The Power of Perseverance: How a Young Girl Inspired a Global Movement

It is my privilege to invite you to today's sermon podcast.

I have made the Apostle Paul's prayer request my own.

When he states in Ephesians 6.19, Pray also for me, that whenever I open my

mouth, the words may be given to me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel.

May today's sermon come alive to you and aid you in your understanding of God's plan for your life.

Thank you. Thank you very much, Dathan. And shall we stand together for the reading of God's Word?

We'll be talking this morning about what does Jesus want us to do?

And you'll find it in Matthew, the 25th chapter, Matthew chapter 25, beginning at verse 31.

Matthew 25 · chapter mention

I'm sure you'll remember this passage. Some call it a parable, but it isn't a parable.

And as I was reading comments about the passage, it's a passage.

And it's different from just about anything else that's in the New Testament.

When the Son of Man shall come in his glory and all the holy angels with him,

then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory.

And before him shall be gathered all nations, and he shall separate them one

from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats.

And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on his left.

Then shall the king say unto them on his right hand, Come, you blessed of my

father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.

For I was hungry, and you gave me food.

I was thirsty, and you gave me drink. I was a stranger, and you took me in.

I was naked, and you clothed me. I was sick, and you visited me.

I was in prison, and you came to me. Then shall the righteous answer,

saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry and fed you, or thirsty and gave you drink?

When did we see you a stranger and took you in, or naked and clothed you?

Or when we saw...

The sick, or in prison, and came unto you.

And the king shall answer them, Verily I say to you, inasmuch as you have done

it unto the least of these my brethren, you have done it unto me.

Father, we pray this morning that you'll take your word and speak to our hearts.

And Lord, fill us with your Spirit.

Come and meet with us in our hearts, the chambers of our heart today.

Make yourself known to us that we might praise you and give you glory.

We ask it in Jesus' name.

Amen. You may be seated.

Come, you blessed my Father. You want to be one of those who are blessed by God?

Huh? You want to be in that group? The sheep, maybe, not the goats.

You know, there's differences between those two.

Goats will eat anything and everything. Just turn them loose.

If you don't want to buy a lawnmower, just get one of them.

Sheep, on the other hand, they're kind of crowd followers.

You know, they will actually go over a cliff if the first one goes.

The others will go take a look and follow.

Now, that's dedication for you, isn't it?

But we want to be blessed of the Lord, don't we? I think we do.

But you know, who gets to be blessed? Just certain people?

Are some people excluded? Are you excluded? or are you included?

I'm going to quote this morning from one of our members' book.

We have an author in our church. Do you know that?

Phyllis Nevelton. And by verbal

permission, I'm using some references from one of her books here today.

She quoted the evangelist Billy Sunday saying it is not necessary to be in a

big place to do big things.

Will you think that for that? Think about it a minute.

You don't have to be in a big place to do big things.

Great things often come in obscure places. What do you think Nazareth was?

Just a little village with a bad reputation.

But there weren't many people there.

Yet Jesus himself grew up in that little place, and he touched the whole wide world.

Do you have to be in a big place, have big things, for big things to happen? No. You know why?

Because God is a big God. He doesn't say, well, you get yourself in shape and be worthy here.

And then maybe, maybe I can do something with you. No, God goes searching.

He finds whom he will. He looks on the heart, not on the outside.

He looked out in a little shepherd boy one day and said, that's the one,

a shepherd kid watching sheep. Can you imagine that?

And he was the one who became the king, and he was the one who wrote many of

the psalms, and he was the one that blessed the world even to this morning.

We heard one of those great psalms read to us today.

They are hungry and thirsty.

That's what the passage says.

Well, who are they? Well, they are the hungry and the thirsty. That's who.

I think it could be food. It could be drink, yeah, water.

There are a lot of people in the world. You know, we're so blessed here in America.

We can turn on the tap and get water.

And I know places you wouldn't want to turn on the tap. There is no tap.

There's dirty, muddy little pools of water here and there, if you can find them.

I know people right now, and you have given to food and relief.

A lot of that's gone to communities and with our sister church in the Philippines.

But you know, many of those people have no real safe drinking water, period.

We're so blessed, aren't we? You think they might be thirsty sometime?

Yeah, they love to be thirsty and have it quenched with real clean water and

not have to be sick day in and day out and week in and week out and month in

and month out. You hear what I'm saying?

The hungry are hungry. The thirsty are thirsty.

It can be for real, real bread, real water. But what about the bread of life?

What about the water of life that Jesus said, I am the bread of life? I am the water of life.

You see, it's more than just food and a cup of water.

I'd like to quote from Sister Nettleton's book.

It's a story about Mary Jones. Some of you may know it.

Exploring the Welch countryside was a favorite pastime for a five-year-old named Mary Jones.

Her family was poor, but Mary dreamed of owning her own Bible as soon as she learned to read.

However, she couldn't even start school until she was 10 years old.

But when she did, she was so eager to excel, she excelled in every subject still.

She had that great desire to own her own Bible.

She worked hard. She raised money to buy the Bible.

This went on for six years after she had started her education. She was 16, a teenager.

Bibles were scarce where she lived in her valley in Wales. But she knew of a

pastor in a little village called Bala.

Who had Bibles for sale. She walked there. It was 26 miles one way.

But she so much had a dream that one day she would not only own the Bible,

she could read it for herself.

When Mary arrived at the pastor's home and met with Thomas Charles,

he had no Bibles for sale.

She told him her story of dreaming daily, working hard and walking all the way for a Bible.

And Thomas Charles was so moved with compassion to the point that he searched

around to see what he could find, and he found not just one Bible,

but three, and gave them all to her.

Soon after this encounter with Mary, Thomas Charles was asked to speak in the

year 1802 at a meeting of the Religious Tract Society.

He asked if the committee would consider providing a Bible for all Welsh people.

One of the committee members, Joseph Hughes, exclaimed.

If not for Wales, why not the kingdom of Great Britain? And if for the kingdom

of Great Britain, why not for the world?

And out of that simple longing of a young girl named Mary Jones came the British

and Foreign Bible Society, today known as the Bible Society.

Mary's perseverance teaches us how we should treasure God's Word and share His

love with those around us. We never know.

We never know how our commitment to God may change a life, a community, maybe even our world.

You see, the hungering and thirsting can be hungering and thirsting after God.

It can be a hungering and thirsting for righteousness.

And Jesus said, you will be filled.

Our ultimate ministry is not only to those who are hungry for water.

Those who need clothing, who are thirsty, the desperate and lonely in prison,

or those who need shelter or those who are weak with sickness.

You know who our real ministry is to? The King, King Jesus.

It's to the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the one we serve. He is the one we minister

to. Let us never forget that.

What's the great commandment? Love the Lord thy God, all thy heart,

soul, and strength, and then love your neighbor as well.

Change of attitude. Maybe we need a change of attitude.

What a change of attitude comes when we realize whatever we do can be done for the Lord.

Whatever we're doing, doesn't the Scripture say, do it all to the glory of God?

Work can turn into worship. How about that? Labor can turn into service to God.

Relationships can turn into discipleship. Whether we are singing praises,

steadying God's Word, or giving of ourselves to others, we always do it in the name of Jesus.

Many believe that we worship only in a church building or through singing gospel songs.

But the Apostle Paul says, whatever you do, whatever you say,

whatever you give, the focus is on in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Do all to the glory of God.

He is the one we serve. We often believe our little contribution is not noticed or does not matter.

It does. According to God's words, our actions are our ministry of serving the

living, loving, holy God.

Hey, does that mean if you're at home and caring for a family,

preparing a meal, you can do those things to the Lord, that you're serving Him?

You think about it now. you're out there working hard in the field somewhere,

and unless the Lord ever bring to mind what you're doing you're doing for him yeah,

Yeah.

And I'm sure all of you could fill in the blank with your own situation as God

has put you, but we're not doing it just to be doing it.

We're doing all things, whatsoever you do, you're doing it to the glory of God.

Some say, I'm not one of those that, you know, I'm just not one of those.

It doesn't work that way for me, but you know what? It should.

You notice the word strangers there? May I take a moment and just share a little

bit about that? It's kind of been on my heart.

When you ask my wife, I was up to about four or five this morning,

all night, reading and praying about this.

But it hit me the other day when I went on Facebook. I'm going to blame Facebook now.

If you're not on it, don't feel like you're missing out, okay?

You're not. I don't get on it very often.

So I think I looked at four different things on Facebook, and each one got worse each time I looked.

And I thought, oh my, oh my, why did I even look at this thing?

One of the things had to do with immigrants.

Is that a hot button topic these days? It might be, huh? Yes, indeed.

We're having people who are shouting and screaming and some people being arrested

and some people hauled away and all kinds of things are going on in our nation, in our state.

There were people out there demonstrating at the state building the other day,

the Capitol building, Boise.

Well, who are these strangers that Jesus talked about?

Well, I too did a delve into the words that are used here in the scriptures.

And I like doing those kind of things sometimes. Those who are not like us, yes?

Could that be a stranger? They're strange to us, huh?

Right? Could you be a stranger?

Oh, yeah. You ever been somewhere with somebodies and all of a sudden it dawned

on you, you were the stranger in the group?

You were the stranger, and people were looking, sizing you up.

Well, what's he doing here?

Why is he here? You know, yeah.

Well, are they immigrants, as the term is used today?

Does that include illegal immigrants? Boy, I'm going to get fired here,

and I don't even have a job. So.

Listen to me very carefully.

What does the word stranger mean in this passage?

And if you delve deeply into it and go into the original, which is Greek,

it was written in Greek, but also refers back to Hebrew.

Hebrew, G-E-R, if you'd like to look it up. And if you're really interested,

I can give you the stuff for the Greek as well.

But there's no other place in the New Testament that's quite like this word in this passage.

You might not know that, but it's true. I was kind of surprised.

I received something recently, and it had various passages of the Bible,

but the word had been changed.

And for all these, both in the Old and New Testaments, they had been changed to the word immigrant.

And the case was, well, isn't this what the Bible is talking about?

They're all immigrants, and therefore, you need to support immigrants.

I do support my immigrant wife.

I'm glad she came.

They had to wait at least 10 years to come, but they came.

Now, you know, the word has been used from the Hebrew for at least 200 years in the Greek language.

Language and it does not mean immigrant.

And that comes from some of the best authority in the Greek language I know of.

I was kind of surprised how strange this is. Others even commented that it seems strange.

Stranger is used here because, and it's been used in the English Bible, way, way back,

way, way back, almost all the old translations and all the new translations,

the ones you got in your hand right now, NIV, for instance,

Revised Standard Version, New Revised Standard Version, NASB,

and on and on and on and on and on, all translated stranger.

There is a strange reason why, because there's no other place in the Bible that

uses this original word in quite the same way. No other place.

So, a long story short...

Might want to stick with a stranger, because that's what he was talking about.

Some church leaders have published this thing with the immigrant,

but you know what? I think they're dead wrong.

That's kind of playing fast and loose with political words.

Is immigrant a political word to you? It sure is right now.

It sure is right now. It has been for years in the English-speaking world and

in the European world and just about every other place around the world you want to talk about.

It has a meaning to it.

Immigrant today can mean human traffickers.

And I served on a committee in the Far East countries, an official group that

was a government-to-government kind of thing.

We had 150 organizations that were part of that.

And the horrors of human trafficking, of mutilated body parts and so forth were

very real from babies and little kids on up being done.

And they were often doing them to immigrants.

And many times the immigrants were doing it, coming from other countries,

harvesting organs from other people.

You want an immigrant like that? I don't see anything in the scripture supporting

that kind of thing. In fact, why isn't there a great outcry that we have 27

million slaves in the world today? So many of them are children.

And we had a president in office who aided and abetted that in our own country for several years.

I'm going to call a spade a spade, and I see one. That's what it is.

Where have been the outcries? There haven't been.

We take another look at some things.

501c3 called non-governmental agencies.

Are you aware that many of these are making loads of money off of immigration and even refugees?

Now, unless you think I'm against people, you better think again.

I've had a lifetime of working with people. In California, where we pastored for a number of years.

A third of our congregation were illegal immigrants.

A third in a Nazarene church? Yeah.

Yeah. Loved every one of them. Because we're not called to condemn,

we're called to be wise, we're called to love people first.

Keep the political thing out of what we're called to do.

We're not called to support smugglers. We're not called to help organizations

that call themselves smugglers.

Tax-free, and a blessing to society when they are making money and using it wrongly.

And I could name names. I've seen them. I've been around these kind of things.

I know what they're doing.

And I've seen it. I've been in the midst of it. One of the reasons we could

not get a hold of trafficking among children, even, in country after country

across Asia, you know what the reason was?

The people who had political power were using it for their own ends keep themselves

in office to make money off of them they were getting kickbacks and these were.

Lawyers judges governors you name it police,

people who are supposed to protect these people they weren't doing it but there

were brothers and sisters in the lord,

who were trying to do what they could to rescue some of these girls and some

of these boys even out of this kind of thing, trying to protect and raise awareness among God's people.

At one time in the Philippines, we actually shut down most of the trafficking

by ship, which was, you got 7,000 islands. That was easy to do.

But you know where the stop came from? Not from the government.

It came from pastors all across the country who rose up and said,

we're going to put an end to this. and they went down to the boats.

They went down to the harbors.

They began to confront these people. They began to make their people aware what

was going on in these kinds of things.

Immigrants in that country turned out to be 5,000, 5,000 what?

Immigrants from another big country that you probably know of.

And what were they doing?

They were there to destroy the people in that country.

They were there to murder people, to kidnap people, to steal body parts,

all kinds of things like that. That's what they were there for.

We need to be wise as serpents, harmless as doves and motivated by whom do we

serve? We serve the Lord.

God has no part in this, and we need people to stand up and say it and mean it and go on the attack.

We're not here just to make illegal immigration a wonderful thing,

but we are here for people, and people get caught up in all kinds of things, all kinds of things.

There's always repercussions that come from those things they get involved in.

What's our part to do? Bless it?

Act like, eh, I don't see anything. I don't know anything.

Everything's fine. Don't bother me with it.

No, we need to get personally involved. Right here in the state of Idaho,

did you know this is one of the most trafficked areas in the United States,

has some of the biggest trafficking areas, north, south, east, and west.

I'm sure you don't know that. One of the biggest rings out here in the Pacific,

in this mountain area, was in Casper, Wyoming a few years ago,

a huge thing that the FBI finally brought down.

People didn't get involved. They didn't know.

But you do know now this morning. And what are you supposed to do?

What does Jesus want us to do? Well, lots of things he wants us to do I'd like

to read something else from our sister Nettleton, Phyllis.

Often step back and say, why should I get involved? Let somebody else do it.

We've got a rescue mission in Boise.

We've got people that work with people on the streets. We've got people that

do this, do that. Why involve me?

Some will say, well, I'm too young. Are you? What does the scripture say?

Don't let people look down upon you because you're young, but be set in the

example for believers in your speech, your conduct, your love,

your faith, and your purity.

How about that? Yeah, I don't care if you're 13 or 14.

God's talking to you. You know that? Some will say, well, I don't think I'm educated enough.

Well, you remember somebody named Peter and John went up to a temple one day,

and they saw this beggar.

He wanted some money from them, and he was told, I don't have any money to give

you, but in the name of Jesus, rise up and walk.

And the guy did. And everybody was, what? What happened here? What happened?

Later, the people who were all against Peter and John and all those followers

of Jesus, they made an astonished note about something. You know what it was?

It was that these people are ordinary people, but they had been with Jesus.

They had been with Jesus. You and the Lord together, a winning combination every time.

A winning combination every time. Some of you are asking the question,

so what is my purpose on earth anyway? Why am I here?

Well, listen to what the scripture says. Now to him who is able to do it measurably

more than all that we can ask or imagine even,

according to his power that is at work within you, To him be glory,

not only in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever

and ever. God is at work in you.

You've made a commitment to follow Christ.

He can empower you to do the things even though they may seem ordinary and simple.

Can you love somebody? Can you encourage somebody? God says, go, go.

Remember Brian Bruark from Honduras standing up here?

And he felt called as a young man to go to Honduras.

And his pastors told him, well, you need to go to four years of college and get this.

Then you go to three years of seminary. And then you do this and this.

And then you meet with a board that decides whether they're going to have you or not.

Paused. And you know what he said to Brian? You remember it?

He said, Brian or Brian, you can go do what God is putting on your heart to go do.

Hmm. You suppose God still knows what he's doing? Does he know what he's doing

with you and in you and through you?

Yeah. So much of this, we don't have to have planned out because he's already got a plan.

If we'll just obey him, go do it. Follow him.

Some will say, I'm too sinful. I've

done too much. What did Paul say about that? Hey, I was a violent man.

I was a persecutor. I was a blasphemer.

And yet God, in my ignorance and unbelief, he showed grace to me.

You haven't gone deep enough that grace has not already got there for you and for me.

No matter your age, your circumstance, or whether you are known by a few or

multitudes, God has a ministry for you.

You are valuable in his sight.

It is all about your availability. Are you available to God?

Are you willing to follow him? It's not your ability.

I think God could care less about the ability part.

He sees the heart. Are you available to him? Will you obey him?

So what is your ministry? What is your ministry? Could you name it today?

Maybe God is working that out in your heart right now.

Your ministry is reflecting Christ in your home, at work, around your family, your friends.

We are rooted and built up and strengthened in Christ so that we will overflow

with his attitude, his love, his compassion.

We flourish when we are nourished by his word to us.

Rescue the perishing, care for the dying.

Those are words that come back to us again and again.

He wants you simply to do what he wants you to do. You ready for it?

Let's do it. We're going to read a passage of Scripture in closing before we go eat.

Remember those little blue cards?

Where's our ushers at? Brother Rudy, can you get an usher at every door to collect

those little blue sheets?

If you're ready to give them in, you got them filled out. If you need them a

little longer, take them down.

Area, and you can—we'll get a basket. You can put them in there if you'd like,

or even later if you need to.

Pastor Ethan, where are you at? There you are. Very close.

Yes, indeed. Come on up, and he's going to lead us in a scripture,

and will you stand and remain standing?

Because then we're going to ask Charlene and Newell to come,

and they're going to have a different kind of a benediction,

which we've never done before.

So, you'll have to listen to them. So, follow Pastor Ethan. Come ahead,

and we'll go through the scripture.

Matthew 28, starting in verse 18.

Then Jesus came to them and said, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of

the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey

everything I have commanded you.

And surely I am with you always to the very end of the age.

We're going to read that one more time, if you humor me, please.

And this time as we read it, I would encourage you guys to read along with me.

I'll read it slow, try not to rush through it, but if you would,

let's read it one more time all together.

Then Jesus said, came to, or sorry, my bad. Let's try that one more time.

We're going to do a mulligan.

Then Jesus came to them and said, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name

of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey

everything I have commanded you.

And surely I am with you always to the very end of the age.

I want to thank you for joining today's sermon podcast. You can find a copy

of today's sermon, as well as other sermons and the sermon outline from today

on our church's website,

www.mvcnaz.org.

It is my prayer also that you will seek out a church home that recognizes the authority of the Bible.