Missions | Pastor Joel Wolfe | May 31st 2026

But I just want to take a moment and turn

to the word. Amen. We have such a beautiful thing

in the word of God. This past week, I helped

facilitate a women's Bible study in our neighborhood. And there's

eight gals that come. And of those eight gals, quite

a good chunk of them have never been been to

church and really don't know the Lord. In fact, when

we started this Bible study there, the one girl came,

she had, she had her book because we were going

to do a book at a study out of a book.

And she said, I don't even know what a Bible

study is. What do you do? Well, you study the Bible,

you know, and every Friday morning, when we open that

thing up, wisdom just floods out of the pages of God.

It's just so amazing. So, and it's the same for

us here, you know, Here on Sunday mornings, we open

up the word and wisdom flows. You are the light

of the world is the theme. No, don't quite go

there quite yet. That's the theme for our missions here

at New Horizon. And so the whole theme of these

last few days has been that. And we heard a

few weeks ago how in the very opening verses of Genesis,

how the world was dark. The earth was without form.

It had nothing there. It was chaos. And the word

says that the first things out of God's mouth were

let there be light. Because in light comes life. In

light comes the ability to see and to know and

to have vision and to be able to do the

things that need to be done. In light there is

color and embedded in light is beauty. Everything that we

need is in light. And that is why the very

first thing to come into the world is light. Light

versus darkness. And I will tell you that darkness is

merely the absence of light. And even today, when we

look at the world, we listen to the news, it

seems so dark. It seems so chaotic. But I will

say that the darkness in this world is only missing

one thing. It's one light away from not being dark

any longer. The only difference is the presence of light.

Let there be light. And when Jesus came, he stood

before the masses and said, I am the light of

the world. He was saying that inside of me is life.

Inside of me is beauty and guidance for your path

and all the things. And then he said, actually, let's

throw that up there. Then he said, you are the

light of the world. Can you imagine that? He doesn't

just stop with declaring that He's the light. He's God.

Of course he's the light. But he's saying he wants

to come and live inside of you. And now you

are the light of the world. Those of you who

have Christ inside of you, you are not just a

normal human being going about your day any longer. Now

you are the light of the world. And it's in

you that he is going to shine his light abroad. Amen?

So it says, you are the light of the world.

You are a city on a hill that cannot be hidden.

When we come together, not only are we one little flicker,

but when we come together, say here at church, we

are now a city. And this city is meant to

be set on a hill. The hill in Israel, they

used to build their towns, their cities on the tops

of what's called tells or mountains. Well, you know, over there,

their mountains aren't very mountainy. If you look at Mount Rainier,

then they're, you know, just a little bump, but they

would put their cities on that bump. And if there

was a traveler, if there was someone traveling, they could

look and see up on the hill. Oh, there's light.

I need to get there. And that's what this is together.

A lot of lights coming together. Now we are a city.

Now together we can do things for this world and

for missions like you can't do by yourself. You are

a city set on a hill. That cannot be hidden.

Neither do people light a lamp and put it under

a bowl. Instead, they put it on a stand and

it gives light to everyone in the house. In the

same way, let your light shine before men that they

may see your good deeds and praise the Father in heaven.

And that is you. You are that light to be

set on a stand. Amen. Not to shrink back. Not

to look at darkness and say, oh my goodness, what

are we going to do? And hide. No, darkness is

darkness because it needs a light. And when darkness and

light meet, can I just tell you something? Light always wins.

Light always wins. Even Jesus, who said he was the

light of the world, Darkness put him on a cross.

But I'll tell you what, darkness did not win. Because

three days later, he rose again. And when light comes

into darkness, it will find its enemy. Darkness does not

like light. But light always wins. Light always wins. Matthew 1.8, sorry,

Acts 1.8 says... That you will receive power when the

Holy Spirit comes on you. And you will be my

witnesses in Jerusalem and all of Judea and Samaria and

to the ends of the earth. This is his call.

He comes and he fills you with who he is.

And then he says, go and be my light everywhere.

He says to go. Mark 16, 15 says, go into

all the world and preach the gospel to all the creation.

This is our mandate. This is our job. It is

our position, according to the word, that we are to

engage in. with the world. We are not to step

back from the world. We are not to hide from

the world. We are not to make our own little

spot over here and keep the world away. No, we

are to go into the world and engage it because

you are his light bearer and light always wins. I

need you to see yourself as God sees you. You

are the light. And maybe you've made a few boo-boos

in the past. Maybe you've done a few things that

maybe wasn't very lightish. But God doesn't care. He's a redeemer.

He is a redeemer. Our dear Margaret, are you kidding me?

What a story because light always wins. And I want

you to say that over your life right now. I

don't know what you're up against. I don't know what's

pushing you back. I don't know what's pushing you down

and away because darkness hates light because it knows it

will have to flee. But whatever that is, I want

you to say to yourself, light inside of me will win.

You are meant to win because you have him in you.

Praise the Lord. It's our job to engage. And ever since,

you know, 2000 years ago, when those verses were written,

missionaries have gone forth. Those scriptures have been obeyed by

so many human beings. So many amazing stories. So many

heroes of the faith. The Bible says that we are

surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses. That great

could be size, but I also think it means stature

of heroism. I love those stories. I love the stories

of the missionaries of the past. I love them. But

there's missionaries now. Did you know that there's 450,000 missionaries

right now on foreign land? 450,000 of them out there

right now. And you might say, I'm not out there.

What am I? I'm just a normal human being. No,

you are a part of God's vision for missions. Did

you know that? You are a piece of it. $ 17, 000

worth of a piece of it. Because behind every missionary...

There are people. not traveling, but missionarying by giving and praying.

And if we didn't have that half of the mission story,

we would never have the half that goes. Does that

make sense? As we were in worship again today, Just

like last week, and I shared last week, I was

overwhelmed with the sense of significance of every soul sitting here.

You might not be on the mission field. You might

not be doing some of the things that the stories

that I've read, but you are so significant because you

are a piece of it. You are a mission. You're

missionarying every time you give. You are missionarying every time

you pray. You are missionarying. You are a piece of

the chain that makes it happen. These local, these current heroes,

I'm gonna tell you a quick story. I didn't tell

it to the first service because I was in a hurry,

but I'm not in such a hurry, right? Nobody's in

a hurry, right? Okay. Well, there was a lady named

Karen Youngblad. She's a YWAM missionary. And this was in 2017.

We got a little YWAM missionary sitting right here. You're

gonna go out in just a few little bits. Praise

the Lord. I could stop and just preach on her

right now. But I gotta tell my story. Someday there's

gonna be stories about you And I'm going to tell them.

But anyway, this lady, she's a nurse. She was retired

from here in America. And she's leading teams, medical teams,

into Peru on a regular basis. as she's going in,

typically has a doctor's and nurse, you know, all the things,

and she's an RN, and she facilitates them and would

take them in. Well, this one particular team that was

going to go very deep in the Amazon jungle, she

finds out last minute the doctor's not going, and she's like, well,

I'm not going to go if the doctor's not going

to go. What use am I to do this if

I don't have a a doctor, but the Lord kept saying, go, go, go.

It's okay. So she packed up her little team, flew

down to Lima, eight hour boat ride into the Amazon

and goes to their village that they're gonna minister in.

While they're ministering, a man comes and he says, I

got a lot of pain. So she had nothing to

give him but ibuprofen. She gave him some ibuprofen and

sent him home. Few hours later, his daughter comes back

and says he died. come help. Well, she's like, he's dead.

So she goes there and everybody's mourning on the outside

of this hut. And she tells her people that the

daughter said he did not know Jesus. He was a

total non-believer. So she goes into the little raised floor hut,

leaves her team outside and she just says, pray, just pray.

So she goes in And she looks at, he's dead

in a doornail, no pulse, no respirations. And the only

thing she had to offer was CPR. She had no IVs.

She had nothing. So she starts doing CPR on this

guy and he, she ends up getting a pulse. She

ends up getting a pulse, but he's non-responsive and he's

breathing a little bit on his own. So she's like, okay,

I have nothing more to do. I don't, I can't

give him fluids. I can't do that. So she said, okay, God,

he's yours. She goes out and she's like, well, His

heart's beating again. You know, she didn't have enough oomph

inside of her to say, he's raised to life. You know,

her faith was not very high. And so they leave

and they're kind of cheering and like, oh, wow. You know,

what was that? And then message came back that he

died again, that his heart stopped. And so she goes

back and they do the same thing. She's doing CPR

on him. And he comes back. He starts, she gets

a heart rate back and all that kind of thing.

And the first word out of his mouth, he actually

is able to talk this time. And he says the

word Jesus. And so she leaves and says, God, he's

in your hands. He survives the whole night. The next

day he gets up out of bed, finds them and says,

I have been a very bad person. I will never

live another day of my life without Jesus. And he, yes.

This woman, this woman who thought she had nothing to give.

She's a hero. She's a missionary. She's doing what she

knows to do. God is so good. God is so good.

We must, we must partake in missions. So that's a

story of the here and now. I have one last

story to share. I got lots of stories. It's hard

to pick. But there was a gentleman in the 1800s, mid-1800s,

named George Muller. Anybody heard of George Muller? A few

of you. Yeah, he's a wonderful guy. He was pastoring

a church, and he felt that he should quit his

church and go into the slums of Bristol. England and

gather all of the children, the orphans in this highly

industrialized area where kids were just feral. They had gone feral.

Basically children were just, it was a terrible situation. And

so he went in, he never told him, never asked

anybody for money. And he just said, Lord, if this

is you take care of me. And so people started

coming up to him and handing him stuff and saying,

I don't know why I'm giving you this, but I

feel like I need to give you this. They don't

even know what he's doing. So he begins to gather

children and he starts an orphanage. And at one point

he has 400 children and they're all in this building.

And he has helpers that come and help. And one

evening the cooks came to him and said, we have

no food. Look in our cupboards, nothing, right? Literally nothing.

I don't think any of us know what that's like.

Because even when I opened my refrigerator, I said, there's

nothing to eat. Are you kidding me? There's piles of

food to eat. No, these guys had nothing left. And

he said, okay. He spends the night praying. He's not

telling anybody. He's not getting the word out. He spends

the night praying. The cooks come back in the morning,

hoping that a miracle had happened. And sure enough, no miracle.

So they go to him and he says, it's okay.

Set the tables for the children. 400 plates, 400 sets

of silverware, 400 children getting their shoes on and getting

ready for school. 400 children coming down excited for what

they're going to eat. And the adults are all looking

at each other like, what's he going to do now?

Shouldn't we do this? Shouldn't we do that? Maybe we

should quit. Maybe we should give up. Maybe this isn't right.

But George Mueller kept his faith. And he said, we're

going to pray and bless the food we're going to eat.

And so he had all the children. The He said,

let's all bow our heads and fold our hands and

pray and bless the food we're about to eat. And

in the middle of the prayer, there's a knock on

the door. And one of the cooks opens the door.

And who's standing there but the village baker. who said,

you know, I was sleeping, just minding my own business,

when I woke up and I felt like I should

start baking bread for you this morning. So he turned

around and behind him was an entire cart filled with fresh,

warm bread. Before he was done blessing the food that

he didn't have in faith, calling those things that are

not as though they are. And before he was done,

he looks up and there's another knock at another door,

you know, the other side of the building or whatever.

And the ladies go over and answer that one. And

sure enough, right there was the village priest. dairy man,

I guess. I don't know what you call him, but

he had a whole cart of fresh milk, big, huge

bins of milk, but his axle had broken right in

front of the orchard, orphan, orphanage, whatever it is. And

he said, you know, I can't get this fixed. By

the time I do, the milk's going to be no good.

So do you have any need for some milk? And

they're like, yes, bring it in. And so those children

ate until they were full, fresh bread and warm milk.

But I say that to say, where would George Muller

be with his obedience and his faith without the baker

and the dairyman? being faithful and generous to do what

they do and to be faithful to give. Where would

it be? He is credited with over 5,000 children that

were raised, clothed, fed, housed, and educated into becoming doctors

and lawyers. But how could he do it without those

that give. Now that baker wasn't called to go and

to do all that, that baker. was called to bake.

But he was a part of the miracle. You might

not be in Africa. You might not be in Thailand.

You might not be working for Teen Challenge. You might

be going to your job, doing your work. But I

will tell you the significance of what you do day in,

day out. You are a light for him. And when

you are called upon and you hear of something and

you sense something on the inside and you respond instantly,

You are being a part of that miracle. You are

being missionaries. Amen. Let's pray right now. Would you pray

with me? I want to pray for every missionary out there,

every ministry that's local right now. Maybe they're praying over

something right now. They're calling something that is not as

though it is. just like he was needing bread for

those children. There are ministries and missionaries right now around

the world that are in need. Father, God, in Jesus' name,

we pray over the nations. We pray over those that

have been so faithful. We pray over them who are

standing even now in need, in want, with struggle. Lord God,

I ask you right now to put strength in their bones.

and faith in their heart, and finance in their pockets,

and the ability to do the things that you've called

them to do. God, I call the unsaved to come

to them for the answers. God, I pray right now

for your Holy Spirit to just permeate the world. For

Father God, you are the light of the world. And

we come against darkness. We come against every power of

the enemy. And we say light always wins. May this

be a year of great harvest. May this be a

year of great harvest. Praise you, Jesus. Would you please,

for me, consider giving into this offering. If I could

have the ushers come forward. The giving slide needs to

go up. I want you to do two things. I

want you to consider your monthly pledge. That QR code

on the orange band is a QR code link to

a pledge card. And if you have been a monthly

pledger here at New Horizon, I've had a few of

you ask if you need to fill that out again,

I do need you to fill that out again. So

we kind of know. So you can use that upper

QR code there for a digital pledge card and let

us know. I will tell you up until now, I'm

about halfway to our pledge need on a monthly basis.

So I want to encourage every single one of you,

100% New Horizon participation. Be it $ 10, $ 20, $ 50, $ 100, $ 200,

$ 500 a month. I don't know what you can do.

But let's all be involved. Every one of us. The

other QR code is for project, our project income. So

if you would like to give online, you can do

right there into this $ 7, 000 challenge that I'm putting out.

If you haven't given yet, go ahead and do it.

If you gave in the past year, Couple of weeks,

but you still want, you know, throw on another whatever.

If you want, that'd be great. But so you can

use that QR code. You can also use the envelope

in front of you. And cash and check is fabulous

as well. This whole entire offering will go towards missions.

Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Father, in Jesus name,

oh God, I thank you right now for this church. God,

I thank you that you planted this church as a lampstand.

You've called churches lampstands. Funny thing, lampstands give light and

light always wins. Father, I thank you right now that

this church, our light will not go out and we

will shine like a city on a hill that the

lost can come here. Father God, I thank you for

that in Jesus name. Thank you for the faithfulness of

the givers in Jesus name. Amen. Hallelujah. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. So go ahead. We're

going to pass buckets. I'm sorry. I didn't, if I

didn't make that clear, we're going to pass the buckets.

We're also going to put the buckets up here. So

if you're not quite ready, that's great too. Praise the Lord. Okay.

So we have some wonderful nations around the room. People

who are from those nations who have spent their week

this week cooking for you to give you a taste

of their culture. If you have done a table, I

would love for you to stand up and go to

your table right now. So we've got Uganda. We've got

the Philippines over here. We've got Ethiopia. We've got Kenya.

We've got two Mexicos. Boy, they're showing up today. We've

got Spain. And we've got Guam over here. So these

are people that are a part of this body. So

I want you, when you go to these tables, if

you don't know their name, learn their name. Ask them

a little bit about who they are, what they do.

Because quite often, those who come to church that are

from other nations, they quite often, you know, sit in

the background and they're quiet. You know, ours is a

different language. Ours is a different culture. But I'll tell

you what, we are here to embrace all the cultures. Amen.

All the nations. God, I pray right now over Mexico.

Fill Mexico with your spirit. Fill Mexico with your life

and your love in Jesus name. God, transform Spain. Transform

Guam in Jesus name. Fill Guam with your spirit. May

the churches and the pastors of Guam be strong. God,

I pray over the Philippines, Lord God. What a beautiful

country it is. Father, I pray over the Philippines. Give

it a breakthrough. Breakthrough in the Philippines. Breakthrough in Jesus name. God,

I pray over Uganda. Once again, Lord God, I thank

you right now that the missionaries and the people of

Uganda are touched by you. Father, I pray over Ethiopia.

Hailu and Sible over there, they work with the blind

over there. You want to get to know them. You

want to get to know them. They have stories to tell.

And our lovely Kenya ladies over there. Hallelujah. God, I

pray over Kenya. God, I pray right now that Kenya

is filled with the Holy Spirit, that there is a

mighty move in the Maasai and in Kenya, Lord Jesus.

I thank you right now for that nation. God, I

pray for all the other nations in Jesus name. Hallelujah.