Still Standing (2nd service) - Pastor Phil Jaquith (July 5, 2020) | Life Bible Church

It's a great privilege today to transition and

to introduce some friends of mine. I've been

preaching here now for the last four months almost

straight. And some of you are probably thinking,

switch. And so we're going to do that a little

bit. We're going to give you a little bit of

a break. And I'll be back next week, God willing.

The creek don't rise. I'll do that. But this

morning, I want to introduce to you some friends

of ours. Their names are Phil and Judy Jaquith.

And we'll introduce them properly in just a little

bit, but I want to tell you a little bit about

their life. They're part of Ministers Fellowship

International, MFI. That's an organization that

Life Bible has been part of ever since the beginning,

since Janie and I pioneered the church 19 years

ago. And it's a relational fellowship organization.

Some of my spiritual fathers... started this

organization, Pastor Frank Damasio, that you

know that we have come here at least once a year

and speak into the congregation as my spiritual

father, so to speak. And I'm on a mentoring call

with him once a month and stay connected and

accountable. And he helped start MFI with Brother

Dick Iverson, which is kind of the father of

the movement of many of the churches that came

out of Bible Temple. And so the fact is, Bruce,

my father -in -law's father, actually helped

train Phil Jaquith in evangelism clear back in

the day. So we're connected clear back to Portland

and the old city Bible or the old, it's now Manor

House, but it used to be Bible Temple. Years

and years ago, they've been in ministry now for

almost 48 years. 13, 12, 13 years of it. They

were youth pastors part -time in a church that

you know well that's a friend of ours that come

down. Jeff and Karen Wells pastors called Rock

Point. They were the youth pastors. Their fact

is Karen Wells, Karen Wells was in their youth

group when they were youth pastors. So they're

now the senior pastors there and support them

in the work. Phil's family is there. I've met

his brothers there at the church. I've done several

presbyteries there at the church, and they attend

conferences here. And so it's a great privilege.

Phil and Judy are now the apostolic directors

over MFI in Mexico. And so they do that work.

They also oversee the planning of churches in

various capacities. He'll talk about that in

Cuba. They oversee hundreds of churches and have

a wonderful family and legacy. Some of their

sons and daughters are in Laos. Some are in Mexico

planning churches. Others are business people

funding the kingdom. Great people have given

their life on the mission field to serve the

Lord and build a great church. Their first base

was out of Puebla and then they're in Guadalajara

as well. And I've been through Guadalajara. I've

been in Mexico City. I've been in a bunch of

various places down there. I remember my first...

prophecy, a time I did a prophetic conference

was in Tulan, single with Bill and Gerda Brown

at the age of 19. And I had never spoke Spanish

and couldn't, still can't, Dios le bendiga. And

that's about it. But the reality is I had to

prophesy. And then they interpreted and Gerda

interpreted for me clear back in the day in Tulan

single clear back. But it's an honor to have

both missionaries and Phil in his own right is

an apostle. Would you stand and would you welcome

Phil and Judy as they greet the church this morning?

Come on up. Thank you. You may be seated. It's

a real privilege for us to be here with you folks.

And we were here one other time. We were staying

at the hotel like three years ago. And on Sunday,

we snuck in and we're in the back of the auditorium

and really, really enjoyed the service. You guys

get raving reviews everywhere we go. We know

a lot of the same people that know your pastors

and everybody. just speak so highly of them so

you're very blessed to have them as your pastors

and we just want to thank you for all that you

have sown into Mexico and also into Cuba maybe

some of you don't know but through offerings.

You've sent relief and help to Mexico when we

were going through such a hard time. We're still

going through a hard time. And also to Cuba.

And you also sent down Anthony and Tina, which

we just really grew to love in a very short amount

of time. And maybe we'll see some more of you

down there sometime. It would be wonderful for

that to happen. And I will just, you know, so

many of you don't know us. I'll just give you

a teeny little short recap. went to Mexico in

1986. We were sent out from Rock Point. It was

then called Gospel Chapel. And we had five little

children. We had twins that were nine. And then

we had an eight -year -old and we had a six -year

-old and our little girl was one and a half.

We actually had four kids in less than three

years because of the twins. So it was just...

A crazy, amazing time of life. But there is life

after a whole bunch of little tiny children.

Now they're married and they're happy. And we

went to Mexico. And at the beginning, we just

helped another missionary family. I was learning

Spanish. My kids were learning Spanish. Funny

thing is, they always said... When we wanted

to take him out to eat before we went to Mexico,

they always say anything but Mexican food. We

hate Mexican food. And that's where we went to

Mexico. Now they all love it. But we did family

seminars, or Phil did, and I went along with

him and took the kids. And then little by little,

I learned Spanish. We planned a church, started

in our home in 1990. And now that church is running

around 1 ,700 people, plus outreach works, branch

works that we've started, and even have a church

in L .A. We had contact with a family in Panama.

So the work has really expanded. But all six

of our kids, five boys and one girl, they are

all married. Praise the Lord, they all love Jesus.

They all love the church. Two of them are businessmen

and four of them are in ministry. Three in Mexico

and one in Laos, missionaries in Laos. God has

been really good to us. And the most exciting

thing out of all those six kids is that they've

given us 21 grandchildren. So we're really happy

about that. We have grandchildren that run from

age 20 down to three months. So it's just a huge

blessing, a challenge to remember all their birthdays.

And names. And names? You don't remember their

names? No, sometimes he calls them the girl or

the boy. I feel it. His name's Anthony. Confession

time. But just quickly, when God called us to

Mexico, I never wanted to be a missionary. First

of all, I grew up in a missions church, in a

missions family, but I never wanted to be a missionary.

So God had to do a major work in my heart. He

always wanted to be a missionary. But anyway,

God called us. It's a whole long story. But I

remember I was talking to my best friend and

she goes, so what are you guys doing? I said,

we're going to Mexico. And she goes, well, why

are you doing that? I said, well, God has called

us to Mexico. And she said, if God called me

to Mexico, I would say no. And I just remember,

I think my mouth kind of fell open. It was just

like. You know, I never wanted to be a missionary,

but I was always taught you never say no to God.

And so God changed my heart. And I think one

of the most compelling verses for me personally

was the verse where Jesus said, freely you have

received, freely give. And I just think, you

know, that verse. always would come back to me,

even when I was dragging my feet a little bit,

how freely he gave to me. You know, salvation,

forgiveness, mercy, hope, restoration, family,

just blessing after blessing. And Jesus said,

you've gotten a lot of stuff for free. Now it's

time for you to give out. And so that was one

of the most compelling verses for me. I've never

been sorry that we took that giant leap of faith

with five little kids. Later, we had another

kid. You're wondering, five or six? It was five

to start with, and we had another one. So God

has just been faithful all these years. It's

33 years now that we've been in Mexico. And I

just want to tell you that God is faithful. And

thank you so much. Thank you again for your love

for the lost, your love for the world. God bless

you abundantly. Amen. Amen. I always love hanging

around pastors and leaders who are missionary

-minded, churches who are missionary -minded.

And I've heard of your work and what you've been

doing in Cambodia for many years and other places.

I understand you're doing things in India and

Brazil and I don't know where all. But having

a world vision is exciting. It's not boring being

part of the kingdom of God. And I know you've

been giving and going and taking teams and things

like that. I just read a statement somewhere

recently that the only thing you can take into

eternity is what you have given. That's pretty

interesting. I don't think that's a verse, but

it's pretty close. It ought to be a verse if

it isn't a verse. Oh, wow. It's been an interesting

ride the last few months for all of us, all over

the world. What could they come up with to shut

down the whole world? I mean, you know, no army's

been able to conquer the whole world, but come

up with a pandemic. And so we've been sitting

at home for three months doing things on Zoom

and FaceTime and Facebook and Instagram and everything

and still ministering, still doing the work of

the Lord. But it's sure different, isn't it?

Different here, different everywhere we go. And

it's different to run into everybody wearing

a mask. And I just feel like saying trick -or

-treat, you know, because we're all wearing a

mask. I looked over at my wife on the airplane.

She was half asleep. The lady beside her, we're

supposed to have empty seats in the middle, like

they said, but it wasn't so. So she had a gal

sitting right next to her, and she had a bad

cold. I hope it wasn't COVID. She had a bad cold

and just coughing and spitting and blowing almost

the whole flight. So my wife decided to take

a sleeping or half a sleeping pill because it

wasn't that long a flight. and she was conking

off, and she couldn't breathe very well with

this mask on. You have to wear the mask the whole

time unless you're eating. I found a way to get

around that. You just kind of hold a glass of

water, pretend you're eating the whole flight,

and then you don't have to have the mask on.

As long as you're eating something, you're okay.

But I looked over at her. She was on the other

aisle, in the aisle seat there, and she had her

mask clear up here like this. Mouth, nose, everything

exposed, and I just let her be. I said, man,

again, you just said you had to wear a mask.

Anyway. Here we are, here we are. I want to get

right into this. I preached a message many, many

years ago. And, you know, as missionaries, you've

got to come up with a good missions message.

And then people have been asking me, well, now

that things have changed so much, now that everything's

online, and, you know, how's it changed? What

are you going to keep doing? What's your vision

now? What are you going to be doing? Are you

still going to be planting churches? and I began

meditating about this. I think the Lord gave

me a word, and that was, it used to be we are

on a mission, and now it's changed to we are

still on a mission. We're still on a mission.

And I want to read you what the definition of

mission is. Actually, I found several definitions.

Pretty interesting. The business with which an

agent or envoy is charged. Another definition,

an operational task. usually assigned by a higher

headquarters, such as a bombing mission. Ascending

or being sent for some duty or purpose. You know,

they talk about the SpaceX of space mission.

You know, they use that word for so many different

things. Ascending or being sent for some duty

or purpose. So it has a focus. It has a reason.

We're not just being sent just to go do anything.

We've got a purpose. A group or committee of

persons sent to a foreign country. to conduct

negotiations, establish relations, do religious

work, or the like. That sounds pretty interesting,

the dictionary. Or the like. And then another

definition, sending of missionaries. Well, I

believe we're all on a mission. All of us. Not

just what we would put in quotes and say they

are missionaries and they went to such and such

place and they left home and they live somewhere

and they eat weird food and talk different languages.

Now, we're all on a mission. The church is in

this together. And COVID hasn't stopped Jesus'

mission, all right? And I just want to read a

verse here before I get into a few other things.

John 20, 21, Jesus said, Peace be unto you, as

my Father hath sent me, even so send I you. And

we know that Jesus was God's only son. Somebody

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

to be a missionary. So if you only have one kid,

send him to the mission field. And I just have

this burning in my heart for all of us, all of

us. We are on a church planting mission. Well,

we have to get people saved first, right? Okay,

preach the gospel to every creature. But then

we make disciples. And I think it's very interesting

that the Bible doesn't really say how big your

church has to be. You know, I mean, you guys

have a huge church. For the size of an area you're

in. So this is a mega church. But there's a lot

of people working really hard to have a mega

church. And they spend their whole life trying

and never ever get there. And then die discouraged.

I think it's very comforting to know that the

Bible actually says. Go into all the world and

make disciples. It doesn't really say how many

you have to have. Or how big you have to be.

And I think this whole COVID thing is just kind

of showing us all. Man, it can be really small,

but let's do a lot of them small if that's what

we have to do. You know, if we can't meet in

a great big facility, let's still keep meeting

in home groups or, you know, family groups or

whatever or online. And so right now, we're still

going. We're zooming around the world instead

of traveling around the world. And so the mission

hasn't changed. You know, the norms and how we

go about it, these things seem to have changed.

I think a lot of people are wondering if we're

ever going to get back to normal again. Actually,

I think the question is, what is the new normal?

And especially on the mission field, what are

we trying to do and what are we going to accomplish

in the middle of all this? And I want you to

pray for us. Pray for us in Mexico because in

the middle of this, I think we have less statistics

here than maybe you're exaggerating your statistics.

We don't know. That's what they say. I don't

know. Everything's COVID here. No matter if you

got just a cough, it's COVID. But in Mexico,

they don't seem like they don't want to, you

know, people are dying and they just, they put

a different name on it. You know, it's respiratory

failure, pneumonia or something like that. But,

and it's really strange because we've lost some

of our pastors. There's at least 40 pastors in

Mexico that have passed away during all of this.

And of course others, two of our pastors in our

group. So we've done two Zoom funerals. That's

really weird. Do a wake service with the family

on Zoom. And not even being able to meet with

them. But the crazy thing is the family themselves.

Like one of our pastors is only like 50 years

old. He went to the hospital on a Thursday and

he was getting a little bit worse. But by Sunday,

the only way they could get a report is if the

doctor actually called the family. Because as

soon as he got in, they took away his cell phone.

Nobody could go visit. And so by Sunday, they

got a report back saying, hey, he's sitting up.

They're not going to, what is it up here? Ventilators

or tubes or something. I'm not going to put tubes

in him. I don't know what that's called here.

But he's eating and conscious and doing well.

And then the next day you get a phone call, he's

dead. And come in two days and pick up his ashes.

And they couldn't go. Couldn't go to the hospital.

Couldn't go see him. Couldn't do a funeral. Wife,

three daughters. It's just, wow. And it's just

crazy. You know, where we live, they're still

killing more people through drug violence than

they are with COVID. We're still getting over

3 ,000 a month homicides and assaults and things

like that through the drug cartels. So we all

have our challenges. You have your challenges

here. We have our challenges there. Cuba has

its challenges, just even getting food. And because

of all the different embargoes and countries

they were depending on, it used to depend on

Russia, and then Russia kind of dumped them,

and then they've been depending on China some,

and that's backed off some. They were depending

on Venezuela, and Venezuela can't hardly take

care of itself. And so the Cubans are lining

up trying to get just food, you know, just basic

stuff in lines, and then they get to the front

of the line after a couple hours, and it's out,

and they can't get it. So we're in the middle

of a lot of challenges worldwide. I have a friend

who's pastoring in Malaysia. He's a Singaporean,

but pastoring in Malaysia. And he was telling

me they finally opened up so they could have

services, but you had to have like two or three

people between you. And then you couldn't sing.

And then you couldn't have anybody in the meeting

that was under 12. And you couldn't have anybody

in the meeting that was over 60. I just like

to run church like that. So I just decided to

just keep going and staying online and not even

have meetings. If you can't have your... kids,

and you can't have the older folks, and you have

all this space, and you're only going to have

about the space he had. I think he could only

have maybe 30 people in his meeting, so lots

of challenges, lots of challenges, lots of challenges,

but we're still on a mission. I want you to open

your Bibles or take out your phone, and let's

look at Matthew chapter 9. This is probably one

Matthew 9 · chapter mention

of the most famous missions portions, and we

know the last part really well. It's where Jesus

said, you know, the harvest is plenteous and

the labors are few, and so pray for more workers.

Everybody knows that part. But I want to start

with verse 35. I want to give you five M's, okay?

I don't have it up here on the wall, but just

to go along with missions. Five words to start

with M. The first word is movement, and I'm just

going to give you these words, and then we're

going to go back and find them because they're

not all written here in this translation that

I'm using. But moving. We're going somewhere.

We're doing something. Movement. And the second

word is multitudes. I'm just going to give you

these from the beginning here. And the third

word is motivation. Correct motivation, which

is love and compassion. And the fourth word we're

going to talk about is ministers. Pray for more

labors, more ministries, which includes everything.

Musicians, children's workers, volunteers, home

group leaders, all that. business people. So

pray for more workers for this harvest. And then

the last one is send laborers into the harvest

field. And so I've entitled that if we're going

to send, then we have to have money. So that's

the fifth M, money. And once again, as my wife

said, we thank you so much for what you've done

for Mexico. You guys sent money and helped. You

paid a whole month of our pastor's salaries.

The people in Mexico aren't used to giving anything

by cash. We don't have checks. Hardly anybody

gives by a check. Your tithes and offerings.

It's always cash. Nobody, I think, ever gave

online before. And a lot of people don't even

have a bank account. So they're living hand to

mouth. COVID thing hit and we couldn't have meetings

where people were actually together. All of a

sudden, the offerings went down 80%. We weren't

hardly getting any. And we have 18 people on

staff in the main church. And then the other

churches, those issues. And then people out of

jobs. So we've been doing a lot of feeding programs,

a lot of things going on to help the people.

And a lot of churches and individuals have stepped

up and helped us. And you guys really put in

a big boost to help Cuba because they were...

In big trouble, just feeding the pastors, just

having enough to live on. They only make about

$25 a month anyway, the Cuban pastors. And you

try to, how would you like to live on $25? Some

people say, well, I can't hardly live on that

an hour. Definitely not in a day. How would you

like to make $25 the whole month and try to make

that stretch, especially if you've got a couple

kids? Yeah, it gets to be really interesting.

A lot of challenges. Let's read these before

I get too far into this, because I really feel

like these verses really speak to all of us,

because we're on a mission right here. And I

just understood from your pastor a little bit

ago that many of you come from the Eugene area,

and you come from different towns, and you have

home groups, or I don't know what you call them

here, connect groups, I think you said. Life

groups, connect groups, or cell groups, or family

groups. There's so many different names. But

I think those are vital. I don't think we should

minimize the importance of these small groups.

Because especially when all of a sudden something

hits and we can't have large groups. I don't

think we ever dreamed that someday we would never

have a large group. You know, for months. For

months we could not get together. And so your

small groups all of a sudden become very important.

And I think we're seeing they're going to become

more and more important. My son, who's in Guadalajara

pastoring, he's about 400 people there. He just

called me the other day and says, man, we're

renting this building. It's costing us, you know,

maybe $10 ,000 a month. We want to turn it in.

The contract's coming up. We're thinking of renting

a smaller building. that maybe only seats 100

people, but then we want to rent three or four

more others and start smaller churches in the

whole city. So there's a lot of ways, you know,

there's a lot of methods, a lot of things that

we're doing all over the world, but we're still,

the mission hasn't changed. It's still to reach

people, whatever, you know. And some of my pastors,

well, most of my pastors had to learn how to

even put up a, how do you do a message online,

you know? How do you? Do a message in front of

a cell phone or a camera or something and then

send it out over Facebook or send it out over

YouTube or something like that. Almost all of

our pastors had to learn how to do this. And

when we started doing these meetings in Zoom,

none of us knew how to do Zoom. I didn't know

how to do Zoom. And see, that's why we have to

call over our kids, our grandkids. They all know

how to do all this stuff. All of us older pastors,

we don't know how to do these things. I still

have pastors that won't get on Zoom with me.

It's like, I don't know, you know, we'll teach

you, we'll show you. I don't know. I'll just

watch it on Facebook later, you know. So whenever,

every Thursday we're doing a Zoom meeting with

our pastors and I get about 50 people on Zoom

with this live, but there's about another 30

that don't even want to learn how to do Zoom.

And so they watch it later on Facebook. So we

have to put it up on live Facebook as well, our

pastor's meetings. So this is a very interesting

stage of life that we're in. But it's not stopping

the mission. Okay, Jesus traveled through all.

And God gave me Ramahs about this. I'm not going

to try to hit every word. But traveled, and some

translations said he went through all the towns

and villages of that area. And the Lord's impressed

upon me. We can't minimize any town or village.

It doesn't matter how big it is. I mean, if you'd

minimize Harrisburg, you wouldn't be here. You

said, well, we're only going to go to Salem and

Eugene and Portland because those are the big

cities. You wouldn't have this. Somebody had

to have a vision somewhere back. You said 19

years ago. We're going to pioneer a work in a

smaller town. But what's God given you? More

towns, more villages, more communities. It doesn't

just stop with a small town. And so my wife and

I, we're having really pretty much a lot of fun

because we travel every weekend mostly. We're

hardly ever in our home church anymore that we

started 30 years ago. Our son took it seven years

ago. And it's kind of funny because our granddaughter

came up to my wife just recently and she goes,

we'll never see you in church anymore. And she's

quite an evangelist. She's really into church.

She's like six years old. Grandma, why don't

you guys ever come to church? Well, my wife says,

because we're visiting other churches. You're

visiting other churches? You know, like we were

church hopping, you know. And, well, she tried

to explain it to her. Well, we have pastors and

we have churches we need to go visit. And then

finally we had a pastor's meeting in the main

building. And she happened to come in and then

my wife was able to say, see, see all these 130

pastors here? This is why we're not here every

Sunday. Oh. Okay, so finally registered, you

know. So sometimes we're Sundays in churches

of 50 people, 60 people, 70 people, and we're

really having a blast, you know. Leaving the

great big flock and coming to the smaller flocks

and helping these new pastors get rolling. Wow,

it's exciting. But see, that's what Jesus did.

And he is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

I think sometimes we forget that part of it.

You know, we go, well, Jesus is the same yesterday,

today, and forever, so he's still doing the next

verse. He's still preaching and teaching and

healing the sick. Yeah, we would agree with that.

How many believe Jesus still does that today?

He's still preaching because he's using the body

of Christ to preach. He's still teaching. You

have home meetings and classes and different

things. Jesus is still doing these things. He's

still healing people. What I really like to hear

is when a whole family gets healed of COVID.

I love that. I love that. It's better than hearing

people dying of it. Wow, tired of people dying

of it. It's cool when you hear there's a family

here and a family there, and all of them tested

positive, and now all of them are well. Okay,

so let's keep believing for that. But Jesus is

the same yesterday, today, and forever, so he's

still moving, still going. I think sometimes

we used to think, well, when the Holy Spirit

moves, that means we get goosebumps or we had

some of the gifts operating or something. But

there's another kind of moving. It's called traveling.

It's called getting in your car and going to

the home group or going to the other town or

getting in an airplane or whatever, you know,

on a bus or whatever, whatever gets us to those

places. In Jesus' day, it was donkeys' feet.

And maybe a boat, you know, if you went to the

other side of the lake. That's how you got around.

No trains, no buses, no airplanes. We're blessed.

We're blessed. As much as I don't like flying

to Asia, you can still get there in one day instead

of three weeks or six weeks like they used to

do on the boats, okay? And so, you know, one

of my friends, he used to do work in the Philippines

years ago, 50 years ago. It took him three weeks

to get to the Philippines. How'd you like to

do that? Man, I complain about a 17 -hour plane

ride. Yeah, well, I don't know. I haven't done

it since you have to wear a face mask. I don't

know. Can you imagine 17 hours wearing a face

mask? But my son's having to do that today. Tomorrow,

they're coming home tomorrow from Laos. So that'll

be an interesting experience. But the mission

is still the mission. It hasn't changed. The

orders haven't changed from the higher power.

It tells us to go to all the towns, all the villages,

all the places around with the gospel. And so

we're challenging our pastors. Every one of you

needs to plant a church once a year at least.

And when we say plant a church, we're talking

about just a simple little home group, but a

little further away. You know, they're not gonna

come here every Sunday morning because it's an

hour away or an hour and a half away or whatever.

So we're just doing, basically simple connect

meetings, or what do you call them, family groups

or cell groups, but we're just doing them in

different places. And then we're raising up people,

whether it's Cuba, whether it's Mexico, wherever.

We're just raising up leaders, discipling people,

because that's what the Great Commission is.

Go disciple people. So we're just training people

from scratch on how to... win other people to

the Lord and then how to train them and disciple

them and get them baptized and et cetera, et

cetera, all the good things that we're doing.

But when Jesus saw the crowds, this is the multitudes,

his heart was moved with compassion. I'm just

gonna skip over multitudes. It's just, we're

talking about lots of people and I could talk

about the millions of people in Mexico City.

Mexico City, we have churches there. It's only

two hours from where we live. Mexico City is,

there are more people in Mexico City than all

of Central America put together. He went from

Belize, all the different countries, all the

way down through into Panama and down into Columbia.

You get to Columbia. There's more people in Mexico

City than all of Central America. There's more

people in Mexico City than all of Canada put

together. So we have multitudes. I don't know

how they're surviving with this COVID thing on

those subways because they're packed, a lot of

types of buses packed. And we're just kind of

staying away from it right now. But there are

multitudes that are, like the Bible says in some

translations, dispersed, like sheep dispersed.

I'll talk about dispersed today. I was talking

to a pastor in Mexico, one of our friends who

has about 7 ,000 people. And he was saying, well,

I used to have 7 ,000 people. Now my building

is empty. Just a little worship team and a camera.

It's crazy. I don't know if they're all going

to come back or not. Kind of a scary thing. But

the sheep are scattered. And even if we weren't

in the middle of this social distancing, there's

a lot of potential sheep. I think Jesus was looking

at all those people out there, and he was calling

them sheep by faith, prophetically. These are

future sheep. Maybe they're goats right now,

but I'm going to turn them into sheep. And so

when we see multitudes of people, we need to

be moved with compassion. And that's the other

word, the other M, the right motivation. Our

motivation for reaching people isn't just so

we can have a big church. Motivation for reaching

people isn't so we'll have a little more offering

coming in. Motivation for reaching people is

so we can brag about it. No, we have to have

the right motive. And I think Jesus had the right

motive. And he's demonstrated it by what real

love is. When he told us about the great, excuse

me, the good Samaritan. I don't want to say the

great Samaritan. The good Samaritan. And I'm

not going to read it right now, but I challenge

you to go back through that. And just count the

verbs in seven verses. A little story that Jesus

shared when the guy comes to him and says, hey,

what does it mean to love your neighbor? Jesus

goes through this whole story. And it's just

verb after verb after verb. It says a guy went

down and he was assaulted and robbed and left

there bleeding and half dead. So there's a whole

bunch of verbs even in the beginning. And then

a priest comes by, Levite come by, and they saw

him. They went the other way. You go through

all that. But then the good guy comes. The guy

who, I talk about racism. Samaritans and Jews

didn't get along. A Samaritan comes by, sees

this guy laying there, and says he was moved

with compassion. So to be moved with compassion,

what's that? It's something that draws us to

step in and meet a need. That's all it is. Maybe

you don't have a lot of skill. I'm no doctor,

I'm no nurse, but I can go in and pray for somebody.

I can see if a guy's bleeding and at least try

to find something to bandage him up like this

guy did. Said he poured in oil and wine. You

know, what's all in line? Well, spiritually,

it's the joy of the Lord and it's the Holy Spirit

and all those good things. And he picked him

up, took him on his own donkey, took him to the

inn. Those are all verbs, all action. And, you

know, to me, the inn and the natural would be

take him to the hospital or the clinic or something.

Or in the spirit, could be take him to your home

group or take him to your church or you can get

spiritual help. Marriages are on the rocks. Okay,

so you're helping somebody, get some help. To

be moved with compassion doesn't mean we know

all the answers and we can do everything. It

just means we step in and do what we can do.

I mean, you had 80 volunteers yesterday handing

out chickens. Well, maybe you don't know how

to kill chickens. Maybe you don't know how to

grow chickens. Maybe you don't know how to preach.

But 80 people got involved in touching the city

handing out halves of chickens yesterday. So

you just do what you can do. Whatever your hand

finds to do, do it with all your might. Even

if it's just simple and it seems dumb and it

seems like, I don't know what I'm accomplishing

here. But you just step in and do what God's

asked you to do. I don't know when I'm supposed

to end. At one o 'clock? A little before. It's

already a little before. Hang in here. I already

gave you the points, okay? But I just want to

at least tell you how God got me involved with

Cube because you guys have been really involved

with Cube. You sent in $10 ,000, helped us buy

some roofs. I think we did several roofs and

maybe a partial house or a whole house in Cube.

You can buy a house from anywhere. The cheapest

I've been able to find a house way on the east

side, way out in the sticks, is about $2 ,000,

$3 ,000. Whole house. The most I've ever spent

on a house is like $16 ,000. How would you like

to buy a house anywhere from $2 ,000 to $16 ,000?

Well, Cuban pastors love that because they only

have $25 a month. So that's how they get their

churches. Anyway, to give you a long story, make

it shorter here. I was in prayer. We turned over

the church to my son. And we were having prayer

meetings in the church. And I was just kind of

on my knees there. And I wasn't praying about

Cuba at the time. We'd already been doing ministry

in Cuba for probably 10, 15 years, going down

and just ministering. But all of a sudden, you

hear the voice of God in your spirit. I know

we're supposed to hear the voice of God constantly

in Ramahs and this morning, man, hearing the

voice of God this morning in worship. How many

of you heard the voice of God today? Some of

these prophetic words and stuff. But there's

times when, I just call it, you really heard

the voice of God because it shook you and you

weren't ready for it and it maybe changed the

direction in your life. I mean, we're talking

major. I'm sitting there praying and the Lord

says, I want you to use your influence with pastors

and business people that you know. and help the

Cuban pastors buy houses for churches. That's

the word I heard. I'm just like, I don't have

a lot of, then the excuses start hitting. I don't

have a lot of influence. I don't have a lot of

money. I don't know very many people. I know

a lot of pastors, but they're all poor. I know

some business people, but they're just barely

making it. All these things go through your brain.

Anyway, I leaned over to my wife. She was over

there praying. It was early in the morning. We

were cold. We were probably all half asleep instead

of praying. Anyway, hey, Judy. And she'd go,

yeah, I think the Lord spoke to me. She went,

oh. He wants me to buy houses for the pastors

in Cuba. You know how she answered? Oh, okay.

She went back to praying. She's kind of used

to me by now. She married a crazy guy. And so

that started, and then she kind of, pretty soon

she goes, how many? And I go, I don't know. The

Lord didn't tell me that, but I'm kind of thinking

maybe around 20. 20 churches. That seemed really

big. Well, six years later, we have about 115

places now for churches. So it's pretty cool.

Pretty cool. I know time is gone, but let me

just tell you something about giving. I could

tell you stories, many stories, about how the

Lord's multiplied the funds and stretched things.

This whole thing started with Cuba. I heard this

word, and then about a month and a half later,

we're sitting in a restaurant with a business

couple in Southern California, friends of ours

for years. And once in a while, they'd given

us a couple thousand dollars for different missionary

things, projects. And I wasn't really expecting

any offering, but we were sitting there eating.

All of a sudden, she jabs her husband and says,

tell him what we're going to do for him today.

And we're eating, and he didn't want to do anything.

He wanted to get the menu and wanted to eat.

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

So he pulls out of his pocket the check already

written. It was in my name. 25 and three zeros.

$25 ,000. I don't think I've ever seen a check

that big written in my name. And he says, just

use it for whatever you want. You know, you guys

have ministered for years and sacrificed and

done things. This is just for you guys. Buy a

car, do whatever you want. I said, wow, we could

use a car. But immediately the Lord reminded

me, use your influence. And the context you have

with pastors, many people to buy houses for the

pastors in Cuba. For churches. So I mean, I said,

hey, Mark, you know, I've really felt like the

Lord spoke to me this about a month, month and

a half ago. Is it okay with you if we use this

to get started on this project, getting some

houses in Cuba? And, well, it's your money. We're

up to you. Do whatever you want with it. So that

was the first seed that, you know, it was money

given to us. So in one sense, it was our money.

And we bought our first house for, I think, $8

,000, another roof for $2 ,000, some other stuff.

And to put almost all of it, I think we had a

few medical bills, so we did spend maybe 20%,

but we gave 80%. So those are the first seeds

that we personally sowed into Cuba and that has

multiplied. I forgot to say this in the first

service. That man has given us three more checks

for 25 ,000. For Cuba, yeah, not just for us,

but for Cuba. And so those seeds kept on sowing,

or kept on multiplying. And sometimes we don't

really realize when God speaks to us, you know,

how it's going to all happen. We just kind of

are shook. We're just kind of, wow, I don't know,

you know, but keep on doing what God's asked

you to do. And it's amazing what God will do

in the long run. So we're praying for more workers.

We're praying for more money. I told everybody

I'm an expensive missionary. because I have a

big vision. Not expensive in the sense that I

ask money for myself. You know, you don't have

to give me a dime. But help me buy one more house

for Cuba, okay? And some projects in Mexico.

And help the rest of the world. Help Jesus get

the rest of this world won for him. We don't

know how much time we have. Everybody's prophesying

all kinds of crazy things about the end times.

I don't know. But let's just keep on going. The

mission's still there. It's still there. We still

have people that are unsafe. And we're going

after them. And we're making disciples. And we're

raising up churches. So help us do that. That's

all. That's all I got to say. Thank you. Stay

up here with me a moment. It's awesome. I want

to have Phil just stay up here a little bit and

kind of just, he would never say this. You know,

when we sent Anthony and Tina this year to go

to Cuba to take what they needed to take and

to partner with building houses and he shared

at first service, but The only way the church

is allowed to grow there now is that the pastors

can have a home and do. Why don't you share that

part about how the gospel is able to work with

that house? Yeah, they're not shutting down the

meetings. They would shut churches down, burn

Bibles, you know, 50, 60 years ago. But now the

pastors can have meetings in their home. And

so the way we grow the church is we knock out

walls. a house that needs a lot of work, but

we find a house that has a garage or a patio

or a backyard or something. We go in there. Okay,

this thing is only $8 ,000, but we can grow to

two, 300 people here. So the pastor lives there.

We have to put in his name. Can't put in our

name or church name. And he has his house to

live in, but then we're growing churches. Some

of them have gotten up to 600 people, double

services. So we figured, and this is the part

maybe you wanted me to say, out of 115 churches,

we figure we're seating 20 ,000 people. Every

Sunday morning, now. And by going to double services,

we'll go to 40 ,000 people. And we don't even

have $1 million into this. It's like 936 ,000

or something. Total is what we put into it. Yeah,

it's incredible. When we were there, our team,

you've got about 600 pastors that we're overseeing.

So there's about 600 works. He's got... 200 pastors

waiting for partnership. And God is just opening

the door as the work keeps going. And we've seen

the map, all the little dots where they've got

houses and the Lord has done miracle works. And

you're part of that. And today, you know, every

year that we do First Fruits, as you guys hear

the Lord and as you sow sacrificially, part of

our job is the senior leadership and the elders,

we pray and we ask Lord, Lord, where do we also

sow first fruits and take a portion of that money

and sow it outside the walls? It's not just the

vision of this house. The vision has always been

here, regional, into the nations. It's always

been that way. And so today we're gonna sow a

significant amount. into the work to buy houses

into Cuba as a first fruits offering is what's

not already come in, but in faith as well. And

just say, you know, Lord, we're doing this. We're

partnering with it. We've taken a team. We'll

take other teams to Cuba if we can get in, when

we can get in. And it's an honor. You know, Phil

would never say this personally, but I've known

his family a long time and I've known him a long

time. I know they don't take any money of things

that are given to Cuba. They've never spent a

dime. The fact is they've sowed more of their

own personal finances and given away thousands

and thousands of dollars. And when we sent relief

to Mexico and we sent relief to Cuba these last

couple of months just to pay the monthly salaries

of pastors and their families and the churches

to feed. We did it again this month with Ethiopia.

I'll bring a report on that, but it's changing

the lives of people. We sent some first fruits

money to Ethiopia and the letters that come back

are tear stained. I wish I could. But you know,

you guys are making a significant difference.

These guys are the real deal. He's given his

life for that. I told Anthony and Tina, I said,

when I send you there, you need to understand

something. This isn't gonna be a four -star hotel.

If it is, you can count four stars through the

roof. You can see them. And they're gonna get

up early in the morning and you're gonna be on

the bus probably at 6 .30 and you won't probably

get home till midnight. And that's exactly what

happened every night, going and meeting with

pastors in the place. And it's not about Rolexes

and Rolls Royces, that's for sure. It's about

getting beans and rice and the New Testament

and the gospel into the hands of people that

get one roll of toilet paper, a dozen eggs, a

little bread from the government every month

at $25. And we get to be part of it. We get to

be part of it. So we're going to do that. Would

you stretch your hands toward him? We're going

to pray for him today. Father, in Jesus' name,

we thank you so much for what's happening in

the lives. Lord, not only of the pastors in Mexico.

Lord, that we have supported in the lives of

the pastors in Cuba that we're supporting. But

Father, I speak a word of blessing now over Judy's

body. I speak to her back. I speak to her hips.

Lord, in this consultation, we release, Lord,

the word of the Lord even now in Jesus' name

to her body. Send healing in Jesus' name. Father,

I pray, Lord, for a return. Lord, that which

has been poured out of time and effort and energies

and sleeplessness. nights and meeting with people,

Lord, until they can't hardly move or they can't

hardly walk. God, I'm praying right now. Lord,

it's all worth it. I understand it to a degree.

Lord, where you leave the place, you have nothing

left, but Lord, your grace sustains. And Lord,

today we honor men and women like this. We bless

them. And Lord, your word says, even as Paul

said, honor such brothers and sisters for they

risked their life for the gospel. And so we thank

you for them. We bless them. We say, may the

favor and the grace of God be upon you and your

bodies and your marriage, your finance and your

ministry in Jesus name. And everybody said, amen.

Amen. God bless you, Phil. Love you. If you are

interested in hearing other podcasts or contacting

Life Bible Church, go to www .lifebiblechurch

.org or call us at 541 -995 -8282.