The Power of ONE | Pr Gloria Paul

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

will light up your day. I'm reading from the scriptures here Romans ten thirteen.

Thank you for Alicia and Tie for helping out with the slides. Okay,

So Romans ten thirteen, it says here everyone who calls on the name

of the Lord will be saved. But how can they call on him to

save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him

if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him

unless someone tells them? And how will anyone go and tell them without being

sent? That is why the scriptures say, how beautiful are the feed of

the messengers who bring good news? Amen? And as I was reading the

scripture, what strike me was that potion that says and how can they hear

about him unless someone tells them? It's a very simple fact, right,

You wouldn't know until I tell you, right, And that is what missions

is. At the end of the day. Sometimes we complicate or we think

that you have to be doing great things, but it's simple. It's actually

just telling, right, telling the other person about who God is. And

when we speak about the journey of salvation. Right, we all go through

that salvation journey. If you maybe came from a different faith and someone shad

to the gospel, usually it comes with someone who's been sent. Yeah,

someone's been sent. And then you preach. You preach the gospel, and

when you preach others here they hear the gospel, and when they hear the

gospel, they believe. And when they believe with all their hearts, they

call on the name of the Lot. Right. So there's this whole journey,

and in fact, I believe it continues like a cycle, because once

you call on the name of the Lord, you are then sent. You

preach, and then others catch it as well. Yeah, and so if

you look at the first and the second, it's more of as believers,

this is what we are called to do. We are sent, be it

sent for missions out to certain places, like some guys they put that we

had earlier, or it could be maybe sent into your communities, your families,

the communities that you're living in, right, it could be in the

different places that God has positioned you to be. Right, and when we

speak about preaching, it doesn't always just happen like this, like a pulpit

it could be like in smaller settings as well. Right, the hotel tune

seems to be alluded today, right, Okay, a little bit distracted with

that. Yeah, okay, So the second is pritch right, So it's

not about just being in a pulpit and preach. But it can be the

one to one converse zations that you have with someone, right. Or it

could also be just you know, you having a catch up with a friend

and you're saying it is what happened a testimony that you are sharing as well.

Yeah, So preaching the third, fourth, and fifth is something that

we can't quite control because it's a person's decision, right. The person here,

how they take the message is completely depending to that person, right.

And I think it's so important for us to be able to recognize when we

speak about missions or sharing the Gospel how important it is to call on the

name of the Lord when we do it. In fact, we can never

do any of this without God, right, So we can have a bit

of that control of saying, Okay, I want to be sent I want

to preach, but whether the person response is a whole different story, right,

And it's all about how God convicts their hearts. Yeah, but I

believe that that one and two is something that we can at least do and

leave the rest to God and allow him to minister and work in the hearts

of the person. And sometimes it doesn't just happen overnight, right, it

takes time. Like the Word of God says, sometimes you may be there

to water and then along the way another person comes in and then you see

the fruit's been bad. Yeah, and so it's in the hands of God.

But scent and preaching is our responsibility. So in verse fourteen, it

says, and how can they year about him unless someone tells them? And

the thing that got me thinking about this is that, you know, our

almighty God, I believe he could, you know, sometimes just go to

the person and say, I am the true God, right and just you

know, you have to believe in me. I'm sure he's able to do

that because he's great, right, He's mighty. But when we read the

scriptures time of the time, God always uses someone in the middle to bring

the gospel out. Do you notice. I mean, if you think about

your lives as well, maybe some of you might have had the encounter,

right you had it in a dream or you know, reading of a material

and you say, okay, I want to know who God is. Yeah,

but in most cases it's true someone you know, even if you're from

a Christian family, that would be the time when you are inspired, you're

encountered God, and then you grow and you do more for him. Yeah.

But it's interesting how God did not just want to just preach from above,

but he always sends another person to reach out to someone, right,

And that just simply shows us what's the plan of God, how he intends

missions to be. You know, how he always always focused on that one

even if you talk about from the Bible, from the book of Genesis,

right, he always reached out to that one person. From Abraham, you

had that one conversation with this one man, father of all generations, right,

and then he had that one conversation with Moses to deliver the Egyptians,

so that one, you know, and then time of the time is always

that one person. We had Joseph, right, and he had to minister

to that one person, and that one person reached out to nations or to

a community or two groups of people. Right. And that is how God

works. He chooses us to be his messages, and it means that if

we don't tell him, they won't hear. That is what the Word of

God tells, right, how would they hear if we don't tell them.

So we're going to study the Book of X today to understand what is the

importance of one okay, and how has God been intending it to be.

So, if you have your Bibles, you can turn with me to the

Book of X. Right. And as if you're familiar enough with the Book

of X, you will notice that this was the book where we see how

the Word of God, the Gospel, was spreading in different parts of the

world, okay, and how different ones caught the heart of doing missions.

But it was not just all the way missions and good news. But there

were those who were against the fatal so persecuting other believers. Yeah, so

we can see both sides of it, right, So we're gonna look at

three different characters, which should we don't usually talk about, Like usually we

refer to Moses, Joseph, right, all this what's called big names in

the Bible because they did great things. But at the same time, let's

not just belittle those names that could have been mentioned just once or twice in

the passage but there is a purpose, you know why God chose them.

So the first name that we're going to look at here is Stephen. Heard

of this name Stephen right in the Book of X. In fact, his

name was only appeared once and then he died. All right, he appeared

once and then he was town to debt. Okay, But what could we

learn about Stephen here? I mean he was known as a deacon. Okay,

he was serving in the church deacon in those days. It's a little

bit different. I know some churches now we have deacons as well, you

know where they look at the administration part of the church, right, But

back at those days, a deacon would be they're actively serving the people,

right, And so that was his role. And he was known as someone

who was very good with his with his words. Okay, he could speak,

it could preach. He knew the world. And so when we when

we look at the Book of X chapter seven, when you have the time,

you can read it. But this whole chapter here is a reflection of

what took place in the Old Testament. So he's he speaks. Let me

just read a portion here from the first part of a Book of X chapter

seven. Okay, it says, okay, then the high priests are Stephen,

are this accusation it's true? This was Steven's reply. Brothers and brothers

and fathers listened to me. Our glorious God appeared to our ancestor Abraham in

Mesot, Mesopotamia, before he settled in Haran. God told him, leave

your native land and your relatives, and come into the land that I will

show you. So Abraham left the land of the Chaldeans and lived in Haran

until his father died. Then God brought him here to the land where you

now leave. So when the high priests asked Stephen, okay, are this

accusation is true? What he was trying to do is he was just trying

to kind of debate and show that yes, because this is who God is,

who is the true God. He was trying to prove a point.

Okay. And so if you read on the whole chapter, you will see

that he talks about Moses and how the Egyptians were delivered. Right. It

goes on until the end of chapter seven. Okay, we won't be reading

it today, but you can read it in your own own time. So

goes on there. Now, let's look adverse fifty seven. Yeah, and

I mean, just to give you a little bit of context, this was

a time that was still unbelief among the churches. Okay, there were doors

who were yes, following, building the church, serving and then there are

doors who are still not believing. They're still waiting for the Messiah, but

they did not know that Jesus came, you know, you already saved the

loss. Yeah. So there was this whole dividing a point of view and

experience among the people. And so that is why we had these different names

like Steven and later when we look at ananyas all these different people who actually

stood up to speak up and share about who God is. Yeah. And

so then we have this character Saul. Okay, Saul was someone who was

also actively persecuting the church, Okay, and he knows that there is a

believer Okay. He was killing them or using his words. Yeah. So

he did very harsh things before he encountered God. And so this portion of

scripture we can see that they were trying to get the idea of who God

is, okay, but at the same time debating with the whole idea of

it. Yeah. So that is why inverse fifty seven. Okay, let's

look at Acts seven fifty seven. It says, then they put their hands

over their ears and began shouting. This was when after Stephen preached the gospel

to them. Yeah, they rushed at him and dragged him out of the

city and began to store him. Is accusers took off their courts and laid

them at the feet of a young man named Saul. As they stole him,

Stephen replied, Lord Jesus received my spirit. He fell to his knee

shouting, Lord, don't charge them with the sin. And with that he

died. Yeah, it's a pain painful death that he went through, right,

But let's look at that one portion that he says here in verse fifty

eight. Is accusers took off their courts and laid them at the feet of

a young man and named Saul's. We missed out this part of the portion.

We're so caught up with, like, oh, how come Stephen went

through this? But the thing is that he had to go through that whole

preaching of the word debating, and you know, the accusers was there to

put him down. But because he preached all this, the Word of God

tells that they actually put down their goats their quotes and laid it at the

feet of a young man named Saul. So this simply means that they were

beginning to embrace the teaching of Saul. They began to embrace whose soul is

in the picture, meaning he was a preacher, because he was preaching already

at this point. Yeah, and so it took Stephen in this one portion

of the chapter to preach boldly. But little did he know that his words

could actually change the world. Why do I say well, because then later

on Saul was actually used to reach out to the Jews. Right, God

used him to reach out to the Jews. And so this is a reminder

of the one how God used that one Stephen because of his boldness, because

he could speak up. And I can only imagine the kind of chaos could

have happened when he preached all this messages, the kind of people, the

looks that he would have gotten, the kind of oppositions that could have been

there. But he was still so faithful to do that. He could have

just walked off and don't bother. But because he knew what he was called

to do, he kept preaching the word. He kept doing it faithfully.

Right faithfully. And there's the thing about the scriptures. Sometimes when you read

from one chapter to the next, we look at it like, oh,

it's just a day that it would have happened, but it could have taken

a period of time for it to take place. And that is the amount

of perseverance that Stephen had to hold on to to not give up, but

just keep preaching faithfully until like it says here the portion where they started embracing

Saul right, starting to accept him. Right. So he did not know

that his words would change the world. He was fethful, right. So

that is Steven. Okay, That is Steven from the Book of X.

Now a second example that we can see here is from the Book of X

nine. So this is all about the same of a time, of a

storyline. Yeah, and how these different names were used to bring Saul into

the picture. So in this chapter, chapter nine, we see this name

appears Ananias. Okay, And again Ananias doesn't his name doesn't keep repeating,

right, but this is one significant thing he does. So God used Ananias

to actually reach Saul, okay. And in fact he was the one that

baptized Saul. And in fact Saul was the old name of Paul. Okay,

his new name was Paul. So let's read a portion here right in

X nine was ten okay. Now, there was a believer in Damascus name

Ananias. The Lord spoke to him in a vision and calling Ananias. Yes,

Lord, he replied, the Lord said, go over to straight Street

to the house of Judas. When you get there, ask for a man

from Tasu's name Saul. He's spraying to me right now. I have shown

him a vision of a man named Ananias coming in and laying hands on him

so he can see again. So before this portion of the scripture, God

actually reaches out to Saul and he would actually ask him, why are you

persecuting me? Okay? And that is when Saul is caught off God and

wondering, oh, who is this okay, and he lost sight because he's

been persecuting churches and people before that. And so the interesting thing about this

is that God went to Saul first, right, He spoke to him,

why are you persecuting up my people? And he says, okay, go

to this place and wait, and then he goes to Ananyas and tells him

I want you to go to this guy's Saul and pray for him. Right.

Doesn't this show us the importance of the one and how God intends missions

to be. You know, he could have it is all of his power

just convicted the heart of Saul, and Saul would have changed. They could

have done great things then, But he still had to use this guy name

Ananyas. Right, Ananyas, And you know what Ananyas replied to God right

in verse thirteen, he says, But Lord, Ananya says, I've heard

many people talk about the terrible things this man has done to the believers in

Jerusalem, and he is authorized by the leading priest to arrest everyone who calls

upon your name. So this is just kind of shows how important Saul was

during those days. He was not just going around by himself, but he

had back up behind him as well. He had people who would listen to

him. Right, But the Lord said, go for Saul. He is

my chosen instrument to take my message to the gentiles and to the kings as

well as the people of Israel. And I will show him how much he

must suffer for my name's sick. And that was the instruction that God gave

to Ananias. So we can see how Ananias wrestle with the thought of like,

okay, but this guy is a scary guy, has done so many

bad things. What if he kills me? Right and all the things that

he has done. So he was he was worried. But did Ananias go?

He went right? He went, He went, He found Saul,

he prayed for him, and the scripture reminds us how he actually baptized Saul

as well, and then after all began to do even greater things for the

Lord. Right. So again, Ananias did not know that his obedience could

have saved an old nation. He did not know, but yet he was

just so faithful. And another thing that we can see here is that God

just uses anyone right. He used a very simple person who could be timid

in his nature looking at his response, but yet he took that step to

reach to someone who was just so you know, scary and all that he

did. But God used him right. And you could be seated here today

thinking what am I called to do? You know what abilities do I have?

You know, I'm just an introvert. I can't speak, I can't

do this and that. But let me tell you. God has a calling

for you too, because remember it's the power of one. God doesn't do

anything out of accidents. He has a plan, He has a purpose.

The Word of God tells us that He formed us in our mother's womb.

He knows is by then, right before our parents knewest God knew. And

every seasons of your lives that you go through, be it good or challenging,

he is there. He is part of it. But the important thing

that we need to recognize is that are we allowing God to walk with us

in those seasons? Right? Are we answering the call that He has in

our lives? Be in the smallest way. Right, even if you go

through doubts or worries or whether can I do this, would you still choose

to let go and trust God and say, God, I'm just here,

Use me as your vessel. Right, Use me as your vessel. And

this is the powerful thing of the scripture because it's not just great and mighty

people that God often uses. He uses even the most timid, fearful person,

the most quiet of a person, But yet he uses them to save

nations, to save generations. Right, And that is who God is.

You know, men only sees the surface of how this person is their personality,

but God sees within, He sees what's in your heart, right,

and all matters is your heart at the end of the day. Right.

So that is ananias that we can see. And the third example that we

have here again to just emphasize the power of one, we have this guy

called Barnabas, right, Barnabas in xx Chapter nine, and again his name

is not mentioned all the time, yes, in the book of Acts here

and there with different ones. And again he was used to actually fix the

situation, to bring Saul in. So this was the time when Saul was

already you know, repenting. Okay, okay, you know it's okay,

I've made a mistake. I want to come back, I want to bring

the gospel right to save the Jews. But then he has messed up the

entire place. Imagine, okay, now one day you are killing and persecuting

Christians, and then the other day you're wanting to save the loss and preach

the word of God. So it's not as easy as it is. Right.

People were always people were already fearful, and they couldn't just embrace Saul

into the picture, right, into the community, and so God had to

use baron a bas to do that, okay, And so if we have

x nine okay X nine twenty six, Oka says here, when Saul arrived

in Jerusalem, he tried to meet the believers, or Saul was trying to

do that, but they were all afraid of him. They did not believe

he had truly become a believer. Then in verse twenty seven, Barnabas brought

him to the apostles and told them how Saul had seen the Lord on the

way to Damascus, and how the Law had spoken to Saul. He also

told them that Saul had preached Boli in the name of Jesus in Damascus.

So when Saul was there, they couldn't They didn't want to listen to him.

They were doubtful whether this guy has actually changed, repented, new guy.

But Barnabas had to open his mouth and say, no, this guy

is changed, right. He encountered God and he's preaching the gospel. So

then it was twenty eight twenty eight BC. A difference here, he says.

So Paul stayed with the apostles and went all around Jerusalem with them,

preaching Boli in the name of the Lord, and in fact, he started

debating with the different ones and trying to prove who God is. Right,

So a shift of the scene from being very fearful whether we should accept this

guy. When Barnabas came into the picture, things change. So again God

could have just changed things around, but he had to use this one guy

to fix the situation that was the heart of Barnabuss. In fact, his

name was Joseph if you're real at the beginning of the Book of X,

but the people started calling him Barnabas because the name of Barnabas means son of

encouragement, right, son of encouragement. So if you can just imagine how

an encouraging person he could have been, you know, going around bring encouragement

to people, And wouldn't be nice to be a person like that, to

just bring encouragement, to bring hope to those around. And that is what

Barnabuss did. He leaved out his name, you know. And Barnabas was

not the one who went on preaching in congregations and crowds of people, but

he went to that one one by one. He went to Saul, right,

he went to different individuals in fact, he was actively encouraging people in

the church, you know, to just tell them, hey, let's keep

doing the work of God. Remember there was still persecution at this point of

time. But Barnabass was one of those who kept encouraging the people. And

this was not just the only time. In fact, in Acts eleven,

right, and it's going to read this here for you, in Acts eleven,

it says here in verse twenty two. Okay, verse twenty two,

it says, when the church at Jerusalem heard what had happened, they sent

Barnabas to Antioch. When he arrived and saw the evidence of God's blessing,

he was filled with joy, and he encouraged and encouraged the believers to stay

true to the Lord. Barnabas was a good man, full of the Holy

Spirit and strong in faith, and many people were brought to the Lord.

And in verse twenty five we can see how Barnabas went to test us to

look for salt, you know. So that just reminds me of what discipleship

is all about. You know, Barnabas was not just the one who had

one encounter and that's it. But he kept doing life with the people,

and that is what missions is. Right to receive a call and say,

okay, do you want to go for missions? Just like how Barnabas was

sent by the church, right to to reach out and give encouragement, to

look for them and to keep doing it. And that is the power of

one that one Barnabas. The Word of God says many were saved, many

became came to know Christ, many even started doing the Word of God.

Right. How many Barnabas are there in our midst Would you want to be

that Barnabas? Right? Would you want to be that Barnabas bringing encouragement?

And when we speak about encouragement, I'm not just talking about encouragement within the

church, but what's out there? What's out there in the marketplace, in

your schools, in your community, in your families. What could you do

differently that would bring encouragement to others? Right? That could just tell others

who God is? Do we have stories to actually share to people about who

God is? You know? Sometimes we tend to think about, oh,

how am I going to share about the gospel? What if they don't take

it? But you'd be surprised how many people are just looking for answers out

there while looking for ways to what is the meaning of life? And do

you know that your story could actually show them what's the meaning of life?

Who can save them? Right? Never belittle those encounters that you have had

from the time you are young. Well, like I said, whatever season,

remember those stories, remember those encounters, and bolly share those stories to

others, right, Folly share those stories to others, because that is the

power of one. Yeah, the power of one. And when we look

at all these examples, what is it telling us? What is it telling

us? What is it reminding us of? Okay, just think about this

now, right, talk about the power of one. Think about the person

who shared the gospel with you? Okay? Who was that person? Is

it a friend or family you know, or a relative or could be someone

that you have no contact at all. Yeah, you just bumped a person

and then somewhere else, Well you could be from a Christian family, Okay,

but you would have had that encounter right at a certain age of the

point of your life where you felt, Okay, I know who God is

for myself, right, not just because my parents are believers. Who's a

person who shared the gospel? What would your life be like without that person,

if that person was not bold enough, like Ananias Barnabas that we read

about. You know, if they were not bold enough or they didn't just

take that step, how would life be so different now? And how important

was their faithfulness because that faithfulness would mean that they could have been praying for

you, and you may have not known it, right, but the prayer

was just there. I kept going. They could have kept telling you testimonies

and say hey, come to church, but you kept rejecting it. And

then one find day you said, okay, I'll come, right, okay,

I'll come. So it's not about what we can or can't do,

but it's about us being faithful. And that is when God works true us.

Right, God works true us. And I was just reflecting about the

power of one. I'm reminded of just even my own life. I mean,

I come from a Christian family, my parents' side ministry. But you

know, when I think about their lives and how we arrived here, I

mean what my parents were, you know, from a Hindu background. Okay,

so my dad came my grandfather was from Sri Lanka and then they were

very staunch and their faith and my dad was the only one who became a

Christian. Even til today, he's the only believer. So how he encountered

christ was that because he was in a Catholic school in high school and he

had a friend who shared the Gospel to him. We shared stories, we

shad the testimony, and eventually as he grew up as a teenager, he

became a believer. He went through persecutions at home. As we know,

it's not easy to leave your faith, you know, it's like it is

the mindset of how you are going against the family, your values and tradition.

But I'm just reminded that he took that one friend to share the gospel

to my dad, and along the years as he grew up, he became

a missionary. So he traveled, you know, he traveled around and then

he met my mom. And so my mom came from a Hindu background as

well. She comes from a huge family, twelve siblings, and my grandma

she was a staunch Hindu, right, she can do. My grandfather was

from India, and so she I mean, because we have a lot of

conversation. She shared with me a lot of stories and she knows the bugat

Vitasta, the hind book right. She knows the book in and out.

In fact, she was sharing about that gospel to many others when she was

younger. But one day when she was sitting in the park, you know,

she had a fight with my grandfather, this young girl came with a

track. Okay, in those days in our tracks were very common. They

just give out tracks and then you want to know chriest and they shared the

gospel and that is when she she had that question, so who God is?

Who is God? I know so many gods in my faith, but

who is this God that went to the cross to die for my sins?

And that is when she said yes to God. And that is when everything

else started. She went through persecution at home, my grandfather used to burn

her bibles. A lot of things she went through, but she held on

to her faith. Again, I'm reminded of that one that went to her.

You know, gotd have used many I could have used many other ways,

but he used that one young girl. And from what I remember was

that because my mom, my grandmom was she speaks at Tamil, she's not

really good in English. But this girl who gathered the track was the English

speaking girl. Okay, and it was just the track. Do you want

to know Jesus, You don't even need to have a lot of words,

right, But when God works, when He is in the picture, God

touches their hearts. So don't worry about do I know everything? Am I

equip enough? Do I have it all to be a missionary? God uses

what you already have? In fact, most times God uses your faithfulness.

God uses your obedience. Right, And that's how all the kids became believers.

There's two uncles who are still yet to know Christ, but all the

rest are in ministry. And my mom is one of them. And my

mom is a Tamil pastor. She leads a Tamil congregation, so she speaks

Tamil. And so that's when she met dad and they did ministry together.

And so when I when yeah, when I was two years old, my

parents took me for missions to Cambodia. Yes, so you know, being

young parents, and all many told them, or are you sure? Are

you sure you want to do this? You know, there's a lot of

things to think about having a young child doing missions, but they just said,

no, we'll just do it for the Lord. It's called it.

So there was a church in Cambodia where it was, they didn't have a

pastor, and so they had needed a pastor a missionary to be there,

and so they travel, they travel, They stayed there for two years,

and then they came back, right, they came back. I mean,

of course I was two years so I wouldn't have remembered anything. But along

the years, as I was growing up, I grew up in a church.

I saw how my dad did ministry, how my mom the sacrifices that

they had to do, and you know, it was always church right,

and I believe that there was something that's planted in me. Yeah. And

what's interesting was that when my mom was a young girl, when she was

in a teenage day years, she started off her first ministry in Cheras.

This was a very old Churus part of Chiras, right, and so you

know, doing those days, you have a lot of you know, small

houses, villagers, and so they used to go and give tracks and and

bring them to Christ. Yeah. And then my mom reminded me once,

you know, do you see down a few years down the road and now

you are also ministering in these days us And I mean, I'm just I'm

just amazed by how God plans every moment, every detail, and everyone that

He brings into your life. It's not a coincidence, the person who is

next to you, the people that you encounter. Right. But the question

goes back to us whether are we our hearts open enough for that? You

know? Are we just you know, sometimes we can be there present,

but our minds can be just somewhere else. We are caught up with just

our worries, our struggles, or our frustration, right, and we miss

out on what's in front of us, be that person that God wants us

to reach out to, or be that person that God may be using to

speak to us. Right. And so when I look at this different stories,

different encounters in my family's lives, I'm reminded of how they are very

simple people, simple encounter, simple obedience, and that impacts different ones,

right. And you know, my dad passed away about seven years ago.

He was battling with cancer. And I mean because because my dad is is

be in the ministry for a long time, so it knows a lot of

people. And so about a year ago, I was in an event.

It was a church Evan and some of these people were there knew my dad

his friends, you know. So they saw me and they said, oh

your your your Paul's daughter. They said yes. And this one uncle shared

with me, the story is it. If it was not your dad,

I think me and my wife would have been separated. And he shared his

story. Okay, he shared his story about how they were going through a

tough time in marriage. And my dad was also a counselor. He counseled

and and he spoke to them as a couple. And I mean the shot

to cut the story shot. They're together, they have kids. Many years

down the road, okay, but till today, they are just grateful.

They say that, I know, I'm so grateful that your dad came into

our lives to counsel, to minister to us, and our marriage is still

strong till today. And when I heard those stories, I'm reminded of how

that is, how you just leave your impact. It can be so many

years down the road. The person may not be around, but yet what

you do for people course a long way, you might have forgotten it,

but people remember, right, that one prayer for the person, that one

encouragement, like what we read from Bandabas, Right, that one story that

you share with someone You'll never know how significant it is for the person and

how it blesses their hearts, right and still see. So there, I

just hear stories about this about my dad and and to me, I'm just

wow, this is what I mean because as I was growing up, I

mean sometimes you know when you when it's your parents, you don't hear those

stories directly, but you hear it from others, and that is what it

is. Yeah, I just I still hear those kind of stories of how

your legacy is still there, right, Yeah, people remember you for your

actions. It's not so much about what I see, but it's about how

do I do it? Do I do it because I trust God, I

trust in his leading. I might obedient because that is what God is looking

for, and that is what is looking for from all of you today as

we speak about missions, what can we do? Right? What can we

do? The first one that I just want to just to make it practical

as you walk out of today's service, right, just to encourage us to

pray. That's the first thing that we can actually do is believe us to

pray, pray and pray. We can never have enough of it. And

I always believe that it's the prayers of my mom that I'm doing what I'm

doing, you know, doing ministry. Sometimes their days where it gets tough,

but you keep doing it because God gives you the strength right pray.

Coalitions fall too, it says, continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in

it with thanksgiving, and that is the power of prayer. When we read

the Book of Acts, the first thing that we see or we notice about

the church is that they came together in prayer. They came together in prayer,

and that is when they saw great and mighty things happening. They saw

healing taking place, they saw people coming and receiving and believing in Christ.

Yeah, so it starts with prayer. The second is to prepare ourselves.

We can never know when or where God calls us, right, but all

we can do every day is to prepare ourselves to know the word of God.

The Word of God, like it says, is a lamb unto our

feet. It directs our parts. So do we know the word of God

enough? Because if you are caught with the lives of the enemy, the

word of God is the one that gives you clarity. Right. The word

of God is what you're going to use as a tool to push the gospel,

to push the Gospel. And when we look at all these missionaries the

Bible, all these characters, I mean they pushed without even having the complete

Bible. What more, we have all these books, we have all this

promises to use and to preach. So don't just be worried about what I

need to say. Just preach God's word? Right, So am I preparing

myself for all of this? Ethdly is to preach Romans ten seventeen, It

tells us. So then fate comes by hearing and hearing by the word of

God. We cannot water this down. It has to be the word of

God. And sometimes you know, there are just so many preachers or false

teachings out there when we take it on ourselves, our own knowledge, our

own experience. But what does the word of God tells us? And it's

also a very good heart check for us for us, you know, all

if we are caught with what's right and what's wrong? Would I be able

to discern what is it? Do I know the word of God enough that

the moment I hear a preacher preach, I know it is the word of

God. Okay, we must take ownership. I mean, we are living

in a time and age. There's just so much of resources out there.

You want to you listen to any kind of sermons, just go to your

YouTube, right, you want short ones, you want long ones, it's

all there. Right, But would I know what is accurate? You know?

Do I know the word of God? Because they're all men speaking.

Don't just rely on what you receive on Sunday. It's what you do on

your Monday's to your Saturday's and the word of God on Sundays. It's just

there to compliment, to speak to you. Yeah, you're speaking to you

definitely. But our everyday matters. Everyday matters is a consistent thing that goes

on. I remember pass I canon telling this ones. If you don't eat

every other day and suddenly you have a buffet on Sunday, what's going to

happen to our body? Right? So you've got to eat well every other

day, right, So preach, preach the word of God. And the

last point is perseverance, right, perseverance. Well, in reality, it's

not always easy, right, You get hurt at times. Not everyone's gonna

say yes to you. When you serve with someone, things don't go well,

you deal with different people, but it's life, right, It's life.

And that is why the book of the Book of Romans twelve, it

reminds us rejoice and hope, patience and tribulation, continuing, stay fast firstly

in prayer, so patience, in tribulation, don't give up. The Bible

reminds us to not stop doing good, not stop doing good. If one

person says no, go to the next person. Just keep doing it,

keep doing his work, keep saying yes. Right, you may not see

the fruits right in front of your eyes, but along the way they will

encounter God, they will experience Him. So going back to that one person

that brought you to Christ, I'm sure they perseve it. They had to

keep doing it to bring that gospel to you, right, to bring that

gospel to you. So I just want to leave you with this four points

as we walk out and as we are just being reminded of what missions is.

This is what missions is all about. Okay. If you're saying I

just don't know where to go, where to start, can I just encourage

you to pray? Okay? And as believers, I think it's very important

that we just don't stop asking what the church can do for us? But

what is it that we can do for the church? When I say church

meaning the community, the people, what is it can I do for people

out there? Right? Yes, it's good that we're receiving, we're equipping,

we do life. That's great, But it cannot just stay on as

that. We have to be the soult and the light of the world.

That's what the world have got, reminds us, Right, we've got to

bring the Gospel out, bring the Gospel out. So if you think about

your daily right or a Monday to a Friday, how much of that do

you do? Are you sharing? Are you finding times of your in a

day to actually talk about who God is? Beating your social media? What

are you posting? Right? Be the conversation so you're talking about that can

be just all sorts of people in the office. But I want to be

the difference and maybe speak something else about who God is and not just office

politics. Maybe, right, we can always be the change if you want

to. I believe in that, right, we can always do something because

that's the choice that we have. God has given us that ability to choose.

Right, that's free will, and so let's make those kind of choices

that impacts, that reaches out, that touches lives, because that goes a

long way, right, that goes a long way. So instead of worrying

and thinking whether am I worried I might prepared, Let's just do it anyway,

right, Let's just take that step of faith and do God's work and

reach out to have a God brings into our lives. And you'll be just

amazed of the stories that you encounter, right, the stories that you encounter,

as we know extra us as certain ten years and just this ten years

of doing church and building I think what's fulfilling is to see change lives.

I think it goes back to that at the end of the day, how

people encounter God, you know, how they grow up and serve, and

how they are sent. We have sent so many students back to their hometowns,

to different countries, back right and continually doing the work. And so

there's the thing about doing missions. Sometimes you don't see the results right away,

but you are just faithfully doing it and then you see how they do,

you know, God's work in their own places and wherever God has positioned

them to do. 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 into the Graham. We're believing that this week is going to

be a good week, a hit for you. God bless h