You are called to be a missionary wherever God places you, whether that's at a fast food restaurant or in a village in Pakistan. Consider how you can sow into this work by sponsoring an evangelist or funding the tools they need to reach the unreached. Let your obedience to the Lord transform your heart and expand the kingdom through your generosity.
So my name is David John Phillips. I have the joy and honor of getting to be the pastor here. There's no place I'd rather be. There's nothing I'd rather be doing. And, yes, I say it every Sunday.
And I I hope I hope it gets to the point where you can even quote me saying that because you know it's my heart, that's why I repeat it, but also, hopefully, you take the same attitude into your job, into your marriage, into your family, into everywhere you go. Thank you, Lord, for what you've entrusted to me. It's a joy that I get to do this. And I trust you with all that I have. Amen?
Amen. Amen. Now, there's something else that I'm gonna start doing every single Sunday. Our vision and our mission. Our vision as a church, it's the why.
Our vision is whatever it takes, we will do whatever it takes for you to "know the love of Jesus" and live out your God given purpose. Whatever it takes because Jesus did whatever it took. He laid his life down for us, for you, for anybody God puts in front of us. To know the love of Jesus, because you have to know his love, surrender to it before you can really live out the purposes he created you for. Amen?
Amen. And then how do we accomplish that? That's our mission statement. It's the how. We do it by engaging the culture with the love of Jesus, by establishing the believer in the local body of Christ.
And once you get established in the local body of Christ, you're giving us the license to disciple you. So that's equipping the believer to "engage the culture" with the love of Jesus. It's it's watch us do it. Let's do it together. Now you go do it.
Right? Yeah. Which is leadership. It's multiplication. My role is not to do ministry as a pastor or as a leader of this church.
My role as a Christian is to do ministry. My role as a leader of this church is to equip you to do ministry in your daily life so that you go into your world, lay your life down, and do whatever it takes for the you, the person God puts in front of you, in your business and in your family, everywhere that you go, to know the love of Jesus and live their God given purpose. Amen? So equip the believer to engage the culture with the love of Jesus. And then number 4, which is my favorite, is empower the ready to live their God given purpose.
You mature as you do ministry, as you give out what God gave you. And as you mature, God will press you forward more and more into the purposes he created you for. And as a church, it's our responsibility to lay our lives down, to help you to walk out every good purpose he has for you. And some of you, that will be in full time ministry 1 day as missionaries, as pastors, as leaders, as, you know, lead nonprofits. Some of you, that that's the case.
Others of you, that's you're businessmen, and you're supposed to start businesses or or work at businesses and other things. Others, maybe you're you're a stay at home mom. Maybe maybe you're you're a teacher. Whatever the world that God has called you into, our role is to lay our life down to help you to be a world changer, and to impact that world for Jesus, to do whatever it takes to so that the people in your world know the love of Jesus and live your God given purpose. You are a missionary that God has raised up and sent to your world.
Amen. I I A lot of times I'm sharing the gospel with people, and often I'll go to a fast food restaurant, and I'm get done paying, and there's nobody in line behind me, and I'll just say, hey, man, I just really believe God loves you a lot. Do you know that? Yeah. Yeah, I do.
Would you mind if I share the gospel? They'd say sometimes they say, Jesus is my Lord, man. I'm I'm following him. I say, you are? They say, yeah.
I said, man, well, I got good news for you. And I say, what? And I say, do you realize that you're a missionary? God sent you into Culver's as a missionary to reflect his goodness? Just look around, They don't know what we're talking about, but look at it.
They need Jesus that's in you. Do you mind if I pray for you for a second? I do it all the time. Do you know you're a *missionary* that God has raised up and sent into your world? Don't be silent anymore.
How will they know unless you tell them? People like to use the excuse, well, I wanna preach the gospel of my life, and if necessary, use words. And it's an excuse because they're timid, and they don't wanna be bold and share their faith. No, no. Live your life out so loudly that you can't come it can't help but come out of your heart and out of your mouth and impact them too.
Amen? Amen. It's both and. Praise the Lord. So that being said, we have some business to take care of.
Some good business. Good business. I wanna call up to the stage, mister Bart Stamper and miss Dixie Stamper, and also mister and missus Jerry Hunter, miss miss Heidi Hunter and Jerry Hunter. You're gonna have to come around, walk all the way around.
If y'all go stand and clap, you'll have to keep standing because they they walking around.
Come on. So we got something very important that we're gonna be doing. You guys can be seated. Thank you for honoring them well. Man, what you honor, you're able to receive from, and I think the American culture needs to learn to honor well.
Amen. It's a big deal. We worship God and we honor what God has done in people so that we can receive from God through them. Amen? Amen.
Okay. So first things first, we have a process for appointing leadership at our church. And part of that process is you have to have at least served at the church for a year because, you know, *Jesus* said the lead is to serve. And if you wanna lead at a church and you're not willing to serve, then you probably wanna lead for your own ego instead of for his kingdom. So Bart and Dixie came here.
God sent them into my life even before the church started, and then after the church started, God sent them to real church, and they joined in and just started serving, which was awesome. God has done a miraculous, amazing change in their life, and then they started *discipling* others. And what I'm about to appoint them to, many of you will think, oh man, I thought they already were that. But that's how it should work, right? You should be living out the calling of God on your life, normally, in your daily life, such that when God promotes you, everybody says, duh.
Right? So, the elders in our church are people that God has appointed to that role. They we Me and Courtney, we lead by vision, and the elders help to ensure that our church is running in the same direction of that vision, and they help It's internal accountability also for us, for my family. We make decisions together as a team unanimously because we want to walk in unity. Elders are also the financial board of the nonprofit of Real Church.
So they help make spiritual decisions and financial decisions. We don't split those apart. A lot of churches do. I'm like, if if a if an elder who's making spiritual decisions can't healthily run finances, they probably shouldn't be an elder. Right.
You know? They should have their whole house in order. And so so we put those together. And I knew in my heart a long time ago that Dixie and and Bart would be appointed to eldership. But I was just waiting on God's yes.
And today is God's yes. Yeah. Amen? They're *discipling* many people, impacting many marriages because of what God's done in them. So, man, it's a joy and an honor to get to know you, to be friends with you, and thank you for how you pray for our church.
Thank you for what you're doing. Would you guys step up here, step forward? Jerry and Heidi are our **first elders** ever. So I'm gonna ask Jerry and Heidi if you guys would lay hands on these 2. Thank you, sir.
And if you'll pray for them, that would be great. Let's start with let's start with Heidi. Why don't you pray first, and then Jerry?
God, I love your ways. Lord, I love your timing. I love your thoughts. I love your creation. I love your structure.
And God, I thank you for what you've do done in in Barton Dixie's life, Lord. I thank you that you called them, and that they said, yes, Lord. And they went through the mud, they went through the muck, and they laid down their life and they said, God, I don't want what you want, but I want what I want.
No. No. God, I don't want
what want. I don't want what I want, but I want what you want. Scratch that. God you know what I mean, praise the Lord. But I thank you for Bart and Dixie and God what you've called them to in in this leadership position.
God we know that you know what's going on and we know that you called them. And so God, it is a pleasure to just bless them in Jesus name and appoint them as elders of this magnificent body of believers, Lord, that you have created. Lord, I pray that you would protect them, that you would guide them, that their heart would match your heart, Lord. That they would have your heart in them, that their decisions and their thoughts, would be your thoughts, God. That you would continue to work in their lives and that they would be amazing leaders.
Bless them in Jesus' name.
Lord God, I just thank you right now for this mighty couple that you've called forth before the foundation of the world, Lord. I just love your process of redemption. Thank you, Lord, that we got to be a witness of your process, of your mighty hand laying your hand on this couple. Never never letting them let go, but they continued to let go of what was yesterday and pressing forward to lay hold of what had laid hold of them. Lord, I just thank you for friends and family and brothers and sisters that have spurred us on so mightily.
And our brother and sister that would just be with you at any time, wouldn't in war with you at any time. Such an honor to run with them and such an honor to watch them step in to what you've called them to do, Lord. And it's true about what your word says, no weapon formed against them shall prosper, says the Lord. But the verse before that says that there's a blacksmith, a destroyer beating a weapon out, pointed at them. But the whole goal in your process, Lord, is you will they will "catch the father's love".
They will catch the father's love and take that weapon straight out of the enemy's hand. And that's what we're seeing right here in this power couple. So, father, we just thank you right now that they're gonna walk in and be all that you've called them to be. And Lord, I just thank thank you that you've appointed them to elders at Real Church. In Jesus name, amen.
Amen. Y'all just join me in prayer. Lord, we thank you and we commission you guys as elders in our body. Lord, it's a it's a joy and honor, and I'm I'm excited to see what you do. Amen.
Amen. I have something to do. Alright. Praise the Lord. So we have we have second order of business here.
Jerry and Heidi were our first elders. The first elders we ever appointed at Real Church. And I wanna read something. *2 Corinthians-9* says this, Verse 6, the point is this, whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each 1 must give as he's decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.
And God is able to make grace abound to you so that having all efficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work. As it is written, he distributed freely. He has given gifts to the poor. His righteousness endures forever. He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness.
So as you sow seed, he multiplies your seed to be able to sow. You will be enriched in every way to be generous on in every way, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God. I've always read that, and most people preach that as finances, and it's true. Like, that that is a part of it. Part of what you sow in your seed is finances.
But it's also talking about resources. Any resource, your time, your talent, your treasure. Guys, before we even moved here, I saw leaders as a resource, and I saw I I knew that our church would be a leadership development crucible, A crucible of leadership development where God would send people, raise them up, and send them out, either into their purpose locally or into their purpose around the world. And so I prayed that we would be a generous church with the leaders that God sends us, that we wouldn't hold back our best, but we would send our best. And in sending our best, I knew that these principles are still the same.
As we send our best, we sow that seed of leaders. God's gonna send us his best, and so we'll be able to be generous on every occasion. Now, Jerry and Heidi went and did the Jesus year at 30 third company in Fort Worth. They spent 6 months giving their lives to prayer, evangelism, and discipleship full time. They came back here, did it for another 6 months, and led hundreds and hundreds to Jesus, and made many, many disciples, God's moving in their lives, and God put on their heart to go to Fort Worth full time and and to dedicate their lives to prayer, evangelism, discipleship, to dedicate their lives to helping to multiply our friends at 30 third Company, which is a big deal, But then God confirmed it to us as well.
And and so this is a unified, beautiful thing where we're getting to do what was on my heart to do before we even planted the church, to be a church that raises up leaders and sends them. And I want you to know that this is not a cane offering. This is an able offering. They are our first elders, leaders and our best. And in in giving the "first and the best" doesn't it doesn't mean that everything that comes after will be less than.
It actually means everything after will be greater than. Not that they're any less, but that the seeds that they've sown into you making disciples and into Bart and Dixie, we were supposed to go in the kingdom from "glory to glory" to glory. Amen. You guys are a joy to get to know your family. You will always be family.
To me, this is your home and you sowed your lives here deeply. You rooted deeply, as we said. You bore much fruit. A lot of this church is built because of your discipleship, both of you. Your prayers, **blood, sweat, and tears** with me in the trenches.
Literally, the trenches of Pakistan, baptizing people. And so it's bittersweet, but it's a joy to get to send you guys. And we pray that the best is yet to come. Yeah. That although we are grateful for what God has done in you here, we pray it's even better there.
We pray that bigger harvest, greater anointing, we pray that you impact more people there than you ever dreamed possible, and that God sends you from there all around the world. And it's a joy. And those 2 are part of the disciples that they made, so they got to appoint them to leadership. How how cool is that? So I'm gonna have those 2 pray for them.
Oh, father, we thank you. We thank you for these 2 beautiful souls. God, we thank you that we got to experience and be a part of the leadership and the foundation that they have been a part of here at Real Church. We thank you for giving us the best. God, we thank you that we get to celebrate sending them today, God.
In Matthew-9:37 says that the harvest is plentiful, that the "laborers are few", And we thank you for these laborers. And as they go out in this journey, in this, yes, Lord, that they said to you, yes, Lord, that they are giving their lives, laying it all down to serve you, we are humbled by their dedication, God, and we thank you. As pastor Courtney and the worship team were singing, oh, I said just put your glory in me. I'll serve anywhere. Send me anywhere.
These 2 right here, that's what they're doing. And we thank you, God, that you've given us them, that they're a part of us. And we send them with love, and we're honored to be have them as a part of our life. We are honored for their discipleship, their relationship, their friendship, their family, and we thank you for the impact that they've had on our lives and everyone else's lives here at Real Church. In Jesus' name.
God,
we just thank you for who you are and what you've done. Thank you for who you made us. This couple has impacted almost everybody in this room in some way. Definitely impacted Dixie and my life greatly. And we thank you for them.
They will be missed, but they're not definitely not forgotten and definitely want to have their mark remembered on this church, on my life. These are some of my best friends, and we love them. We just thank you for what you're going to do through them. And, God, I ask you to let them find favor with everybody that they meet. I ask you to let their light shine into this dark world, and you lead and guide and direct every single step that you have ordained for them, and we'll give you glory, honor, and praise.
We just thank you for them in Jesus' name.
Yeah. Lord. Lord Jesus, we thank you for these 2 and what they've meant to my life and my family. My kids call them papa pie, nah nah, like more grandparents that God gave us. Lord, thank you for what they are to this church, a mama and a daddy.
Lord, bless them. And I pray for many more spiritual children where they go than they could ever imagine. Lord God, the dreams that they didn't didn't even know they were they they could were possible for them to dream, that they would be what comes to pass in this next season. Lord, let them go. They go from glory to glory in you.
Lord, and I thank you once again. This is not a cane offering. This is an able offering. And we joyfully give them to you. It's a joy, Lord God.
In Jesus' name. Yeah. Thank you that we're ascending church. Amen.
It's all because of great leadership.
Praise the Lord. I'll probably get Jerry and Heidi to come up at the end of the message and just pray over the church and pray over you guys. I have a word that God has given me. It's important. I am going to Pakistan on Tuesday with Ezra, which is gonna be fun.
You're gonna hear a bit about that today. This is gonna be a little bit more of a story message today. I got some stories I wanna tell you. There was 1 story I was gonna start with in the beginning. It's interesting enough.
I didn't think he was gonna God was gonna have me cut that 1 for time, but that's the 1 he's having me cut. So I'll probably preach that 1 in another message maybe when I get back from Pakistan, Lord willing, which will be fun. But I have I have some principles that I want to share with you today. I want you to walk away knowing these 3 principles and putting them into practice into your life because they will impact every aspect of your life. And the 3 principles are, as you go, *sow*.
Number 2, *sow* where you wanna go. And number 3, where you sow, you will go. As you go, sow. **sow where you wanna go**. And number 3, where you sow, you will go.
Let's talk about it. Let's show that these are biblical, first and foremost, and then I wanna show you some principles or some testimonies of this happening. And these are true stories. Okay? These testimonies that I'm gonna share, they're for you.
They're grandiose. They're crazy. It's crazy miracles that you're gonna hear about. And yet, the Bible says in Psalms, your testimonies are my heritage. They are the joy of my heart.
So when you hear a testimony of what Jesus has done in someone's life or through someone's life, you can take it as your heritage if you're a son of God, If Jesus is the Lord of your life, your heritage means that's what God has planned for you. He wants to do the same principle, the same type of thing in your life and in the world that God has called you to. So don't celebrate this when you hear some of the stories and be like, oh, wow, that's really cool that it happened for you, Pastor David, or that happened for them, that's awesome. Or don't dishonor it in your heart like, well, that could never really happen. What you honor will multiply.
Right? Your testimonies are my heritage. They are the joy of my heart. Celebrate it as joy and watch as the same things God begins to project you on the same same route in your life towards the purposes that He has for you in the world that He's called you to. Amen?
Amen. Okay. So let's go through those principles. As you go, sow. Well, that's easy to show in Scripture.
*Matthew-28*, It's the Great Commission. *Jesus says, therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit*. That go is a present tense. It's like as you go. It's the as you go, make disciples.
As you go, sow your life into the people around you. Sow your time, your talent, your treasure, everything that you are into the world that God sent you to so that they can experience what God's done in you through you and begin to live out the same thing. That's the reason that you're sitting here is because the 12 disciples that Jesus commissioned, they started doing it, and then a 150, and then it spread from Jerusalem to Judea, to Samaria, to the ends
of the earth, and 2000 and something years later, here you are, and you have the same commission. And he
says, and lo, I am with you always, even to the ends of the earth.
Go, and as you go, sow your life. It's important. This is the whole purpose of the your Christian life is to reflect him. He said, I'm the "light of the world". And in turn, he said, you're the light of the world.
A city on a hill, you don't put a a lamp under a shade and hide it. When Jesus sows things into your life, it's supposed to produce fruit, and then you're supposed to go and sow it into the lives of those around you.
Your time, your talent, and your treasure, everything, as you go. So now, that second principle. So where you want to go. Why do I say that? Where does that come from?
The Bible says in Genesis-1 that a seed produces after its own kind. God created the earth for a seed to re"produce after its own kind". If I sow an apple tree, it would be weird if an orange tree popped up. Why? Because it's against nature.
God made a system. He made principles in the earth, and seed, *Genesis-8* says, seed time and harvest will never stop. Seeds reproduce after their own kind. Amen? Amen.
So, yeah, in Genesis-8, that's after Noah got off the flood and he made that promise. Heat and cold will never stop. Day and night will never stop. Seed, time, and harvest. That means you sow a seed and you wait some time.
That's what people have problems with, waiting, being patient on the time. A lot of times they'll sow the seed, wait some time, and say, well, it didn't happen in my time. So they go on and somebody else gets the harvest that they sowed. Seed, time, and then harvest. And what do you reap?
You reap the fruit of the seed that you sowed. Amen? And by sowing the seed in a certain type of field, by honoring that field, you're able to reap what that field is producing. Amen? Let's look at it.
*Galatians-6*. Starting verse 6. Let the 1 who has taught the word share all good things with the 1 who teaches. Do not be deceived. **God is not mocked**.
For whatever 1 sows, that will he also reap. Now just to take a step back for anybody that's questioning what I mean by sowing. I mean by like a sower is 1 that has seed and walks, and in the old days, they throw out seed into their field. They were it's called sowing seed. Some a metaphor for your life, sowing what God's put in your life into the field around you that he's called you to minister to or to minister to you.
Okay? Now listen to this. Do not be deceived. God is not mocked. Whatever 1 sows, that will he also reap.
There's a lot of people who have deceived themselves thinking and wishing and hoping and dreaming for dreams in their lives, but those dreams will never happen because they haven't taken the time to sow what it takes to make those dreams happen. And so, they're deceived, and it's a way of mocking God because he said seed time and harvest. A seed will reproduce after its own kind. It is weird. It would be weird for you to sow your life into becoming a mechanic.
*Sow* everything that you are into becoming a mechanic. And then say, man, I just can't wait till I become an astronaut. Or, I can't wait till I become, you know, president of The United States. Probably not gonna happen. Why?
Because you sowed your life into becoming a mechanic. Your life is gonna produce the fruit of the seeds that you sowed. Yeah. Seed, time, and harvest. To think otherwise, is to deceive yourself, and to mock God and the principles that he put into creation.
Your life is the fruit of the seeds that you've
been sowing right now. Either you're bearing results from seeds that
you sowed a decade ago, 15 years, or 20 years ago, 5 years ago, or you're in process waiting for the crop to come. And *Galatians-6* actually says,
for the 1 who sows to his own flesh, verse 8, will reap from the flesh corruption. But the 1 who "sows to the spirit" will reap from the spirit eternal life.
So as you sow following the lead of the Holy Spirit into the things that God calls you to sow into out of obedience, You sow your life into those things.
You will reap eternal life, which means knowing God. You'll reap a closer relationship with
your heavenly Father. The fruit of righteousness. How does that work? And let us not grow weary in doing good,
for in due season we will reap.
Everybody say, we will reap. We will reap. If if we do not give up. **Faith always finishes**, my friends. If you quit, it wasn't faith.
If you quit before either you die in process, and your posterity, spiritual children, or physical children get the fruit of what happened, or or you make the goal, 1 or the other. Faith always finishes. You will, that's a promise, you will *reap* the harvest of the seeds that you have sown. Now, can God restore everything and reconcile, like, and cut off the past bad seeds that you've sown? Yes, absolutely.
That's called redemption and reconciliation. God cuts off our past in Christ, and moves us forward so that
we can experience a life in the spirit. But don't be deceived. God is not mocked. Don't think that if you continue to sow to please the flesh,
you won't reap stuff from that. You understand?
It's important. God's a good father.
Out of discipline, he'll let you reap some of the things that you sow, so that you learn to be obedient to sow only into what he calls you to sow your life into. And then
when you learn the lesson, then he'll wipe away the junk so that you can continue moving forward into every purpose he has for you. God wants you to fulfill every purpose he
has for you more than you want to.
He wants you to experience every purpose he created you for, every single 1, and he wants it more than you want it.
Trust him. Follow his process "1 step at a time". Amen? Amen. So an example of that biblically of of sow where you wanna go is Elisha and Elijah.
Elijah came to Elisha. Elisha's plowing in the field. He's got multiple pairs of oxen. I think it was 10. And so he's he's he's a wealthy man for the day.
He's he's he's probably got a big farm. He's got lots of harvest and lots of crops. And Elijah goes
to Elisha and and invites him to follow him. And what does Elisha do? He "burns the plow". He sacrifices everything that he has, and the whole town enjoys what the the fruit of that sacrifice. But it it represented him giving financially, him giving his life, him giving his future, him giving everything, and his 4 0 1 k, everything into following the plan that God put before him.
He burned it all. It's all for you.
I'm sowing my life into what you've called me to be. I'm sure God had been burning that purpose in his heart, and this was just a confirmation. I'm sure of it. So when the opportunity came, he did it. He sowed his life, and he found the man that was doing what he knew he was called to do, and he sowed his life into that man.
For 6 years, Elisha followed Elijah. 6 years. Gave his time, his talent, his treasure, his attention, everything, into sowing into Elijah, following him as a servant, learning and growing. A lot of
people would look at his life and say, man, what a waste. You had 10 pairs of oxen, bro.
You had a field. You had a family. You were taking care of of the town. You were
you were a leader. And you just burn it all up to follow this old prophet dude for 6 years. What a waste.
5 and a half years in, it's
like, what you got to profit for,
You got any fruit there?
Nope. You should go back and buy your field back. If he would have done that, he wouldn't have got the reward. He wouldn't have reaped the harvest. He would have given up.
6 years in, Elijah goes to be with the Lord, taken off in a chariot of fire, and Elisha *reaps the harvest of sowing* his life into what God called him to sow his life into. And he became twice the prophet Elijah was. Elijah was great. Elisha performed twice as many miracles. Did amazing things.
Does that mean that Elijah was any less than? No, but we go from glory to glory. Amen? You, "ceiling should be your floor". You should do the same things I do and even greater.
That's the way Jesus led, and that's the way we lead in the kingdom when we're making disciples. It ain't about keeping people down. It's about serving them and "pushing them up", 1 step at a time. Amen? So when you sow where you wanna go, what I mean is you're praying in communion.
The Bible says delight yourself in the Lord, and He gives you the desires of your heart. So as I delight myself in the Lord in communion with Him, He produces desires in me, and then I find someone that's living out those desires, living out that calling, those things, an organization, a church, a person, whatever it is, than I am, And then I sow my life into learning from them. I ask the Lord, I might sow financially into them, I might sow my time into them, and you'll see examples and testimonies from my life here coming up in a minute. And then when I do that, like if you sow into something, where your treasure is, there your heart is also. So your heart is entangled in that thing.
If you're being obedient to sow where God's called you to sow, then your heart is entangled in that thing, and that's a good thing because God wants it there. When your heart's entangled in
that thing, you begin to think about it more. You begin to desire to put more of your time into it, and you're honoring that thing, that person, or that organization, whatever it is, and so you are able to receive from their field more as well. And it impacts your life.
Make sense? So where you wanna go. So let me give you some just real life, testimony examples that hopefully will help you to live this out. Number 1, some of you know about my dad's drug rehab. He's a pastor of a church in Winsboro, Louisiana.
It's been going for 25 years, but he also started a drug rehab. 2001 was when it was incorporated. Where did that come out of? Well, my dad, when he was a pastor of the first church that he was a pastor of, there would be people coming. The quote unquote riffraff of society would come to the church because dad is laying his life down to impact people with the gospel.
Drug addicts started coming to the church and dad started learning. God had called him. He had this desire to help people to be free. And so he began sowing finances into these drug addicts that are coming and learning. He was taken advantage of multiple times, I'm sure.
Put them up in hotel rooms and they just took him for the money that he gave him, but some were set free. And he's learning the process of sowing financially, sowing counsel, sowing time into these people, and learning what God wants to lead him into 1 step at a time. Next thing you know, and learning how to discern when to say no, and who to talk to, and how to talk to them, and what's the most effective way of *discipling* drug addicts. Next thing you know, the church buys a house or 2 and puts some drug addicts up into the house. So the church is sowing into this ministry now.
And why do they put them in the house? Why? Because they're being set free. They're giving their life to Jesus. They're taking 1 step at a time.
They're failing and learning as they go, but they keep sowing. And then God, out of communion, delight yourself in the Lord. He gives you the desires of your heart. Communion with the Lord, God put on my dad and the leadership team, hey, we would need to start a drug rehab. So you see this faithful with a little, God gives you more.
Faithful to sow a little, God gives you more harvest. The next harvest gives more seed, and it's a bigger challenge, a bigger test of faith to sow, Right? But then you're faithful to sow a little, you get a bigger harvest, not just financially, I'm talking about your life, your sacrifices, everything that God has called you to sow into. So God puts on their heart, delight themselves in the Lord, God puts on their heart a drug rehab. They pray about it.
So where you wanna go? What do they do? They go find a drug rehab 4 hours away, the closest 1 they could find, that was doing what they know God had called them to do, and was doing it well. They got in a car. They drove down, made a meeting with the leader, interviewed him, asked him how he was doing it.
Right? They're they're receiving from him. And what did they do? They sowed $2,500. I called dad yesterday, last night.
$2,500 they sowed into him, into that rehab. Now this is crazy. 1 month later, 1 month, a doctor called my dad, said, hey, could you use a nursing home? And this nursing home was fully furnished. Fully furnished, ready to go.
The doctor gave it to my dad, to River of Life Church, and that became Fresh Start Drug Rehab. About a month or 2 later, there was 80 guys in there. It started that was in 2010. It's been going ever since. God has *transformed* many, many lives because of it.
Do you see the principle? You get it? Alright. I'm gonna give you another 1. I have multiple.
I'm not gonna be able to share all of them. Okay? So why don't you why don't you "pull up the slide" that says Pakistan discipling a nation? About 10 years ago, I was in my room in Louisiana praying, and I saw a picture. Will you pull up the picture of the girl that's smiling, the close-up on the girl that's smiling?
Much like this. And God gave me *compassion* for these people. And I began I I I got his heart for this nation. And I began to pray, and sow in my my prayers into this nation, and I knew that God was going to take me there 1 day. I knew it.
And the next thing you know, people started contacting me on Facebook from Pakistan, and I started developing relationships with some of them. Next thing you know, I end up giving some money. I would encourage you not to do that. Remember, there's a process of learning and wisdom, failing. And and if you're friends with me on Facebook or Instagram, you're probably gonna get contact by many people from around the world, and they're going to beg you for money.
Better to go through us so you don't have to learn go through the same process of learning that I did. K? Just FYI. They'll promise you big things. Some people laugh because they've had it.
They've experienced it. So I began to sow, and it was a test for me. Was I willing to sow where my prayers were were sowing? So it was good. It wasn't all bad.
I wasn't saying that. I'm just learning the process just like my dad did with the drug addicts. Okay? Learning the process, developing relationships. So we move here to plant the church.
For the first 2 years, because my DNA is global missions. It's what I got. My doctorate is in global evangelization. There's many more stories about other nations. They will come.
We just don't have time today. But God has called us to reach the nations. But anyway, for the first 2 years of the church, after traveling the world with my dad, God would not let me go anywhere or do any kind of mission work with our church for the first couple years because we were starting the church. We were becoming a mature church 1 step at a time. We're still in the process of maturing.
But after 2 years, the Lord said, okay, it's time. I want you to start praying for your church for for missions. I wanna start doing mission stuff for your church. And so what did I do? I looked for an organization that was doing the same thing I knew our church would do 1 day.
And I found Surge. It's a it's a church planting organization out of Bethany prayer center in Baton Rouge. Serge has planted over 30,000 churches around the world. The leader, Joel Stockstill, I contacted them. They were doing an internship for 6 months, so I sowed my life into that and did that internship with them because I wanted to see if they had the same heart, had the same vision.
Because guys, we're gonna plant churches all around the world. We're gonna raise up leaders all around the world. We're gonna have many of those leaders will stay here and change this area, and many of them will be sent to nations all around the world. It's just who we are. We're just getting started.
So I spent 6 months reading the books. I spent 6 months doing the internship, traveled over there. They prayed for us, everything, and our church sowed $2,000 in the surge. Just sow them where you wanna go, honoring what God has done in them. Guess what happened?
2 or 3 months after that, a man named Daniel. Will you pull up the picture that has Daniel in the in the bottom right? There's a bunch of kids. He's holding a a book. Yeah.
See the guy on the right? Man named Daniel contacted me just a couple months after sowing that seed. And began to build a relationship with him, do some ministry with him, but still kinda holding at arm's length because I'd been burned before. And then God sent some evangelists who had been to Pakistan before, who I trusted. They knew his family, said I could "trust them".
Praise the Lord. Relationships are the currency of the kingdom. God does stuff through trusted relationships, just so you know. Not saying that you don't sow into some random person you don't know, sometimes that is the case, but most of the time, it's relationships. They are the **currency of the kingdom** walking together.
So I began to sow more of my life into Daniel. Daniel and his wife called me and they said, hey, just want you to know it was prophesied over our life that we would be ministering in this place in Southeastern Pakistan where there's a lot of Hindu people groups. Would you pray for us? I said, Daniel, have you ever been there? He said, no.
And but they were given names that would help them to minister there when they were kids. It was that that important. Sagar and Puja. And so I said, well, let's pray. And we prayed, and I told him and I we we prayed that God would invite them to come to that area.
And I told him, hey. God's gonna invite you guys. 2 weeks later, a man from that area contacted Daniel and invited him to come share the gospel with his family and with his friends. Daniel contacted me, said, hey, we're invited. We don't have the money to go.
I said, how much is it gonna cost? He said, $500. Buy a train ticket, they'd have to ride the train 14 hours away. I went to our elders. Reason I went to the elders is because I wanted us to make decision as a church.
I wanted the church to participate in what was happening. So our elders said, yes, let's sow 500. So we sowed 500 into Daniel and Pramila, Sagar and Puja, and they bought a train ticket, rode 14 hours south on this train, got off, met Devah, who was the man that invited them. Devah had invited his friends and family from 15 villages. Wow.
It was 400 people that showed up. Daniel and Daniel and Pramila preached the gospel, 300 give their life to Jesus in 3 days. It's the beginning. This was about 4 and a half years ago. So didn't know how to disciple them.
Ended up sending 1 of Daniel's spiritual sons to go and live there for 6 months and make **disciples** and stuff. He spent 3 months with them, and there was no new fruit. There was just 300 believers. I'm like, you know, it's good that he's discipling them, but there should be multiplication. What's happening?
And Daniel and his dad look at me and say, would you teach us how to disciple these people? In that moment, like, God hits me in the chest, I knew that I was supposed to take a bigger role in what's happening. And so I said, well, pray for me. So they prayed for me. In that moment, I knew exactly who I needed to call, what question I need to ask.
So I called, I asked the question. Got a book. Read the book. God downloaded it into me, and I began teaching and training Daniel how to disciple these people. The next 3 months, it multiplied from 300 to 4 50.
Then we did a mini crusade of about 2,000, and 900 people gave their life to Jesus. It was awesome. And it began to multiply. Now we're in 27 villages. God begins to move.
So we want to do a bigger crusade. Right? Because we have not just crusade and new converts, but we've got leaders who are being trained, and leaders training leaders, and it's awesome. We're like, how are we gonna do this? God puts on our heart to do a crusade of like 10,000 people.
Like, woah. And so it was gonna cost about $60 to do everything. $65. And God connected 30 third companies, some friends of mine from Fort Worth. They were gonna come on the trip with us, and they sold a little bit, but there was about $440,000 left to sow.
I talked to our elders, said, hey, guys. God's moving in really cool ways. I said, believe we should pray about sowing this. The elders are like because at this at this point in our life as a church, we got $65,000 in the bank. $65,000 in the bank.
$40,000 seed to sacrifice. You're risking. You don't know if you can continue as a church. Right? Because it it costs money to go.
It costs money to do stuff. They said, man, this is God. We're sowing a sacrificial seed. We sowed $40,000. Between 21 and 22000 people came to that crusade.
9,000 were healed and delivered of demons. There were over 10 10000 people that gave their life to Jesus. What a return on the seed. 180 something villages now we're in. Begins to multiply.
We raise up leaders and send them to the different places. God's doing "crazy stuff", like crazy stuff. Would you go back to the first slide? Fast forward a year. Leaders being made, disciples being made, we go back to another crusade.
That's 47,000 people. That's me preaching, which is crazy. 40 18,000 mass healings and deliverances. 18,000. About 20,000 **surrendered* to Jesus* as their only Lord, which is crazy.
**1000 different villages** came to that crusade. We sent a bus to 1000 villages. We sent the leaders that we had to all thousand villages beforehand. They shared testimonies of how God had healed them, set them free of what God was doing. Jesus Christ was doing in the area.
He said, on this day, I want you to get on the bus when the bus comes. And **47,000 people** got on the bus. From 1000 different villages. So that was March 2023. Go to the next.
Those are when we went in March 2023, that was the leaders that we trained. Go to the next. That's what a house looks like. Go to the next. When when when they become Christians, they get kicked out of their Hindu water supply.
And so a lot of times, they have to walk 1, 2, 3 miles to go get water from a ditch. So we've put in a 120 wells in some of those villages, and give them access to "clean water", is an area where they can then share the gospel. Go to next. Next. That's digging a well, our teams.
That's our our teams. New believers, got a new job digging wells. Go to next. Say right here. So on that 47,000 person crusade, we didn't carry the bill that time.
30 third company sold a $100,000 into that. God just expanding. It outgrew our church, and God sent another another nonprofit, another and it's continuing to expand. So they, after that first crusade, hired 11, 30 third company hired 11 evangelists full time at $300 apiece. So a 150 pays for gas, $300 I mean, the other 150 covers their family responsibility so that they can full time take their motorbike and go from village to village.
So from March 2023 until December 2024, almost those whole almost 2 years, those 11 evangelists with volunteers that went with them, and other volunteers that just gave their life without being paid, went to all thousand villages that came to that crusade. All thousand. And they spent a month there. In that month, so that's they went, like, 1 village on Monday, another village on Tuesday, another village on and they'd repeat for a month. Okay?
So, like, 5 villages a month each team did for those 2 years. In the last 2 years, we went to every single village that that came to that 47,000 person crusade. And by the time we left, there was between 30 and 50 believers with 10 to 12 leaders who were ready to lead more groups. It's crazy. God's good.
So what you're seeing there is 1 of those groups at 1 of those villages. That's 1 of the evangelists that's full time, giving his life for that. Go to the next. Go to the next. That's us baptizing in a ditch in Pakistan.
Go to next. That's another group, another village of new believers giving their life to Jesus. Go to the next. They're about to get baptized. 1 of our evangelists about to baptize believers in a village.
Go to the next. Baptizing them. Giving their lives, giving up their their livelihood. A lot of times they become outcast when they become Christians. Next.
Next. Another 1. Next. Another 1. Another evangelist sharing the gospel, *discipling* a nation, Pakistan.
So this is where I'm going, me and Esther. This is why we're going. We're leaving on Tuesday and we're going now we're in 3 unreached people groups, it's multiplied that much. The Marwari tribe, we're bringing in 1000 leaders and we're gonna reinforce the the discipleship trainings, we're gonna teach them, and then we're gonna commission them. They're gonna set goals and go multiply all the more.
Then we're going to teach us a second conference of 500, 300 of the Pikari tribe, and 200 Dati. These are unreached people groups that now are being reached. We're now in half of the villages in Sindh of the Morawi people. It's amazing. Where they were unreached by the gospel before.
So the the Pikkari and the Dati, 500, do a conference there, commission them, they're newer, and then we're gonna talk to the 11 evangelists, the volunteers, a group of about 50, and just sit with them, encourage them, hear testimonies and stories. We're going this is a trip that we're going to encourage. And guess what, guys? It's covered. Financially, trip's covered.
It's a big deal. And I wanna encourage you guys, like, there's some movement here. I'm about to do something very important. So please stay. Please stay.
And Joe, if you could encourage any of the volunteer team to come back in here, that'd be great. So here's the thing. Sow where you wanna go, and as you go sow, and where you sow, you will go. Why? Because the seed reproduces after its own kind.
My challenge to you guys is this. We have 11 full time evangelists. I want 33. 33 evangelists, 22 more full time evangelists. What does it cost?
$300 a month. 150 for gas, for the motorcycle, and 150 for their family responsibility. And you'll be a part of helping that evangelist that you sponsor go from village to village sharing the gospel and raising up disciples. My ask for you is to ask the Lord, does he want you to do it? $300 a month.
Not everybody will. Not everybody will God ask you to do it. Be obedient to the Lord. Does that mean that you're gonna go to Pakistan 1 day? If you sow?
Maybe. But you will also reap a harvest, your "heart will be entangled" in it. And when you hear the testimonies of what your evangelist is doing, when you see the stories of what how they're impacting others, you're going to share the gospel more boldly in your daily life. You're gonna see more of what they're seeing in your life because you're sowing into them. Because your heart's entangled there, you're honoring it, and you're receiving from it.
It's just how the kingdom works. Now, it's not transactional. God is not this "gumball machine in the sky" where you sow into it and you get what you want, and it's all about what I get. It's not transactional, it's transformational. He has you sow to transform you by what you are sowing into so your life can produce the same things.
You do it out of obedience to Him, not to get anything, but there are laws in the kingdom. You understand? So my request is that you pray about *sowing* and sponsoring a evangelist monthly. For how long? Well, I hope for life, but you can commit to a year or 2 years or however long the Lord says, but when you stop, they'll stop.
Okay? So just be free in that. Okay? If you wanna do that, you can give not to these boxes. Did they when did that giving box go back out there?
I hid it. Oh, just now? Okay. Perfect. The box in the back is for Pakistan.
Okay. Now, if you can't sow monthly to that, that's okay. There's an individual opportunity as well. We also need to buy motorcycles for every evangelist that we hire full time. A motorcycle costs $1,200, and a satchel is $30 for them to carry their bible and tools as they go.
So $1,230. So 20 22 times $12.30 is 27,600 or 60. 27,060. We also need to raise 1 time gifts of that many, of that much. And so just ask the Lord.
And if the Lord moves on your heart to do that, praise the Lord. Sow either individually or like a 1 time thing for that or monthly for that. And praise the Lord, I'm excited for the fruit that God's gonna cause to happen in your life because it you're going to be transformed by it, and so will our church and our community by what God does in you and through you here. Amen? Now, if you give online, there's a Pakistan drop down box.
If you do a reoccurring gift, I will assume that it's for the hiring an evangelist. Okay? If it's a 1 time, I'm assume that it's for the motorcycles. Make sense? You guys good?
Let me pray for you. And then I wanna have the altar ministry team come forward because we wanna minister to you as well. If you need to give your life to Jesus, if you've never sowed your life into the kingdom by saying I wanna surrender my life to you, today would be the day. God wants to do it. But let me let me pray for you, and and then I think Mark's gonna close us out, and we'll be done.
So father, I thank you for this this church. I thank you for what they're doing. I thank you that they're sowing me and Ezra bond into this ministry in Pakistan for the next week. Lord God, and I thank you, father, for all the lives that are gonna be transformed. In Jesus' name, pray.
Everybody said Amen. Amen.