Missions Conference - There Are Others

hallelujah thank you jesus thank you jesus praise god praise god amen thank you for the willaford i'm gonna ask you to turn with me to mark chapter 4 verses 35 through 41. let's remain standing for a few moments i just feel a beautiful presence of the lord in this place and um you know the song we just sang it's easy to sing when everything's going okay it's easier to sing when there's money in the bank when everybody's healthy it's a little harder to sing at other times and i think and some of you are aware some of you may not um south korea our senior missionary sister kim is um let me just say way closer to retirement than not retirement we had another family the rushing family for the rushing 45 years old just finished deputation ready to go back to south korea had some issues some physical challenges passed away of cancer last week i certainly don't understand it it certainly was not in our plans in global missions plans it certainly was not in the rushing's plans but god is faithful i still believe in the goodness of god when we see what's happening in ukraine and other situations it's god is good and we certainly don't have it all figured out and the older i get the more i know that i don't know a whole lot but i do trust in god no matter what happens no matter what comes my way i can trust in god and i made a commitment to god when i first got into the church i just wanted to serve god i just wanted to honor him and please him and um i've tried my best to keep that commitment i've tried to keep it simple i've tried not to complicate my walk with god i whatever happens wherever i am i just want to serve god i want to be faithful to the lord jesus christ and it is an honor for us to be with you today so glad my wife and daughter could be with me with college and working and all that stuff we don't always get to be together for these types of things but because of the proximity um we're close to you guys so they're here today and i'm so thankful for that

i want to preach for just a little while and for the folks running the videos wherever that's them or wherever it's going to be awesome i will let you know i will give you a heads up it will not be play it now so it'll be towards the end but i just have a very short video that i want to share today mark chapter 4 verses 35 through 41 says and the same day when the even was come he saith unto them let us pass over unto the other side and when they had sent away the multitude they took him even as he was in the ship and there were also with him other little ships and there arose a great storm of wind and the waves beat into the ship so that it was now full and he was in the hinder part of the ship asleep on a pillow and they awake him and say unto him master carest thou not that we perish and he arose and rebuked the wind and said unto the sea peace be still and the wind ceased and there was a great calm and he said unto them why are ye so fearful how is it that ye have no faith and they feared exceedingly and said one to another what manner of man is this that even the wind and the sea obey him and i want to preach for just a little while this morning and we will move into faith promise simply from this thought there are others there are others let's pray lord jesus we do love you today we thank you lord for your goodness for your faithfulness lord your hand that is upon us in this place today we know the preparation for what is happening now started months ago prayer and fasting has gone into today and lord i pray that you would touch and speak to every one of us it is not a coincidence that we are here this gathering is not by accident to take place lord we're in your divine will and i pray that you would speak to us today meet needs in this house touch us lord we ask in jesus name amen you can be seated there are others now this is for most of us a very familiar story jesus ministering to the multitudes and and and jesus was one of those that continue to give and give and give and give but at the same time he was human just like us and that's one of the beautiful things of of of the oneness of god and god manifested in the flesh he was human like us he needed rest he needed time he needed drink and sustenance and food and all of these things and people say it didn't matter if people criticized him of course it mattered he had our feelings he had he felt rejection he felt the ridicule he felt all those things and he felt the embrace of his mother and the love of parents and siblings and friends that jesus was a man he was human like we are jesus needed to rest and the bible says the disciples multitude it's service is over everybody um can go your separate ways and we're gonna get jesus in the ship and we're gonna go to the other side and and he definitely was was weary because the bible says he was asleep he was he was out there crashed out and of course you know the story the a storm arose it we don't know exactly at what point in the journey but a storm arose and the the ship became full of water whether that was most likely was a combination of rain and of waves you get the big waves and and obviously they had ships it wasn't near like what we have today but uh getting full of water getting water in being tossed the the rain the wind the sea all that the bible tells us what this was like all this was happening while they're on the sea one thing the bible says when it it's interesting and this is what i what i what i want to bring out today it says there were other little ships also the bible doesn't say why they were there now i think it's important that the bible mentions them i don't think the bible just god just said we'll throw that in just because i think it's important there were other little ships also they could have been people that said hey we well he was doing some stuff we want to follow him get in the ship let's follow him maybe it was the paparazzi of the day maybe it was people that said you know what we we're not really convinced about this jesus thing but but we want to maybe so we heard some stuff let's follow maybe it was just people getting in other ships and going other directions we don't really know maybe it was all of that maybe who knows what it was but what we do know is the bible tells us there were other little ships also so how bad was the storm well jesus is with some fishermen jesus is with people who lived on the sea and they became nervous with what they saw with what they were living through with what they were experiencing they became nervous the bible says they feared for their lives now you know depending on who we're with in the situation we don't get nervous until they get nervous and when they're nervous now i'm nervous when they're not nervous i'm not nervous everything's good everything's fine but these men these fishermen these these individuals that lived and made their living from the sea have been in countless storms this was one that made them fear for their lives the bible tells us that they woke jesus up you know the story as well as i do jesus came out calmed the storm everything was good the bible says a great calm came upon the sea now what i want to really speak about today is this everything the disciples were experiencing in their boat the other boats were experiencing as well every toss of the ocean waves every lashing of the wind and the rain the lightning the thunder all of these bad scary things that made the disciples fear for their lives every other little ship the others were experiencing the same fear they were experiencing the same storm they were going through the same things as jesus and the disciples perhaps they feared for their lives perhaps they were worried what's going to happen are we going to die maybe those that were going after jesus maybe he's going to do something maybe this is it they were going through the same thing as jesus and the disciples the difference was they did not have jesus in their boat that they could reach out to they were tossed by the waves they were fearful they were scared but they did not have access to jesus but when jesus calmed the seas when jesus responded to the request of his disciples when jesus he kind of rebuked them a little bit why are you so fearful where's your faith but he responded to their need he responded to their cry to their request to their prayer if you will jesus we're going to perish in jesus calm the storm and the sea and that miraculous response to the disciples prayer was also felt by the other ships also i'm here to tell you let me rephrase that i'm here to remind us today we do not simply live our lives unto ourselves i'm not saying we live our lives to please others if you do that you'll be standing on your head every day and you're going to please no one we live our lives to please jesus christ we live our lives to please our savior the lord god almighty that's who we please but we don't live our lives just in a vacuum in a bubble we live our lives to benefit and to bless other people when god blesses us we bless others when god does the miraculous for us when god's goodness is poured upon us it should spill over to the others also every day that you go to work every time that you go to the store every time you drive the highway there are others there are others every one of these flags represents others i don't know how many of you were at the dedication of the uh the the new district offices at the urshan campus we were there and and i don't remember i mean it was there but what i really remember is they gave me this booklet brother williford and this little booklet has in it every city or town or community in the state of missouri where they want to start a church and establish an apostolic witness in my home we have the missionary prayer cards and we pray every night for a different missionary we pray for the access challenged nations and we pray for the cities in missouri to have an apostolic witness why because there are others not just in albania not just in budapest but last night we prayed for portageville that there would be a church preaching the truth of jesus name there are others the others around us are going through the same storm as we are they're facing the same things and experiencing the same things we are but they don't have jesus in their boat they don't have the hope that we have they don't have the relationship with god that we have they're in the storm they're hanging on for dear life and all they can do is hope it gets fixed the people in ukraine i can understand some of what they're facing when i first went to el salvador in the midst of civil war we had bombings and shootings and and just we had all that stuff all the time we had a whole church you may or may not be aware killed and beheaded one of our churches united pentecostal church apostolic jesus name church yes everyone killed and beheaded it wasn't a fun time it wasn't a easy time but we had revival and people realized and understood government's not helping me this side's not going to help me that side's not going to help me but there's a god they needed a jesus in their boat and the united pentecostal church in el salvador stood strong we did not go with the right we did not go with the left we didn't choose political sides we preached jesus we i've been in churches out in the country and the church has been surrounded by soldiers with m16s they're checking out make sure we're not doing anything wrong about an hour later there's the gorillas surrounded the church ak-47s making sure we're not doing anything wrong saying anything we shouldn't say we didn't we preached jesus and we had people come we've got men in our church today we've got men that are pastors today that were terrorists they were part of the guerrilla movement others were soldiers and yet they worship god arm and arm hand in hand the others are affected by what we do the will of fred i pray that god would help me never take for granted my relationship with him oh it's so easy i'm talking about me if this fits you then you can wear it if not just leave it with me it is so easy i can wake up any time day or night i can call on the name of jesus i can spend time with jesus others don't have that opportunity god help me to never take for granted help me to never take for granted what's happening in this place right now the freedom for us to come together and worship god to raise our hands to clap our hands to express the bible tells us you know the story i'm not preaching anything deep today it's very simple if i offend you i apologize three hebrew children daniel was with them they chose a different lifestyle they said we're not going to eat the king's meat we're going to do something different boy the guy in charge was like uh the thing is if you don't succeed my neck's on the line they convinced him they did and they chose a different lifestyle than the others but you better believe the others were watching the others were observing the bible says at the end of the appointed time they were wiser healthier better looking than any of the others that chose the other lifestyle it's interesting because soon after this the king has a dream and he asked for all the wise men to interpret no one can so he says kill them they're useless they're not wise men they're fakes kill them daniel says moment there is a god there is a god the others were watching what happened with them the others were watching their lifestyle and their decisions it did not hinder and they did not waver daniel shadrach meshach abednego they stayed firm to their convictions and because of their choices the bible tells us that the others were saved others were saved they didn't kill all the wise men because daniel was able to interpret the dream i want you to understand today i want to remind you today what we do how we live our choices our decisions affect other people and god help us that they affect them in the right way in a good way to reach them we you did it today i i commend you for that i thank you for that we spend time in prayer for others we do not know you prayed for people today you will probably never meet in this life i've met brother sergey i've been with them in ukraine we know who they are we know their family keep praying for them you will probably never meet them but we pray for others you pray for these flags and what they represent you pray for these maps and what they represent you pray for people across north america that you don't know because others don't have a jesus in their boat they're in the storm they're facing what we're facing they're going through everything we're going through but we have jesus we have a confidence we can say if we live we live to christ and if we die we die to christ hey i'm good either way we intercede in situations we don't even know about we pray in the spirit the spirit leads us to prayer we're praying in the spirit we don't know who it's for we don't know where it's for but it doesn't matter because others there are others when the spirit intercedes through us somebody needs something and god is saying i need you to be that channel i need you i need my spirit to speak through you because there are others that need a jesus in their boat we do things you may say a word to someone that you don't even realize that person has no hope that person is ready to just throw in the towel and give it up but you speak a word into their life and everything changes and you didn't even realize it but that's being led by the spirit because there are others when we give to the kingdom of god god blesses us abundantly and richly we reach people through our giving that we would never reach before we reach nations and places that we can't go some of those with our funding and finance receive the new birth experience they're baptized in jesus name you heard about some of it today they're filled with the spirit of god their life is transformed others are provided food and clothing water shelter whatever the need whatever the situation would be because of our giving our investing in the things of god because there are others you prayed today and i do thank you i'm we we i'm still part of the the csi uh board we had a meeting yesterday and um for the persecuted church several years ago i i can't give you all the details but we did have a pastor in mosul iraq that we had to extract and we sent him and his family to another country through csi set up there i was able to meet him later we got to go to this nation i was able to meet him and and to greet him and just never thought i would do that never thought that would happen but it was just a great uh awesome thing experience for me in my life but persecuted because of your giving because of your financial investment in the things of god we were able to take that man and his family and get them to a place of safety because there are others we do not live unto ourselves this is not just about me this is not just what i want to do what we do matters and how we live matters the flesh is the flesh is the flesh and we all have flesh there are times we don't want to pray there are times we don't want to read the bible there are times we'd rather do other things or we'd rather do nothing but when you get that feeling just remember there are others maybe i don't really feel like praying but there are others and perhaps in this time of prayer when my flesh doesn't feel it when i'm tired when this and that and i've been working for god's kingdom i've been preparing everything for the church and but i'm just so tired and and but we we know we need to pray maybe in that specific time in our weakness god is going to use us in intercessory prayer to do something for others don't let the fear of criticism or the fear of failure hinder what you do and how you live when i first became a convert i was 15 years old i really didn't know a whole lot didn't have family my sister was in the church parents were not in the church and we really didn't have a support group but that's okay i would carry my bible to school not in the backpack i carried my books in my arm and my bible was on top it wasn't under any book it wasn't hidden it was on top now in my defense i didn't carry the family bible that would have been a little heavy but i had a bible probably about the size of my ipad just a normal bible that i carried to school every day i was made fun of i was criticized i was ridiculed some of my former friends others said stuff in the hallway just whatever it did not deter me from taking my bible to school because others were watching brother delong more than one time i had a friend slip up and say can i read your bible yeah you can read my bible more than one time i had somebody say they call me rev so hey rev would you pray for me there are others when you want to question your apostolic identity and your holiness lifestyle remember there are others there are others watching what you do there are others watching your speech others watching what you say listening to you observing your choices and your decisions when you feel like i'm just going to throw in the towel remember there are others there are so many others there are more others than there are of us we are losing ground every day more people dying and going to hell every day than the church is reaching not even close not even close i applaud what god has allowed us to do and thankful for what god has allowed us to do we have not begun to scratch the surface when you go to a nation like china and you see not not a neighborhood but you drive for hours on an interstate and as far as you can see left and right high rise 50 60 70 story just apartment buildings people just you can't stop seeing it both sides they don't know who jesus is a great majority do not know who jesus is god help us to realize to understand what we do affects others in the midst of the current geopolitical in the last few years we have all lived together or made it through together however you want to deem that the difficulties the challenges the finances we've all buried people we've all faced that loss we've all had people deathly ill and wondered if we would bury them in the midst of all of this that others would see us not as panicked not as people without hope not his people scared and running around but they would see the church as standing on the rock not that we're perfect we're not none of us not that we have every answer we don't but they would see the church what are we just saying all my life you have been faithful every storm you've been faithful every challenge you've been faithful every victory you've been faithful every loss every defeat you've been faithful when i questioned you've been faithful with my assistant pastor 19 years old in el salvador just got engaged just got his local license his mom calls me at two o'clock in the morning he's dead he died in the hospital in el salvador from typhoid he's faithful all my life you've been faithful everything i faced god you've been faithful i pray that the world would see the church with our eyes lifted high with our gaze up into the heavens lord jesus you are faithful oh we'll face whatever happens here in this world we'll go through whatever has to happen in this world but god our hope is not in this world we're in the storm we may feel like we're perishing but we've got a jesus in our boat we've got a jesus that we can call upon we've got a savior that will hear us

if they would help me and get the video ready in just a moment that our confidence in god not our arrogance but our confidence in god and the world will ridicule your confidence in god they will say it's not based in fact it it is but to the world it's not well how is it faithful when when i'm burying my loved one god is faithful our goal is not this life our goal is not what we achieve here our goal is not to amass things here our goal is to hear well done thou good and faithful servant i don't care about another stimulus check ever coming my way i didn't care about the first ones but that's just me i don't care who wins the presidency i care to hear well done thou good and faithful servant oh the stock market's up oh the stock market's down whoa wow that's a shocker what i want to hear well done thou good and faithful servant the bible says something i'm gonna let me just throw this out this this is a freebie study this one out the bible says in hebrews that moses was was faithful in all his house he wasn't moses wasn't moses failed god when moses killed the egyptian moses didn't do what god said he hit the rock moses wasn't allowed into the promised land but the bible says he was faithful in all his house it speaks to us in my opinion if if i'm wrong that's okay in my opinion it's the mercy of god moses wasn't perfect but he sure was trying david was not perfect by a long stretch he would be incarcerated today for what he did several things he did but he was a man after god's own heart i'm not perfect i'm not always faithful to god but i do want to hear one day well done thou good and faithful servant in the midst of the storm in the midst of the the rage of the wind and and the the the rain coming down and everything that's buffeting my spirit and my soul that the physical the the world we face all these things happening jesus help me to be faithful help me lord to understand in the midst of the storm when i cry out to you and when you bless me when you respond to my prayer there are others that will be affected by what you do in my life there are others your goodness god is going to spill over from me into the lives of others i don't want to hold it in i want to let it go i want it to just lap over into other people i want to affect the lives of those around me with the presence of god and the spirit of god there are others when you're thinking you're done when you're thinking i'm finished i'm quitting there are others when you're thinking about doing something questionable there are others

i want to share with you in just a moment of video we we prepared this video you'll you'll see it but it's a very short video we prepared this video for move the mission and i'll explain why after you see the video if you could please this is the nation of mayot it was on our list of unreached nations as far as we know there's never been an apostolic church apostolic witness there's never been any anything like that that's happened there youth ministries ask us i think it was last year what would it cost to open a country they said we've been giving you vehicle money for a thousand years i think brother reaver about that long seems like that long whatever we've been giving you vehicle money we've been doing all this stuff but what would it cost to open a nation we talked with how and i talked we met with the youth we said this is what it would cost to open a nation they said we want to we want to do that they gave us the funds to open a nation my old now has a regional missionary there's a church there brother willifer but the reaver we're preaching now when you gave to move the missions formerly known as she's for christ when you gave to that you didn't realize you were giving to global missions to help a regional missionary go to mayota and open a nation that formerly had not had an apostolic church that's the whole thing i'm trying to get across today what we do affects others there are others that need what we have in our giving in our going in our prayer in our life in our decisions what we do affects others there are others there's a country now we can cross off it has an apostolic church i'm not saying we've reached my old not even not even that close we're just starting but there's a excuse me there's a church in my yolks because you gave because somebody gave fifty dollars in nebraska somebody in california gave a thousand because some real mccoys young people decided to sacrifice and raise funding the youth have talked to us about opening somewhere else well let's do it in jesus name there are others and others need what we have they're going through the storm you're facing but they need a jesus in their boat

i want you to stand with me if you would praise god i want us to take a moment we're gonna get to faith promise in just a second i really feel like the lord is wanting to just in spanish i would use the word clavar um he just wants to like secure inside of us maybe i should just say renew inside of us an understanding that there are others don't let anybody ridicule you don't let anybody belittle who you are and what you do don't let the fear of the unknown the fear of failure don't let it stop you because there are others when the disciples got desperate they cried out to jesus they didn't cry out when the first raindrops hit they didn't cry out when they felt the breeze on their cheek when the boat was full of water jesus that god would renew in us today an understanding that there are others in our community in our family in our neighborhood in our city in our county in our state in our nation around the world there are others and when god sends the blessing to us there are others that receive as well i'm gonna ask for those that would just if you would like to renew today with the lord jesus just afresh god help me every day that i awake there are others that are watching me that are wondering what i'm gonna do and what i'm gonna say and god let me be a blessing to them let my life bring healing to them let my life bring peace to their troubled seas if that's your prayer then i'd ask you just to make your way to the altar remain standing if you would i just would ask you that for the sake of space i think it's going to help us here my musicians would lead us in worship for just a few moments