they possibly can but well tonight as we close out our missions conference I know everybody here is thinking well we we didn't think the preacher was going to preach the last service well I didn't either but the Lord worked it out and and and and made that be the the way it's going to end out but but I believe it's because he's this this thoughts been on my heart for a long time I've actually had it in the the back burner for quite some time, just because the Lord wouldn't let me bring it forward and preach it until now, but I believe it falls right in line for us this evening. I would like you to go in your Bibles to 2 Timothy 4. second timothy chapter four verse we'll read verse one through verse four five i mentioned this morning uh after the service as soon as we were done with the invitation that um with uh with brother silvertooth and and the everything that he's he preached throughout the week if you take each each main thought or even the titles of what he had preached on. And then, of course, we know Friday night the Lord changed what he was originally thought he was going to preach. And it was very obvious that that's exactly what the Lord wanted him to preach is what he changed to. And when you look at the titles of what he preached, he started off with, Lord, what will thou have me to do? And then he preached on being fellow helpers to the truth. Then he preached on love us, basically, he preached on not quitting and not giving up, not throwing a towel, but the main thought, the main focus was centered around the question, love us thou me more than these. And then this morning, he preached on keeping the main thing, the main thing. And when you add it all together, Though I don't know that he intended it this way, but when you add it all together, what I saw and what just kind of stuck in my mind was the Lord directed the initial idea and the initial focus for Missions Conference this year is, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do to be a fellow helper to the truth? And the Lord's response would be, lovest thou me more than these? Keep the main thing, the main thing. We know, and he said that this morning, the main thing is the heartbeat of God, which is the gospel to the lost around the world, here and abroad. And it's not a matter of, you know, how much can I afford to do for God? It's a matter of how much does he want me to do for him? It has really no area of thought when it comes to affording this or affording that, because it's not always about money. I know Missions Conference, a big focus is looking at what we are personally gonna monetarily give for the next year. That's a part of it. But the real focus is how much of me am I willing to give him? How much of me can he use? How much of me will he use and take and do mighty things for his glory? And when it comes down to getting me, if he gets me as a whole, he gets everything that goes with me. It's not really about God getting a person's pocketbook. It's not about God just getting somebody's talents. It's about God, our Lord, our Savior, our Heavenly Father. It's about Him receiving me. And if I'm willing to give Him me, it comes as a package deal. Me is everything that I contain, everything that I have, every talent that I've gained or I was born with. every advancement in my personal life, every bit of what God has invested in me and allowed me to see dividends in my life and all the additions and blessings and extras, every bit of it, if he has me, every bit of it is his if he wants it. That's easy to say. it does get a little bit harder to do whenever it comes down to him laying on the heart something that maybe I wasn't expecting him to ask for. But may I say what we're gonna look at tonight kind of Answers the entire reason of why we constantly at least once a year and even throughout the year We do have missionaries and hopefully we'll be having a few more even this year as the lord allows To come through throughout the year not just for missions conference to remind us and keep our focus on missions but um All throughout the year and especially this time of the year. We we refocus again refocus again and uh and constantly have that concentrated effort of remembering the purpose of missions but why why do we do it well second timothy chapter four verse one through five let me read these verses then i'm going to quickly give you a very simple outline there's not a whole lot of detail to it per se but there are some scriptures to back up what i'm going to going to give you and i'm going to ask up front that you give me a little um A little room to move about here with this, because I'm going to take a little bit of freedom, you might say, in the idea of where I'm going. You'll understand what I mean in just a minute. But this is something that I had in my heart a while back when another preacher was preaching. A thought came to mind and I began to pin some things down. and work on it ever since until the Lord would have me preach it. But here in verse number one of 2 Timothy 4, the Bible says, I charge thee, therefore, before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing in his kingdom, preach the word, be instant in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. And just not, that's not the message, but just a thought. Preaching and proclaiming truth does include reproving, rebuking, and exhorting. We live in a world and a society where all they want is exhortation. Exhort, exhort, exhort. Make people feel good, make them feel loved. And that's all that you're supposed to do with the Bible because this is a book from a God of love. And yes, that is true. But he's also a God of truth and judgment. And he's very orderly when it comes to the things that he has laid out for us. So, truth preached, preaching the word, is for reproof, rebuke, and exhortation with all longsuffering and doctrine. Not a single one of those can be left out, and it must be done with right balance. Verse number three says, for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears. We said before, that goes two ways, I believe. Those wanting the teachers are ones with itching ears. They want preaching, they want teaching that tickles the ear and makes them feel good. but I believe you could flip that around. And they call to themselves teachers who have itching ears. They'll preach and teach whatever they have to for people to praise them and post how great they are on Facebook and make them sound like wonderful people. Everybody loves this man. If everybody loves you, something's wrong. Because if you're preaching the truth, may I say, you should not preach to make enemies, but if you're preaching truth, somewhere along the line, somebody's not gonna like you. But as we're looking at this, the teachers having itching ears can be those wanting to hear it with itching ears and those who are teaching wanting to be praised. It can go both ways. Verse number four says, and they shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned unto fables. And verse number five is really our focus. Well, watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof thy ministry. And that last phrase is kind of our reasoning and purpose for why we do what we do once a year in a concentrated effort to remember the importance of seeing the fields. seeing the harvest that's out there waiting seeing the the need that we have to not only be active in our personal lives and our personal verbal witness as we our main focus this year is sowing the seed planting that seed ourselves putting truth in the hearts and the minds of individuals we meet, telling them about Jesus, sharing with them what He has done for me, sharing with them that He is the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by Christ and Christ alone. Sharing that verbally, but then also not just sharing it verbally, but in every area and every aspect that we have to help others get where they need to go to share that same truth. It's important that we remind ourselves because we are commanded to make full proof thy ministry. That's an examination. That's a looking at things. That's gauging what we are doing. And may I say, put it this way, you go an entire year And without fail, you will find some area of your life and some area of my life we will find has slacked a little bit. due to the constant onpouring of pressure and onpouring of responsibilities and things that when we started the year, we didn't have to worry about. By the end of the year, we have five more things we have to figure out and try to, we weren't planning on that. Now we've got so much more to do. And before we know, those things which we were focused on and really sincerely engaged with, if we're not careful, we come back around full circle And we see a year later, we've let some of it slip. We see a year later, some of it's not quite as vibrant in our life as it was before. Maybe it's the simple area of reading our Bibles. and we start off reading a good bit, spending more time than we ever have in God's Word each day, and we focus and we make it happen, and then life gets busier. By the way, if you think it's not busy enough now, try to read your Bible and spend time with the Lord. Life will get really busy. And as it goes, next thing you know, we maybe not stop reading our Bible, but where we started and where we are has slacked a little bit. Where we intended to be and where we are a year later is maybe not quite the goal that we set for ourselves. And then we have a time where it's refocused again and a time of re-examination again, and that fire burns within us again and say, you know what? I need to get back on this. I need to get back focused on this. I need to get back excited about this. We see missionaries and we love it and we like talking to them. And through a year, we see one here and we see one there. And then it comes missions conference time. And all of a sudden, we're surrounded by missionaries that we get to see a lot and we get to talk to them a good bit. We get to hear more about mission fields. Next thing you know, my mind is thinking about mission fields way more because of that one timeframe that I have most the whole year. And I'm thinking about the fields. All of a sudden, I'm looking over here thinking, man, I haven't read many of those letters at all. I need to go read some more of those. They're always there. They're fresh all the time, and it's in front of us. But familiarity, that's a hard word to say. Familiarity, it doesn't always necessarily breed contempt, but it might breed a little bit of apathy. We get used to seeing it. We get used to hearing it. We got the bulletins here and we have a missionary letter we put on the back back there. And I know for some of you, you're like, preacher, I can't read that writing, it's so small. Here's the thing though, by the whole thing, you can tell which one it is. You could always just go over and say, no, I can't read it here. But that reminds me, I need to go read that missionary's letter and go find that one and read it. I'm not fussing, I'm just saying, here's what happens to all of us, myself included. I read the missionary letters before they even come out. There are sometimes though, there's so many of them, I don't have time to get to them all. So I kind of scan through them and pass them off to Pastor Schmidt and he reads through them and then he puts them out. And I have every intention sometimes to come back and read them in more detail. And guess what happens? I get busy. Next thing you know, a whole new one came in, and I never really read the old one in great detail, though I had a rough idea of what was going on. But I've found times that I've come back, and I've looked on here, and I'm like, oh yeah, I remember reading that one, and I'm reading through, and I'm like, wait, I missed that. Wow, I didn't realize that. Man, that's good, you know? And I realized that I let some attention slip. So it's important that we make foolproof thy ministry. And it's not just talking for preachers. Again, I understand that is a charge to Timothy, and I get that, do the work of evangelists, but it's not just a thing that a person in full-time ministry is supposed to do. Every child of God should constantly be making full proof of what they're doing for God. Not trying to prove to other people, but re-examining that which I'm involved in, that which I've committed, that which I've intended, and see where I am today versus when I made that intention in my life. Where am I today after so many months of a commitment to God? Where am I today after saying, Lord, I want to do more? How am I measuring up? How's my ministry fitting to what I intended to be involved in? By that examination, we help ourselves to stay faithful. Let me pray very quickly, I'm gonna throw these points at you so y'all get ready to catch. I hope you have a glove, amen. But I'm gonna give these to you real quick. In this thought, okay, here's the title. It's the scope of ministry. Okay, we talked about that, you know, the scope, the entire, but I'm gonna give you several different types of scopes. As I begin to, like I said, I'm gonna take a little liberty with it tonight. And I want you to kind of think about this when we're talking about what we do for the Lord. There are different types of scopes. that we have in our world today, and each one of these that I'm gonna give you can be used in different ways in a spiritual sense, okay? So don't take a physical thing, but let's use each one of these in a minute in a spiritual sense. To investigate what we do for the lord as we close out tonight with our missions conference Let me pray and then we'll look at these heavenly father. We thank you for allow us to be here I pray that you now take this time or give clarity of thought and and and very direct uh lord, um, focus on these things would you allow us to see the need and lord be challenged as a Lord, kind of a wrap-up of our missions conference and all that we've heard, may we now be challenged to do that examination for ourselves and our personal life and our personal walk and our personal ministry for you. May we see the need of these different areas of examination that we might stay faithful and true, Lord, and see fruit that not only is gathered, but fruit that remains. And we ask it all in Christ's name, amen. But it is required in every aspect of our service to the Lord that we inspect, keep accountable, and continually examine ourselves in the ministry. If you are a Christian, you have a ministry. If you're a child of God, you have a ministry. There are many different facets of the different types of things we can do for the Lord, but everything we do for the Lord is God's ministry. It might even just be the ministry of encouragement. You call somebody and talk to them. Every area that we do for the Lord is ministry. If we fail to follow this vital part of ministry, whether the doing of or the investing in, we open ourselves up to emotionally charged actions that may not fall within the true will of God. So we want to reinvestigate, we want to constantly keep in line with God's will what we are doing. So here's what we do. There's several different scopes that you can find in our world today, and we're gonna take them in a spiritual sense. The first one would be a microscope. The microscope view of my ministry, what God has me doing. The microscope is for continuous close examination. The microscope is where you dig down into things and you examine in very small aspects, the little things of our lives. And sometimes it's even the things that are kind of pushed aside, the things that maybe we don't think are really a problem, and the Lord wants to dig in a little bit and deal with some stuff so we can stay on track with Him. But that microscope view, it's not always what's visible to the naked eye. that matters. By the way, you look at, everybody's sick and different things going around, you look at disease and illness and things of that nature and not every disease and illness is viewable to the naked eye, right? But you put a little bitty drop of something on a little bitty plate and stick it underneath the microscope and all of a sudden you'll go running for the hills. Because you look on that, even something, a little drop that looks like it's clear. There's nothing there. There's nothing here at all. It looks clean. And then you put it underneath a microscope, and all of a sudden, that which appeared to be one thing, all of a sudden turns something else. And you realize, ooh. There is something that needs to be dealt with on this. The same thing is true for our lives. We have to allow the Lord to deal with us. Over in 1 Corinthians 11, you don't have to go there, I'm gonna move very quickly with these scriptures. But in 1 Corinthians 11, 28, in dealing with the Lord's Supper, Paul himself told the church that it's important, he says, but let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup. the danger of just taking unworthily. And he said, listen, it's important that every single person do a close, sincere examination, even of those things that may not be obvious to just the daily routine or daily actions. There are times when we just have to get alone and we have to say, Lord, put your finger on something that maybe I need to do a close examination of my life. that I might not be out of your will. And so there are times when we have to do a close examination of what we are doing or what we think we are doing to really see it, not in a general sense, but a very specific sense of what it is. Is this what God has me doing? And by the way, if so, I also can have the confidence to keep going. If it's what God has me doing, then there'll be days, we'll look at it just a second, but there'll be days when you might question, is this really what I'm supposed to be doing? And then you do a close examination and you realize, no, this is exactly what God wanted me to do. I'm gonna stick with it, even though it gets difficult. Second Corinthians 13, five and six tells us this, examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith, prove your own selves, know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates, but I trust that ye shall know that we are not reprobates. Here Paul looking and saying, listen, we all need to examine ourselves. and know that we know that we know, of course, dealing with salvation. If you belong to Christ, you'll know it. You might doubt and wonder on certain aspects, but I'll tell you this much, all you gotta do is a little bit of self-examination according to this scripture and what you did, and if you followed what God said to do with a right repentant heart, it's done. Sometimes we have to go back and to remind the devil what scripture says. And in the process, we also remind ourselves. But that microscope view, there are times when we're doing things for the Lord and we just need to we need to stop for a moment and allow God to let us zoom in on some small areas and say, Lord, reveal to me whether anything here needs to be dealt with. Lord review with me and reveal to me is there anything over here needs to be dealt with Lord what about right over here is there anything over here in my life needs to be dealt with because Lord I want to be in tune and I want to be right with you I want to be in the center of your will and if there's anything that Satan could use to twist me out of your will or twist what you want to do with my life because of a little bitty area that's not very visible, I want you to show it to me because I want to remove that issue. That's just an honest, close examination, a microscope view. Then there's the stethoscope. Anybody know what a stethoscope is for? Yeah, that's right. The stethoscope view is the understanding of the heartbeat and health of my ministry. That's the examination and saying, okay, Lord, I want you to show me any little thing that I need to work on, but here it comes down to it. Come back to the heart. Lord, how healthy is my service for you? How healthy is my desire to serve? Lord, show me in that stethoscope type view of what I'm doing, Lord. Is my heart in it? Is my heart right with it? Do I do it, Lord, because it's just what Christians do? Do I come to the house of God just because, you know, it's just kind of expected of us? Do I go and hear preaching just because, well, you know, all of us Christians, we all need preaching? Or, Lord, is my heart desirous of those things which your heart desires? We talk about missions, preacher mentioned it many times, we talk about missions being the heartbeat of God. Lord, is my heart as knit with the cause of Christ around the world as God's heart is knit? Does it break my heart to see missionaries have to come off the field for one reason or another? Does it break my heart to see people, by the way, missionaries send letters, please pray for so and so, been witnessing, he's under conviction, but this individual is struggling and fighting, they don't want to give it. We're praying hard that they will receive Christ before it's too late. Does my heart get pulled? hold with a desire to say, Lord, don't let that individual go to hell. Please, Lord, don't let them wait too long. Lord, they're seeking to reach this individual. Would you please soften their heart? Does my heart get broken for the things that would break God's heart? That stethoscope view allows me in looking at my ministry, looking at my life for the Lord, allows me to kind of get the health of my heartbeat in this area of serving God. Well, I don't know if I can do much more. May I say, I don't know how much more I can do, but I wish I could do a whole lot more than what I'm doing. It's not about going and doing the impossible just to prove that God can do the impossible. No, it's about doing what God wants me to do and wishing I could even do more if God would entrust me with it and God would help me with it. I want my faith to grow. I want my ability to do more to grow. And I need to hurry. We could go over, and I'm not going for sake of time, but we could go over to Exodus 35. You want to write it down, verse number 4 through verse number 9, then verse number 21 through verse number 22. It's the time frame of the building of the tabernacle. And they were calling for people to bring according to the heart. According as a man's heart led him and desired that he would bring for the temple to be built. The Bible talks about how every man brought as he was led of his heart, not in a bad sense, but the broken heart, the desire, the overwhelming want to be involved, and they brought, and they brought, and they brought. Why was there not only an ability to have what they needed, but eventually they said, whoa, it's too much. How did that happen? Because people's hearts were so in tune with what God wanted for them that they said, I can keep bringing, I can keep bringing. I've got some more. I've got this over here. I can do without that over there. Hey, I've got more. Hey, if you can help out, we'll put together, but we can bring even more over here. And they just kept bringing and bringing and bringing and bringing and bringing. And finally they said, whoa, Moses, tell the people to stop. We've got enough. How's my heart? in the ministry. He even talked about in Exodus, I believe chapter 36 and verse two and three, about those who would help to build. It says, even everyone whose heart stirred him up to come unto the work to do it. Does my heart stir me? Spiritually speaking, does my heart stir me to the work? Or is my heart skipping a little bit and having a hard time staying in rhythm? with what the Lord desires for my life. Matthew 6, 21, we know that very well-known verse, for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. The stethoscope view, that examination of Lord is my heart in tune with the heart of my Savior. Then there's the telescope view in ministry, and that's having vision for the future. That's seeing what I can do now and what I'm able to do now. But that's what we're doing with Missions Conference. We're praying, even before we got to Missions Conference, encouraging everyone to pray and ask God, Lord, what can I trust you to do through me? What can I trust you with? That's the looking beyond where I am to looking to where I might could be, if it's the will of God, to do more. Lord, where can I serve? Lord, where could I go? How could I give? What investments could I make? Lord, how can I be an encouragement to the missionaries? in a way that I don't know what to do. I don't know how to do it. I don't even know what to say. I've never been there. I've never gone to a mission field. I don't know how to encourage missionaries. Do you realize God can still give you something that would be the very thing they need in that moment to encourage them before they even leave the missions conference, to encourage them to keep on keeping on? Not that you had anything of yourself to say, but you said, Lord, I sure would like to have something to be an encouragement with. That's looking forward. That's desiring to do more. That's the telescope view. Lord, I know where I am, but Lord, where could I be if you got involved and did more with me? It may not be all the way down there. By the way, may I say this? It might be small steps ahead, but may I say some people have gone from just being a simple giver to help others go to the mission field to being people that said, you know what? I'd like to be involved where I am. They get involved where they are. They take a little bit further step to doing a little outreach here or there or maybe going on a mission trip one time. And next thing you know, that individual who started off by giving a dollar or something along those lines, just a little bit of something because their faith needed to grow and they've never been there. So they invested something. Next thing you know, that individual is the one going to the mission field because they were able to let God show them a future. That where you are is not necessarily where you're gonna stay. That where you started is not necessarily where I want you to finish. But there is a telescope view of, Lord, how far would you have me go? Always looking forward, having vision for a future ability to be used of God. Luke 9, verse 62, he said, Then Jesus said unto them, No man, having put his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God. It's always a forward looking. Lord, what can I do next? Lord, where do you want me to go next? Lord, who do you want me to witness to next? Lord, what area of ministry would you want me to be a help in next? I don't always have to be in charge, Lord. I'll be willing just to be the servant. Amen. We always look at ministries. Many people look at ministries and say, Lord, what can I be in charge of? And that might come one day for most people, but you never know. The biggest thing is, Lord, I just want to be a servant. I just want to serve. Where can I be involved? Where can I plug in? What can I do? Lord, what would you possibly have as an end game, as a finish line for me? That telescope view of looking to the future. 2 Timothy 2.2, we're almost done, says this, and things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men who shall be able to teach others also. That's the telescope view. Timothy, you take what it is that you have learned. And I have a vision that you can take that and then you will teach others. And that I'm encouraging you to see in others the ability to see that go even further, that they may teach others also. Always looking to where this can go, where this can go, how this could keep going and keep going and keep going, how the ministry can keep growing and keep growing and keep growing. And by the way, anything that God is doing will more than likely go far beyond us. Pastor Smith and Miss Jackie, the number of times y'all been in different countries, different places, the lives that you've invested in over the years, you can't even necessarily see the distance that has gone. But somewhere in each area of ministry, there had to be a telescope view of not just what is now, but what could be down the line if the Lord would allow it. and saying, Lord, if you will, we want to keep pushing forward. And then those individuals get in a burden, and then all of a sudden, the Lord has them going out, and they look to the future. Lord, it's not what I'm doing now. Lord, what can I do for you more? Lord, where can I go more? Lord, what would you— It's not always what you want down there being right now, but Lord, you show me each step, and I'll sure head down that trail. Be faithful. Run the race with patience. But look into the future. I can always do more than I'm doing now in some capacity. God can show me what that area that I'm able to do for him, what that is and how I can accomplish it. And last thing is this, not only In the scope of ministry, is there the microscope for the close examination of what I'm doing? The stethoscope to get the heartbeat of whether or not my heart is in tune with the heart of God. This telescope view and always looking forward, saying, Lord, what more can I do for you? Lord, I want to do more. I want to move more. But then there's the periscope. Anybody know where a periscope is used? In a submarine. I know in the Navy. I know. You're welcome, Pastor Schmidt. But do you know when they use the periscope? When it's underwater. Maintaining the proper heading when you're overwhelmed and the water's over your head. There's nothing more discouraging or difficult for a child of God than when we're trying to serve him and everything we're facing feels like I'm going head underwater. Barely catching a breath every now and then. But when you're underwater, there needs to be a periscope view. Listen to what Paul said in Philippians chapter one concerning his ministry. He said, but I would, in Philippians 1, verse 12 to 14, and then 19 to 21, said, I would, ye should understand, brethren, that the things which happened unto me have fallen out, rather, under the furtherance of the gospel. Oh, by the way, he's in prison. He's under the water. He's not preaching to a church. He's not witnessing to people. He's not in the glorious ministry. He's in the prison ministry. And he is the prisoner. More than likely in shackles. We see that in a minute. Bonds. He says these things have fallen out rather under the furtherance of the gospel. So that my bonds in Christ are manifest in all the palace and in all other places. What's going on and what's happening, the Lord's using it and it's spreading, it's being known. It may not be any fun, and I feel, you know, it may not be the ministry that I intended. Right now, it feels like I'm a little underwater, but God has a purpose for it. God has a plan for it, and I just want to be faithful so I don't mess it up. He could have messed up being in prison. God had a purpose. He could have messed that entire ministry up. And he goes on and says, verse number 14, God's using me in prison to embolden his people, to preach where I cannot preach right now, to witness where I cannot witness right now. I'm outside of the prison and I'm the one witnessing. I'm in prison and God gets everybody else involved in witnessing. By the way, Paul was interested in everybody joining him and witnessing with him, but oftentimes he was doing it by himself. Now that he's in prison, he's in bonds, all of a sudden God's people are getting emboldened, and they're stepping in where Paul is not able to, and God is using it to further the work. Philippians 1, 19 through 21, and we'll finish right here. He says, for I know that this shall turn to my salvation. He's not talking about being saved. He's talking about being freed from prison. He knows that in this, there's gonna be freedom for him eventually, but through your prayer. and the supply of the spirit of Jesus Christ. According to my earnest expectation and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness as always. So now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life or by death, for me to live is Christ and to die is gain. Here's Paul. and he is underwater, and the ministry is not what he was planning at this moment. How do you reach people? How do you help people? How do you start churches when you're locked up in prison, shackled, and can barely move and take care of yourself? How is this God's plan? And yet he said, I'm finding that if I'll just be faithful, and I'll keep my course right, that if I'll keep my mindset right, that I'll see that this is to the glory of God and Christ is gonna use this because in my bondage and when I'm head over water and I'm having to trust God more than any other time in ministry because I can't see where I'm going, I can't see where this is gonna end, I don't know how this is gonna go for me, but one thing I do know, God is using this in the palace and in every other place. It is known what's going on, and God's people are stepping forward, and God's people are doing what they've never done before, and they may never have done if he had not put me in prison. So I'm not where I'd like to be. I'm not where I plan to be, but I'm in the smack dab middle of God's will, and somehow, some way, Christ is being glorified and magnified even more than if I was out of prison. So while he is head underwater in the ministry, Bloop, bloop, bloop, bloop, bloop. Up comes the periscope, and he looks and says, I'm gonna keep my heading and my focus right. It may not be what I thought I was gonna be doing right now. It may not be going the way I thought it was gonna go right now, but I know this much. Put the periscope, look, Christ is being magnified. Christ is being glorified. The church is being emboldened. God's people are doing more, wow! I'll just stay faithful even if it means I'm the one in prison. while others are being emboldened to do more. Sometimes that periscope view for missionaries, sometimes when it feels like everything you're doing is falling apart or nothing's making a difference, doesn't feel like anybody's listening anymore, nobody really cares anymore. This is a tough, hard group of people I'm trying to reach. And sometimes it feels like it's just not worth the effort. There might be somewhere better. May I say, if God has you in that place, God has you in that ministry, and you do that microscope examination, and you do that stethoscope investigation, and you do that telescope-style investigation, Even when the water's over your head and you can know I'm where God wants me to be, I have a heart to do what God wants me to do, and I can trust that God has a future in what He has me doing, I can just go ahead and when my head's underwater, the waves are crashing over the top of me, I'll just stay faithful where He has me, because some way, somehow, God is going to get glory. I'm going to stick with it. I'm not going to quit. In the full scope of ministry, It's about him, not about me. Lord, I think I've reached my edge of what I can possibly do, but will you show me if there's an area that I could surrender up to give you more room to work? Lord, would you show me if my heart can be even more in tune so I would be drawn to that which matters to you and not as much to me? Lord, would you Help me see there's more to do, and there's more to do. There's more to be involved in, there's more people to reach, and there's less time to do it in. And Lord, would you help me to stay focused that when it feels like nothing's happening, nothing's going right, nothing's actually making a difference in the ministry that I'm involved in, the areas that I'm doing, I just don't see much return from my effort. Lord, would you help me to keep a proper focus If you've got me here and you've got me doing it, you've got a purpose, and somehow, someway, God will be magnified. Christ will be glorified. And the seed will be planted, the fields will see a harvest ready, and a reaping will take place. I may plant, another may water, but God will give an increase. I don't know what it is the Lord has had you do thus far. I don't know what it is the Lord has laid on your heart that you could do. All I can say is be open to saying, Lord, if I can do more, I wish you'd just show me. If I can do more, place it on my heart. Lord, if I can go above and beyond what I think is possible in my life, would you give me clear direction that I might glorify you in all that I do? That's the purpose of Missions Conference. That's the purpose of refocusing so that we can examine, look at, try ourselves in light of this book and in light of the heartbeat of God and say, Lord, am I in line with what matters to you? And am I letting you use me to the potential you desire for the furtherance of the gospel and the glory of God? Heavenly Father, we thank you.