Missions is on God's Heart | Pr Stephen Kong

You're listening to a message to go from Acts Church.

We hope this message will light up your day.

The title will be Missions is on God's Heart. Somebody say, amen,

missions is on God's heart. Okay, So let me begin

by giving you some context. Uh you know, let me

give you some definition of some words. Okay, So mission, mission,

okay without the mission is basically an important It could

be a task, It could be a duty, It could

be an assignment.

Uh.

You know, I think most of words will be very

familiar with this word. I think this movie it called

mission impossible.

Right.

So this guy, I think his name is Eaten, I

think in the movie. Right, yeah, So so he's he's

he's on a mission. It's impossible. So I'm sure you're

very familiar with a movie. So a mission, basically it's

like a task, right, It's like an assignment. It's a mission,

is goal, is an aim or could be a purpose? Right,

And you may be wondering, what is this word called

missions with the s behind? Okay, it's not a grammatical error.

So missions is basically a word used by Christians or

you know, to describe a believer that is moving out, okay,

out of his or her own comfort zone to a

different culture, a different place, a different location, you know,

moving out to a different country, you know, to bring

the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ to them.

Okay.

So that's what missions really is, okay. And it's different

from the word mission, Okay. So I just got to

clarify that so that we are on the same page.

Okay.

And there's probably another word that we also use, which

is a missionary, And a missionary is just basically a

person who goes on missions, right on a mission trip

right typically a foreign land or somewhere else that is

not from the original country or the original place, and

basically they are to bring the good news of Jesus Christ.

Okay.

So now that we got the context clear the difference

between mission and missions, okay, let me let me move on.

Jesus was and is the greatest missionary. He is a man.

When he came to Earth, his mission on Earth was

to seek and save the lost. He was constantly around people,

He spent time with people. In fact, he chose his

show of disciples to also help him to do the

work that he's also doing as well. And he always

spent time with people, right because people was part of

his mission, because he wanted to seek and save the loss,

which is people, right. And one of his missions was

also to go to the cross to pay for the

ultimate penalty of your sins and my sins, once and

for all. And then that's what Jesus did for us.

And there was his mission when he was here on earth.

But we know that Jesus also theoretically went on missions

because based on a definition definition that I gave you

for a person who leave his comfort or his own

place and to go to somewhere else, that's actually missions, right,

And so Jesus actually left heaven and came in a

form of a human one hundred percent human body and

flesh on earth. Right of course, on earth he was

one hundred percent God and one hundred percent human, but

physically he was here on earth. So theoretically Jesus also

did missions, you know, and he left his comfort in

heaven and came to earth. And I would imagine that

when he came to earth, he was in his eyes

it was meley, it was thirty. He was messy, you know,

the world was filled with sin. And if you know

about the Bible actually says that God is holy right,

and because of that, he cannot tolerate sin because sin

separates us from God.

Right. But yet Jesus left his.

Comfort zone and came to Earth on a mission to

save you and I amen. So missions, I want to say,

these missions uncomfortable. How many even know that if you

went for missions and you stay in a hotel, that's

not missions?

Okay?

Unless the place that you went to offer your hotel,

then great, okay, But oftentimes they're not. Ask some of

our people here you've been a mission strip, they will

tell you there's not there's not a connon okay. In fact,

the worst will be that you don't have a place

to shower. How many of you went missions and shower

in the sea before, in the not the sea, in

the river?

You know?

I don't know, have you anyone okay? Or maybe not?

Like okay, maybe we haven't went to the extreme, but

some of our elder and some of our of our

leaders have actually been to mission strip whereby they shower

in the river, you know, and they don't have proper toilets.

Actually depends on which mission mission ship you go to

la okay, some are quite you know, some of the

missions ship we go to we have pastors or missionaries

who are there, and they have proper houses, so we

stay with the missionary there. So it's quite generally comfortable enough,

okay for us to go. But suffice to say, it's

not comfortable, okay, because we are leaving our own comfort,

We are leaving our own bathroom behind, leaving our own

bit behind. We're going to a foreign place, a foreign land, right.

In fact, we're going to a foreign group or language.

And how many have you know that? As humans, right,

we are very selfishent Okay, we are very comfortable being

ourselves and being among our own people, you know. Like

for example, if I if I can only speak English,

which I can't speak Chinese, right, I would like I

would love to hang out people can speak English, right,

you know, And like whise, some people who speak Chinese

as the main language, they love to hang out people

who speak Chinese. Likewise, those who speak Demo, we like

to spend up hang out with people who speak Demo, right,

and so on and so forth. So naturally, in our

human sense, we're like that, okay, we are very comfortable

being among our own people, you know, speaking our own language,

spending time with people whom we are close with you know,

and naturally we're very self centered, very focused in ourselves.

That's why missions is genuinely very uncomfortable, okay. And if

you're not careful, we can end up going for missions,

and we can spell missions as a mission ms and

how many even know? Missions is not about ourselves. It's

not about where we want to go. It's not about

what we want to do, it's not about what we

want to wear. Because when you go to missions, I

remember when I went to a trip and they were

serving us some food. And we have heard of stories

whereby you know, how unclean, uh, they will prepared the

food and things like that us. It's in a compung

right uh. And did you know when you go to missions, right,

if you reject the food that they offer you, you

are basically rejecting them. So I've so I've been the

mission tip and and despite seeing all the flies going

on the food, and and despite how dirty the food

may look like, we just pay Lord scentify the food

in Jesus name and go we just eat right, and

we are part of them because there's missions, right, It's

not about me. It's not about me, right, It's about

reaching the people with the Gospel of Jesus Christ for

His glory. Right, So so that it's a part of missions.

That's why it's exciting, right, because you get to exercise

your faith. Exciting, I said, you laughing, exciting. You got

to exercise your faith a little bit, you know. And

I still remember, I think one of our pastor's ship,

you know, this is this is a bit extremely okay,

but I think they used to sell some insects as

part of their delicacies and he had to eat it.

He said, Lord, give me grades to eat it.

And he would just go way it down and eat

because that is part of accepting them as one.

Okay.

And then's what we do in missions. Okay, that's not

the only thing we do. Like Okay, I don't want

to scare you, but but yes, it's exciting because you

get to exercise your faith in the missions field.

Man.

So it's not about us. Remember when you go to

a mission ship, it's not about us. I hope to

inspire you.

Okay.

If I'm scaring you, then maybe I'm feeling my job. Okay, okay, okay,

So okay, So missions right, it's about his glory, Okay.

Missions is about God's glory. Okay.

It's about his glory feeling the entire earth, so that

all may know. Habit Cook chapter two, words fourteen. If

you have a bibles one, if you turn to this

scripture real quick, Habit Cook chapter.

Two, verse fourteen. Okay.

And if you don't have a Bible, you can just

look on the screen. And if you have, then make

sure you bring a Bible to church.

Amen.

We want to make your lifestyle to read our physical bibles. Okay,

So have a Cook two fourteen says for the earth

will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of

the Lord as the waters cover the sea.

Amen. So this is the basis of missions.

Missions is about his glory, feeling the entire earth. That

is the basis of missions. It's about his glory, feeling

the earth as the waters cover the sea.

Amen. All right.

And so now I'm going to give you another two

more scriptures. It is X chapter one, verse eight and

Matthew chapter twenty eight, verse eighteen to twenty, which many

of us may be familiar with his verses.

Okay, and it reads X one.

But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has

come upon you, and you shall be witnesses to me

in Jerusalem, in all of Judea and Samaria, and to

the end of the earth. Matthew eighteen the twenty says,

and Jesus came and spoke to them his disciples, saying,

all authority has been given to me in heaven and

on earth.

Go therefore on the screen.

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them

in the name of the Father and of the Son

and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all

things that I have commanded you. And lo, I am

with you always, even to the end of the age.

Amen.

So if you look at these two scriptures, you will

find that there is both the mission as well as

missions involving it. Okay, so I underline it for you

X one eight. You shall be my witnesses. Witnessing for

him is one of our mission. You know what a

witness is. Just imagine when you go to court. A

witness is a person who testifies of his or her

own personal experience.

Right.

And so the discipers had first hand experience with Jesus.

They saw the americles he did, They even saw him crucified.

They saw how he raised the day. They saw how

he preached to people, and so they were to be

his witnesses. And likewise you and I today we are

also caught to be his witnesses a man, because in

one way or another we have experienced him firsthand before

in our lives.

So to be a witness is the mission.

Missions is where Jerusalem or jude are Samaria and to

end of the earth. That's where missions comes in Matthew

twenty eight. Making disciples is the mission. Do you see

I shared with you I think a few ago that

one of the one of the missions of X Church

is to make disciples. That makes the difference, right, So

making disciples is the mission, and to all nations is

where the missions comes in human so we see in

the scripture there is both involved, and hence missions really

is on God's heart. So now let me just take

us to some stories and some heroes in a Bible

in from the Book of X.

So why didn't you turn with me to X chapter two.

Okay, let's altern our bibles and you can keep the

Bibles open in a book of X, because I've got

to go to a few chapters in a book of

acts showing us and proving to us that missions is

really on God's heart, and the missions is God's heartbeat.

Okay, So X chapter two, so we know that X.

Chapter two comes after Acts Chapter one, right, and X

one eight say, and you shall be my witnesses, right

when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. Right, you shall

receive power when the Holy speit comes upon you, and

you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in Judea and

Samaria and to the end of the earth. And now

let's look at what happens after after this promise. Okay,

you know, after this promise came the Pentecost. The Pentecost

was when the Holy Spirit came and baptized the disciples

at the Upper Room.

Okay. And in Act chapter.

Two, verse forty, we can see after the feeling of

the Holy Spirit, right, the disciples began to preach boldly

and courageously. In Act chapter two, verse forty, it says,

and with many other words, he testified and exhorted them, saying,

be saved from this perverse generation. Then those who gladly

received his word were baptized, and that day about three

thousand souls were added to them. This was after Peter

gave a long sermon. Right, people, thought that they were drunk,

because they were filled with the Holy Spirit.

They were praising God in their own language.

So in that space they were probably people from all

the different kinds of nations, different languages. But the disciples

were praising God in their own language. That itself was

a miracle. It was a miracle right. The Holy Spirit

enabled them. And so after Peter preached a message, they

gladly received it. Worse for the two and they continued

steadfastly in the apostles, doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking

up bread, and in prayers. Then fear came upon every soul,

and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles.

Now all who believed were together and had all things

in common, and so their possessions and goods and divided

them among all as anyone had needed. So, continuing daily

one accord in the temper, and breaking bread from house

to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity

of heart. Listen to this praising God and having favored

with all the people, and the Lord added to the

church daily those who were being saved. So we see

that just at this message or sermon that Peter preached

three thousand was saved immediately at the moment itself, three

thousand souls were added to the kingdom, and God continued

to add daily.

Let's continue to see what happens. Okay.

So after that, Peter and John goes to the temple,

actually the tree. He goes to the beautiful gate, and

I'm just paraphrasing. There was a lame man, lame from birth,

lame as in his feet, Okay, not lame in his jokes,

but lame in his feet.

So he was there.

And the Bible says that this man was over forty

years okay, and he was brought to the temple to

back for arms, for money or whatever it is daily daily.

So I would imagine if he was brought there since

I don't know, maybe a teenager or a young kid.

He was probably at the temple for more than thirty years.

I don't know to be exact, Okay, I don't know

from what age he was there, right, But he was

lame from birth and he was over forty years.

And so Peter and John walks.

Into the temple, seize this man and says to him,

look at us, silver and gold, I have none, But

what I have I give to you in the name

of Jesus Christ on NAZAEUV get up and walk. So basically,

Peter and John healed the man by the power of

the Holy Spirit and God's healing power. And this lame

man from birth was healed. Right, So we see the

power of the Holy Spirit at work. Okay, So excepretary

was one to tens. That's what happened, right, And I'm

gonna fast forward. And so in that moment, did you

know there were four thousand men, So five thousand people

who were saved. Okay, five thousand people who were saved

at the moment X chapter four, verse one, follow me, okay,

verse one. Now, as they spoke to the people, the

priests that kept out of the temper and the sless

came upon them.

This Peter and John being greatly.

Disturbed, that they taught the people and preached in Jesus

and the reccilation of the day. And they laid hands

on them and put them in custody until the next day,

for it was already evening. However, many of those who

heard the word believed, and the number of men came

to be about five thousand.

Wow. So after the miracle happened.

Peter and John preach to the people because the people

thought these guys are gods. And he said, no, we're

just ordinary men and women are not women. They men

and uh, and we are doing this by the power

of the Holy Spirit. So they preached the gospel, and

five thousand men were saved. It's amazing. So you see

from three thousand souls now five thousand men. I don't

know how many women were there, but five thousand men

were saved. And it goes on, continue to go on. Okay,

the church continues to go X Chapter five, verse twelve. Okay,

I thought you're gonna flip a couple of skiptures because

I want to show to you that missions is ready

on God's heart. But I'm building, Okay, I'm building, getting,

I'm getting somewhere, okay. X Chapter five, worse twelve, and

shoot their hands for the apostles. Many signs and wonders

were done among the people, and they were all we

want accord in Solomon's pouch. Yet none of the rest

there to join them. But the people esteemed them greatly

or highly, and believers were increasingly added to the Lord,

multitudes of both men and women. So that they brought

the stick into the streets and laid them on the

bits and cultures, that at least the shadow of Peter

passing by Mike fall on some of them. Also, a

multitude multitude gathered from them surrounding the cities to Jerusalem,

bringing sick and those who were tormented by unclean spirits,

and they were all healed. So, friends, again we see

in chapter five the church continues to grow. Right, they

were multitudes of men and women being saved. So the

disciples and the apostles understood their mission right, which is

to make disciples, which is to be witnesses. So they

understood the mission, okay, the mission that they had to do,

and they were doing it, and you can see fruits.

Many were being saved.

Amen. And so the church continued to grow. It grew

so big.

Then in xt Chapter five, some of the Hellenies or

Greeks were being neglected in their daily distribution of I

think the I think it's food or something like that, right,

the daily distribution, And so they complained to the apostles,

and of course the Aparscels say that it is not

good that we neglect the teaching of the Word of God.

To serve at tables. So what they did. The church

was growing so big that the apostles said, let us

appoint seven men who will take care of this distribution,

so that we apausers can focus on teaching the word

of God, right, because that is important, or I should

say more important actually, okay. And so in X chapter

six the apostles appointed seven deacons. We call it seven deacons,

okay uh. And the quity was simple, good reputation, full

of the Holy Spirit, and full of wisdom.

Okay.

And so they appointed seven deacons. And then the church

continues to grow even more after that.

Okay, how do we know?

We can see in X Chapter six, verse seven, then

the word of God spirit and the number of disciples

multitude greatly, wow, greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many

of the phrasts were obedient to the faith.

Wow. Earlier was numbers were being added. Added.

Now there's multiplication in the multitudes. In fact, it says

multiplied greatly. So now we see the church begin to

grow in Jerusalem. Right, everything starts to to to bear

much fruit. And this guy by the name was Steven,

not me Stephen. In the Bible, he was one of

the seven deacons. And so Stephen went out and began preaching.

Actually I wondered that he was supposed to serve tables.

I don't know why he was preaching, but he really

but anyway, he was preaching, right, he went out to preach.

He continued to those signs and wonders, and his preaching

was good that people began to dispute with him, okay,

And he.

Was very bold and very courageous. Uh.

And then they you know, they wanted to find something

against him, right, and so they they got they accused him.

For see, they used blasphemous words against him, and and

and told the counsel.

And they brought him before the counsel.

And he was standing the counsel and and and they

spoke evil things against him, right, and Steven was standing

there and his face was like an angel. And they

were like, what like they were saying all kinds of

evil things about him, but yeah, his face was like

an angel. And cut along story short. I will encourage

you to go and read the whole chapter, okay, from

ex Chapter one all the way to Accepter ten, and

then you will see how my message today actually comes together,

you know, very nicely okay. But basically Steven was standing

before the counsel uh, and he shared the long Gospel

message to them. It's so long, it's one whole chapter long.

And at the end of it he was basically blaming

the people that he was there fought right, they actually

crucified Jesus.

Okay.

Of course we know that that was part of the plan, right,

but he was basically saying he was on them. It

was the people who crucified Jesus, okay, and they were

so angry with him they stolen him to death.

Okay.

So Steven was actually the first martyr after Jesus Christ, Okay,

after Jesus Guys died. Stephen was the first martyr for

his faith, witness for his faith. In fact, did you

know that the word witness actually, by analogy, it means

a martyr. Did you know, Wow, the word witness actually

means I think the Greek word is martus. I think

I have a slight on it. I missed it. If

you can go back to one of them slight, I

think I had it. Oh there it is, okay, witness.

Actually you can go and find this G three one,

four four and the strong concordance it actually is marthus okay,

which means a witness in a legal or historical ethical sense.

By analogy, it's a martyr. Wow. So here we see Stephen.

In front of the councilor literally being a witness because

he died for his faith. And I think about it, right,

it's not so much to say that we need to

die for our faith, but I think it's there are

times that we need to die to our own desires,

our own longings, or the things that we want so

that we can be a witness for Christ. Because how

many if you know, right, it's in this day of age, right,

it's not very cool to be a witness of Christ

sometimes to say the name of Jesus. So it is

a bit a bit we're a bit shy about it.

So recently I sat down in one of my client

which is part of my construction team, and out of

random conversations in the in the interview, not in an interview,

in the in the ten tender negotiation, he will ask

me like, hey, can you come on this this time?

And I said, oh, I have church. He looks me, oh,

you go to church? I said, yeah, I go to church.

Oh okay, So he knows that I was. I'm a Christian, right,

this is a business meetinger. Okay, it's very unconventional to

say that, but I said it. And so eventually, this

one time I had the time that I sat with

him one on one to eat, and out of the conversation,

I asked him, so, what do you believe in? And

he told me he he's a free thinkerl So I

began to share with him. So I took that opportunity

to share with one of my clients about the Gospel

of Jesus Christ over a lunch and he told me that, yeah,

he's heard of how Kristens are very good. He has

an auntie's also a Christian and things like that. And

I asked him to consider and we can have more

chat after this. And so I just want to encourage

you that we are called to be a witness for Christ. Amen,

And oftentimes it's us actually dying to our own selfish

desires and longings. Then we can break free and to

be a true witness for Christ.

Amen.

So Stephen was like that, not me, but the one

Stephen the Bible. I hope I can be like that

as well. Praise a lot. So Stephen in the Bible,

chapter seven. So he witnessed for Christ, and he was

torn to death. Okay, Acts chapter seven, verse fifty four. Okay,

why don't you turn with me? Verse fifty four. So

when they hurt these things, when the counselor heard these things,

they were cut to the heart.

Wow, that's what the word of God does to us. Amen.

They were cut to the heart, and they gnashed him

with their teeth. But he, stephena being full of the

Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of

God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God,

and said, look, I see heaven open, and the son

of Men standing at the right hand of God. Then

they cried out with a loud voice, stopped their ears,

and ran at him with one accord, and they cast

him out the city and stoned him. And the witnesses

laid down their clothes at the feet at the young

man named Saul, and they stone Stephen. As he was

calling on God and saying, Lord, Jesus received my spirit.

Then he knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, Lord,

do not charge them with this sin. And when he

had said this, he fell asleep. Basically, he died, okay.

And this last famous words that Stephen said was the

same that similar to what Jesus said, into your hands,

I commit my spirit and do not hold them to this,

you know. And that's what Stephen said, which actually reflected

what Jesus said at the cross.

So I'm coming somewhere.

Now we have finished Act chapter seven, and now we

come to Act chapter eight, verse one. This is the

turning point, ladies and gentlemen, Act chapter eight, verse one.

Let's look at what eight verse one says. Now Saul

was consenting to this death. At that time a great

persecution arose against the church, which was a Jerusalem, and

they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria.

Accept the apostles. So here we go. Act chapter one.

Verse eight was when the promise of the Holy Spirit

was given.

Hear me out.

Ex Chapter one was eight was when the promise of

the Holy Speed was given. They had the mission, which

is to be a witness. They understood that missions were

involved Jerusalem, Judeu, se Maria, and to the ends of

the earth. And here we see at X eight verse

one's where the missions began to take place. Eight verse

one the disciples were scattered to where come away with.

There's scattered too, Judea and Samiria. Do you see the

do you see the connection? So it took them eight

chapters for this to happened, eight chapters before they really

began to have missions taking place again. I told you

that that missions is on God's heart, right, And God's

heartbeat is for missions.

Amen.

And so we see that if you if you read

the whole chapter from chapter one, chapter eight, right, it

looks really very good. You know, the disciples were reaching many,

many people. Many lives were being safe, many signs and

miracles and wonders were being performed, and it looked really

very good, right, And the disciples were getting comfortable. But

how many of you know, God was not done in order.

Disciples were not meant to be comfortable. They were not

men to warm the seeds in the synagogues, you know,

they were not meant to just stay in Jerusalem.

Only God was not done with them.

And it took a persecution that God had allowed to

happen to shake them and to send them out into

Judea and Samaria and eventually to the ends of the earth.

So the shaking had happened. The shaking had happened.

Friends, if you and I get too comfortable, then you

will come to a point and the Lord will have

to shake us in order for us to move, because

we are not men to get too comfortable where we are.

You can see here Jerusalem was very comfortable, right and

until the persecution happened. That the disciples were scattered. This

is what we call as the di spora. Okay, if

you hurd it before, it's called the di spora, whereby

the disciples were scattered out from their original land. And okay,

accept the disciples, accept the apostles. Sorry, accept the apostles.

So the apostles stayed back at Jerusalem because maybe they

understood it. They knew that they had to be a headquarters.

So they stayed back at Jerusalem and continued to stay

strong there. One majority of the disciples scattered all across

Judea and Samaria. Wow, so we see that it's happening. Okay,

there were scattering. Now let's move on Chapter eight, verse four.

What do you think the disciples did after they were scattered?

Verse four says, therefore those who were scattered went everywhere

preaching the word. Somebody say, amen, there you go. So

there's missions. They went everywhere preaching the word. Then Philip

went down. Actually this Philip was one of the seven

deacons as well, so he also went on a mission

to go and spread the Gospel, even though he was

a deacon supposed to you know, tend to the tables,

but he also went to preach. And he's known as

evangelists as well. So Philip went down to the city

of Samaria and preached Christ to them, and the multitudes

we won accord, heeded the things spoken by Philip, and

hearing and seeing the miracles which he did for unclean spirits,

crying out with a loud voice, came out of many

who were possessed, and many who were paralyzed and lame

were healed, and there was great joy in that city.

So Philip now goes to Samaria to preach. Did you

know that in the olden days the Samaritans will often

looked down upon.

By the Jews.

Okay, you know the story of the Great Samaritan, right,

If you're not familiar with it, can just go and

re read about this Great Samaritan story. Okay, whereby there

was a person who you know, who was robbed and

left in the desert, and two men walk by and

a great Samaritan help him. Right, Okay, so there's a

story of a great Samaritan. So basically, in according in

so according to the Jewish custom, Samaria was considered a

non Jewish country.

Okay.

So the fact that Philip went to Samaria, he actually

had to break his mind first, his mindset or his

own prejudice against them, because he's going to a place

that they themselves don't often assimilate with or they don't

often hang out with. Right, it's very uncommon. Right, But

God had to do a work in Philip. Friends, when

God sensus on a mission field, there's no time for prejudice,

there's no time, right, because Philip knew exactly what he

needed to do. There was no time for hatred. There's

no time to think whether there are Samaritans or not.

All he needed to do was to push the gospel.

He understood the mission, just to push the gospel. Right,

even though sometimes in our natural sense we may feel

like they were undeserving. You know, Philip said that these

Americans are undeserving. If if if you know the story

of Jonah, that's what Jonah said to say to Ninaweh. Right,

if you're going to read the book of JOHNA, it's

very short chapter. I think about four chapters. I think

in the book of Jonah, Uh, God asked him to

preach to Ninawah to save them because God didn't want

to deshore them.

He wanted to save them, right.

But Jonah felt in his own way that they don't

deserve God's grace. They don't deserve it because even if

we saved them, they were they will attack them anyway. Right,

So sometimes we may have this kind of prejudice in

our mind, like they don't deserve it.

But how many of you know?

None of us deserve it, deserve the saving grace of

Jesus Christ, but God gave it to us. It's the

grace that God has given us.

Amen.

And so God loves all. His desire is that none

should thanks saving. Yeah, I'm losing my voice because the

rain is loud. Okay, I hope you can still hear me,

are you okay?

Okay? I still can hear me here? All right?

So Philip pushed to Samaria and it didn't stop there,

you know. In verse twenty six. Now he goes on

and the Holy Spirit leads him to an Ethiopian eunuch.

Okay, so let's read verse twenty six.

Now, an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip, saying,

arise and go toward the south along the road which

goes from Jerusalem to Gaza.

This is desert.

So he arose and went and behold a man of Ethiopia,

a unach of great authority under Candice, the Queen of Ethopians,

who had charged of all her treasury and had come

to Jerusalem to worship, was returning and sitting in his chariot.

He was reading Isaiah the Prophet. Then the Spirit said

to Philip, go near and overtake his chariot. So Philip

ran and hurt him reading the perfect Isaiah, and said,

do you understand what you are reading?

Wow? Friends, did you know a miracle happened? At a moment?

This it open?

You know, is sitting on a chariot, and Philip can

run faster than the chariot. And while he's running, he's

talking to him.

Think about it.

Sometimes you look at the Bible, right, great things happen

even in the ordinary.

I'm not sure I can do that.

Okay, he is running faster than the chariot and talking

to the you now, okay, I think God gave him

superlex okay. And he said, how can I and how

can I understand unless someone guides me? And he asked

Philip to come up and sit with him. And so

the story goes on. Philip shares the Gospel to this

ethy opened nu and he accepts Christ. Okay, all right,

he accepts Christ. And then he says, what then can

stop me from being baptized? Right at the moment they

found some water, there was a river, and Philip baptized

the Ethiopian Euna. And I believe that is how the

Gospel came to Ethiopia, through the obedience of Philip right

and through the miracle and the work of the Holy Spirit.

Philip preached the Gospel to Ethiopia through these Una.

Amen.

So there's missions right, going out of your comfort zone,

going beyond what is ordinary or what is usual to us.

And then we see, let's move on too more chapters

and we're gonna close, okay X Chapter nine. Now Saul

goes to Damascus. He had a letters in which he

wanted to bring back all the Christians. He was persecuting

the Christians. He wanted to bring them back to Jerusalem

and put them in jail, in prison. Right, And on

his journey there, Jesus meets with Saul. Okay, if you

read the scripture, you will see that the words are

in red. Okay, that means it was Jesus himself speaking

to Saul. So Jesus spoke to Saul and ask him,

why are you persecuting me? And basically, long story short,

saula steps Christ. He goes into the Mescus in which

God had called Annaius to go and minister to Saul.

Okay, So long story, short time.

If you read the scripture right, you will find that

Anonius knew about Saul.

Right. Anonaius was a believer. He was very close to

the Lord.

God had asked anon Naius to go to this place

called Straight Street to meet Saul and to pray for Saul.

And you can see Anonius' response. It's very amazing. He

actually didn't want to, right, he asked, He asked God, God,

Saul had come to persecure the Christians, and you are

sending me to him. Of course, God had to do

a work in anonius life.

Right.

And when Anonaius came to meet Saul. The first thing

he said to Saw was this, brother Saul. Verse seventeen.

Anonius went his way and entered his house, and laying

his hands on him, he said, brother Saul, the Lord

Jesus who appeared to you on the road as you came,

has sent me that you may receive your side and

be filled with the Holy Spirit.

Friends.

At that moment, even Anonius, who didn't go very far

I think was nearby his country, also did missions. Think

about it. He went to a person that was going

to kill him, was going to reject him. But the

first word that came up from his mouth was brother, Saw.

What a transformation isn't it? Come to think of it? Missions?

Does that to be far?

We can do missions here, even in Malaysia. Even if

he traveled to Pahang to Joho to East Malaysia, that

could also be part of missions and men. In fact,

our missions field can also be our marketplace, our schools,

our campuses, wherever we are called, as long as you're

going out of a comfort zone and you're reaching out

to someone who is different frost culture.

Right.

So Anonaius here had a moment in which he experienced missions,

even though it was very near because he had to

reach out to a person totally I would say undeserving

because he was killing Christians. But yet he did it

because God had did a transformation in Anonius's heart. And

so we can see through the scattering of the believers,

through the obedience of the disciples, starting with with Peter

and John, with Stephen, with Philip, and now eventually with Saul,

we can see that the Gospel began to reach out

further beyond Judea, beyond Samaria, and eventually to the ends

of the earth. And now I'm going to close as

I as I bring to the last person, which is Peter.

He went now to the Gentiles in Act chapter ten.

Now Peter is.

Uh In.

Actually he went over to uh Sir Siria. Yes, there

was a certain man in so Sairia. His name was Cornelius.

He was a centurion that was called the Italian Regiment. Okay,

so now we come to chapter ten of Ect chapter ten.

And as a man called Cornelius, Okay, Cornelius was a gentile. Okay,

let me very clear. Cornelius was a gentile. And Peter

right being nearby. He he was at Jopa uh and

he had a he had a vision. Okay, if you

read the scriptures in Act chapter ten, verse nine, Okay,

Peter has a vision. In the vision, he sees heaven opened,

and and and a great sheep right coming down from heaven.

And there were many all kinds of four footed animals

in the in the in.

The sheep right.

And basically a voice from heaven said to him, rise, Peter,

kill and eat. In fact, it was the voice of Jesus,

because my Bible is written in rad Okay, wries Peter,

kill and eat. And Peter said, no, Lord, for I

have never eaten anything common or unclean verse fifteen. And

a voice spoke to him again the second time, saying,

what God has cleansed, you must not call common. This

was done three times, and the object was taken up

into heaven again. So what happened was that God had

to break Peter's mindset. Right, he said that Lord, I

would never take this food which unclean. But the Lord

had to break his mindset first. Why because he was

about to minister to a gentile, which is Cornelius and

his household. So Peter was about to minister to gentiles,

which was very uncommon, and God had to break his

mindset first. So friends, when you go for missions, God

first has to break our mindsets. If you're still stuck

with our old mindset, our always, it's going to be

very difficult for us to go on missions. So God

prepared Peter in a vision three times to tell him

not to treat what is unclean that God has made clean.

And if you read the story of Conress, very interesting,

but I can't go to you because of time.

I'll just read worse forty four.

While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit

fell upon those who heard the word, and those of

the Second Sessions who believed were astonished. Basically, Peter went

with a few other believers with him.

They were all shocked.

They couldn't believe it right because the gift of the

Holy Spirit had been pought out to the gentiles also,

for they heard them speak with tongues and magnify God.

Then Peter answered, can anyone forbid water that these should

not be baptized who have been, who have received the

Holy Spirit just as we have. And he commanded them

to be baptized in the name of the Lord. And

they asked them to stay a few days Praise the Lord.

So now the Gentiles had received the Word, they were

baptized with the Holy Spirit and baptized with water. In fact,

the Holy Spirit was so eager to baptize them Peter

had not even finished his message, had not even finished

the message. The Holy Spirit. It came round, and they

were baptized by the wh this spirit. That is how

much God has a heart for the nations. A man

has heard for the nations. And you know, I want

to share with us that even as a close Revelations

Chapter nine seven, verse nine to ten. You know in

heaven all the nations will be represented and worshiping him,

or he says, after these things, I looked and behold

a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples,

and tongues.

Isn't that missions?

That's missions, my dear friends, of all nations, tribes, peoples,

and tongues, standing before the throne and before the lamb,

clothed with white robes, with palm bunches in their hands,

and crying up with a loud voice, saying, salvation belongs

to our God who sits on the throne and on

the lamb, and to the lamb, sorry, Amen. And so

God's heart is for the nations. His desire is that

none should perish, but all should come to the saving

grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ. I told you that

Missions is about his glory. It's about his glory feeling

the entire earth, every corner of the earth needs to

experience God's glory. They need to hear the gospel of

Jesus Christ.

Amen.

And so I want to say that Missions is not

it's not comfortable. It's not as easy as we ought

to take it as. It's challenging. In fact, let me

close with this story. How many of you are familiar

with his name called Brother and Jew. He has another

name for him, He's called He's called God's Smuggler. Have

you heard this before? God's Smuggler? Okay, very interesting story.

So he was a missionary basically, Brother and Drew basically

was a man who was in the army. His life

started out quite rough. Okay, he was in the army.

He was excited to be in the army. And you

one day he fired his first bullet and he killed

people in a war zone, right.

Uh.

And in his war zone, he was haunted by a

view of a mother and a child that died with

a single bullet. Okay, he was haunted by the side

and he couldn't he couldn't take it.

He wanted to die in a moment.

Okay, and very funny the story actually was Shore had

because he was hoping that enemy shook him right. But

unfortunately and fortunately he wasn't. He got shot in the anchor.

He fell down and he lived. He survived, and while

he was recovering, he read the scriptures right, and he

suddenly came to church. He started becoming a more committed

Christian in church, and he he said this simple prayer, Lord,

if you can show me the way, I will walk

in your waist, and then it got you to be

a devout Christian.

He left the army.

One day the Lord told him that he needed to

go in and cut wish the believers in the communist country

because they needed to be strengthened. So he went to

this one or one of this communist country, and he

realized that they were lacking bibles. Okay, in those days,

it was very difficult to own a Bible in a

communist country. And he realized they were lacking bibles. And

so when he when he when he went back to

his home country. He said, this prayer a lot for

every Bible that I can lay my hand on, I

want to bring it to these children in these communist countries.

And he was a mimicer. So he started his journey.

He made his first attempt of smuggling about I think

it was three hundred thousand, if I'm not wrong. Okay,

he smuggled a Bible, Bibles, and Christen tracks in his

blue walks wagon.

Okay, you can go with the story. It's very interesting. Okay.

He had a very small blue walks wagon which he drove.

He hit bibles, a lot of it in his bags,

in his board, in his car.

Right.

And as he crossed the border, he prayed a prayer

which we now call as the smugglers prayer.

He prayed this.

His prayer ran like this, Lord, in my luggage, I

have scriptures that I want to bring to the children

across this border.

When you were on Earth, you made blind eyes. See.

Now I pray make seeing eyes blind. Do not let

the guards see what I'm about to bring. So I

kid you not. When he got down the car and

then said search his bags, they could not see the bibles,

many bibles who were in his car and he got

past the border. So he did it once twice, and

he continued to do it, and in fact, he lost

count of how many Bibles he smuggled. He said, he said,

I don't need to count. He said, God, it's a

perfect bookkeeper. I don't need to count.

You know. He lost count, but many believe you could.

He could have hit millions, right, And in the end

he started a mission organization called Open Doors.

You may have heard this before.

Open Doors and many other people actually followed his footsteps.

Right.

People will call him as an evangelic stuntman, but he said, no,

I'm just an ordinary man. Anyone can do what I do.

And so many were inspired by his stories. Many couples

and individuals also did the same thing that he did,

and believe it or not, none of them were caught.

None.

Millions and millions or Bibles and Christian tracts were smuggled

into communist countries. And you can go and get the book.

I think the book is called God's Smuggler. Okay, of

this guy who was just obedient to the call of

God and just suffice to tell us that somebody had

to pay the price, and man, somebody had to pay

the pries to bring God's word to the ends of

the earth. And then somebody paid the price to bring

the gospel to Asia, to Malaysia, West and East Malaysia.

Somebody had to pay the price to bring the gospel

into China, into all every other country you can name it, right,

somebody had to pay the price. And I pray at

you and I today we wouldn't get too comfortable in

our seats, just like the disciples Jusum was very comfortable, right,

Thousands were being safe. In fact, tens of thousands multiplication greatly.

But God was not done with them. Because I really

believed that Christ didn't come to the cost to die

for us. Today we will leave a comfortable life. He

didn't just die for us, say will live a comfortable

life for ourselves. In fact, every time you take convenion,

did you know that we are actually joined as and

partaking of the suffering of Christ. It is right, so

we are partnering with Christ. Even Christ who came to

this earth didn't live a comfortable.

Life, you know.

It was he was a servant king. He didn't come

to be serf, but he came to self a man.

When to invite the band even as I as I close,

and so I pray that you and I today will

catch just a glimpse of the heart of missions.

I told you that it's.

All about the glory of the Lord, feeling the entire

earth as the waters cover the sea. I told you

that it's about it's about people, it's about nations, it's

about going cross culture to reach out to those who

have not heard of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And

if you read the entire Book of Acts, you will

know that the Holy Spirit was very, very active and

very much involved.

So I don't want to discount that. Right.

It takes us to be available, and with the power

of the Holy Spirit and the help of the Holy Spirit,

he will make all things possible. And it's the power

of the Holy Spirit that changes lives, that transforms lives.

You and I just got to be obedient and ready

to answer the call. And so I want to encourage us.

You know, even as his missions emphasis man, we have

many outreaches here and extra many and I'm very glad

that many of you have been to our local outage,

at least our community in dh gyve Uh. You know,

even as we reach out to the less fortunate. Uh

you know, I just remember doing Christmas or this thing

called a Christmas chair, right, every homes will go to

different orphanagers or houses to sing Christmas cares. We give

them I don't know what else UH gives. You know,

we share the Gospel with them, We treat them food,

all kinds. You know, I would encourage each and everyone

of us to be part of our local our just

not just locally, but also those that are further away.

You know it's not going to be easy, but I

want to encourage you when you go for a missions trip.

Often times we go there to bless somebody, but I

can assure you will come back more blessed than you

when for the trip, because when we really realize how

much or how little others have, we begin to appreciate

how much we actually have. And if you're still a student,

I encourage you to go go for a mission ship.

I find that it was much easier to go when

I was a student than working it out today because

of schedule we work and whatnot. But no excuse siting.

I thought my wife, I think we should go for

a mission ship again. I can't remember the last time

I went. I think it was a couple of years back.

In fact, she was joke with me sometimes that coming

to so Mini's few s like missions already. Every every

week we pack our bags, you ever one half hours?

You know.

Uh yeah, it's tough. It's tough, you know, but we

we love to do what we do. God gets all

the glory. It's about people. We love people. We love

doing what we do. We are called to reach people.

Amen.

And I pray you will join us and partner with

us with extras to reach and to seek and save

the loss.

Amen.

And if you ever want to go to mission ship,

and you know, maybe you're struggling financially or any other way,

just let us know you trying to make make ends meet,

find a way to have your sponsored to go for

a mission ship or something like that.

I think it's possible, it's possible.

We have actually, you know, put some money together and

send some of our partners missionship before because I really

want it to go. And somebody's missions ships are expensive,

you know, especially the overseas Onana, like a couple of hundreds,

because you need to pay for thousands or so a

thousands over maybe yeah, okay, maybe you can start going

to somewhere near the We didn't uh we did in Malaysia,

you know. And I just want to encourage you to

go for a mission strip and to bless someone out there. Amen,

Because God has blessed us, and when we are blessed,

we are called to be a blessing to those around us.

Amen.

I hope that you are encouraged and just blessed by

these message about missions. We see in the whole Book

of Acts, from chapter one already chapter ten, that missions

was truly on God's heart.

It was his heartbeat. You know.

They were never men to stay in Jerusalem all the time.

God had to shake them and send them out so

that the world could be rich. And eventually you and

I are sitting here today only because someone had to

pay the price. Someone paid the price to bring the

Gospel to us.

Amen. So we are grateful. We are eternally grateful.

We hope you've been blessed by this message. For more

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ahead for you. God bless