Our Greatest Cause | Pr Steven Soon

You're listening to a message to go from acts church. We hope this message

will light up your day today. I'm gonna talk to you about the greatest

cause that the Lord has given us, and we're gonna dive in deep in

a bit. The first point I want to share with you, guys is

this, we have an assignment. Tell your neighbor you have an assignment.

Okay, Well it sounds you, guys sound very worried when you tell your

neighbor you have an assignment. Okay, tell your other neighbor, I have

an assignment. Too easier to say, right, come back to telling people,

Yeah, assignment, for some reason has become us so like a bad

word. Okay. Can students you think about assignment, You're like, oh,

here we go again. It's not a bad way, I promise you.

Today we're gonna learn that the assignment that law has given us, it's

not a bad one. It's a good one, all right. I just

want to start off this point by saying this, Since the beginning of time,

God has always given man assignments. Let's look at scripture Genesis oney seven

to twenty eight. So God created man in his own image, in the

image of God, he created him male and female gender. Gonna put it

there all right? Then God bless them, and God said to them,

be fruitful and multiply feel the earth and subdue it. Have dominion over the

fish of the sea, over the bursts of the air, and over every

living thing that moves on the earth. Do you see an assignment there?

Genesis one, Genesis two, verse fifteen. Then the Lord God took the

man and put him in the garden of Eden. Two pan and keep it.

Do you see the assignment? Genesis two, nineteen four verses later,

out of the ground, the Lord God formed every beast of the field and

every bird of the air, and brought them to Adam to see what he

would call him. And whatever Adam called each living creature, that was his

name. Do you see his assignment? When God created Adam and Eve and

the garden of Eden. Yes, there was this amazing enjoyment of communion with

God. Right, God was walking in the garden. He would walk in

the garden of Eden. It's amazing, amazing, Uh, you know,

a fellowship with God enjoying every fruit except that one fruit that Adam and Eve

went to take it, and God said no, But they get to enjoy

everything. But at the same time it was just it wasn't just pure enjoyment.

There was an assignment. But can I also say this the enjoy the

assignment was also very enjoyable. I'm pretty sure Adam was having a ball of

the time naming the animals. This one feels like a graph. Yes,

this one. I won't give you a complicated name, so people have a

hard time spelling and pronouncing hippopotamus. Of course it was an English right,

But I'm pretty sure Adam had a good time fulfilling his assignment. Now Adam

knew his assignment. The question I have to all of us is do you

know yours? We're going to point number two? What is the assignment?

The theme for our church this year is that all may know evangelistic. It's

about evangelism. It's about sharing the Gospel to all every tribe. Every time

we praise God that X brick Fields was planted. You know why they're reaching

the deaf community. It's the story of how we have a deaf community in

ex church. It started with two or three people coming to I believe it

was X men dream Am or it always X Subannai identity I can't remember which

one first started with that, and we realized, okay, there's a need.

Let's maybe get people to learn the language, the sign language, so

that they can also interpret it for the deaf community. And then from three

we realize that, hey, this is also a people group, a language

group. Every tribe every time right shall bow to the name of Jesus.

So this is one tribe, one time, one people group. And in

church we said, you know what, let's let's help them. Let's help

them to be able to assimilate into our community. From three group to twenty

over and span off a few years and today, two weeks ago, I

believe we planted the first deaf community church in Malaysia. Praise God. Is

really glory to God, and really we praise God that we have such growth

people that we are able to reach, right, And why I share this

is I want to say that all of us actually have an assignment and we

all know this, and it's tied to that all may know it's tied to

do you guys know the vision of ex church? Do you know the verse

the scripture that we use for our vision. Anybody the leaders can shout it

up. Yeah, Hypercook two fourteen. All right to see the knowledge of

the glory of God, feel the earth as the water covers the sea,

that all may know. All right, that is our vision and for our

theme for this year is really we want to reach out to as many people

as we can, and of course in the coming days as well. Now

this is also tied to our we talked about vision, we talk about theme.

This is the mission of ex Church Matthew twenty eighth, nineteen to twenty.

Now every organization will have the vision the mission statement. This is the

mission statement for ex Church. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations,

baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of

the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey every everything I have commanded you,

and Shirley, I'm with you always to the very end of age great

commission. If you guys don't know what's your assignment, tada, this is

our assignment Act sixteen twenty six. Sorry, wrong verse, my bad,

first bitter two nine. But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthuit,

a holy nation, God's special possession that you may declare the praises of

Him who call you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Now chosen people,

royal Priesthuit priests have responsibilities, right, they have assignments. Right.

They were to bring before God the sins of man and then offer offerings.

This was in an old testament. But thank God, by his grace,

Jesus came and he died for all see all sin, once and for all.

So we don't have to be killing cows right here and get our hands

bloody. But Jesus died. He did it for all of us, once

and for all. And you know, the next part that was highlighted is

this that you may declare the praises of Him who call you declared to whom?

Think about it, Read it a little bit. You are chosen people.

All of us are chosen people. Royal pursuit. We are all children

of God, God's special possession, and we are to declare the praises of

him. But to who? And he guesses, Okay, I have you

guys out this one to those who have not known him yet, because we

already know him, right, But we are to declare praises of him to

people around us. Ephesians do ten, for we are God's handy work created

in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to

do. Now we're not created, we are not a safe by good works.

We all know this, right. We don't believe in karma. We

don't believe that the more good we do, the higher level of heaven we

will go right or we will be reincarnated into a favorable creature. We don't

believe in that. We believe that we are safe by grace by faith.

So by grace true faith. Sorry, we are safe by grace true faith.

That means it is not by our own effort. But when we are

saved, we are given an assignment good works. And what are the good

works for is to reach people, help people. God says, help the

widow, help the poor. There was an instruction by the Lord and through

that. Also, a very important thing that we do, besides the helping

on the physical, is to talk about the salvation story, to share the

Gospel to those around us, because what we experience in this world, as

much as is very real and painful. Circumstances are painful. There are people

what's really really suffering and dying. It's temporary. There will come a day

very soon that we will experience eternity, and that eternity is either eternity with

Christ or eternity without, and eternity without cries is pure darkness. Everything that

is that you, every good thing that you experience on earth, joy,

peace, hope, all this comes from the Lord. So if you'll ask

me, it was the definition of hell, remove all that eternity. Of

course, in the scripture there are other descriptions that are among hourly worms eating

your body constantly, right, fire pits of fiery pits of hell. But

for me, what's enough to scare me to share the Gospel to other people

is to know that they will have spent an eternity never experiencing joy, hope,

and peace, all love, because all these things only come from God,

and when there's an absence of God, all these things are not there.

I'm sharing this a little bit more so that it will sink into us

the importance of the Gospel and why is so important for us to reach our

loved ones. Can you imagine the people you love the most one day when

you go to heaven and you can't find them there, and for eternity,

you will never find them. Heavy I know, Bear with me but this

is the gospel truth. X one eight says this. Now we're talking about

what is the assignment. Yeah, but you will receive power when the Holy

Spirit comes to you. Hallelujah. This is what Jesus said. And you

will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judaea and Samaria and to the

nds of the earth. There is an assignment. We don't just receive the

Holy Spirit so we can feel good, slay by spirit. For that,

I feel peace, hallelujah, Amen, and then wake up and then life

goes on as usual. No, there's a reason why the Holy Spirit came.

Yes, it's to help us. It's to guide us because Jesus is

no longer here. He has went back to be with the Father. So

he sent the Holy Spirit that can be anywhere and everywhere. If Jesus was

still here, he is still he's one hundred percent God, but he's also

one hundred percent men. That means he's one person in a space. Can

you imagine if Jesus is still here and we all need his time, You

waitler, you wait, but thank God, you know God, Jesus,

you know, the Holy Trinity had a plan. Holy Spirit came that he

may be anywhere, everywhere or at once movie reference. Okay, and we

get to all enjoy the presence of Holy Spirit at the same time. But

it's not just for us. The Holy Spirit has come to equip us,

to empower us for our assignment. This is another ouch statement that's gonna come.

But bear with me. Many of us here have been fed fed very

well in our spiritual we've got and I can tell you in Malaysia we are

fed really well as Christians. The Bible is in our hands. We can

go to any church in every church. We have so many churches in Malaysia.

Resources are everywhere. There are even Christian bookstores for us to get resources.

We are fed really well in a spiritual work we've got. But do

you know that there is a purpose to why we are being fed? Do

you know when athletes when they eat, they don't just think about I enjoy

the food when athletes eat. I got a friends someone you know him,

Albert ln He is a curling of mine. He's a powerlifter. It's very

fit. He trains our community kids for powerlifting and actually one of them is

considered a national athlete in two years time. This is what we're doing in

our community right, we're training up children and youth. And he last year

he broke the national record as in Albert at forty one years old. Last

year, I believe or forty two, he broke the national record for his

weight category and age for powerlifting. It's crazy, you should go in here.

Sorry, he broke it. And now he's training to try to retain

the title. So he's going to try to break his own record because the

guy that he broke the record is coming back for him. He's training and

he's very mindful of what he eats. Every time he say, well,

bro, I cannot can eat spicy fooder brola, I can't really trainer very

act cannot very hard, very hard, feelvery so when he eats, when

he's feeding himself, he's thinking about his assignment. How many of us as

believers when we read the Bible, are we thinking about our assignment? When

we come to church and enjoy Wow one hotel? How many of us are

thinking about assignment? Because we are not being fed just so that we can

be fat. We're being fed so that we can work out, and we

are what is our workout? What is our exercise? What is our assignment,

that is to bring the Gospel out. The church is not a place

for just being disciples. The church is ascending place. You see that in

the Book of Acts Passer Matt has brought us through it. In post Mission

and Rejourney, go and listen to the mtgs. You see how the church

has always sent people out to plan more churches, to reach more people.

I'm going to move on now. There's one thing that I wrote here that

says this. We can only know what's our purpose in life if we understand

what it's our assignment. If you don't know your assignment, then you'll just

be wondering every day going through life, and at the end of your life

you just go like, actually, what have I done my whole life?

But when you know your assignment, you know that God has put you where

you are to be the sort and life. If you know that, like

Esther, you know Esther was put at such a time as this. You

know in the Book of Esther that she was supposed to deliver the people of

God. Esther had a lot of steakes. Okay, she could have been

pop off with the head, lost her head to the king. The king

could have killed her, but she knew her purpose, and therefore, when

she'd step up by faith, knowing her assignment, she delivered the people of

God. Now she then, of course, then knew her purpose. I

was born in such a time as this and put in such a position of

influence that I can have counsel with the King so that I may deliver the

people of God. Do we know our assignment? If you're struggling with your

purpose, find out what your assignment. In college, we do a lot

of assignments, right, but the assignments ultly ultimately fulfills the learning objectives of

the court. So if you don't know our assignment, of course we won't

fulfill the purpose of the cost. Am I right? So you've got to

know your assignment. Now I'm gonna share something that is very very recent revelation

to me. We're gonna look at X chapter sixteen and just bear with me.

We're just gonna read scripture to flip your Bibles, or if you don't

have one with you, you can you can look at the screen X chapter

sixteen. Sixteen stays this. Now, it happened as we went to prayer

that a certain slave girl possessed with a spirit of divination matters. Basically,

she just possessed who brought her master's much profit by fortune telling. This girl

followed Paul and us and cried out saying, these men are the servants of

the Most High God, who proclaimed to us the way of salvation. And

this she did for many days. But Paul greatly annoyed and said to the

spirit, I command you, in the name of Jesus Christ, to come

out of her. And it came out that very hour. But when her

master saw that their hope of profit was gone, they seized Paul and Silas

and dragged them into the marketplace to the authorities. And they brought them to

the magistrates and said, this man, being Jews, exceedingly troubled our city,

and they teach customs which are not lawful for us, being Romans,

to receive or observe. Then the multitude rolls up together against them, and

the magistrates that off their clothes soul drama, and commanded them to be bitten

with rods. And when they had laid many stripes on them, they threw

them into prison, commanding the jailer to keep them securely. Having received such

a charge, he put them into the inner prison the jailer. Did they

just put them in prison. He took the extra step to put them into

the inner prison and fasten their feet in the socks. What does that mean?

They basically it was shackled hands and feet. See, Paul insiders just

did a great and mighty act. They delivered a girl that was possessed.

But what happened to them? They were thrown into not just the prison,

but the inner prison like the worst criminals for doing a good thing. The

man just can't imagine. You think for a moment, if you're Paul,

or if you're a good thing at your Paula or something. If you're Paul

or Silas, you just delivered a girl. Not just the masters were angry

at you. They brought you to the court. The government even stood against

you for doing the right thing, and you were tossed into prison. If

you were then what would be your response, be honest, just take a

moment to reflect. I would be excuse my friend, so pissed. I

went out of the way to do this, deliver this girl. And not

just the government, not you. Basically, the powers of the time.

You didn't not just you didn't protect me. You further incriminate me and threw

me into prison. What would have been your response? Let's look at Paul

and Silus's response, which we all know x sixteen twenty five. But at

midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing themes to God, and the

prisoners were listening to them. In the midst of such unfair judgment over their

act of kindness, Paul and Silas chose to praise God. What would have

been our response, Be honest, think about your current circumstances, whatever difficulty

that you're going to do. What have your responses been reflect don't worry.

It ends in the good news later, all right? See Poor and silence.

They chose to praise God. They were not shaken by their circumstances.

Do you know why they knew their assignment? They knew that that was of

God's heart for them to do what they needed to do, and ef they

were sent to prison, prison, so be it. It's part of the

assignment. X sixteen twenty six. Suddenly there was a great earthquake so that

the foundations of the prison were shaken. Immediately, all the doors were opened

and everyone's chains were loosed. If you were poor and Silast. In that

moment, you just again background of being doing wise right, being treated unfairly

for doing wise right, thrown in to the inner prison. You were praising

God, God, we believe in you, You will deliver us, and

then boom, earthquake, the doors opened. What will you do, Radna?

Right, you will probably right out saying thank you God, you've heard

our praises in our prayer, Thanks for releasing us. But do you know

what was poor? In Silust's response, they stayed who in their right mind

would stay. But you're gonna realize in a bit why they stayed. They

knew their assignment at sixteen twenty seven to thirty four, says this, and

the keeper of the prison, awaken from sleep and seeing the prison doors open,

supposing that the prisoners had fled, drew his sword and was about to

kill himself. Now contact during back in the day, killing yourself as a

Roman serve or soldier is normal, all right, it's a it's a practice

that they do much better this than dishonor to me and my family, And

probably if the prisoners have all been let loose, he and the family will

possibly be killer. I'm just imagining based on the Roman laws of the time,

So he was radio to kill himself. Maybe he was thinking, if

I kill myself, there will be honor, and then the Roman empiotis span

my family. Maybe I don't know and never ad But Paul called with a

loud voice, saying, do yourself no harm, for we are all here.

We're gonna take a moment to think for a bit. How would Paul

and Silence know that the guy is gonna kill himself? They stayed where they

are. They would have probably taught true what would have happened now that the

doors are open. They weren't thinking about themselves anymore? Man, What would

happen to the guy that true us into prison? Why would they think that

way? What led them to think like that? They knew they had an

assignment. They knew that they lived not for themselves. They knew they have

been assigned to share the gospel far and wide. So in every circumstances that

they were in, that was their mindset. We're gonna continue verse twenty nine.

How I know that Paul and Silas weren't in the same space as the

jailer is said here It said here that he called for the light, ran

in, ran in where probably the Josella right and fell down trembling before Paul

and Silas, and he brought them out and said, sir, what must

I do to be safe? Maybe I'm just imagining he's thinking about being safe

physically. What should I do that the Roman Empire will not punish me?

Right? But then you know what Paul and Silas said. They said,

believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and

your household. Again, I'm gonna pause you for a moment. These are

people that are just not just thrown into prison. They were beaten, They

were beaten out of their minds and thrown into prison. Yet here they are

telling the person, the very person that didn't just put them in prison,

this guy extrasamore. Throw them into the inner prison, lock them up,

shackle their feet. And now here's Paul and Silence telling this same guy believe

in the Lord Jesus and you shall be saved. It's weird if you think

about it. This is not common human response. And then, of course

verse thirty afterwards, the diversity want to say. So they said, believe

on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, You and your

household. Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all

who were in his house, and he took them the same hour of the

night and washed their stripes. You see, he was still bleeding. He

was still bleeding from their stripes. Stripes. It's not like stripes on their

jail uniformer. They didn't have that back then. Now, not like today,

stripes of being beaten up. Wash their stripes, and immediately he and

all his family were baptized. Can you imagine pointsiters were probably like bending in

pain, baptizing them and painting a picture here the reality of what they were

doing. Now, when he had brought them into his house, he set

foot before them, and he rejoiced, having believed in God with all his

household. What poor and silence. It is unnatural. It was supernatural.

They knew their assignment. Therefore, such a miracle could happen the one that

persecuted them. Not only he got saved physically from death, but he was

safe for eternity, not just himself, his whole family. Again, when

the prison doors opened, many of us who have ran, If you're honest,

I would have been the first to run. And I look at the

jailer toilet for those that don't know, is basically French for it basically means

you know, I won't even bother you, right, thank God, I'd

be busy praising God for releasing me. But I can't imagine important silists did

that. Probably missed out on this whole assignment. The jailer would have killed

himself. We will know what would have happened to the family. They went

into christless eternity. Now poor and silasts knew their assignment. Do you know

yours? Where you are placed, your workplace, your university where you're studying.

Do you know that you have an assignment? Let's not go so far.

Your family? Do you know you have an assignment? Nothing is by

chance or coincidence, as much as we try to justify it that way,

but God never works that way. God is a god of order. Everything

has his reason and purpose. You are placed where you're at, no matter

in what circle you're in, for a reason. If you are placed as

the only Christian in one circle of friends, do you think that's by chance?

No, it's not my chance. I'm gonna end very soon with a

few testimonies, hopes that you would encourage you to carry out your assignment.

I'm not saying when I share this testimony, I hope that you don't see

me as someone who has had it or No. I'm still learning very much.

Their days where God challenges me, I'm like, God, do I

really have to do that? Can't other people do it? Can't you just

appear in the person's dreams and say you are God? You have done that

for other people. I am still learning. I'm still very much many times

that God asked me to reach to someone can tell you to share godpel I

still tremble, I still freak out. I will share a story later of

a recent freak out that I had when God asked me to do something.

But I'm gonna go a little bit back. I have a few stories.

So about nine years ago, I went to God called me to be to

become a treatment mission on this ship called Logos Home. At that time,

of course, I was still I just want to share a little bit of

background. I was already starting to stray from God. I was getting very

busy at the time I was. I was nineteen years old, nineteen twenty

twenty years old. I already had a freelance business going on. So I

was signing up signing projects, and I was getting ready for my graduation,

for my diploma and all that. And then but then I was very bad.

Lad, this is very bad to learn from me. I was starting

to take up projects on Sundays. So I started skeeping church and I was

a youth leader back then because at that time I felt because I was in

videography, all the events happened when weekend money demna right, so sign contract

here and there are and then started skipping church. I remember one day my

pastor at that time called me, Steven, I want you to come to

my office. I knew what was coming. I knew what was coming.

I went, and the Passa just ooka me and at that time also just

a little bit of contact. I was going through depression as well. There

were things that happened in my life and I was struggling, uh and Passa

just set me down and very merciful and loving eyes. He looked at me

without judgement and say, Stephen, whatever you're doing, you have to stop.

If not, you're going to tumble further and further away from God.

But I remember at that time I just saw him first. I really signed

all the contracts. I have all the things planned out. I can't back

out. Now. It's like a snowball that keeps snowballing and I couldn't stop

it anymore. He has gotten too big. I had a lot of projects

and all that, but I knew he was right. I knew he was

right. So I just want to share a bit that was the context of

what I was going through. I was not very Christian at that time.

I was keeping church, going through depression, sort of like isolating myself from

other people. And then God called me one day, say uh, Stephen.

And at that time Logosop came. This was twenty faith them. Logosop

came to Binang. I volunteered for two weeks because I finished my studies.

I thought, okay, I'll go. I have a little bit of fun.

Volunteered on board for two weeks and then that was when God told me.

One night, I said something brewing in my heart. So one night

I just went on my fear. I say, God, was it that

you're trying to tell me? And I say, remember the song that I

was worshiping to h It was Karna Salid Moo. And when I was worshiping

to that, I had a burning bush moment you guys know a burning bush

moment and old test Men where God appeared. I felt God walking into my

room. It was crazy. That was the only time it happened for two

days. That was the only two times I ever experienced something like this where

I actually sense God walking into my room. And many years say that I

realized, actually it was that moment I was baptized by the Holy Spirit in

my own room. I had the baptism of the Holy Spirit. God ministered

to me. It was then that God told me, I want you to

go logos hope for three months, drop everything, and it's gonna happen next

month. I'm like, God, you gotta be kidding me. Next month,

God say, yes, I want you to drop everything. Go.

I say, God, what about my graduation? Drop it? What about

all my projects? Drop them? What about my parents? This you'll freak

them out? Leave them for three months? So I'm like, okay.

I knew it was of the Lord. I don't know what he was gonna

do, but I sensed in my heart peace. Even though there was so

many questions. I went. I remember, I went to tell my my

parents. I went to the room. I'm like something I need to tell

you. But listen first. Listen first, don't freak out. Listen first,

God is asking me to go surf in logos hope for three months.

They start like, what is going on with outside? When next month?

Next month? Where is the ship sailing to Africa? That was what my

mom the ah, the loudest one from my mom. They were freaking out

and my dad at that time say no. He said, hey, you

know, just finish a degree first. I was supposed to start my studies

in January, and if I would go to that program, I have to

delay my studies. Okay, there's a full long testimony on that which I'm

not going to share, but basically, yes, all things. I told

my dad, Hey, you know, before you say no, why not

you pray first? Pray with me. And the next day my dad actually

heard from the lot and say go So long story shot got true. God,

I managed to raise in our funds. I didn't have to pay a

single sand. I managed race up eighteen thousand to go for the trip in

three weeks. So there's you know, it's got Half of them came from

people I don't know. Actually it was God and it went Okay, So

there was just a little bit of context. Why I share all that later,

I'll tell you why. In the background, but I was on board

the ship and you can see the first picture. So one of the projects

that that I got to be on is we actually have sort of like ministry

days, we have day jobs. I was a cook on the ship.

I have a funny sorry, I almost blew up the kitchen. And in

a ship when it's sailing, when you blow up the kitchen, you know

what happens are it sinks, but I won't talk about that. But thank

god it did not blow up. But I was a cook on the on

the ship. That is what we do. We do a lot of ministry

time as well, but we have certain days that we actually go out for

ministry on the field. Right. So I received an assignment to lead a

team, which in itself is funny because they usually don't give short term people

the treat month people to be team leaders. You put me, I'm like,

oh, God, like why but never right? And the assignment was

you know, I remember did to day the briefer the paper it says fun

day at prison tamataf Fun and prison don't go together. Guys. But there

was a brief and basically the bridges say, go and organize a fun program

for the prisoners, like what are we going to do? Blow balloons for

them, dance with them? What are we going to do? So me

and my team bang are like, what are we going to do? We

plan, but in our heart we have a feeling that it probably won't go

as planned. True enough, it didn't. We went. So we went

there. I was leading the team and as and there was a pasta there.

The pasta is here, this is the pasta. So I don't speak

their local language, so he translates English to their language. So what happened

basically was it was there were eight hundred men. This is the men prison.

They were separated. Okay, so men they were basically there. Many

of them were thieves, many of them murderers. Okay, so there was

a context. And then suddenly a little bit into the program, Holy Spirit

prompted me, Steven, go and share your testimony, which one the one

you get bully? On God? These people kill people. When you want

me to share about Bully, how would they connect? They probably laugh and

mela eh. But holiday Spirit obelo that I asked my team. I just

felt prompting to go and share testimony. What do you guys think, Yeah,

we confirm your prompting. I went up. I went up. I

had a guitar that I don't know. I probably did a song. I

can't remember much, but but I shared my my testimony about me being bully

and all that and how God delivered me. And at the end of it,

I thought, that's it, right, okay Dan, And then the

Holy Spirit prompted me do the salvation call. Yeah. Context, I've never

done a salvation call my whole life at that point, never done it before.

No script in my head, like how we have like this right?

Nothing? You say, give them a chance to accept Jesus God. Okay,

you say, I obey. So I did it. I did a

salvation call, and I say it as simple as if you would like to

accept Jesus into your heart, repeat after me, and you're gonna see all

their hairs about, eyes closed. Next picture they were praying. This is

first row. Next picture there are people in tears. Any other picture of

saying no more. Okay. What happened was all eight hundred responded to the

salvation prayer that day. It's not me I don't think it's my story,

neither bullying, but God came true. Sometimes God may give us assignments that

may be too big for us. It may sound impossible, but as we

obey, you'll see amazing things happen. Today I get to have a story

ready to tell the eight hundred prisoners from Madagascar accept the Christ that day.

It's remembering. I still get goosebumps at times, and sometimes I still think

that really happened. I have to look back at the pictures to remind myself

it really did happen. Next picture, this guy is James. This is

in Tanzania. So I a few of us decided that during our three days

of days, people usually go and travel, go and explore the city.

But we have decided to take those days to go and pray on the streets

and share the gospel on the streets street evangelism. I came across this guy.

The story is, I came across James, and I was saying that,

you know, getting to know him. His face was very is like

very very I was He's grumpyla throughout I talked to him. Actually, at

first I didn't want to approach him one because his face so grumpy. But

again he spree prompted me go go and talk to Okay, law, you

say, I obey Law. I went talk to him and I get to

know him a little bit and I say, hey, is there anything I

can you know? Are you feeling anything? I want to pray for healing?

I just send a sense of prompting say yeah, I actually have a

back pain that I shared to the x Chemeras conference. I say one injection

per week. Actually no, I ran back to my notes. It was

due to three injections per week for his back. He was in much pain.

My guest now is probably a fracturaler, probably a fracture. He needed

to go for injections. And he say, I have no money for the

animal. And I just thought, you can I pray for you? And

it's illegal. No, no, no, no, no, I don't

believe in that. I'm like, no, I just want to bless you.

Allow me to pray, And he said, okay, fine, So

I prayed. I pray God heal his back, heal him. You know,

come to I have a video of it, but I'm not showing it

today of me praying and then his response after so after finished praying a man

allelujah. I asked him, how's your back? Is that still pain?

No more? But he keeps shaking, he said, so. I'm like,

why is he shaking? He said so, I'm like, really,

no pain, yeah, no pain, but I don't believe. All right,

you say no pain, but you say you don't believe. But is

your body? But he said no, no, no, no no no

nobody. I say it's God Jesus healed you. No no, no,

no, no no. And he went away. So I'm like, okay,

yeah, God didn't praying for other people. Ten minutes later he came

back. He says, Steve, and I have something to tell you.

I used to be a Christian, but after this happened, I prayed for

many times God didn't heal me. So I at that time, for the

longestar, I felt God doesn't really exist. And then God sent you to

pray for me. And now I realized it was God that healed me.

You know what happened on the spot, He said, I want to join

you to go and share the gospel to people. He followed us the whole

way and again Tanzania, I don't speak their language. It was Shauna.

I believe. Uh, he became our translator. So what we did was

we basically wrote some keywords like what is pain, what is prayer? And

then Jesus in their language, and then we just use that paper pain pain

anywhere pain, So we just point out at sign language can't speak man.

But then he became our translator. Prayer answered, and we are around praying.

He even brought us to Crucy, said I know there's a market that

has a lot of people that are crippled. I'll bring you there and many

people got healed there. You never know what a step of obedience will do

when you carry out your assignment. A revival started in this guy and he

spread to the city that day. That is in terms of going on missions.

So even I'm not gone to missions that encourage you, I'm gonna plug

this in, go for missions. And for those that recently went for the

first time, I asked them, amenda, you know grace of joining als.

Trisha, Mama Joe was with first st the me that experience right,

Okay, next one, if you're feeling mission is a bit bigger, let's

talk about I'm going to share a testimony about me during my university years okay,

very much time. I'm going to try to wrap it up. I'm

gonna cut this shot. I can't make it as entertaining. Okay. So

this one was in twenty seventeen. It was a short film assignment. We

were shooting. It was three days too night shoot. We were all tired.

This was on Ess two more. This is recorded, but I don't

think the cops will come after me. We went up illegally to shoot there.

It was abandoned, but we went up while we were shooting. We're

all tired against sixteen seventeen hour shoots for the past two days. We're all

tired. And this was gonna wrap up the whole movie, really the whole

shoot of the short film. So we were shooting. It was the most

intense emotional scene. And then suddenly thunder and lightning came rolling in and long

story shot it rainy part. We had to pack the equipment. I was

frustrated. I was angry. I'm like, man, everyone's tired. If

we delay the shoot, it means more money, more time needed. We

need to delay our production schedule. And then that guy second from the right,

his name is Satish good friend now Christian. He came up to me

pro good prayer. I was the only Christian good prayer. Okay, can't

say no, I'm a Christian, can't say noing front of them. But

but yes, I it was a light black moment. I should pray.

Why didn't I think about it? Instead of just complaining and being frustrated,

I went to a corner the staircase and pray. I say, God,

I got two prayers. One stop the rain makes sense, right, makes

sense. The second one didn't make sense. Let the dark clouds remain.

You know why because we shot in the previous shot already dark clouds. Man

cannot next shot sunny right, same scene, Ma, you're all there.

We will right complain about the movie, right if you see something like this.

So I said, God cannot have to have dark cloud still, and

I remember Elijah. God, if Elijah can so pattern right fight against the

professor Boo and poor Waters more and show them that you're a real God and

the okay, I won't go to the sorry you guys, go read your

Bible. So basically Elijah reaction. And then basically it was proven that the

God of Elijah is the one true Gola not Bawla. All right, So

I say, if you can do that for Elijah, you can do it

for me. To everybody know that I came to pray. Everyone knew I

came to pray God. I cannot walk out of year without a miracle.

They need to know that you are real. And she just named I pray

Amen Low. And before I look out, the rain stopped. I stood

up, look outside. The dark clouds were still there, and then on

cue my cruse shouted, Steven, we are good to roll. Now went

up. Everyone was around the staircase. I kid you not, when I

walked out, they will look at me like this. And one person actually

whispered he went to pray right many years later, about two years ago.

The one pointing at the clouds, he probably he was the clothes still there.

His name is Chuck, very good friend of mine. He started his

own production company studio. I went to visit his his space just to say

hi to him. When I walk in, he told all his stuff.

He said, guys, this is the fella they prayed and his godter stop

the rain and then control the weather for him. This guy shared the gospel

for me. Friends. He's not even a Christian. Until today he still

carries that story. He can't deny. Every single one of them can't deny

that that day Steven's God did something they couldn't deny. They can say there

may be other gods, but they can't deny the fact that that happened,

that a miracle happened. And why I share all this is this, Sometimes

sharing the gospel doesn't have to be too complicated. Just leave out your faith.

Pray sometimes we pray, say grace for meal. We also pis.

I sit on the table. Friends are not Christian. We we we we

go tie our shoelace. I say Jesus name. We pray a man and

come out. Come on. You don't have to do that. Pray boy,

what is there to be ashamed of? And then you will be surprised

to have conversations will come out. I have a friend that just because I

just pray on me right for meal, one day you can Stephen. I

want to tell you that you're a good man. What do you mean?

I see how you pray before you start eating. Because of that, I

know you're a good man. I still don't know the correlation, but conversation.

Leave out your faith. One last testimony and we're close. This is

the recent one. I'm gonna share a bit on this about uh three weeks,

three weeks ago, two and a half or three weeks ago Good Friday

Service. Many of us were there. God put it into my heart,

say next week Saturday, go and share the gospel to your aunt's family contacts

my mom's side. This is my mom's side, my mom's side. Almost

all of them are not believers, only my mom and a cousin that came

to Christ during his high school year. All of the siblings, this family

is the most against Christianity. I know it. My parents told me about

it, and God said, I want you to go to their house share

the gospel. Oh my God, how? How? And so nam?

That was a week I was begging Benang. I was speaking in a camp.

So I said, okay, God, if you ask me to do

it, I'll do it. You have that miraa. So I excuse myself.

In the afternoon of the camera they were playing games, so I say

I won't be there, and went to visit. My aunt went in and

guys, it's not English, it's not Mendarin. I have to do it.

Howking so High and shared my testimonies, and at first I was in

fair and traveling and I'm like, God, how do I do it?

I don't know how to do it? It's so scary. Would they kick

me out of the house? Then, I don't know, I really don't

know. I shared my testimony one after the other, and they ask questions,

what this happened? Must be really a miracle day, Sir, my

cousin's sister. She is mentally and physically disabled, depression, severe depression,

and a lot of things are she there are a lot of things. She

turned to me in one moment, almost a moment of clarity in mine.

She looked at me while we were having a conversation and she said, and

then I ask translation, my condition, how do I solve I've never heard

her talk by that. She turned to me, eyes lock date onto my

eyes, and she asked that question. And I said, you know,

every time I pray to my God, he listens. You can pray to

this God too, and he will listen. And then my aunts said and

then I'm like, okay, great, I share tessemonies, but that's not

the fool gospel. The fool gospel. I need to talk about salvation,

right, God, you got to open the door for me, and the

door came. My aunt and uncle said, hey, I think I know

why God answers your prayers. You're very faithful to your God, yourself,

judge Ah, and your good people are That's why Ha'm like, yes,

they're thinking they're talking about Karra. I tend to talk about the gospel.

So I came in and I shared the gospel and I say, you know,

all these things, I actually don't deserve it. It's not me.

It's not about how much would I do nothing, I do whatever deserve God

treating me this way. But because God loved me, because he's a good

God, good father. You know, that's why I'm able to be blessed.

I didn't get to share about the same part, which I hope the

next day I go back. I would love to share with them. But

I shared that, and after that my aunt was like, hey, let's

go for tea. I think from me thinking they'll kick me out of the

house to them not inviting me out for another round for tea. So the

aunt and my cousin brother went. Because my cousin's sister and the uncle is

not mobile, they can't really walk around much. When I have tea and

at that time, they were also saying. My aunt said, hey,

next time you prayer, pray for me now. She said that context.

This has only happened once before, which was last year when I went back

for my cousin's wedding in June, and I actually share about how God helped

my grandma's back not needing to go for surgery anymore. She also said,

uh, pray for me my mom. After that, when I told she

said, my mom said, she has never said that before. My biggest

regret at that time was not praying on the spot for her lot. So

I knew when the opportunity came, I cannot like go this opportunity. So

when she said that when we were at the market place we should see her,

God be damn. That's my cousin brother, that's my aunt. Trust

me. She was happy, she said, she's not smiling, she was

happy. She was really happy. We were eating and I told her this.

I said, I want to tell you the truth, and thee I

call her, I want to tell you the truth. The reason why I

came to visit you is because God asked me to full stop. God asked

me to come and visit your family today and to share this with you.

Just that you mentioned about praying. Do you know that it doesn't have to

be me praying. You can pray also, And on the spot, I

say, why not we pray together. They close their eyes about their heads

and we prayed for the whole family in the coptail. It may be something

small to some of you, but to me, it's a big deal because

they are very against the faith. I'm praying for their salvation. I went

back very happy, telling my parents. They were very surprised as well what

has transpired. And I did tell them drop my other visit share more.

I believe that salvation is near. On the way back, I got to

pass my cousin brother a starterpack. I brought back a starter back Mandin,

and because I knew I have an assignment I prepared, I passed it there.

I say, when you have time to read this, there's a Bible

inside. Also read it. And when I was dropping them off, I

just say thank you for hosting me, very kind of you. And then

my aunts said this, repeating it a few times. I'm so happy you

came. I'm so happy you came. Please come back again. If their

hearts were not solved, They probably would not have said them, thanks for

visiting, pay the care, but they say, please, please, please

come back again. I believe the sites of gospel have been sown into our

heart. Is there a loved one that you want to reach? Pray about

it, and when God puts it into your heart, act on, don't

delay, do it, and the Lord is with you. I go,

not knowing what to say, and then the Holy Spirit allowed a two hour

conversation to just flow. That's my encouragement to you. Closing, just two

scriptures, romans stand fourteen or fifteen? How then can they call on the

one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one

of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching

to them? How can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is

written? How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news? God

has sent you guys, friends? How are they to go turn to God?

If we don't go and preach. Preaching does not happen just on the

pulpit. Preaching happens at home. Preaching happens when you're with your friends.

Preaching happens in your campuses, in your workplace. It's not on Sundays only.

Most of it should happen from Monday to Saturday. Matthew five fourteen to

sixties. You are the light of the world. A city that sat on

a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it

on the basket, but on a lamb stand. But it gives light to

all who are in the house. That your lights so shine before man,

so they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. Go

and make disciples of all nations. If nations are too big for you,

go and make disciples in your family. Go and make disciples in your work

place, in your class. Go ah and make disciples to the grab driver

that you are stuck with for one hour because of the jam. Go ah

and make disciples to the copitium that you keep frequent. Do you get to

know the copitium and this name copia on girl's name, get to know them.

You are on an assignment. I pray that from today onwards we will

look at life differently. There's a different perspective. There's a different layer to

our purpose in life. Besides earning money, keeping our family. Well,

there's a divine purpose to where God is placed here. We hope you've been

blessed by this message. For more information on our church, please visit as

church org. We are also active on Facebook and Instagram. We're believing that

this week is going to be a good week. I hit for you God,

bless O.