The Time Is Now

I mentioned to you, here in Kansas City, we're going to be having a public appearance campaign. Mr. Petty, Mr. Myers, Mr. McNeely from the Home Office and numerous other staff will be here on that weekend. And on Sunday, the 19th of March, over at the Holiday Inn, off of Rita Road, I believe it is, is where we're going to be having that at 3 o'clock in the afternoon. And of course, that is, in a sense, what Dr. Ward was talking about. We need to be praying what we should pray. We need to be saying what we should say. We want to be saying that everyone needs to repent, that everyone needs the kingdom of God that's coming. And whether people even are prepared, or whether they are even ready, probably wouldn't be ready for the most part, that kingdom is coming. And so, I wanted to go over the title that is featured on our program for that day, is America the Time is Now. See, we have an extraordinary time to be proclaiming the good news of the kingdom. And so, each one of us not only needs to be committed to that, we need to know how we can help out. And this is what I want to focus on today, how we can prepare, how we can help out. And I know, you know, not everyone is from the local area here, but wherever you go, this applies to you as far as how it is. You know, we reach out or how we look toward others, how we understand that God is the one who has to call and draw people to Jesus Christ. We know that, and we appreciate that because that's, he's in the family business. That's what he is doing. He is bringing people to glory in the kingdom of God. And so, we want to do our part in promoting that. And so, I hope to instill a sense of enthusiasm and zeal for the work that God has given us to do. We, you know, we have six or eight, seven weeks before our program here, but we need to be preparing, and we need to be, in a sense, this way all along. We could ask ourselves, are we prepared to receive those that God may draw? Are we prepared for that? And I know, you know, we've had some kingdom of God seminars in the past. We've had those here locally. We've had them in other places. Sometimes, we've had some people who have come and who have actually understood what God was doing, and people have become a part of the church that way. And, of course, that God's the one who gets the glory for that, because He's the one who draws people and gives them understanding. But sometimes, we haven't seen too many attendees, and I know it, at least from my standpoint, if I'm either speaking or even attending, if you don't see too many people that have wanted to find out more, then that can be discouraging. That can kind of cause us to let down, maybe be a little lethargic, maybe not be as on fire about what God not only is doing in our lives, but what He can do in the lives of others.

And, you know, we want to be able to know that what we're doing as far as proclaiming the gospel is certainly well worth not only our effort, but well worth the involvement of each and every one of us individually. So how can we prepare? I want to read through several verses here that, in a sense, lay a foundation. A foundation because it tells us what Jesus did, it tells us what Paul did. And then, I'll go through a few things toward the end, things that we can directly do, things that we ought to be concerned about here in the next six weeks. We have plenty of time to prepare, and yet we want to be doing, you know, what God tells us to do. Here in Luke chapter 5.

Luke chapter 5 gives an interesting account of how it was that, of course, Jesus interacted with others. He was beginning to draw his disciples. He was showing and teaching them what it was they needed to learn, and that's what we see throughout the remainder of the gospels. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, you know, you see the accounts of what Jesus did, of what he said, of how he interacted with people that God the Father drew to him. And it's really, in a sense, kind of amazing, because I hope to have the, maybe the outlook, the understanding that he had. That's what I would hope for in my own life. But here in Luke chapter 5, verse 27, after this, he went out. This is talking about Jesus. He had actually healed several people. He had called some of the earliest disciples. And in verse 27, he went out and he saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the tax booth. And he just said to him, follow me. And he got up and left everything and followed him. Now that's about as short as summary of God calling and drawing somebody to be a disciple of Jesus Christ, as you could ever imagine. And yet again, he knew what he was doing. The father knew what he was doing. And the disciples were simply learning what that was. Jesus also knew what he was doing. What I want to point out is later on here in verse 29, Levi, as a new disciple of God, Levi gave a great banquet for him at his house. And there was a large crowd. So apparently Levi had means. He was able, he had a big house, he was able to invite people over, he was able to draw them in. Whether they came for the food or whether they came for the fellowship, maybe they came to learn something about this man that seemed to be, you know, so incredibly brilliant in every way, Jesus Christ. But it says Levi gave this banquet. There's a lot of people there. There was a huge crowd of tax collectors and others sitting at the table with them. And of course there were some Pharisees there. Pharisees didn't like what Jesus was doing. They wanted to minimize him, marginalize him. The Pharisees and the scribes, they began complaining to the disciples, why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?

See, that's, you know, that was what they thought. They said, this doesn't look very good. Why are you just mingling with the common folk? Or really with folk they looked down upon considerably because they were in S&C IRS. You know, they were the people who collected the taxes for the Roman system. They were, and so that's why, of course, Levi was, he was in that system. He knew who these people were. He knew what they did. He did the same thing that they did. But see, the Pharisees complained, why do you eat with and drink with tax collectors and sinners? And Jesus simply answered, he said, those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.

I've come to call not the righteous, but sinners to repentance. So again, it's very clear, you know, that Jesus was quite accepting. He was quite open with other people. He understood that the Father would have to change anybody's mind here if they were going to pursue following and believing who Jesus is, the Son of God was. He understood that fully. And he said, I don't mind being around those who I know, you know, may be viewed in a very negative light. And see, sometimes we can get caught up in the same type of picky attitude that the Pharisees had. Oh, well, they probably don't obey God like I did. That was what the Pharisees were saying. Surely they don't obey God like you do. And yet you're even wrong in the way you obey God too. And so, you know, the attitude that Jesus had was one of, I'm willing to help people. And he actually points out that, well, you know, I'm here to heal spiritual sickness. You know, I'm here to extend to them something they need. And so really, the ones that I'm going to ultimately be able to work with are those who even recognize that I'm a sinner. So that's why all of us, we should recognize that fact in ourself. And we should realize that, well, without the blood of the Lamb, we're sunk. Without, you know, what it said there in Revelation 12 about relying on the Redeemer, and the only way we can have eternal life is through him, is, you know, to comprehend that need.

And so, you know, Jesus' statement, I think, has a great deal of significance. And yet it's something that often is overlooked and can be overlooked by us even in this day and age. I want to go on to two examples of Paul, because, of course, Paul, in essence, takes up a lot of the New Testament. And not only books he wrote, but even much of the book of Acts, has a lot to do with Paul the Apostle, an Apostle that was called to go to the Gentiles, an Apostle that grew up in the echelon of Judaism. So he thoroughly knew what it was they did, what it was they taught, what it was they needed. But God directed him to go to the Gentile world. And you find him establishing churches throughout what we know today of his Turkey and into Greece and up into Rome. And occasionally he'd go back to Jerusalem, not always successful, because that was where he ultimately was captured, taking a captive on the boat to Rome. But see here in 1 Corinthians 9, you see Paul, 1 Corinthians 9, in a sense, you know, this first book to the people in Corinth is somewhat corrective. And he had the authority to do that. And he told them, you know, that I'm concerned about you, I love you, I want you to respond in a proper way. And yet, you know, you're not understanding well what God's expecting in a number of cases. But here in chapter 9, he's talking about how it is that as an apostle of God, you know, that he looks at the job that he's been given of giving, teaching, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom. See, that was a message that he was to take to the Gentile world. They weren't familiar too much with the Old Testament. They weren't familiar with the law, which the Jews were, both of those. And yet, how was it that Paul reached out to those, that God, and this is important, and we'll see this a little later, God was going to bring some of those people to be a part of the Church of God. Now, here in 1 Corinthians, he's writing to people who were attending, who were a part of the Church, per se. And yet, here he says, chapter 9, starting in verse 19, he says, For though I am free with respect to all, I have made myself, 1 Corinthians 9, 19, I have made myself a servant to everyone, so that I might win some of them. You know, what was he thinking about? Was he thinking about, you know, how might he help people? How might he serve people? How might he love people? How might he give them a message that they don't understand yet, but a message that God might enlighten their mind about? And so he understood, not just from his background and from his calling now, but he understood, I've got a big job. I've got a big responsibility. So he says, Oh, I'm free with respect to all, I've made myself a servant to all, so that I might win more of them. And so then he starts highlighting to the Jews, I became as a Jew in order to win the Jews. And so to those who were Jewish, that he had related quite well as far as education and training and understanding of the holy scriptures. This would be what the Jews would be more familiar with. He says, I became as a Jew to win the Jews. To those under the law, I became as one under the law.

And so here he kind of makes a differentiation. Obviously, everybody is under the law, at least under the penalty of the law. But for those who understood part of that, he went ahead to say, you know, to those who were under the law, I became as one under the law, though I myself am not under the law. So why'd he say that? Well, he said that because he understood that he was under grace. We read through that in dealing with the book of Romans, and how that didn't do away with the law, that didn't change anything about whether or not he knew what sin was. It did change how he reached out to others, because he understood. I'm under the grace of God. But he said to those under the law, I became as one under the law. I tried to relate to them at in whatever it appeared their understanding was. And that clearly is the case for all of us today. As we learn to relate to others, in a sense, you have to be friendly. You have to try to engage. You have to try to learn what it is that someone does know or understand, and then learn what they might need to know. That's what Paul is explaining. He says, I'm not under the law. He understood he was under grace, so that I might win some of those under the law. To those outside the law, to some who had no idea. And so he could say this regarding even many of the people in Corinth. Because Corinth was one of the most or more corrupt places around the area. It was certainly paganized. It was a lot of different morality problems.

People had very little perception of right and wrong. And yet, we'll again see later, God put him right there in the middle of this somewhat messy place. And he says, I can work with some of these people. If they come to understand their sinners, I can actually transform their heart. That's what he's telling us, too. That's what he, of course, is involved in doing.

For those outside the law, in verse 21, I became as one outside the law, though I am not free from God's law. He says, I am not away from disregarding, disrespecting in any way God's law, but I'm under Christ's law. He said, I know what God requires of me being a Christian. I'm under the grace of God. I observe the law of God. And I certainly appreciate Jesus Christ. And so, that I might win some of those who are outside the law. Verse 22, to the week I became weak, so that I might win the week.

Now, again, I'm not exactly sure what he would be describing, but perhaps, you know, he might determine, you know, that someone didn't have a good education or maybe a lot of things, you know, however you might describe weak, maybe to some who were infirm and maybe didn't have a lot of even ability. But what he said to the week I became as the weak. I have become all things to all people that I might by all means save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, so that I may share in the blessings that God is going to bring.

You know, that was, in essence, one of Paul's descriptions of how he related to other people.

He seemed to have a way of dealing with almost any segment of whoever he might be dealing with. And again, you know, whether we're that good or not, you know, we ought to be praying about that because, you know, we may be quite judgmental or we may be quite off target sometimes. We want to be as Jesus was, certainly open and receptive to helping people understand their need for spiritual healing. Let's drop back to chapter in Acts, chapter 17.

Now, here in Acts chapter 17, you see Paul, again, this was during a time when he was going from one place to the next. This is actually in Acts 17. It's a little before he would later be sent to Corinth, a little before he would get to Corinth and even begin to work with the church. So the timing is a little bit different here. This is earlier.

But here in Acts chapter 17, starting in verse 16, Paul came to Athens, and he was deeply distressed to see that the whole city was full of idols. Now, he was very perceptive about, you know, the Athenian area was very, really close to Corinth. It wasn't that far away. They were both in Greece. They were both there on the end of a peninsula. Probably people even went back and forth from these major cities. But he says that he could see that the whole city was full of idols. And in verse 18, the Epicureans and the Stoic philosophers debated with him, saying, what does this babbler have to say?

And amazing, others said, well, he seems to be a proclaimer of foreign divinities.

See, what they saw when they were sitting around in their, you know, chat and chew groups and seeing them come up with the, you know, most outlandish thing to say, they would be glad to listen to almost anything, and they were willing to listen to Paul. And one of them said, well, he seems to be talking about some foreign gods. And yet in parentheses, at least in my Bible, in verse 18, it says this was because Paul was telling the good news about Jesus and about the resurrection of the dead. So they perceived that to be about theology, about religion, about something about God. And he went on to say, they brought him the Areopagus in verse 19 and asked him, may we know what this new teaching is? Sounds strange to us. We don't know what it means. Of course, that's what they all sat around wanting to do. The Athenians in verse 21 and the foreigners living there spent all their time in nothing but telling or hearing something new. And so that was their pastime. But in verse 22, in a sense, Paul realized, well, this is a new crowd.

This is a foreign crowd. This is a crowd that I don't believe really knows God or Jesus Christ. They don't understand the message of the kingdom. This is a fertile area to sow seed. And so he offers a compliment. He says, Athenians, I see how extremely religious you are in every way.

Now, you know, maybe he was saying that a little tongue-in-cheek because he understood, well, they're not too religious, really, but they have a lot of, at least in this case, pagan ideas and a lot of unusual things that they think. And he says, as I went through the city in verse 23 and look carefully at the objects of your worship, I found among them an altar with the inscription that said to an unknown God. And he brought that up to them. He says, well, you've got some named different names that you apparently identify with or worship. But here's one, some kind of idol that's set up to the unknown God. Well, here's a blank, and maybe I can fill in the blank. So he goes ahead to say, end of verse 23, what therefore you worship as unknown, I proclaim to you the God who made the world and everything in it, He who is Lord of heaven and earth. He does not live in shrines made by human hands, nor is He served by human hands, as though He needs anything, since He Himself gives to all mortals life and breath and all things. And from one ancestor, He made all nations to inhabit the whole earth and allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live so that they would search for God and perhaps grope for Him and find Him, though indeed He's not far from any one of us. Paul had a lot to say about the Creator God. He had, He wanted to try to identify with them. He wanted to reach out. He wanted to be personable. He didn't want to be just immediately shut down. He wanted to be received.

He says in verse 28, in Him, in God, the Creator God, we live and move and have our being.

He says in verse 29, we are His offspring. We are the children of God. We ought not to think that a deity is like, or the deity is like gold or silver or stone or image formed by the art and imagination of mortals. And while God has overlooked the times of human ignorance, so here He's actually going to tell them, you know, something that they really need to know.

If they want to know the Creator God, if they want to know who Paul preached, who was the Son of God, Jesus Christ, then they were going to have to recognize that even though God has been overlooking the times of human ignorance, now He commands all people everywhere to repent. And so this was what He proclaimed to them. He did that in as sensitive a way as He could. He did that trying to reach them, trying to help them to see, well, this is an unknown God that I can explain to you.

I can tell you if you want to know, I can explain what this Creator God is all about. And actually, amazingly, you see down here in the end of the chapter in verse 34, some of them joined Him, and they became believers. The initiates are the Apogite and a woman named Demaris, others with them.

So did He reach everyone there? No. See, sometimes that's what we would like. We would like whoever we happen to come to a program, you know, to come to understand what we understand about God's great purpose for man, about how incredible that purpose is, about how remarkable Jesus Christ, our Savior, is, and how He's leading us into the kingdom even now, as we've had mentioned even a couple of times already here in services today.

But here Paul did at least reach some. It doesn't say it was, you know, the greatest-looking scholars there. It says a couple of people that he names, but they had come to believe. They had come to believe in the Creator God and in Jesus His Son and in growing toward, you know, some of them scoffed, I'm sure. I think you see that a little earlier. But then some of them then did believe. So I think when we think about how Jesus viewed people and how Paul talks about how He tried to reach out to people, in that in a sense that's the stage for us.

You know, how can we do the same thing? Well, we can try to have the attitude and outlook that Jesus had, accepting, loving, caring, reaching out to people that Paul had. He tried to do it as wisely as he thought he could. He didn't, you know, come in with someone who was incredibly new to any understanding of the truth and try to explain some of the details of the most minute parts of the law.

You know, there's some things that are real obvious and there's some things that are maybe less. And so, you know, many of us after 40 or 50 years, we kind of know what most of them are. But for new people, that's not a necessity. You know, you can learn some of the basics, like the purpose of life, like how it is that we can relate to the Father through the Son, about how it is that the law of God is very much applicable.

And even, of course, knowing that perhaps we observe the Sabbath, you know, that's often a difference that many people might not yet understand. But that's something that is pretty obvious, so you can be certainly thinking about how to discuss that. I'd like to just point out two or three things here in the remainder of the sermon. And all of these kind of time in with, you know, the parables of Jesus are written and different of the Gospels.

One of the most incredible parables is the sower in the sea. Clearly, he's talking about sowing the Word of God and the sower doing that sowing. And then he mentions different soils and different achievements. You know, some not at all, some only shallow, some actually eventually choked, and some growing in good ground. And see, you know, we can think about those and think about our own lives and, you know, where are we? Where should we be? And how is God working with us? But the first thing I'll point out is simply that the power to help people is not going to be in incredible, smooth speaking and high-tech presentations.

Now, we have some presenters who are good speakers. We have people who are quite knowledgeable and seemingly to me, blessed by God, to be able to present information. And I'm sure they're going to have some kind of a high-tech presentation as far as screens and following things on the screens.

And yet that's not the most important thing. You know, people are going to hear it, they're going to respond. It's not going to be because of how it was presented so much.

But what the life-changing truth of the gospel is, that is what changed our lives and that's what's going to change anybody else's life. See, I only want to go to one verse here in Isaiah 55 that points this out. Isaiah 55 points out how men's ways, men's words are different than God's ways and God's words. And so we need to learn what God's ways and God's words are.

But he says in verse 10, as the rain and snow come down from heaven, and do not return there until they have watered the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater. See, Isaiah's writing this kind of description is that God sends moisture from the rain and snow, and even as we've had a couple of times here this winter, ice, he sends all that. And, you know, he waters the earth and then there's production. The grass grows, you know, many times in August, at least around here, most of the time through Kansas, and I think also in Missouri you've got a pretty brown-looking patch of weeds along the road.

Sometimes it looks still green, but a lot of times by that time it's pretty brown. But see, that's what Isaiah is talking about. He says, as I send the rain and snow, you know, I produce from that. So, he says in verse 11, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth. It shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish what I purpose, and it will succeed in the thing for which I sin it.

See, this is talking about the power that is in the Word of God, the power, the life-changing power that the truth of the gospel is. That's what everybody needs. That's what we need. That's what we've needed in the past. That's what we still need today. That's what everyone that we might invite and try to encourage to come to a program that will last an hour and a half, probably, I would guess, of something that might plant a seed there, and God says, you know, if I'm going to cause growth to occur, you know, I can do it. So, we want to appreciate the power that's in the Word of God. But, the second thing I'll mention is that we've got to do our job.

The sower's got to sow the seed. We, as a church, collectively, we've got the job of providing not only the Beyond Today television program and the magazine and then some of these campaigns. You know, we've all, we're all a part of sowing the seed. Here in 1 Corinthians chapter 3, and actually, in a sense, this ties together with what I mentioned as the first point about how powerful the Word of God is, the life-changing power that is in God's Word. But, here in 1 Corinthians 3, Paul is speaking, again, to a divided church. This was a church that he was familiar with, one that we talked a little bit about later, how that he said, you know, I reached out to all of you in a lot of different ways, and I tried to help you. I tried to help you grow. I tried to reach you in a way that I perceived could be helpful to you. But, here in the first part of 1 Corinthians, Paul was having to correct them for being divided. He's having to correct them for, you know, all kind of going in different directions.

And he said, really, you know, Jesus Christ is not divided. You know, he is the foundation. He is the one that is always going to be the foundation. That's never going to change. That's always going to be the foundation right now, and between here and his return, and then forever, he will always be the foundation of the truth of God. But, here in 1 Corinthians 3, you know, Paul speaks to them about how whenever in verse 3, if you still act carnal, chapter 3, verse 3, as long as there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not simply of the flesh and behaving according to human standard?

See, that's what he had to try to help them understand, that your bickering and fighting, and your lack of cooperation, and your lack of pulling together in unity and harmony, that's simply carnal. For he says in verse 4, when one says, I belong to Paul, and another says, I belong to a Paulist, are you not just simply common carnal, human? That doesn't have much do with the truth of God. That doesn't have much to do with being converted, and that's what he really had to tell them a number of times throughout this book.

But what I want to get to is in verse 5. Chapter 3, verse 5, he says, what's a Paulist? Now, we can read a little bit about a Paulist, and apparently a Paulist was an eloquent speaker. He was able to, you know, maybe tell some good stories, perhaps to present an understanding of the truth of God in a way that people could receive it. And Paul was different than that. It said, at least he said, you know, I'm not speaking in brilliant terminology. I'm not, you know, the way that I talk is not smooth like some others. And yet, he says in verse 5, what's a Paulist? What is Paul? And he follows that by answering. We're just servants. Servants through whom you came to believe as the Lord assigned to each of you.

And so again, telling the people there in Corinth who were a part of the church, but who were pretty fractured. You need to understand that, well, we're not, I'm not trying to get ahead of a Paulist. Paul's not trying to get ahead of Peter. Peter's not trying to get ahead of me.

We're all trying to build on the foundation, which is Jesus Christ. And so he says, all of you have come to believe because the Lord gave you that understanding. He gave you, he changed the outlook of your mind and blessed you as an object of his mercy. That's what he would later describe more so in Romans. But he says in verse 6, I planted and a Paulist watered, but God gave the growth. He gave the increase. So he says, neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but it's only God who gives the growth. Now, we'd like to try to plant well. We'd like to water properly or at the right time or the right amount. And yet he says, the focus is not on the the focus is not on the sower, even though the sower has a job. The focus is on the Word of God, the power that's in that Word and it's on God providing the increase.

So the power is in the Word. The sower's got to do the work.

See now, are you a seed thrower or are you a water boy?

You know, that's what he was using that description for himself and for Apollos.

You know, we, if we share the Word of God, you know, we could be considered a seed thrower. And if we try to help something to grow by watering it, then we can be considered water boys or water girls. And yet we have our job. We have a job that we've got to do. The third thing I want to point out is that God creates circumstances through which he extends his calling.

Now, all of us are involved in a church where we attend church on a regular basis and where we kind of know, you know, what we plan to do each week. We know when the Sabbath is. We know when the Holy Days come up. We know what others of the laws of God are. Again, many of us have done the same thing for many years. We're not finished products even yet. We're still sinning, and we still are in need of growing. But at least we have the foundation. We absolutely know what's expected of us, and we are trying. We're striving, and we don't always succeed. We're striving, though, and that's good. Struggling is good. Struggling is actually the perfect thing for all of us to understand. But what I want to point out with this third point is simply that God creates circumstances sometimes in people's lives that come about in maybe what would almost seem remarkable ways. See, in Acts chapter 8, you have an example that I'm sure you're familiar with between Philip and an Ethiopian unit. Now, the Ethiopian was coming to Jerusalem. You know, he was traveling, and it says he was there to worship God. So he obviously had a right idea as far as a certain amount of a belief in God, a certain comprehension of, you know, I need some help. But when you look at Acts chapter 8, this is an impressive example, an impressive circumstance that God brings about. Of course, it looks like God was directly intervening in this, where an angel was telling Philip, you know, go down to the south and the road from Jerusalem to Gaza. Well, excuse me, if I said Romans, it's Acts chapter 8. Acts chapter 8 verse 27. So he got up and went, and now there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official, the queen of Ethiopia in charge of her entire treasury. So this was a responsible man. He was, you know, given a great deal of responsibility. And he was coming to Jerusalem to worship in verse 28. He was returning home, and he was seated in his charity, and he's reading the book of Isaiah. And so, you know, he had come to Jerusalem. He was going back. He had some understanding, but he didn't have everything he needed. And that's, of course, why God sent Philip to him on the road. And in verse 29, I guess it is, the Spirit said to Philip, go over to the chariot and join it. And so he did. He ran over there. He heard him reading the prophet Isaiah, and he asked him a question. Do you understand what you're reading? Now, I have to say, you know, that I've read a good amount in Isaiah, and I wondered what I was reading. You know, it's not all that clear in every point or every place, because some of it's applicable to something else. And, you know, so it's somewhat hard to easily read. And yet, Philip's question was a very good one. Do you understand what you're reading? And the response of this Ethiopian, who later, shortly thereafter, after he had talked to him and taught him and shown him more about what he needed to know, he eventually would baptize him. But I'm simply wanting to focus on what God created in bringing this man to an awareness of the truth, to an awareness of Jesus Christ, to an awareness of what he needed to do to turn from sin, and how to be repentant, and how to be a recipient of the gifts of God.

See, when Philip asked him, do you understand what you're reading? He says, how can I, unless someone teach me, unless someone guide me? See, that type of a teachable attitude that this Ethiopian eunuch displayed is perfect, absolutely perfect, and all of us need to seek that, because we need to be taught from God. We need to be taught from his word. We need to know what he's doing. And, you know, it's always amazed me to see, you know, where he responds. Well, you know, I don't really understand, but I'm willing to learn. And so he invited Philip to get in, and he sat beside him, and they were reading Isaiah 53. And in verse 34, the eunuch asked Philip about, whom may I ask you? Does the prophet say this? Is he talking about his Isaiah talking about himself, or is he talking about somebody else? And again, I didn't read verse 32 and 3, but you can read that, and you can see that, well, that's not talking about Isaiah. That's talking about Jesus. So it's talking about the Savior, who was even yet to come several hundred years later. So it was a prophecy when Isaiah wrote it down, and Philip began to speak to him. Verse 35, and starting with that scripture, he proclaimed to him the good news about Jesus. And as I said, he went ahead and was later baptized. But see, the fact is, you know, this man was teachable. He was reachable. He was receptive to Philip's instructions. He was able to be taught, to be guided, and he was on his way. God had brought about an incredible circumstance where he could extend his calling to this man. Now, another, I think, amazing example is over in Acts 19-18. In Acts 18, you see Paul actually beginning to work with the people in the city of Corinth. As I said earlier, a pretty corrupt city, a very pagan city, to Corinthianize, you know, was, you know, a very derogatory term, basically meaning to prostitute yourself. That was what the description was. So it was a very amoral city. But what does God have to say about this? Well, in verse 1, Paul left Athens and went to Corinth. So that kind of follows up on what we read earlier. But what I want to focus on is on down in verse 8. In verse 8, as Paul had been talking about, you know, the gospel message, he said, Crispus, the official of the synagogue, became a believer in the Lord, together with all his household. And many of the Corinthians who heard Paul became believers and were baptized. And so here, as he has come to Corinth and as he has talked to different groups that he has either asked or that he goes to and is asking them to come to understand what he's explaining about God and about Jesus Christ and about the resurrection and about the kingdom. Those are all things that are mentioned as far as what Paul was preaching.

But in verse 9, it says, one night, the Lord said to Paul in a vision, I don't want you to be afraid. I want you to speak and do not be silent. For I am with you, verse 10, and no one can lay a hand on you to harm you, for there are many people in this city who are my people. There are people here in this corrupt place that I am going to draw to be a part of the church.

Now, was it because Paul was such a brilliant speaker that these people were going to be called? No. Was it a part of the message? Well, yes, the message was going to be right, but even clearly God was calling some out of Corinth. And it's amazing, you know, to just see what, of course, Paul learned by that. He stayed there for 18 months teaching the word of God among them.

The next year and a half, he knew what he was supposed to do because God had made it pretty plain. And he said, even in this somewhat corrupt city, you are going to stay here and you're going to work with those that I'm going to draw to new circumstances in their lives where they maybe will see I need help. And that, of course, is often the case with us and with others that, you know, we hope can come, will come. If we go back to 1 Corinthians 16, the fourth thing I'll mention is simply that it's described here in 1 Corinthians 16 as Paul talks about his work. That God's the one who opens doors and he's the one who opens people's minds. And so we can't do that job, but we can do our job of sewing the seat. We can do our job of reaching out in a loving and friendly and proper manner. But here in 1 Corinthians 16, Paul is kind of concluding this book, and he says in talking about his travel plans, he said he was going to go through Macedonia. Now this is where Corinth was. It was a part of Macedonia. I'm going to go through that. I'm going to go through some of the other areas that I have. Verse 6, perhaps I'll stay with you or even spend the winter so that you may send me on my way wherever I go. I don't want to see you just now, right now in passing, for I hope to spend time with you later if God permits. He was telling people in Corinth that, well, you know, I could be here with you a little while, but I'd like to come back and spend more time and be able to help you more.

And he says in verse 7, I don't want to see you now. I want to spend more time if the Lord permits in verse 8, but I will stay in Ephesus until Pentecost. And so here he said Ephesus is across the water into what we know of as Turkey. And he says, I'm going to go over to Ephesus, which is where he had actually been before, and he knew some of the people there. But he says, I'm going to go over there until Pentecost. And so he was referencing until the holy day of the summer that, again, all of us understand and know about. I'm going to say in Ephesus until Pentecost, for a wide door, an open door for effective work has been opened to me. And there are many adversaries. Now, this is a statement that Paul often made because there were many things that he thought were in the way as far as slowing him down, tripping him up, difficulties that needed to be overcome. But he just gives a reference to the fact that God opens doors and he opens people's minds. And so, not only should we be sowing the seed, whether that's through inviting, whether that's through talking to people in a respectful way, whether that's through either fasting beforehand, because we've got plenty of time, we could plan to do that, or certainly praying. See, this was a part of what we mentioned earlier in announcements, that we want to be praying the things that should be prayed and saying the things that should be said. We want to be praying that the Lord of the harvest will do what obviously he has done many times in the past. And some of that, you know, we can bring before God in a respectful way and appeal to him for his blessing, for his guidance in the lives of people. Colossians chapter 4, another book that Paul wrote to another congregation.

But again, as he was concluding his statements about the church and some of the instructions and direction he had given this particular congregation, but in chapter 4, he says in verse 2, in telling the church as he was leaving and what you need to continue to do and what I I would say that all of us should be doing and probably can do more as we get closer even to the next six weeks and the campaign that we hope to have here, he says in verse 2, devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with thanksgiving. And so here he says be sure to be praying the things that you should pray, not simply for the coming of the Lord, which is clearly the focus of the kingdom, but that God will work in the lives of the people that, you know, that he would choose to change. And so he says, devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert with thanksgiving at the same time pray for us as well that God will open to us a door for the word that we may declare the mystery of Christ for which I'm in prison and so that I may reveal it clearly as I should. See, here he was asking to have the congregation pray for him because he needed help. He needed to know what to do and how, where, and who he needed to reach. And he says in verse 5 about how you should act. So, conduct yourselves wisely toward outsiders, making the most of the time, and let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer everyone. Here he's given several different instructions about what to pray about.

Pray for the kingdom to come, to pray for the work that was being done, to pray that each of us would be able to know the right thing to say at the right time. You know, those are the instructions that you see, that your speech is seasoned with grace. See, that it is gentle and sensitive and thoughtful, that it is respectful, and that it is, you know, how it is that God would choose that to be relayed to others. In Matthew chapter 9, a couple of other verses here that we'll conclude on. So, we've studied what Jesus did. We've studied how Paul reached out to others. You know, we've mentioned how the power, the real power, is in the Word of God, but the sower must do the work of sowing or watering. God may create circumstances in people's lives to bring them into a recognition of their need for Him. He's the one who opens doors and opens minds, and yet we're told to pray that the Lord of the harvest will add laborers.

Here in Matthew chapter 9, chapter 9 verse 35, Jesus went about all the cities and villages teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel, the gospel of the kingdom, and curing every disease and every sickness. And when He saw the crowds, He had compassion on them because they were harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd. He realized that these people were, you know, that He would interact with. They needed spiritual help. Matthew 9 verse 36 saw those crowds. He looked at them with compassion. You know, that again is instruction to us.

And He said to His disciples, the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.

Therefore, pray. Therefore, ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into the harvest. To hear, He tells us directly what to pray for. God would add others who would want to be not only growing toward the kingdom but involved in doing the work of God. And that, of course, you know, is what all of us can do as we prepare, you know, for this coming campaign. So we've got to be praying the right things and saying the right message and preparing to receive those that God calls. You know, I think it's always impressive when you look, and this will be the final verse here, John chapter 15. When you see how Jesus would direct His disciples to be successful, now they were just learning during the book of John, during the book where He was teaching them and telling them what they should do and what they needed to know and how they needed to respond.

And yet, of course, the first part of John 15 is that I'm the vine and you're the branches. And so we're going to need to pray that we can be the fruitful branches that He can use to serve others, you know, as we have this program that, you know, the church is putting effort into, trying to set up for, trying to get ready. But really, who needs to be ready more than us? You know, we need to be ready. We need to reach out. We can invite. You can use these brochures if you have a way, think of a way to do that. You can pray, think of a way to do it. Those are things that could be done, but, you know, God wants us to be attached to the vine.

And so He starts John 15 verse 3. Jesus says, you have already been cleansed by the word that I've spoken to you. See, He knew that His words were spirit and they were life, and that the disciples, those who were still there right then, some of them left back in John 6, not directly the apostles, but some of the disciples left, and yet Peter and some of the others said, well, where we're going to go. You've got all the, you've got everything we need. And here He says, you've been cleansed by the word that I spoke to you. I want you in verse 4 to abide in me, as I abide in you, as a branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I'm the vine, you're the branches, those who abide in me. Verse 5, and I and them are going to bear much fruit, because this kind of says it fairly straight, apart from me, you can do nothing. So I think it's pretty clear, you know, that we can be praying, we can be looking forward to, we can be guided by the word of God, and yet, most importantly, we want to be close to God the Father and to Jesus Christ our Lord, because like He says, you know, if you abide in me, then you can bear much fruit. But apart from me, we can do nothing.

So we have a wonderful opportunity to look forward, and I hope that in a sense this helps. We may need to cover other things more specific before we get to our pack, but I do ask that we think about it, that we pray about it, that we understand that we need to abide in Jesus Christ to be the effective servants that He wants who truly bear fruit for the kingdom of God.