Standalone Sermon • Missions Recap

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Well, good morning.

Well, thank you. I appreciate you.

Hey, if you've got your bible, and I hope you do, I want to invite you to

join me in Luke, chapter five.

That's where we're going to be this morning. Now,

I'm asking permission for something that I've already

planned.

All right, so I would like to this

morning's, message to look, honestly, a little bit

different, I think, than any sermon I've ever preached.

definitely any message, that I've done here at Willow

Ridge in the last, eleven years, that I've been

the pastor here. And the reason for that is,

in the last two weeks, I've had the privilege and the

honor, to travel to India. We've, had some wonderful

speakers that have come in and filled the pulpit during this

time. but me, along with several others

from our church, Brent Hawkins, Josh Nix,

along with Mike and Gwen Vaught, along with, Wayne

Van Ham. so if you don't recognize who Wayne Van Ham is,

but you recognize the last name, that is Joel Van Ham's

dad. he lives up in the state of Washington. And he

made this journey with us for some strategic reasons,

to go to India. And for the last two weeks,

we've been there, we've been touring around India. This is

my fifth trip, that I've done, by far, the

most impactful trip that I've been on. We, did

a lot of traveling in India. We saw a lot of

people, met a lot of new friends

and partners in the ministry, and had the opportunity to share

the gospel with a lot of different people, than we normally

would, encounter to kind of give you. If you're

looking at or you're thinking about. And you can picture

the country of India, we flew in on

their west coast, to a city, a

large city. You've heard of this city, I'm sure, named

Mumbai. And so we were there overnight

twice. And then we flew from

Mumbai, to a city, named Jaipur,

which you've heard me talk about before. that's where our ministry

partners run their base ministry out of. It's where our

bible college that we sponsor, our church planning

network that we sponsor, and our preschool

through 12th grade school that we sponsor as

well, is located in Jaipur. Which is located in

the state of Rajasthan. So that's up in the north. That's

in the desert, heading toward the mountains of what's there. We were

there for several days, and then we hopped on,

planes repeatedly and flew down

to the south. And so we flew from there to

a state known as Andhra Pradesh. And we'll talk

a little bit about the dynamics of Andhra Pradesh here in a little

while. Spent a few days there. and I'll be honest with you, I

was kind of used to, Jaipur and what Jaipur looks like, what

Jaipur feels like. all the aspects of

Jaipur got down into andra, and it was a

change of scenery, change of cultures, change

of languages, but just a wonderful welcoming

of God's people who were there. We spent several days there,

and then we stayed in a city known m as

Kakinata, which is there in Andhra Pradesh. And

then we moved over for just

a brief time, literally. Our flight arrived in a state

known as Kerala about around 1030. We

made an hour and a half journey to, our hotel, where we slept

for about 5 hours, woke up, toured a hospital,

and then flew to Mumbai to start our journey home. So I'll be

honest with you. We weren't in the city long enough for me to even remember

that city's name. but I know that we were in the state

of Kerala. And so what I'd like to

do this morning is take some time to share with you some of the

details, about our trip that we were on, some things that

God showed us, that God taught us, talk about our

plans a little bit for the future, and how, if you're

interested, you can connect with that. but I

believe and hold, too, that what we do on Sunday morning is

very special when we open up God's word. And so

what we're going to do, kind of like, for the last, maybe like, 20%

of my time up here on this, on, on the stage preaching this

morning, is to connect all the things that we saw, to an

encounter of what we see in God's word, because we always want to

hold, true to the teaching of God's

word and what's there.

with all that said, I want to say this,

hands down, was the most grueling mission

trip that I've. That I've ever been on physically.

it was tiring. I share some of you saw

my post of, I believe it was like 46

hours that it took us to get home,

traveling in India. And around India,

air travel, layovers, buses. It was a lot. So a

typical indian trip, to India will take us. We bring

a team over and just go to Jaipur. round trip

total from, to get here, to there.

And then from there back to here is about 60 hours,

which is a lot. but this trip, in

airtime, in travel time and all those things, I want to say I

haven't done all of the math, but my preacher math lands me

somewhere between, like, 100 to 110 hours. and it was

grueling. It was a lot.

the second thing physically is it got hot quick. All

right. somebody asked me, what was the temperatures like there. Honestly, in

Jaipor, they're very comparable from where we've been now.

Jaipor in May and June will get up very,

very hot beyond what we're used to. but right

now it was fine. We were operating in temperatures in the low

nineties. relatively speaking, it's a

desert environment, and so it's drier than even what we're

used to when it lands. Kind of like June, July, August,

for us. So it's bearable, and we can do

that. But, then we flow down, to Andra. And we

landed in Andra. And last Sunday, we had the opportunity to visit

two churches. Had the opportunity to speak at two churches

there. And it's like I'm watching, like, my

phone in the temperature gauge from where you

guys are. I think last week, y'all had, like, 47

degrees. and it was just beautiful. we heard about

that. while I was preaching,

I looked down at my phone, and solid. Got a notification that

it was 107. And with the heat index,

it felt like 117. Right. So

I got done preaching, and then we went to another church and preached

again. And Sam looked at me. Sam, you know, pastor

Sam. He's spoken here before, our missionary pastor

that we partner with. And he looks at me and he's like,

do you think you can handle this? And

in that moment, that was like calling out a

preacher's pride. I was like, yeah, I can

do this. I can do this. and so had the opportunity to

go there, but just physically, just, it was a hard

trip, but it was very, very, very

good. Very good.

spiritually, it was emotionally,

it was hard. It was hard. We

met some people with some wonderful stories. And I want to share

here in just a moment some of the stories with

you guys. We saw places and people, that we heard

about, that we knew about,

but we'd never encountered before.

I've had the privilege in gospel work to

visit South America, Africa,

the Caribbean,

areas in Mexico, in

Zimbabwe, and never in

my life experienced some of the things that we experienced while we were

there. So this is part that's a little bit different. What I'd

like to do for, the next section of the

message is share with you guys some pictures,

and I promise not to make this feel like

grandma's, you know, slideshow from

her 1964 trip somewhere.

Okay. but just to help you guys put some faces,

and things with the ministry, so we can go ahead and throw up the

first picture that we have here. so that

is me and Mike vought there, if you couldn't tell by the names on the

back of our shirts, as they made us jerseys. So

this is that fellowship mission school. this is a school that we work

with, that we partner with, and we partner with them

specifically as they help to. It is a christian school

fellowship mission school. There's bible verses all over the

kids. you've got hindu kids reading bible passages.

Right. The teachers and leaders are praying for

them. and so what we've tried to help them do over the

last several years as a church is help them

establish their credibility, through educational

things that we've been able to come alongside and partner with them with.

But also, in athletics, their schools aren't that different than ours.

Right. If you've got a good volleyball team there, a good

cricket team there, it helps in bringing more kids in. More kids

mean more opportunities to share the gospel. And so they've come

to us and said, we'd like to introduce them to more sports,

and specifically sports that other schools aren't offering.

So last year we came, we introduced them to the sport of

basketball. And we'll. We'll meet somebody in just a second to see

him. but then also, Sam, in getting to know

Mike, if you know Mike Vought. You know Mike Vought loves Jesus and

pickleball intensely. And so, Mike was

like, you ever heard of pickleball? So they had a badminton court. So Mike brought

this gear over there for them. And so Mike taught

them a little bit about the game of pickleball. And then he

looked at me and like, all right, bo, let's play.

So you can't tell, but on the left hand side is a kid

named Anoush. I met Anoush last year. Anoosh

has got a great personality. He laughs up. He cuts up all the time.

And so we started playing, and in

his broken English, Anoosh started talking

trash,

so I did, too.

And Mike had a great serve

in a noosh. They play badminton. So

Pickleball's not completely foreign to concept to

him, and he hits it to a noose, and a

noose turns on that thing, man, and he sends it spinning to

me. And I went to hit, and I caught it with the

bottom of my paddle and went straight into the net. And this is

where, you know, like, our languages, our cultures are different,

but there are some things that just communicate. Anoush looked

at me, he dropped the paddle and went like this.

Well played, sir. Well played. so that was

part of what we have there. Picture. Ah.

Number two, I want to introduce you to a lady named lady,

Laud. Makes me look like I play power forward in the

NBA, right? Yeah,

I like laud. Laud, she was very specific. I asked

her what her name was, and she spelled it for me, and she said, I found

out in her breaking. And she tells me that I found out in English,

that lad is boy. Right? So

make sure that you say my name is Laud, because I'm not a boy. All right?

So this is laud, and laud

works there at the school. If, you've been there, you know, she's the lady that

brings us tea, all the time. So it's crazy. It's 110

degrees outside sometimes, and they're bringing you scald and hot tea, and you're

just drinking as you sweat it out, immediately.

but this time, I heard her story for the first time. You

see, when Laud came to know the Lord, Laud couldn't read,

but her daughter could. And someone gave her daughter a

children's story Bible. And she said, I want to learn

to read. And so she began, her daughter began to teach her how to read

English by reading a children's story Bible.

And years later, through the process of all that God

was doing in her life, she gave her life to Jesus Christ through

reading the children's Bible. And now she works at

the school, and she's able to support and provide for her family, which is

very important for her. She has a son and a daughter

because the rest of her family has rejected her. The

rest of her family won't help her. The rest of her family doesn't care

about her because she walked away from the hindu faith,

and she walked into a relationship with Jesus Christ.

And so when I see this picture, I'm

reminded that so many people all over the world that the

choice to follow Christ is not

simply a, choice of how does this impact

my eternity, but in a very real

way, impacts them beyond

what we could fathom or what we could comprehend.

And so she said. She said, can your church

pray for my family, that they would come to know

the Lord? And I said, absolutely.

So I want to challenge you to look at this precious

lady, to lock her face into your mind, and we'll pray

at the end, but to pray for laud L

A a d in her

encouragement in the faith. We'll see the next

one. This is coach V there

on the left, there's Brent.

Y'all giggled at that, right? I don't know why. and then there's Wayne

van Ham in the middle. And so they went and they worked with coach V to teach

about, nutrition and

stretching and different things that he could do with his basketball team.

Coach V is one of the basketball players. And

I show you this picture because this is part of what we do.

Coach V is the basketball coach who's there. Coach V is a

Hindu. If you only staffed a christian

school with christian teachers, then you couldn't have a

christian school because there'd be no teachers.

So the leadership at its core level is

Christians, but you have teachers there who are

not. And coach V is one of those teachers who

is not a Christian. And for me, this is an important

piece of what we see of, why we go to do what we do. Because

what happened about eight months ago, the first time Brent

went to India, is he became friends with Coach

V as we went there to work, to do basketball. But the gospel

is more than basketball. And they formed a friendship.

They formed a relationship. And through

abilities to communicate online, they've never

stopped communicating. Weekly, they

communicate. Coach V asked questions. And Brent

shares. And I show you this picture, because

on the very last day that we were there, Coach V had been asking more and

more spiritual questions, more and more questions about what we believe,

more and more of these things. And Brent went and pulled him to the side, into

the room. He said, can I share the gospel with you? And he shared the

gospel with him. Now, Coach van

did not get saved that day, but what we

know happened in that moment. If

seeds have been scattered, then

what happened in that moment with Brent sitting down

one on one in a room was a hard pouring

of water and fertilizer on what had already been sown before.

And so I want you to look and remember

his name. I think I'm pronouncing this correctly. We just

call it coach V. It's coach Va Bob. And I want

you to remember to be able to pray for him. I

think he's like 27 years old,

but it's the realization for him. If

Jesus Christ becomes his lord and savior,

his family becomes done with him. Right.

So I want you to pray for him as well.

All right, the next picture. So really quick before we go there.

Jump back 1 second. Real quick. So all of these places have

been in Jaipur. Okay. This has been up in the north. This has been what I'm

used to, what I'm comfortable with, what I know really well, know the

places, know the roads, all of those things.

What you're going to see moving forward is going to be in Andhra Pradesh and

Kerala, and I hope to distinguish between the

two. So let's go ahead and jump to the next one.

So this is the girl's home that, the ministry

has, which is outside of

Kakinada in the state

of Andhra Pradesh.

About 16 girls ranging between the ages of

five and 20 that live there in this

girl's home. This is out more in the

villages than in the city.

And these girls, just some special, some

sweet girls. If you see some that maybe look younger than five, there are some

workers who come there, and those are their daughters. But those

are a large majority of the girls, that we find there.

You see standing back in the back. If you don't know who, who Sam is, he's

standing beside Josh. that's Sam back

there. And then the rest of us who were able to make

this part of the trip are there. I asked

Sam, I said, how do

these girls end up here?

Cause their parents died. It was because

financially it was too difficult. We're in an area with

great poverty and great suffering of what's

there. And he said this.

He said, some.

But most,

most of these families view

these girls. And here's the word that he

used as an

inconvenience. And so

they don't want them, and so it's

easier to give them away,

but it's more profitable if they can be trafficked.

And when we hear of these, we take these

girls in

as a dad

of a daughter, especially

to sit there and to encounter a group of

girls who were looked

at not as a blessing and as a

joy, but as an

inconvenience, blew my

mind and rocked my heart.

We were able to eat with these girls. they had a group of pastors that came

in, and I was able to speak with the pastors for a while and do like a little

revival encouragement thing for them, and that was

fine. But being able to sit down with these

girls and we had a meal with them,

and then we played games with them.

They don't do pin the tail on the donkey. They do draw a

tail on a dog,

right? So they brought out, a dry

erase board and they drew a picture of a dog without a tail. And then they

blindfolded each other and spun them around. And we got to go and do

that. And then we got to go and do that. And they laughed at us

as these awkward, large american guys are trying

to get there and do that. Then we went

into another room and they played musical

chairs. Sam looked at me while they were playing

musical chairs and he said, do you have

100 rupee on you? and just let me pause 1

second. I want to make sure that I've got the right calculation on this.

I've, still got my money conversion app. I said, yeah, I've got a

couple hundred rupee notes, which is about a dollar.

And he said, give me one

of them. I was like, okay. And he

said, whoever wins this game, I want you to go.

And we're going to award them a prize of like, is that okay? He's like, yeah, it's

fine, it's fine, it's fine. So with one of these little girls, she

won and presented her the

rs100. And she got

so excited. Dollar 20.

She got so excited. And like, held on to that,

that hundred note. And

then because we wanted to give some more things out, I believe in the

ministry of candy. And so I travel with, with

candy. and so we took lifesavers and we

took, Werther's originals, right?

Which I'm m like the old man pulling out the hard candy

out of my pockets, you know. And we gave them around there. And

the girls are eating these and just loving it, loving it, loving it. But it came time

for us to go. And I noticed this little

girl, like, as we said

goodbye, we took a picture. That picture was taken right before we

left. it's the girl, you see, not the

girl with like the yellow tan cover on, but

the girl like standing right in front of me to my

left in that picture. Okay. And she's just kind of

backing up after her pictures.

And the moment we got on our bus, she took off running.

And then I watched her and she ran down

the road like a kid handed a

$100 bill. And she went down

to this little convenience store so that she could

take that dollar. $0.20 for us

and experience that. Just a

powerful, powerful moment.

Next, I want to show you the next picture.

This group of people are

known as the Yonadula

tribe, the Yondua tribe.

They live in a village

known as East Godavari.

If you take the translation of the Yonaduwa

tribe, their language,

what that means is they are the people of the

trash.

In total, there's about 75 of

these people.

The only place for them to live is

around trash dumps, specifically

medical waste dumps,

three different ones in their area where they

can support themselves. They go into

these medical waste facilities, oftentimes without

shoes on, to collect plastic

so that they can recycle the plastic.

I asked, how much money does that bring in? Like,

what is this? What is this amount of,

finances that they earn from doing this job?

A job I would not want. A job you would not want.

And what I found out was, for every two

pounds of

recyclable plastic that

they collect, what

that earns them is five cent.

Five cent.

Go weigh a plastic bag

and see how much that weighs.

And then what I want you to do is I want you to imagine how many

plastic bags that have been filled

with body parts and feces

and blood would we want to

collect in

order to make $0.05.

But it's their only option,

and so that's what they do. This man in the

white shirt, his name is Pastor Benny. Benny

Babu. He pastors a church

down the road. He started the ministry that cares for these people, that

seeks to share the gospel with them. And let me just

tell you, if all 75 of these people start

coming to his church, I would guarantee you the

giving does not increase.

There's no earthly benefit for

him to care for these people, which are known

as the untouchables,

other than for the kingdom of God.

And so he cares for them and shares the

gospel with them. Let's go to the next

picture. So this

is the side of their house. So the government has built

them. The structure we're in, there's three of these structures.

These are the structures they have to live in. I think you can

tell, that there's a mountain of trash right

there. I asked how we could pray for

them, and they said, pray for us. In this way, the rainy season

is coming, and when it rains

there, imagine, like, when we had the big flood.

Hundred year, thousand year, million, I don't know, million year flood,

right? That's what it rains, like, for two months.

So you remember how your yard got flooded?

Well, what happens here

is all of the waste from this

medical waste facility right here

gets wet. And then it works like water does with

gravity and fills their

home every day

with the disease and the filth that is

found in there. Go to the next

picture. If

it's not enough, I don't know if you can tell, but over to

the right, to get rid of the trash,

the government burns the trash.

So it's the filth that I'll stand

in. It's the filth that I'll

touch, and it'll become

the filth that I breathe

over and over and over again.

Let's get to the next picture.

This is me standing in the waste

facility back at them. And

this is their home.

They're all illiterate.

They're not given an opportunity to go to school.

They're not given an opportunity for

betterment for themselves.

This is their reality.

I was asked if I'd pray and say a few words when

we first got there. And so I'm

standing in their home. Dirt

floor, trash all over the place.

And I'm sharing with them, and I'm praying with them.

And y'all know this. Like, I move.

And so when I can't move, I move my

feet, and I feel something underneath

my shoe. I'm, Like, m that's

weird. I'm talking. I'm praying. Like,

there's times, and you probably know this, like we're up here communicating, but there's a thousand

thoughts going through our mind. I'm like, what in the world is this

underneath my foot? And I get done,

and I move my foot to the side just like that.

And I realize that I'm standing on a syringe

now. there's no needle still attached to it. It's laid

flat. My shoe kept me from where I

needed to be. But I'll look

out and see the bare feet

of most of the children and the bare

feet of most of the women who are in the room.

And that's the reality.

I knew that existed,

but my mind couldn't fathom it.

Let's go to the next one.

While we were there, this truck came in

filled with waste.

It struck me,

that's hope for them.

Think about that. That's

hope. That's more

money. That's an opportunity to

buy food. Every day when

that trash truck comes

filled with the filth that comes

out of whatever

medical place is around there,

that's hope for them

on this earth. That's

all that they know.

Let's go to the next picture.

We had an opportunity to give

out blankets, candy,

and food. These

blankets. I should have done better with my notes. I appreciate

y'all's kindness.

$3.59

rs299. We're able

to give them to them so that they can use them for a

million different things. That's their bed, that's their

cover up, that's their shade from the sun.

And to see the smiles on all the faces.

But amazingly, not a bum rush toward

them, right? Able to give them

some candy, a blanket,

and a bag of rice.

Let's go to the next one.

Next one.

Look at that.

The universal symbol of unhappy.

It's after they've been fed. It's

after some candy. More lifesavers, more

werthers. I, looked over at this one kid,

and he had his werthers opened,

and he had his lifesaver opened,

and he was doing this.

Not sure which one I want to go with and commit to, right?

So I'm just going to keep doing this, keep doing this, keep

doing this. And then Josh and

Brent, we were there, sat there and

teach them some games, taught them paper, rock, scissors.

I got a video of that. I don't have that with me. But you would have

thought, like, the newest PlayStation rolled

out. These kids became kids.

They didn't become trash collectors. They became kids.

And they played a game. There's a bunch of

old coconut shells on the side.

And Josh and Brent went back into the medical

waste, area, and they found, like, a

bucket, and they went and grabbed the

bucket. And

very unfairly, Brent made

Josh be the basketball goal. As

Brent taught these kids, who had never played basketball, how to

shoot coconut shells at Josh's

face. Josh just

smiled for Jesus while he did it, right?

And then they taught him, hm, how to play cornhole with

coconut. Right? So they're out there and they're doing

this, and show them all these games that we could do.

And they smiled.

We were there for an hour, and

we shared the gospel with them, and they

smiled.

I'll show you the next picture.

So this is Wayne right here, and I'll

explain in a minute what he's doing, but there's a man right

here named Pondu.

I heard Pondu's blind in one eye.

And I don't know. What I got to see is

I'm not a doctor, but filled with

infection and just

never seen an eye like this in my life. But I

noticed he had on a pair of sandals. I mean, his

sandals were busted, they were broken. And he had a

bandana tied, around his foot. And he was kind of limping. What's there?

And I said to one of the pastors, I said, hey, what's going on with his

foot? He says he's got an infection in

his foot, and we can't get the

infection cleaned out. So

the reason why Wayne was on this trip with us is to be

some medical eyes and ears. Wayne's, been a

nurse for years. He served in the army as a medic and

retired from there for years. And, most

recently. So he lives in the Washington area, but pretty

close to Portland, Oregon. And he serves on two boards that

work with homeless clinics in the area of

his town. And I said, wayne, you'll have some expertise, man. I would

love for you to come and go on this with us. And so

Wayne came to kind of help process through some things, and I

looked at him, and I was like, hey, man, you want to do some medical stuff here really

quick? And he got giddy.

He's like, absolutely.

So come to find out,

Pondu has diabetes

and no. No

diabetes medicine. And so

Wayne stepped in. Look at the next picture.

So Wayne got on our bus and took him down to a

pharmacy that's there. And he had the

guy take off his bandage and

his shoe. And here's what Wayne realized

really quickly. I don't have gloves.

And his excitement to get all of the antibiotics

and the creams and the wraps and all the things that are

needed, he forgot that he didn't have gloves.

And he's like, so here we go.

And he dove in,

and he cleaned his foot,

got all of the dirt the best he could off of his

foot. The wound,

Wayne thinks, is a diabetic ulcer that's on

his foot. Put the creams that was

there, cleaned it, bandaged it some more,

wrapped it, showed other people there how to do that, other people how to clean it, other

people how to do these things. Gave him some

antibiotics that he's going to need to take.

did all of those things.

So I told you these people were untouchables, right?

So he can't go to a hospital.

People around aren't going to touch him because he's dirty, he's

filthy. He's untouchable.

Wayne's like, I want to touch, and

I want to care, and I want to love.

When we got there, this man sat in the very back corner,

kind of hidden. The last to get food, the last

to do anything. And so let's

jump to the next picture. This is when

we left. All

right.

He is a

real person made in the image of

God, who is not untouchable,

but who has value and purpose.

And might not be a follower of Jesus,

but he's heard the gospel and

he felt the love of Christ

physically. And so we pray for

Pandu

next. We got three more pictures.

And then I promise the message is brief,

so let's jump to the next one.

Our last day, we went to a dialysis clinic.

This is a lady, she's 46 years old.

She's in stage five.

She will die. She is

not a Christian. When her husband

found out that she was sick, he left.

Her son has no job,

and we're now in the state of Kerala.

Let me explain to you the medical care in

India. It is free. Medical care

is free. I don't know if you know this or not, but

there's a lot of people in India, right?

So you think our emergency rooms are

crowded? You can go to their

emergency rooms and have to wait for

weeks to be seen. Now, there's no

bill, but ten to 14 days of

waiting will wear on someone.

And then when they can see you, you cannot get necessarily the care

that you need. You see, the care is saved

for those with power, those with money, those

with influence that can get these things. And ladies like

this are never going to be worth and

valued at that. So,

this dialysis unit of this hospital, which is a

private christian hospital, which means it gets no funds,

zero funds from the government to operate,

functions. And no one

pays who goes there either because they can't

afford it. Let's go to the next

picture.

So these were the four individuals who were there,

went through, heard their stories, prayed for each one of them.

According to Wayne, he thinks these two men

closest to the, to the camera stand a

chance because of the

swelling that is happening in the bodies of the last

two. Do not.

They will die because

of what the illnesses that their body is

facing. Every day this group of people gets

prayed for every day, this group of people

that comes in there, share the gospel all in

told every person that comes in there.

Over the course of the month, there's 174 different

individuals that receive dialysis treatment.

They can treat up to twelve people during a day. And they

work their best to make sure that the men and women

who come in get the proper amounts of treatments that they need

over course of a month. So

it's not just one, but if your body requires multiple times a

week, then that's what they do. The cost for

each one of these treatments is $10 every time

they get hooked up to dialysis.

There's four dialysis machines. You can see them right

there. You can buy a dialysis machine in India for

$9,000. They can are

praying right now for six more dialysis machines so that they can

see more and more people. Once a month, they gather

together. Everyone who has received this

dialysis treatment and who is alive and who is healed

gathers once a month for an opportunity to

share the gospel with them and to do all these things. And so

a wonderful ministry. who are there?

Let's go to the next one.

So, when you're on a mission trip

in a country that's restricted in sharing the gospel,

and someone says to you,

hey, would you like to participate in a

baptism in the Bay

of Bengal on a Sunday

morning? Like, you don't think about the answer to

that question, like, absolutely, I

do. Right? So we go out there,

and we're standing there on the shore. and there's two

pastors who are there. this is Jesse,

who was baptized. Sam baptized her.

Jesse is 18 years old, getting ready to go to

college to become an engineer. And her brother

Stephen, who I believe is 16 years old,

got baptized as well.

And it was a wonderful, wonderful,

wonderful time of celebration. This is in Andhra

Pradesh, but

I want you to notice there's two things

happening in this picture.

The baptism and celebration are happening.

But who else sees what else is happening?

Anybody? What's happening in the

background?

Fishing. Fishing.

Now, there was not a bass tracker

or pontoon boat to be seen, right? There

was not a motor on any of these boats. They

were not of fiberglass or whatever they're made out of.

Now, these were wooden

boats that were put together with

big old oars, with men and women out

there working these things. And it

struck me, standing out there, it

struck me in that moment. What's happening are

two things. Number one is a celebration

of life is what's happening. And that's what I thought I went

there to see. But then, number two, what I saw is a

battle for life happening in the background.

There's a celebration of life and a battle for life taking

place in this one picture.

And it's the beauty of what we go with and

what we see on the international mission field

where we can go and we can see men and women and

children, many of whom do not have access to the

gospel, much less have never heard of the gospel.

And you see someone who could be. Who could be

cast out from their family, and they're like, no, no,

no. It is greater, to

walk with Jesus than to experience

the success and the power and the

authority that this world has to offer. Offer. I

would rather have Jesus than that.

We're going to connect that to scripture here in just a second.

What's next? What's next? Here's what we're going to

do before may

ends. So we're an exploratory team to

go and kind of see what this would be like. Okay.

Nothing, has been set in stone, written on paper, or anything like that. But

what I'd like to do do is I'm going to hold an interest meeting that

will communicate both here on Sunday morning and

through email for

any individuals who may be interested on going on a

medical mission trip, either to

Jaipur in the north or to

Andhra Pradesh and Kerala in the south.

We just want to gauge some interest to see if there's any of

you who would be interested in doing that.

Now, it is a medical mission trip, so that means, number

one, we need medical people to go.

We need doctors, we need nurses, we need

technicians. We need anyone

who works paramedics, anyone who works

in the medical field. We need you to go.

Okay. But

you don't have to solely be

working in the medical field in order to go, okay.

And we can talk about that more in the meeting, and I can share

what that looks like. So, if you're here today and you're like,

but I'm not a doctor or nurse. I don't work in that

world, that's fine. That's fine. There could still

be a place for you on this. But if you are

here, if you are here

and God's kind of tugging at you and you just want to kind of have some

more information about some things, we'll sit

down one day after, one of our church services on a Sunday

morning, we'll gather for about 30, 45

minutes, and be able to share with you what all's.

What all is going on and what that could look like for you. Okay?

and so we'll get those details out, but here's

the question. And this is, we're gonna look at Luke five starting in

verse four here in just a moment. Okay?

But why do we do these things?

Why do we do these things? Why do we go to these places?

Why do we care for these people? What is

our motivation? And I think

that's important. What is our motivation

for doing this? Because

we're not just a good works

group. That's not

what we are. There's lots of reasons why

we could go and do these things. And

I'm going to tell you, when we pulled up to

that trash dump

where those people were living,

I looked at Brent and I was like, I can't

do this, man.

I can't do this.

And he's like, yeah, you can.

And I just got out, and I wanted to be like, okay, you,

you, you. Okay, your

new last name is Nix, all right? And so you're gonna

go with Josh, all right? And you, you,

you. Your last name is Hawkins,

all right? So you're gonna go with him. And we're just. Now, here are the

Van hamsters. Jacob and Ella just got some new cousins, all

right? And so we're just going to have these pieces, right?

Y'all go with Wayne, and then the rest, y'all are

ours. Emm M and Grayson, you just lost your bedrooms. All

right? This is what we're going to have.

But why do we do this?

And there's no better example to look at than

Jesus ministry. So I'm going to read verses

four through eleven of Luke, chapter five.

And when he had finished speaking, he being Jesus,

he said to Simon,

put out into the deep and let down

your nets for a catch. And

Simon answered, master, we toiled

all night and took nothing but at your word,

I will let down the nets. And when they had

done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets

were breaking. They signaled to their partners

in the other boat to come and help them.

And they came and filled both the

boats. So they began to

sink. But when Simon Peter saw

it, he fell down at Jesus knees, saying,

depart from me, for I am a sinful man, o lord.

For he and all who were with him were

astonished at, ah, the catch of fish they had taken.

And so also were James and John, sons of

Zebedee, who were partners with Simon.

And Jesus said to Simon, do not

be afraid. From now on, you will be catching

men. And when they had brought their boats

to land, they left everything

and followed him.

Chelsea, can we jump back to the baptism

picture?

When I'm standing there, that's all I thought about.

That's all I thought about. There are

boats and all the things that were there.

People who are doing the work of their business.

Then there was work of Christ being done,

the work of what's there, you

know, whether you're in

India or

America or

anywhere in between, this

world is filled,

filled with people looking for hope.

And they think they know where they can

find it, but they

can't.

Previously in this passage of scripture, getting into chapter five, we see that

Jesus is teaching, and more and more people are coming

toward him because they hear his message of hope, and they so long for

it. You see, there are people in India

and United States and every country in between

when they're searching for their hope. And anything that is Christ. And Christ

alone is putting their hope in the equivalent of a

trash truck backing up every day.

Every day. But we see

the picture of this is what's there.

India is very different. Very different.

But yet the pursuits are the same.

They have their temples. They have their gods.

We have our temples. We have our

gods. You see, the message of

why we do this is because we know where hope comes from.

We know that hope is found in Christ and Christ alone.

We know that hope isn't found in a trash truck and a trash

pile. We know that hope isn't found in a temple

to a made up God. And I hope that.

We know that hope is not found in a

401K or in a travel

sport or in a degree that we can

earn or a car that we can obtain

or the ideal of a relationship with

a person on this earth other than Christ and Christ

alone. This world is filled with

people looking for hope. And they think they know

where to find it, but they don't.

Number two, what we see in this passage of scripture

is Jesus is different. Jesus is

different. When we were getting there, most of the boats

are coming out of the water. When I come

off of the water, I stick my fishing

pole in the back of my truck, and I go

home, and I watch a group of

individuals pull nets out and

mend them and care for them. This is

their livelihood. Most of what they're

catching during this time is sardines,

massive, massive nets that

they would work in these very small boats,

paddling as they would pull these in and

then going through, one by one, removing all of

these fish and working and caring for it.

And I was imagining this passage of scripture.

Imagine working hard. You're taking care.

You're mending your nets. You're doing all that you need to do.

And I walk up.

Me, I'm not a fisherman.

And if, you're a fisherman and you fish here, let

me just say, like, your method and their method ain't the

same. Jesus is a

carpenter, and he's a teacher,

and he goes up to fishermen and says, now, let's

go back out. I got an idea.

And Simon didn't want to,

but he did,

and he did. And out of

respects, he let down his nets.

And what happened in that

moment of what he saw is.

Jesus is different. Jesus is different.

Jesus is different than any God that they would try to

find and create for themselves in Hinduism.

And Jesus is different than any God that you and I

try to settle for. He's different.

His kindness, his compassion, his love,

the essence of his very nature is

different in the reminder, in the

power of the truth of God's word, of who he

is. But the third thing we see from this

passage of scripture is that Jesus

demands a response. When

you encounter who Jesus is,

you encounter more than an intellectual

agreement. You

encounter who he

is at your core, at your

spirit. And Jesus

demands a response. And we see

that from Simon Peter. He fell at his

feet like Isaiah,

in Isaiah, chapter six, as

he's before, God

responds to God's holiness

by seeing Isaiah, by seeing his sin.

And that's what we see in Simon Peter that he

acknowledges here in the presence

of Christ. He

acknowledges his sin, but then

what does he do? It's, you see, we're really good, I think, at

doing that. We're really good at

acknowledging that we're not perfect. We know

that, and we think that that's

enough.

But Jesus called him into

relationship. He called him to follow

him.

And when they had brought their boats to land,

they left everything

and followed him.

Peter counted the cost.

Simon Peter knew that if I take this step,

that means that I leave this behind.

And he said, it's worth it. It's

worth it. And so he

followed Jesus. He followed

Jesus. He didn't perfectly follow

Jesus, but he

followed perfection.

And then in this, Jesus changes our

motivation. Jesus says,

look, the disciples are going

to go. They're going to plant churches. They're going to heal

people. They're going to perform miracles.

They're going to see dead people come to life.

They're going to see an international movement of

Christianity.

They're going to be a part of things special.

But what is their motivation?

Is it so that people will have a better tomorrow?

Is it so that people who are hungry today

will go to bed not with the pains of

hunger, but with a stomach that is full?

Is there motivation simply because a man who's got a

sore on his foot could

find physical healing from that? All

of those things are good things.

They're good things. But what Jesus

says is like, look, if you follow me,

here's what's gonna happen. You're gonna become

fishers of men, and we're gonna

use giving out candy to little

kids, and we're gonna use healing

sores on diabetic men's

feet. And we're going to use visits to

girls homes where they've been

devalued and abused by every

male in their life. And the ladies are going to come

in there and care for them, and guys are going to get to show them

what a godly man looks like.

But that's not the ultimate motivation.

The ultimate motivation is

that, is that

you see, that

man on the boat

probably caught 40 pounds

of sardines,

but God caught something greater.

And Jesus has asked for, I would make you

listen. This isn't a message, and I want to be careful

with this. This isn't a message where at the end of

this, I'm like, all right, if you don't go to

India, you don't love the Lord. That's

not it. There's some of

you that God may call to go with us,

and we'll celebrate that. But there's some

of you that God might not call. But

if you follow Jesus, if

you say that you're a Christian,

then the motivation of your

heart in all that we

do and all that we are,

is to love the Lord your

God, with all your heart,

with all your mind, and with all your

strength,

and love your neighbor as yourself.

And yes, we serve

and we clean feet and we feed,

but for something greater. Do, you know

who Jesus is? Do you know what a

relationship with him looks like? Do you know what it

means to step out of death into darkness?

Do you know that he paid the price for your sins?

That he died on the cross and then he rose

again? That's the

motivation to see more

jesses and more stevens

and more lads, and

the prayer that coach

V's and Pondus

will come to know Jesus Christ as their lord and savior.

Would you pray with me?

God, I thank you so much for today,

Lord, in the grace that this church

gives to be able to have

the time to share these things. Lord,

I thank you for that moment on the beach. We looked out and we saw

men who were catching fish

and saw men who were catching souls.

God, I pray. I pray

for lad. Lord, I pray that she

would be strengthened in her faith.

Lord, I pray that there would be those around her to support her,

encouraging her, or that while her

earthly family has rejected

her, her family in Christ has

received her. And, Lord, I,

pray that in the tears

of her loneliness,

Lord, that Jesus, you,

you and you alone would be enough.

God, I pray for coach v.

I pray for the seeds of the gospel that were sown.

God, I pray that you would work in the power of

your spirit. And that, Lord. That he

would respond to the truth of the gospel that's been shared with

him. God, I pray

that he will move

from being a friend

to a brother in Christ.

God, I pray for Pondu.

Lord, I pray for healing

for the sore that is on his foot.

Lord, I pray that in his limited

educational capabilities, Lord.

That he would be able to care for

that wound in the way that he needs to.

Lord, I pray for all those ladies,

Lord. The two that were in there who were pregnant,

the ones who were caring for the kids,

Lord. And all of those beautiful kids gathered

in that shelter that they call home.

Lord, I pray for relief for them

as the rain season comes,

Lord. As the floor of their home

will fill

with filth and decay,

blood, feces.

Word that isn't that,

Lord. An earthly,

earthly glimpse of hell that we could not

fathom.

Lord. That the truth of the gospel that they've heard,

where there is an

eternity

without that.

But, Lord, that it's possible through Christ and Christ alone.

And we're beyond their ability

to theologically understand, Lord.

That their hearts would be receptive

to the truth of the gospel.

Lord, we pray for all of our missionary partners.

Lord, I pray for Darryl and

his family, Lord. In the work

that you're using them for in the Philippines,

Lord. They see situations like what we saw

often, Lord. And give

them the strength to endure and to persevere.

Lord, we pray for Hans and brandy

in Toronto,

Lord. As they minister

to all of the millions of Muslims

who've gathered in that area

to share with them the hope of

Christ, the truth of the

gospel. God, we pray for

them as they're back here in South

Carolina for this time.

Lord. As Brandy's dad continues his earthly battle

with cancer, Lord. And we see

that the end is near for

him on this earth.

But, Lord, we celebrate for what

is in store for him as he crosses

that finish line and

his faith is made sight.

God, we pray for the Stotmans

as they gather this morning

in Salt Lake City.

M in an area of this

country filled with lostness like no

other, to share the hope of the

gospel with people who think.

Who think that they are followers of Jesus, but they're not.

And, Lord, we pray for the words

that Dustin will share this morning.

Lord, give him the

power of your spirit to speak truth

of the gospel. Lord, may they

be encouraged, regardless of the size of the crowd

or the amount of the offering.

God, we pray for all of those at Black

Mountain children's home

m

who have so many boys and girls there

whose parents have

left them, deserted them, have been

imprisoned. And what they have

to do, Lord, is go and show love to

kids who don't believe in love,

Lord. Soften those kids hearts.

Save them, transform

them the power of the gospel.

God, what a privilege and honor it is

to be able to stand along beside

these Sam and

Susan, Jacob and

Amala, these brothers

and sisters of faith linked arm in

arm, all for the pursuit of the

gospel. God, I pray if there's

anyone here and they do not know

you, Lord, I

pray that today they would stop trying to find their hope

in the things that the nets of this world will

catch. And they'll

find their hope in Christ and

Christ alone. It's in Jesus name we

pray. Amen.

Thanks again for listening and be sure to check back next

week for another episode. In the meantime, you

can visit [email protected] or by

searching for Willow Ridge Church on Facebook, Instagram

and Twitter.