Transcription downloaded from https://sermons.bemkec.my/sermons/57865/missions-sunday-meet-the-king-who-is-worthy/.

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[0:00] So let's just bow in a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you that you are the God who speaks to us. That your word is alive, living, and active.

[0:15] Sharper than a two-edged sword that penetrates into our hearts. And so Lord, we ask that you would speak to us. Lord, not my words, but your words that would minister to us.

[0:27] We ask for your Holy Spirit to be in our midst right now. To do the work that you so desire in all of our hearts. Lord, thank you, Lord, that we can spend this time worshipping you in this manner.

[0:39] We ask this in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Now, how many of you have heard of The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe? As a child, I read the book about it.

[0:51] And more recently, we've also had the chance to watch the movie. And that's the PowerPoint on that. And in case you don't know what this is about, I'll just give you a brief sort of background to the story.

[1:04] It's about four English siblings. Lucy, Susan, Peter, and Edmund. And they were sent to a country house to escape the London bombings during World War II.

[1:16] Now, in that house, they stumbled across a wardrobe that would transport them into this magical world of Narnia, where most of the characters were animals that could actually speak to each other and to humans as well.

[1:29] Now, when they were in Narnia, the children met Mr. and Mrs. Beaver. And these two beavers described the mighty Aslan to them.

[1:43] So I'll read to you a little extract from the story. Lucy asked, Is he, Aslan, a man? Aslan a man?

[1:55] Said Mr. Beaver sternly. Certainly not. I tell you, he is the king of the wood, the son of the great emperor beyond the sea.

[2:05] Don't you know who is the king of the beasts? Aslan is a lion. The lion, the great lion. Ooh, said Susan.

[2:17] I thought he was a man. Is he quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion. That you will, Jerry.

[2:29] And make no mistake, said Mrs. Beaver. If there's anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they're either braver than most or else just silly.

[2:43] Then he isn't safe, said Lucy. Safe? Said Mr. Beaver. Don't you know what Mrs. Beaver tells you?

[2:54] Who said anything about safe? Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He is the king, I tell you.

[3:07] Now when the children heard that Aslan was a lion, what was their first impression? That he is dangerous.

[3:18] He is unsafe. That you treat him with respect and care. Now when we think about the God of the Bible, how do we really see him?

[3:32] What is your understanding of God? This is a very important question for us to answer because how you see God affects how you relate to him.

[3:45] It decides how you respond to him in your life. Now for some of us, we may think and see that God is a bit more like a Coke vending machine.

[3:56] You pray the right prayer, you say the right thing, and you get what you want. Or maybe God is your sort of ever-ready helpline.

[4:08] So whenever you're in trouble, you run to God and you cry out to him for help. Lord, help me. But when things are going well at other times, you are the one who is running the show, and God is just left on the sideline.

[4:26] Or maybe you think that God only uses those who are passionate, those who are sort of very spiritually inclined for missions and for evangelism.

[4:37] Well, the majority of us, average Christians, if we just pray, if we just read our Bible, we come to church, we try to maintain a godly witness at work, that we're doing okay.

[4:55] Well, let's turn to Isaiah chapter 6 to get a glimpse of the God of the Bible. You see, Isaiah 6, as we read up to us before, records for us the vision that Isaiah, the prophet, has of God.

[5:11] In verse 1, we read of King Uzziah's death, and this sets the background to Isaiah's vision. You see, King Uzziah was, for the most part, a very prosperous king.

[5:24] In fact, he reigned for a very long time by the standards in Israel's history. He was the king of Judah for more than 50 years.

[5:36] But his reign came to an end. In fact, he died a very inglorious death because he died as a leper.

[5:46] And his death contrasts with the immortality and the glory of the eternal king, the God who is high and exalted, the one who sits on the throne.

[6:01] See, the throne of God shows us that he has the right to rule the whole world. God's throne is higher than every other throne, and this signifies God's superior power to exercise his authority.

[6:17] Nothing can oppose him, and what he purposes, he accomplishes. In Isaiah 46, verse 10, it reads that, My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.

[6:33] And in Daniel 4, verse 35, He, that is God, does as he pleases with the powers of heaven and the peoples of the earth. No one can hold back his hand or say to him, What have you done?

[6:52] You see, God is in control. He is in control when the COVID pandemic outbreak changed the course of billions of lives in this world in 2020.

[7:04] And that actually meant that my trip here to Kuching at that time was postponed to now. But he was also in control when Nazi Germany killed six million Jews during the Holocaust.

[7:17] He was in control when the 50-meter-toll tsunami wave struck Sumatra on Boxing Day in 2004, killing over 200 people. He was in control during the Boxer Uprising in China when all the missionaries were expelled from the country.

[7:34] But God continued to grow the Chinese church. And God is in control when your loved one is diagnosed with terminal cancer.

[7:48] He is in control when you suffer daily from pain that he doesn't seem to take away. He is in control when you get that notice of redundancy.

[8:00] Now, Tim is one of my co-workers in OMF. He was based in Melbourne at the time. And one day he drove himself home after having a medical procedure.

[8:14] Not the wisest thing to do. But while traveling on the freeway, which goes up to about 100 kilometers per hour, double the speed of the roads around here in Kuching, he blacked out.

[8:27] And when he woke up, his car was wedged between safety barrier and a row of bushes between the northbound and the southbound lanes of the freeway.

[8:40] Cutting a long story short, he walked away with just a small graze on his forehead, but he was shocked by what happened.

[8:51] And his wife was really upset. But no other car was hit. No one else was hurt.

[9:02] And Tim's car went into bushes and barrier, not the concrete pylons that lined the freeway. The next picture will show us his car. At the time, it was complete write-off.

[9:14] But God had his sovereign hand on Tim's life, and God preserved him, because God still had a purpose for Tim. In fact, this accident happened just before he was about to relocate to Singapore for his appointment as one of the international directors for OMF in the area of mobilization.

[9:35] And so from large-scale events in our world to the smallest details of our lives, God is in control.

[9:49] So we meet the almighty king who reigns. That's the first point for today. We do not give him authority or control over our lives. He has it, whether we like it or not.

[10:00] So let us let this omnipotence of God grip us. Let his sovereignty just overwhelm our minds. Let it sink into our hearts, because for those who know and trust in this God, his sovereignty is a refuge of joy.

[10:20] It is a source of peace in our world, which suffers from ever-increasing anxiety. It is a well of power to sustain us in times of uncertainty.

[10:33] And as we think about God's authority over this world and our lives, we must remember the famous words of Jesus before he ascended to heaven. Familiar words to us, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

[10:51] Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations. See, it's from this verse we find the basis for mission. Why bother with the Great Commission?

[11:04] Because Jesus has unrivaled authority. He is king over my life. He is king over your life. And he is king over all the nations.

[11:15] And therefore, we are to obey and make disciples of all nations. You see, God's heart is for the nations. But the nations have turned away from him.

[11:26] They have rejected his kingship. But God's mission now is to claim the nations back to himself. And he wants them to submit to the authority and lordship of Jesus. And this king will return soon.

[11:40] And he will claim what is rightfully his. And that would be the grand finale. It was read earlier in Revelations. That all nations and tribes and tongues will worship Jesus.

[11:53] And all of history will climax at that point. But before that happens, we live in the time before the return of the king.

[12:04] Though his reign has now already begun in each of us. Those of us who he has called out of darkness into his kingdom of light.

[12:14] Now, as mentioned before, I became a Christian here in this very church when I was seven. It was about three weeks or four weeks after my brother himself became a Christian.

[12:27] And I was the last in my family not to be a Christian at the time. So I thought, hey, Lord, I want to join in this bandwagon as well. But it was a genuine conversion. It was a start of a real relationship with the Lord Jesus.

[12:42] Now, for me, it was a guaranteed ticket to heaven. If something happened to me, I knew for sure that I would be with the Lord Jesus. And that's great. It's fantastic, isn't it? But if for me to become a Christian was just about my salvation, then I was really missing the point.

[13:02] Because the Bible tells us of a much bigger story than just my own salvation. You see, it's about God's great story of reclaiming the nations and for all of creation to bow before God and Jesus.

[13:21] In other words, the Lordship of Jesus is very much central to the Bible's message. Now, growing up in, you know, in S.I.B. coaching and hearing sermons week in and week out, it wasn't as though I didn't really hear that message.

[13:37] I heard it. And they are really very explicit in the Bible as well. But for me, the good news that I first understood was more of a me and my God message.

[13:53] That God had rescued me, he had saved me, and yet I was still in that danger of me being in the center. That I was a consumer in charge, shopping around for what suited me best.

[14:08] And of course, God provided the best option for my spiritual and my salvation. He was my guaranteed ticket to heaven. And God served my spiritual need just as Lazada and Shopee serves my Shopee needs here.

[14:24] Sure, I was convicted of my sin, but I was still the driver behind the steering wheel. I went to church every week without fail.

[14:36] I served in the music team on the keyboard. But my focus then was to excel in my studies, to achieve in life, to succeed in life, as the world tells me how to.

[14:49] So I worked hard and I prayed to God for his help. After all, if I did one of my studies, I would bring glory to God, wouldn't I? I would honor my parents, wouldn't I? And so long as I was being a good Christian, I was doing fine.

[15:05] But was I really? The truth is, I failed to grasp the big story of the Bible, where God is in the center, that the gospel is about God's kingdom, not just my own salvation and blessing.

[15:25] And as a uni student, we studied the book of Romans, and I used to see it as Paul's sort of masterpiece description of the gospel, what it means to be saved, what it means to be set free from slavery to sin, to receive righteousness through faith in Jesus.

[15:41] It talks about God's sovereign choice in election, and how therefore I should be a follower of Jesus. But I failed to see the end result of this gospel.

[15:55] And that is, so that all nations might believe and obey Jesus Christ. And this is what mission is. Tim Chester wrote this book called Mission Matters, and he said that the book of Romans, the quote is on the PowerPoint, is all about, the book of Romans is all about mission.

[16:18] And Paul says, Paul is saying that mission is not just my own personal version of Christianity, or my specialist interest.

[16:41] This is the Bible story. So brothers and sisters, do we understand this? Mission is not just my hobby horse because I'm a mission mobilizer.

[16:54] It's not just my personal version of Christianity. Do we understand that the gospel is about God's mission to save the world, and that God's mission work is for each and every one of us?

[17:09] See, we cannot receive the gospel of Jesus without the implications of mission for our lives. So for those of you here who call yourselves a Christian, and who have received Jesus into your life, what are we doing about this?

[17:29] Are we just preoccupied with our own life? Are we just busy managing the affairs of our family? Are we the ones running our own lives, running our own show, just that we ask God to rubber stamp our plans?

[17:49] Many of us have prayed the Lord's Prayer. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Do we know what that really means?

[18:03] What we're really saying here is that we want God to be king over our world, just as he is king in heaven. It means that he is to be king over all facets of my life, over my thoughts, over my family, my kids, over my relationships.

[18:23] He is to be king over my finances as well. But beyond all of this, he is king of how my life is meant to be used, for his mission to reclaim the nations.

[18:36] And this means releasing, for some of us, our children into full-time ministry, as God leads us to. And I know that's really hard, particularly for Asian parents.

[18:47] If we have met Jesus, then our lives cannot remain unchanged.

[18:58] We cannot claim Jesus to be our saviour, but not have him as our Lord too. And it was Hudson Taylor, the founder of China Inland Mission, now known as OMF, who said that Christ is either Lord of all, or he is not Lord at all.

[19:20] Will we submit our lives to his lordship? Will we align our lives to his big story? Now let's move on with our passage.

[19:32] We gain a further description of the Lord and Isaiah's reaction to meeting the king. Verse 2 and 3 describe the seraphims, and they cried out, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty.

[19:46] The whole earth is full of his glory. In the Hebrew language, when a word is repeated three times consecutively, it signifies great importance.

[19:58] It indicates a state of completeness. And so the word holy is used three times to emphasise God's perfect holiness. From what we understand in scriptures, these seraphims are angelic beings.

[20:14] And we know that angels in themselves terrify human beings because of their power and their brilliance. But even these seraphim here, good and great as they are, in the presence of God himself, they had to cover not only their feet, but even their faces.

[20:33] They had to hide in holy fear and reverence from the splendour of God. And if that is how they respond in God's most holy presence, how much more will we tremble before this majestic and most holy God?

[20:52] And in fact, we know that no one can see God's face and live. And so is God safe? Can we meet God and think that we can carry on with life as usual?

[21:08] Let's see what Isaiah did and how he responded. He said, See, God's presence made Isaiah so aware, acutely aware of his total unworthiness.

[21:32] And his only reaction was nothing else but this overwhelming sense of his sinfulness and the judgment that he deserved from God.

[21:44] It was the same when God confronted Job. It was the same when Peter experienced the Lord Jesus with that miraculous catch of fish in Luke chapter 5.

[21:55] See, God's presence made them aware of their sinfulness and their unworthiness. No one will be able to stand before God's holy presence.

[22:07] Every one of us stands guilty of sin. We stand guilty of God's judgment. No amount of goodies or achievements will help us.

[22:19] Isaiah tells us later in chapter 64, verse 6, that all of us have become like one who is unclean and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags.

[22:33] We all shrivel up like a leaf and like the wind, our sins sweep us away. But you know what?

[22:45] There is good news because God is the holy king who saves. That's point two for today. In verse 6, then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand which he had taken with tongs from the altar.

[23:02] And with it he touched my mouth and said, See, this has touched your lips. Your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for. Just as Isaiah experienced God's cleansing, we too can experience this.

[23:19] God has provided the way to be clean and safe through the one and only sacrifice of Jesus. And that is the good news of salvation not only for us but for the three billion people around the world who have not yet heard of this coming king.

[23:37] Not because they don't care, not because they don't have a thought about it, but because they do not have a choice. Three billion people, that's around 40% of the world's population, have no chance of hearing about Jesus because there is no one to tell them.

[24:01] So we meet the sovereign king who rules. He brings about his kingdom. He has authority over our lives. He owns us because he made us. Secondly, we meet the holy king who saves.

[24:14] He has shown us mercy. He has purchased us and redeemed us and he doubly owns us now because he has made us and bought us at the price of the blood of Jesus. And thirdly, we meet the king who commissions.

[24:29] As soon as Isaiah is cleansed of his sin, we hear the voice of the Lord saying, whom shall I send and who will go for us? We encounter the king who commissions.

[24:42] We see the Lord calling Isaiah to serve him, to go to his people to proclaim his message. And what was Isaiah's response?

[24:54] Here am I, send me. Isaiah's desire was to serve the Lord. Isaiah responded willingly and there is no sense of hesitation.

[25:09] What about us? When we meet the holy king who saves us, what is our fitting response? see, when we have been given a new lease in life, what is our rightful response?

[25:22] Romans 12, verse 1, very familiar to most of all of us. Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God.

[25:38] This is your true and proper worship. And so, our rightful response is simply this, that we offer to him our lives for his purpose, for his mission, and for his glory.

[25:56] See, God wasn't a mission to speak his word to the people of Israel. But did God, the almighty king, really need Isaiah to accomplish his plans?

[26:09] Was Isaiah indispensable to God? God, surely the king of kings, the sovereign one, he does not depend on humans to accomplish his purposes, does he?

[26:21] So let's get this straight. God does not need you or me to fulfill his mission plan. He can save the nations without you or I.

[26:33] But God has chosen that he will not save without you. Let me say it again. God has decided that he would use us.

[26:50] He does not need you, but God will not save without you. In his divine wisdom, God has decided that he wouldn't just whisk us up to heaven after we believe in Jesus.

[27:05] He has an unfinished task that he commands us. to be involved in. When God saves us, he makes us his chosen people, his royal priesthood, his holy nation, and the purpose for us now is to declare his praises to the nations.

[27:26] God saved you and me to be his ambassadors, to be his witnesses, and to be his missionaries. God and the great news is that this is in spite of who we are, sinners with our many frailties and weaknesses.

[27:47] It is an amazing partnership that God has chosen to work with, the perfect God using imperfect beings to accomplish his perfect plan.

[27:59] But you may say, me? A missionary? Reaching unreached peoples? Planting churches? Are you out of your mind, David?

[28:13] I'm not a super spiritual Christian. I'm just an ordinary follower of Jesus. I'm not good enough. Well, let me tell you the good news.

[28:25] It is normal to have fears. It is common to have doubts. It is human to have weaknesses. Before we went to Cambodia, Jessica and I had a lot of our own fears to wrestle with.

[28:40] One of my fears was the fear of failure. What if this mission plan to Cambodia does not work out as we imagine it to be? What if after a few years we discover that we cannot cope with the rigors of life there?

[28:56] What if we suffer from illness, burnt out, or trauma? And I'm thankful to the Lord that these fears and doubts did not hold us back from stepping forward in faith.

[29:10] Because we knew that missions is risky. It involves sacrifice. It involves cost. But Jesus himself promised to be with us always as we gave our lives to his mission work.

[29:28] We didn't have any special calling, no special vision or dream. We simply responded to the Bible about the Great Commission. When we realize that God is with us, it gives us the courage to obey.

[29:48] And this, I believe, is one reason why God chose to reveal himself to Isaiah in such a glorious vision.

[30:00] Because if we read further on, Isaiah's prophetic ministry was going to be challenging and depressing to say the least. And I'll read out to you verses 9 to 12.

[30:13] If you have your Bible with you, please look at the verses with me as well. God said to Isaiah, go and tell these people, be ever hearing but never understanding, be ever seeing but never perceiving, make the heart of these people calloused, make their hearts dull and close their eyes, otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.

[30:45] Then I said, for how long, Lord? And he answered, until the cities lie ruined and without inhabitants, until the houses are left deserted and the fields ruined and ravaged, until the Lord has sent everyone far away and the land is utterly forsaken.

[31:09] It is easy to describe Isaiah's ministry as a failure. Imagine preaching to your target audience, knowing that they would never understand.

[31:23] In fact, they would be judged and destroyed. And yet, having encountered the almighty king, Isaiah willingly obeyed.

[31:36] Imagine if you went as a missionary to Japan, with the task of planting churches, and despite over 10 years of toiling, not a single person becomes a Christian.

[31:51] How would you feel? Or you might be thinking, what would your sending church think of your ministry? It was Hudson Taylor, the founder of OMF, more than 150 years ago, who said this.

[32:07] There's a quote on the PowerPoint too. Many Christians estimate the difficulties in the light of their own resources, and thus attempt little, and often fail in the little they attempt.

[32:22] All God's giants have been weak men who did great things for God because they reckoned on his power and presence with them.

[32:34] On the next slide, God isn't looking for people of great faith, but for individuals ready to follow him. Do we shrink back at taking risks for God because we look at ourselves?

[32:51] We ought to be looking at the almighty and sovereign king who is with us. He should be the reason. He should be our strength and resource in all our attempts for God's work.

[33:05] Psalm 50 verse 10 says, For every animal of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills. This whole world, it belongs to our God.

[33:20] Now, some of you may know that my family came back home to Perth nine months early from our four-year term that we were hoping to serve in Cambodia, and it was because of illness.

[33:32] And despite seeking medical treatment in Perth from numerous specialists and physiotherapists, my ongoing knee issues prevented us from returning to Cambodia as long-term missionaries.

[33:44] I attended rehab many times to try and strengthen my knee joints, but it only led to further flare-up of pain and more deconditioning. And over time, with my unresolving health issues, God convinced us that it was his will for us to stay back in Perth.

[33:59] Our plan was for years of ministry in Cambodia. Instead, it was just three and a half years. Was it failure?

[34:11] Was Cambodia a mistake? Did we discern God's leading wrongly? Maybe it was just human bravado. And so the irony is that with hindsight, it would seem as though that fear of failure of mind had indeed become a reality.

[34:28] reality. But I am reminded about God's assurance when we first arrived in Cambodia. Just to be clear, this assurance that we received only happened when we were in the country, not before.

[34:46] It was just our first month in Cambodia in December 2011. And I had set out to buy a second-hand full-length electronic keyboard.

[34:56] And it's a picture of that keyboard on the PowerPoint. And that was Hannah, about a year old. God provided an unknown Indonesian missionary that could speak English to me, to direct me to these shops in the middle of Phnom Penh where they sell second-hand instruments.

[35:16] And of all the four or five stores that were there, only one of them sold the type of keyboard that we were looking for. and there was only one keyboard that kind of suited our budget.

[35:29] And so I bought the keyboard along with a new adapter, a music stand, and pedal too. Now a few days later, I then checked our donations online.

[35:43] And one of our supporting churches in Malaysia had given us an early Christmas gift. and they had transferred that gift to us on the very day that I bought the piano.

[35:57] And it was almost the exact amount. In fact, it was just four dollars more. God reassured us in no mistakable terms that we were where he wanted us to be and that he was with us.

[36:16] And even now, he continues to be with us as we serve him in missions based in Perth. And we thank God that in his economy, nothing is wasted.

[36:28] Because nothing can thwart God's plans, even when we stuff up or circumstances seem to conspire against it. OMF asked us to serve as mission mobilizers in Perth, and that's what we've been doing for the last nine years.

[36:44] And our experience in the field in Cambodia and the preparation leading up to it has been an experience for us to use to encourage others who are thinking about a likewise journey of going out as long-term missionaries.

[36:57] We know the stresses of living cross-culturally, we have made language blunders, we have even experienced medical evacuation. So for four days a week, my ministry now is to work together with churches and individuals, Bible colleges and so on, with the goal of seeing short-term and long-term missionaries sent out, thriving amongst unreached peoples in East Asia.

[37:24] So we mobilized people, prayer, and resources for God's mission work. So what is your response to God and the king who commissions?

[37:39] John Piper puts it very bluntly. He quotes this, we either go, send, or disobey.

[37:50] Either we align our lives and live out the great commission or we disobey our great king. And I believe in a congregation as big as this, there will be some of you whom God wants to go.

[38:09] God has granted you good health in body and mind, but you may say, I'm not a church planter, I'm not an evangelist, I'm not a doctor or a nurse or English teacher, but let me reassure you that God can use anyone.

[38:26] You don't have to have a professional qualification. If you love mountain biking or snowboarding or are great with IT or graphics design or videography, there is a place for you in missions.

[38:42] Nowadays, most of the unreached people groups in the world are found in creative access nations. So the traditional missionary will not be able to enter freely into those places.

[38:56] We need working professionals, business entrepreneurs, missional businesses to form the creative platform for Christians to live amongst and to reach out to these nations.

[39:08] Could that be you? I also believe that not everyone can go out and the reality is that there will be more of you here who will stay behind, but your role back here is equally vital to fulfill the Great Commission.

[39:26] If you know that God wants you back here, then you can be the best sender of missionaries. You can give your skills, your time, and your finances generously and sacrificially to support long-term workers.

[39:42] I mean, how can missionaries go out without support? Why not commit to partner with one missionary, write to them, let them know that you are praying for them, encourage them, send them gifts, and commit to give financially to them on a regular basis, not just a one-off.

[40:01] You can do this even with your home group or your Bible study group. Now, there is a new point I would like to mention here. Being here in Kuching, you can also welcome the nations that God is sending here right at your doorstep.

[40:21] The world is increasingly global, people are on the move, there are migrants, refugees, and foreigners crossing borders, and with that there are many dispersed ethnic groups or nations here in Malaysia.

[40:37] I know that there is an increasing number of Nepalese people in Malaysia, and sadly without much of rights, who are underpaid, and are often ill-treated and forgotten.

[40:48] You can welcome them and share Jesus with them right here at your doorstep. Seize this opportunity because in Nepal, which is the most Hindu nation of the world, it is illegal to preach the Christian faith to the people there.

[41:09] So what is your response to the king who commissions? He says to us, whom shall I send? Who will go for the great king? Our perfect God using imperfect people to accomplish his perfect plan.

[41:25] The almighty God looking for weak vessels to accomplish his master plan. You don't need to have it all together before you respond in obedience.

[41:38] God equips those he calls. You may feel inadequate or weak, but that is actually a good place to be in, depending on God trusting in him, because it is in your weakness that you experience God's power and grace.

[41:58] The almighty king is with you when you seek first his kingdom and his righteousness. A senior missionary once told us to look after the things that are close to God's heart, and he will look after the things that are close to your heart.

[42:16] Several years back, I had the privilege of meeting Alvin and his family. They had two kids, and they were on their way to serve the Lord in Southeast Asia in a creative access nation, and they passed through Perth from the eastern part of Australia, and they were in Perth before they headed out to the mission field.

[42:38] And Alvin had some connections with churches in Perth, and so they spent time with a few of these churches. Now, one of the challenges with entering a creative access country is the visas for the worker that wants to go in.

[42:55] And sure enough, their visa took a long time to come through. There was a ton of paperwork to complete, and the final document they needed was an important invitation letter from the government to present to the embassy in Singapore.

[43:13] Now, in God's perfect timing, they received their invitation letter in the form of a telex on their last day in Perth before they were about to fly out to Singapore.

[43:25] But that telex came with a big bill, a $900 bill too. And of course, this wasn't planned for, it wasn't budgeted for.

[43:38] Later that day, though, the church pastor who was hosting them handed him an envelope which contained the second offering that the church took on that day.

[43:51] And guess what? The offering amount was just over $900. It even covered some of the exchange rate charges. See, how good and faithful is our God.

[44:07] What a strong affirmation for Alvin and his family that they can trust God, that God is utterly reliable and dependable. William Carey said this, expect great things from God, attempt great things for God.

[44:28] Alvin decided to take this risky step of taking his young family to Southeast Asia to live out the gospel and to share the love of Jesus amongst the millions of unreached peoples there.

[44:40] He did this because he had met the sovereign king and he trusted that the Lord of the whole universe, the giver of all good things, will never shortchange him.

[44:55] So what about us? Have we met this sovereign king who rules? Is he only your savior or is he also your master and lord?

[45:07] And this king that we meet, he commissions us, his people, to go and make disciples of all nations? Will we obey him? Will we trust in him?

[45:20] Let us pray. Our heavenly father, we are reminded of your great sovereignty, the great king, the one who rules over all nations, who sits enthroned in heaven, rules over this whole world.

[45:44] You are the God who has saved us. Lord, and I pray as we reflect on what you are saying to us. Lord, give us courage to obey and to respond to you.

[45:57] Lord, your heart is for the nations. And I pray, Lord, that you would take away any obstacles or anything that would prevent us from living out the life that you would call us to live.

[46:10] But that we may participate, Lord, in the great joy of seeing more and more lives turned to Jesus. Lord, for at the end of the day, Lord, all peoples that you have saved will worship you.

[46:24]  So we ask for your help right now. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen.