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Series Code: NP
Program Code: NP200229S
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00:10 >> So, I wanted to share a little something with you. 00:14 This week, I've been thinking a lot about what it means 00:16 to have faith and to have a child-like faith. 00:20 I'm thinking about children, not for myself, not yet, but I 00:24 do work with a lot of children and I'm grateful to, because 00:26 God points them out as an example of 00:28 how our faith should be. 00:30 I was talking with a friend this week. She's working 00:32 for ADRA in Mongolia. She's always trying to, you know, meet, make new friends 00:37 'cause she just got there, and she said she met some other Christians, some Europeans. 00:40 They invited her to go out looking for wildlife. She said, "I didn't really know 00:46 what that meant, but we ended up just, like, crouching in the forest. 00:50 We were trying to see this one kind of bird that this guy really wanted to see." 00:53 And she said he wanted to see it so much that I decided to ask God. 00:58 I said, "God knows this man and He knows how much this guy wants to see this bird. 01:03 And God loves to make us happy with those little joys." And, so, she said she prayed, 01:07 and there popped up the bird. And this just reminds me of how God does so much stuff for us 01:13 just to make us happy, just to encourage us in this life, and give us the little joys. 01:18 And so we can have that childlike awe and joy in this world that God gave us. 01:23 So, today, as we worship God, let's just remember what he's done for us, 01:27 all those small things and those big things, like making us heirs to his throne. 01:31 But we have so much to be thankful for. Let's just bow our heads for 01:35 a prayer before we start. Heavenly Father, thank you so much for being 01:41 such a good father to us, for knowing the things that we like and the things 01:47 that will encourage us. And, Lord, I know that you reached out to me in a special 01:51 way this week, and I thank you, God, for all the ways that the people in this room 01:57 saw you working. And I pray, Lord, that you would give us the courage 02:02 to ask things of you, Lord, to exercise our faith, and to ask, believing that 02:07 you will give an answer. Lord, you've shown us so many times in the past 02:11 that you work like this. and so we thank you and we're claiming it. 02:15 And today. instead of asking, we just want to give something back. 02:17 God, we want to praise you. We just want to offer our genuine worship. 02:21 Thank you for being our father. In your name, we pray. 02:24 Amen. ♪♪ 08:11 >> Please stand with us as we sing "No Longer Slaves." 12:59 >> During this next song, we just want to invite 13:01 whoever would like to come forward to pray, 13:04 just make your way here towards the front. 13:07 ♪♪ 18:05 >> Alright, so, here's a story from one of my -- our story scouts named Sharon Nugent. 18:12 She found this. It's happening just two Wednesdays ago. 18:15 Oh, it's the middle of the night. It might be early morning. 18:17 It's pitch-black. And he's driving all alone in his FedEx truck. 18:21 Have you ever seen a FedEx truck? Yes, you have. 18:24 You've seen them. Uh-huh. 18:26 He's driving that FedEx truck and he's on I-85. 18:30 So, that's a big interstate in North Carolina. 18:33 He's driving down the road. He must have some pickup 18:35 or delivery to do, and, boy, he's just driving to beat 18:37 the band, when, all of a sudden, he notices, in the passing lane 18:40 ahead, there is a car in trouble. 18:42 The car is in big trouble. It's just stopped. You're not supposed to stop 18:45 in the passing lane unless you're in real trouble. So he says, "Well, 18:49 I know what I'm going to do. I'm going to be a good neighbor and I'm going to pull right 18:52 over." So he pulls over on the slow lane, on the side 18:57 there. He pulls over and he jumps out. He walks over there 19:00 and he sees a man's in trouble. He can't get the car started. He says, "Well, 19:03 I think I can help you." He's just getting ready to pull out his cellphone 19:07 to call somebody to help this driver when he sees a huge semitruck just... 19:13 [ Imitates engine revving ] ...just barreling down the road. He's coming straight at him. 19:18 "This guy's going to hit me. This guy is gonna hit me. Doesn't he see me? 19:23 I know it's dark, but I'm gonna jump over this fence into the median and 19:27 I'm going to let him go 'woom!' And when when he's done, I'll get back over the fence 19:30 and I'm gonna help this poor driver." So, that's exactly what he did. 19:34 As the truck comes barreling towards him, he jumps over the fence and he 19:37 said, "Okay, now I'll be fine. The problem was -- He said, "This is really weird. 19:44 There's nothing under my feet. Well, there will be something under my feet in a split second. 19:50 There's nothing under my feet now. Well, this is really weird. 19:53 I'm falling through the air. How could I be falling through the air 19:57 on an interstate highway? This is really weird." And he's starting to go faster. 20:03 And he's starting to go faster. And this is happening in a half a second. 20:07 He's going faster and faster. And he says, "I don't know where I'm going to stop." 20:12 You know what happened to him? He jumped off -- he didn't know this -- 20:16 but the Yadkin River Bridge. He just jumped off the bridge. He thought this was a little 20:20 grass median right there. "I'll just jump over here." Whoop! 20:23 He went "whoop!" 20:34 That's exactly what happened. Do you know how high it was? Look straight up. 20:40 You see that middle line? That's the peak of our roof. That's 50 feet from right here. 20:45 50 feet to there. Add 25 more feet, 7 1/2 stories. Like jumping off the roof of a 20:54 7-1/2-story building. 21:00 He did not land in the river. He landed on a sandbar. Which is probably worse. 21:07 The guy up top is saying, "This is big trouble. Don't worry about me." 21:11 He's calling 911. "Get the help out here." And a huge fire truck comes in. 21:17 A burly firefighter named Jacob gets off. He said, "What's the problem?" 21:21 "There's somebody down there. He jumped over thinking it was a median, and he's gone." 21:26 Oh, no! They went into the truck, pulled out the rappelling ropes. 21:32 There goes big Jacob down, down, down. His feet finally touch 21:36 something hard. It's the sandbar. And there, he finds him. 21:44 Jeremiah Cribb. And Jeremiah looked up at him and he said, "Whoa! 21:52 That was a fall." [ Laughter ] Seriously. They put a harness 21:57 on him, took him to the hospital. He broke three ribs, 21:59 punctured a lung. But he said, "God --" This is what he told the newspaper. 22:03 "God saved my life." Oh, I think God really did. You can't fall that far. 22:08 You can't jump from that far. But Jeremiah is alive today because a big rescuer 22:13 named Jacob came down and pulled him up and said, "We're going up. 22:16 You stay with me." Oh, Jesus came down one day -- not 75 feet. 22:22 Oh, Jesus came. How many miles was that? I don't know. 22:25 He came all the way down. They let him down from heaven. Come on. 22:27 "Are you there yet, Jesus?" "I'm there now." "Alright, 22:31 you know what your mission is. Save every boy and girl that you can find and moms and dads, 22:34 too." And Jesus spends his life rescuing people. 22:38 Guess what -- Jesus is gone, but He has you. That's the good news. 22:44 He has you to help Him rescue others. How many want 22:48 to be a helper for Jesus? You know what, Jesus? I'll help you. I'll help you. 22:51 Come on. Put your hands up if you want to be a helper for Jesus. 22:54 If you don't want to be a helper for Jesus. No. Put your hands up if you do. 22:57 There you go. Come on. Love on the move. That's what it is. 23:02 Always looking for people to help. That's what Jesus 23:05 was on the cross. He was in love on the move. And that's what we can be. 23:09 Oh, we got to talk to Jesus. Who wants to thank Jesus for being love on the move? 23:14 Let's see. I had girls in first service. How about do I have any boys 23:18 raising their hands right now? Huh? Joshua? I see you. Yep. I see you. 23:26 Too late, guys. Alright, Josh, come on. Josh just got baptized here 23:31 back in December, so... Let's close our eyes and fold our hands, and Joshua's gonna 23:37 pray. >> Holy Father, on this day, you're in heaven, but God 23:45 understands on the Sabbath Day. So now pray. Amen. >> Amen. Thank you, Joshua. 23:54 As you go quietly and reverently back to your seats, you say what Joshua just said. 23:58 Thank you for sending Jesus. And I want to help Jesus, too. Alright? Happy Sabbath to you. 24:04 See you later. 24:08 [ Bells ringing ] 27:06 [ Applause ] Thank you, Resound. You blessed us. 27:17 Thank you again, Marcelo Martins. We needed that today. 27:23 Had a child at the children's story this morning. And he was here. 27:29 At the end of the children's story, he came up to me and he said, "Pastor, would you pray 27:31 for the coronavirus?" And I'm thinking to myself that this story is 27:36 just kind of slipping in between the cracks, and the children aren't getting it. 27:39 Let me tell you something. The children are all getting it. They hear you talking. 27:44 They hear their favorite adults carry on conversations. 27:48 They know. And I want to honor that little boy's request. 27:51 I think we ought to pray right now, don't you? By the way, I had someone who 27:55 was a university student in first service, came and saw me in between services, 27:59 and he said, "You know something, Pastor? It's amazing how we do this, 28:06 but we keep putting people in the hot seat. We identify who they are 28:09 and then we say, 'You know what? Look out for them.'" He's an Asian student. 28:16 He said, "Sometimes, you just feel it. I said, "You're talking 28:21 about on campus?" He said, "No, but it's just society." 28:25 And I thought to myself, "Man, it can't happen that way in the faith community, 28:29 not this community. We don't isolate anybody. We embrace -- Love on the move 28:34 means you embrace everybody." I grew up in an Asian country, 14 years. 28:39 I love Asians. Come on. You'd be... Anyway, you got the point. 28:46 We just can't do it. We just cannot do it. I don't care 28:49 if they do it out there. I don't care if they do it on TV or on the radio. 28:53 We don't do it. We're all in this together. Let's pray. 28:56 Father, this coronavirus thing -- we can't figure it out. The stock market -- plunging. 29:01 What's up with that? So the little boy makes a good point. 29:07 Instead of talking about it, we can pray about it. And so we are right now. 29:11 We're praying that you will give wisdom to the doctors in every nation on Earth 29:16 who are racing to find some stopgap that can bring the ravages to a halt. 29:24 You've done it before. You can do it again. And here we are in worship. 29:30 We're all one family in worship. Let our teaching be clear, very clear. 29:35 We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. 29:38 One of the most-watched videos of TED Talks in history, 29:44 viewed by 11.8 million people, was a short talk delivered by 29:50 a gentleman named Simon Sinek. And maybe you've seen it. 29:54 The title of the YouTube, "How Great Leaders Inspire Action." 29:58 Here's Sinek's point. He says, "You have to embrace 30:04 the power of why." 30:09 Why do I exist? Why am I here? What's up with this? 30:14 What's the purpose of my life right now? Sinek's point -- you have to 30:17 embrace the power of why because if you don't understand your why, you will never get your how 30:24 right. Turns out Simon Sinek and our friend, the Angel Gabriel -- 30:34 both know the truth. Until you know the why, you'll never get your how. 30:40 So, let's go to Gabriel. Simon Sinek, we got it. Let's go to Gabriel. 30:46 Luke chapter 1. We were there last week, but there's a line here. 30:51 Oh, there's a line that I've been brooding on for a bunch of months now. 30:54 I don't know what this coronavirus means on the planet. I don't know how pieces fit. 31:00 It's not for me to know, but I'm thinking more and more if I -- And I've taped this, by the way, 31:05 where I have "worship" right on the wall. I'm thinking more and more, 31:08 "If we don't get this right, we're gonna be here forever." So, here's the one line that 31:12 I've been brooding over. I want to share it with you. Open your Bible to 31:14 Luke chapter 1. Now, Luke, Chapter 2 is the big Christmas story. 31:17 Everybody loves Christmas. But this is chapter 1, which is the pre-Christmas story. 31:22 So, something's gonna happen now. A baby's gonna get born. 31:25 Two babies get born, one in chapter 2 and one in 1. 31:27 This is the baby in 1. So, let's drop down to verse 11. 31:31 "Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him." 31:33 We'll find the angel's name in just a moment. 31:35 "Angel of the Lord appeared to him --" that would be elderly 31:38 Zechariah -- "standing at the right hand of the altar of 31:41 incense. And when Zechariah saw the 31:43 angel --" I would have certainly reacted the same way, and I 31:46 suppose you would, as well -- "he was startle and was 31:49 gripped," choked, throttled, "with fear." 31:52 Well, I'd be throttled. "And the angel said to him, 31:56 'Do not be afraid.'" I love that because once you 32:01 understand the why, all this nervousness about, "How do I 32:06 pull off the how?" is drained away. 32:10 "You don't have to be afraid," the angel says. 32:12 "Listen, your prayer has been heard." 32:14 Keep reading. "'Your wife Elizabeth will bear 32:15 you a son, and you are to call him John.'" 32:18 "Now, listen, Zechariah. Are you listening to me?" The man can hardly breathe. 32:22 "Are you listening to me? Because I am now gonna give you the why for your baby's life, 32:26 and it is up to you, sir, to tell this baby what his why is." And if you're a young parent, as 32:32 we just had two young parents standing here, it is your mission, Mommy and Daddy, to 32:37 tell your child what her why is, what his why is. You've got to tell them. 32:44 So, Zechariah -- Listen to me. 32:45 Verse 16. Here it comes. "He --" your baby -- "will bring 32:49 back many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God." 32:51 Verse 17 -- "And he --" John -- "will go on before the Lord, in 32:55 the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the 32:58 parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of 33:01 the righteous -- to make ready a people prepared for the Lord." 33:07 Now, Zechariah has just been given this stunning why for his baby, but Zechariah, so human, 33:14 does what we humans do. We don't celebrate the why. We start asking the how. 33:21 And I'm afraid it's that way in the church, as well. We've forgotten the why perhaps, 33:26 but we've got all kinds of hows going on -- "How this, how that, try this, how, how, how, how, 33:31 how." And God is saying, "What are you talking about, how, how, how? 33:33 I'm talking to you about why, why, why." Until you know the why -- the 33:37 power of why, Simon Sinek -- Until you know the power of why, your hows won't matter. 33:44 You have to know why you exist. That's true for an institution, a congregation, and you and me 33:50 as people. Do you know why you exist? I'm asking you. 33:55 Why were you born? Why are you on this planet right now? 33:58 There is a reason. You have to know it. Now, what Gabriel has just done 34:03 is the one-line mission statement, the powerful, stunning why for 34:09 John the Baptist. John the Baptist was to get them ready for the Messiah's first 34:13 coming. Guess what. You came along just in time to 34:17 get the world ready for the Messiah's second coming. And I'm telling you, fellow 34:22 groupies watching the horizon, the evidence is mounting that Jesus is coming soon. 34:30 I didn't think I get an "Amen" anyway. >> Amen. 34:33 >> Huh? Yeah, He is coming soon, whether you "amen" it or not. 34:38 >> Amen. >> "To make ready --" Let's put that on the screen, please. 34:42 "To make ready a people prepared for the Lord." That's the great why. 34:46 And Zechariah -- bless his heart -- he doesn't say, "I want to celebrate the why." 34:50 His first word -- what's the first word out of his mouth? Look at the next verse. 34:54 It would be chapter 1, verse 18. Put it on the screen for us, please. 34:57 Zechariah asks the angel what? "Yo, how? How? How? How can I be sure of this? 35:05 I am an old man, and my wife is well along in years." And by the way, gentlemen, since 35:09 this is Family Life Day with a little baby dedication going on, that's how you talk about your 35:13 wife's age -- "I'm old, but she's well along in years." That's the best way to do it 35:17 'cause if you say, "I'm old and she's old," you may not live to be old. 35:20 [ Laughter ] So just take a lesson out of the playbook of Zechariah. 35:24 "I'm old, and she's well along in years. How?" 35:30 Gabriel says, "Excuse me? Excuse me? Did you just ask how? 35:39 I just gave you the why, and you're asking me how? Do you know who I am?" 35:44 Look at the next verse. "Do you know who I am? 35:46 I am Gabriel. I am the prime minister of this 35:51 universe." Do you understand there is a 35:53 King and the next highest being to the King is the prime 35:56 minister? Do you understand that? 35:58 You'd have to be from the U.K. to figure that out, but that's 36:00 how it works. "I am the prime minister. 36:04 My name is Gabriel. I stand in the very presence of 36:08 God, and I came here to give you some good news. 36:11 And you're talking to me, boy, about how?" 36:15 Until you get your why straight, you will never know how. I'm telling you, we are just 36:22 like -- Well, Simon Sinek knew how to talk to us and Gabriel knew how to talk to Zechariah 36:26 because we're all the same. Human nature -- "How, how, how, how, how, how, how, how?" 36:30 We have all these hows running around, and nobody knows the why. 36:33 Isn't that sad? One line -- could you put it on the screen for us again, please? 36:37 "To make ready a people prepared for the Lord," which is why, by the way, Matthew, Mark, Luke, 36:43 and John all quote one line from the ancient prophet Isaiah. Isn't that amazing? 36:49 They don't agree, often, all four of them, with the same material, but they do this one. 36:54 So, go over to Luke chapter 3. Come on. Go to Luke chapter 3. Because when you find this why, 36:59 as it's expressed in Luke 3, there will be a how thrown in, and it's that how that you and I 37:05 are gonna kind of say, "Whoa, there's the how." Watch this. Luke chapter 3. 37:11 Luke is a historian, plus being a physician. And it can happen this way. 37:16 The historians -- you know, they got a lot of footnotes. 37:19 And so Luke has thrown in these footnotes. 37:21 We'll go ahead and read them in verse one of Luke chapter 3. 37:24 "In the 15th year, the reign of Tiberius Caesar --" we're 37:26 talking about the big emperor -- "when Pontius Pilot was governor 37:29 of Judea --" you've heard of him -- "Herod, tetrarch of 37:32 Galilee --" we all know him -- "his brother Phillip, tetrarch 37:35 of Iturea and Traconitis, and Lysanias, tetrarch of Abilene -- 37:40 during the high-priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas --" here we 37:42 go now -- "the Word of God came to John, son of Zechariah, 37:46 in the wilderness. He went into all the country 37:50 around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance and 37:52 forgiveness of sins." Now, here it comes. 37:54 All four Gospels quote this line. 37:57 "As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet: 38:01 'A voice of one calling in the wilderness, "Prepare the way for 38:06 the Lord and make straight paths for Him."'" 38:09 Hey, let's iso that line and put it on the screen right now. 38:12 "A voice of one calling in the wilderness, 'Prepare the way for 38:16 Him.'" 38:17 You say, "Dwight, I see the why there. The why is "To make ready a 38:21 people prepared for the Lord." Where's the how? The how is sitting right in 38:25 front of us -- "A voice of one calling in the wilderness." When you know that you have the 38:33 the why -- "To make ready a people prepared for the Lord" -- the modus operandi for the why 38:38 is voice. It's voice. You have a voice. 38:42 I have a voice. We use the voice. You say, "Ah, Dwight, come on." 38:47 No, no, seriously. That's it. The big why -- "Make ready a people prepared for the Lord." 38:51 How do we do it? You be a voice. I have good news for you. 38:54 It doesn't say "the voice" because that really makes me nervous. 38:57 If it says "the voice," I'm thinking, "Man, all of Heaven is looking on me for this? 39:01 Please deliver me from that pressure." No, it doesn't say "the voice." 39:04 It says "a voice." Just as there was a voice before the Messiah came the first time, 39:09 there will be thousands of voices -- so, they'll be all little "a voices" -- before the 39:14 Messiah comes the second time. You're that voice, and I'm that voice. 39:18 And guess what? It doesn't have to be a voice, voice. 39:21 It can be an electronic voice. Listen to this. I just learned this last week. 39:26 I met a guy that I'd never met before in my life. His name is Bakar. 39:30 I just met him last week, last Thursday, as a matter of fact. Bakar is from the country of 39:37 Georgia. Now, we're not talking about Atlanta, Georgia. 39:40 We're talking about Tbilisi, Georgia. It's a little country south of 39:46 Russia and north of Iran, okay? There is Georgia. The Georgian language is one of 39:52 the 10 oldest languages on this planet. Guess what. 39:55 There aren't a lot of people that speak one of the 10 oldest languages of Earth. 40:00 They've all died off. But there are people who have been driven out of Georgia 40:06 because of political changes over the years, and they live in New York and in L.A. and in 40:12 Paris. There are Georgian-speaking people all over this planet, 40:16 about four million of them. Bakar came over here to go to school. 40:20 He got his major in landscaping, and then he got a job in Chicago, so he lives in this 40:25 community and he works in Chicago. But Bakar has been thinking, 40:30 "You know what? There's a why for my life." Bless his heart. He got it. 40:36 "The why for my life is to make ready a people prepared for the Lord," and he says, "I got to 40:40 do something. God, what can I do?" Well, one of the great rules 40:44 of life, one of the great tips for living is this -- find a need and fill it. 40:51 That's how great things get done. Somebody finds a need and says, 40:55 "Hey, well, I'll do it." There's nobody communicating to the Georgians. 40:59 And you know what he says? "I'm gonna communicate to my fellow Georgians wherever they 41:03 live on this planet. I'm gonna start a YouTube station, and I'm gonna -- 41:06 Oh, brother, I can't. There's no literature for my faith community in Georgian. 41:12 Oh, they have a little book called "Steps to Christ," but that's it. 41:16 So you know what he did? He found some English study guides. 41:20 He said, "I'll translate these." He got his little smartphone. He put up a table in his 41:25 apartment, one lamp -- that's all you need -- and a laptop. He's good to go. 41:30 And he starts recording messages in Georgian to anybody out there that might speak Georgian. 41:39 Well, how are they gonna find out about this? 41:41 Well, he has a little social-media account, and he 41:43 starts posting, "Hey, I've started a little Georgian 41:46 YouTube station. You need to check it out. 41:48 Hey, I've started this Instagram. 41:50 I started a new -- Check it out." 41:53 And slowly people started checking it out. 41:55 Now, hold onto your pew because he says, "Well, then I'm gonna 41:57 record some more," so he records more. 42:00 And they're posted. And the diaspora of the 42:04 Georgians has taken him to the whole planet, but they're all 42:06 tuning in. 42:07 To the place today, he has 94,000 viewers who are following and tracking his humble little 42:14 "To make ready a people prepared for the Lord." >> Amen! 42:18 >> Huh? Listen, you can be social-media missionary. 42:23 It says you're gonna use a voice, a voice of one crying in the wilderness. 42:26 Well, you got a social-media voice. Use that voice. 42:30 You don't have to stand in front of 94,000 people. And by the way, Bakar never knew 42:35 that this thing would explode like that. But the God of the universe who 42:39 laid His laid on Bakar's heart the great why said, "Once you get the why, I'll help you 42:44 with the how." 42:46 In fact, would you put that on the screen, please? 42:48 "When you know your why, God will guide you to your how." 42:52 That's the way it works. 42:55 Wow, Bakar. 94,000? "Yeah, but, Dwight, I got to tell you something -- I can't 43:01 speak." Well, nobody said you had to speak to 94,000 people, but 43:06 through social media, you can surely speak. All you need is a smartphone -- 43:10 I repeat -- a laptop, and a light bulb, and you can become a voice in the wilderness of 43:15 social media saying, "The Lord I believe in is coming soon. You need to meet Him before 43:21 He comes." You can do it. We're not talking about rocket 43:25 science here. Wow. A voice of one crying out. 43:31 I got a love on -- Listen, speaking of love on the move -- So, one of our members here 43:37 said, "Hey, Dwight, I got a 'love on the move' story for you." 43:39 Well, I think this will fit right here perfectly. So, a few years ago -- well, 43:43 this would be less than three -- about two and a half years ago, in September. 43:47 Adamere -- Adamere is thinking. [ Speaking foreign language ] He's thinking right here in this 43:57 little village called Berrien Springs. And he goes to his wife, Abby, 44:00 and he says, "Yo, Abby, what do you think? Could I do something like this?" 44:04 She says, "Well, you could try." So, what does he do? He carves out a new website. 44:10 He gives it a name. He says, "Okay, I have a goal, God. 44:13 I need --" What was the goal? "I need 100,000 people by the end of the year. 44:21 By December 26th, just after Christmas, I went to check the results and, to my surprise, 44:26 thanks be to God, I had reached more than 300,000 people." Hoo! 44:32 And, by the way, I've been to his website. It's not a picture of him 44:35 talking. He's not doing any talking at all. 44:36 He's pulling quotations in. He's just putting stuff out. He has other people talking. 44:41 You don't even see their faces. Wow. And he says, "Oh, by the way --" 44:46 because he's from Brazil. He said, "I have a family reunion in Brazil that occurs 44:50 every second Sunday of January, so I went to Brazil and left the campaign running. 44:53 I promoted it on Facebook and, you know, all the links and so on and so on, two websites that 44:57 I host. To my amazement and complete surprise, when I returned to the 45:00 U.S. of 'A' and went to check the campaign, the results were astonishing. 45:03 I had reached an unbelievable number of more than 1.8 million people." 45:08 Started in September. He's got 1.8 million by January. Come on, guys. 45:15 The guy is not a Web producer. He's sitting right here. Looks a lot like you. 45:21 You can do this. Electronic voice -- you can have electronic voice. 45:26 And then he gets a phone call. in March. So, you got September, 45:29 Christmas, January. Now, in March, he gets a phone call from somebody in 45:33 Mozambique. And in Mozambique, they speak Portuguese. 45:36 So, this guy is speaking broken Portuguese, and he says, "Hey, you the guy that's running this 45:41 thing?" WhatsApp -- he got the call on WhatsApp. 45:43 He says, "You the guy that's running this thing?" He said, "I am." 45:45 He said, "Hey, yo, what church are you?" He says, "That ought to be 45:48 obvious to you." It wasn't. He said, "Seventh-Day 45:52 Adventist." "Oh, really?" He starts carrying on a 45:56 conversation a few weeks later. Somebody else contacts him. "They say we're having a big 46:01 series in --" What's the name of the city? "Maputu." Maputo. 46:05 "And would you mind plugging it in the U.S.? You just plug it on your 46:08 social-media sites. Plug this new series." They had this series. 46:13 Guess what. Now they were reaching more than 4.8 million people on that 46:21 website. And he writes here, "Dwight, it's not a typo. 46:24 4.8, capital 'M,' with more than 458 baptisms. To God be the glory." 46:30 Isn't that something? You don't have to do nothing but put up that little smartphone, 46:36 get that laptop moving, hang a lamp. And if you don't want to talk, 46:41 get somebody else to talk. You want to just put text on it. 4.8 million people. 46:50 Once you know the why -- Let's put that on the screen again. 46:53 "When you know your why, God will guide you into your how." 46:57 You say, "Dwight, I don't know what to do. I can't speak." 46:59 You already mentioned that. But I remind you -- there was somebody else that couldn't 47:05 speak. God said, "Hey, I have a big how for you now that you know -- 47:08 "My why --" God said to him, "Moses, my why is to make ready a people prepared for the Lord." 47:12 And Moses said, "Yo, forget it. I can't speak. 47:17 Put it on the screen. Let's see this little breakout 47:20 dialogue. "Moses said to the Lord, 'Pardon 47:22 your servant, Lord. I have never been eloquent, 47:24 neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. 47:27 I am slow of speech and tongue.'" 47:28 "And I stutter. 47:30 I don't even know the language of Egypt, and you're asking me to go to Pharaoh? 47:33 You got to forget it." God responds, not real happily, but He responds. 47:40 And the Lord said to Moses, "Who gave human beings their mouths -- you or me?" 47:45 Moses said, "You did." Then God says, "Now go then. I will help you speak, and I 47:50 will teach you what to say." So, this business about, "Well, I just can't talk to people, I'm 47:55 just this little wallflower that doesn't say a word" -- Come on. God says, "I've given you a 48:00 voice, girl. Use the voice for me. You just open your mouth and 48:03 you'll start speaking and I will speak through you. Don't -- Don't worry." 48:09 "Yeah, but you know what? I'm too young." Oh, come on. 48:12 "You know, I'm a Gen-Z'er, but I'm way too young to --" Well, talk to Bakar about that, 48:16 number one. Number two, are you really too young? 48:19 You're the guys that own cyberspace right now. You're not too young. 48:24 I mean, Jeremiah tried that one. 48:26 God says, "Good luck, Jeremy." Watch this -- Jeremiah 1:6. 48:32 "'Alas, Sovereign Lord,' I said, 'I do not know how to speak; 48:34 I am too young.' And the Lord says to me, 'Do not 48:37 say, "I am too young." You must go to everyone I send 48:40 you to and say whatever I command you. 48:42 So don't be afraid for them -- don't be afraid of them, for I 48:46 am with you and I will rescue you,' declares the Lord." 48:49 Folks, it doesn't get any better than that. Once you know your why, God will 48:52 give you your how, and the how often starts with a mouth, the use of the mouth. 48:56 You'll be okay. You can do it. I've been brooding on this line 49:02 for a long time -- "To make ready a people prepared for the Lord." 49:04 And I'm just wondering -- are we ready? Are we even doing anything 49:10 about it? How can we just sit here, get entertainment on Sabbaths, go 49:15 home and live life the way we always lived it, and we're making no appreciable difference 49:20 on this planet? You have a voice. Now, it's true -- you may have a 49:27 printed voice. You may be a writer. You may have an electronic 49:30 voice, of course. You may have -- You may have a social-media voice, of course. 49:36 You may have just a simple voice, but the voice needs to be used. 49:40 That's how communication takes place. To make read a people prepared 49:44 for the Lord. Wow. We had a kid that was standing 49:47 right here on Thursday at chapel. His name is Justin Ku. 49:52 And he's using his social-media platform to beat the band. Now, the kid is smart, and he -- 49:56 I talked to him afterwards. I said, "Listen, would you be willing to come back here 49:59 sometime? We'll just have a little training session for people who 50:03 want to use social media for proclaiming the Gospel of the Lord Jesus." 50:07 He said, "Sure, I'd be happy to come anytime." He started using social media 50:14 on his barber, okay? He has an atheist barber. He's using social media on him, 50:20 and the barber gets baptized. [ Chuckles ] "Are you serious?" "Yeah, I spoke to him in a 50:28 language he could understand -- social media." He told a fascinating story, 50:34 a fascinating story. Listen, it doesn't matter how old you are or how young you 50:38 are. It doesn't matter to God at all. You got a voice, use it. 50:40 You don't have a voice, you have no vocal cords, that's fine. 50:44 You've got this voice. Use this voice. This is your voice. 50:46 Use it. Use it. Use it. Use it. "Speak for me. In the wilderness of this 50:52 culture, cry out for me. Tell them I'm coming." "Come to Jesus. 50:59 Come to Jesus now." Wow. How many stories do you need? 51:04 The point is -- Put on the screen again -- when you know 51:08 your why, God will guide you to your how. 51:14 Don't worry about solving this whole thing. Sit down with the Holy Spirit. 51:17 Take your little smartphone. You got a note app on there. And just write down, "I could 51:21 do this," or, "I might try this," or, "I think I might --" "What do you think, Holy Spirit? 51:24 I got eight suggestions of ways I could raise a voice." And let the Holy Spirit just 51:29 kind of say, "You know what, boy? You know what, girl? 51:32 I think -- Why don't you try that one first?" That's what He does for a 51:36 living. He needs your voice. That's how the planet hears -- 51:44 human voices. Oh, Jesus did say, "Listen, if you guys don't speak, I'm gonna 51:49 have the rocks crying out. The rocks will proclaim my coming if you keep silent, 51:54 Adventists." You keep calling yourself Adventists. 51:59 You don't even believe Jesus is coming soon. "Have mercy" is right. 52:04 Just quit calling yourself an Adventist then. Just say, "Well, I don't know 52:07 what I am, but, you know, obviously, I don't believe..." Nah, don't do that. 52:13 You got a voice. Use the voice for the King. So, you don't want to be a 52:18 social missionary. I get it. You know what? 52:21 Be a student missionary. Bunch of college students, university students sitting 52:24 right here. You can be a university student. You don't want to be a 52:27 social-media missionary? Fine. Be a university student. 52:29 Listen, I'll tell you whether you're made for a student 52:33 missionary or not. I'm gonna give you a little 52:34 checklist, and you go check, check, check in your mind. 52:36 Okay, here comes number one. If you have a little adventure 52:39 in your soul -- Do you have adventure in your soul? 52:41 I can tell just by looking at you. 52:42 You have it, okay? Check. Okay, here comes number two. 52:45 Number two -- you have a heart for faraway places. 52:49 Oh, come on. There's no Gen-Z'er who doesn't 52:50 have a heart for faraway places. Here's number three -- you have 52:53 a stomach for foreign food. And that's not Taco Bell, by the 52:56 way. That's foreign food. 52:58 You got a heart for that. You got a stomach for it. 53:00 Oh, here's one more -- and you have a spirit for becoming a missionary even for just a year. 53:06 Check! "To make ready a people prepared for the Lord" is the perfect why 53:12 for student missionaries at Andrews University. Now, the leaders of this campus 53:16 know we have far too few student missionaries. I agree with them. 53:22 It's not their fault. You got to sign up to be a student missionary. 53:25 They can't use conscription. You got to say, "You know what? I've been thinking about it, 53:31 Dwight. I could take a year off. I'm getting ready to graduate 53:35 this spring. I need a year just to kind of cool my heels. 53:38 I want to be out where people are in need. I'll take a year off, and then 53:42 I'll come back and work on that next step in my career." You could do that. 53:46 "You know, it's my sophomore year. It's a perfect time for me to 53:48 take a year off. I could do that, Dwight. It's a piece of cake." 53:51 Of course you could. I've watched student missionaries go and I've watched 53:56 them come back and I tell you what -- almost to a man and a woman, they come back 54:00 radicalized. Do you know what that means? I'll show you what it means. 54:03 Let me put the words of David Brooks on the screen for you, one of the brilliant 54:07 commentators and writers in this generation. He's just written a book called 54:12 "The Second Mountain." I quoted extensively from it last week, but here's just one 54:15 line from him. Put it on the screen for you. 54:17 Watch this -- David Brooks writing, "I no longer 54:21 believe --" David Brooks. "I no longer believe that the 54:25 cultural and moral structures of our society are fine, and all we 54:29 have to do is fix ourselves individually." 54:32 Nope, nope, nope. His book is deeply concerned 54:34 over the moral -- the moral collapse in this culture. 54:40 "Over the past few years as a result of personal, national, 54:43 and global events, I have become radicalized." 54:49 It's time for Seventh-Day Adventist young to become radicalized with the great why 54:53 that you've been entrusted -- to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. 54:57 We need some radical young missionaries. You can be a social missionary. 55:01 You can be a student missionary. You can be a simple missionary. We need you. God needs you. 55:09 I'm gonna put this on the screen for you -- two ways that you can become a missionary. 55:13 Number one, if you're a student, go to Campus Ministries or text 269-281-4383. 55:18 Just text them. Say, "Hey, I need to talk to you next week." 55:20 You still have one more week before they they close off sign-up. 55:23 You can do it. I know you can. So text them. Drop into Campus Ministries 55:28 next week. You say, "Dwight, I'm not a student." 55:30 Okay, there's another website for you -- adventistvolunteers.org. 55:33 I went to that website. Listen to this. I counted them. 253 openings right now for you 55:41 to serve on this planet in the U.S. and the entire planet. You want to to take a year off? 55:47 Your career's kind of going through a transition right now? This would be the great year to 55:50 do it. Go onto that website. Don't -- I'm not making you 55:54 commit to anything. Just go to the website. Check it out. 55:56 You can sign up right there. Fact of the matter is, we've all been called to be missionaries. 56:04 I read this in "Desire of Ages" just yesterday, had already written the sermon, then came 56:08 across this line. 56:09 Isn't this something? "Desire of Ages" -- "In the very 56:11 family, the neighborhood, the town, where we live, there is 56:16 work for us to do as missionaries for Christ." 56:19 Hallelujah. 56:22 Our divine why is God's divine "go." That's what it is. 56:28 Jesus said, "Go into all the world. Make disciples of everybody. 56:30 Come on. Go for me. Go, go, go, go." Jesus is coming, so we need to 56:33 be going. That's the deal. It's as simple as that -- "To 56:36 make ready --" one more time, please, on the screen. "To make ready a people prepared 56:41 for the Lord." That's your how. That's your why, rather. 56:44 That's your why. The how is -- use your voice, a voice, in any form you wish. 56:51 Please use it to share the good news. What do you say to that? 56:55 >> Amen! 57:00 >> Before you go, let me take an extra moment to share with you 57:02 an opportunity to get into the Bible in a fresh, new way. 57:04 All across the world, more and more people are hearing 57:07 the call to examine Scriptures for themselves. 57:10 If you've felt drawn to learn more about God's Word 57:12 but you don't know where to start or you're just looking 57:15 for a more in-depth examination of Bible truths, 57:17 then I have something right here that I believe 57:19 you're going to enjoy. I want to send a series 57:22 of guides to get you started. This one is entitled 57:24 "Why Does God Allow Suffering?" Each guide begins with a story 57:27 and an introduction of the subject. 57:29 Then, through a series of focus questions, you'll be 57:31 learning portions of the Bible you may never have known before. 57:34 And when you're through, you'll be able to share 57:36 with others some of these inspiring Bible truths. 57:38 So, just call our toll-free number -- it's on the screen -- 57:41 877, the two words HIS-WILL. Our friendly operators 57:45 are standing by to send these study guides to you. 57:47 Once again, that's 877-HIS-WILL. Call that number. 57:52 And then, again, join me next week right here at this same 57:56 time -- "New Perceptions." 58:01 ♪♪ ♪♪ 58:19 ♪♪ |
Revised 2020-04-01