Jigsaw Puzzle of a Journey

Welcome to Sharper Sword, the publication ministry of Lighthouse Baptist Church in Lemon Grove, California.

Lighthouse believes that individuals can reach their potential for the Lord as they grow in Christ.

We want to hear our Lord say, Well done, thou good and faithful servant.

Let's join Pastor Doug Fisher as he preaches another important biblical message from the Word of God.

Acts chapter number nine.

Thanks, Christian.

Thanks to the teen choir.

Praise the Lord.

Acts chapter number nine.

And I want to give you a little principle tonight that's uh kind of it's not it's noticeable in the book.

Uh the principle is something along these lines.

It seems like when the Spirit of the Lord moves on two or three individuals at the same time, and God begins to connect those individuals, something wonderful is about ready to happen in their lives.

Let me give it to you again.

Sometimes God will speak to this individual over here and begin to move in their hearts in a way.

And then at the same time or subsequent to that, the Lord will move upon another individual over here and uh putting, if you would, in their heart something that's going to connect with this person over there.

Sometimes there's a third or a fourth party involved.

And when the Lord starts to bring that all together and begins to columnate that, when they do finally get together and start to compare notes, they find out that the Lord's been working with all of them in a certain way that's non-coincidental.

When that happens, there should be some excitement about those people involved.

Because God's about ready to do something that is not done planned by man, not planned by a woman, but planned by the Holy Ghost of God.

And to be a part of that is something that we should count a very special privilege.

I don't care if it's a business endeavor, I don't care if it's a relationship, uh, whether it's an outreach or an inreach, uh, whatever it is, a relationship, a family, uh helping somebody, uh, where you go, wow, I just showed up on their door at the right time and I had this to say to them, and they say, Yeah, we were just thinking about that.

Man, I tell you, that's a wonderful thing.

Like you knock on somebody's door and they said, You know what?

It's amazing.

We, after all these years, had just started talking about going back to church or finding a church, and you show up.

Or you give somebody a gospel track and they're like in awe, like, thank you.

I was just thinking about, you know, needing a church or needing something, and and I and I'll come.

When those things happen, and then when it happens amongst Christians, man, it's a wonderful thing.

And may we never lose our excitement about that.

You say, I haven't had that happen in a while.

Come on, get busy, see what God's doing.

Watch for it.

It'll happen.

I don't think it'll happen sitting on our couch.

I think we have to be proactive in our lives, and I'm not going to speak on this, but sometimes we need to be in the way.

Because that servant said, I being in the way.

Being involved, being involved in a local church, being involved in outreach, being involved in something, uh, being involved on a street corner somewhere, being involved in a hospital visit somewhere, being involved, if you would, in something that God has involved in.

I want to tell you this though, when all we have is our own lives going on, we'll miss it.

It's all we have is going on as well, my life and I'm doing what I want to do, we'll miss it.

But when we're kind of in the book and walking in the way and trying to fellowship with Christians and be around people, doesn't matter what your occupation is, God can put us into those situations, and it's a wonderful thing.

I want to speak personally to you about that just a little bit tonight.

Watch the principle, the uh example of it in Acts chapter number nine.

This is Paul, or I should say Saul at the time on the road to Damascus.

And maybe it's a simple little thing, but you know there's a major event going on in the book of Acts, chapter number nine, and Saul is going to have that bright light come in on him, and he's gonna hear a voice, and he's gonna encounter with the Lord.

But I want you to notice, if you would, verse number 10.

There was a certain disciple at Damascus named Ananias, and to him said the Lord in a vision.

Now, don't let vision or the concept of a vision get you all twisted up.

Just make sure you see that the Lord was speaking to Ananias.

Because God still speaks, and sometimes it's visionary.

Would you agree with that statement?

Absolutely.

He said in a vision, Ananias.

He said, Behold, I'm here, Lord.

And he said, the Lord said unto him, Arise, go into the street which is called straight, inquire in the house of Judas for one called Saul of Tarsus.

For, behold, comma, he prayeth.

And hath seen in a vision a man named Ananias coming in, putting his hand on him that he might receive his sight.

What do you mean?

Well, God says to Ananias, there's a man named Saul of Tarsus.

Ananias knew who he was.

He said, He's over praying, and I just gave Saul, who's been now blind for three days, who has not had anything to drink, not has anything to eat.

He's traumatized by my glory and my bright light.

But I let him know in verse number 12 that you're coming, Ananias.

He and hath seen in a vision a man named Ananias coming in, putting his hand on him that he might receive his sight.

Now what I'm saying to you is this, brother, Ananias got something from the Lord.

And Ananias was given, if you would, something to do specifically from the Lord.

While that's going on, and Saul's praying, traumatized by the glorious light that came upon him, blinded him, not eating nor drinking, Paul, or that time Saul, gets a vision that a man named Ananias is coming.

God's working with two different individuals, and the result of that is going to be a wonderful thing that we know that Paul is going to be uh directed towards the Gentiles, kings, and he'll witness to Israel.

But then I want you to know something.

There's a third party that gets involved in this.

Verse number 22.

Watch what it says, verse number 22.

Saul increased.

Saul increased the more in strength, confounded the Jews which dwelt at Damascus, proving that this is the very Christ.

Isn't that?

He was on the road to Damascus, and that's where he was going to go, and with his letters, uh begin to uh uh uh give the Christians more problems and and maybe bind some of them up and put some of them in prison, and and now he's at the very city that he was heading to to do that, and he's in there now preaching Christ.

That would be confounding, amen.

Then it says this, verse uh 26.

And then, and when Saul was a say was come to Jerusalem, now he's come back to Jerusalem, he is saying to adjoin himself to disciples.

There's already a bunch of disciples in Jerusalem, but they were all afraid of him.

Believe not, why?

He had reached wreaked, he had he had wreaked havoc in verse number one.

He he had breathed out uh thunderings and and threatenings, if you would.

And everybody was afraid of him and believed not that he was a disciple.

Third party enters in, verse 27.

But Barnabas, son of consolation.

Come on, is that right?

Son of consolation, the the one that's the comforter, the peacemaker, the joiner together of.

But Barnabas took him, brought him to the apostles, and declared unto them how he had seen the Lord in the way, and that he had spoken to him, and how he might, and how he had preached boldly at Damascus in the name of Jesus.

So a third party enters in Barnabas, and the whole thing starts being put together that Saul is getting prepped, if you would, to be the apostle to the Gentiles.

Now, may I say to you, chapter 10, something similar happens in this fashion.

In chapter number 10, it's Peter.

And Peter is going to be used, if you would, to go to Cornelius.

But God's going to talk to Cornelius separately, and then he's going to talk to Peter separately, and he's going to join the two entities together.

Look at Acts chapter 10.

Acts 10 · chapter mention

Stay with me, verse 3.

Well, uh, Cornelius, verse 1, is he's uh he's a Gentile of the Italian band.

It tells us who he is.

And verse number three, focus.

He saw a vision.

And evidently, about the ninth hour of the day, an angel of God coming into him and saying unto him, Cornelius, isn't it good when God speaks our name?

You say, no, that was the angel.

It was he the angel was sent by God.

Cornelius.

He looked on him and was afraid.

What is it, Lord?

He said, Thy prayers, thy arms are come up for memorial before me.

Now, here's what I want you to do.

I want you, Cornelius, to send men.

You're a centurion, you're a leader of men, you have servants.

I want you to send some of your men, and I want you to go send them over to Joppa.

And uh, I want you to send them and call for one Simon, whose surname is Peter.

Uh, he lodges with one Simon, a tanner.

And uh, verse number seven, uh, it says, or verse number six, when you inquire of Peter and have Peter come, Cornelius, Peter is going to tell thee what thou oughtest to do.

Well, when the angels departed, Cornelius uh calls two of his household servants, uh, then and a devout soldier uh who waited on him continually.

Cornelius is a centurion.

He declared all these things to him and he sends them to Joppa.

Verse 9, on the morrow.

As they went on their journey and drew nigh to the city, Peter went up to the housetop to pray about the sixth hour.

He's becoming very hungry.

And uh he sees heaven open.

And I want to bypass if you would so we don't get cluttered up what's about ready to happen in the vision.

But what I want you to see is verse number 17.

Now, while Peter doubted in himself what this bit vision had which he had seen should mean, behold, the men which were sent from Cornelius had made inquiry for Simon's house and stood before the gate.

So now you've got those uh two servants and the soldier, and they're standing outside the gate, and they're calling and asking whether Simon, which was surnamed Peter, was lodged there.

Brethren, these these guys have never met.

They don't even know each other.

But God's moving on one group, God's moving on another group, the messengers are there, the messengers have not seen the vision.

They were just told to go and get one surnamed Simon, Peter.

And while Peter is thinking on these things, look at verse 19.

While Peter thought on this vision, the spirit said unto him, Behold, three men seek thee.

Arise, therefore, get thee down.

And the spirit said to Peter, Go with them, doubting nothing.

For I have sent them.

Now, brethren, please listen.

There's some cultural challenges here, because Peter is not really allowed to uh accompany, if you would, uh, this type of situation.

He's not allowed to be with the Gentiles, at least in his own mind.

Come on, is that right?

Everybody's still with me or not?

Dilusia?

Peter has to cross cultural.

Brother, I want to tell you something.

If we can't cross cultural, we are weak.

And I'm talking about simple-minded.

I'm talking about weak, I'm not talking about when I'm weak, he's strong.

I'm talking about weak spiritually.

If we can't get past our colors of our skin, if we can't get past the accent of our voice, if we can't get past cultural things, man, I'll tell you what, we are going to hinder what God wants to do in our life.

I mean that with all my heart.

If we can't get past these different nationalities and befriend those that we're supposed to befriend, even if somebody speaks a different language that we've never met before, may God help us to grow up a little bit.

May God help us to mature a little bit.

Because Peter went and he went because the spirit, which he knew the spirit's voice well enough, told him to go.

It was against what he knew.

It was against what he knew currently.

Like one of the things that passed through Peter's brain, I'll guarantee you, was what will the brethren think?

How do you know that?

Read on the chapters, watch what happens, and he's got to go rehearse all this back to the church he's leading.

What do you mean?

Peter's the leader of a church.

And they don't have Gentiles running around Peter's church.

And Peter's gonna get involved with a Gentile, and things are gonna happen that he has no control over, other than being obedient, and now he's gonna have to go back and rehearse them.

And they are like, really?

You know, like, well, okay, if God before it, they didn't just like, oh, that's wonderful.

Because they had to break through some cultural things too.

The concept is that the spirit told Peter, and Peter knew the voice of the Spirit well enough to go with them, doubting nothing.

Although he had a couple doubts.

Verse 21.

Then Peter went down to the men, which were sent unto him from Cornelius and said, Behold, I am Him who you seek.

This is a good question.

What is the cause wherefore you're come?

When the Spirit told Peter that three men were down there and go with them, he didn't tell, the spirit didn't tell Peter why.

You know, God has a way of doing something that requires us to walk by faith.

The spirit did not tell Peter why.

The Holy Ghost said there's three men down there, just go with them doubting nothing.

Why did he say that?

Because when he walked down, one of them was obviously a soldier.

And they were not Jewish.

Peter could tell that right away.

What?

Their dress?

Who knows if they were if they were uh uh culturally like Jewish people, but when he looked at them, Peter thought, they're not one of us.

Two servants, one one soldier, and uh immediately Peter was thinking all kinds of thought, and they said, Cornelius, the centurion.

And then they said this, a just man, and one that feareth God, and of a good report among the nation of the Jews.

I'll stop there just for a moment.

These guys knew that they were talking to a guy who was, you know, formerly Jewish, but still, if you would, even though he's a convert, he still stays separated from the Gentiles, and they're qualifying their coming.

And they're saying, Cornelius, a centurion, a just man, and we want you to know, one that feareth God and has done a lot for the Jewish nation.

Come on, you still with me?

You see what's going on here, was warned from God by an holy angel to send for thee into his house and to hear words of thee.

Then called he them in and lodged there.

So Peter says, Come in.

On the morrow, Peter went away with them.

Now notice he didn't go alone.

Certain brethren from Joppa accompanied him.

Uh, Peter needs some witnesses to go with him.

Come on, is that right?

I'm not going with these guys alone.

Why?

The Spirit didn't say go with them alone.

The Spirit said, Three men are down there waiting for you.

Go with them, doubting nothing.

Peter looks at the situation, says, Come on in, we're not leaving tonight.

And the next day, uh, those three guys, and Peter takes some men with him, too.

So here's this unusual group walking, heading back towards the centurius Cornelius.

In my mind's eye, I don't know how much fellowship they had with each other along the way.

I think, in my mind's eye, I'm probably wrong.

Peter probably was talking to his friends, and the Roman soldier with with, you know, the two servants, they were just walking along.

Chances are they were quiet.

I don't know.

I don't know how it worked.

But uh, I don't think they were just all bosom buddies skipping along, if you know what I'm talking about.

Why?

Because none of them knew kind of what was going on.

Peter didn't even know what was going on yet.

All Z knows is the spirit said, go with them, doubting nothing.

And all they know is we're supposed to just bring this guy, Peter, back to Cornelius, and uh they'll work it out from there.

Brethren, listen to me.

God's speaking to different entities, and you all know something wonderful is about ready to happen.

It's like Paul and Ananias and Barnabas.

You'll see this in the Bible a few different times, and I'm not trying to make something out of nothing, but when God begins to bring entities together for divine appointments, something's gonna happen.

And we have that currently going on in our lives also.

Not the first Gentile getting saved.

Not Paul.

But there are still things like this going on in the world by the Spirit of God.

It's going on tonight, and we should not be so so blinded with blinders on that we don't get a chance to see it.

You should experience it too once in a while.

Come on, wouldn't you agree with that?

And you probably have.

I hope so, anyways.

You say, Well, I have an experience.

Well, start passing gospel tracts out, start knocking on some doors, start getting involved in something where you interact with Christians and pull people in the church.

Well you say, I can't pull them in.

Persuade them then.

The idea is get involved in just doing what we're supposed to be doing.

And you say, Well, you're a pastor, you see that.

Brother, this was going on before I became a pastor.

I had things happen in my life once in a while before I became a pastor.

I'll tell you why.

My wife and I were working the military ministry at this church.

What do you mean?

We were going down to that NTC base, which was still active that time.

It wasn't, it wasn't shopping center down there.

It was uh men and women in uh in you know uh buttercup uniforms learning how to be Navy people and they had souls.

And the first six months or five months we went down there, nobody came.

We just kept going.

It was us and the pizza guys and the insurance guys.

What do you mean?

The base was open.

You could go in and knock on barracks, give out gospel tracks.

Well, didn't they didn't they stop you?

Yes, once in a while.

The shore patrol would come up and say, Uh, you'll have to leave now.

We say, Yes, we're leaving.

We're leaving right now, right behind the pizza guys.

What do you mean, pizza?

They delivered pizza on base.

The insurance people hung doors, hor door knockers.

They were all out there, and but if you if you overstepped your bounds and they had the wrong person in charge of the command or something like that, they'd ask you to leave.

And then that person would transfer out and back in we'd go, amen?

Why?

Uh don't take this wrong, but we had we would have eight to nine hundred first-time visitors every year from those bases.

You talk about divine appointments.

We had so many divine appointments, and I wasn't a pastor.

Oh, yeah, I didn't know there was a church in town like this.

I wasn't the pastor.

What do you mean?

Well, my grandma's been praying that I get back in church.

I don't know how many times I heard about grandmas praying.

I even got a call from a couple grandmas.

What do you mean?

What'd they say?

Thanks for thanks for finding my grandson.

He's backslid and he needs church.

Keep him going.

I heard that on the phone.

Are you still with me or not?

If I went into all the stories, and by the way, uh, some of them got married later because we we even got to the place where we set up a home and put bunks in our garage.

We had 15 bunks out there.

And they could we'd Pick them up on Friday night and they were allowed to, some of y'all don't know this, they were allowed to stay Friday night in our home in the bunk room.

On Saturday morning, they were required to either work at the church or work on the bus ministry.

Otherwise, they couldn't come.

What do you mean?

They were allowed to go work, they had to go work at the church, doing whatever needed to be done, or they had to work the bus ministry for a couple hours.

Then on Saturday afternoon, we had something for them a little bit.

Then they'd stay Saturday night.

They'd go to church Sunday morning, we'd take some of them back Sunday afternoon, and then some of them would stay Sunday night, we'd take them back Sunday night.

I want to tell you something.

Just them getting off base at that time in their A schools.

They weren't in boot camp.

They were already out of boot camp and they were either in an A school or a C school.

Come on, you still with me or not?

Well, I gotta tell you, we saw so many divine appointments going on and different things happened.

Some of them are missionaries now.

Some of them are pastors now.

Oh yeah, I ran into the one the other day.

He knew me when I had hair.

He said, Did you know I was in your bunk room?

I said, I thought you were.

I thought you were.

He said, Yeah, I was in there.

He said, and uh, that's memorable times for me.

I said, it's memorable times for my wife, too.

He said, Yeah, I remember one.

I said, which one?

He said, the one where she came and the fish was in the sink in the morning.

Yeah, I said, I remember that too.

He started laughing, I started laughing.

That day that that happened, we weren't laughing.

My wife came downstairs and somebody went fishing and got this big fish and put it in the sink.

Left it there.

My wife went downstairs in the morning, came back upstairs and said, Doug, I need to talk to you about something.

Am I expected to clean that fish?

I said, What fish?

She said, There's a fish in my sink.

I said, Really?

I said, No, I'll take care of it.

She said, please do.

And could you ask the guy who did it not to do it again?

I said, I will.

I'll take care of it.

We still, I still laugh about that.

She she chuckles now.

You say, why'd you bring that up?

Because that guy remembered the fish in the sink.

He's a pastor now.

My point is, there's divine things that go on when we're in the way involved.

It builds our faith that there's a God.

It builds our faith that we're his workmanship.

It builds our faith for things later in our lives.

What I'm saying is, when entities come together that normally would not come together, and there's cultural things and cultural differences and the spirit's moving, I want to tell you something.

It's best to go with it.

It's best to follow it.

It's best to be a part of it.

It's best to have a good spirit about it.

Stay with me, watch what happens, and we won't go into the whole thing.

So uh so Peter goes down, and when he gets down there, he's, if you read it very, very, very carefully, but Peter doesn't know what's going on.

All he knows is he's supposed to go in and he's very uncomfortable with the situation.

Uh verse 24, verse 24, Cornelius was waiting for him.

And not only did Cornelius wait, but he called together his kinsmen and his near friends.

Hey, brethren, uh, Cornelius got something from God, and he's expecting to be told what to do, and so he gathers his family together and his friends, and they're gonna have a church service.

Do I have that right?

As Peter was coming in, Cornelius met him, and here's this centurion.

I don't think we understand how important a centurion was.

A centurion in this culture was extremely, extremely highly esteemed.

Not only was he proven in battle at the point of the spear, but he was uh often an engineer type of guy that built things for the community.

And this one he said that that he had done much for the nation of Israel, if you would, for the nation of the Jews.

And he was very highly respected.

When Peter comes in, uh Cornelius uh fell down at his feet, worshipped him.

Peter said, Stand up, I myself am a man.

He talked.

They went in, and when Peter goes in, he found many were come.

Man, he's got a whole audience.

Then he goes on to say, you know, it's not unlawful, it's not lawful for me to be here, but God has shown me not to call anything common or unclean.

Verse 29, therefore came I unto you without gainsaying.

I didn't have a bad attitude about it, wasn't skeptical.

As soon as I was sent for, I asked, therefore, what intent have you sent for me?

So even in verse number 29, Peter doesn't know why he's there.

Why?

It wasn't like they were giving the gospel out to the Gentiles a whole lot.

Come on, is that right?

Why have you sent me?

And Cornelius says this uh four days ago I was fasting until this hour.

And he goes into the whole thing that God sent somebody to send for him.

And that uh, you know, Peter verse 32 should come and he shall speak unto thee.

So verse 33, immediately I sent for you, and thou hast well done that thou art come.

And then Cornelius says, Now therefore, we are all here present before God to hear all things that are commanded thee of God.

That's a receptive audience, amen.

What is that?

That's a divine appointment of a number of people coming together of different cultures that's a little uncomfortable at the start.

By the time they're done, it gets very comfortable.

Because they are of one body by the time they're done.

Come on, is that right?

The Jewish people, uh, the Jewish people there, why do you say Jewish people?

Remember, Peter still has a few guys with him.

And who are these guys?

They are observing all this, they're watching all this, they are a part of all this.

I don't know about you.

I would have liked to have been friends with Peter, and Peter said, I want you to come with me.

I've got something going on, I'm not sure exactly what it is, or we're going to go over.

There's a guy calling for us.

I would have liked to have been one of those watching all that.

Because when you watch it all, it builds your faith.

When you watch things going on where people are brought together and cultures are brought together and things are brought together and things begin to happen, it builds your faith.

Brethren, I pray we're the kind of church that can have divine appointments happen and we can receive it and not be self-centered.

Because Peter couldn't be self-centered, those men couldn't be self-centered.

Certainly, Cornelius had already persuaded all those people to be there, and if you know what's going to happen, Peter's gonna open his mouth, and then it's gonna further astound Peter what's about ready to happen.

I'm saying God speaks to different individuals and different entities, and he brings them together.

Please look here, you just sometimes watch it and go, wow.

Look at that supernatural thing happening in front of me.

We still alright?

All right, so I've set you up for something going on.

What do you mean set up?

I've tried to prep spiritually what I'm about to tell you, and and uh there's reasons for that.

I uh I get concerned as a pastor in sometimes following the Lord that not everybody might understand.

What do you mean?

In my following the Lord, trying to f trying to hear the voice of God and and do what I was told to do, that not everybody would kind of understand.

And I'm not saying anything, it's nothing major or anything like that, but tomorrow I'm going back to Sydney, Australia.

You say, weren't you just in Brisbane?

I was.

Well, why'd you come back?

Because I was supposed to.

What for?

To preach.

I'm a pa I'm the pastor of this church or one of them in that in that way, and and I need to be back.

Well then why'd you come all the way back and go back again?

Because I'm supposed to go to a different city in Australia to help a situation because the spirit, I believe, has made me.

And I'm hoping you'll receive that.

What do you mean?

I'm hoping you'll receive that, like, wait, you're a pastor here, you're going back again?

Look, we have great coverage here of men and women and leadership, and we have great preaching here, and I hope I can do what I'm supposed to do, and that you will receive that, and not say, Well, we just have this absent pastor.

May I say to you, come on, notch it up a little bit.

Come on up to the scriptures.

Come on up to what's going on.

I'm not doing this all the time, and I didn't orchestrate this.

Well, you say, why are you going back?

It's not to see the kangaroos.

I was just there, and I gotta tell you, when you're at one of these situations that's multicultural, that that has different entities coming in, you just keep working and working and working and working and drinking tea and talking and pulling out scriptures and and doing what you're supposed to be doing and meeting with people and all kinds of stuff, and you go home and nap for a couple hours and try to communicate back here.

And I'm not complaining because the time zones were all you know different and and all that, but you can't worry about that because you got to redeem the time.

Everybody still okay?

I hope you are, because if you're sitting there going, you know what, I'm gonna join another church.

Oh, please, please don't come with us, see what's happening.

So I'm going back to work with the situation of a church that's going through some deep turmoil.

And the men of the church have asked me to come, and so I'm gonna go, and um, I'll give you some background to that, maybe just a little bit, and I'm gonna try to be a little bit of a help.

And then this church, I believe, is is is going to even get larger when this is all done.

When this is all said and done, this church is gonna get larger.

You say, who's the pastor?

They don't have a pastor right now.

It's a period of time where they don't have a pastor, and there's there's a group of men trying to keep it going and bringing it together, and so there's some there's some different stuff going on.

May I leave it at that?

There's some different stuff going on.

But I believe when it's all said and done a couple years from now, that church is going to be just extremely, extremely influential.

I think they'll be sending more out.

I think it's gonna grow.

I think it's like one of those things where you just know God's in it.

It just doesn't look like it right now.

Because there's stuff going on.

We all right with what I'm saying?

So I'm getting I get there Wednesday morning.

Uh, when you fly, you lose a day.

Uh when you go over, I get there Wednesday morning, I hit the ground running, got meetings that day with individuals, a meeting with a bigger group that afternoon, and then preaching that night.

The same thing on Thursday, and then uh working with uh a larger entity of the church Thursday night.

They got it all planned.

I I don't know what my schedule is, but they'll tell me.

But but I know that it's gonna be one thing after another, one thing after another, one thing after another.

And then on Friday morning, and please stay with me, on Friday morning, I'm gonna go across the ditch over to New Zealand.

In New Zealand, there's a church that's been worked on for two and a half years now.

And I hope you just listen and would you think just a moment, let me stop here and pause.

Would you think about Acts chapter number nine and this entity being told about this entity and Paul and Ananias and Barnabas just for a moment?

And then would you think about Cornelius a little bit and Peter and the entities involved there and the people waiting to hear what Peter.

I'm not Peter, I'm not Saul, I'm not Barnabas, I'm not Ananias, I'm not any of that, but God still has this stuff going on.

Are you still with me or not?

You'll be fine and taken care of here and cared for.

I'm involved with texting and emailing or whatever needs to be, and I just hope you have a good spirit about it.

Please.

Please.

You know, I've been here since 1980, and that's no big deal.

Few and evil have my years been.

I'm not saying you've been evil, but there was a man who said after a hundred and some years, his comment was, few and evil have my years been of my pilgrimage been.

We ought to look at what we're doing and not say it's a big deal because you've been here for a while.

When you're assigned, when you're assigned to somewhere, why should you go anywhere else?

I got assigned here in 1980 and I wasn't even the pastor.

I was an usher, and ushering is important, and I took it seriously.

And I was a I was a good usher.

What do you mean?

I was I was I was the bad guy usher.

What do you mean the bad guy usher?

When something needed to be happened that pastor wanted taken care of, he would appoint me to do it.

And I would try as kindly as possible, but I gotta tell you, being a former Marine Corps officer, it was like just I gotta be honest.

You know, yeah, I'll take care of it, no problem.

Then I started picking up guys for the military, and my wife was in on that, and we started, we started picking them up in a little brown Toyota station wagon that I had to let roll down the hill to get started because the starter didn't work and I couldn't afford to pay to fix it.

So you popped the clutch.

Do you know what I'm talking about or not?

So I'm always parked on an incline.

One time I was picking up guys, had three guys in the car, and I stalled it out.

I said, I'm a little embarrassed, guys.

And they said, What's the problem?

I said, My starter doesn't work.

One guy jumped out and he said, Come on, guys, real quick.

They got in the back, pushed it, jump started, off we went, amen.

Just like growing up in Ohio.

No big deal.

They thought it was a wonderful thing.

They all were laughing and everything, and we rolled into church on fumes.

They didn't know that.

I wondered how many times that car was being driven by an angel somewhere, amen.

But my point is, so that's what we did.

And uh we we it was one of those days, and and and it was one of those periods of time, and then uh when I was became pastor in 1984, it is no big deal that you stay somewhere where you're supposed to stay for a few years in the moment of time we have on this life.

Come on, are you with me or not?

It's called a moment, it's a little vapor, we ought to do what we're supposed to do.

So, over those years, uh, you know, I was bivocational, I worked a job and everything, uh, and pastored the church, and and I won't go into all that, but uh over the years, uh your hair gets a little grayer, you stay somewhere a little while, and people think you know something.

And when the Spirit bid bids them to call you, they do.

I got a call by the men of that church uh in Australia and saying, Would you come and help us?

Now, about two and a half, almost three years ago, uh a man called me, a businessman.

He said, We've got a little situation down here in New Zealand, we'd like to ask your opinion of.

It was a church that started in a home, a house.

It was some uh workers who had come into Christ Church, and uh they were from different nationalities, a Brazilian, Portuguese, Filipino, uh, some uh New Zealanders.

A New Zealander calls themselves the Kiwi.

Like we call ourselves American, Australians call themselves Aussies, uh, New Zealanders call themselves Kiwis.

So there's some Kiwis and some different, uh, if you would, nationalities in there.

Started this church.

I won't go into all the detail, but let's just say that I got involved a little bit by phone.

The church started growing a little bit, they had some situations they had to work through.

They worked through those situations, there was some personnel change, and it was just a Bible study group.

And uh, more people and more people started coming.

I was working with uh uh a uh businessman that was there working in business in New Zealand.

He's from Australia.

I had met him in Australia at a at a church in Australia.

He was sitting in the third row one night many years ago and heard me preach, and he said, uh, we need a little help.

And by the way, just so back up just for a moment, now and I won't I'll go forward first.

Uh he said we need a little help, and so I said, Look, I'm going into Australia.

I could pop over if you'd like me to.

And so I just uh it's it's just about a four-hour flight on the way back home, popped into New Zealand in the Christ Church, and worked with him down there.

And and what I did for three days was I counseled with the members of the church four to five hours a day, different ones, and then I would preach at night and do the same thing the next day, different people, do the next day, and three days of that, and it kind of bonded a little bit, and they kind of got together, and uh I was just a part in what God was doing with them there.

They're still together.

Uh, there's about 60 or 70 of them now together.

And uh this summer they get their pastor.

He'll be with us in April.

He's uh from Lancaster Baptist, great guy.

And uh he'll be with us on a Sunday night and tell you how God brought him and his wife to New Zealand, and they're going down there, and we're gonna support them as he's gonna pastor a new church down there with members, and I believe it's gonna be a significant church in New Zealand.

You say you're saying that.

No, when you watch all this stuff coming together, this entity and that entity, and then you weigh in the spiritual battle.

What do you mean you weigh in the spiritual battle?

You look at the spiritual battle going on, and after some years of experience, you go, wow, the intensity of this, something good must gonna happen here.

There seems to be a real uh opposition to this.

You mean from humans?

No, from spirits.

Sometimes they work through individuals.

You mean from without?

Oh, it can be from without or it can be from within.

And God gets them through all that, and then if I told you all the story, I won't tonight, but I hope uh his name is Sam Hutchinson.

I hope Sam will tell you a little bit about what God's done.

I've never seen his presentation before.

But we've been down there once or twice together, and I am now, I am now submissive to Sam, even though he's not officially down there yet.

I would not go without the businessman and the church men of the church, if you would, their permission, and not without Sam's blessing, too.

So I'm going down there to uh New Zealand.

Before Sam gets there, he's not there yet, and I'm gonna work with the church in three different areas that they've asked me to work with, and it's wall-to-wall, just just wall-to-wall time.

And so I'm gonna be with them, and then uh I'll preach there, uh, I believe it's Sunday morning.

And then Sunday I'm transported up to Auckland, which is about a two and a half hour flight up to Auckland in the afternoon.

And there's another guy up there in Auckland that I met three years ago at Brisbane.

You say, What do you mean you met him?

He came to Brisbane for the first time with another guy from another little kind of entity, and he was there in Brisbane at a conference at Pastor Lloyd's Church, Good Shepherd Baptist, and God just really got a hold of him.

And he God kind of married us up a little bit.

What do you mean, married you up a little bit?

You mean like a bromance?

I don't know what you call it, but the Holy Spirit was between us.

And we knew it.

Like tearfully knew it.

And I said, Look, I'd like to help you if we can be a help to you.

He said, Well, you know, that'd be good, and got to know his wife a little bit.

Uh, she's a national New Zealander.

She's uh the culture is Maori, if you know anything about uh we have uh Native Americans, uh Australians have Aborigine, and she is Maori.

And man, can she sing.

Oh, it brings tears to my eyes when she sings.

Very powerful, very powerful.

And that church in Auckland now has grown and grown and grown.

So I'm gonna stop by Auckland, work with them for one night, and then one morning with the some pastors in the Auckland area, and then I'll be back.

Now, I realize you say, gee, that's another Sunday.

I know, but we got good preaching here.

And I hope you embrace this and not say, Oh, come on, what are you doing?

It's almost like you're leaving us.

I'm not leaving you.

And this church doesn't center around me anyway.

It centers around the Lord.

Now, may I say something to you?

I know we believe in missions, don't we?

Let me ask you again, don't we believe in missions?

Okay, to me, this is missions.

I view it a little different way.

Australia is a different country, but it's not foreign to me.

New Zealand is a different country, but it's not foreign to me.

It's not like I'm a world traveler, I'm just saying I feel comfortable there.

Were you gonna go there?

No, I'm just feel saying I feel comfortable there.

They're friends.

They're gonna have an influence.

They're gonna reach a part of the Pacific Rim that you and I won't.

They're gonna reach nationalities that you and I won't.

And our missions endeavored, our church is worldwide.

The vision is worldwide.

Come on, is that right?

We have missionaries in, we send them out.

Why can't some of us go to help and then come back?

I'm not saying we make that a regular routine, but Brother Cheney just went down to the Cayman Islands and affected three or four islands down there.

I've asked Brother Cheney to come back and put together a little report and some preaching and some pictures so you can see.

Brother Champagne's going over to Australia this this year.

You mean like to vacation or visit?

They're gonna visit a little bit, probably vacation a little bit, but he's going over there to work.

Is that okay to say that?

Said it now.

Are you going, Zinny?

Good.

And we don't know how it's all gonna work out, but I got guys that want you.

You say, who wants art?

Some of the guys that's been at our leadership conference, especially this past year.

What do they want him for?

I know.

Brother, if we're gonna have a leadership conference and people come in, shouldn't we we be willing?

Brother Northcutt and Melissa go out, and you don't know the people they affect.

I mean, it's it's it's national a little bit, but we don't have a we don't have this name on it.

It's the name is Lighthouse Baptist Church.

That's the name.

Why don't we call it something?

Okay, let's call it Lighthouse Baptist Church.

And missions that you're supposed to do.

Come on, is that right?

Absolutely.

And and the idea is uh, oh, by the way, I'm not asking you for money tonight.

You don't, you know, I'm sitting here going, oh, you're gonna ask me for money?

I'm not asking for money.

They're paying the ticket.

I'm just saying, let me go.

Let me go do what the Spirits bade me to do.

And I'm asking you, don't go looking for another church.

Stay, stay here because there's more coming.

And then I want to say this to you too.

I grow.

Let me grow.

Let me mature.

Let me be put into situations where I it's it's unusual.

And I have to trust the spirit.

Let me be put into cultural situations where I uh I was I was over in Brisbane and and uh Pastor Lloyd had a uh uh uh kind of a discussion thing going on about pastors and preaching, and we were teaching them, and there was uh three guys up there, and he was asking questions, and uh one of the guys uh next to me, if you would, uh, made a statement, and um and I said to him, What did you just say?

I was on a microphone, I said, What did you just say?

I'm American, I didn't understand that.

And everybody started laughing.

He said something about a chook.

Chook, chook.

Chook.

I said, What's a chook?

It's a chicken.

Yeah, I didn't know that.

And he said, Yeah, we're gonna have chook, and he said something else real fast.

I said, Ho, ho, ho, ho, interpret that.

And everybody was laughing because I'm accepted, you know, and I I want to know what he said.

Because what he said required a response from me.

You don't respond to something that if you're just getting set up or you don't know what you're saying.

Because if I answered wrong after he said that, somebody would say, Oh, did you I it could mess the whole thing up?

So I said, What did you just say?

He said, Well, we were over having chicken, and then I told him this, and then I told him that, and it was in the colloquialisms, and I didn't get it.

Everybody was laughing and making fun of me, and I had people coming up later saying, Hey, let's go get chucks.

The point of it being is, brethren, uh, culturally, there's some extra work involved.

But you learn things, and then I want to tell you something.

You hear preaching that's that's dynamic.

Dynamic in what way?

It's from a viewpoint that they learn culturally that I didn't learn culturally.

Do you understand what I'm saying?

It's from a viewpoint they learn culturally that I didn't learn culturally that I go, wow, there's something I would have never seen being an American.

Is that okay saying that?

I would have never seen that being American.

Brother Change, you go in the islands, you learn anything down there?

I mean, you grew, you had to.

And look, let us grow a little bit.

Because we're gonna come back here and be better.

And it's not like we're making phone calls, please invite me to do this.

We wait for the Spirit to dial the phone.

And I appreciate that there'll be some of the different people traveling a little bit, doing a little bit, and and by the way, we still have to do the work here.

We don't leave Jerusalem and forsake Jerusalem.

My heart never leaves here.

I'm here 24-7.

What do you mean?

You you were away.

I'm here, I my mind at three in the morning, I'm texting people because you're awake over here.

Is that still okay?

You hear what I'm saying?

You say, well, you're making a case, I'm fine with it, but you don't know if the person next to you is okay with it.

I was just, I was just gone.

But I'm gonna I'm gonna run over again, and uh, we got good preaching coming up, and and please don't go.

Well, I'm not gonna go because he's not there.

Brother, let me tell you something.

You don't come because of me.

If I die, this church is not gonna fall apart.

If I die, you should not say, well, then that's not my church, because I didn't assign you here.

God sets people in the body.

And you ought to not forsake in the assembling of yourselves together where you're assigned.

Unless you got something family, unless you're out of town, unless the military has something, your business has something.

Brother, we ought to be in church.

I I don't, I don't, please, uh, and I hope, I hope I'm watching our time.

What time is it?

I can't see tonight.

Oh, there it is.

Okay.

I gotta, I gotta quit.

Uh, I don't come back and go, oh, I'm tired.

I think I'll lay out.

No.

I know what time I got in, and I had a commitment two hours later.

Another commitment three hours after that, another one.

What I'm saying is two hours later, then the third hour, then the fourth hour, then the fifth hour.

I want to come back hitting the ground running.

And I and I and I did everything I was supposed to do as long as I could, and at eight o'clock at night, you just drop over.

You don't have to, you don't have to, you know, use NyQuil, PM stuff, you know, the stuff for like uh like uh what's that called?

Something uh PM?

Yeah, Tylenol PM.

You don't have to do all that and wake up grogger, you're just out.

But you wake up at two in the morning.

And say, well, I better get busy again.

Studying to do, things to do, get prepared.

Let's get going.

And somebody says, Are you tired?

Sure.

Why not?

I only get so long on this earth, and so do you.

But it's not because I'm tired because I went out and got drunk.

It's not because I'm tired because I was lazy, lazy.

And I'm not justifying myself.

I'm just saying, let me do what I'm supposed to be doing to enhance what's going on here because we can bring things back in that helps your children.

We'll have missionaries sin out of here.

I've got some boys that visited Thailand with me last year.

It's affecting my family in a good way.

Wonderful way.

Uh, Bob and Marlene Ottoman, they've been taking some little trips, missions, and things like that.

I told Bob this morning, sometime you need to just puff up here and tell us about one of your trips.

Missions.

Well, if I'm not called to a missionary field to be a missionary, then should I go?

Hey, you know what?

If you got the money and God tells you to, you ought to go.

Well, I want to see something culturally.

Yeah, yeah.

See something culturally, but go for the Lord.

Are you still with me or not?

I mean, you're not bound to this place.

What do you mean?

You're not bound to your culture?

You're you're not, you say, Well, I have I don't have the money to do it.

You can work a little extra harder, and if you want to go to the mission field, see something.

I just talked to a pastor this afternoon about a situation coming up, and he said, I'm glad you called me, Brother Fisher.

He said, uh, it's good that you caught me now.

I'm on my way to Brazil after I preach tonight.

I said, Good, I'll pray for you, preacher, and everything.

And uh he said, Yeah, I'm going over and we got some different things going on, a big work going on that we're being a part of, and et cetera, et cetera.

And I said, That's wonderful.

When you're around that, the world gets smaller.

It's not that big.

And there's not that much time.

Am I presenting this okay?

You say, well, what's the point of this message?

Maybe God, divinely, will speak to somebody, and then the spirit will speak to you.

And it doesn't have to be a foreign nation, it doesn't have to be a different country, it could be here in America, it could be here in San Diego, and just to watch that, how the Lord orchestrates, and then I want you to accept what I'm doing with a good spirit and good attitude.

Uh brother and I consider you friends.

I'll say it again.

I consider you friends.

I hope we're friends.

You say, I'd like to be closer to you.

Yeah, I'd like to be closer to you too.

You know, and if you need to get together, I'll get together with you.

Oh, you're always so busy.

Don't use that as an excuse.

What do you mean, excuse?

Don't don't come up to me and tell me I'm too busy.

Don't don't do that.

Don't lay that on me.

Let me smile right there.

Well, I know you're busy and you're too busy.

Really?

When when didn't I return your call?

When didn't I return your text?

When didn't I try to work out a schedule to get together with you?

Now, if I did, it's be if I didn't do it, it's because I forgot.

But I write down just about everything.

I got notes on my hand, I got notes in the Bible, I got notes on my phone.

I'm amazed that that slipped through.

If I made you a promise and didn't keep it, come to me and say, You made me a promise and you didn't keep it.

And there'll be a line formed right here afterward.

And I'll try to make that up because I am not too busy to be what I'm supposed to be as a friend and a pastor at this church.

Now, maybe I don't get out to visit all the time as timely as I should, but I'm trying, and we got wonderful staff that do it.

And they're out there, and I appreciate the fact, but we've had so many good testimonies recently about God doing some wonderful things.

Brethren, it's just good to be a part of church and something going on, and I hope your spirit's good towards this.

And all I've been instructed by the Lord tonight was to say a few things to try to keep your spirit right about what I'm doing, knowing that I'm just not out there manipulating something.

Brethren, I think I have 10 years left, maybe, to pastor.

Maybe.

You say, why do you say that?

I'm 60 something.

Uh I keep getting the numbers wrong.

I do.

I said it to someone I'm 60, I said I was 61.

They said, what year were you born?

I said, 54.

I don't do the math all the time.

I don't keep up with my age.

Women do that more than men do.

You know, like what's your age?

I I think I'm 63 this year.

If God lets me get 10 more years, if I can pastor to them 73, as long as I don't get in the way.

As long as I don't get in the way.

I never want to get in the way of the church.

I never want to get old, tired, complacent, and get in the way of the church from going forward.

Does that make sense?

Somebody ought to say amen right there.

Because if a guy gets old and starts drifting or stops pedaling, it can get in the way of the church growing, being what it's supposed to be.

But I want to tell you, we've we've got wonderful leaders that let's do this, let's do that, let's keep going.

Some of you ought to come to the planning meeting.

Well, you say, I'm not, I'm not, you know, above that.

Why don't you come and sit and watch and listen?

We got the the people that are going to be involved, and Brother Northcote, where are you at, Brother Scott?

Hmm.

Yeah.

Aren't we doing the gallery?

Anybody can come.

Why don't you come to your local church planning meeting?

Sit in there for a couple hours and listen to the plans.

You say, why are you setting it up that way?

I was in a hearing in Washington.

And the main people were in a panel, and then there were people on this side, and they were doing all the talking, and then there was the gallery.

And I was listening to a hearing there.

This was back however long ago.

And I was thinking, you know what?

When our planning meeting, we'll have this people and this people doing all the planning, but we ought to open up the gallery for anybody who wants to come.

Some teenager that wants to be a leader, we ought to let them come and see what's going on in their local church and get excited about it.

So that's what we're doing.

Being a part, seeing what God's.

But I think I got a few years left.

And if I've said something wrong tonight, I want you to know my spirit is trying to be clear.

And my conscience is trying to be clean.

And I don't want to get on that airplane tomorrow.

Without doing what I was supposed to do tonight.

My wife's not here tonight.

She's been she's driving in from Arizona.

She was over in Arizona taking care of what she was supposed to take care of by the Lord.

Three different things.

She's driving in tonight.

We'll see each other, touch base, do all that.

And uh then she knows I'm I'm leaving tomorrow.

Um last week we were in Pennsylvania together.

She was speaking, I was speaking.

We spent that time together, we worked together.

Um, I had some new messages I was working on.

She had some stuff she had to do, like going shopping in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, spending time with the pastor's wife there, which was extremely valuable.

And then uh she flew back here, and I flew towards Australia.

I just want to say thank you for letting me past.

Thank you for being patient.

Uh I I do love y'all.

I hope I hope that you reciprocate understanding that I'm just trying to be and do what God would have me to do, but it's not in lieu of.

I'll say that again, it's not in lieu of, it's alongside of.

And may the spirit work in your lives to bring you together for different things with different people out there, to where your faith grows, and we see wonderful things collectively together for the Lord.

I've got some thoughts for our church coming up that I'm extremely, extremely excited that the Spirit is leading us.

I know Brother Northcut does, Brother Cheney does, Brother Art does, Brother Harold does, Brother Braille does, Brother Odell does, brother, your name, Sister So-and-so.

If I didn't name your name, crucify me.

I'm just kidding.

It's a collective effort, and we continue to work to be what God wants us to be.

Brethren, our leadership conference, God has been blessing.

What do you mean it's over?

No, it's not.

It's not over, it's still maturing.

What do you mean?

It's over.

Everybody came, they left.

Oh, but they left.

But the Spirit's still using it.

It's not because maybe something we did, but something happened there that we just got to be a part of.

And the Spanish Leadership Conference, too.

Oh, it's exciting.

So may God individually speak to us to move us together, do things together, work together, meet new people, do new things.

Your endeavors, God bless, please let me go and have a good spirit.

I'll be available.

If you get a hold of me, I'm available.

If I don't take your phone call on Australia, it's because I'm cheap.

I'm just being honest with you.

I'm just cheap.

It just costs money to do that.

I'm just cheap.

But if it's emergency, I'm available.

But I'm just not going to be over there chatting it however much a minute.

I'll tell you what, I just can't do it.

You mean you can't afford it?

No, the church pays for my phone, and I my conscience won't let me do that.

I'm just being honest with you.

The church pays for my phone, and I just won't chat overseas and cost the church money.

I just won't do it.

May God help.

Thank you for listening to this message by Pastor Doug Fisher of Lighthouse Baptist Church in Lemon Grove, California.

To learn more about Lighthouse Baptist Church, visit our website at www.lighthousebaptist.com or call 619 461 5561.