Use Me, Lord | February 1, 2026

me.

Mr. Romano

translated how great thou Art.

Good morning.

My brothers and sisters welcome.

It has been an awesome nine

days in Guatemala, Guatemala.

Nicaragua.

Yeah, I, I'm, I'm a little

lacking of sleep and rest.

Uh, not because we didn't have great

accommodations, but because they worked

us to the bone and, uh, it was awesome.

And the, uh, best part about it was

it was 87 degrees and wonderful.

I don't apologize for that

in any way, shape, or form.

Sorry.

It was great.

And, uh, if you guys wanna go experience

the warm, let's go to Nicaragua.

It was great.

I could spend all morning

talking about stories and telling

you all the things God did.

It was wonderful.

I do wanna share the scripture

with you this morning.

Something God laid on my

heart and, uh, and kind of

intermingle some of the stories.

Debbie said, tell us about the people

you wanna know about the people.

They're just like you and me.

They're just like you and me.

They live in a different

country with different culture.

And praise God.

It's so good to be where

I hear English again.

Wow.

We're praying in the back

and I'm like, huh Jesus.

Hallelujah.

Or hallelujah.

Ha.

It was great.

And to sing in English

again, it's wonderful.

It you, you don't realize how much

you miss your own language until

you don't hear it every day, until

it's very rare and all you're

doing is you're in the dark a lot.

You know, if your translator's not keeping

up and sometimes things are going on

really fast and you, you can't keep up.

And he's looking at me like,

you're on your own buddy.

And I'm catching every

fifth word, you know?

Okay.

So I think he's talking about the

spirit and maybe the power of the

Holy Ghost, and maybe he's telling

him about Jesus and whatever.

It's going fast and, but it's good to be

back, uh, with your feet planted on us.

Sa uh, we do live in the

greatest country on the planet.

Bar none.

And I don't care what's going on if

you're, I'm not gonna get any politics.

But let me tell you, we

don't know everything.

We really don't know everything.

Go drop your feet in a third world

country, somewhere in Latin America,

and you're gonna get your eyes opened.

We live in the greatest

country on the planet.

And one thing I could tell the people

of Nicaragua and the pastors there

is American Christians are lazy.

We're lazy guys.

We are so comfortable.

We live in the lap of luxury.

We are rich.

One of the ladies that was going with

me out visiting, she said, you're rich.

And I said, you are right.

What can I, how can I argue that I'm rich?

I've got more than one set of clothes

and more than one set of shoes.

They wash a pair, hang it on the line.

Oh, they wash in a sink with a rub board.

And they rinse it and hang it on a

line, and they probably have maybe

two pair of clothes, one's washed and

hanging while they're wearing the other.

And that's it, y'all.

And I'm like, Lord, forgive me.

Forgive me.

Now, I'm not here to put a

guilt trip on you at all.

I'm telling you what I experienced was

like shame, shame that I would ever

make any excuse for not serving Jesus.

Shame for the comfort that I

live in when people all around

me are dying and going to hell.

Really?

I'm more worried about politics.

Nobody cares.

In Nicaragua, you don't

talk about politics.

You wanna know why you go to jail.

At best.

You say anything negative about

the president, the dictator,

the socialist government.

You go to jail.

So they don't talk.

Politics, not a thing.

We're gonna talk Jesus.

We could learn something from that.

Not because we'll go to jail because we

have the freedom to say whatever we want.

Maybe we shouldn't talk about that.

Maybe we should just talk about Jesus.

'cause really that doesn't mean a thing.

'cause presidents are gonna come and go.

Dictators are gonna come and go.

Governments are gonna change.

We've been spoiled.

We have the longest standing

government in the world right now.

It may not be that away

next year or tomorrow.

We don't know.

It doesn't matter.

What matters is Jesus.

What matters is Jesus.

Lemme just give you an idea.

Everybody's wanna know.

I hope I hear some stories.

I wanna know all about your trip.

Lemme kind of tell you a little bit.

I'm gonna do a little

bit of an introduction.

I've got an hour, right Andy?

The first night I was there, the pastor

looked at me and said, I said, you know,

I'm not sure how much time I've got.

They sang for like 45 minutes.

And, uh, and then shared and

prayed and shared and prayed.

And then he looked at me and said, and

I'm like, okay, how much time do I have?

And he said, 45 minutes, hour, it's yours.

Take as long as you want.

I wasn't prepared for that.

Marty would've been prepared

to do that anyway, whether

the pastor said, go for it.

Right?

It, it changes a little bit, the

time and the dynamics when you

have to say something, you stop

and you look at the interpreter

and he goes, and he looks at you.

And I'm like, okay.

It changes the, it changes your game plan,

your, your process a little bit, but lemme

tell you a little bit what, what happened.

I got an invitation, uh,

from a good friend of mine.

Uh, we haven't kept over the

years, but he was a pastor's

kid when I was in high school.

And somehow some way God

connected us with their church

and he was the youngest of four.

Ken and I became friends.

We went to high school together.

Uh, my last year of high school I sang in

the choir with Ken and then, um, somewhere

close to the end of my senior year, uh,

my dad encouraged me to go to college

'cause I was on my way to the army.

I was gonna join the Army.

I was gonna follow in dad's footsteps,

hopefully fight helicopters.

I'm right at the ceiling of height

for a, for a helicopter, but that's

what Rusty wanted to do, didn't know.

And uh, my dad looked at me and said,

why don't you go to college now?

Nobody in my family tree.

Some of y'all don't know the story,

has ever graduated from high school.

Nobody could spell college.

Okay.

My dad could in five

languages, just not English.

Okay.

He was a brilliant man.

He did speak five different languages.

Okay.

But he never finished high school.

My mother dropped outta the eighth grade.

She got married at 15.

My dad was 16.

Two years later I was born.

Okay.

So he said, go to college.

And I'm like,

you know when there's six weeks

left of your senior year and you

have an investigated universities

or taking the SATs or the acts,

you're behind the curve, right?

I was a little behind the curve,

but he said, how about the little

Bible college Ken's going to?

I said, oh, okay.

And so I applied, got accepted in June

or July, I took the a CT so I could get

into school and I ended up at college.

I left home in Wichita with 250

bucks in my pocket and drove my

little orange Volkswagen from Wichita

to Western Tech or East Texas,

about 3, 6, 9 hours, give or take.

And uh, I kept $15 in my pocket and

gave all the rest to the administration.

And that's all I had in my name.

And I looked at my advisor and I

said, I don't care about all this.

I need to have a job within the week.

If I don't, I'm packing

my bag and heading home.

'cause I can't afford to be

here and daddy can't pay for it.

I got a job and I worked all

the way through college, but Ken

and I went to college together.

We caused a lot of trouble, but

more than that, we serve Jesus.

And I learned what it was like to trust in

the Lord and to walk day by day with him.

Even through some struggles in

college where I was paying my own

way, working at a church, working a

job, sometimes two jobs along with the

church, whatever it took, I'm gonna

struggle through and serve the Lord.

Uh, and Ken was my best friend

and we hung out together.

We did a lot together and outta

the clear, but we lost connection.

He went to Texas and served

in multiple churches.

I go to Kansas and then to Indiana and

we touch base every once in a while.

He brought a bunch of guys up

when he was living in East Texas

to go to the race one year.

He goes, Hey, we bought you a ticket.

You wanna go with us?

Absolutely.

Uh, and we went to the race.

He got in trouble, by the way.

He took vacation time from the church,

but when the pastor found out he went to

the race on Sunday, he was in trouble,

whatever.

At any rate.

So that's Ken and outta the clear blue,

he called me, um, in November and we

had talked in the spring and I told him

I was having some trouble with my foot.

And anyway, so he called me, he goes,

you know, I was just thinking about you.

I'm out here driving, uh,

going to a church to supply.

He's retired as of a year ago, uh, from

doing worship ministry and uh, at a

pretty good sized church in West Texas.

And he called me and he said, Hey, I

was just wanting to check on your foot.

So we talked for a little

bit, how's it going?

How's the kids?

Yada, yada, blah, blah, blah, blah.

He's, uh, he's got one son, uh, with

three daughters who he is, got three

little granddaughters and he's always

talking about his granddaughter.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Granddaughters.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

At any rate, we are about

to get off the phone.

He goes, rusty, how'd you like

to go to Nicaragua for a crusade?

And I'm like, okay, that's kind

of a broad stroke question.

Tell me more.

So he explained a little bit, but I

still didn't have a clue what's going on.

So lemme tell you exactly what took

place first of all, several years ago I

looked at Debbie and said, you know what?

We need to have passports right now.

Ours had lapsed, they were

long distance expired.

I said, we need to have passports,

not so we can vacation overseas,

but the so that we can be prepared.

If God says go, we can't use the excuse.

I don't have a passport.

I've got a passport.

And if God says go, I go buy

a plane ticket and I'm gone.

And that's what this was.

And I thought about that this morning.

I thought, you know what, God, thank you.

He reminded me of when I said that years

ago, I said, we didn't have a passport.

So that God says, go, so let me

just footnote squirrel chase here.

If you don't have a passport, get one.

So that when a friend

from somewhere says, Hey.

You want to go to Nicaragua,

you can say, yeah.

And if you can't afford

a ticket, come see me.

I'll buy you a ticket.

We'll get you to Nicaragua or wherever

it is in the world that God wants

to send you to be a missionary.

Because that's what they called

me when I was there, a missionary.

So I said, cool.

I had no idea what this was.

I had, I'm packing everything.

They take all kind of

carry on or check luggage.

I said, I'm not checking anything.

I don't want anything lost

between Houston and Nicaragua.

I'd be in bad shape,

dude, if that happened.

So I stuffed eight days

of close in one carry on.

Now if you want lessons on

how to do that, come see me.

I'm good at it.

And I did take enough underwear.

In fact, I came home, I won.

I won the race.

'cause the last day I get up

in the morning early, I've

got a clean pair of pants.

I know when I say clean hasn't been worn.

You ready?

Clean pair of pants, clean pair

of socks, clean pair of underwear.

And a clean shirt.

I'm rocking so I didn't stink

up the plane coming home.

And lemme tell you when you've

been at 87 degree weather,

every day you need a shower.

That's all I'm gonna say about that.

I get to Nicaragua, check into

the plane, check off the plane.

We get on a bus and we ride out to a

ranch, uh, about 15 minutes outside

this little town, it's about two and

a half hours from Managua, Nicaragua.

Guys, you think you got potholes in Indy?

You could Splunk in these potholes.

You need a headlamp and a belay rope.

These suckers were deep and pavers.

You know what you use pavers

for in the United States?

Patios, you know what they use pavers

for in Nicaragua paving streets.

It was great.

I find out that this is the schedule.

Lemme just give you a brief,

brief schedule in the morning.

We eat breakfast, we load a bus.

We go into town and we get

distributed to 12 different churches.

There's 12, 12 men and

most of 'em retired.

Uh, some businessmen, some

pastors, some guys who just want

to tell the world about Jesus.

That's who we are.

So it's not a bunch of pastors.

So in our room was myself and

Ken and his pastor for many

years, who's since retired, 74.

And uh, so that was pastoral.

But we had one guy that

was, uh, worked for the PGA.

He was a, a golf course guy.

He was a member of the PGA plays events,

but he managed golf courses for a city.

We got one guy who's a rancher.

We got one guy who owns a

business that does parts.

So it's not just preachers.

Let me just put that out there.

Okay.

Salt that one just a little bit.

We get up in the morning, we go

into town, we get distributed to

all these pastors in the area.

Some close, some far.

We spend the morning going to homes.

We have three homes we want

to visit in the morning.

Then we break for lunch, heat of the day,

everybody gets outta the sun and then we

have lunch about three o'clock we load

the buses again, go to our pastors and

we spend another couple hours going out

and visiting people in the community.

We break about 5, 5 30 whenever

the pastor wants us done and then

we start church at six o'clock.

So I go from about one o'clock meal to

when I'm done preaching and the church

service is done and I get my ride back

to the other church to pick the bus,

to take the bus back out to the ranch.

I'm getting back about 8 39, 9 30 before

we have dinner waiting on us and we eat.

Daddy was a tired puppy.

That's work.

You're walking and it's not pretty

Three outta the four homes,

and I hate to call them homes.

Dwellings would be a better description.

Dirt floors,

maybe running water.

Most had electricity.

Everybody had a cell phone.

Everybody's got a cell phone.

Governments distribute cell phones to

put people in bondage, believe it or not,

to connect them, and then you owe us.

Then you gotta pay for it.

If they don't have money, they

barter for it, whatever it takes.

Right.

I asked my brother, Ken, when we were

driving back to Managua on Friday.

I said, you know, you've been to

Tanzania, you know, places in Africa,

central America, south America, over the

course of your ministry and done this.

And I'm like, is there any place they

don't have these stupid idiot bones?

He goes, lemme tell you a story.

We were in Tanzania.

We drove six hours on

a paved road somewhat.

Then we drove another six

hours on a dirt road somewhat.

Then we got off the road and drove

through the bush, cutting the trail for

another four hours to get to the Messiah.

I'm visiting and ministering and

witnessing to this Messiah gentleman.

He's dressed in all the garb.

They got thatch huts.

They're out there off the path.

And he said in Swahili, just a second,

lifted up his little garment, pulled

out his cell phone, said hello,

and then walked away, took a phone.

He was like, did I just, this guy's

like, did I just see what I saw?

There's cell phones everywhere, but

they may not have running water.

They don't have floors.

Calling 'em a house is something

galvanized tin, wrapped a dwelling.

That's it.

That's all there is.

And these people that,

that's just their existence.

That's how they live.

Fruit, trees everywhere.

Flowers everywhere.

Coconut, mango, papaya,

pineapple, avocado.

Um, watermelon.

Cantaloupe.

Oh, we ate really good.

It was phenomenal.

But they're people just like us.

Every morning we would go in.

The first day I was kind of on my heels.

I'm like, ah, I don't understand

how, what's happening.

And uh, really it was like getting

into the batter's box and never

taking the bat off your shoulder.

That's how I felt.

It was like, Lord, I'm not

sure how I fit in here.

Why in the world am I here?

And one word describes it.

I said, yes.

Ken said, do you wanna go?

I said, yes, I wanna go.

That's it.

I wanna go.

But I had a real good visit Monday

night with the pastor, um, and he

gave me some wise counsel and the

next day I said, let's go, Lord.

This is where you got me.

Let's engage.

And I started swinging.

We'd go see somebody and

I'd tell 'em about Jesus.

I tell 'em about our savior.

I'd ask 'em if they had

a relationship with him.

Many of 'em said yes, but there was no

church to go to or they had to work.

The stories were amazing.

We visited one woman with a tumor the

size of a small football on her arm.

On her shoulder.

She quit going to the doctor.

You know, they, they had shrunk.

One, they gave her medicine.

They wanted her to work on this one.

She said, I'm done with it.

We're just gonna pray

and see what God does.

Stop.

She prayed.

The tumors stopped growing.

Now I don't know what's gonna come

down, but we prayed for that lady.

Little children that were

sick, old men that were sick.

We just prayed.

We pray with people.

We'd lay hands on 'em and we pray for 'em.

I pray in English, they translate.

The other guys would

be praying in Spanish.

I have no clue.

But you know what the power of the Holy

Spirit is, and you know, when they pray

that the power of the name of Jesus re.

Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit.

You know what they're saying?

I don't need a translator to know

that man is communicating with a

living father who cares about us.

It was amazing as I sat there and

we laid our hands on people and

we prayed for 'em, and the little

children run around our feet.

You haven't lived till, you're

sitting with someone talking about

Jesus, and chickens are running

around your feet and chicks and dogs.

Dogs everywhere.

Skinny dogs, fat dogs.

I saw a Siberian Husky.

That one twisted my brain.

We're in Nicaragua.

I'm like, why?

I know that that's a snow dog.

You know that beautiful si.

Healthy looking cyber and husky blue

eyes, black and white, gorgeous dog.

And I'm like, I didn't expect that,

Lord, that that I expected a lot.

I didn't expect that.

The people are very hospitable.

When we walked by and said hello to one

lady and she just opened our door and

invited us in, opened our door, the gate,

every house has got bars and gates opened

the door and invited us in and we sat

down and we started talking about Jesus.

And she just wept and she cried.

We prayed and God takes

my heart, just grinds it.

I'm ashamed of the fact that I have so

out of practice that I have forgotten how

to just share the gospel with somebody.

'cause we get caught up in this.

We get caught up in day to day

every day, and all around us

are people that need Jesus.

Y'all all around us.

There are people in these homes there

this morning and the drinking coffee and

getting ready to watch whatever's on tv.

The golf tournament doesn't start

till this afternoon, so they're gonna

watch college basketball or something.

Who knows?

Read a book, sleep in, I don't know,

shovel their, shovel their sidewalk.

They don't know the same Jesus I know and

here I am with it, the greatest gift in

all the world and what am I doing with it?

And I thought, wow Lord, I'm ashamed.

But lemme tell you, three days, four

days, five days of doing that, every

day you get a little comfortable.

You remember the bicycle and you start

looking at people and saying, Kenosha

spit it to, do you know the Holy Spirit?

Do you know Jesus?

It becomes pretty easy to talk to

him just to say, hi, my name's Rusty.

Rusty doesn't translate

into Spanish very well.

They have a hard time with that.

I will just tell you right up,

rusty, it's, there is no translation.

It's like they say it over,

it's like, what in the world?

What kind of name is that?

And I'm, I'm.

No, no lie.

I'm not kidding.

Donald Jeffrey.

Uh, Janet.

Karen, Steven.

These are Nicaraguan people.

Those are their names.

Okay.

And I'm like, Steven, see Steven?

Not Stefan.

No, no, Steven.

Okay, cool.

That's, I'm good with Steven.

I can do that.

Right.

So it was wonderful just to be with the

people and, and, and to get back on the

bicycle of sharing the gospel once again.

And to be convicted by God,

that that's something that

I should be doing every day.

Every day we would just go into

somebody's home, Hey, we come by to

see you, you know, pastor August.

And he introduced me,

pastor Rusty, uh, mission.

And we sit down and we

start talking about Jesus.

And it was really fun because

my, my brother, Ken told me, he

goes, you know, they're gonna sit

down and wait for you to start.

I'm like, really?

Oh, okay.

So we sit down and sure enough, he looks

at me and I. Well, I just introduce

myself and tell 'em why I'm there.

I'm here to talk to you about Jesus.

Do you know the Jesus?

I know

it's really not hard 'cause if you

know Jesus, you got the greatest

gift in the world and all this

other stuff, it's gonna go away.

All the stuff we worked so

hard for is just gonna go away.

The second day I was waiting 'cause

they, they drove my interpreter, Marcos,

he was a 19-year-old pastor's kid.

His older brother was also an interpreter.

He was 21.

His name was Steven.

They had a third older brother.

He wasn't there.

Uh, but they assigned me Marcos.

He was 19 years old.

A fireball for Jesus.

I get done preaching and I say,

you got anything to say Marcos?

And he would take off, man, share

his testimony, share how Jesus

is doing in his life, and just

challenge this PE people in Spanish.

We pray for people and the

pastor even look at Marcus,

said, Marcus, pray for this lady.

I mean, this kid was on fire for Jesus.

And uh, it was just awesome to see a

young man that passionate about Christ.

Okay.

But anyway, Marcus and I were going

and I forgot where I was going.

Doesn't really matter.

Oh yeah.

So they would take and drop two of us off

with our translators at this one church.

And then Marcus and I have to get in a car

and pray for our lives safety as we went

across town to where we were gonna go.

So one day I'm sitting there and the

church had dropped us off at the pastor's

name was Israel and I thought Israel,

and he is wearing a star of David.

The brightest light that I saw was Israel.

Pastor Israel just shone

with joy all the time.

He greeted me, hugged me.

It was just awesome.

So I asked him, we had some time and I

was visiting with him later and found

out that his grandfather and father,

when his father was little, escaped.

Israel and came to Nicaragua

when his dad was small before

World War II to escape Hitler.

So he was born and raised in Nicaragua,

but he is of the tribe of Judah.

He's a Jew.

And I thought that is

such an awesome story.

Did you ever think you'd meet a Jew on

the streets of Nicaragua, a Messianic Jew,

a Jew that loves Jesus, who's pastoring

a church and overseeing also the church

I was at for PA with Pastor August.

And so we're standing on the

street corner waiting on our

ride and we're just talking.

And I was going to an area of town

called Santa Clara and he said,

you know, Santa Clara is one of

the most dangerous areas of Alpa.

I said, please don't tell my wife.

Please don't tell.

They all laugh that one jokes

don't carry in foreign languages.

You know that.

You say something funny here and they'll

sit there and look at you like, okay.

That one was funny and they all laughed

'cause they get that a husband and

wife relationship everybody gets.

So, uh, it's because it's

all the same boys and girls,

you know, it's all the same.

Um, but anyway, you know, I

told him, don't tell anybody.

And then God just really broke my heart.

So most of you guys know,

I wear this black bracelet.

It's not anything super meaning.

Years ago, uh, Scott was wearing one

of these bracelets he made from a

bootlace, um, when he was overseas.

And, uh, I always thought, you

know, tell me how to do that.

Well Scott and I never connected

or he just avoided me, whatever.

And, uh, so, uh, Nate and I

started making these things.

I went online, found out how to do it.

He found out how to do it.

We'd make 'em at work and

give 'em to guys and all that.

And I just started wearing one.

I just like it.

It's called a survival bracelet.

When Debbie got cancer, I made 'em in

pink, took a bunch of 'em to her, to

her doctor, and they distribute 'em.

I said, they're called survival bracelet.

Let people know, let women know that are

struggling with this, they can serve.

So it was just a reminder.

It's kind of a cool thing.

I did, I also made one,

this white one, I made out a

parachute, actual parachute cord.

My dad called it a suspension line 'cause

it suspends the parachute to the trooper.

One of my dad's, okay, I'll

wear it on special days.

4th of July, veteran's Day, Memorial

Day, uh, round his birthday.

Something like that.

It's just to remind me of, of him.

And uh, I wore it to Nicaragua.

And this is the reason in the sixties.

My dad was a soldier, just to

let you kind of know what he did.

The group that went in and got the

president of Venezuela, that group

was first Special Forces group.

That's the group my dad was in in 1960.

First Special Forces group.

Now the technology's changed, but

the grit of those men has not.

And the United States military, the

United States Army sent my dad to Panama.

He was in Central and South

America in the sixties.

We lived in Panama for three years.

And it just touched me that,

and the reason I wore this

was, uh, one night praying.

I said, you know, my dad went with an

army into the jungles of Central and South

America for the United States government,

but I'm gonna go for a different army.

I'm gonna go for a different battle

for the souls of men and women

and boys and girls to know Jesus.

And I thought at apropos that Rusty

got tagged to go to the smallest and

most dangerous church in the area.

Bring it on, Lord, if we're

gonna step into the battle,

let's step into the battle.

Middle of the day, I saw

drunks walking down the street.

We were visiting with a family.

They were down lower in their

little dwelling and sitting in the

shade, and while we were visiting

with there, I saw a drug deal go

down right about where Josh is at.

He said, I know it's a drug deal.

Well, you know, when one guy pulls

out a package and the other guy pulls

out the cash and they exchange, pretty

much gives it away, that's a drug deal.

And it's kinda like, hmm.

You knew prostitution was going on

because there were a lot of young

ladies with babies and no men.

That was the era I was

in and I thought, Lord,

power of the Holy Ghost and in

the name of Jesus, we're gonna

step into the battle and we're

gonna talk to people about Jesus.

My heart was blown away

and I sat there on the

street with Pastor Israel.

I thought, wow, Lord.

Okay, here we go.

You know, you know how you jump

out of an airplane, you take that

first step and you say, airborne.

And that's kind of what I had to do.

Get on the horse, jump out the

plane, whatever analogy you want

to use, let's get in afraid.

Let's get into battle, man.

Let's talk to people about Jesus.

So I preached Monday, I

preached, uh, Friday night,

Saturday night, Sunday night.

Monday night we had a big gathering

for all the pastors, a big meal.

And, uh, one of the pastors spoke.

And then on Tuesday night, we had

a men and women, men and women's

conference where we split 'em of art

and we brought all the men into one

place, all the women to one place.

And somebody shared and, and

just encouraged and preached.

And then on Wednesday night, we went back

to the churches and had a celebration.

And it was very interesting because

they sat there and they just honored us.

They gave us gifts, they thanked

us for coming and for loving them

enough to come and share the gospel.

I thought, wow, this is amazing.

This is just amazing.

Loved us.

Wanted to take pictures with

us, come back and see us again.

We want you to come back,

rusty, I hope you come back.

The pastor I was with, pastor August,

served in the military at one time,

thought he'd never live, lost.

His family is remarried, has a son

in college, and uh, he said in broken

English, the first, about three

nights in, he came up and he hugged

me and he said, I love you in English.

And then he said, before the week was up,

he said, I love you, my friend in English.

And then he said in Spanish,

he said, maybe when you come

back, I'll be the interpreter.

I said,

and I said, well, maybe I won't need one.

We'll see.

We'll see.

Anyway, that's why I wore the

bracelet and that's why I went, uh,

to honor my dad, I'd like to share

a little bit of scripture with you.

I've gone on way too long.

I, I could just talk and talk and

talk, but I wanted to talk to you about

two, a couple of things real quick.

Turn to John

chapter four.

Ken and I used to sing quite a bit,

and at the pastor's conference we sang

a little song acapella in Spanish that

he brought, and we sang it together.

And then at the end of the sermon,

everybody was mingling around and one of

the pastors had brought a little guitar

and he started playing How Great Thou Art?

And he asked me to sing, and so I sang it.

Well, that led to the big, we had a big

gathering on Thursday night where all

the churches came together, almost 500

people or more, packed into this room.

I mean, it wasn't much

bigger than this guys.

They don't have the fire marshal.

They don't care.

There are chairs everywhere and

people are crammed everywhere in

this place, standing on their feet

worshiping Jesus, who was insane.

It was glorious.

It was awesome.

But because we sang and, and one of

the men that was there, that's been in

ministry for a long time, his wife had

come, uh, he wasn't doing preaching,

he just kind of, he was the connection

that Ken had that got us there.

She had stepped in with me and Ken

had stepped in with me and Ken and I

used to sing quite a bit in college.

And so they said, y'all sing.

So we sang how great there are

English, Spanish, and then English

again in front of that crowd.

Uh, it was awesome.

It was just awesome.

So I thought I would throw it out there

in Spanish this morning for y'all.

Um, John chapter four, you're familiar

with the scripture, you're familiar

with the Samaritan woman, but I

wanna pull out a couple of things,

a couple of things that I think God

would want to challenge us with.

We'll pick up in verse seven.

You know, Jesus, the disciples

have gone into town to get food.

Jesus is weirded from his journey.

He stops at,

I don't believe that was a mistake.

By the way.

I think there was some intentionality

to when he stopped and where he

stopped and the time of day he stopped.

Okay.

Verse seven, A woman from a woman

from Samaria came to draw water.

Jesus said to her, give me a

drink, for his disciples had gone

away into the city to buy food.

The Samaritan woman said to him, how is it

that you, a Jew asked for a drink from me?

A woman of Samaria for Jews have

no dealings with Samaritans.

Jesus answered her.

If you knew the gift of God and who

it is that is saying to you, give me

a drink, you would've asked him and

he would've given you living water.

Drop down to verse 27.

Just then, his disciples came back.

They marveled that he was talking with a

woman, but no one said, what do you seek?

Or Why are you talking with her?

So the woman left the water jar

and went away into town and said

to the people, come see a man who

told me all that I've ever done.

Can this be the Christ?

They went out of the town

and were coming to him.

Meanwhile, the disciples were

urging him saying, rabbi, eat.

But he said to him, I have food

to eat that you do not know about.

So the disciples said to one another,

has anyone brought you something to eat?

Jesus said to them, my food is

to do the will of him, him who

sent me into accomplish his work.

Stop right there.

I wanna talk to you about our paradigm.

We talked about our viewpoint of life.

Is it an earthly viewpoint or

is it a heavenly viewpoint?

This woman was so focused on getting

water at the heat of the day, right?

And we know the story.

Why was she there at the heat of the day?

Probably because she was unworthy

to be there with the other women.

Okay?

She was there at the heat

of the day to draw water.

Why was Jesus stopping at a well?

The heat of the day when he knew nobody

would be there normally under cer certain

circumstances, there'd be nobody there.

He was there waiting on her.

Along come the disciples and

they say, Lord, you need to eat.

We brought you food.

He says, you have no

clue if you had a clue.

You know there's more

to this life than bread.

He said to her, you have no clue.

If you knew, you'd know.

There's more to this

life than physical water.

She was seeking physical

water to quench her thirst.

They were seeking bread to quench

their hunger, and Jesus was

trying to change their paradigm.

One afternoon we got done around noon.

Go back to the church where

we're gonna get the bus.

I'm there, Marcos is there.

And, uh, the other, uh, missionary Mike

was there and his interpreter Steven.

And we're sitting there and we're waiting.

It's about noon heat of the day.

Everything's shut down.

We gotta get a bus back to the ranch,

uh, to, and we were staying at a ranch

in that the man who owned the ranch

pastored the big church, and he was

responsible for, uh, starting and

funding all these little churches around

the area up to two, three hours away.

In fact.

12, 13 churches.

So they had a big ranch for us.

They put us up, they hired a chef.

They fed us like kings.

Unless you don't eat foreign

food, you would've hated it.

But they did make pancakes in the

morning for Americans that would not eat.

Um, you know, Gallo Pinto, which was

rice and beans and eggs laying in

fresh cheese that came from the milk

cow yesterday that they made for us.

You wanna talk about good fresh fruits,

fresh vegetables, all locally grown.

I ate like a king man.

Anyway, so we're ready

to go back for lunch.

We've been out witnessing

to people in the morning.

We're sitting in the church waiting

out of the sun in the shade.

The church is down lower,

the road's elevated.

We're sitting there.

It's been 15 minutes,

it's been 30 minutes.

Hey, has anybody called our ride?

Are we gonna get a ride back?

Is the bus coming?

Have they forgotten about us?

All this?

We're hungry.

We're tired.

I'm outta water.

I need to get back now.

Gene are great.

They hold enough water for the morning.

Fill it up at noon, hold enough

for it for the afternoon.

Fill it up at night.

I'm good to go.

Um, but we're waiting and

we're kind of impatient.

You know, we're talking about things.

We're a little impatient.

Hour goes by, I look up and this kid

walking on the street, I recognize now

I'm a good 15, 20 minute ride in a car

from where I've been going every day.

And I recognized a young man that I

had witnessed to three or four days

earlier in the middle of a conversation.

I didn't even say, excuse me.

I ran to the gate of the church

and screamed out his name.

Jeffrey.

I couldn't get the gate open.

I'm dripping on the gate,

pastor Israel to my right.

He does no clue what's going on.

My interpreter heard me yell Jeffrey,

and he knew who Jeffrey was, so he

followed me and I'm jerking on the gate.

Jeff Ray Jeffrey turned and looked,

but couldn't see me down below,

so he turned and was leaving.

Pastor gets the door open,

I run out in the street.

I scream Jeffrey.

He turns around and he comes back

and we visit and we talk about Jesus.

We talk about him.

He's 20 minutes away from where

he lives, walking past me with

about this much viewpoint.

I see him,

the bus starts coming up the street.

He says, I gotta go.

He says, keep practicing your Spanish.

You're doing great.

He catches the bus and heads out,

not that long, maybe five minutes.

I turned to Pastor Israel and I said,

I explained to him what had happened.

He was overjoyed, and I

said, now the bus can come.

That's why we were delayed

and that's why we were here.

I turned to go sit down.

It wasn't even five minutes.

The bus came.

And he broke out in laughter.

It was like,

that's changing your paradigm.

We get so focused on what's not

going our way, that we don't stop

and say, God, what's your plan?

Why am I here?

Why is the bus not here?

What do you have me to

see that I'm missing?

What do you have me to hear because

I'm not listening to your Holy Spirit?

Speak to me

now.

I don't know about Jeffrey.

I'm gonna continue to pray for Jeffrey.

Jeffrey.

We stopped in the middle of the

road going to see somebody else.

He was walking down the street.

Pastor, recognized him.

I don't know what their

connection was, but we stopped

and started talking to Jeffrey.

Now, that was the morning after

Snowmageddon hit in Indiana.

It hit in Texas too.

And let me tell you, they got hammered.

Hammered, and they're

not used to this stuff.

That was when it hit.

And I turned, I turned to, to,

uh, Jeffrey, and I said, you

know, I'm here for two reasons.

The first reason is to escape this.

And I showed him the temperature at home,

negative 17 Celsius, and his eyeballs

about jumped out of his head In no bueno.

I'm not doing that.

It was 86 degrees where I was.

You can imagine they can't even come,

you know, they, they don't have any,

they can't, no relevancy there, right?

To know that that is so cold.

And then it said, and the second

reason is to talk to you about Jesus

Tears welled up in his eyes.

We prayed for him standing in the street,

a dirt rocky road with gray water running

down both sides and trash everywhere.

In a poverty stricken place.

That night, he was in church.

The music had barely begun,

and he was on his knees.

As they're singing, he's

on his knees praying.

God touched Jeffrey.

All it takes is one young man

to step out and say, no more.

I'm serving Jesus.

And who knows what God will

do in that community, full of

drugs, alcohol and sex abuse.

Who knows?

I don't know.

But that young man hit his knees and two

days later he's walking past the street.

That's not an accident, y'all.

That's God saying, rusty.

Go.

And I could have said, well, maybe.

I don't know.

I'm tired.

It's been a long morning.

I'm hot.

I'm outta water.

I'm hungry.

The bus could come at any time.

Really?

How many excuses do you need, Moses?

Get off your butt and do something.

I ran.

Everybody's like, what's going on man?

Grab the gate and let me out.

Jeffrey's getting away.

What an awesome, awesome opportunity,

and yet it's all around us.

Here,

woman at the well was seeking water.

The disciples were seeking food.

You know what God was seeking?

You know what Jesus was seeking?

Back up a few verses.

Verse 23 says, but the hour is coming and

is now here when the true worshipers will

worship the Father in spirit and truth.

Father, a father is seeking

such people to worship him.

God is spirit and those who worship

must worship in spirit and truth.

In verse 35, Jesus was continuing

to talk to disciples and he said,

do you not say there are yet?

Four months?

Then comes the harvest.

Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes and

see that the fields are white for harvest.

Brothers and sisters, we live in a time

when the fields are ripe under harvest,

all around us.

This building and this place, and this

gathering is to come into, to worship

and recharge so that we can go out

and fight the fight so that when we

quit talking about politics and sports

and talk about what's meaningful.

All that other stuff is gonna burn.

It's gonna go away.

It's gonna be gone, but there's

gonna be one thing remain.

Jesus, the Holy Spirit and the

Father, that's what's gonna remain.

And you and I and the people that

know him, my heart was challenged,

my heart was broken, and my heart was

overjoyed to just be a part of it.

Are you coming back Rusty?

I hope you'll come back

Rusty, are you on WhatsApp?

No.

Really?

Are you on Facebook?

No.

Really?

I downloaded WhatsApp before I left.

Two of the interpreters are

already sending me pictures.

How you doing, rusty?

Did you make it home safe?

I did.

Did you guys?

Yes, I did.

I don't know.

You know what?

Who knows.

I'm terrible at that kind of stuff.

Wow.

Just the honor of making

a connection, right?

Of being called a missionary.

But guess what guys?

We don't have to go to a foreign

country to be a missionary.

We're a missionary right here.

We a missionary right here.

What challenged me, and I will

tell you I don't wanna offend.

This is not meant you.

This has meant me.

Everybody work.

When you gonna retire Rusty?

When you retire?

Resty.

When?

Retire.

Risk.

When retire.

Well, retirement doesn't

have anything to do with age.

That's where we get hung up.

It's got nothing to do with age.

It's got do with dero.

It's gotta do with money.

What's the bank account look like?

I look at that and say, you better work.

Boy, that's all there is to it.

Wife didn't work her all life.

She, she spent her time

and energy raising kids.

Thank you, dear.

You know, we didn't have a dual income.

We didn't pack away a bunch.

We just tried to go from day to day

to day and God take care of us, right?

And there were times, please

take care of us, right.

But retirement's got

nothing to do with age.

I'm at retirement age, I

could retire, but then what?

But then what?

I don't know what's God got from me.

So I'm not gonna sit down and just

read a book or work in my yard or

plant a garden or go on vacation.

I'm gonna put stamps in that passport.

I'm gonna say, God, where

do you want me to go?

All these guys, I'm here are retired guys.

And you know what they're doing?

They're going to Tanzania, Guatemala,

Panama, Nicaragua, El Salvador.

They're going wherever.

God says, go, let's go work for

somebody and tell people about Jesus.

Let's, let's be missionaries.

I don't have to go live there.

I can go inject, go, go, go.

What's it cost?

I don't know.

Who cares?

Let's go.

I got my passport, Lord.

Where am I gonna go?

Where are you gonna go, rusty?

When Chuck Schwab doesn't own my

nine to five anymore, I'm outta here.

I don't mean that literally.

Here, I'm outta here.

Don't I didn't just, I didn't just resign,

but I'm not, I'm not tethered

to a desk any longer.

I don't have to go ask my boss,

can I have the time off now?

Praise the Lord.

My boss said, go.

Please go take a lot of pictures.

Tell me how it worked.

I can see you doing that a

lot in the future, rusty.

That's a good boss to have, isn't it?

That's a good boss to have.

Go.

This is gonna be the first of many, man.

Go.

Hallelujah.

Andy said, are you sure?

No, I'm kidding.

He said, go get out, man.

It's awesome.

I dunno what God's got in store,

but retirement doesn't look like

me sitting down and relaxing.

I

was older than some of those guys

there, and yet all the interpreters

thought I was the youngest puppy there.

I thought, yeah, well, okay.

I guess that means God go.

So my challenge for you

is get a passport and go,

and if you can't afford

to get a passport and go.

Go across the street, grab the lady

at Walmart that you see every week.

You know people in the

neighborhood by name.

Do they know that you love Jesus?

It's a challenge.

That was what broke my

heart this week, guys.

What am I seeking?

What am I seeking?

Am I looking at the world through

earthly glasses, through heaven, glasses?

Am I seeing I need food?

I need to pay my bills?

Oh, did the pipes break?

Oh, it's really cold.

Who's gonna shovel that sidewalk?

Ah, God.

What do you have from me?

Who's the next person you want me

to grab and pray into the kingdom?

Or just ask him, do you know Jesus?

Have you got a relationship with the

living God who created the world and

cares enough about you that he died

to have a relationship with you?

Wow.

Human beings don't win.

The only thing we desire is significance

and relationship with somebody

who would care enough about us to

say, I love you despite all your

flaws, your wrinkles, your warts.

I love you.

We strive for that every day,

and God said, the living,

God said, I love you so much.

I'm giving Jesus to die to

have a relationship with you,

and all we have to do is say yes

and have our passport ready,

that when somebody calls and say,

Hey, you ever thought about Yes?

I got off the phone with Ken

the very first time and said,

man, I need to pray about that.

And my wife quoted my father,

my earthly father, and said,

what do you gotta pray about?

I thought, wow, that's harsh.

Called Kim back and said, yes, gotta

worry out some details, but yes, I'm gone.

I'm gone.

Let's go.

Let's roll.

That's my challenge for you, my

brothers and sisters in Christ.

Look at the world through heavenly

glasses, not earthly glass, and see what

God is leading you to do every single day.

And don't let a moment go by.

Don't watch Jeffrey walk across your path

and not leap into action because

God designed it that way.

He put them there for a reason.

He put you there for a reason.

Don't miss it.

That may be the one opportunity you have.

Let's pray.

Father, thank you so much that you bless

me with the opportunity to go to Nicarag.

To be with brothers and sisters in Christ

in a whole other country and culture

and language, to learn from them and to

see the passion they have for you and to

partner with them, to reach out in their

communities and tell others about Jesus.

Lord, I'm so honored, blessed, and

humbled, and I pray for my brothers

and sisters here in the United States,

here in Hamilton County, here in this

church, that we would get a burn.

Lord, our country seems to be

frayed on every end, but that's

not a surprise to you because

it's always been an evil world.

But there are people who need to know

you no matter what the government

or the situation is, your Lord.

And we need to tell 'em.

So Father, give us open eyes

to see willing hearts to go and

mouths that are yielded to your

Holy Spirit to spread the word.

To spread the word of your love

and your salvation in Jesus Christ.

Thank you, father for putting

me here this morning right now.

Thank you for your word.

Father.

Thank you for your love,

precious and holy name

man.

I'll leave this one thing for you.

Do you need to come here?

I'll leave one thing for you and I

hear you by I'll learn one phrase

that I prayed every single time after

I learned it all day, every day.

Use me Lord, us.

I pray that will be your prayer as

you go from this place every day,

every morning, every day, every

night, afternoon, all the time.

Use me Lord, us.

Have a wonderful day.

Shalom.

Be blessed.