“The Great Commission and Our Ministry” By General Pastor Peter F. Paine February 25th,
2018 Please be seated. It is a privilege to be here with you
today. I am
very, very, very thankful. For those of you who are here for your first
time, I
pray that you will be truly blessed today, and I hope that none of the
ceremonial aspects, or appreciation aspects, of the service take away
anything
from your personal blessing of being here today. And, that you will
understand
that we are a family that simply loves God, and is loved by God, and we
seek to
do our best to let that show in a way that is contagious. And, I'll share a little of my testimony today. I was
nineteen years
old—nope, I'll back up: I was eighteen years old and I went in the
United
States Navy. I had been seeking God and I didn't grow up in church. I
grew up
believing there was a God, but I didn't have any idea, really, of how
to
connect. I had never read the Bible. I believed that the Bible was
God's Word,
but I had never studied it, never read it, and I was stationed in San
Diego,
California. And, I can remember very clearly the night that I cried out
and
said, “God, if you're real, please show me.” it was that simple prayer
from a
simple person that was just speaking to the question, “God are you
real? And,
if You are real, please show me.” A few months later, I get orders to
Great
Lakes, right here. And, I met a guy—my story, in that part, is very
similar to
yours, Pastor Ulysse—I met a guy, and he was selling drugs. And, he and
I were
working in the galley together, I was a cook, that was my job
description. And,
I kept saying to him, “Ray, you shouldn't be doing that. You're going
to end up
going to the brig, getting dishonorably discharged, and really, it's
going to
cause you trouble the rest of your life. You're going to regret this;
stop it.”
I was doing everything I could, as just a shipmate, a friend, to try to
help
him to choose a better path, but, he wasn't having it. And, one day he
walked
into work, and, those of you in the military know that the galley opens
up, the
place where we—by the way Pastor Ulysse used the term, and if you've
never been
in the Navy, you may not know the term, ‘mess crank,’ but it just means
you're
working in the galley, or the kitchen. And, that's where I was, and I
was
working in the kitchen—that’s not a qualification to be part of this
ministry,
by the way. You in this church know that Pastor Ulysse and I were both
working
the galley. But, and, he came in, and it was zero-three-forty-five,
3:45 a.m.,
and he shouted across the mess deck, to the staff lounge, “Pete, I
threw away
all my drugs!” and, I'm looking around to see how many chiefs might be
around
to have heard that declaration, and he said, “I'm a Christian! My life
is
changed.” And, I wanted to hear his story. And, of course, he said,
“Come with
me. I want to take you to the place where I'm learning about Jesus.”
That place
was a pizza restaurant in North Chicago. It's no longer there, but it
was there
then, and that night we had greasy pizza and a Bible study, and I
learned about
Jesus, and I accepted Him as my Lord and Savior. And, August eleventh,
1973, I
was baptized in the precious name of Jesus, and I'm still here today,
and I was
excited when I get started. I was very excited when I get started. And,
one of
my concerns was what I stay excited? And, I can tell you that I’m more
excited,
today, than I was when I began. Pastor Ulysse, Parrish Lee, Andy Giebler, and I, have spent
the last
two days together, talking about ministry, and how we can work together
most
effectively in ministry. And, I want to share with you today from my
heart that
I am so thankful for what each and every one of you do to make this
ministry
great. And, as I prayed for wisdom, “God, what can I share today? What
can I
share that would be meaningful? What can I share that would help a
person that
might be here today, and you're just really looking and asking the
question
that I was asking back in 1973, God, if you're real, please show me.”
or, what
can I say to the person who's been living for Christ for many, many
years, and,
you feel like, “How do I fit in?” What can I share to the person who's
been
here, today, and you know exactly how to fit in, but, you feel like, “I
need
people to come alongside me. The fields are white to harvest, the
laborers are
few, I can't keep doing this alone. We need more people to be part of
it.” and,
I was praying for wisdom, “What can I share to people who are in
different
stages of your walk of life? So that God can speak to you, today,
through His
Word, through His Holy Spirit, and speak to you, and say, “I have a
message for
you. I have an answer for you. I have direction for you. I have hope
for you. I
have a place for you.” and I hope that, today, God will do this for
each and every
one of you. My prayer is that each of us will leave today, myself
included, and
say, “I have clearer direction, today, than I had yesterday.” My prayer
is that
each of us will leave with the awareness that God is clearly leading
us, as a
family, and, us as individuals. Amen? How many times have you, those of you that really have a
walk with the
Lord, and you know that God is giving you direction, and the direction
that He
gave you wasn't what you, personally, wanted to do? And, yet, when you
carried
it out, you look back, and you say, “I'm so thankful that I did. I'm so
thankful that I did.” Some hands go up. And, you know, sometimes, when
I'm
teaching on that, I try to add a little humor to truth, and I make the
point,
that there have been many, many times in our forty-two years of
marriage, Debby
and I, that I have apologized to her, knowing that I was right, and she
was
wrong, only to find out later, that I was wrong and she was right. Can
you
imagine how glad I was that I apologized? Right? Well, a little humor
in that
truth, but, how many times do we need to apologize to God, and say,
“God, I
haven't acted the way I should have. I haven't followed your Word the
way I
should have. I haven't yielded the way I should have. I haven't been
tender-hearted the way I should have. I haven't stood fast the way I
should
have.” Whatever it is. Amen? And, I'm not here, today, to put anyone
down. But,
I am here to say, “Can we draw closer to Christ? Can we draw closer to
our Lord
and Savior? Can we say, ‘Lord, I want a closer walk with you.’?” And,
then, do
whatever it takes to get that closer walk. But, let go of whatever it
is that
we’re holding on to that might separate us from the God that loves us,
and that
we love. Amen? You know, we can get into
our routines and our rituals, and they can get in the way of us serving
God.
And, sometimes we make mistakes, and then we repeat them, and pretty
soon it
becomes a habit. And, that's true for all of us. You know, you read
through the
Old and the New Testament, and you read about people who loved God, and
served
God, and had a zeal for God, and they were doing great things for God,
and then
they slipped, and they fell. And they had to get back up. It's hard to
get back
up and face forward after you’ve made a mistake. It's hard to admit
that you
have a haughty Spirit when you're doing so much for the glory of God.
It's hard
to admit that you become stubborn or stiff-necked when you know that
you're a
Christian and you live for God, but I have had to do all those things.
I've had
to recognize that I've let my heart get hardened to certain situations
or even
certain people, and said, “God, help me have a soft heart. Help me to
see it
through Your eyes. Help me see it Your way.”. And, so, not just the
last two
days, but I've been praying for wisdom. How can we work together more
effectively as a ministry? And, many of you know, Christian Fellowship
Ministries International and who we are, and what we feel our unique
calling
is, and, sometimes when I'm explaining it to people, I use this
example: you
know, every Christian ministry has, really, the same Great Commission.
If you
choose Matthew 28:19, you don't have to pull it up. It's Christ
speaking— you
can if you want—Christ was speaking, and just to set the scene a little
bit, in
Matthew 28:19, to set the chronology of it, so Christ came, and He did
His ministry
on Earth, and He was crucified, resurrected, and now He returns, and He
speaks
to those who walked closest with Him. He speaks to those that He had
been with,
that He had broke bread with, He instructed them, He showed them how to
do the
work, right? Then, He gives them what we call, the Great Commission. He
gives
them this final instruction, “Okay, this is what you're going to spend
the rest
of your life doing. This is what you're going to spend the rest of your
life
doing.” And this was the instruction they wanted, they needed. What do
we do
now? The One that we walked with, the One that we went about, and we
saw Him do
miracles, we saw Him open blinded eyes, we saw Him heal the lame, we
saw Him
crucified, and now He's back, and He's saying, “Okay, this is what
you're going
to do for the rest of your lives.” and He said, “Go ye
therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the
Father, and
of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: 20
teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you:
and, lo, I
am with you alway...” Isn't that powerful? “I'm with you always!
You
might not see Me, but I'm there.” Amen? “You might not see me, but I'm
there.
I'm with you always.” And that's the Great Commission. He said, “Go ye
therefore, teach...” that's the first word of the Great Commission.
Teach.
Teach where? Your neighborhood, your school, your community, He told
them all
nations. Well, how do you teach all nations? You don't do it alone. You
don't
do it alone. No one of us, no group of us could teach all nations.
Amen? It
takes a whole body of believers. Now, I want to spend some time with
you today,
talking about this Great Commission and how it relates to this ministry
that
God's called us to, and how our ministry relates to the bigger family,
the body
of Christ. Amen? And, then, come back down, and talk about how we, in
Great Lakes,
how we, here in Waukegan, in this congregation, and in the military
fellowship
that's within this congregation, how do we work together with our
brothers and
sisters around the world, how we do all that? And, I hope that today,
each and
every one of us will leave with a little bit more clear of vision of
how we do
that together. Because, one of the things that you're preaching this
month is on
the topic of unity, amen? And, so, one of the things that the devil
tries to do
is to divide us. Right? When I went into basic training in the Navy,
the person
who was going to train us— back then, we used the term company
commander. Now,
I think, what is it, division commander? What do you call the person
that trains
you in basic training? RDC. Recruit division commander. That's why I'm
not the
Navy today, I don't have enough of that vocabulary. I used to. Recruit
division
commander; did I do better? Thank you. Okay, RDC. Recruit division
commander.
But, back then, we didn't speak like that, we just said, “Chief.” But,
the
point is, the first night that we went in, he talked to us. We still had our long hair, our civilian
clothes, we hadn't gone through anything yet, you know, any of our
training
yet, we had just arrived from the airport, or the bus station, or
wherever it
was, and we all gathered together. There were eighty-three of us in a
room. And
we're all looking around at each other. We had all come from different
places
around the country, you know? Some of us came from cities, some of us
came from
farms, some of us—you know, all different people, all different places,
and,
for most of us, it was really quite a new experience, to be there with
people
we'd never met before. And different lifestyles, and so on. You know,
southern
accents, and northern accents, and people told me I had a funny accent,
and I said,
“No, you're the one with the funny accent.” you know, like that. So,
all that
stuff. And, he says, “Hey, here's the deal, guys. You're eighty-three
individuals tonight. Not everybody will graduate. Some of you won't
make it.
Some of you will decide to quit, and you'll find a way out. And, some
of you,
you'll want to stay, but you won't make it. But, however many of you
graduate,
and, I would guess it's going to be somewhere between seventy-five and
eighty,
when we leave, you're not going to be eighty-three individuals, you're
going to
be one unit.” Does that mean that I was no longer Pete Paine? No, of
course
not. Did that mean that I was no longer an individual human being? Of
course
not. But, what it meant was, we thought like a unit, we thought like a
company,
and company, by the way, for civilians, that's just what they call the
group of
people that go through basic training together. Has that changed? We
called it
a company in basic training. That's the eighty of us that went through
training
together. I was in company 352. That's a lot of years ago. Okay? So,
here we
go. He says, “You're going to think like one unit.” and, I think, and
some
ways, it's a lot like that in Christianity. Yes, we're individuals.
Yes, we
have our own likes and dislikes. You might like this style of music, I
might
like that style of music, you might like—there's lots of things that we
can
disagree on. But, salvation, the Gospel message, we have to agree on.
And, to
be effective in ministry—watch this—to be effective in ministry, we
have to be
able to work together. So, if we believe that, and we agree with that,
then,
what is one of Satan's great goals? Division. Which is the opposite of
unity.
To get us divided, right? Parrish doesn't like me. I don't like
Parrish. Division.
Unity. Right? I walk by him and he sneezes, and what I thought he did
was
snicker. You know, (snort) I don't like him. So, I don't say, “God
bless you,”
I say, “God, get him.” Are you with me? And, if we don't stop the
devil, if we
don't stop the devil from separating us and dividing us, we won't be
able to
accomplish what God wants us to accomplish. Amen? That's just simple,
basic
truth. That's not deep theological teaching. I'm not here to impress
anybody
today with deep theological teaching, I'm here to preach a simple
gospel
message and, hopefully, each and every one of us will look and see ways
that
may be we've shifted a little bit, where we're not working in the unity
and the
harmony that we need to in order to effectively do what God has called
us to
do. Amen? It's happened to me. It's happened in my family, it's
happened in ministry,
it's happened in life. Amen? So, here we
go: The first three words—put the whole mission statement up, if you
would,
Pete, it’s just a simple ten-word mission statement for our
International
Ministry, and for those of you who aren't familiar, let me explain:
like most
churches, we have a headquarters church. Our headquarters church is
currently
in Norfolk, Virginia. Okay? And, we have a congregation there, you have
a
congregation here. Within that congregation, we have what we call, an
Outreach,
or a fellowship to the military. Because, that's a large military area
there in
Norfolk. That's a group of people especially work with the military.
But, in
the congregation, we work with everybody that we can work with; young,
old,
civilian, military, it doesn't matter. Amen? One of the great things
about
Christian Fellowship that I like, is our diversity. Not every church
has that.
I'm thankful that we do. I'm thankful that we do. I think it's a great
blessing
that we have in Christian Fellowship that not every church has, and I
love it.
I love that when I first met our founding pastor, Pastor Davis, who
passed away
in 1999, that was one of the things that he had a strong heart for. I
appreciated it then, and I appreciate it now. And, so, our headquarters
congregation is in Norfolk, Virginia. This congregation also has a
military fellowship
in it. Phil and Alex lead the charge of working on the base, they're
not the
only ones, but they lead the charge for the military work on the base.
Why?
Because, we feel that within the Christian calling that I referenced in
the
Great Commission, “Go you therefore and teach All Nations...” that God
gives
many ministries a specialty area; some for homeless, some for food
shelters,
some, you know, for a place for—it just could be a variety of things.
When you
hear Campus Crusade for Christ, you know that that's an outreach
ministry to
college campuses, right? That's their area that they feel a unique
calling to.
Some ministries feel unique calling to developing nations, or third
world
countries. And, they feel like their work is to do mission work in
other
places. We feel that the area that God has called us to do, in addition
to the
obvious calling of Christianity for all of us, is to have a connection
with
military. One of the reasons that that's a really important thing to do
it's
because of the transient nature of military. You might be stationed in
a place
for three months, for example, for a school. Well, how do you connect
with a
church in three months? I mean, Don was looking for a church, he found
one. My
twin brother was in the Navy for a career. When we got out of high
school I
went in the Navy as a career as an enlisted person, and Paul, my twin
brother,
went to college. Four years later, I was getting out of the Navy and
Paul was
coming in the Navy. So, he came in as an officer, as an ensign, and,
then, he
retired, many years later, as a captain. And, so, the reason I mention
that is
Paul accepted the Lord, he and his wife, I had the privilege to baptize
them,
and he said, “One of the greatest challenges that he, and most military
families face, is, every time they go to a new duty station, is finding
a
church.” That was before we have the network that we have in ministry.
And, our
prayer, and our goal is, that we could say to people who were going
from here
to Norfolk, or from Norfolk to Jacksonville, or Jacksonville to San
Diego, or
San Diego to Honolulu Hawaii, or Yokosuka Japan, or Everett Washington,
and so
on, and, the places that I just mentioned, we have fellowships in all
those
places. And, our prayer, and our goal is getting a stronger, more
seamless
connection for that, so that as people travel—you say, “Well, what does
that
have to do with me?” that's one of the things I hope to share today
that will
be helpful for all of us to see, that you are a part of that, and a big
part,
in a big way. And it doesn't take from you, it blesses you, and, it
doesn't
take from the military to be part of your fellowship, or congregation,
depending on the nature of where you're at, but it blesses. it's a
win-win
scenario, and I hope to talk about that in a way that's meaningful
today. So, let's take the word, ‘educate.’ We all know that—go back
to Matthew
28:19, “Go ye therefore and…” what? Teach. That's to educate; that's to
teach,
right? Go ye therefore and teach All Nations, right? Okay, so... So, let's take the word, ‘evangelize,’ that's the first word
in our ten-word
mission statement. So the first word is evangelize, that's letting your
light
shine. That's to go out and tell people about Jesus, amen? It's to go
out and
tell people about Jesus. Sometimes that starts with a simple, “God
bless you,”
sometimes it's a family member, sometimes it's a stranger, but— show of
hands: how
many of you believe that Christians have a calling, a responsibility to
evangelize? One way or another, you have an opportunity to tell others
about
your Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen? I don't mean that you have to stand on
the
street corner and preach, but, what I do mean is, that you have to
prayerfully
look for ways to be a testimony of Christ. Amen? Don't try to hide it
under a
bushel, Scripture says (Matthew 5:15), but, be like a candle that is
set on a
candlestick that gives light to the whole house. Amen? Amen? So, this
idea of
evangelizing, can we accept that that's a universal call to
Christianity?
Evangelize? Okay, but, it's also a call within Christian Fellowship,
isn't it?
And, that doesn't matter what part of Christian Fellowship you're in.
You could
be a part of this congregation, a part of the military fellowship here,
it
doesn't matter. But, the better people get at evangelizing, in
Jacksonville Florida,
which is one of our fellowships, does that help the whole ministry? The
better
you get at evangelizing, here in our congregation in Waukegan, or Great
Lakes,
we call it, does that help the whole ministry? So, we're working
together.
Sometimes, we don't see each other; we don't know what's happening in
other
places. And we're trying to get better and better and better at
communicating
that, so that we feel more connected with the whole body of Christian
Fellowship, which is a part of the body of Christ. But, can you see how
evangelism anywhere helps everywhere? Amen? And then, to educate, and I
spoke
on that. And then to equip, to give people the tools. One of the
things that
we've been working on, very diligently, in our headquarters, is to have
the
tools to equip people. So that people who travel can stay connected
with ministry.
And, that might not seem so important to you, to those who are in a
congregation, to those who are in a congregation. Because, you say, “I
come
every Sunday, I get fed, and I get nourished,” but, what about what
happens to
the person who's out at sea for six months? That's on deployment, and
they
don't have a church that they can go to, they don't have a place they
can go?
And, we have those tools, those resources to equip people, so that they
can
continue to study the Word of God and grow in the Word of God and
receive
Fellowship. Someone said to me this morning—I don't remember who it
was— “I
enjoy seeing you online,” something to that effect. “I enjoy watching
you on
the internet,” because we have broadcasts. We have different tools. We
have
people that go out to sea, and write us letters, and say, “it's such a
blessing
that I was able to download all the information, so that even when I
don't have
an internet connection, I have a constant support system of ministry.”
Now, if
somebody's out to sea, and, let's say, their ship is stationed in
Yokosuka,
Japan, where we have a fellowship, and they continue to grow in God,
does that
bless the whole ministry? Of course it does. Who knows, but, that
person might,
their next set of orders might be to come to Great Lakes as an
instructor, and
then, they would not only be part of the military fellowship here, at
Great
Lakes, but part of this congregation? Amen? Pete, you still teach on
base, but
you were a military instructor here at Great Lakes, before you got out
of the
Navy, right? So, here we go, we all work together. And, I think that
sometimes
we forget how connected we are. We forget how intertwined we are. We
forget how
much it matters. Does that make sense? Short story: some of you've heard this one, because some of
you have
heard some of my childhood stories; I was eleven years old, maybe
twelve years
old, when my oldest brother went to Vietnam, and, so, you know, he was
out of
sight and out of mind; one more bedroom for the rest of us to share;
there were
six kids in a five-bedroom house. Mom and dad got one of those, so that
means
that, you know, some of us were sharing a room. And, so, when my
brother Steve
left for Vietnam, I thought, “Great!” Jim gets that room; Gary gets out
of our
room. Paul and I are sharing a room now. So, one less person in our
room. So, I
was real happy he went to Vietnam. And, every morning, my dad would put
an
eight and a half by eleven notepad on the kitchen table, and he’d say,
“Don't leave
the house until you write something to Steve.” Every morning, he put an
eight
and a half by eleven notepad on the kitchen table and say don't leave
‘til
you... Every night, he would add to that letter and put it in an
envelope and
send it. Sometimes Steve would get those ten at a time, because that's
just the
way the mail ran. But, you know, he passed those around to all of his
shipmates.
And, he said they all liked them. Because we’d write stupid stuff,
like, “We
had hamburgers last night; I got two. Stay there.” Silly stuff. Does
that make
sense? But, you know what? my dad was reminding us with that eight and
a half
by eleven, we're still family. He may be halfway around the world, but
he’s
still your brother. And it matters. And you can't just forget him
because you
don't see him. Amen? And we have brothers and sisters around the world.
We
can't forget them, because we don't see them. And they can't forget you
because
they don't see you. Because everyone blesses everyone. A rising
tide—you might
want to write this down; I don't know—a rising tide lifts all ships.
Everyone
that is a blessing, blesses everyone that will be blessed. We are a
family. We
are a ministry. So, the next part of our mission statement is: “Providing
Christian
fellowship and spiritual support worldwide.” I sometimes think that we
forget
that when we—Pastor Ulysse, you shared today that you were taught Bible
studies. One of the people that taught you Bible studies was Joe
Ramirez.
Right, Joe? So, then Pastor Ulysse leaves here, he goes to Norfolk. He
was stationed
there, and he was a blessing in the congregation there. Pastor Thomas
continue
to mentor and teach Pastor Ulysse. Right? Pastor Ulysse leaves Norfolk,
he goes
to Florida, he starts at church there, he leaves Florida, to go to
Haiti, to
start a work there. Now, I don't think Joe Ramirez can take credit for
the work
in Haiti, any more than I can take credit for the work in Haiti,
because I
baptized Pastor Ulysse, but, if Joe hadn't taught, if I hadn't
baptized, if Pastor
Ulysse hadn't heard, our school today in Haiti, that you're a part of,
has over
six hundred students. Is that right? Because I heard a different number
the
other day; it was seven hundred. It's close to seven hundred. I'm
anxious to
say seven hundred. But, we're building a new kindergarten. That work
started—do
you know how that work started? Yes, give the Lord of praise. That's a
powerful
work. You're touching over seven hundred lives in that school in Haiti
with the
work that you do here, you say, “In this rented building, on this metal
folding
chair?” Absolutely, in this rented building, on this metal folding
chair. Amen!
We're in it together, amen? We're in it together, amen? How many of you
have
had the privilege to go to Haiti and see the work there? Kirk, Joe,
Parish, I'd
love for many more of you to go. Pastor Ulysse takes a trip with a
group of
people, every year, he goes several times. In fact, four days after we
get back
from this trip, Pastor Ulysse will leave for Haiti. He'll be there,
with the
leaders and the teachers there. And, that's out in the village
churches, too.
We have several churches throughout the island nation of Haiti, and, we
also
now have a thriving and growing ministry in the Dominican Republic. And
you're
part of that ministry in the Dominican Republic. And, some of you might
be
sitting here, sort of feeling like, “Why do I need to hear this? Why
does this
matter to me?” Because, it all starts with each of us realizing that
we’re part
of the body of Christ and we impact each other. Amen? When Paul was in prison, he wrote letters. And he thanked
people for
their support. Long after they couldn't see him. Long after they
couldn't visit
with him. Long after he couldn't visit with them. But, he thanked them
for
their support. And, the ministry continued. And, how did he close his
letters?
Thanking God for their faithfulness, for their continuing in the Word.
And I
pray that what happens today is, the we get reminded afresh that we’re
part of
the body of Christ, amen? And, many of you help support the
international
ministry. And, that support helps to do things in San Diego,
California. And Yokosuka,
Japan, and Honolulu, Hawaii. It helps support trips. This weekend,
right now,
as we speak today, Todd Morgan, who many of you know, and also, Bill
Griffiths
are in South Carolina at the marine base. I just drew a blank. I'm a little embarrassed that I just drew a
blank, but it's brand new to us, it's a new fellowship that has just
started,
and Pastor Ulysse and I spoke to them last night, and had a prayer with
them,
and, I was in Charlotte, two weeks ago visiting our fellowship there.
And, so
when you support International, you’re supporting all that work.
Beaufort,
that's it, thank you. Beaufort, South Carolina. And, so, Byram and Seth
who are
Marines, were stationed there, benefited from the visit, and the
fellowship,
and they were able to invite their fellow Marines out to the study they
had
last night on the base, there in Beaufort South Carolina, and you're a
part of
that. You're a part of that. So, I came to tell you today don't look
around and
count how many people are here today, and think that that's the part of
the
ministry that you're a part of. You're part of a much bigger ministry
than you
see. And, we can't forget you, and I'm asking you not to forget us.
We're in
this together; we minister to each other. And, we're getting better and
better
at the resources on the website. We're going to talk a lot about that
at the
church conference coming up. But, when we provide Christian fellowship, let me explain
something:
I'm going to come back, I'm going to circle back, and try to nail down
this
point a little bit harder. When you provide Christian fellowship for
someone
here, you're strengthening the whole ministry. And, when we say provide
Christian fellowship, sometimes that's visiting in a prison. Sometimes
it's
visiting another base, like Todd and Bill are doing today, in Beaufort
South
Carolina. Sometimes it's visiting a fellowship—like Debby and I had the
chance
to do two weeks ago—Charlotte. And you're a part of that. You said,
“Well, just
my money goes there,” no, your heart goes there. It matters. We're
family. You
might not see all your brothers and sisters this side of Heaven, but
we're a
large family. We're a big family, and we're in this together. Can the
church
say amen? Well, what does that matter to me? Well, you know what? It's
possible, that in some cases, you might not see the benefits of our
bigger
family this side of Heaven. But, does it matter to you that you might
be a part
of seeing someone saved? Does it matter to you that you might be a part
of
seeing someone saved that's going to go out to do a work—did you catch
how
powerful that is that Pastor Ulysse was just a sailor stationed here?
And when
I say just a sailor, I'm saying, you know, no status in ministry. When
I say
just a sailor, I don't mean that as a negative thing. You know, no one
looked
at Pastor Ulysse when he was in “A” school, and said, “Wow! He's a
bishop!”
right? Right? But, somebody shared a Bible study with him, somebody
baptized him,
somebody encouraged him. What he got stationed in Norfolk, which was
the
continuation of being part of this body, right? The body of Christian
Fellowship, which is part of the body of Christ. He continued to get
mentored
and taught. And, now, over six hundred children, today—that's just one
work in
Haiti. The school. Does it excite you to know that you're a part of
that? And,
was it just two weeks ago that Charlene Turner was just up here sharing
about
the work, and One Hope for Haiti? How many people did that encourage?
To see
that work that's there, to know that you're a part of it? Amen? And,
whether
you sponsor a child there or not, you're still part of it, if you're
part of
Christian Fellowship, because that work matters. And, by the way, if
you don't
know how big that work is—what I mean by big is how important that work
is, do
you know that in Haiti, if you don't go to private school, you don't go
to
school? They don't have public schools. “Well,
you know, if they don't go to our
school they’ll go somewhere.” They won't. They don't have public
schools. How
many school teachers do we have here? Abby's here, who else? Mrs.
Razumov, Linda,
you know? Our children are blessed; they always have places to go. And,
the
fortunate ones get great public schools. Some people choose private
schools. But,
everybody has a school. That's not true in Haiti. Some children grow up
in
Haiti without school. They don't learn how to write. They don't
learn—and, do
you know what that means for the rest of their life? And, you're making
a
difference in them. You say, “Pastor,
what's this message about today?” That we get to be a part of a family
that
makes a difference. We get to be a part of a family that makes a
difference.
And, we don't always see the fruit of that labor this side of Heaven.
We don't
always see the through that labor this side of Heaven. Does anybody
remember
that song? It's an old song, it’s a stretch, it's a Ray Boltz song,
it’s a
ballad, and the name of it is, “Thank you.” And, it's, thank you for
what you
did for the Lord. And, the song is about people speaking from Heaven,
and one
of the people speaking from Heaven, in the song, is someone who says,
“Thank you,
you were the bus driver that drove the church bus that took me to the
church
where I gave my heart to the Lord. Because of you, I'm here today.”
And, it
goes on, with different examples like that. So, if you're a church bus
driver,
for example, do you know how big your work is? Do you know how big your
work
is? Pastor Davis used to say, “Ushers are the most important people in
church, because
they're the first smile anybody sees. amen? And, by the way, I want to
talk
about this building for a minute. We're going to outgrow it, and we're
going to
have our own building, and, we're talking about that this week. But, so
what if
we— isn't this a great place to see people saved? Isn't this great
place? When
we were worshipping in the early days of ministry, here, and some of
you
remember a building that was on Washington Street that we rented for a
while. It
was 1614 Washington Street. Our chapel, our chapel, I’m going to say it
again,
our chapel was smaller than the entranceway of this building. Smaller
than the
greeting area with the little couches out here, I mean, the chapel was
smaller
than that. So, one night— I share this with Parrish and Andy just
yesterday or
the day before—so, it was a New Year's Eve service, and I had invited
somebody
to service, and they came and they were a pretty wealthy person, a
business
owner in the community, and, so, when they walked in, I started to say,
“I apologize
for our small building, that we're renting,” it's not a church
building, it's
like an office converted to a church, and the Holy Spirit spoke to me,
and
said, “Are you going to apologize for
what I've given you?” and, I said, “Welcome
to our building. We're so thankful for what God has provided us with.”
Can we
give the Lord a praise? Don't ever apologize for what God's given you.
Don't
ever apologize for what God has given you. Don't ever apologize that
you don't
know as much as somebody else or that you can't speak. I'll tell you a story: some of you will like this because
it'll give you
a chance to laugh at me. And, I mean that in a positive way. So, as I
was
saying, when I was senior pastor up here, before we went to Norfolk, I
visited
Norfolk, and I taught a Bible study one night. And, so, I had a
horrible, bad
sinus headache, I mean, I shouldn't have taught. I should have stayed
home.
But, I thought, “I'm going to press through, and teach.” It was a
mistake, the
people deserved better. So, I didn't do good. And, you might be
thinking, “Do you
have a sinus headache today?” I didn't do good. But,
I did what I could, and, so, afterwards,
there was a young guy who happened to be visiting from the Navy base,
sharp
man. And, he said to me, he said, “You gave me a lot of hope tonight. A
lot of
encouragement.” And I said, “I'm glad to hear that.” And he said, “Let
me tell
you how.” He said, “You're a terrible
Bible study teacher, and, I figure, if you could do it, I can do it,”
and, I
remember exactly what I said to him, “I'm glad I could encourage you.
God bless
you. Step away before I hurt you.” You
know.
And, it's just one of those things where, you know, you just do your
best, and
if you don't know, you don't know, sometimes, the seeds you plant, you
don’t know,
sometimes. He was sincere, he thought, “Wow,” because, the way they
introduced
me, “He must be somebody. I can do this,” you know?
So, I tell you that to say, don’t ever
underestimate the impact that you have. When I became a Christian, I
knew one
verse, and I went back to my barracks, and I went to a guy that was
willing to
listen, and I said, “Hey, I know a Bible verse,” and I shared it with
him, and
then I said, “You want to give your heart to the Lord?” and he said,
“Yeah.”
and I thought, “Man, I'm an evangelist! I'm awesome. I rock!” and you
rock.
And, I hope what's happening today, in this simple, straightforward,
sort of country-bumpkin
message, if that's what it is, I don't know, is that you feel like,
“You know
what? That’s right, I am part of a big family. I do matter. It's not
just the
people I see in the room that I worship in.” Our family is a big,
beautiful,
wonderful family. The weekend of June 22nd to 24th, we're going to
have, what
we call, our International Conference. And it's going to be in our
headquarters
congregation in Norfolk, Virginia, and the International Ministry will
host it.
But, that's your conference. That's your conference. And I hope you can
come,
and I hope you can be a part of it. Some of you will be able to come
early and
stay late. I hope you do. And, Pete Shepherd, by the way, is helping grow the church
in Norfolk grow.
He just had another grandchild. So, there you go, there's Pete's
efforts, right
there. Who knew? He's helping the church in Norfolk grow. Thank you. I
love you
all more than I know how to tell you. So, the last part of our mission statement is spiritual
support
worldwide. I touched on that before, but I want to, I want to spend a
little
more time on that. What you do goes around the world, what do you do
really
matters, what you do makes a difference to brothers and sisters that
need that
difference. Amen? And my prayer is to get better and better at feeling
that, around
the world, so that our fellowship in Yokosuka, Japan, knows that you're
praying
for them. And, the people, here, know that you're being lifted up, and
prayed
for, and loved by those around the world, wherever they are. Whether
they're on
a ship out at sea, or in another congregation, or another fellowship.
We're in
this thing together. We're working on ways to get better and better.
I'm going
to share a lot at the International Conference about the tools that
we've been
putting in place, advancing education, and our website, and different
interactive tools so people can be mentored long distance. Those are
things
that most ministries don't do, because they don't feel the heart to
connect
with people that are traveling. But, we feel that that's what God's
laid on our
hearts. We are working at ways to meet that challenge. And, do better
at it
every day. And, so, I want to spend the moment on a verse that is truly
my whole
heart verse, a verse that I believe is—you know, sometimes people will
say, “What's
your favorite verse?” I believe this is the one that I feel most called
to represent,
and that's Matthew, chapter five, verse sixteen. In Matthew 5:16, Jesus
Christ
is speaking, and He says these simple words: He
said, “Let your light…” let your light, you as an
individual, you
have a light, it could be a kind word to somebody, it could be a kind
word to
somebody, and you don't know, you don't know, how much a kind word
means, how
much a kind word matters. My fourth grade teacher—I'm going to tell a
story
that's so embarrassing. Some of you know that when I was ten, my mother
had a
cerebral hemorrhage that left her blind, paralyzed, and she spent the
rest of
her life in a nursing home. That was third grade. So,
my fourth grade teacher, Mrs. Kern, knew
I had a problem. She didn't know what it was. But she reached out to
me, and
she cared. She took me to my father and talked to him. She said
“Something's
wrong with Peter,” and she worked with me until they figured it out.
You know
what? If Mrs. Kern hadn't helped me, as an eleven-year-old boy, I might
not be
here today.
I might have taken a very different
path. I never—once, once I knocked on Mrs. Kern’s door, after I got out
of high
school, I was at home on leave from the Navy, and I thanked her. Once.
After
all the years, I went back, and I said, “Mrs. Kern, I was in your
fourth grade.” “Oh, I remember you,
Peter.” she
didn't remember
my face, but as soon as I said, “Pete Paine,” “Oh, I remember you,
Peter.” I said,
“I remember you too, Mrs. Kern. Thank you.” How many of you are Mrs.
Kern, or Mr.
Kern to somebody? You’re helping them on their journey, and you may
never see
them again this side of Heaven, but you matter to their life. You make
a
difference. I left out the embarrassing part, where the principal said,
“I have
three sons. I have spanked you more, this year, then I spanked all my
sons in
their entire lives. What is wrong with you, son?” I said, “I don't
know, Mr. Ruby,
I really don't know. if I knew, I would change it. Clearly, something
is wrong,
though.” That's all I'll tell about that. I love you. God is performing miracles here. I'm so excited
about how
God's blessing. I'm so excited about how God's ministering. And, you're
encouraged, in spite of the fact that you don't see a lot of growth.
Don't let
the devil tell you that we don't have what we need to succeed. Don't
let the
devil tell you that we don't have what we need to grow. Don't let the
devil
tell you that we're shrinking. My God’s not shrinking. My God’s
growing. My God’s
growing. My God is exciting in my life, is your God exciting in your
life? If He
isn't, then ask why, and say, “God how can You connect—How can I
connect with You?
How can You connect with me? What do I need to change?” This
relationship, this
walk that we have with Christ, should be exciting. If you're here
today, and
you've never accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, I invite
you to
right now. I invite you to say, “God I want you in my life, I want you
to lead
my life, and guide my life. Jesus, I accept you as my Lord and Savior.
I want
to follow you.” I remember the day I prayed that prayer, and I followed
Him by
getting baptized. After Jesus gave the Great Commission, in Matthew
28:19,
Peter and the others went out, and they did it. You can read it in Acts
2:38,
it says, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus
Christ
for the remission of sins.” That day I was buried with Him, and, as it
says in
Romans, I was raised to walk in newness of life (Romans 6:4). I began a
journey, which I'm still on today. And, I came here, today, to
acknowledge that
we haven't done everything great, and we haven't communicated as
effectively as
we could have in some ways, we've dropped the balls in some ways, but,
I can
tell you that that ball is currently picked up, and we're growing.
We're growing
as a ministry. We're getting stronger. I'll tell you, that we've worked
hard these
last ten years on laying a foundation that we can build on. I remember—this will be my final story: I remember when Lake
Forest
Hospital was putting on a new addition. And,
back then, I had an occasion to be in Lake Forest
Hospital three or
four times a week, and, I saw—and they had a two story building where
they
decided to build the addition, and, so, they tore that building down,
and then
they began to dig. I didn't know how big the addition was going to be.
But, it
took them almost a year to get back to ground level. They went three or
four
stories down, and then, they drove the concrete pillars into the
ground. And,
then, they started building the walls that would become the basement
walls. A
year later, they were at ground level. And, it looked like it was worse
than
before they started, because, before they started, they had a two-story
wing on
the hospital; a year later, they were only at ground level. And, then,
the next
year, there was a seven-story building there. And, I believe we spent a
long
time getting this foundation in place, properly, over these last ten
years.
But, I believe what we're going to see in the next year, and the year
after, is
going to be explosive growth. We need to do it together. I came here
today to
say I love you, and I thank you. For those of you who were looking for
a fiery evangelistic
message, I know I didn't deliver that today. But, I hope what I've
delivered
today was a message of saying, “Let's work together. We're in this
together.
Let's do all we can. Let me know what I can do to serve you better.
I'll do my
best to let you know what you can do to serve God better. And, together
we'll
get it done.” Amen? I appreciate you more than I know how to tell you.
I'm thankful
to be in this ministry together. I'm thankful for the truth that makes
us free.
I love you very much. I should have started by saying the words I'm about to say:
I bring you
greetings on behalf of my wife, Debby, and, also, her mother, the
mother of our
ministry—and, what I mean by that, if that's foreign to you, is, Mrs.
Davis,
who I called the mother of our ministry, she and her husband founded
this
ministry. I had the privilege to be there in 1974 when they did that.
And, I'm
humbled to be part of it still today. And, I love you. And, I thank you
for
your love. May God bless you.
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