Still Standing (1st service) - Pastor Phil Jaquith (July 5, 2020) | Life Bible Church

Well, I figured when I found out that some of

our special guests that I'm going to introduce

in a second were going to be up in the area,

it would be important to have them to our house.

I've been preaching at y 'all here for about

three months solid, and some of you are saying,

all right, switch. But anyways, I'll be back

in the pulpit here pretty soon. But I want to

just spend a little time just introducing this

couple, and I'm going to have them come. Phil

and Judy Jakewith, and they are... So how you

know how I know them? They have been part of

MFI for years. They are on the international

apostolic team. They are the MFI. leaders and

chairman over MFI Mexico. Phil is also the one,

he's going to talk about that, that oversees

and directs a lot of the work that we've been

part of in Cuba. And so it's an honor today.

They've been in ministry. We were just talking

about it almost 48 years. The first 12 years

or so, they were part of Newberg Rock. Point

Church, where our friends Jeff and Karen Wells.

Karen was in their youth group when they were

youth pastors, and they've been on the mission

field for now 33 years. They've done some amazing

work in Mexico. Puebla is where they started.

Now they've got other works. All their children

are in the ministry. Two sons pastoring, a daughter

and a son -in -law getting ready to pastor another

church just six hours away, and a son. in Laos.

So every one of their children serving the Lord

in great capacity. Eric's taken the church over

about six years ago. They have the fruit of ministry.

There's about, I'll let him give all the details

of how many hundreds are in the network that

he pastors and oversees in both countries, but

amazing man of God, not just a missionary. I

want you to hear me on this. It's not just someone

that's been sent. He has an apostolic gifting.

So open your heart and let's receive them this

morning. Would you welcome Phil and Judy Jake

with us? They come and say, Hello to the church

this morning. Thank you. You may be seated. Thank

you. Thank you, Pastor Brad and Jennifer for

allowing us to be here. I don't know where she

went. She was there somewhere. Thank you for

giving us this opportunity to be in this wonderful

church. We've heard about it many times. We actually

snuck into one of your services a summer three

years ago when we were at the hotel over here.

So we enjoyed it when we came. And it was so

cool this morning to be in a real actual physical

building with people around. We haven't been

in a church service with live people since March

4th. And so today was our first time. I'm sorry.

Where? Oh, that's right. We were at one other

one. I just told a lie, but it was accidentally.

Yeah, just in case they see it. But this one

really felt like home, you know, your robust

worship, and it brought tears to both of our

eyes. So, yeah, I'm supposed to give the rundown.

Because I know most of you don't know us, but

Pastor Brad told quite a bit of it. We left for

Mexico in 1986 with five small children. We had

twins that were nine, and they went down from

there to our daughter, who is a year and a half

old. Didn't know Spanish. My husband knew some.

So it was a huge step of faith. Like, you know,

Abraham going to a country he didn't know, we

did that. But God has been really faithful. We

taught marriage seminars. Well, my husband did.

I didn't speak Spanish yet. And eventually planted

a church in 1990 in our living room. And God

was just super faithful. It grew. The church

now has, I think, 1 ,700 people in it. And then

we've planted a number of churches besides that.

So God has been really faithful. We had six children,

twin boys. This is when we were in Newburgh.

A year and a half later, we had our third son,

Eric. A year and a half later, we had our fourth

son, Mark. four children under three for a whole

month. They were all under three. And that was

a crazy time. It's kind of a blur. Thankfully,

I wrote in a diary. So somewhere it's all recorded.

I know it happened. And then we waited and decided

to try again. And finally, five years after our

youngest, we had a girl. And then once we got

to Mexico, huge surprise. had another boy. So

we actually have six kids. They are all married.

Like Pastor Brad said, they all love the Lord.

Two of them are in business and four of them

are in the ministry. And they have given us 21

grandchildren. That's probably the thing I like

to brag about the most. So they go from 20 years

old down to three months old. So we have a lot

of birthdays to remember every year, but we just

love them and we're grateful that God has been

so faithful. And before I turn this over to Phil,

I just wanted to personally thank you for all

you have done for us. You sent an enormous offering

to help us in Mexico because when... The COVID

hit. We couldn't be at the church anymore. Our

people, most of them don't have a bank account.

Many of them don't have a laptop or computer.

They didn't know how to give online. So the funds

dropped 75 % to 80 % overnight. And so we had

all these people on staff and no way to pay them.

I think the church ran out of money like after

two months or something like that or two weeks.

Yeah, it was bad. Your church stepped in and

helped in that need, and we appreciate it so

much. Our staff really appreciates you. They're

still eating. And also the huge effort in Cuba.

I still remember meeting Anthony and Tina at

the airport in Havana. We had never seen them.

We didn't know them at all. They didn't know

us, and we're just kind of looking around, you

know, who looks kind of American here? And they

were such a joy. I mean, we loved them. I wish

we could haul off with them and take them to

Cuba more. For one thing, they're both amazing

at math. And so at the end, when we had to figure

out where all the money went, they just stepped

up and totally organized it. I was like, because

I'm not, I'm not good at math. And I thought,

thank God, thank God, thank God for them and

bring them back the next time. So anyway, we

want to thank them publicly for all they've done

for Cuba and the church as well. Huge offerings

that way. So we thank you, and we know God has

seen it, and we know he's going to multiply all

of that back to you at least 100 times over.

So thank you. Thank you, pastors and congregation,

for your love for the lost. God bless you. Good.

The Lord. Thank you. It's a great privilege to

be here. We've heard of this church for many,

many years. Many, many years. Because we live

3 ,000 miles away, we really don't get around

to all the MFI churches. Actually, very few.

But if you want to know how old I am, and I don't

dye my hair still, but I am 68. And I do have

some gray in there. I pull them out when I find

them. I'm getting a little balder up on top.

We're not going to talk about COVID today. I'm

sure you're tired of hearing about it. But it

is a real thing in our country. We've had several

of our pastors die through this. And we've done

two Zoom funerals. That's crazy. And I hear there's

at least about 40 pastors that have passed away

in the country of Mexico through the last...

a bit here so i don't know what's happening in

all the other countries but i i know in countries

like ours we deflate the figures i think here

maybe you're going up and and uh you know everybody

has covid and if you have a cough but uh there

they're just saying they died of pneumonia they

died of old age they died of whatever and they

don't even talk about covid so we don't really

know other than the fact that we have families

who can't even do a funeral If you put your loved

one in a hospital, they take away your cell phone

immediately, and that's the last you hear of

them. And then you get this phone call saying

your loved one has died, and we'll give you the

ashes in two days. And that's it. They can't

go do anything. Funerals are on Zoom. And it's

crazy. It's crazy in other nations. It's crazy

in Cuba right now. We can't get into Cuba. They

can't come up our way. We got out of Mexico,

not because we're essential business, but because

we're American citizens. We just hope we can

get back to Mexico. And we just hope that they

will let us back in. But we'd been trying to

get up for some time since I think the month

of March. We canceled our trip in March because

of all this. My wife has needed some medical

treatment, and so we wanted to get some testing

and things done. In Mexico, they want to do surgery

on her back. She's got a couple of hernias and

two of the discs. And then both of her hips are...

They want to do three surgeries on her in Mexico.

So we're trying to figure out how to get not

only some healing, but avoid these surgeries.

And so we've been up here for a couple of weeks

in Los Angeles for a week getting some... advice

and counsel and different treatments and up here

as well. So that's one reason we're here. Just

had a couple Sundays and we were in a church

last week in Lincoln City. A couple that went

with us to Cuba wanted us to come over there

to their church. So we did get into that service.

My wife forgot about that. But we did. But it's

just been amazing. Three months of just, you

know, we're used to traveling. We're used to

be. being in a service every week, different

church. A matter of fact, my granddaughter, when

we turned our main church over to our son, she

came up to us a few months later and says, you

guys don't come to church anymore. And she's

like, what, six years old? And my wife made the

mistake of saying, well, it's because we've been

visiting other churches. You've been visiting

other churches? And finally, then we had one

of our pastor's meetings in our church, and a

bunch of the pastors were there. granddaughter

was hanging out. She says, this is why we visit

these other churches. We need to help these other

pastors. We haven't left. We're still part of

this church, you know, but it's interesting.

Yeah, interesting days, interesting days, and

I'm glad that I don't have to wear a mask this

morning. Strange on the airplane, though. I'll

tell you, those things itch, and you're there

for hours. And my wife and I, we got aisle seats

coming up. And the crazy thing is, on the flight,

we thought the middle seat was going to be empty.

But no, they put people beside us. And the lady

beside Judy was coughing the whole way, pulling

up her mask and coughing. And so Judy got back

at her. She decided to take a half a sleeping

pill because she needed to get some sleep. And

I looked over at her, and she had her mask clear

up here on her eyes. Her mouth was half open.

She couldn't breathe. I was half asleep with

half a pill. I kept pushing the mask up because

I tried to get some air. I looked over at her.

She's having a good time. I didn't wake her up.

I don't know. Anyway, we're still here. Bless

God. All right. I'm going to move right along

so we can get into this message. I want to do

a little Bible study with you out of Matthew

9. Very familiar portion of Scripture, one of

my favorites. I had a message years ago. As a

matter of fact, during these three months, I

don't know what Pastor Brad and all you guys

have been doing, but I've been cleaning drawers

and files. We're stuck at home. We've thrown

away so many things. I have files and notes.

Ever since I was a teenager, started to preach.

I had to go through all these things. Am I ever

going to preach any of these things again? Am

I ever going to do these kind of classes again?

Am I ever going to do this? And I threw away

all kinds of things. But one message I didn't

throw away was called, we are on a mission. We

are on a mission. And I began thinking about

this whole, what we're going through and all

the changes. And we're actually, we do Zoom meetings

every Thursday morning with our pastors, our

MFI pastors in Mexico. You know, I only did meetings

every three months before. And then we traveled

to their churches. And I can't travel to their

churches, so now we're Zooming around the world.

You know, we're not going to all these places,

but we have people from Honduras with us. We

have people from Panama with us on our Zoom meetings.

We have a branch church in Los Angeles, Hispanic

church there. They're on with us. And once in

a while, we have a guy in Calgary, Canada. And

it's kind of interesting to do pastor's meeting

on Zoom. I can just, you know, I don't even have

to get dressed. I don't have to take a shower.

I do shave usually, but. because we did it at

nine in the morning, but it's been very interesting,

this whole trip we've been on. And so I began

thinking about our mission, you know, how things

are changing, and people ask us, okay, now, how's

all this changing church, you know, in Mexico

and in Cuba? A lot of people are asking about

Cuba. Are they still having church? Well, in

Cuba, hardly anybody has a cell phone. Well,

there's hardly any internet. You have to go mainly

to a park to find internet and pay a dollar and

get a little card and then try to put some numbers

in. And maybe it works for an hour. Maybe it

only works for 10 minutes and then you're done.

But they are starting to get a little bit of

internet into some of the homes if you pay enough

money. And so few of the pastors have it. My

wife's starting to get a lot of requests. be

on her Facebook page. I don't do Facebook. I

tell Judy, whatever important piece of gossip

I need to know, you just tell me. I don't want

to soar through all that. She's starting to get

a number of requests from Cuba to be her friend

on Facebook. My wife in Cuba, Mexico is the same

way. Everybody thinks she's Mother Teresa. Well,

a lot better looking, and she's still alive.

But anyway. And they think I'm Santa Claus. Not

because I look like Santa Claus, but I'm always

handing out money to buy buildings and stuff.

But anyway, this whole thing of being online

and all this, it's just been crazy. We are still

on a mission. I changed the title because people

ask me, okay, now, how is this affecting getting

people saved? How is this affecting church planting?

You know something? We are planting churches

online. families are starting to come in and

listen to different ones of our pastors and watch

their little Facebook thing they're doing every

Sunday morning or their Instagram or their, what's

the other one? YouTube. Others are using YouTube.

Some are using all three. And people and families

are starting to watch. And so they're getting

their names and their addresses and they're collecting

people as soon as we can get it. And some have

actually gone out and visited people. put their

masks on, gone out an hour away, two hours away,

visiting a whole family, and said, as soon as

we can, we will start a church in your home.

And so God's not being held up by all of this.

The kingdom of God is not afraid of what's going

on. Jesus knows what's going on. And I think

we're probably going to progress even further

and faster than we had any idea. Because we are

into church planting. Our goal was to have, I

don't know what, another 100 of them this year.

And I don't know. I don't know where we're at.

I mean, one of my friends has 7 ,000 people in

his church. And I was introducing, he came on

to Zoom and we're having him do some stuff one

day. And so I introduced him and, you know, Pastor

Kobo in this other city, he's got 7 ,000 people.

And he gets on and goes, well, I used to have

7 ,000 people. Now I have an empty building and

a worship team. A camera. This is all I have.

I don't know what I have anymore. And I think

that's kind of where we're all at. But we are

still on a mission. The mission hasn't changed

just because the way we're having to do things

have changed. The mission is still going. And

so I decided I'm just going to pull these sheets

back out and look all this back over again. And

I want to read these verses. with you this morning.

I don't know if we have it on the screen because

I didn't bring a PowerPoint. But matter of fact,

if I had the PowerPoint, I was going to change

some things anyway. So let me try to find this

on mine. I don't know if you have it up there.

Matthew 9. If not, find your phone or your Bible.

Matthew 9, 35. And I'm going to read from the

New Living Translation. It says, Jesus traveled.

And I think the old King James was Jesus went.

But Jesus traveled through all, and I've kind

of put different colors here in my phone on these

words. Jesus traveled through all the towns and

villages of that area. Didn't leave any of them

out. And we talk about church planting. And when

I say we are on a mission, we. We are still on

a mission. It's not just some weird missionary.

took off, went to another country because he

didn't know what else to do with his life. No,

we, the body of Christ, we are still on a mission.

And so it says Jesus traveled through all the

towns and villages of that area. He's still traveling.

He's still going to all the towns and the villages.

He's doing it, what? By means of the church.

Teaching in the synagogues, preaching, or here

it says announcing the good news about the kingdom.

And he healed every kind of disease and illness.

So those are great things to preach about. You

know, Jesus preached, taught, and healed. We're

still doing that. How many of you know Jesus

is still doing that 2 ,000 years later? Okay.

And so I like to start with this verse because

the other ones, we know them really well. I used

to have a license plate on my van when we first

left for the mission field. And we were able

to get the letters instead of the numbers. We

had the letters, Go Ye. Goyi, that was my license

plate. I still have it. When we finally changed

it, sold the van. But people would ask me, we

drove all the way from Newburgh, Oregon, all

the way down to Mexico City that time with five

little kids pulling a 24 -foot trailer. It was

stupid. It was crazy. But it was cheaper than

plane tickets, so, you know. When you're first

doing missionary work, you kind of go out sometimes

with the mentality, we're supposed to suffer,

you know. And so make it as hard on your kids

and your wife as you can, you know, because this

is missions, you know. We signed up for mission

field, so make it rough on everybody. Stay in

horrible hotels, you know, which we did. Stay

in some crazy hotels. But Jesus is still doing

these things. He's still on a mission. I want

to read another verse just here quickly. John

John 20:21

20, verse 21. Jesus said to them, Peace be unto

you, as my Father hath sent me, even so send

I you. See, Jesus came on a mission. Somebody

said God had one son, and he sent him out as

an apostle, as a missionary. One son. We're about

ready to lose our daughter. We talk about sowing

seed. We're not going to lose her, but her husband

has been my assistant for about five years. I

told him he could marry my daughter if he worked

for me for 14. But I, you know, poor Luis, he

now had to get through dad. He had to get through

five brothers because she was the last one to

get married, the daughter. And so everybody had

to interview him and interrogate him and work

him over. Sometimes I had conversations for seven

hours so he could get me squared away or whatever.

And so he's been working for me and, but he's

been wanting to plant a church. He trained to

be a, lawyer, but there's just so much corruption

and lying and things you have to do to be a good

lawyer. He wants to be a pastor. You don't have

to do very much lying to be a pastor and all

those things. He's planning to go out. I know

your pastor doesn't, but some exaggerate. Some

pastors, how many people they have in their church

and they're counting eyeballs instead of noses.

How many do you have? Well, it's always twice

what you really have. But anyway, Jesus was sent.

And we're sending our daughter and our son -in

-law six hours north with three more of our grandkids.

This is crazy. Grandkids get to the age where

grandma and grandpa, you're really having a lot

of fun with them. And then they get this missionary

vision, you know, get this church planning vision.

I think Judy kept sowing that seed into them

or something. I don't know, but they all leave

us. So now we have kids all over the world. It's

kind of fun, really, except we just don't get

to see them very often. We were going to have

a family reunion. We have 34 of us, 35 of us,

I guess. We're going to try to have a family

reunion this summer. Everybody wanted to do it

in Mexico. Three years ago, we did it up here

in your place. It was July 4th weekend. It was

like, can you find nine rooms? In any hotel on

July 4th weekend. And you guys had some rooms.

And so we did it here. Took over the swimming

pool. The poor three other families that were

over here. I don't know how they survived. All

the grandkids. But everybody wanted to come back

to Mexico this year. So we were going to do something

on a beach. Everyone wants to go to the beach.

Wanted to do something in Mexico. Because we

have one family that lives in Laos. And there's

three grandkids there. It's just tough to get

back. You know, we can't come back every year.

So, but this summer we were going to have another

family vacation and this whole COVID thing hit.

So that got put on hold. Yes. And anyway, it's,

that's the hardest part. The hardest part is

when you, you fall in love with your grandkids

and then they take off and then you don't get

to see them very often. But I guess we're never

together. All of us on Christmas, never Christmas,

never together. Good thing we had six kids, because

some of you only had two or three, and you get

those two or three. We always have two or three.

Always get two or three for Thanksgiving or Christmas.

So good thing we had six, so we at least have

a good number for the holidays. Anyway, okay,

I want to get back to Matthew 9, because my time

is not only going by, but I really want to share

some things that I think will be... a challenge

to you and an encouragement to you. And like

my wife said, we thank you so much for what you've

done for Cuba and for Mexico. And we're just

trusting that it won't stop, that God will keep

prospering you as a church and as a body of believers

and individuals and your businesses will prosper

and every seed you've sown will continue to multiply.

Because it's really cool. I'm going to try to

talk about Cuba a little bit here. But I want

to get into this because Jesus travels. So the

first word I want to just give you, we don't

have this up on the screen. Maybe they can put

it up. But I'm going to give you five M's, okay?

Five M's of our mission. The first M is movement.

Okay? Movement. Jesus traveled. through all the

towns and villages. And so we've, you know, traveled.

We've traveled weekends. Now that we've turned

the main church over to our son, many weekends

we are driving an hour, two hours. It was nothing

for us to drive from Portland to here today just

to be in church. We do that all the time. Two

and a half hours, three hours, whatever. And

just, you know, and then many times with 50 people

or 60 people, 80 people on a Sunday morning because

these are new church plants. They're going to

grow and they're going to reach cities and communities.

And because I believe that's the heart of God.

I believe, you know, even with all this COVID

thing and we're doing all these home meetings

now and small groups and small groups online

and whatnot. I don't know. I don't know the future

of mega churches for sure. I don't know what's

going to happen with all these big buildings.

And, you know, what if all of a sudden they come

up with another disease and this and that and,

you know. and spread us all out even more. But

they can't stop us from being in homes. They

can't stop us from having small groups, at least.

And so we're just going to keep moving forward

in that area. My son in Guadalajara just called

me the other day and says, Hey, Dad, this building

we've been renting is so expensive. And it's,

I don't know what it is, $10 ,000 a month or

something to rent this building. There used to

be a couple of restaurants, and they developed

a coffee shop there. And they're running close

to 350 to 400. Well, they were before all this

hit there. They've been going about four or five

years and doing well in Guadalajara. But all

of a sudden, this whole thing hits, and they

had to start doing food distribution. Having

a coffee shop, people are coming and buying coffee.

They turned all the equipment into meals, preparing

meals, hot meals. They've done over 15 ,000 hot

meals since March for free. And 200 meals a day.

The people are out of work, and there's poor

people that need help. It's just crazy, the things

that are happening. But we're reaching people

by giving them food. And probably we're doing

the same thing, passing out. We have people at

times lined up down the street waiting for a

package of beans and rice and all these different

things that we can try to get to them. So it's

been an exciting, exciting journey, really, to

see what God's doing. But I want to move on and

try to get through this portion of Scripture

because it's so... impacting to me even fresh

today. All right. So Jesus is still traveling.

He's still preaching. He's still teaching. He's

still healing. And now we're going to get into

the verses you're more familiar with. When he

saw the crowd. So this is 2nd and multitudes

and old King James multitudes. He saw the multitudes.

He had compassion. That's the third word. Compassion

is the right motivation. Motivation with love.

Compassion is doing something when you see a

need. I don't have time to go through the Good

Samaritan. It's one of my favorite stories. I

counted 40 verbs in seven verses in the Good

Samaritan. The story of the Good Samaritan. 40

action words in seven verses. You go through

all of that. The guy was robbed. They came. They

stole from him. They took from him. They beat

him up. He's laying there. One guy comes by.

Sees. Walks away. Another guy comes. Sees. Walks

away. after verb, after verb. Then the Samaritan

comes, pours in oil and wine and picks him up,

puts him on his donkey, takes him to the inn,

which I would say is either the clinic in the

natural or in the spiritual, the local church.

And he paid the bill. You go through all the

whole thing there, but the thing that motivated

the good Samaritan said he was moved with compassion.

Moved with compassion. So that's why he did what

he did. The other two guys, the other religious

guys, the Levite and the priest, they weren't

moved with compassion. They just saw a mess there,

a bleeding, ugly mess. And so they went the other

way. Maybe they were busy. Maybe they had to

get to church. I don't know. They were busy.

But this other guy, he sees the need and he steps

in. Doesn't say he was a doctor. Doesn't say

he was a nurse. He just did what he could. And

so that's the right motivation. We do what we

can. And meeting people's needs. I'm just going

to give a little bit about Cuba to you. When

I turned the church over to my son, I was already

prepared. I was prepared that I was going to

have to go through this trauma of not being the

boss man every Sunday. Used to be all my kids

worked for me. Now I'm having to work for my

kid. Now my kid's my pastor. So you're going

through these changes, transitional changes.

But the thing is, I knew I had a lot of churches

and we had a lot to do. And I wasn't worried

about I'm going to be bored. because I always

have a big vision, and there's always more to

do in Mexico. And so I knew if I turned over

the main church, I'd be traveling and visiting

our other churches and things like that. But

it was just right shortly after I turned the

church over to him, we were having our January.

Every year we would do a week -long kind of,

we called it sanctification week, but it was

kind of a week where we would have vision, and

every morning we'd have prayer, and every night

we'd have special meetings, and this would go

on for a whole week. And so one of these early

mornings, my wife and I were there, and it was

like 6 in the morning. We don't have any air

conditioning. We don't have heat either. And

in January, we can get really cold. We're 7 ,000

foot sea level. And you can, you know, you don't

have any heat, but you can see your breath. You

know, you're freezing. Everybody's bundled up

in blankets, and everybody still has to sleep.

But you're trying to pray. And we're there, and

we're kind of kneeling there. And all of a sudden,

God spoke to me. Have you ever had God really

speak to you? I mean, you know he spoke to you

because it shocks you. You know, I know God speaks

to us on a regular basis. I hope you get Ramahs

every day when you read your word and, you know,

we get prophetic words and all that. But there's

times when, maybe a few times in your life when

God just shakes you because he says something

you weren't expecting and it's gonna require

maybe some obedience and gonna, you know, some

sacrifices. And you're just, you're shocked and

you're like, is this really God or is this me

or is this the devil? And you're trying to sort

this out. And God, it wasn't a loud voice or

anything like that, but in my spirit, I just

felt God say to me, I want you to help the Cuban

pastors buy houses for churches. Oh, I forgot

one phrase. I want you to use your influence

with pastors and business people to buy houses

for the pastors in Cuba. I mean, I just sit there

praying. I wasn't even thinking about Cuba. I

don't know what, I think I was half asleep. And

all of a sudden, boom. I hear this and I go,

Judy's over there praying. Hey, Judy, I think

God just spoke to me. What? Okay. What did he

say? He wants me to buy houses for pastors in

Cuba. And she kind of goes, oh, okay. And she

went back to pray. She's kind of used to me by

now. I love the radical stuff. But then, you

know, I'm just kind of there. And then she kind

of leans over and goes, how many? I don't know.

He didn't say that, but I think, I'm kind of

thinking maybe 20, maybe 20. Buy 20 houses. Well,

I gotta back up a little bit. We've been going

to Cuba for 17, 18 years and preaching and helping

them with different things, conferences, women's

conferences and leadership things and family

things and stuff like that. But the rules changed.

The laws changed recently in Cuba where instead

of the government owning everything, they were

starting to turn things back over to the people.

And before, maybe you could only, trade your

house with somebody. You couldn't really buy

a house, buy property. So new married couples

would just move in with their parents or the

in -laws. You couldn't buy or sell a house. But

they recently started letting them do that. So

I started hearing that you could get houses pretty

cheap because they've been dilapidated for 50

years, 60 years, ever since the revolution. And

the government was also not shutting down meetings.

Before, you could only have 15 people in a meeting.

And they were allowing them to have church services.

But it had to be in the pastor's home. It's like

rent a building or build a church. You couldn't

do that. But you could meet in the living room

of the home. And they were letting them, even

though maybe there were spies in the meeting

or whatever, letting them just pack the place

out. And so pastors were starting to move walls

and add on whatever they could do. They'd get

some money together and put maybe a roof or put

maybe a tarp out. side on their patio or something.

And a lot of these places were growing to 100

people in these houses. And so I found out that

a lot of the people were still wanting to leave

the country for one reason or another and were

willing to sell their house very cheap. And so,

you know, I'd heard about it, but I hadn't really

done anything about it much. God just said, I

want you to do this. And it's like, you know,

then you start to argue. Well, God, I don't have

a lot of influence. I don't know a lot of rich

people. You know, I'm not rich. Everything I

have, I put into the ministry. And, you know,

you kind of have this thing going on. What can

I do? Well, just use your influence. And whatever

pastors or business people you meet, just help

Cuba. The Cuban pastors buy houses. Oh, that's

simple. Okay. Month later, we're sitting in a

restaurant down in California. a couple of business

people, some friends of ours, and they'd given

us, you know, $2 ,000 before, a couple times

maybe for our mission work and stuff. Good business,

man, doing a lot of work. And we're sitting there

eating, and the wife starts elbowing him and

says, hey, tell him what we're going to do. Tell

him what we're going to do. And he didn't want

to say anything. He said, hey, where's the menu?

Let's get some food, you know. Finally, she said,

no, tell him what we're going to give him. And

so he pulls out of his pocket the check, $25

,000. And I don't know if I've ever seen that

many zeros after 25 before in my name. And he

says, you guys have been serving the Lord for

many, many years in Mexico and on and on. And

we just want to bless you guys personally. This

is a personal offering for you guys. And just

do whatever you want with it. And, you know,

if you need a new car, whatever you want to do.

And so immediately your mind is kind of, wow,

yeah, we do need a new car. A few other things.

And then all of a sudden the Lord reminded me.

What did I tell you about a month and a half

ago? What did I tell you a month and a half ago?

Use your influence with business people and pastors

and buy houses for pastors in Cuba. And so I'm

sitting here with this guy and I go, is it okay

with you? I mean, thank you. Thank you, thank

you. It's written my name and everything. It

wasn't written in the ministry's name. Thank

you so much. But is it okay if I do this? And

I told him the story. I said, I think what God

wants me to do, I think I'm supposed to buy houses

in Cuba. And he says, it's yours. Do whatever

you want with it. Buy a car. Do whatever you

want. It's yours. And so I says, with your permission,

I'd like to put it into Cuba. They released most

of it. I think we had a few bills and put maybe

3 ,000, 4 ,000 into some doctor bills we had.

But we ended up giving instead of 10%, gave 80%.

It was our money, right? He gave it to me. It

was in my name. So in one sense, we sowed our

first fruit. After God gave me this word. We

sold this money that came to us. Indie Cube went

down and bought the first house for $8 ,000 and

bought another roof for $2 ,000 and did some

other stuff. And that was the beginning of a

multiplication that is just blowing us out of

the water. It's blowing me out of the water.

When Anthony and Tina, that's the biggest group

we've taken down there, we dispensed out, what,

over $80 ,000? You're the mathematician. It was

$80 ,000, $84 ,000, $83 ,000 something in four

days. I think we bought eight houses or committed

on eight houses and at least six major remodel

projects and other four or five minor model projects.

And it's just, you know, I still got $40 ,000

sitting in the bank. I'm trying to get into Cuba

because people gave money afterwards. We had

pictures and photos and this team was amazing.

And they're committed. I'm going to be meeting

with a bunch on Tuesday night. They're committing

another $90 ,000 for Cuba. Where is this going

to stop? I don't know. So anyway, before I came

up here, while I was sitting there for three

months, I went through all my Cuban notes and

threw away all kinds of photos and different

things and finally kind of came up with some

statistics and we've bought 69 houses in the

last five to six years. Can you imagine? 69 houses.

And I don't own any of them. None of them are

mine. Put them in the name of a Cuban pastor.

You can't even put them into a ministry name.

It has to be in the name of the pastor. And then

we've done another 40 -some major remodels, $5

,000, $6 ,000 and up, and another 36, I think,

minor remodels, which would be $2 ,000, $3 ,000.

This would be like for a roof or something. So

some of those have kind of doubled up. Maybe

we bought the house for $8 ,000 or $9 ,000, and

then we came back a year or two later and put

another $5 ,000 into it. So I figure a total,

we have about 115 places for church in the last

six years. Many of these are full with 100 people,

150 people. Two of them already have 600 people

before COVID. I don't know what they have now.

Because they had to shut meetings down too for

a few months. But some of these places are just

growing by leaps and bounds. We figure that we

have seating now on Sunday morning, 115 places,

somewhere around 20 ,000 people. Seating for

20 ,000 people. That's just one service. Some

of them are going to double services. We could

go to 40 ,000 people and we haven't even spent

$1 million. $946 ,000 or something. I don't know

the exact figure. Not even $1 million and we

have seating for 40 ,000 people. The people have

stepped up. Churches have stepped up. We've had

people give us money from Malaysia. People have

given us money from Nepal. People have given

us money from Singapore. People have given us

money from Canada. People have given us money

from Mexico. People from the United States. It

is amazing where all this money is coming from.

And as I look at this thing, I'm going, wow,

God has compassion on the Cuban pastors and those

churches that have suffered for so many years.

He is doing something in Cuba that none of us

would ever imagine 50, 60 years ago when we had

to hide under our desks. Anybody our age, remember

we had to hide under desks because they were

going to bomb us. Remember, Russians had missiles

aimed at us. Some of you younger people don't

remember that. In school, can you imagine hiding

under a desk? I'm sure that's going to stop a

nuclear bomb. But anyway, that's what they had

us do. Because there were missiles pointed at

America. From Cuba. But it's amazing. And God

gave me another word. He said, you are going

to impact a nation, a whole nation. I was just

like, wow, how are we going to do this? We're

putting churches all over the country. I've driven

from one end of the country to the other several

times now. Flown to different places in the country.

God has done so many things in the last five,

six years. And I don't know where it's going

to stop. I think we're going to do at least another

hundred this year. Or within the next couple

years. And anyway, let me just tell you. I wanted

to read a definition of mission before. I know

my time's gone. But I was going to read this

at the beginning. Mission means the business

with which an agent or envoy is charged. An operational

task usually assigned by a higher headquarters.

Such as going on a bombing mission. You know,

on the service people. A sending or being sent

for some duty or purpose. A group or committee

of persons sent to a foreign country to conduct

negotiations, establish relations, do religious

work, or the like. I really love that definition.

And then another one, which is sending a missionary,

which is very interesting. I was wanting to read

that at the very beginning because we are all

on a mission. Let me just finish up here because

my time is gone. Multitudes, it says Jesus saw

the multitudes. That's the second M. Then he

had compassion, which is the right motivation.

And then he says they're confused and helpless

like sheep without a shepherd. You know, King

James, they're dispersed or they're scattered.

Well, are we scattered today with all this COVID

stuff? Man, we are scattered sheep. But we're

still discipling. We're discipling online. We're

doing classes. We're offering classes for the

new people that come online with us. And so we're

still on the same mission. The harvest is still

great. The crazy thing is the laborers are still

few. The fourth M is more ministers, more ministers,

more musicians, more everything. Children's workers,

youth workers, people will volunteer to help

passing out chickens. Whatever we got to do to

reach the people. I hope you saved me some chicken.

So pray to the Lord who's in charge of the harvest.

Ask him to send more workers into his harvest.

So the fifth M is money. I'm an expensive missionary.

I don't ever ask money for myself. You guys can

cover my hotel today. You don't have to give

me an honorarium. But if you help me buy one

more house in Cuba, I'll love you forever. One

more project in Mexico. We've got so many projects

in Mexico that we're working on. And it's just,

you know, vision and money are simultaneous terms,

they used to say. And we have a big vision. I

think the vision is God's vision. He said we're

going to impact a whole nation. I believe it.

I'm just foolish enough to believe there's 12

million people in Cuba still. Several million

have left. Still 12 million people. And God loves

every one of them. One of the main pastors we

work with, he had a vision. There was a thousand

pastors that fled when they had major persecution.

A thousand pastors fled Cuba. But this young

man, about 20 years old, he got a vision, and

God showed him his arms around the island of

Cuba. Cuba's bigger than you think. It's about

as long as California in length. 50, 60 miles

wide is all, but long. God showed him his arms

around Cuba. And he said, I love this island

and all my pastors have fled. I want you to stay

and raise up a work. And now he's raised up.

We have about 600 pastors and leaders all across

the country that have been trained and ready

to go. They're opening more churches than I can

buy buildings for. And it sounds cool. Well,

you bought 115 buildings. They started 200 new

churches just last year. So the need is great.

We need more workers. We need more business people

involved. We need more churches involved. We

need people to go and just donkey money. As soon

as those borders open up, we got to get $40 ,000

down there quick because there's more coming.

And there's roofs and there's houses and there's,

I mean, they need cars. They need bicycles. They

need, I've bought horses. For pastors up in the

mountains. I bought two horses for $570. And

they're pregnant horses. Because they have to.

There's no road that goes up into the mountains.

And I told the guy. I said okay we're going to

buy these pregnant horses. But now people have

given money for this. People from the states

gave $570. So here's what I want you to do. That

first foal that you have. I want you to give

it to another pastor. You've been given. Freely

you've received. Now give that first foal away.

You know what happened? That horse had twins.

I don't know if he gave both of them away or

what he did. Because I said, you give the first

one away. The next time she gets pregnant, you

can keep that one or sell it or whatever, live

off it. The third one, I want you to give away.

The fourth one, you can keep. Fifth one, I want

you to give away. I did that to both those guys.

We figure in seven years, we're going to have

40 horses for the mission for $570. Hallelujah.

All right. There's more we can say, but God is

good. You know, it's a, I'm going to have you

stay right here. It's a privilege to have a gentleman

like this. And as you can tell, he's a real deal.

He's given his life away. I had to convince him.

to take some money for himself and his family

because he gave everything away so that they

could eat and have a salary as well. When I sent

Anthony and Tina, I said, Anthony, this is going

to be different than some of the stuff you've

been on. It was the real deal. You're going to

go in buses and you're going to be up early in

the morning and go to bed late at night. And

they did and they did. And he's a first class

kingdom citizen, but he's been frugal and he

serves the people of God faithful. It's my honor

to have them here and to pray over them. We're

going to bless them today with some first fruits

money that we've received from you as part of

our. Part of our assignment to sow money into

the nations. Would you stretch your hand toward

Phil and just, we know we have so many wonderful

missionaries like this. We're not involved with

people that are more concerned about themselves

all over the world, from India to Cambodia. to

Mexico, to Cuba, to Africa, all the places I'm

probably missing. These are the kind of people

that we believe that God has given us relationship

with that we're sowing into. So Father, even

as I lay my hands now today, Lord, today is just

a great reminder. It's not about us. It's about

you. And Lord, you're worthy of spending every

ounce of strength, every penny that we have on

you for your mission. Because what you paid for

with your blood, you paid for every soul that

would say yes. So Lord, take today. Lord, our

little service. Bless it. Blow on it. Take the

gift that we're gonna... Give in your name because

of what has been given here. And as a first fruits

gift, bless it. Release it. Multiply it. Lord,

thank you for letting us partner all over the

world. Thank you for our missionaries. Today

we're in the presence of one of many. We bless

them. We bless their family. We bless their health.

We bless their children and their grandchildren.

We bless. the apostolic networks. Thank you for

men and women in the trenches that have given

their life. And we say, let their reward, Lord,

be as much as it is serving you. Bless them.

Honor them. In Jesus' name, we do. And we thank

you for them. Amen. Amen. Give them a big hand,

would you? Or call us at 541 -995 -8282.