of Reverend Joseph Toms, who for a number of years ministered in Romania, in the largest Baptist church there. God brought him to this country, and now his message is being radioed back into the whole nation. And millions of people in Romania are listening to this man of God every week, and we're privileged to have him here, that God may touch our hearts through him. We welcome you, Brother Thoreau. It's a special responsibility to speak in a missions conference. A missions conference has to bring the world to you and to challenge you with the whole world. I was so happy when your pastor told me that he wants all this conference to be under 2 Corinthians 5, verse 20, which says that we are ambassadors of Christ. And my job as a preacher in this conference is to convince you that you are ambassadors of Christ. Not only the ones who are sent to Japan or the Philippines or to Austria or wherever you send them. You are Christ's ambassadors in Sioux City. An ambassador is a person who resides in a foreign country representing his king or his government there. And we are not citizens of this world. Our citizenship is above. And in this world, we represent our king. They wonder if the people in Sioux City recognize the king in you. I want to speak to you this morning so that you understand your position as God's missionary in Sioux City, or God's ambassador in Sioux City. It may be a surprise then if I tell you that my text is three words from Genesis 22, verse 1. God tested Abraham. And I want to take these three words to show that they define or describe your position in Sioux City. Now, you heard I was pastor of a large church in Romania, 1,700 members. Being a Christian, a pastor in such a church is a strange job. Because being a Christian there means to be all the time discriminated against, hated because of your belief. You are demoted if you hold a high job. You are never given fringe benefit or promotion or higher status. As a Christian, you are proscribed. You are thrown at the margin of society. And the pastor, has people coming to him all the time saying, why? Why do we have to stand under this all our lives? You see, you can stand it maybe for a half a year or a year, but if it's 10 years, 20 years, 30 years, a whole life, sometimes you say, why? And one of the sermons I preached to them many times was this, the testing of Abraham. I wanted them to understand their position in that country under the light of this Genesis 22. But now I want to enlarge it and say that when we read that God tested Abraham, it wasn't just one test. Genesis 22 is only the climax of the testing, the ultimate of the testing. The test started long, long before. I think it started about 35 years, something like that, about 40 years before. Abraham lived in Ur, That town of the Chaldees, most civilized town of the ancient times, considered the cradle of civilization. Very advanced city, with all the modern facilities they could invent at that time. Abram had a palace there. He was a very rich man. One night, as he was meditating under the stars, as it was his habit, There was a small voice coming and saying, Abraham, I have a tremendous plan with you. From you, I am going to bring forth a nation. God was talking to a man who didn't have children. I'm going to raise a nation from you. But for that, you have to sell all your property here, your palace and your all, You buy some tents and start on a journey as a nomad, going from country to country, and you will be all your life a nomad. I will show you a country which is now a very primitive country and very corrupt country. It's called Canaan. In that country, your descendants will become a great nation, but you will live there as an unwanted person all your life. They will throw you from one place to another. who would volunteer for such an invitation. Abraham said, yes, sir. And he sold everything and he bought those tents and he started on the nomad life for his life. I could compare it with something like this, that you sold your property in Sioux City and accept to go to live all your life in Haiti, as a nomad in Haiti. living in tents, and those people in Haiti throwing you from one place to another, showing you that they don't want you there. And with no message to them, no preaching to them, just being there and waiting to have a son. Because God promised that he will raise a nation from your son, and your wife is barren, and she's approaching 90, and it's impossible. And Abraham goes on waiting and obeying and trusting, believing God. Then when Sarah is 90, he's 100, the miracle happens. They have that son, most wanted and most impossible son in the world. You imagine how they loved that son. We got a daughter after 14 years of marriage, and the doctors told us before that we shouldn't hope. It was impossible. And we knew how we loved that only daughter we had. Most unwanted daughter. When that Isaac was about 14 or 15, again under the star and gave that small voice, Abram, now take that only son you have and whom you love, put him on an altar and stab him, kill him, bring him as a sacrifice to me. Can you fathom the depths of the hurt in that heart But there is no objection, you know. He could have said, God, you contradict all you said to me so far. Because you said that out of Isaac, you will raise a nation. Where is your word? Or how can you ask me to give you this son? I waited for him so much. I love him so much. He could say so many things, as we usually do. There was no complaint, no objection, no question asked, but a yes, sir, and come Isaac. Total obedience. Unbelievable obedience. Now, if I am to describe the nature of this series of testings in Abram's life, My way of putting it is this. The issue was how far. How far would Abram go with his God? Abram, let's see. Are you ready to give that palace and live for the rest of your life in tents? Do you go that far? Yes, sir. Abram. Do you accept to be unwanted all your life and thrown out from one place to another? Yes, sir. Do you accept to wait until you are that old and still believe that I do it? Yes, sir. And the ultimate, would you give me what's most precious for you in this world? Would you give me Yes, sir. You go that far? Yes, sir, I go wherever you want, how far you want. There's no place where I'll say this far and no further. I go all the way. How far do I go with my God? That was again and again the issue which I saw it in my own country. I never forget that girl of 21 who came to me to tell me her problem. She was a student in the polytechnic and one day the dean asked her to go and talk with him. The dean said, I got information from the communist authorities in the town that You started to teach children in the Sunday school in your church. Is that true? Yes, sir. Well, I got order either to convince you to stop or to expel you from the polytechnic. You have only six months to go to the finance. I give you three days to meditate and then three days to come and tell me what's your decision. You know, for 25 years, we were not allowed to have Sunday school for children. And a few years ago, we decided to brush aside all those interdictions, and one of them was to start to have Sunday school again. It was very interesting. The state authorities didn't come to jump on us. They did a more vicious thing. They tried to find out who are the teachers. and fire them from their jobs if they don't stop teaching children. So that's what was going on with that girl. She came to me for counseling. She said, Pastor, what makes my decision more difficult is my parents. You know they are Simple folks. They're good Christians. But I am the only daughter, and their dream was always to see me a graduated engineer. And it's six months. And they came with a nice solution. They say, darling, why don't you discontinue for six months? Somebody else can teach those six months. And then after you graduate, you go back and teach. You know, there is always a nice way out. What would you do? Your whole career is at stake. How far would you go with your God? You take life so superficially, don't you? Everything is so easy. We just want fun. You just want to have a great time. You're never confronted with such life and death issues. But just think of that, how far would you go with your God? I said to that girl, what do you say to what your parents suggested? I told those kids in the Sunday school that I love my Lord so much that I am ready to die for Him. And now it's the testing time. If I betray my Lord for six months, I will always be a traitor. I like that. I remember the scripture. They quoted it. 1 Samuel 2.30. God says to you, I honor them that honor me." She went to her dean and told him, Sir, I am going to continue to teach those children in the Sunday school, whatever happens to me. That man sensed he was in the presence of greatness. He made his mind immediately. This girl deserves the degree. And he found pretexts with his bosses He postponed and postponed that issue until she took her finals and graduated. I saw others who gave up, didn't pass the test. And I saw the misery coming out of defeat because they didn't accept to go all the way. They said, I cannot go this far. The Lord gave me a very strange ministry because he gave me a chance to study in England and then to go back to my country. When God gives you a great privilege as he gave me to study in Oxford University, then he gives you fantastic responsibilities. I knew that the Lord wanted me to stand up in a new way there. to teach the churches a new courage and a new way, to enlarge the daring of doing things in spite of the opposition of the authorities. I told you a little bit on Friday night how I had to convince my wife to pray that she accepts to give me to the Lord for imprisonment, because I said they might imprison me for what I am going to do here. And how she had to struggle with that issue until she was able to say, Lord, I see it's really bad now. I see he might go to prison. Well, I give you Joseph for imprisonment. What a liberation that woman experienced that morning when she prayed that prayer. Before that, she couldn't sleep in the night. She was afraid. But after that prayer, she never had a sleepless night. And there were a few times when it got tougher and tougher, and I was tired, or I was discouraged, or I was frightened, and I was somehow trying to get somehow around things. She would sense it. She would say, stand up there. Don't you see they might kill me? Let them kill you, but you stand up. There came one moment when they told me that they would kill me. We had to pray that night. Before that, they had to go to the police that day, the following day. I'll always remember that night. And I said, Lord, tomorrow they might crush my body under their boots. I put my body on the altar and I said, Lord, the only desire I have is to offer you tomorrow a clean sacrifice. So take, wash me in the blood again. When I prayed that, I just sensed that they was lifting up. Like just, there was nothing else but the sweet communion with my Lord. What a holy time and what a sacred experience that was. Sort of regret to come down from there. I went there the following day, expecting to be crushed. Only to find out that they decided to let me free. And I turned to Elizabeth after that and I said, why did the Lord give us this kind of experiences? You see, he wants to give us victories here. Now, Joseph, let me explain to you, let me tell you how I see it because I watched me and I watched you. It's an issue in us. God has a battle with us until we accept totally his way and his plan for our life. And all these attacks of the enemy and all these problems coming are only for that, to establish when we say, Lord, I give you everything. You have completely your way in me. Do whatever you want with me. When we are brought there, God has the victory in us. Then you discover that there is no more trouble over there, no more battle there. It's only a victory to pick up. That was one of the greatest lessons of my life. The nature of the test is that, to bring us to a position where we say, now God, you take over, you have your way, you do whatever you want with me. And with this, I come to the purpose of the test. I like very much to go to Job, because Job was tested in that amazing way. And he can tell us a little bit about the nature of the test and the purpose of the test. And in Job 23, verse 10, he says, he knows the way I take. He's speaking about God testing him. And here I want to say, God doesn't need to find out. He knows already the way I take. When he has tested me, I come forth as gold. You see, in the process of being tested, I am transformed. And at the end of the operation, I am gold. Now that is what we experienced. What a transformation in our makeup through those devastating experiences. To start with, it was there that we really found out that God was real. He was there in a way we never sensed it before. We saw it there. We had his sweet presence, vivid, real, objective. We know now that he is reliable. We tested him and we found out that we can count on him to be there. We know in whom we have belief. And we knew that he has power to keep us. We saw it. Then, when you come out of such tests, you have such a deep understanding of other people's problems. You are ready to forgive. You are ready to understand. You are able to comfort. have the authority to encourage. Remember one of those problems when I was there and charged with treason and threatened to be shot and all that, it was because I stood up for the right of the children of the Christians to go for higher education. I got a big beating for that there, the general beat me. And at the end of those six weeks, it was that experience when they said, all right, you are free. After that, see, before that, they went and they preached in different places, but, well, I preached to a few hundreds. After that, I went to preach in a town and I saw a few thousands coming. I just couldn't understand why those thousands there. The man came to me and said, let me tell you why these people come to listen to you. Sir, you have only a kid in the kindergarten age. We have children in the high school and they were in danger of being kicked out. And you got involved for them and they got now the right to stay in school because you were beaten for them. I come to listen to your gospel, sir, because you got a beating for my children." I never thought of that. But you see, they said, now you can teach us because you proved that you mean it. When you come out of the testing, you discover that you are good. God has made you to be totally different. Then there is something else. God has a tremendous plan with us. In his plan, we are to be rulers with Christ over all things. But Jesus tells us in Luke 16, You are entrusted with things which are not yours. All you have here below are not your things. They are just given to you and you are a steward. But if you are not faithful over these things, who will give you your own things? Who will put you in command there? Because Jesus says, if you are not trustworthy in little things, you will be not trustworthy in big things. So there is a test of reliability here. God gave you a wife. What did you do with her? You can help that woman to become, to be fulfilled, to be at her highest for God. or you can crush and stifle her personality. And one day God will say, let me see what you've done. God gave you a husband. And you know, there is no bigger power in the world to destroy a man than his wife. Just tell him every day that he is good for nothing. Just criticize him every day and nag him every day. And you will make a wreck out of it. But you can inspire him. You can encourage him. You can guide him. You can insist on him being upright and pure and just. And you put wings on his personality. You make him a giant for God. And one day God will say, now let me see. I could entrust you with bigger things, but what did you do with your husband? I gave you some children. Now you see, our children are not ours. They're God's. However much I love my daughter, she is not mine. She's God's. I am only her. teacher. And I know I built her character for my king. So many parents who rear their children for the enemy, for hell. And one day God will say, let me see what you did with those children. What sort of mind you created in them. What sort of character you build in them? Are you reliable? Are you trustworthy? So, he gave you colleagues, he gave you friends, and you influence them every day, for good or for bad. God will see one day what you've done. So this is the purpose. Now let me switch and put it this way. I am a child of God. And I am an ambassador of my king and father in this wicked world. He decided to place, to put me in the most hostile environment of a communist state. And he said, my son, I want you to touch people here. I want you to break through there and there. I want you to use you as my ambassador there. Speak as I speak through you. And in the process, I make you. You touch the world and you bless the world. But in that process, I grow you. I build up a new character in you. With each victory, with each obedience, with each sacrifice you are making, a new dimension is added to your personality. It's a double process, me using you and me making you. And at the end, I will say, Well done, good servant. I can put you over big, big things because you are reliable. You are trustworthy. So that is the nature of our ambassadorship. That's the nature of us being sent. Now, one or two things at the end. Don't forget the big question. How far are you prepared to go with your God? How far are you prepared to go with your God in your faithfulness to your wife or to your husband and to your family? God searches you in that area and says, how far do you go there? Maybe she is suffering, she is sick, maybe There are other problems there. How far do you go in your love, in your faithfulness? How far do you go in your honesty, in your place of work? Are you ready to lose a great position because you don't want to be involved in any sin or sinful practice? How far do you go with God there? At what point do you say to those people, as a Christian, I cannot go there? Because I go with God all the way. How far do you go with God in your giving? There are missionaries over there who might do great things if you help them. The gospel could go to foreign lands. if you support the ones who dare go. Maybe you get involved in a new building project. Then there you will be tested, over-tested with your giving. And so how far do you go in that area? Maybe today That disturbing voice which called Abraham out of that civilized city is calling you. Maybe today God says, now I want you to demonstrate how far you are prepared to go with me. I want you for that or for that mission or job or function in my kingdom. You know you are disturbed, and you know you would like to run away from that. The question is, how far are you prepared to go with your God? That's all. And you answer, a way or another. Maybe you draw a line and say, no, I cannot go beyond this. What a great life you will have with God if you say, God, I go all the way. They want to conclude with the secret of Abraham. God tested Abraham as he never tested another man. You know what was the secret of his victory. The secret is in three other words. God tested Abraham is the challenge. In Genesis 15-7, We read three other words, the greatest words in the Old Testament. Abram believed God. Paul takes those three words and says that they are the basis of our justification. Abram believed God. You know, you can stand any trials and any testings if you believe God. Yes, God, I believe you even when I see it's impossible. I still wait and believe because I believe you. When I left the country, I had a meeting with a few pastors and I told them, brothers, if you look at the victories God gave us here these years, let me tell you the secret of them. The secret is the fact that in 1973, we five came together and we decided to trust God implicitly and totally, whatever he might ask us to do. And because we decided to trust God, he gave us all these victories. God tested Abraham, yes. But Abraham believed God, so he was able to pass the test. Where do you stand? If you trust God, if you believe God, totally, absolutely, madly, if you want, you will pass all the tests and you will share the glory with him. Thank you, Brother Joseph, for that stirring word.