Over the years, I've had many opportunities to be speaking in a lot of context, a lot of places, a lot of churches. And for a speaker, often it's kind of customary to say, well, it's a privilege for me to be here this morning. This time is not just customary. It's from the heart. There is a special sense in my heart, the privilege of being here this morning. Brother Marriott, I call him Marty. If I call him Marty at some point, it's just, he's Marty to me. We've known each other for 45, 46 years. And to be with my brother, we went decades without seeing each other, without communication. I told him this morning, I mentioned to my wife, I sense that Marty is one of my true, genuine friends. After all these years, we get back together, and what a joy to find the man that I knew 45, 46 years ago. He was 12. I think, how old were you? You acted like it. No. And we who are older understand what friendship is. Friendship is not those that you hang out with on Friday night, go to the ball game, go and have a pizza. Oh, those are my friends. You find as you grow and mature and you stay faithful to Christ, your friends are those who have grown and matured and stayed faithful to Christ, even though you don't have contact with them. But when you do, That friendship's there. I could call on my brother. I have that confidence. I could call on him in an instant, and he would be there. It's a privilege for me to be here because of that, to be here with my friend. And I can't say that or place I go, but I do. Brother Marty, thank you. Maranatha has also had a place in my heart since 1975. My first time I came here was the second half of my summer with Neighborhood Bible Time. I had a different evangelist. I don't remember his name. His name was McCullough or something like that, but there just wasn't the same. Maybe Hart is a good fellow, good friend at that time, but I don't even know where he is. But 1975 at Calvary Baptist Church, me and this other young teenage youth evangelist, we came and put on the program here. And I'll never forget Dr. Cederholm inviting us over to his home for a meal. My co-evangelist answered the phone and he's going, yes sir, yes sir, yes sir, yes sir. He got up and he said, you wouldn't believe it. The president, a marionette, Baptist Calvin just invited us over for dinner. He thought it was the greatest thing in the world. Of course, I did, and the evening we spent at Dr. Cedar's home, and of course, we didn't leave his home without him giving us a stack of some good Baptist books. And you know, Dr. Cedar's home, after that moment, it was rare that I would find him. Our paths would cross, but every time he remembered my name, He remembered everybody's names, I understood. But as a young man, that impressed me about this man, his interest in individuals. And I was one of those in that huge Rolodex he had in his mind that he was able to flip through and pull out that information. I was amazed. Remember, when we got married in 1977, excuse the history, but I stand here in awe with this. My wife and I were married in 1977, part of our honeymoon. We were from Michigan, married in Michigan, went up to Mackinac Island, came down. I wanted to bring her to Watertown. I wanted her to see Maranatha. I did. This is the highlight of the honeymoon. She didn't agree. Well, no, she loved it here. And I remember Dr. Oates, I was telling him this morning, he gave Paul and me a set of Dr. Fremont's cassette tapes. There must have been 10, 15, 20 of these tapes that we put in the car and listened to those things and we went on to Mexico. We probably still have some of those tapes left. I think we do. So there's been the heart here and appreciation for who you are. We went to Mexico as missionaries, won't go into the whole story, but now I've been the executive director, I'm in my 31st year. But always hear of what's happening here, what's going on, and always felt, they really are my kind of people. So understand, when I stand here this morning, I stand here with a a sense of connection that's very unusual. In fact, even my secretary I have now used to be the Dean of Women here in Maranatha. Used to work under Dr. Oates as his secretary. So they're just, I cannot get away from the connections here, quite frankly. I appreciate now we have several of our missionary kids here. And again, now that just, again, helps to deepen our connection. I didn't come here this morning to give you a history lesson, but I wanted to encourage all of you to do the same. Build those contacts with your fellow students here. Pray for one another. If the Lord doesn't return for another 50 years, you may be standing in the pulpit of one of your classmates. You may be standing together. You may be in prison together for preaching Christ. We need each other. and let's make sure we keep those bonds safely secure. This morning, if you would open up with me, and I've got, looks like 25 minutes, okay, to open up to Matthew chapter 16. We know the disciples had accepted the call of Christ to follow him. and they left their nets, they left their occupation, they left behind those things that they were pursuing up to that point, really with the idea of the thought that they were going to be able to be, to follow the Messiah, who was gonna set up his kingdom here on earth, and that they would have a prominent role in that kingdom. That motivated them, by and large, I believe, to follow Christ. But here in chapter 16, if we ride the story up to chapter 16, we find that they were far from maturity. And they didn't understand the purpose of Christ. Christ was coming to present himself here as a sacrifice. He hadn't said much about that. He was convincing them and others that indeed he was the Christ. He showed himself, his heart, his service, his example, but ultimately he was going to teach them that he was going to be giving his life as a ransom for the world. That would be what would usher in his kingdom, a redeemed body. But here we find chapter 16, before chapter 16, and you read the stories coming up to it. And chapter, I think it was 14, is that the feeding of the 5,000, and then they got into the ship. And after they got into the ship, they realized they didn't have any bread. Oh no, what are we gonna do, Lord? We don't have any bread to eat. I'm thinking, wait a minute, you just fed 5,000 people with a little boy's lunch, and he said, all we have was one loaf, I don't remember the details, just a loaf of bread, all we have is one bread. And there was 12, 13 of you there? It's like, it still is not entering in who he is. And he was just getting ready to tell them and begin teaching about how he was going to be taken and put to death. And that would totally dash their idea of, wait a minute, this is not what we signed up for. We thought we signed up for the opportunity to be a part of his kingdom. And we can sit on his right hand and on his left hand, and we will. And you can imagine what Christ was thinking. Now, when I tell them this, it's going to blow their minds. They're going to quit after this. We get into chapter 16, and again, be careful of the leaven of the Pharisees, that disbelief. He's trying to prepare them for the announcement and the beginning of the teaching that he is going to die. In fact, verse 21 of chapter 16 says, Now we know that when Peter heard this, what? No, no, no. And he pushed back, he resisted. Not so, Lord. So in other words, he knew that there was gonna be a difficult response to this announcement of his death. Now that's verse 21. Back up now, we get up into the earlier verses here, verse 13. Trying to prepare them for the announcement, he's on, who do men say that I am? Verse 13, who do men say that I, the son of man, am? And they said, some say that you're John the Baptist, some Elias and others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets. He said, but who do you say that I am? What about you? What do you know about me after walking with me all these months and years? Now, who do you say that I am? Peter jumps up, well, thou art the Christ, the son of the living God. Well said, Peter, said Christ. And he says, and Peter, upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Jesus said that upon the prevailing truth that He was God in the flesh, the Savior of the world, that He would build His church. He gave that promise. See, He was giving reassurances before the announcement of His going to die. Who do you say that I am? You're the Christ, the Son of the living God. Very good. Now, I'm going to do something. I'm going to give you a promise. My promise is that I will do this. I am going to build my church. Look at verse 21. And by the way, now they're going to take me and kill me. See what I mean? He was almost like preparing them for that announcement that this was going to happen. Let's see if I can get this to work right. Here we go. You all see that? He said, I will build my church. He gave the promise that this would happen. Can God lie? Would he lie to us? Absolutely not. The promise, I am going to do this based on your testimony that I am the son of God. I am going to build my church and the gates of hell will never be able to prevail against it. I will build my church. This is an erecting, the ideas, the building, the erection, the construction of a building, of an actual structure. I'm going to build this. Now this was not an instant creation that he would just speak and his church would, this is something that would be ongoing and building. By the way, let's make sure we don't take credit for this. My wife and I, we've had the privilege of helping to plant two churches, cross-culturally in Spanish. I have to be careful that I don't say, hey, I planted two churches. You understand what I'm saying? Let's be careful. This is God's work. We happen to be one of the tools, one of the instruments used to fashion those ministries. And by the way, when we turned that over, and they had another tool, continue to build that church. But he said, I will do this. I will continue to do it. It's not dependent on a man. It's not dependent on a political structure. This is what I do. You can trust it. Then he said, the gates of hell. This is all the defenses that hell can muster against it. What? Shall not prevail against it. None of it will be strong enough, ever be strong enough to defend itself against God's promised plan. I will do this. I'm gonna do this. And the gates of hell, anything that can be levied against my plan will never gain the victory, will never succeed. This happens. This is an ongoing work. My wife and I, I was 24, she was 22 when we first arrived in Mexico as missionaries. Got a little group of people, started witnessing them come to Christ, and it was beginning to grow and be established. We were there three years and nine months. And the Lord took me out. I had a severe illness, a double case of hepatitis that we had to leave the field at the time. Guess what? It fell apart, right? Because Brother Mark wasn't there. God was building his church. This was God's action. It was his action to take me out of the church, out of that ministry. And he continued. And up until today, it is continuing to flourish by God's grace. He built his church. We started a second church in Greenville, South, same thing. What I wanted to share with you is what you're able to commit yourself. Do you believe that Jesus Christ indeed is the Son of God? And that what he says, I will build my church, means we can commit ourselves 100% to this. We do not have to doubt what he wants us to do, or that it can be done. I shudder any time I hear a missionary give a presentation. He likes the glory and the gory of the mission field. You know, we've been in many mission conferences and, you know, junior Sunday school and the teachers, oh, boys and girls, this is Dr. Battori. You know, he went to the mission field and he almost died. I'm going, And the little girls, any questions? Yes, do they have tarantulas? And the missionary said, no, no, all the giant scorpions would kill them all off. I mean, come on, let's, the glory of the ministry. There's nothing better this side of heaven than knowing, serving, and giving our lives to serve Jesus Christ and tell others about him. I will do this. I will build my church. And the gates of hell will not prevail against it. I'm here to want to convince you this is God's doing. And he intends to do it through my generation and through your generation. But he needs the tools to do it. I will build my church. It is God's promise. Keep forgetting, I've got to keep up with the clicker here. I usually do this through HDMI cable. There was one time when this didn't work out so well, so all I did was I would just put up the white screen. I've worked up the life and ministry of Hudson Taylor in hand shadows. I'm glad it works what it works, but when it doesn't, you have to be a little bit creative. But it says, I have here, it is God's promise to build His church in any land and among any people who desire to know, follow, serve, and worship Him according to His word. Did you get that? It's His intent to do this. I will build my church. And when there are people who will open up to Him, He will do it. He does a marvelous thing. What I want to do this morning, and this is easy, okay, I'm just going to, and I've got about 10 minutes, 12 minutes. I want to take us to Panama. I want to show us an example of a couple. 25 years ago or so, they made that gospel pledge. They said, We will go anywhere and do anything you ask of me. Have you made that pledge? Lord, I will go anywhere and do anything you ask of me. I'm gonna tell a story about a couple, and I'm just gonna show pictures here and walk through the story. They said that to the Lord one time, and they didn't know what was gonna happen. as none of us would know what's gonna happen. But it starts there. We need to get our heart into a state that has no will of its own, and then we can say to God, Lord, here I am. Wherever, whatever, I will do it. And by the way, coming to know God's will, that's 95% of knowing God's will. The reason why it's 95%, because that's the biggest step. Sometimes that is the hardest step for us to take our own will, our own desires, our own heart, and sacrifice it to Christ and say, Lord, whatever you want, I will do it. Wherever you want me to go, I will go. Well, you can see this. Over 25 years ago, this man came to Christ in Panama a Baptist church that was a distance from where he lived, but he came through the gospel, was able to hear the message, he came to Christ, his wife was still unsaved, and he lived in a little community called Valle Dorado, the Valley of Gold, or the Golden Valley, a little community, no gospel witness. Lord, would you send someone here He had a desire to know, to follow, worship, and serve Jesus Christ according to his word. Lord, send someone. He began praying, and he prayed for multiple years. Off and on, he'd get discouraged. Lord, you're not answering my prayer. How come nobody's showing up? And he'd start praying again. Lord, please, send someone. Well, he didn't realize that as he prayed, asking for the Lord to send someone to reach his community. The Lord was answering his prayer. There's a family up in Ohio. He was a fireman, paramedic, loved his job, but one day he made that gospel pledge. Lord, whatever, I'll do whatever you want me to do. He got his heart in a state that had no will of its own. He was just a couple years from full retirement that he could finish that out and have a great retirement, but he could not get away. God would not let him go from that pledge. And he made a, Lord led, he went on a mission team trip to Panama and that was, but he could not get Panama out of his mind. Talked with his pastor. Pastor, listen, brother, just keep praying about it and see what the Lord does. He could not get away from Panama. Well, Brother Reyes kept praying, Lord, send somebody. Send someone to start a church here. Lord, do this. Well, the Mabars, I gave a name. I wasn't gonna give a name. The Michenae family, they finally, we're gonna go, we cannot run from this. We will go to Panama. They didn't speak Spanish. I made a survey trip with them and their pastor back in the year 2000. And he said, this is what God wants, me and my family. We're gonna come back. Went on deputation, raised his support, he quit his job, pushed that aside. Listen, what does that tell you about this man? I'm willing to serve Christ above all. I'll put aside even my pension for the opportunity to serve my God. You know why? He followed Peter's confession. You are the Christ, the son of the living God. If Christ, the son of the living God calls you, let me tell you something. You begin to see the value of that and you'll push aside everything else for that one thing. That's what he did. Went on to Panama, went to language school, and happened to be that he and his son, they were out looking, now where are we gonna go after learning some Spanish? And they happened to come across this road, there was one way in and one way out, and it was, of all places, it happened to be Valle Dorado, the Golden Valley, this little community. He didn't know it. He didn't know what was going on. But Reyes continued to pray, Lord, send someone here. Well, they went and they were able to rent a home. This is during vacation Bible school. They started a vacation Bible school. They rented a home. They didn't live in the home. They used it for the services. And they started visitation, knocking on doors. The house right next to this house, you know who lived there? Reyes. Is the Lord in that? I mean, if there was one way to confirm what God was doing and help Reyes understand, God did hear and did answer my prayers. Amazing. Jesus said, I will build my church. I will do this. They met in that home for several years. People started coming to Christ They were able to purchase some property, started building a little building, a little church building there. You can see up behind it, there is a structure that's up above them. That was built after they started this construction. It turned into a sports arena and gambling and all kinds of stuff. Bars, everything was just drawn into this and it was horrific. People would walk up their drive, you see the dirt drive of that truck as they go up into the sports, but they'd walk right past the church. But the missionary kept. That's where God put us, we're gonna be a witness here. Well, we are going way ahead here. Let me, I must have hit the button, all right. Well, built people, developed them, They were, they had a lot of opposition. People would go by there and steal. They would break into the building. They would vandalize. They didn't want this gospel preaching church in their community. Well, they would break in. And one time they broke in, they had just had the church wired, okay? And I showed up there. In fact, there's a picture of me that I already showed that one on there. There I am up the ladder. I'm not an electrician, but every time I'd go down there, he'd put me to work. We would work on the building and the men that would come from the church and we would work with them. But someone had pulled all the copper out of the walls. I thought, well, okay, let's go. I'm just going to start pushing wires through the conduit and wherever it comes out, I'm going to hook it up. I'd hook it up, and I'd push wire over here, and it'd pop out over there. I'd hook it up. I rewired. I'm on the ladder rewiring that church building. The Lord said, I'll build my church. I tell you, he was building it that day, because I didn't know what I was doing. I remember the moment. OK, I'm at the breaker box. I'm going to throw that. And all the lights came on and stayed on. I have to tell that story because that was miraculous. But they stayed at it. All the opposition, all the problems, all the trouble, everything that would happen, they stayed at it. There were people who got saved and they would leave the church and come to the church and cause problems in the church. I mean, typical church ministry. But when there's problems, does that mean Jesus is not building his church? No, he's building his church. That's a part of the building. It brings into that church the character and the conviction of who they are, why they are who they are. Well, he called me about two years ago now. He'd put in close to 20 years working on that. My wife and I, we made seven or eight visits down there during those 20 years. And every time I'd go down there, we would sit down and we'd pray together. And he was not always discouraged, but boy, he was weary. But they kept at it. He's, I must be found faithful. I'm gonna stay. But he called me about two years ago and says, Brother Mark, I really believe, I've been praying, I really believe that the Lord is gonna be moving us on. Bring us back to the states. I remember the phone call. I'm going, now are you sure? What about the church? He said, I don't know. I don't know what, I have nobody. I've worked with these men, but none of them would be ready to carry on the church ministry as its pastor. I said, well, okay, let's pray. Within six months, he called me and says, guess what? I think God has provided us a man. A dear young fellow who had had some Bible training, a conservative, a strong, delightful, humble young man and his wife. And the missionary poured himself into it, mentoring him, helping him. And last April, well, there it is. Let me go back one more. Last April, I was there for the ordination of that dear brother. The missionary and his pastor was there. I was there. Folks, the Monday morning after that service, the missionary told me, he says he was up, he could hardly sleep thinking about it. The early the next morning, he got up and went to a study. And he said, I just could not stop weeping. And I kept saying, Lord, you did it. You did it. You kept your word. You kept your promise. We committed ourselves to this. We were willing to come in all the discouragements, all the opposition. We just stayed faithful at it. And without me understanding, you did it. And it helped him to see that all that he did, the planting of that church was not because of, well, it was because of the instrument that God used there, but it was God doing it all along. from calling him, this fireman from Ohio, the man praying in Bayo Dorado, the Lord sends someone, and the Lord dealing with someone in Ohio, a fireman. And the fireman said, okay, we will go, and he goes through all the process, learns the language, gets himself down there, and then spends 20 years. And the Lord said, okay, it's time to move on. And God had his plan and brought Brother David in as its pastor. You see, we have our masks on. We were we were obeying the law. But let me tell you, that was a glorious Sunday when we had that. All right, just I share that with you and I could have just told you the story, but just to see the pictures. Let me state that again. It is God's promise to build His church in any land and among any people who desire to know, serve, and worship Him according to His word. I stand before you this morning as someone who One day said, Lord, I took that gospel pledge, wherever, whatever. And I look back now after all these years, and I go, amen. God did it. Even me, he used to do it, and he did it. How many of you here, I'm sure many of you have prayed the gospel pledge. And I use it in those terms. It's just something recent I started doing because it was, it was, Lord, I will do this. I will commit myself to you wherever, whatever. I will go do it. Have you done that? Have you made that commitment that will make all the difference in your life. And if the Lord doesn't come back for 50 years, what are you gonna do with it? What you need to do is get your own heart in a state that has no will of its own. Maybe God would intend for you to be the answer of someone else's prayer. There may be someone now in Africa, in Asia, New Zealand, Chicago, I don't know. They'll say, Lord, send us. Send us someone. And God intends for you to be the answer to that prayer. Are you committed? Lord, I will do whatever you want me to do. I'll go wherever. Then you need to prayerfully consider the opportunities. You need to seek counsel by spiritual authorities. Go to your pastor. Talk with him, pray with him, get his counsel. Then, of course, do not go without the confirmation of God's people in your church. I need to finish. I wish there was an easier way to just get all of you to say, dear Lord, here am I, send me. And enter in the number of that great host who over the history have said that and then God used them as great instruments to build his church. Thank you for allowing me to be here and share just a simple thought. But the simplicity of the thought is so profound and will be that simple action, a simple response to what I'm asking this morning will be the most profound decision that you can make in your life as a Christian. Make it, don't put it off. And you that have already made that, recommit it to Christ. and then see what God will do with you in the years to come. Let's pray. Father, thank you for the opportunity. What a privilege for me, but Father, I would want it more for them than myself. Would want to see them also get to the point that they will wholeheartedly, 100%, make that gospel pledge to give themselves to serve you. Help them to do so. Thank you for this place that's having that influence and the preparation. Father, use it to do a mighty work through them in Jesus' name, amen.