the spiritual knowledge which they need and
they desire and they're hungry for but we're going to give them something tangible to take
home.
And not only that, normally we don't, when we provide meals for these kinds of meetings
we just provide the staples that they're used to, that they're accustomed to such as the
Mealy Meal and sometimes they'll have some fish but most of the time they do not.
Pastor said we want to feed them meat at every meal and so for breakfast, lunch and dinner
they're going to have some kind of meat with every meal so that they can go home really
fed.
I praise the Lord for a pastor with that kind of vision and I thank you so much.
Go to the last one.
This one has already been bought.
They had to buy these ahead of time because they go so quickly.
These are Chechewa Bibles which is their language.
We have bought, I think it's 150 of them I believe.
I can't remember the exact number but we have bought Bibles that have already are in the
province.
The man you see there with those is Ezekiel Sakala.
He is our provincial overseer and he had to travel for 10 hours on a bus down to Lusaka
and pick those up and take them back on the bus.
So it took him almost three days to pick up these Bibles.
And so we've got them and they wanted them, they heard they were going to get them and
they were so eager and said can we go ahead and we said no, no, no.
We want to rejoice with you when you get them.
So it's just a few mooks more and Brian and Randy back there, we're going to have some
time.
I made him get Brian to dance a little bit.
I don't know.
We'll see about Randy back there.
I don't know whether we can get him to do it or not.
But we're going to rejoice with them when these pastors receive their Bibles.
Can you give praise to the Lord?
Hallelujah.
One more slide.
I believe, no there's two more slides.
This is when we were rejoicing at the last night of the meeting that we had.
This is the pastors and everyone rejoicing and excited.
As you see my jacket I've got on, this was made in Zambia.
This is somewhat the style that they wear.
You can see over the man in the blue, he's got on the same style jacket.
But if we could blow that up a little bit, you would see that that is actually the Church
of God logo all over it.
And they have dresses that the women wear and the men will wear the jackets and so forth
with the Church of God logo just all over the whole thing.
They're proud to be a part of the Church of God.
They're excited about it.
One more slide.
I put this on there.
In fact my wife as we were putting this together she said we put this on the end.
And we want to thank you for your gifts.
You've sent me once before, twice before.
You've helped me to go to Africa.
And I want you to know that I'm so grateful for that.
And then that last statement, please pray for the success of the school.
Pray for Randy, pray for Brian, pray for me.
They're going to do the teaching and I'm going to do some preaching at night or on Sunday,
the first night and on Sunday they're going to teach during the day and preach at night.
They're going to be so tired when they get home.
They're going to need to have about a week's worth of rest I think.
But we're going to keep them busy while they're there.
And quickly before I bring the message, and you can go ahead and take that down if you
would like sir.
We have made arrangements that they're going to get to go see some wild animals.
Some elephants and some lions and some hopefully we'll get to see some cheetah and also some
leopards and a lot of wildebeest and that sort of thing.
We won't have much time but we're going to take one day or one evening and do that.
We'll be there one evening.
We'll arrive in the afternoon, go for a game drive that night, go for a game drive the
next morning and then go back down to Katete which is only about two hours away.
Just wanted them, they couldn't go to Africa without seeing all that.
Can you agree with me on that?
Amen.
Alright, the message today.
I was a little bit afraid the pastor would get carried away a while ago.
He almost did because he preached some of my sermon already.
I want to bring to you something I feel like the Lord has given to me.
I've been praying about this for a few weeks since the pastor asked me where do I go with
this?
What do I do with this?
And I believe the Lord has laid this on my heart.
Would you turn in your Bibles to Mark the 16th chapter?
Mark the 16th chapter and I'll begin reading at the 15th verse.
Give you a moment to find it.
I always dislike preachers that turn to Mark 16 and 15 and then they say go into all the
world.
I didn't even have time to pick up my Bible much less find it.
So I want to give you plenty of time.
Mark the 16th chapter beginning at the 15th verse.
Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.
He who believes and is baptized will be saved but he who does not believe will be condemned
and these signs will follow those who believe.
In my name they will cast out demons.
They will speak with new tongues.
They will take up servants and if they drink anything deadly it will by no means hurt them.
They will lay hands on the sick and they will recover.
Lord, I pray that you would put an anointing upon all of us today.
Put an anointing upon me that I may deliver the message as you've laid it upon my heart
and put an anointing upon each individual here today that they might receive and be
anointed to hear and to not only hear but to apply it to their lives.
Lord, I pray that you would make preaching easy this morning.
We can my mind focus it upon what you want me to say today in Jesus name.
Amen.
This passage of scripture is in essence the last words that Jesus said to the disciples
before he ascended.
As they stood there after he disappeared into the clouds a couple of men came which we seem
to know that these are angels of the Lord and said why are you standing here gazing
upward?
You see their vision had to change.
Their outlook had to change because Calvary had shattered their dreams.
They thought a literal kingdom would be set up on this earth.
That Rome would be vanquished and that they would be in charge now and that they would
have a time of peace and glory.
But Calvary shattered that dream.
And so a new vision had to be realized.
And that vision had to be centered around the genuine reason that Jesus came to this
earth.
It wasn't just to satisfy the little area there of Judea.
But his reason for coming was to save the world.
To be the redeemer for the world.
I don't have the time this morning but in times past I've thought about the fact that
the nation of Israel did not really fulfill what God had told them.
They were to be the light for the world.
But yet they turned inward and they only thought about themselves when they were supposed to
be that part that led everyone in the world to God.
And now these men have that same kind of vision in their own mind.
We need to save our little world.
I'm afraid that's the way some of us get in our local churches.
We're more concerned about what's going to satisfy our people.
What will be the happiness of our people?
I'm not knocking that.
I think we need to take care of one another.
We need to pray for one another.
We need to provide this and that for one another.
I agree with that.
But when that's all we think about then we've lost the true vision of God and Jesus Christ.
We need to understand it's not just us four no more.
I've gone to churches to pastor where that was the kind of mentality they had.
We don't want anybody else coming in.
I remember coming up in a pastor's home, my dad having churches that had the same thought.
It's just about us.
And when new people come in we freeze them out.
But this is not what Jesus wanted.
He wanted the world to be saved.
That's why He came.
And so the reason that Jesus came now becomes our task.
Jesus came in humility.
Jesus came voluntarily.
He did not have to be pushed into it.
Sometimes we have to push people into it.
I remember when Sandra and I accepted to move to Kenya and we were selling some of our stuff,
some of the things that we needed to get rid of that we had accumulated through the years.
And I remember one young lady, I can't remember what she bought, but I was helping her load
it into the car and she said, why are you selling this?
And I told her that we were getting preparing to go to Africa.
She shuddered like this.
And she said, the reason I don't get close to God, I'm afraid He wants me to go to Africa.
You see, the thing that we've got to understand is we've got a duty and we've got a privilege
to serve our Lord voluntarily.
Not in a way that we're forced into it or we're guilted into it, but the way that we
know Jesus Christ and we want to serve Him.
We love Him so much.
We're thankful so much that He died for us.
He suffered for us that we want to do what His bidding is in our lives.
I'm not saying you're going to be called to Africa.
Apparently, our pastor doesn't want to be called to Africa.
And I understand that.
Believe me, I do understand that.
But one of the things I read just as we were preparing to go, I was a little trepidation
about it and I just wondering and you know, you question this and then you say, no, no,
no, question it.
No, no, no.
One of the things that I read during that is if Africa is where God called you to be,
it's the best place in the world for you to be.
Now I have to tell you, if that's not where God called you, it's not the best place for
you.
But you see what we've got to do is to be willing to do whatever the Lord is telling
us to do.
But Jesus didn't just leave them and say, here you are, you do it on your own.
Oh, I like this.
You see, I sat at the desk after I'd been in Kenya for a few weeks and I sat at a desk
early in the morning, one morning and I said, Lord, I don't know what to do.
I don't know how to do this job.
I don't know where to go.
I don't know what's the first thing you want me to do.
And the Lord said, you just listen to me.
You just listen to me.
And that's what I've tried to do.
Don't get ahead of him.
Don't drag behind him.
Let's just walk right with whatever the Lord wants.
If you personally will walk wherever the Lord wants you to walk, you don't have to be worried
about anything.
I don't have time this morning to go off and say some things.
My wife just raised her eyebrows back there and said, no, you don't.
But there are so many things that I could share with you about this journey of how the
Lord has led us step by step to the way he wants us to go.
It ain't always been fun.
It hadn't always been full of peace, but it's been exactly, exactly where the Lord called
us to be.
But you don't do this by yourself.
When the disciples left, he had told them to go back to Jerusalem.
So when they left, they're gazing upward.
They went back to Jerusalem and the power fell just as he promised.
Look what it says there.
And these signs will follow those who believe.
Not believers following signs.
Ooh, got kind of quiet when I said that.
People would spend a lot of money to go after the signs when signs will follow believers.
He said, these things will happen in my name.
They will cast out demons.
They will speak with new tongues.
They will take up servants and they drink anything deadly.
It will by no means hurt them.
They will lay hands on the sick and they will recover.
I want to share something with you real quickly.
I've mentioned, our overseer in the country of Niger.
He's actually from the country of Chad, but he'd been sent as a missionary to the country
of Niger.
One church when he went, a church that was kind of struggling, mainly made up of businessmen
that had gone there from other parts of Africa and wasn't really a spiritual church.
But we gave all of our overseers the tools to evangelize and to plant churches and he
got busy.
Not long after we gave him this plant, there was a woman that through the marketplace had
heard about our church and when she came, she looked like she was pregnant.
She was just now like this, but she was an older woman, but she looked like she was pregnant.
But it was a mass that had grown in her stomach.
And she'd gone everywhere, witch doctors, gone to their prayer people and so on.
Doctors, nothing could be done for.
So she heard that there was over here at this church, there was some healing that could
take place.
And so she came and talked to Afetikas and Afetikas started sharing her with her about
Jesus Christ.
She said, I don't want any of that.
She said, I didn't come here for any of that.
I don't want it.
Don't try to give it to me.
I'm here to be healed.
And Afetikas said that he decided he wasn't going to pray for her because she had that
wrong attitude.
But he said the Lord pricked his heart and said, pray for her.
He said they gathered around her and they prayed for her.
She asked where the restroom was and she went to the restroom.
In a little bit there was a scream, ah, come see, come see, preacher, come see.
He said, I couldn't go into women's restroom.
So he said, I sent some of the women that were there, I sent them in there.
I heard all of them.
Come pastor, come.
He said, I guess it was all right if all those women were in there at the same time.
So he said, I went in and he said, laying on the floor was a bloody mess that she had
passed.
And she began to cry.
And when they left that restroom and went back into the sanctuary, she said, what must
I do to know this Jesus Christ?
And not only did she receive salvation, but she went out into the marketplace and began
to show, look what Jesus has done.
And many others came to Jesus Christ.
I shared that with you and I could spend the rest of the day sharing these kinds of things.
You see, when Jesus promises something, He keeps His promise.
If we will go in the power of the Spirit, if we will go in His power and in His name,
we will see things that will happen that we will have only dreamed about.
I want to bring you one last passage of scripture, Acts the first chapter.
He's going to put this on the screen.
But ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you and you shall
be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and in Samaria and to the uttermost
part of the earth.
Let me spend just a moment here.
Because I believe this is the crux of this message today.
After the Holy Ghost comes on you, what will you do?
You shall be witnesses unto me in Jerusalem, Bradley County.
You see, don't think about the rest of the world until you've thought about Bradley
County.
I'm a missionary, have been for a long time, had a missionary's heart since I was 17 years
old.
Didn't get to go until I was 51, but had that heart.
But I'm here to tell you that if you just look to Africa and you forget about Bradley
County, you've missed the instructions of Jesus Christ.
We reach out to this county.
I like the ways we're doing, Brian.
We're talking about helping the homeless and feeding the homeless.
We're talking about those mothers that need help, those single mothers and so on down
the line.
All of these things are reaching out to our county and reaching out in the name of Jesus.
Then when you look at the next one, it says, and all Judea, that was their nation.
We need to look out to the rest of the United States.
We're fastly becoming a heathen nation.
I hate that.
I hate to have to say that, but when you speak truth, you must speak truth.
And we're fastly becoming a heathen nation.
They don't even want you to talk about God.
Oh, Lord, help us.
That we as Christians will stand up in the face of all of the opposition that is around
us and we will spread the gospel to everyone we can.
You say, preacher, I don't know what to do.
I'll tell you what to do.
Easy.
This part is very, very easy.
You don't need to learn the Roman's road to salvation.
You don't need to learn evangelism, exposure.
Those are all good.
I'm not knocking them.
I'm simply telling you there's an easier way every morning when you get up, say, Lord,
give me a divine appointment today.
Easy.
When I prayed that prayer, I've come to the end of my day and I look back and say, Oh,
there was the appointment.
I didn't even know I was in the middle of it.
I just said a word for Jesus.
I just give a word of encouragement.
I just sowed a seed.
I didn't have to stand there and berate and try to pound the word into them.
Just a divine appointment that I can say something for Jesus Christ.
That lady sitting back there, my wife, is one of the quietest women you'll ever be around
except when she's around me.
But she is a witness for Jesus Christ, especially when she was in the workplace.
The president of her company when she was leaving said to her, came to her office and
said down, you said you have been a witness to me just working here.
And she's a quiet woman.
She don't say a whole lot.
She is certainly not a preacher.
But that man said, you brought me back to the Maroots when I was just a child and I've
started going back to church and she don't even know what she's done.
To this day, I've asked her, what did you?
She said, I don't know what I did.
You see what I'm saying?
This thing is something that we need to be aware of here in this county, here in this
country.
We need to stand up for Jesus in the face of the enemy.
And then the next part of that says, and this one we don't like, Samaria.
You see what Samaria was, the people that the Jews didn't even like.
As Randy so aptly put one night in a couple of weeks ago and showed us on the map how
that they would leave Jerusalem and they go way up the coastline and then come across
her.
They would go way down south and then come back up just so they didn't have to go through
Samaria.
They didn't like them.
They called them dogs.
Let me tell you something, my friend, you need to think cross culturally.
Right here.
You need to go to people you don't even like.
You don't even, you don't like the smell of them.
You don't like to look of them.
Several years ago, my brother-in-law who is a preacher, he was holding a revival out in
Kansas, which is where he was from.
Just a young guy, probably 19 years old.
He said he was preaching and he said the congregation, it was just a small congregation.
They said they looked there and just fold their arms and they just snared at him.
He'd ask them to come pray.
Not a person in the church would get up and come pray.
He said one day he was in the church and he was just praying.
He said, God, just send anybody.
Just send them off of the street.
Just anybody.
And sure enough, middle of the service, here come this old drunk stumbling in the back
door.
Stunk, dirty, hair just greasy.
And he said everybody kind of moved when he come in and sat down.
He said when it come time to ask for people to come pray, he said that drunk come down
and he knelt.
He said I asked for people to come pray with him.
Not one person would get up.
He said so I went down to the altar, but he said I got on this end because I could smell
him from where I was standing.
And he said I'm down here praying with him and for him.
He said this one was, God was down here on this end.
He said I thought as I prayed, Lord, please save him.
He said the Lord kept telling me you go down there and you put your arms around him.
Go down there and put your arms around him.
He said I finally obeyed what the Lord said and I went down there.
He said it was all I could do to hold my supper in because he stunk so bad.
He said but I put my arms around him and I began to pray for him.
He said tears began to flow down that drunk's face.
He said snot began to fall on to the mourner's bench that was there and he said that man
said he got saved.
He said I rejoiced and I thanked the Lord, but everybody else got up while I was praying
and left.
He said I didn't know what was going to happen the next night, but he said that old drunk
come in.
He wasn't drunk anymore.
He had on clean clothes.
He had gotten a shave and a haircut and he brought in 10 of his family with him.
He said I went home this morning and knocked on the door and they didn't even know who
I was when I knocked on the door.
He said because I had changed so much, my family allowed me to come back into the house
and I shared with them about Jesus Christ.
He said when I shared with them about Jesus Christ, they got excited and said let's go
to church tonight.
He said all 10 of them came down that night and gave their heart to Jesus Christ.
The other parts of the congregation just sat there like bumps on the log.
I'm telling you what happened was the last we heard from that church was that family
began to go out and tell people about Jesus Christ.
They filled up the church.
The old grumps left the church and they took over and the church just kept on going.
I'm here to tell you, you need to look around you and say I don't like that person.
Well then pray Lord somehow open the door that I can talk to that person.
I can share with that person.
I may not like them.
I may not like the way they look but let me tell them about Jesus.
They need Jesus.
Hallelujah.
My goodness time is getting by me or has gone by me.
But let me share the last one and it says unto the uttermost part of the earth.
I was pastoring in Hawaii outside the city of Honolulu at this particular time.
I got alone with God and began to pray.
God told me to evangelize.
I was happy where I was man and I'm telling you I love Hawaii.
Love the people.
Love working for God there.
I loved it.
And the Lord said I want you to go into all the world.
I said okay.
I can do that Lord.
But you know what the next thing was he told me.
He said move to Cleveland Tennessee.
Now I accepted the call to evangelize around the world in about an hour.
But it was the rest of the night before I gave in to moving to Cleveland Tennessee.
Nothing wrong with you folks.
Nothing wrong with the city.
Beautiful city.
Love it.
Just never wanted to live here.
Never wanted to be near headquarters.
But the Lord told me to move.
But one of the things I said to him but Lord I'm at the uttermost now.
You get you a globe and look where you know look where Jerusalem is and look where Hawaii
is.
You're about as far away as you can get without turning around and going back.
But the Lord said go to the uttermost.
When I was asked to go to Africa I wasn't sure I wanted to go.
I'd been in South America.
I'd been in Asia.
I'd been in Europe.
Had some things scheduled to go down to Fiji and New Zealand and Australia.
Had some trips scheduled.
And I was asked to go to Africa.
You see I've been praying for two or three years.
Brian I don't know why but the Lord just laid this on my heart to say to you.
I've been praying for two or three years Lord don't leave me on the sidelines.
Put me right in the middle of what you're doing.
I don't know why the Lord wanted me to tell you that but take it for what it's worth.
You see we can become so complacent that we miss what God wants in our lives.
I'm not here this morning calling anybody to go to the mission field.
I'm not here.
That's not the intent of my sermon whatsoever.
You see because I believe we all have our place in the kingdom of God.
You have your place.
I have my place.
This man back here found his place in the Navy.
This one over here found his place in the educational and then we go around the room.
We have our place.
In fact Brother Milton said to me the other day that's your gifting that's your calling.
We were sharing something that I'm very weak at extremely weak at.
He said but your calling is here.
Your gifting is here.
We all have our giftings.
Some of you the Lord has placed on your job right where you are just to be a light in
that darkness.
Some of you God has gifted you with a way to make financial wealth.
Maybe not as wealthy as some but you're able.
God has gifted you that way.
I'm thankful that I'm where Sandra and I are now but I can tell you that was not one of
my giftings.
So that you could not only have an easier life and pleasure in this life but that so
he could send it through you to get the message out.
The work into the uttermost is difficult.
It's not easy.
These brethren are going to see some things when they go.
They're going to understand the difficulties.
It's a living day by day.
It's not easy because you're in a different culture and you don't have the things you
used to here.
You have to make do.
I don't say that for pity.
I just say that as descriptive to let you know.
We all some of the food.
Wake up Brian.
Wake up Randy.
God gifted me to be able to just put it in my mouth.
That's a gift.
Not everybody has.
My dad said, son, how in the world?
My dad was a good pastor, a great pastor and loved the Lord but he told me, he said, son,
I'm glad the Lord sends you and not me.
Because when it come to eating food he had just these things that he liked and it would
have been difficult for him.
I'm just saying these things to let you know God puts you where you are or he leads you
to where he wants you to be.
And when you get there he will enable you to do what he has called you to do.
I'm glad our pastor has a vision for missions locally, statewide.
I've been in some of those states.
I know how difficult it is.
You need some help from time to time.
And now the missions, you've been doing that in South America, Central America and now
to Africa.
He's going to come here in just a moment or two as I close.
He told me this and I'm going to jump the gun on you, pastor.
I want Randy and Brian to come up here if they will right now.
I'd already spoke to them before service and had them ready to come.
I believe God has put this team together.
I don't believe this is just happenstance.
Some of you retired preachers, you just get out and get ready.
Next trip I'm going to talk to you a little bit.
But I believe God has put this team together.
This guy is one of the best teachers I've ever sat under in my life.
I've sat under some doctors degree with professors.
And I know that embarrasses you but it's the truth.
And I just one day I leaned over to the senator and said I'm going to ask him to go with me
my next time.
And she said that's a good idea.
Pastor got a hold of Brian here.
I think he kind of coerced him into it.
Made him his proxy as he just said.
Brian has some gifts that I see as unusual gifts.
And I know, I hope I'm not speaking out of turn now, but I've done it before.
I believe Brian is searching his way.
I believe he's hunting for his way.
I believe, I'm not saying he's going to be called to Africa, Erica.
But I'm saying that I believe this trip is going to do something for him that will help
focus what he's supposed to be doing with his life.
Great gifts.
I'm going to throw them in, feet first, head first, whatever it is on this trip.
They're going to find their way.
They've never preached or spoken through an interpreter.
Brian's never been on a plane.
He's going to take the shortest and the longest.
We're going to fly to Atlanta in less than an hour and we're going to fly 17 and a half
hours to Johannesburg, South Africa.
So he's going to be baptized immediately.
And I'm being a little bit on the humorous side here, but I hope you hear my heart.
I'm excited about them going with me.
I'm excited about us being a team.
And I'll share this and I'm going to turn it over to you.
This yesterday afternoon late, I got a text from Ezekiel Ciccola, the provincial overseer.
And I had sent him a couple of things that we had talked about that we were going to
teach on.
And he said to me in this new text, he said, could you please include or add on a teaching
on Pentecostalism?
God knows what he's doing.
Two weeks ago, was it?
We sat down in a restaurant here in Cleveland and they're going to be teaching on the baptism
of the Holy Ghost and the gifts of the Spirit.
Both of them.
That's what they're going to be teaching on.
God's in it.
God is in it.
Pastor, come on.
One thing I want you to do.
We'll be leaving four weeks from yesterday.
It is we're leaving on a Saturday from that date until we get back on a Tuesday evening,
which will be about a week and a half later.
Keep us in your prayers for protection, for guidance, for everything to go smoothly with
flying nowadays.
You never know what's going to go on.
I don't mean that in a dangerous sense, just simply you don't know where the plane's going
to take off.
Am I right, Ron and Dwight?
We don't know.
So pray that that'll go well.
And then pray for anointing for all three of us.
That this will be the most fruitful time.
Because you see what we'll be teaching, they're going to take out to thousands.
We may be teaching about 120, but what they take from us, they're going to go back and
preach it in their churches and preach it to their communities.
And it'll be in the thousands.
So when you help us, you're going to ultimately be reaching thousands of people on the continent
of Africa.
Give the Lord praise, would you?
Come with me all over the house as we're getting ready to send these three into Africa, we're
releasing another one.
Sisters of Anna, just come on down.
We're sending another one in, spreading wings, flying, leaving the nest, following God, led
by the Spirit.
Amen.
Did she do a wonderful job leading us in the presence of the Lord today?
We're going to be praying over her.
Yes, Sister Kim, go ahead and play.
Pray that the door stays on their plane.
And that they're not on an exit row.
I know we're taking time today, but we're a family.
And from time to time, we get in too big a hurry.
And we got lunch here, so you're not going to have to go wait.
All that you give today, as Brother Mills said, is going to reach out to thousands.
As we pray over them, ask God to know on him.
No telling that the lives Sister Savannah is going to touch as the Lord leads and guides
and directs her in this next phase and next season and next time of what he has for her.
And just let you know that God is at work.
And I jest with you this morning, but God knows if I heard him say Zambia, I'd be getting
a late ticket if I could get it in time.
And if he sent me, I'd go.
My feet's been on more foreign soil.
The Lord knows my heart.
But I think for the majority of us, it's that engagement with our Jerusalem, our city, our
Cleveland, your neighborhood, our county, right?
But then, whether it be the meagerest of means or an absorbent amount, whatever the Lord
lays on our heart, to send those that he's dispatching into the uttermost parts.
Amen?
And now, I don't know if Brother Mills has ever traveled with two shemediums or not.
Two shemediums, protection.
They know what I'm talking about.
I'll explain to you later.
But if I had to go, I'd take James and John with me anywhere.
Amen?
I need some of you to stretch your hands this way.
I need everybody to do that.
But I'd like those, I won't ever preach the gospel in the house to come.
And I want you to stand down here with me.
Then we're just going to kindly enclose around them.
Amen?
They're going into different areas, different missions, but it's the same harvest.
You hear me?
It's the same harvest.
Different giftings, different talents, different callings.
From God.
And God's going to use them for His glory.