JUL 30 2023 | Paul’s Third Missionary Journey S1E9 | Paul’s 3rd Missionary Journey

Sea Change Church · Paul's Third Missionary Journey S1E9 · "Paul's 3rd Missionary Journey" Pastor Peyton Jones · July 30, 2023
Automated transcript. Not reviewed for accuracy.

Hi. I'll be reading Acts 20. Wait, yeah, acts 2017 through 21 from my elitist Paul into Aphesis for the elders of the church. When they arrived, he said to them, you know how I lived the whole time I was with you from the first day I came into the province of Asia, I served the Lord with great human humility and with tears. And in the midst of severe testing by the plots of my Jewish opponents, you know that I have not hesitated to reach anything that would be helpful to you, but have taught you publicly and from house to house.

I've declared to above Jews and Greeks that they must turn to God and repentance and have faith in our Lord Jesus. The word of the Lord. Good morning. Good morning. I told 'em they could leave that little box, step up here. Uh, I could probably use it. Um, she's gone. But what a, what a great reading. That was awesome, wasn't it? I mean, I, I was, I was, I mean, journey came on. I thought, let's take our lighters out and, you know, but when she was done, I was like, Encore, right? That was great. Alright, well, hey, it's good to be with you.

I've known, uh, Adam and Carrie, my wife and I, uh, for about 10 years, probably more, probably around 11. I came here, I snuck in when he first became the pastor because we were very excited to see what a bunch of weirdos like you would want him for. But anyways, now we know. So it's good to be here with you. Uh, we love Adam and Kerry. Uh, my wife is Carrie's bestie. Uh, so I'm sorry. Some of you thought, oh wait, I thought I was carrie's bestie. I hate to disappoint you. I'm in the pulpit.

I have the authority. My wife is the bestie. All right? A little bit, uh, about me, not that you care, but, uh, Adam said some nice things. Uh, we were missionaries overseas for 12 years. We came home 12 years ago, so 24 years, we've been on some pretty radical mission. We're planting up in North County right now. People ask where we're like, yes.

Uh, Vista, Oceanside. Carlsbad. We're like Hemingway's movable feast. We move all over the place from house to house right now. We're just getting started, but we have a history of kind of stumbling into frontline radical ministry. We don't mean to, it's always accidental. Adam mentioned the planning out of a Starbucks, a happy accident, planning outdoors in the hood in Long Beach and San Pedro. Happy accidents, uh, the prostitutes, L G B T, uh, Q community, people that come to faith.

All happy accidents. It's been fantastic gang members. Ex-cons, uh, over the, uh, the, the past few years we've just seen amazing things. And it all goes back to God, I don't know how to do this stuff. I really don't, I don't think Peter knew how to do what he did on Pentecost. I think the Holy Spirit just turned up. God turned the foes on full blast.

And Peter's like, wow. Look at that. You know, I, I guess I'll, what you see or hear is from the prophet Joel. I wouldn't have gone there, prophet Joel, but that's where Peter went. When the Holy Spirit's moving and he says, I will pour out my spirit on all flesh. That's all of us. You know, the thing that Paul's missionary journeys teach us is God uses knuckleheads and we're all knuckleheads. If you're not a knucklehead this morning, you were in the wrong church. Okay? There, there are cults out there that like don't have knuckle.

They're like perfect people. You gotta go to them. But the rest of us are knuckleheads. Well, I, I was supposed to tell you, sorry, I'm moving outta camera. They told me don't do that. I, I did write this book, church Planetology, it's a companion to Tim Keller's book, uh, center Church. Um, if you're interested, I have one copy. So, uh, the highest bidder it goes to. But, uh, but basically, um, I run a network of church planters, indigenous missionaries all over the world. We're in over 65 countries, which is kind of amazing. And I'll tell you a little bit more, uh, later about how to get involved in that. If you're interested.

We just train indigenous missionaries all over, uh, underground church everywhere for free. And that's because people like you support us. So that's what, uh, that's we're excited about. But I'm excited to get into Acts chapter 20. If you have your bibles, your phones or iPads, whatever, open up to verse, uh, 17. And I can't do any better than she did. Uh, but we'll start with verse 17 from my elitist Paul sent to Ephesus for the elders of the church.

It's interesting that Paul meets them at my elitist. So, by the way, before I get started, um, I do want to point out, I'm really glad Adam did not give me the verses earlier where Paul preaches along, the guy falls asleep and drops out the window and dies. I would've taken that a little personally, but, uh, here we are. It says that Paul didn't want to spend too much time in Asian verse 16, and we skip over that. Like, oh yeah, you know, he had places to be, uh, you know, uh, pe people to see places to go, but it actually meant he didn't want to spend time in jail because the last time he stood foot in that city, he kicked off a riot and he spent some time in jail on Ephesus.

The reason why was that Paul's witness there was so powerful that it actually upset the economy, which was based on idolatry. You imagine having that kind of impact in La Jolla, what this church is doing is so powerful that it upsets tourism, right? 'cause parking and beach communities, right? I mean, whatever it is, it's somehow what you're doing here causes such a stir that it's actually hard for Adam to make an appearance and he has to hand off to you. What do you think about that?

What would the church look like if Adam couldn't come back and he had to hand off to you? Now I know what you're thinking. Ah, I, preacher guy stopped that. It could never be handed off to me. Let me, let me tell you how it works for us today. Today we say, ah, leave it to the professionals. In the first century, it was the professionals leave.

Paul only stayed about three or four months on average. Ephesus is the first time he spent three years in one spot. We'll get to what happened later, but I want you to put yourself there. You smell the salt air on the dock there in myelitis, the sea is whispering, whispering at your hair. If you have it as you gather there, it's good to be out in the fresh air.

And it's really good to see the Apostle Paul again, and you don't know it yet, but this is probably the last time you'll ever see his face again, and he's left you in charge. There is so much left to be done in Ephesus. Ephesus at this point is the central multiplication hub. It is the epicenter of Christianity. Not Jerusalem anymore.

Not Rome even Paul's never been there. Ephesus is the hub of Christianity in the Mediterranean. Now. It's where Jesus will appear to John and give him the book of Revelation right off the coast. It's where Timothy gets stationed and the pastoral epistles are written to. It is epicenter of the spread of Christianity, and you don't feel ready for it. But as you're looking at Paul, after greeting him and hugging him, he says, I have something to say.

I have to leave. He's in between boarding ships and you can tell there is an urgency in him. He's like a man torn. You can tell he wants to be with you. You can always tell Paul's got a bungee cord on his back. He can only stay for just so long because as much as he loves you and wants to be with you, he desperately wants to be with other people too, who don't yet know Jesus. He's always been like that, a surprise tag of knowing him and having a relationship with someone like Paul.

And you'd be somewhat glad about that because if he wasn't like that, he would never have come to Ephesus and you wouldn't know Paul and you wouldn't know Jesus. But seeing his face evokes memories. The memories of how he got started in Ephesus and first came to your community, it floods your mind because you were there from the beginning.

You're an elder now. You can't believe you're an elder, but you also can't believe you're a Christian. You met Paul when he arrived with Priscilla and Aquila. Aquila. They were tent makers. He was speaking in the synagogue, and you were one of those that begged Paul, please stay. And again, that bungee cord was pulling him. He couldn't stay.

He could read about this in Acts chapter 18 where Paul says, I I, if it's the Lord's will, I promise I'll come back, I will get back here. He was on a second missionary journey, then he was headed back for Antioch, but had places to go, people to see he was a man on a mission. But he promised I'll come back and come back. He did for three years.

Priscilla and Aquila stayed during that intervening time, and there they started up their existing tent making business they had in Corinth. Later they would go on to Rome. In fact, they were kinda loaded. If you're a rich person here today, I'm in La Jolla, I I know my audience. If you're here today and you have business sense and business savvy, there's a book out there you need to grab hold of called Gospel Patrons.

Every major advance of the kingdom of God was backed somewhere by a kingdom minded business person. Luther, he had one of the rulers. Witcliff had Jeffrey of Monmouth. Whitfield had the Countess of Huntington. Everybody, I mean, you could go on through, but Paul, Paul had Priscilla and Quila. They started giving people like Apollos, who later rolled through Ephesus, a job, a trade. Did you ever wonder how the 32 named missionaries, fellow workers that went all over the Mediterranean, like Indiana, Indiana Jones, dun. If you look at the map all over the place, like when you open up the back of the brochure, when you're flying on an airplane and you see there the all the, the airways, you know this, these are our destinations and all those red lines, that's what those 32 people were doing. They were interchangeable, always moving parts all across the map of the Mediterranean.

That's why in chapter 15 in Romans, Paul could say, I fulfilled the ministry God gave me in that from Jerusalem all the way to a lyric. I have fulfilled the task of proclaiming the gospel. Why? How could Paul say that? 'cause he had people like only 32 name. There were more, but he trained people up and he set up multiplication hubs in every major city, and they continued to multiply outwards with every day ordinary believers who knew how to make disciples, and Priscilla and Aquila were able to fund those missionaries just by giving them the ability to work with their hands. That's what Paul did.

It's pretty powerful. It's where we're headed in America. There will not be fully funded missionaries here or ministers in the way that there was 10, 20, 30 years ago. Adam should have probably told you that being a missionary in Europe, I've seen the future. I've been there, there's still garlic bread. You can get excited, but there's other things that aren't there.

In fact, anytime over the last few years at Priscilla and Aquila started training people, uh, it it, it became an open door for you. And now you're able to serve God as an elder and work with your hands just like Paul did. Meet people in the marketplace, make new connections. But then Paul did come back and during that time he debated in the synagogue. And this time it didn't go so well.

Seeing it went nowhere. Paul goes and RINs the Hall of tyranny and it says he holds discussions. That's a nice way of saying he debated. He had interactive groups. That's what we did in Starbucks. We accidentally planted a church around Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code 30, 40 50. Europeans kept turning up week after week. It kept growing and they wanted to talk more about Jesus and drink good coffee at the same time because the world does need good coffee. And Jesus turns out.

But Paul stays and lectures in that hall for two years. You know what happens? The seven churches of Asia get planted out. That's why Jesus, in Revelation two and three talks to Ephesus. First they were the hub. And you can trace a geographic pattern. If you ever wonder why the order of those churches commentary say only missionaries. By the way, the Bible's a missionary book written by missionaries, two church plants about mission.

Hard to understand the Bible if you don't have a missionary context. So what I'm gonna tell you at the end of today is you should all be missionaries. And I don't mean missionaries overseas, I just mean using your gifts every day. Ordinary believers released in their gifts. That's what I call missionary. Doesn't matter where you live, it's not about geography. Okay?

So you're back on that dock. You're standing with this man, Paul, you've shared so much history with him. He's got this urgency. What is on his heart? What is he gonna say? You're wondering why is he called you? You had to travel from Ephesus to my elitist and now I'll read quite poorly compared to your daughter. You know, this is what he says when he finally addresses you.

You know how I live the whole time I was with you from the first day I came into the province of Asia. I serve the Lord with great humility and tears in the midst of severe testing by the plots of my Jewish opponents. You know, I have not hesitated to preach anything that would be helpful to you, but have taught you publicly and from house to house.

I have declared both the Jews and Greeks that they must turn to God in repentance and have faith in our Lord Jesus. Rest of what Paul's gonna say is gonna be continued next week by Nick Gilmore. He's rad. I know him too. Good, dude. But let's look at what Paul says here. This this speech that he gives to the Ephesian elders at my elitist.

Almost every single verse could be a life verse. Anybody here pick out life verses from the Bible? Anybody? Yeah. Some of you guys, anyone wanna share one? That's profound. Thank you. All right. Really thi this chapter's amazing for that, right? Every sentence of this speech could be a life verse. Paul looks back at them this time, and this is how he summarized the, the part that Adam gave me is Paul looking back, right?

He's about to tell them about where they're at in the present and then he's gonna talk to him about the future. But this is Paul, just in these couple verses summarizing his time with him. I kind of summarized it for you. The only thing I left out was that huge thing that led to a riot when the Holy Spirit dropped like a bomb in the impact crater was people giving up their occultic, uh, practices and tools and they had a giant book burning and burnt all their scrolls of witchcraft and sourcing and threw their idols in there that caused an upset in the economy. Nobody wanted to buy idols anymore, right?

It's kinda like the Disney boycott, right? All of a sudden, nobody's going to see Indiana Jones, which you totally should. It is really good. In case you feared and you're like, I'm staying away, just in case. That's just a little tidbit. That's free. That's not preaching. But it, but here's the deal. Paul looks back and he summarized it, and I'm gonna give it in five little statements here.

You know how I lived the whole time I was with you? That's the first thing you remember me, how I lived. Almost every epistle has a summary of that for, you know, my manner of life in doctrine. These things do and put into practice imitate me as I imitate Christ Jesus. I don't know if you feel comfortable saying things like that, but Paul said it in every epistle in some way, shape, or form, right?

That's amazing. We'll get back to that. Number two, I serve the Lord with great humility and tears in the midst of severe testing. Number three, I have not hesitated to share anything helpful to you. Number four, I taught publicly that could be the marketplace, wholeness and house to house. That was Paul's power combo. He always did that in Jerusalem. It says Acts 5 42.

They met in the temple courts and house. House. That's kind of a thing. We'll talk about that more. And then five, I declared to everyone, they must turn to God in faith and repentance. So stop and think. Is anyone here ever think about like when you're, you're at your funeral? Like what are people gonna say about you? Right? I'm quirky. I'm a quirky dude and all my friends know it, right?

If, if during, during Covid when I wrote this textbook, uh, my wife said, it really didn't affect you at all, did it, because I wrote this during Covid, but I can be a recluse. Like I can just be a weirdo freak and never see anybody the rest of my life. The problem is my temperament. That's my temperament doesn't match my gifting.

Your temperament doesn't always match your gifting. I don't know if you know that my gifting is more like apostolic missionary evangelist. So I get around people and it just happens. And sometimes I don't like it because now you know, I got this thing going on and I'm like, ah, I really just want to go be alone right now. Go back into my hobbit hole.

And the Holy Spirit's always knocking like, Gandalf want to go on an adventure? No, no, no. Terrible things, adventures. No, I hate 'em. Make you leave for dinner. It to me, it's the funniest thing that God uses me out there to do stuff. Because I think it's like God's practical joke. I'm always like, Hey, this is how I became a trainer. I'm like, look, if I can do this stuff, you guys can do this. 'cause I actually suck at evangelism. I'm not good at it.

But when the Holy Spirit turns up, stuff happens. And that's the greatest encouragement. If you don't believe me, stop and think about the disciples. This is what I believe. I, I think we put way too much stock in quote unquote leaders because, and here's why. When Jesus picked the 12, he was telling us, it doesn't matter who it is, if you disciple people, they will become empowered and equipped to turn the world upside down.

Everyday ordinary believers released in their gifting boom. That's what Paul did in Ephesus for three years. That's why it became the multiplication hub. So Paul says, you know how I lived the whole time I was with you? Our families know how we live. Our neighbors know how we live. But imagine that we could say that. And people are like, yeah, whenever someone has a need, that person's there.

That person's so full of compassion. That person just, they will give and give and give. They'll preach all night till people fall out the window. Those kinds of things. But verse 19, he goes on and says, I serve the Lord with great humility and tears in the midst of severe testing. And I'm super comforted by the fact that Paul Minton's humility first, like that's a hallmark. He wasn't proud about. Like, oh, you know, look at me how I lived. He's like, look.

And he even tells the Corinthians, the city he went to before this. He, he says, you know, when I came to you, I was with weakness, fear, and trembling. If any of you have ever been through burnout, Paul literally was in burnout. He got harried on his second missionary journey. He, he only was in two weeks in Thessalonika. And then he goes to Bre, the circumcision group finds him there. And then he finally gets to Corinth.

And the reason he meets Priscilla and Aquila is 'cause he's hiding for six months. He does no gospel work and he's broken. When he writes later, he talks about his dark night of the soul. I was beside myself. I despaired of life. I, you know, he was down. Paul was human. He struggled. And so it's encouraging to know that Paul didn't think more of himself than he should.

Paul also knew what it was to get stuff wrong. I don't think being a Pharisee and thinking he was so right that he would actually kill people. I don't think that ever got lost on him. He mentions it all the time. And I, I persecuted the church. I'm the chief of sinners. I, Paul got it wrong. And I think there was always kind of that caution, like, I can get it wrong.

I remember what that felt like to get stuff so wrong. Anyone here change your views ever As a Christian, you think you were just so far on and then you change your views. Humility is so attractive though, isn't it? If he's gonna tell the Ephesians and you just say, remember my humility, you know, I was humble with you. Probably what he's saying is you can do this, right? Kinda like Home Depot. You can do this.

I can help rather than I'm gonna go do this for you. And it was attractive in Jesus. You know, I just finished studying the first year of Jesus's ministry. Do you know what Jesus did in the first year of his ministry? Hardly anything. His first year he goes to Samaria, he meets the woman of the well. She sits on the side of the well and he just talks to her. The disciple show up.

What is he doing? Talking to her Samaritan woman. She goes into town. She's probably a little intimidated by 12 other dudes showing up. She goes in, she shares the gospel with her entire village. While that's happening, Jesus looks at the 12 and says, you're about to. I never caught this till recently. In John four, Jesus says, you're about to reap where others have sewn and watered.

She goes in there and wins the entire village to Jesus. Let me ask you, was she a leader? Nope. Just encountered. Jesus went in and testified all she knew it wasn't much, but she said, come see a man who taught me or who told me everything I've ever done. That's amazing. Jesus was humble enough to share ministry prior to that.

He has his disciples baptizing until John's disciples get jealous. And then Jesus goes, come on boys, let's go. We're causing trouble. Then he goes, Jerusalem cleanses the temple. Then he goes to Samaria, then he comes back and he goes to Galilee. He doesn't do anything there except for heal an official son. That's his first year, just spending time with the disciples.

But the only ministry he does other than the two miracles is other people doing the work for him. That is a humble Jesus. That's what Paul was there to do in Ephesus, was mobilize others. That's why Jesus said, come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest. Our collective soul as a society and a community right now is tired.

We're worn out, we're weary. So I know when you hear the missionary and he gets up here and he goes, right, I'm gonna whoop up on you. Come on and get out there. I know you're going. No, but listen, when Jesus says, come to me all you that are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest. That sounds good. Take my yoke upon you.

For am meek and humble and heart. My yoke is easy and my burden is light. You know why? 'cause he does all the heavy lifting, even on mission. Jesus does all the heavy. You know this. You know this in your heart, right? When someone whips up on you to get out, to get out there, get out there it. It sucks. Nobody likes that. But when you hear, like Paul says, I weakness, fear and trembling, but with a demonstration of the spirit's power, when I am weak, he is strong.

That's biblical Christianity. That's the 12 weak but strong Lord, send the people home. Jesus goes, no, you give them something to eat and the miracle happens in their hand. Jesus lets them do the miracle. That is a humble Jesus. That is what ministry is. And I know Adam's heart. I know him from back when he used to do that 2030 thing.

That thing was incredible. That was a mobilization. So I kind of feel like I have a glimpse of the church you are, that you're being equipped and mobilized in your community, but that humility is part of it. And then Paul goes on to say in tears and tears are a sign you care like that. He says tears. Paul cried. Paul could not see the circumcision group.

And people resist Jesus and stone him and beat him without thinking. That's me a few years ago that broke his heart. I would be cut off myself. Paul says, if they would come to faith, some of you know Jay Hudson Taylor, the famous missionary to China years ago, kind of revolutionized mission. He first trained in London as a medical student and there was an ev vowed atheist who had spat in the face of the last minister that tried to share the gospel with him. And one day, Taylor, as this man was dying of gangrene in his foot, Taylor tried to share with him the gospel, but the man annoyed and aggressive.

And Taylor, his response was to turn his back to him because he couldn't help the tears. He started to weep. And finally when he composed himself, he said, my friend, whether you hear or whether you will for bear, I must deliver my soul. I wish you would allow me to pray with you. And the man was so completely taken back. He said, well, if it's a relief to you, then go ahead.

And Taylor gets on his knees and just pours out through tears His heart for this man. Man's broken. He's never felt anyone. He can't. He hears God's heart for him Through j Hudson Taylor. Years afterwards, Taylor reflected on the incident and said, I have often thought sensing connection with this case of the work of God. Generally, the words he that goes forth, forth, weeping, bearing precious seed shall doubtless come again, rejoicing with the shes.

Perhaps if there were more of that intense distress for souls that leads to tears, we should more frequently see the results we desire. Sometimes it may be, while we're complaining of the hardness of the hearts of those we're seeking to benefit the hardness of our own hearts and our own feeble apprehension of the sound. Reality of eternal things may be the true cause of our want of success. Paul goes on in verse 20, I've not hesitated to share anything that's helpful.

I've not failed to share anything that was helpful. Uh, that's amazing to me. If you went out your door every morning and you just said, wherever I am, I'm not gonna be a weirdo. I'm not gonna like push it down people's throats, but wherever I can serve, wherever I can be a voice of hope or encouragement or, or prophetic to, to let people hear God, doesn't matter what it is.

Even to ask people, can I pray for you like Hudson Taylor, I'll do that. I didn't hesitate. That's a negative. The positive. He goes on to say, and I taught from house to house. Now I know when he says, and I taught publicly and house to house. I know you're like, oh, I can't do that. Right? Like, I'm not a teacher, I'm not a leader.

I think the greatest trick Satan ever played on the church was to get us to think that you have to be an apostle or pastor or planter to testify of Jesus. Now, we're not all called to be evangelists. You know that, right? You'll hear people say, yes, we are. No, you're not. Evangelist is a special gifting. Not everybody has it.

I don't. I'm used that way sometimes, but I don't have a great evangelist. I've seen people that really have the gift of evangelism. It's amazing. But we are all called to be his witnesses. And there's a difference. It may not all be called to be evangelists, but we're all called to be his witnesses. And all the witness does is testify. So Paul said, I did not fail to testify.

You testify what? You know, that's it. All you gotta do is testify what you know. And that's why Peter, on that day of Pentecost, when he said, this is what Joel spoke about in the last days, I will pour out my spirit on how much flesh, all, and he, he spells it out 'cause we're stupid, right? Like God couldn't just say in the Old Testament, love God with all your heart, mind, and soul and love your neighbors yourself. Jesus says, that's a whole law.

But no, we get the exploded diagram, right? We get the, the penit took. That goes, okay, dummy, this is what it looks like. If you're walking around the line and you see your neighbor's ox falling a pit, you gotta go help it out. Like that's why we get all that. 'cause we're thick. But who is my neighbor? Lord? Remember when the guy asked that? That's us.

So at this point, Peter spells it out on your old men. There's no old people in here I know. But on old men, you'll dream dreams. Young men will see visions on your man. Servants, maid, servants, right? Rich, poor, young, old, male, female. My spirit will rest on them all. And that is every, everyone, everyone. And that's why when you read Acts 2 42 and it says, he gave themselves the, the, the apostles teaching the breaking of bread to prayer fellowship.

And the Lord added, they shared their possessions with those in need. And the Lord added daily to the number of those beings saved. You know what that was? It was just people that were discipled really well, ordinary believers that the spirit just was pumping through. They were discipled so well, their gifts were activated, they were released.

And here's what the weird thing, when Paul persecutes a church in Jerusalem, they all go up north to Antioch. Well, they go all over, right? Chapter eight, nine of the Book of Acts, they go everywhere. And guess what? The first church is planted, unofficially, unauthorized, no permission, just ordinary, everyday believers releasing the gift. Because here's the reality.

When you plant a church, discipleship does not necessarily happen. But if you disciple people, church planning always happens. When I wrote this, so many people wrote from mission societies and said, this is how it works on the field. Well, why do you think Jesus didn't say Go plant churches, go into all the world and plant churches? He didn't say that. He said, go into all the world, make disciples, guys, I'll, I'll, I'll tell you what we focus on.

We focus on taking ordinary believers and saying, can you do three things? Because what, what Paul did. Remember we said, if Paul handed off to you an Ephesus, these are the only three things you'd have to do if Adam never came back. These are the only three things you'd have to be able to do in La Jolla. Number one, make disciples. Can you do that? Most people can't.

Everybody's like, yeah, we totally gotta do that. But no one shows us how. Right? I have this theory that you disciple how you're discipled. Most people weren't discipled. So you don't know how to, that's more of the question, how do I disciple? What does that look like? Make disciples, number one, gather people together. Like I saw surf church. Surf church on your wall back there.

That's what we're talking about now, getting people together in the Starbucks, it's pretty easy, right? It's not hard. And lastly, scattering on mission. Picking a fight with something. Maybe sex trafficking in your city, doing that kind of stuff. If you could do those three things, imagine now young people, they don't get Christianity when we're stuffed in a room, and that's all we ever do. But you take young people on mission, they change forever. Christianity makes sense on mission. Young people.

That is the number one thing that transforms 'em. So imagine if we could train this whole next generation to disciple, to gather with their friends, Hey, come over for pizza. Let's do this and let's do that. We used to do this with college students, with Xbox tournaments. Every other week they'd have a Bible study. They became church planters. Three of them became church planters.

That's what we're talking about. And that's what Jesus did with a bunch of teenagers for three years. And we have lost that ability. Listen, I want to tell you, I'm, I'm, I'm one minute over, so I gotta make this one more minute. Begrudge me and I'm gonna say, go 30. I'm at 31. So I'm pushing it. I wanna tell you about Felix in Nigeria.

He was a believer who escaped the massacre. He went to Cameroon. He was a new Christian when the persecution started, and he went on to train five other church planters in Cameroon who were going back to Nigeria, most likely to die in a year to plant when we're on calls with him. It's like the Holy Spirit dropped a bomb, right?

And I, I know in America, like you go one or two minutes over and your sermon's like, sit on a call with someone who's ready to die for Jesus. And that will shake you to your very core and tell you about Nathan Emper, who is in Iran, who can't even go back like Paul, like Paul can't go to Ephesus, he can't go back to Iran. He's at JD Greer's church.

He recently asked if we could translate this in all of our training into Farsi. It is going. Z said yes. We don't have a big market in Iran for church planting books. So yes, and our training is going there. So I want to encourage you, uh, as we leave to think about those things, if you want to get more involved, you can see up here. You, you, uh, there's, you can hit that QR code.

We actually, this is all we're asking right now. We're asking, like Gideon, we're not looking for thousands and thousands of donors. We're looking for 300 people that will give $25 a month. We give it to free. $25 will train one indigenous missionary every month that will take care of everything we need to do to give them some of the highest top shelf training. I mean, I, I, I'll tell you this, I I, I wrote training for the Southern Baptist. The, the training they're running now is one of the co-authors of that.

We have written some of the best training on the planet. New Breed is in so many missions at Bible League International. We're in all these other organizations, but our stuff goes out for free. So we want to encourage you to join with us if you're interested. Let's pray.