Be A Light In A Dark World

I'm going to take the liberty of telling just a brief story.

I love that one sometimes.

I remember when we were searching for Pastor Ken.

And in God's providence, it just worked out that Judith and I were in the neighborhood of the church that he was ministering at.

And so we dropped in on his, was it July the 4th part?

It was the graduation part.

Graduation part, yeah.

And, you know, we had gone through the courtship process, asked all kinds of questions, and we were pretty interested.

And so I showed up there, and it was a party, and they were at a park somewhere.

And the thing that really struck me was that here we were, we were having this meaningful conversation about his future potential employment.

And there were a couple kids that needed his help.

And he excused himself from his interview to go over and take care of those kids.

That's when I thought it was a good idea to have him come.

And he hasn't disappointed us.

So, Pastor, preach your heart out.

Oh.

No, don't take this.

Now, that wasn't bad.

I thought you were going to say what I said.

All right.

Well, if you want to know the rest of the story, you're going to have to ask him since I'm...

Well, it is a privilege for me to be able to be here with you tonight and just to be able to celebrate and to be a part of this mission conference.

It's been a long time since I've sang like that, too, so I'm actually feeling it now in my throat a little bit.

Is this my water, by the way?

I saw this water here.

That's all right.

Because I was like, man, I haven't sung like that in a while.

So that was really good.

But I'm really glad to be with you guys here tonight.

And I've been praying about what I should speak about and what I should share with you tonight.

And I've been thinking about the theme, you know, being a light in a dark world.

And just continually going over how I could share that and what I wanted to share in relationship to that.

And I kept coming back to one passage of Scripture that I want to share with you this evening.

My difficulty, though, in sharing this with you tonight is the fact that I had the privilege of serving here as youth pastor for 11 years.

And so you guys know me.

You know my weaknesses.

You know my strengths.

I know your weaknesses.

For the most part, a lot of you, I know your strengths.

And really, my message tonight, I feel I'm preaching to your strength.

So I really struggled with, should I even preach this message?

But the more that I prayed about it, the more I just felt this is what God wanted me to share.

So I just want to put that out there at the beginning.

I'm going to share something with you tonight that I believe, at least from what I have seen when I was here,

and even from a distance the last eight years, is one of your strengths.

Now, before I do that, I want to also say that Eileen and I and the girls who are here with us,

you probably don't recognize them.

The girls are a little bit older.

Emily is a senior in high school.

So those of you who remember when she was born, yes, she's a senior in high school.

Elise is a sophomore.

And the boys are out of the house.

So I don't even know.

Actually, I think they're both at Summit University, Clark Summit University right now.

Kevin went out there for the weekend.

Hey, Rose, I didn't expect to see you here.

How are you?

So I want to first of all say thank you.

Thank you for your faithfulness to us, for your partnership,

and allowing us to be able to serve for eight years as a lot of missionaries.

It was eight years ago tomorrow that I resigned as the youth pastor here.

It's hard to believe that it has been eight years.

Maybe it hasn't seen it.

That time for me has just like flown by.

It has also been 19 years ago since you guys called me to be your pastor as youth pastor.

And so that history goes way back.

It's a joy.

It was really funny when we were up here talking at the very beginning,

and we were singing one of the songs.

Megan's like, I don't even think I was alive when you guys did that song.

So I was like, thanks.

Now we feel really old.

And I told Steve because he's like the oldest guy in the band.

And so I want to show you guys a video just to kind of set the stage for what I want to talk about tonight

because really I want to talk about the importance of reaching every child everywhere.

And how do we go about reaching children?

You know, we had the privilege tonight to hear from some men who are serving in other parts of the world.

And you know what they call a person who knows three languages?

Smart.

Okay, that's a good one.

I'd go with that too.

What do they call that person?

They are trilingual.

Thank you.

You know what they call a person who knows two languages?

Bilingual person who knows one language?

American.

Okay.

So I am American through and through.

I don't know any other languages.

Some of you will laugh at me, right?

Because my Spanish, for those of you who went to Costa Rica with us, is mucho alado.

So that's my Spanish.

For those of you who don't know what it means, look it up.

But that is, I don't know a lot of languages.

But one of the things that God has really impressed in my heart, while we serve in Virginia and we minister to churches in Maryland, Virginia, North and South Carolina,

God is really doing some neat things all around the world.

And so I just want to show this video.

Jonathan, if you'd play that.

God is a book.

He moved the world into a good contentment and a long-term discipleship ministry of the world.

His heart is for every child, every one, to put their trust in Jesus.

God is using Obama to raise up kids, parents, pastors, and other adults devoted to knowing the scripture, loving them, and reaching their community with the gospel.

And we need over 2 million children around the world, having reached the true hope of the gospel, through ministry of Obama.

From the church of the nine-corner, forever together around the world, Obama is leading a world like ever,

to entangling and disciple children of the world, and know, love, and serve people.

God is being transformed by the gospel.

We are connected with leaders who care for each boy and girl, and are deciding each one to be known of the kind.

These kids are not just a bloody scripture, but the truth of God's word is truly changing now.

Through the work of Obama, boys and girls around the world are being reached with the gospel.

They took on 10 years, and are able to love, have fun, and feel like they belong.

You can partner with us in making a difference.

We are just a lot of people.

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It is a lot of people.

you can reach it and provide everlasting hope.

You can help change the world through providing for the management and the long-term discipleship.

Every boy and girl needs to know that God has a plan and a place for them in this story.

Reach a child, a courage to reach in what is being.

This is just the meaning.

Every time, every man.

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Visit the Bible.org slash every time to reach kids among the world.

So I'd like you to take your Bibles and turn to 1 Thessalonians chapter 2.

1 Thessalonians 2 · chapter mention

Sometimes I watch that video a lot.

I show it to churches.

I go in there.

And one of the things that it talked about was the 1.8 billion children in the world.

And I think about, you know, I used to, where I served in Virginia, and as that number expands,

there's 6.3 million children in the four states that we work with.

And we're reaching around 100,000 of them.

And sometimes I start to get overwhelmed by the sheer volume of unbelievers that there are.

We come to our churches.

We feel comfortable.

We have our spots in our pews that we want to sit.

Thank you for letting me sit in my spot tonight.

I appreciate that.

I'm sure Sunday morning somebody will be disappointed if I'm in that spot

because that spot's probably been taken by somebody else.

But we all have our spots that we come to.

And we go to our jobs and we do our work.

But the number of unbelievers around us is just growing and growing and growing.

But yet so many of us as believers become more and more content where we are.

And we're satisfied.

And we're concerned about things like,

they didn't play my song today.

I didn't like what pastor preached on today.

Whatever.

Whatever.

My kid didn't do good enough in their sports this week.

Rather than this person here that I came into contact with.

They need Jesus.

It's the bottom line.

Some of you might get our newsletter or might see our letter that we send to the church here.

And we've signed it the same way, I think, for the last six years.

God's glory.

What's the second part?

Lost mankind.

It's what it's all about, right?

And so what are we doing to reach that 1.8 million,

or not, sorry, that's me in my area,

1.8 billion children around the world?

And so when we really start to think about that,

how are we going to reach them?

Because the task is great.

The task is huge.

The task is not something that I can do.

And when I look to God's word,

and when I look in,

sorry, I actually went to the passage I'm going to go to later,

and now I've got to go back there.

When I look in 1 Thessalonians 2,

I want to read verses 5 through 12 tonight.

And Paul says this,

For we never came with words of flattery, as you know,

nor with a pretext for greed.

God is witness.

Nor did we seek glory from people,

whether from you or from others,

though we could have made demands as apostles of Christ.

But we were gentle among you,

like a nursing mother taking care of her own children.

So being affectionately desirous of you,

we were ready to share with you

not only the gospel of God,

but also our own selves,

because you had become very dear to us.

For you remember, brothers, our labor and toil.

We worked night and day.

That we might not be a burden to any of you

while we proclaim to you the gospel of God.

You are witnesses, and God also,

how holy and righteous and blameless

was our conduct toward you believers.

For you know how, like a father with his children,

we exhorted each one of you,

and encouraged each,

and charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God,

who calls you into his own kingdom and glory.

And so the first thing,

when I look into this passage,

and when I start to say,

how does this,

what did Paul do when it really came to sharing the gospel?

What was really at one of the core principles

of why he was effective in sharing the gospel?

What was it that he did that he longed for?

And I really think that if you study,

and as you look at this passage,

and you look at verse eight,

in verse eight, Paul says this,

he says,

so being affectionately desirous of you,

we were ready to share with you

not only the gospel of God,

but also our own selves.

See, a lot of us are willing to go and do something.

You know, some of you might be willing

to drop a track at dinner.

You might be willing to go out

and knock on somebody's door.

You might be willing to talk to somebody.

But see, here Paul shared,

it wasn't just that he wanted to share with you the gospel.

It was,

I'm gonna share myself with you.

It wasn't just about the truth of the gospel.

Yes, this is,

that's greatly important,

and I don't wanna neglect that,

and so we're gonna,

we're gonna come back around to that.

But it was about this relationship

that he had.

See, God didn't give us,

God didn't intend for us

in our relationships to be alone, right?

What did he say about Adam?

Remember, I'm a response,

I like feedback,

so you guys gotta help me here.

Okay?

What did God say about Adam?

It's not good for him to be alone,

so what did he do?

Made Eve, right?

What do we also see later on,

and I can't think of the book,

where it says,

a man who finds a wife

finds a good thing, right?

Why?

Because God didn't intend for us to be alone, did he?

Even as we go through,

and we see the importance,

we have in 1 Corinthians 12,

we see a picture of the body,

whether, no matter what your gifts are,

no matter how great you might think you are,

or how lowly you might think you are,

guess what?

In the body of Christ,

you are needed,

and there is a part that we all have,

and we have to work together

to accomplish what God wants us to do in his church.

Relationships are of vital importance.

We have to have them,

and as I was thinking about this,

and why, again,

when it came back to me thinking about this passage,

and preaching tonight

about the topic of relationships

and sharing the gospel,

I remind,

it just kept flooding my mind.

Pastor Knoyer,

why was it that we went to doing small groups?

Was it,

and I shared this with Pastor Andrew,

is that today?

It was.

That was earlier today we were talking.

It wasn't that preaching on Sunday night

was a bad thing,

right?

Is somebody in here gonna say

preaching on Sunday night was a bad thing?

I don't think so.

But small groups was a better thing.

And it helped the body

to grow.

Why?

Because of relationships.

Relationship with what?

Does anybody remember what Pastor Andrew said?

See, I always remember these things,

Pastor preach.

Pastor's like,

wow, I didn't know that.

Because Alistair Begg always used to say,

right?

Never underestimate the ability of God's people

to forget what you just said.

Relationships with teeth.

Not just accountability,

but with some teeth.

Something that's really gonna help us to grow.

Several years ago,

there was a book,

some of you that are youth leaders

might remember,

we actually gave out this book

to some of our youth leaders

called Hurt.

And it talked about youth culture

and how it used to be

that you needed to have

mom and dad were really around

and so kids really succeeded.

But in today's culture,

that they need at least five adults

investing in every one young person's life

in order to help them succeed in life.

They needed more.

It used to be mom and dad,

grandma and grandpa lived here,

but that wasn't the way culture was.

It wasn't the way our society was anymore.

So kids needed five adults.

We actually put a tree

out on the bulletin board

that has now been demolished

and replaced

and it's no longer there.

But there was this big tree

and we had all these students' names on it.

And we asked people to take their names

and to pray for them

and to care for them

and to love on them.

Why?

Because relationships are of vital importance

to help us to grow

in our walk with the Lord Jesus Christ.

We have to have these relationships.

If we don't have these relationships,

we're ultimately going to be left alone.

And when we're left alone

and we find ourselves in isolation,

it's so easy to walk out the door

and to walk away from the church.

And when we walk away from the church,

we become lunch for the lion.

And so we have to make sure

that those relationships keep us connected.

And so Paul in this passage says

he didn't just want to share the gospel.

It was more than just that.

It was more than just the point

of sharing the gospel,

but he was affectionately desirous of you

and he wanted to share his life.

But you know what?

We also have to make sure

that there is biblical engagement.

I oftentimes think of my boys.

Some of you know that some of my,

I mentioned earlier,

you know my weaknesses and my strengths, right?

So one of my weaknesses,

some people would say,

is that I like to play strategy games.

Okay?

And my boys have actually gotten

to be pretty good at these games also.

Although I don't normally let them beat me,

I still win.

But they're getting better at them.

Tom, I think you can relate to this, right?

Okay.

Tom always wins.

No, I don't think that's true anymore.

Yes.

Tom's like, no, not anymore.

But if the things that I teach my children

are, you know what?

I also love sports.

And so I teach them to love sports.

And I teach them to be good at strategy games.

And I teach them how to drive.

And I teach them how to be wise stewards

of their finances.

The world might look at them and say,

that is a successful young man.

But I as a parent,

I as a father,

failed.

Because it isn't just about the relationship.

The relationship is important.

And we have to make sure

that we are being intentionally focused

when it comes to that relationship.

But we also have to make sure

that we balance it

with scriptural truth.

I want you to turn over

in your Bible

to Deuteronomy chapter 32.

Deuteronomy 32 · chapter mention

Deuteronomy chapter 32.

Deuteronomy 32 · chapter mention

We'll do a little review here.

Who can tell me what's happening?

Some of you are like,

I don't know,

I never looked at Deuteronomy chapter 32.

Deuteronomy 32 · chapter mention

Deuteronomy chapter 32.

Deuteronomy 32 · chapter mention

What's going on?

What's going on?

Yes, pastor bailed you out.

Okay?

Moses is preaching his final message.

Why?

What's about to happen?

The children of Israel

are about to go

into the promised land.

And where's Moses going to go?

He's going to die.

He does not get to go

into the promised land.

And Moses knows this.

And so Moses is speaking

to the children of Israel

for his very last time.

And he gets down to verse 44.

And this is where I want

to start reading here.

Deuteronomy chapter 32

Deuteronomy 32 · chapter mention

starting verse 44 says,

Moses came and recited

all the words of this song

in the hearing of the people.

He and Joshua,

the son of Nun.

And when Moses had finished

speaking all these words

to all Israel,

he said to them,

take to heart all the words

by which I am warning you today

that you may command them

to your children

that they may be careful

to do all the words

of this law.

For it is no empty word

for you,

but your very life.

And by this word

you shall live long

in the land

that you are going

over the Jordan

to possess it.

You know what?

I know there's a lot of you

in here who have lost loved ones.

And you know what happens

when somebody is

on their deathbed

and they know

that they're getting ready

to pass into eternity?

What do they want to do?

They want to get

their family together.

Right?

They want to see

maybe a sibling

or those kind of things.

I remember when my mom

was sick

and she knew

that she was coming

to the end of her days.

She wanted different

family relatives

to come in

and she wanted to

just see them

one more time.

And she wanted

to share with them

one more time.

Just one thing.

Like for my uncle

it was something

for my aunt

for my grandpa

for everybody.

There was something

different that she

wanted to make sure

that they knew

and that they remembered.

Because see

when we come

to the end of our life

it's like we know

that we want to make sure

that we have that opportunity

to say what's most important.

All these other things

don't matter anymore.

This

is what you have

to know.

And that's what

Moses is doing here.

And so Moses

goes through

and he reminds

the people of Israel

the children of Israel

all the things

that God had done

for them

all the things

how God had provided

for them

the lessons

that he brought

them through

all of the different

things

and he says

to the people

of Israel

he says

take to heart

all the words

that I'm warning

to you this day

then down in verse 47

it is no empty

word for you

but it is your

very life.

In other words

everything else

this is the most

important thing

that you can do

is to make sure

that your children

know and understand

the word of God

and that's why

I said earlier

if the only thing

I teach my boys

is all these

different things

about knowing

how to drive

and being good

with finances

and loving sports

and being good

at strategy games

if those are the things

that I've taught

my sons

then I've failed

because they have

to know

the truths

of God's words.

but on the other

side of it

is if the only thing

I ever tell them

is this

but there's no

relationship

to go along

with it

I lose

that opportunity

to speak

into their lives

because see

the reason

why relationships

are so powerful

is because

it allows us

the opportunity

to speak

into somebody

else's life

I have always

said

and I know

some in here

will disagree

with me

but I have

always said

that I am not

a very good

teacher

but I'm really

good at relationships

and because I'm

good at relationships

people will want

to hear what I have

to say

and they'll

listen to it

a lot of the

young people

that have been

a part of our

youth group

they'll probably

tell you

yeah he wasn't

really all that

good

but the

relationship

that went

along with it

that's what

made the

difference

you know

we serve

with Awana

now

and we've

gone through

some changes

and tomorrow

night we're

going to talk

about things

that have gone

on for us

personally

and this

last year

Awana has

made some

changes with

their books

and a lot

of people

have struggled

with the

philosophical

change

that Awana

has made

because Awana

has no longer

become performance

driven

it has become

relationship

driven

it's no longer

about how many

kids can we have

finish their books

but how many

kids can we

make sure

know and

understand

each of the

verses that

they learn

each and

every week

and that

becomes a

challenge

because now

it's not just

about I come

to Awana

and I listen

to a kid

say a verse

but it's

a kid comes

to Awana

and I sit

down with

them

and I

explain

what that

verse

means to

them

and how

it applies

to their

lives

whoa

there's a lot

of leaders

that aren't

ready for

that

they're not

ready to

step into

that space

to have a

spiritual

conversation

with a

third or

fourth or

fifth or

sixth grader

because they're

going to get

asked some

questions

and they're

like I don't

know the

answer to

that question

and I don't

want to

answer that

question

but when we

get to talk

to them

about God's

word

and how it

impacts their

life

what an

awesome

opportunity

what an

awesome

blessing

to be able

to speak

the truth

of God's

word

into a

young person's

life

so how many

of you ever

seen a

you know

we don't

really use

these much

maybe Heather

Anderson has

one of these

at her house

just because

she has

some of

these really

neat looking

artifacts

I don't know

what else to

call them

sorry Heather

so how many

of you

like in

westerns

you see

these

right

they're

called

barrels

okay

Heather's

like I

don't have

any of

those

sorry

okay

and they're

made up

of these

different wooden

pieces that

come along

the sides

right and

then there's

the metal

piece that

goes around

it you guys

got that

visual in

your head

maybe I

should have

made a

picture of

that

right so

there's a

barrel

and it

holds what

what do we

put inside

of it

water or

something else

like that

what's the

problem with

that the

water will

only go up

so how

high to

the top

unless what

one of the

I forget

does anybody

know what

those things

are called

stays thank

you and

what hoops

hula hoops

oh no that's

different hoops I

didn't know they were

called hoops but

stays thank you

so you have these

stays see pastor do

you have one of

those no okay

so if you have

these stays that

go along and

what happens if

one of the

stays breaks

like toward the

top you can't

you no longer

can fill it up to

the very top

right because

when the water

gets to that

level what

happens all the

water starts

pouring out right

there if you

break another one

a little bit

lower guess what

it's no longer

going to get to

that height it's

only going to

get to this

height so when

we start talking

about ministry

especially when

it comes to the

1.8 billion

children in the

world we have to

balance relationship

and God's

word and if we

don't balance

them we're only

going to be able

to be as effective

as the highest

stay so we may

be really strong

when it comes to

our knowledge of

scripture but if

we have very weak

relationships this

is as high as we're

going to ever get

if we have really

strong relationships

but our

understanding of

scripture is way

down here this is

as far as we're

going to get in

order for us to

raise that bar in

order for us to

raise that level of

ministry we have to

be building both we

have to have

intentional

relationships but

we have to be

highly biblical

both have to be

there so the

question for you

tonight is this

not how high

what's your

highest stay

but what's your

lowest

is it

relationships

if so then you

need to figure out

how to work on

that so that way

you have the

opportunity to be

able to speak in

other people's

lives if it's

God's word then

guess what you

need to make sure

that you're spending

time studying God's

word and you need

to get yourself into

God's word so that

way you can raise

that because you

have to have them

both to be truly

effective when it

comes to our

ministry and reaching

out we have lots of

opportunities to share

the gospel they're all

around us each and

every day we oftentimes

get so upset with

things that are going

on in our political

culture today and I'm

like you know what we

got to expect

unbelievers to act

like unbelievers

okay why should we

expect unbelievers

to act like

believers they're not

going to there are

there are people

everywhere you go

you walk into the

store there are

unbelievers that that

you may actually bump

into and you can have

the opportunity to

share the gospel but

you have to be

intentional in your

relationship don't

just don't be wishy

washy in your

relationship you have

to bring the meat

along with it you

have to have the

relationship that

carries some teeth

with them but you

also have to have the

teeth that means that

you need to know

God's word highly

relational highly

biblical both have to

be there if we are

going to truly be a

light in a dark

world that's where it

begins so where do you

need to grow I hope

that you're going to be

here tomorrow night I

hope that God is going

to challenge you in some

ways to really figure out

what it is that God

wants you to do and

taking that next step in

following him let's pray

God I thank you so much

for the way that you

teach us and how you use

your word in our lives to

draw us closer to you

Lord I thank you for

godly men that you have

placed in my life that

have been intentional with

their relationships with

me to help me to grow

closer to you so Lord I

thank you for them Lord I

there's not enough that I

could say Lord I pray that

as we come here tonight and

we're just going through our

everyday lives to come to

this mission conference and

as we sit here tonight Lord

I pray that you would

press on our hearts what it

is that you want us to

learn and Lord that you

would cause us to grow in

the areas in our life that

we need to grow for us to

be effective servants of

yours Lord you you have

called us as your

children you've placed us on

this earth to bring you

glory and to reach lost

mankind and Lord I pray

that you would help us to

be intentionally focused in

our relationships that we

build and that we have that

we would have a strong

understanding of your word

that we might have a huge

impact in the world around

us Lord in Jesus name

Amen