Good seeing this morning. All right. We have a special treat missionary that also sings So so you guys come up and he's singing for us and then brother Trent I'll just hand it over to you at that point. All right Well, amen, it's good to be here with y'all. I was going to sing with my ukulele, but we're going to do a different song for y'all. And yes, I'm not joking. I do play the ukulele a little bit. It's right there, so I'm not pulling your leg. Ready? O Dios de mi alma, sé tú mi visión. Nada te aparte de mi corazón. Noche y día pienso yo en ti. y tu presencia es luz para mí. Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart, not be all else to me, say that thou art. Thou my best thought, by day or by night, Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light. Saviduriya setu dhenise, Quiero a tu lado mi senda correr Como tu hijo teme, Señor siempre morando en un mismo amor. Be Thou my wisdom, be Thou my true word, I ever with Thee and Thou with me, Lord. Thou my great Father, and I Thy true Son, Thou in me dwelling, and I with Thee one. Thank you all so much for having us. Like pastor said, my name is Trent. This is my beautiful, wonderful, amazing wife, Stephanie, and our daughter Gabriela is back in the nursery. Again, thank you all so much for having us. We're so excited to be here with y'all this morning. We've got a short video we'd like to share with you all, kind of tell you a little bit about our ministry, who we are, what we have going on down there in Mexico, and just a little bit about our ministry. So we hope you enjoy this. My name is Trent Granger, and we're the Granger family. And I'm here with my wife, Stephanie, and our daughter, Gabriella. Mexico is, it's a beautiful country. The people are, they're beautiful people. They're very hospitable people. A lot of times when people come to visit Mexico and they don't really try to say hi or anything to people, they think that they're hard people. They think they're kind of mean people. Until you approach them, until you talk to them, then they're the most friendliest people in the world. They've got a huge smile on their face. And the exciting thing is they're very open to the gospel. When people think of Mexico, it's pretty common for people to think of, like, dopey houses and shacks and built on top of each other. And part of that is true. When people say, what is Mexico known for, people automatically think the food and the colors and the vibrancy and the old-fashionedness of it. And it's very true. Mexico is very, they love their food. They love their tacos. And I love their tacos. But they're very well known for their food. They're very known for the hospitality. All over Mexico, and especially here in Zacatecas, they're very stooped in Catholicism. All of Mexico is 83% Catholicism. And the Catholic Church and the government work hand in hand. So it's very hard to reach people that are very stooped into Catholicism. So it's very hard because there's not a very many good Baptist missionaries here in Mexico. It's a large country. And to reach this many people with the gospel, it's very hard. A lot of people, they're looking for that hope. And they're looking for that longing, that emptiness, something to fill that emptiness in their heart. They live out of fear. They really do, because they don't know if they're giving enough to go to heaven. They're giving their whole lives. They're giving money. They're giving time. They're giving houses to the Catholic Church, just in hope. I hope it'll be enough to get to heaven. And they live in that constant state of fear. A horrible way to live. The answer to all of Mexico's problems, at the very baseline, is Jesus Christ. At the very base, it's the gospel. And that's why we're here. We want to plant churches. Not only plant churches in the future, we want to start a Bible Institute to train young men to be able to go out and start more churches. But while we're in the process of starting a church, one of the most important things we can do is go soul winning. Win people to Christ and disciple that person to teach them to go out and do the same thing. God has just opened doors left and right since we've gotten here. Just in the short time we've moved to San Catecas, God has begun to open door after door after door, opportunity after opportunity after opportunity. Currently, our church, our church building is the garage of my parents' house. And the landlords had told my parents, hey, we're selling the house. You guys are going to have to move here soon. Well, it just so happened that the people that are offering to help my parents look for another place are also helping us look for another place because the house that we're in currently is perfect for a church building. As a matter of fact, years ago, our home used to be a church building. So it's perfect. It's set up. It's got a great space for an auditorium. It's got many Sunday school classrooms. It's got so much room for us to grow. It's amazing how God works. Because when all of this is happening, when all of us getting ready to move, we got word that somebody in the States wants to buy all the chairs for our church. I mean, I was flabbergasted. I mean, I was floored when somebody said that, because right now we have just a small amount of chairs. We're using lawn chairs in our church right now. And the people here don't mind that, but we're going to need a ton more. I mean, we plan on growing. With God opening these many doors, And with God providing for our church the way He is, it gives us the opportunity to be able to take the gospel to more people. It really does. What I would love to see one day in the near future, not the far future, but the near future, I would love to see our church begin to have revivals and missions conferences and support other missionaries. to go around the world and to hold revival conferences within the city. One day, just seeing God do great things, and He is right now, but just on a massive scale here in Zacatecas and here in Mexico. Here in Mexico, God is doing mind-blowing things. I mean, He's doing great things here. And we want you to be a part of our ministry. We want to partner with you. We want you to receive the blessings that we're receiving. You say, well, how do we do that? Well, first of all, the biggest thing you can do for us is pray for us. Without prayer, we wouldn't be able to stay on the field. Many people back home in the States, you're our anchor. I mean, you really are. Another thing would be come and visit us. We love having visitors here. We need the help. If you want to come down for a couple of weeks or a couple of months, we would love to have the help coming down, passing out tracks and singing songs and things such as that. Another big thing would be finances, of course. It's not cheap to run the ministry. If you would like to partner with us, Look at it this way, it's an investment. And why is it an investment? Because lives are being changed. People are no longer, when they get saved, they're no longer going to hell. They're going to be spending eternity with Jesus Christ, eternity in heaven. And personally, I think that's an investment worthwhile. Because when you think, well, I'm not doing very much, but I've given a little bit here, and now that missionary has won somebody to Christ, and that person's won somebody to Christ, and that person has won somebody to Christ, that's fruit to your account. And we want to not only partner with you, but we want you to be a part of that fruit-bearing process. That's how you can be a part of our ministry. God is doing great things here in Mexico. We're excited to see what God is going to do in the future. We're excited to see what God is going to do here in Mexico. So we ask that you please keep Mexico in your prayers. Not just Mexico, but the Mexican people in particular. Keep them in your prayers and keep us in your prayers. We need as much prayers as we can receive. So just want to say thank you and we're looking forward to what God has in store in the future. Well, amen. Again, thank you all so much for having us. We're excited to be here with you all. And we've been in Mexico now for four years. And so this is our first furlough. And we got back to the States back in February. And our original plan was only to be here for February, March, and April, go back to Mexico for the summer, come back for August, September, and October here in the States. So a six-month furlough broken up into two segments. But obviously God had kind of changed that for us So we're excited to be able to get back to Mexico to go back to Mexico at the end of October We do ask that you please pray for us that that process will go smoothly That we'll be able to that we'll be able to get across the border without any issues and all that kind of all that fun stuff Dealing with government and all that all that so we do greatly appreciate your prayers Please stop by our display table there pick up one of our prayer cards. We greatly appreciate your prayers And if you have any questions, we'd be happy to answer those We don't know the answer, we got Google, amen? Amen. All right, go ahead and take your Bibles, if you will, with me to the book of John. We're gonna be in the book of John. John chapter 20, and we're gonna look at two verses in particular, John chapter 20, and we're gonna look at verses 19 through 21, so three verses, I'm sorry. And if you have found your place there and if you can and if you're able, please stand with me for the reading of God's Word. John chapter 20, we're going to look at verses 19 through 21. John chapter 20 verses 19 through 21, the Bible says, then the same day evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst and said unto them, peace be unto you. And when he had so said, he showed unto them his hands and his side. Then were the disciples glad when they saw the Lord. Then said Jesus unto them again, peace be unto you, as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you. Let's have a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, we're so thankful and grateful for who you are to us, for your salvation, for your word. Help us now as we look into the scriptures that we may take them and apply them to our lives. Help this message, Lord, to be one that we can each and every one of us take and apply to our lives. Fill us with your spirit. Thank you for all that you do. In Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated. Look again with me, if you will, verse 21, here in our text verse. The Bible says, Then Jesus said to them again, Peace be unto you. passage, these next words that we're about to read, very well may be one of the most important words, some of the most important words we have written for us out of the mouth of Jesus Christ. I say one of because they're all important, amen? But it says this, as my father hath sent me Even so send I you. Now we understand contextually here in this scripture, here in this passage of scripture, that Jesus Christ is speaking to his disciples before his ascension into heaven. And so he looks at his disciples and he says to them, he says, as my father has sent me, even so send I you. He's telling his disciples, as God has sent me here on this earth with a mission, I'm sending you out with the same mission. Now, this is not a message, if you will, for the missionary. This is not a message just for the preacher or the deacon or the Sunday school teacher, but this is a message for every single born-again believer. If you are a Christian, then this is a message from the Lord to you. As my Father has sent me, even so send I you. As we get into the message, I want you to imagine with me Jesus Christ standing in front of you. Okay? In front of you. He's got his hands on your head, kind of like your mom used to do. She might have grabbed your ears to get your attention, right? Look you dead in your eyeballs. And he's saying, as my Father has sent me, even so send I you. We understand that the message that Jesus Christ had for his disciples then is the same message that he has for his disciples today. As my Father has sent me, even so send I you. So let's notice some things this morning that were true for Jesus Christ that are true for us today. We see, first of all, number one, that his mandate is to be our mandate. The mandate of Jesus Christ is to be our mandate as well. So what was the mandate of Jesus Christ? What did the Father send the Son to do? Well, we see in 1 John 4, verse 14, 1 John 4, 14, And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. What was His mandate or His mission? It was a mission of salvation. The Bible says in Luke 19, verse 10, for the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost. John 3, verse 17, for God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. Mark chapter 2 and verse 17 says, when Jesus heard it, he said unto them, they that are whole have no need of a physician, but they that are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. So what was the mandate the son had from the father? It was this, son, go on a mandate to get people saved. And friends, that is our mandate as well. It is our mandate to see people get saved. Now we understand we don't do the saving. We understand that Jesus does the saving, but we do the sharing. That's what God has commanded us to do. The Bible says this in Psalms 126, verse 6, he that goeth forth and weepeth. bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him." Friends, church, this is our job, this is our duty, and this is our mandate to take the gospel and share it with the lost. How many of you, now I'm not, we're not going to get into it, but how many of you have been keeping up with the elections lately? Let me just, raise your hand. Alright. Kinda, sorta, alright, I'll admit, I kinda sorta have because I'm a voting American, I need to know what the candidates believe, right? But it's just a headache watching it all, to be honest with you. Both sides, it's just like, ugh. But anyway, I'll tell you what, I'll be honest with you. If you'll just let Congress run the nation, let the Lord put in power who he deems fit, but if you'll let the president be elected, if you'll let the ballers ball, if you'll let the actors get as famous as they will, if we're wise, if we're smart, we'll do this one thing, and that is win souls to Jesus Christ. Invest in those things that are eternal, that is, the souls of men. So that is what we need to be investing in, those eternal things, the souls of men and women, boys and girls, getting people heaven ready. We see that not only His mandate to be ours, but we see number two, His mission is to be our mission. We saw that His mandate is to be ours, but His mission is to be ours as well. The mandate explains to us what the mission was and is for Jesus. And Jesus Christ literally had a fourfold mission. We see first part of this fourfold mission is this, Jesus came to reveal the Father. The Bible says in John 14 9, Jesus said unto them, Have I been so long time with you? And yet hast thou not known me, Philip? He that hath seen me hath seen the Father. And how sayest thou, Show us the Father? The mission of Christ was to reveal the Father, and now my mission and your mission is to reveal the Father through the Son. So this is our duty, this is our job, not only to spread the gospel, but to exemplify the gospel. Not only to speak the gospel, but to live the gospel as well. I remember one day we were in Zacatecas and I was in a local park there in our town and I was sharing the gospel with some folks and I had sat down on a bench and I was kind of gathering my thoughts of what I was going to do next, counting how many tracks I had left and so on and so forth. And as I was doing that, a gentleman came down and sat next to me. This was an older gentleman and he had brought, he had a bag with him and he began talking with me. And I knew exactly what he wanted, but like Paul said, silver and gold have I not, but what I have give I unto you. And so I began sharing the gospel with him. And as I began showing the Gospels with him and showing him that he personally stood guilty before the Lord, you could physically see conviction setting in on this man's face. So much to the fact that he had grabbed this bag and he had opened it up, and I looked down inside of it and what looked like garbage, It was a mixture of food and garbage. It looked like he was literally on his way to go put this in the garbage can. He began just grabbing whatever was in there and stuffing his mouth so that he didn't have to talk. And I thought, hey, great, captive audience, he won't talk back. And so I just continued sharing the gospel with this man. But this, my friends, is exemplifying or revealing the Father through the Son. The second part of this fourfold mission is Christ came to redeem men. Amen. The Bible says in Luke chapter 19 and verse 10, for the Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which is lost. 1 Timothy chapter 1 and verse 15 says, this is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. You gotta understand Christ didn't come to the earth to be a miracle worker. He did those things, yes, but that's not what his mission was. His mission was to go to the cross. His mission was the salvation of you, me, persons in the past and persons in the future as well. And anyone who puts their faith and their trust in Jesus Christ. The third part of this fourfold mission was this. He came to raise up. the church. He came to raise up the church. The Bible says in Matthew 16, verse 18, And I say unto thee that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. We understand that he's not speaking of the church building, because the building is not the church, but it's the people. So this is the mission. So we see the mission of Jesus Christ is to be our mission as well. And if you'll love what Christ loved, you will love the church. Now, sometimes it's hard to get along with some of the church, right? But we're humans. We can get over it. We can move forward for Jesus Christ. Amen. Fourth part of this fourfold mission is this, He came to ruin Satan. He came to bring the kingdom of Satan crashing to the ground. The Bible says in 1 John 3, verse 8, He that commit a sin is of the devil, for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of Man was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil. This is the fourfold mission of Christ. We see that His mandate is to be ours, His mission is to be ours, but notice thirdly, His method is to be our method as well. What was the method that Christ used to, that Christ came with the Father's mandate and undertook the fourfold mission? His method was incarnation. he took on him flesh. The Bible says in Philippians chapter 2 and verse 7, But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men. Christ was made human so that He could come down and have contact with us. God didn't stay up in heaven and try to send salvation down in some pretty little package, but He came down to where we are. Now this was His method. This is the method that we are to use as well today. We need to take the Gospel and we need to incarnate that truth. The method of God is men and women. God didn't wait for us to go to Him because we couldn't, but He came to us. And this was His method. I'm all for lifestyle evangelism. all for it. You should be too, but it shouldn't stop there. You should share the gospel with your words as well. Because sharing the gospel, the Bible says, how shall they hear without a preacher? How are the lost going to hear unless we share the gospel with them? But we need to back up our words with our lifestyle as well. We need to live like Christians. We need to love like Christians as well. We see that Jesus Christ took that incarnation and made it real for us. We too need to incarnate the truth of the gospel. This is a beautiful facility. I believe you said it was two years old, Preacher? Somewhere right around there. It's a beautiful facility. You've got a very nice auditorium. So far the part of the building I saw is beautiful. But never, ever expect the lost to come here and get saved. Why? Because you can look all through Scripture, from the beginning in Genesis to the end of Revelation, and never is the lost commanded to come to the church and get saved. However, time and time and time again, the lost are commanded to go to the lost and share the gospel with them. However, as I mentioned, we're commanded to go to the lost. We could really sum the Bible up into two words. That would be this, come and go. Come to Jesus and go to the lost. Many years ago there was a boy who wanted to go visit his grandfather in the country. He was very excited to go visit and help his grandfather work on the farm. When he arrived, his grandfather told him, son, you need to make sure you go to bed very early because we're going to rise very, very early in the morning to get things done. So the boy did what his grandfather did, said, and then that next morning, very early, the grandfather came to the boy, shook him and said, come on, son, we're going to get to work. And so they got up, they began feeding the chickens, they milked the cows, they cut some wood, and they started a fire in the stove. After all of that, the boy was very, very tired. They sat down, they had a big breakfast that grandma had cooked, and afterwards the boy had got up and started heading back to bed. The grandfather said, son, where are you going? The boy said, well, grandpa, that was a lot of work, I'm headed back to bed, I'm tired. The grandfather chuckled with a, with a little laugh and replied back to the boy, he said, son, we haven't done the work yet. That was just the chores. The work is out in the fields. Well, church, coming to church on Sunday, on Wednesday, doing those things, our devotionals, that's just the chores. Because the work begins out in the fields. Once you walk off of this property, once you walk through those doors, you are entering the mission field. The Bible says that we, every single one of us, are missionaries. What is a missionary? A missionary is someone who takes the Gospel and shares it with the lost. Sometimes that entails picking up and moving to another country, but the majority of the time that means walking across the street and sharing the gospel with someone else. That is what a missionary really is. The Bible says this in Psalms 126 in verse 6, I remind you again, He that goeth forth and weepeth, there's our go, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him. So let me ask you a question, and please do not answer this out loud, but answer it in the quietness of your heart. When was the last time you cared enough to share the gospel with the lost, or even just say gospel track with the lost? I love what Charles Spurgeon said. He said this, have you no wish for others to be saved? Then you're not saved yourself. Be sure of that. Jeremiah 1 and verse 9 says this, Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people. This verse is obviously talking about those that died without Christ. That having wept for the lost. Let me ask you again, have you wept for the lost? Have you shared the gospel with the lost lately? He said, well, I'm a little nervous to do so. You can hand someone a track. There was a study done by a man called John, believe it or not, his name was John Hancock. He worked for, I believe it was the Missionary Track Society, something of that, who printed tracks and distributes them around the world. And he did a survey one time, globally, to the best that he could, and came to the conclusion that 53% of people who accept Christ as their Savior do it as a direct result of a gospel track. 53% of people. One preacher calls them silent preachers. Because you hand somebody a gospel track, they put it in a drawer. Only to a year or two years later, they open that drawer, and what happens? The silent preachers, they're preaching at them. Hence, we want a gospel track. Share the gospel with someone today. We see number four that His message is to be our message as well. What was the message of Christ? Well, it's the simple plan of salvation. Amen? We understand that it's so incredibly simple that even a child could understand it. Now, it's not simplistic. But it is simple, it's clear, it's plain, and it's sweet. The Bible says in Psalms 19 and verse 7, the law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. So what does the Bible say converts the soul? The law of the Lord. I love what D.L. Moody said. He said this, the law will chase a man to the cross and no further. If we've ever lied, If you have ever lied, you are a liar. If you have ever stolen anything, taken anything that does not belong to you, regardless of the value of that item, you are a thief. The Bible says in Matthew chapter 5, the very words of Jesus Christ, that if you look at someone with lust, you are an adulterer. If you have ever been angry with someone, you are a murderer. and you must face God on judgment day. You've broken God's perfect, holy, moral law, and you must answer for your crimes. The punishment for violating God's law is a place called hell. You say, oh, Brother Trent, I'm a pretty good person, and God's not going to punish me. He'll forgive me because, you know, I'm a pretty good person. Well, imagine with me for a moment a murderer standing before a judge. He's murdered one person and the judge says, because you've done this, you're going to jail on the murder. He says, now listen judge, I've led a pretty good life my whole life. I've given to charities, I've helped in my community. Can't you just overlook this one thing? Should the judge let him go? Of course not. Of course he shouldn't. Why? Because the judge is not judging him on how good he has been, he is judging him on the fact that he has broken the law. And so the holy, perfect moral judge looks at us and says, I'm not judging you on how good you've led your life. If he did, it'd be as filthy rags anyway. He said, I'm judging on the fact that you have broken my law and you have to be punished for that. But friends, there's good news. The Bible says in 2 Peter 3 in verse 9, the Lord is not slack concerning his promises as some men count slackness, but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Imagine you're in court there and the judge says, I've got a stack of speeding tickets here for $250,000. If you can't pay it, you're going to jail. I don't know about you. I couldn't pay that. That's a quarter of a million dollars. I couldn't pay that. The judge says, well, if you can't pay it, you're going to jail. When all of a sudden someone walks back from the back, slaps 250K on the podium there and says, judge, I'm paying their fine. Legally, that judge can let you go because the fine has been paid. Friends, this is what Christ did for us 2,000 years ago on the cross. He says, I'm paying your just penalty for you. So what must we do to be saved? Well, we must repent of our sins. We must turn from our sins and trust in Jesus Christ alone to save us. We must confess our sins. And when we do, the Bible says that he is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. The Bible says in John 1, verse 12, but as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. I like what one preacher said, he said this, I don't want to be famous for anything except preaching the old gospel. And this is the gospel that man has sinned but can be forgiven by repenting and trusting in the Savior alone. This was the message of Jesus Christ and this is to be our message today as well. Notice lastly with me, number five, we saw that his mandate is to be ours, his mission is to be ours, his method is to be ours, his message is to be ours, and number five, lastly, his motive is to be our motive as well. What motivated Christ? We see the first thing that motivated Christ was this, he was motivated by obedience. God the Son was obedient to God the Father. Philippians 2 7-9 says this, But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men. And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God hath also highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name. It says here that Christ made himself of no reputation. I don't know about you, but I'm so glad Jesus didn't care what other people thought about him. Because as he went to the cross, he had one thing on his mind. That was you, and that was me. That was every sinner. The Bible says that he made himself of no reputation. I'm afraid that many Christians today do not share the gospel because they're afraid it will ruin their reputation. Or in other words, they're afraid of what others will think about them. I'm so glad that Jesus didn't care. The second thing that Christ was motivated by was love. He was motivated by love. If you can't imagine with me, the Lord, there on the Mount of Olives, as he's coming over the ridge of Olivet, going up to the temple, and he sees the temple and begins to cry. And this is what he says, the Scriptures say, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Thou hast killed the prophets, and stoned them which are sent unto thee. How often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not." We see so many times through the scriptures that Christ was moved with compassion. He had a love for the lost. Let me ask you, do you love the lost? And are you motivated by that love? The third thing that Christ was motivated by was necessity. He knew that it was absolutely necessary that he fulfill his mission. He said in John chapter three in verse 14, and as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the son of man be lifted up. God had no plan B. Jesus Christ was plan A. And friends, God has no plan B for reaching the loss of this world. We are plan A. Let me explain a little further. Take your Bibles to the book of Acts chapter 10. Acts chapter 10. And this is the story of Cornelius. I love this story. It's a beautiful story. Look with me, if you will, in Acts chapter 10. We're going to read verses 3 through 6 rather quickly here. He says, he saw in a vision evidently about the ninth hour of the day an angel of God coming in to him, and saying unto him, Cornelius. And when he looked up, he was afraid and said, what is it, Lord? And he said unto him, thy prayers, thine alms are come up before a memorial unto God. And now send men to Joppa and call for one Simon, whose surname is Peter. He lodgeth with one Simon, a tanner, whose house is by the seaside. He shall tell thee what thou oughtest to do. What I find interesting about this passage is we see here God talking directly to Cornelius. Now let me ask you, could he not have told Cornelius what he needed to do to be saved? Very, very easily he could have. But what did he do instead? He said, send men to Joppa. Look for a man named Simon. He's going to come back and he's going to tell you exactly what you need to do to be saved. Why? Because that is the job of every born-again believer. That is the job that we are commanded to do. Not the angels, but us. It is our job to share the gospel with the lost. The number four, the last thing we see that Christ was motivated by was this, joy. Hebrews chapter 12 and verse two says this, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. Notice the part of the verse here that says, who for the joy that was set before Him. What was that joy that was set before Him? That was me and that was you. Listen to what Paul says about those whom he led to Christ. First Thessalonians chapter two and verse 19 says, for what is our hope or joy or crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye in the presence of the Lord Christ at his coming? Here he was saying that his joy when he gets to heaven is gonna be those that he has won to Christ. Friends, is your joy lacking? Let me recommend that you get on a path of sharing the gospel with the lost. If your joy is lacking, your walk is getting dull, then get out and share the gospel with someone today. Let me remind you again of Psalms 126 and verse 6. He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed. What is that seed? The gospel. shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him." So winning is very similar to farming. We have that gospel seed and we are to plant it in the heart of the sinner. And then we are to go back and we are to water that with our tears, with our prayers. Now we understand that God gives the increase. And it may be that one day you may be talking to someone about Christ and they may accept Christ as their savior. And God has allowed you to be that tool to lead that person to Christ and to see that person get saved. But remind yourself, it's not me doing the saving. It's always Jesus Christ. I planted the seed. I shared the gospel or I watered this seed. You have been successful in your mission because this is what God has commanded us to do. Someone has asked me, so Brother Trent, how many people have you led to the Lord in Mexico? My reply is rather simple, all of them. What do you mean? Well, I lead them all to Christ. Whether they get saved or not, I don't know. It's not my job. My job is to share the gospel with as many people as possible. Whether they get saved or not, that's between them and God, because that's not my job. I couldn't save them if I wanted to. We see Jesus had said to His disciples, and He's saying to His disciples today, as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you. As we close this morning, imagine with me one more time Christ standing before you, looking you dead in your eyeballs again, and relaying this message to you. As my Father has sent me, even so send I you. My challenge for you Christians this morning is don't be disobedient to Christ. Surrender your life to Him in total surrender. be obedient to His command. If there's someone here this morning, someone here watching this morning that doesn't know Christ as their Savior, you are not 100% sure that if you were to die today, heaven would be your home. Then I would like to remind you that you have broken God's law. You stand before Him guilty, but you can be forgiven. if you'll simply repent of your sins and trust in Christ. So do that today. Make today the day of your salvation. Before you even move an inch out of your seat, you can give your life to Christ. I would encourage you to do that today. And Christians, let's be obedient to God. Have your head bowed and every eye closed. Our Heavenly Father, we're so thankful for the message that you have given to us today. We're so thankful for this mission, this mandate, the message that you've given to us. Help us now, Lord, to take it and to share it with the lost. We understand that this is our job, our duty as Christians to spread the gospel. As the piano plays, We'll have just a moment of altar call as the pastor comes, I'll hand this over to him. But if God is working in your heart, I would encourage you, take care, take business, do business with the Lord today. I can't add anything to that message. That was a great, great message. Very clear what our job is. What's your motivation? What's your mandate? What's your message? This time of year, every four years, the message seems to be about politics instead of the Savior. We gotta make sure the most important message goes out first. I hope and I pray that most of you here today, I would assume, are saved, know that you're going to heaven. If there is one here today that does not know, I hope that you won't leave this place without asking the question and finding out. If you are saved, maybe you're one that would just say, you know what? I have not been doing my job the way that I should. I'm not going to ask for any hands raised today. The Lord knows your heart. But I would ask you to consider coming to this altar as we sing. Telling the Lord you're going to try just a little bit harder. Giving the Lord just a little bit more of your life. He deserves it all. Brother Ken, what song? 283. Stand with me please as we sing page 283. The altar is open if you'd like to come and pray. I would encourage you to do so. Page 283. Page 283. So little time. A little time, the harvest will be over Our reaping done, we reapers taken home Report our word to Jesus, Lord of harvest, And hope he'll smile, and that he'll say, well done. Today we reap, or miss our golden harvest, Today it's given us muscle to win. Oh, then to save some dear ones from the burning. Today we'll go to bring some sinner in. How many times I should have strongly pleaded. How often did I fail to strictly warn? The spirit moon, oh, had I pled for Jesus, The grain is fallen, lost once, not reborn. Today we reap or miss the golden harbour. Today is given us muscles to win. Oh, then to save some dear one from the burning. You can be seated. Thank you for being here this morning. Thank you, Brother Granger, for that great message and for presenting your ministry. We're going to take up an offering now. Brother Pete, Brother Joe, if you could get ready, we're going to take an offering for the Granger family. They are cost money to travel and to preach and to try to raise support, try to do this ministry, and I hope that you'll be gracious with your giving this morning and give as the Lord leads. The message he preached was applicable to every single Christian. But as he said, sometimes that entails picking up and moving to another country. And so people willing to do that, they deserve our respect and our support in prayers and in finances. And so I hope that you'll consider giving this morning to them to help get them down the road. And then before we pray, I just want to make you aware of something. Pastor Summers, who preached our revival meeting for us recently, years back, several years ago, they had a house fire, lost everything. They just were on vacation. They got back. I don't know all the details, but they've had another house fire. They had a house fire, and I don't know the extent of the damage But I know that between the fire and the water of putting the fire out many things were destroyed And they've lost quite a bit of things and that's the second time that that's happened to them And so I hope you'll pray for that family Many of you met them got to know them during the revival week and those are precious family serving the Lord And so I hope you'll pray for the Summers family And keep them in your prayers as well. I'll try to get some more details this afternoon fill you all in on what's going on with that situation, but but Right now let's pray. Let's give to the missionaries, and we'll pray for the summer's family as well Lord Thank you for this day. Thank you for an opportunity to serve you Lord an opportunity to come to here and your word preached to us. Thank you for the Granger family, their willingness to surrender their will to you. Lord, help us all to do that. We're pleased with this offering now. Help it to be exactly what they need to be able to get down the road and maybe even a little extra to meet some needs in their ministry and in their lives. And Lord, we also pray for the Summers family this morning as the details are still coming in, but we know that they've suffered some loss and we know that they're so faithful serving you. We pray please help them in this time. Lord, we thank you for all you do for us. In your name we pray. Amen. you All right, thank you for being here this morning. Thank you visitors for joining us today It's been good to be in the house of the Lord. I hope you come back tonight if you're at all able we'll be back again at six o'clock to preach the word and sing some songs and have some good fellowship and then Be praying for those who aren't here. We're missing a lot of people today and I've heard from several sources There's quite a few people that are ill And so please be praying for those who aren't here if you if you think of somebody who's not here maybe give them a call see how they're doing let them know that we missed them and Brother Ken, how about you dismiss us in prayer right from where you're at, sir?