Connect With The World

Jesus came to seek and to save that which is lost, and in the same way that the Father sent Him, He has sent His Church to do the exact same mission. Open with us to Luke chapter 19 as we look into the Scriptures to see how we are able to do that.

He thought that perhaps he had dialed the wrong number when the quiet, hushed, whispered voice of a child came across on the other end. "Hello?" He looked at his phone; no, it's the right number, although he hadn't dialed that number before. Robert had never been late to work, and if he was going to be late, he would let him know. So it was strange that he hadn't heard from him for so many hours.

He asked, "Is your daddy there?" "Yes," came the reply. "Can I talk to him?" "No." "Okay, is your mommy there?" "Yes." "Can I talk with her?" "No." A little irritated, but also a little curious, he asked, "Is there anybody else there? A policeman?" "A policeman? Can I talk with him?" "No. He's busy." "Busy doing what?" "Well, he's talking with mommy and daddy and the firemen."

Now a little concerned, he heard a loud noise on the phone and asked, "What's that noise?" "That's the helicopter." "What is the helicopter doing there?" "It's the search team." "Who are they looking for?" With a little giggle, the hushed voice said, "Me."

Now, that's not a personal story. You can open your Bibles to the Gospel of Luke, Luke chapter 19. If you don't have your Bible, you can raise your hand, and one of the ushers will bring you one. If you don't own a Bible, please keep that as a gift to you. Luke chapter 19 may be a familiar passage to some, so if you wouldn't mind standing with me as we read this story. Luke 19, verse 1.

There, Luke records, Jesus entered and passed through Jericho. Now behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus who was a chief tax collector, and he was rich. He sought to see Jesus, who He was, but he could not because of the crowd. Zacchaeus was of short stature, so he ran ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see Him, for Jesus was going to pass by that way.

When Jesus came to that place, He looked up into the sycamore tree and saw Zacchaeus. He said to him, "Zacchaeus, make haste and come down, for today I must stay at your house." So Zacchaeus made haste, came down, and received Jesus joyfully. But when they saw it, they all complained, saying, "He has gone to be the guest of a man who is a sinner."

Then Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, "Look, Lord, I give half my goods to the poor, and if I have taken anything by false accusation, I restore it fourfold." Jesus said to him, "Today salvation has come to this house because he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost."

Father, we pray for Your presence here today. We know that You inhabit the praises of Your people, and wherever two or more are gathered in Your name, there You are in their midst. So Jesus, we welcome You here. Holy Spirit, we thank You for Your presence. We pray, God, that You would speak through Your word and that You would give us understanding and insight. Use Your word to transform us by the renewing of our minds.

God, we thank You that You came to seek and to save that which was lost. Lord, as You revealed in the Gospel, You are the shepherd who would leave the ninety-nine to go after the one wayward sheep. We are so blessed by Your merciful compassion and love that You would do that. Lord, remind us of that love today. Teach us from Your word, we ask in Jesus' name. And all those that agreed said, "Amen." You can be seated.

I remember it very clearly. It's almost as if it was yesterday, though it was more than ten years ago. It was the summer of 2005. I had just returned from serving at a Bible college in northwest Germany. When I came back, a friend of mine said, "You have to watch this new show." It had just started its second season. However, my friend insisted that I couldn't start at the second season; I needed to watch the first season. "It's a great show."

Now, this was before Netflix streaming and binge-watching, but that didn't stop me. I went on iTunes, and for $1.99, I got the first episode. I can remember sitting there in front of my computer screen with my headphones on, mesmerized as I watched Jack, Kate, Sayid, Sawyer, John Locke, and Jin. Along with millions of others in the United States, I was gripped and wanted to know who the Others were, what the black smoke was, and what the Dharma Initiative was. Yes, I'm talking about Lost. Does anyone remember Lost? It was an amazingly alluring show with the worst ending ever.

Within a matter of days, I had spent $1.99 twenty-five times over watching the first season of Lost. Although it had the worst ending ever, there was one thing about that show that is true for all of us. Point number one on your outline: Everyone is lost. Do you realize that? Everyone is lost. No, we haven't crashed in a plane on some mysterious desert island in the middle of nowhere, but we are all lost nonetheless.

We are lost, as we have seen many times here at Cross Connection, especially in the last couple of weeks in this series. We are lost because of sin. In the New Testament, the Apostle Paul, in Romans chapter five, said, "Through one man, sin entered the world, and death through sin; thus, death spread to all men because all sinned." Because of sin, we are all lost.

All 7.4 billion of us on the face of this planet today start off lost, in need of someone to seek us out and find us. Some may object and say, "No, I'm not lost. I know exactly where I am and where I'm going," and all these sorts of things. But the reality is that because of sin, we are all lost. Romans chapter three reiterates this. There, in verse 10, the Apostle Paul says, "As it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one. There is no one who understands. There is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside; they have together become unprofitable. There is none who does good, no, not one." Could you get any more emphatic? There is none who does good, no, not one.

He goes on in verse 13: "Their throat is as an open tomb; their tongues have practiced deceit. The poison of vipers is upon their lips. Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in their ways. The way of peace they have not known. There is no fear before their eyes." Just a few verses later, one of the most famous verses of the book of Romans states, "For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." A few chapters later, we read in Romans 6:23, "The wages of sin is death."

We are all lost. This is the terrible, woeful condition of all humanity. No one is outside of this lost condition. We are lost; we are alienated from God. It didn't start this way. We've talked about the last couple of weeks that in the beginning, God created us to live in communion, fellowship, and connection with Him. Yet, through disobedience and sin in Genesis chapter 3, that connection, that communion with God was cut. As a result, we no longer have that at birth. Not only is our communion with God broken, but that connection and fellowship with one another is also severed. We are alienated from God and separated from one another.

But point number two on your outline is that Jesus came to seek out and save the lost.

That's what we see in Luke 19:10. He came to seek out and save the lost. There was Zacchaeus; he was a wee little man, a wee little man was he. He climbed up in a sycamore tree to see what he could see. But he was lost. He wanted to see this Jesus who was passing through. He had heard the reports of His message, the reports of His miracles, and the reports of all the things He did. He wanted to see who this Jesus was.

However, Zacchaeus was an outcast in that society. As a tax collector, he was seen as far worse than anything we could imagine in that day. The people viewed him as a turncoat, working for the occupying force that controlled their nation in Israel, working for the Romans. In the eyes of the people of that day, he was a sinner because of his occupation. Thus, he was certainly lost and an outcast from society.

As Jesus passed by, He looked up into the tree, locked eyes with Zacchaeus, and said, "Zacchaeus, quickly, come down from there. I'm staying at your house today." A murmur went through the crowd. How could this be? Why would He, this prophet, this man of God—many assumed Him to be the Messiah—go to be the guest of a man who was a sinner?

The reason was not that Zacchaeus was secretly righteous and perfect, with nobody else knowing about his great goodness. No, he was a sinner and didn't even object to being called one. But Jesus said, "I have come to seek and to save that which was lost." What good news! I have come to seek and to save that which was lost. That is the gospel. There is none who seek after God. I just read from Romans chapter three, which states that exact point and truth. None of us sought for God; we were all lost, and Jesus sought us out.

If you're here today, it's because Jesus has sought you out. Whether you've put your faith in Jesus yet or not, it's because Jesus has drawn you here to this place. One of the greatest hymns ever written or sung expresses this very truth, and it is probably being sung today in hundreds of churches throughout the world. I did a memorial service yesterday afternoon, and it was one of the songs that was sung.

One of the lyrics says, "I once was lost, but now I'm found. I once was blind, but now I see." What amazing grace! It is absolutely amazing and awesome grace that any of us are here today. We once were lost, but now we're found. We were blind, but now we see. If you're a follower of Jesus, it's because He sought you out and saved you, because of His great grace, mercy, and compassion.

If you would, in the book of Luke, turn to the right to the book of Ephesians. You'll pass John, Acts, Romans, 1st and 2nd Corinthians, and Galatians, and then you'll find the small book of Ephesians, chapter 2. We've been going here frequently over the last few weeks, looking at Ephesians chapter 2, verses 14 and on. However, I want to back up to Ephesians chapter 2, verse 11.

Paul says, "Therefore, remember." How many parents here today remember talking to your children for the billionth time and saying, "Remember, remember this"? Paul, like a loving father, says to the church at Ephesus 2,000 years ago, and to our church today, "Remember that you once were Gentiles in the flesh, who were called the uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision made in flesh by hands. At that time, you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants and promises, having no hope and without God in the world."

Just for a moment, would you remember? Remember where you were. Remember what life was like before you became a follower of Jesus, before He found you. Some of you have been walking with Jesus for a long time, so it's hard to remember; it's so far behind. For some of you, it was not very long ago, but every single one of us, if we think long enough back, can remember what life was like when we were strangers, when we were aliens from God, when we were far from Him and had no hope.

Just for a moment, remember what it was like—the fear, the shame, the anger—all of that at that time. I think it's so important for us, from time to time, to remember where we were. If you've been walking with Jesus and are part of the church for any length of time, it's easy to forget. All of a sudden, you start to think that this is how life always was. What ends up happening is subtle, but it occurs so often. You begin to look back at those people who are still lost and think, "Oh, I want to stay away from those people. They're so strange, and they talk bad, and they say bad things, and they smell. I don't like those people." We forget.

I don't want you to forget to remember. That's why Paul here says it very clearly: remember where you were at that time. You were without Christ, alienated from God, a stranger to His promises and His covenants. You had no hope. Can you remember? Do you remember what it was like to have no hope? No hope of ever being found.

Yet, look at the words of verse 13, the opening words: "But now, in Christ Jesus, you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ." We should never forget where we came from, and we should never forget how we got here. You didn't get here by your good works. You didn't get here by your good looks. You didn't get here by your ingenuity or your religious law-keeping. You got here by His grace.

Back up just a few verses to verse 8, Ephesians 2:8: "For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast."

Why do we need to remember where we were and what it was like to have no hope? Because we need to recognize and realize that there are millions of people outside the walls of this building who are still in a place of no hope. You and I have been called to the rescue team. He came to seek and to save that which was lost, and we've been called to be a part of the rescue team.

Look at Ephesians 2:10. For we, that is you, if you're a follower of Jesus, are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus. Look at these three words: for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. We have been redeemed and rescued for a purpose.

Number three on your outline: Jesus sends the found to find others. He died on the cross, and three days later, He rose from the dead. After He did, He appeared to His disciples. At one of those times, they were gathered together in an upper room, and He just showed up. When He did appear in their midst, they were more than a little struck by the situation, as we would be. He said to them, "Peace be with you. Don't be afraid." In other words, it's okay.

Then His next words were powerful. They are written in John 20:21: "As the Father has sent Me, I also send you." What did the Father send Him to do? The Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost. As the Father has sent Me, so also I send you. That's one of the commissioning passages of Jesus.

There's another famous one called the Great Commission in Matthew 28:18-20. There, He says to His disciples, "All authority in heaven and on earth is given to Me. Therefore go into all the world and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." As the Father has sent Me, so I send you. Go make disciples of all nations.

How do you do that? Another commissioning passage of the Bible is found in Mark 16:15, where Jesus said to His disciples, "Go and preach the gospel." Good news. The Greek word "euangelion," where we get our word "evangel," means to go and preach the good news.

To every creature, every creature, and then another commissioning passage is found in the Gospel of Luke, chapter 24, verses 46 and 47. Jesus said, "Thus it was written, and thus it was necessary for Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day." Why? "And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all people, beginning at Jerusalem." As the Father has sent me, so I send you. Go make disciples of all nations. Preach the Gospel to every creature. Preach repentance and remission of sins, beginning at Jerusalem, to every single person on the face of the planet.

There are 7.4 billion people on the face of the planet. We are now 20 centuries after those commissioning words of Jesus—2,000 years later—and it's phenomenal for me to believe. It's hard for me to grasp that, 2,000 years later, there are still, at this moment, unreached people groups. Unreached people groups that have not yet heard of the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. They have not yet heard of the one who comes to seek and save that which was lost.

I am going to introduce you, at the end of our service today, to two friends of our ministry, partners of our church, who are reaching unreached people groups. Yet we are all called to this. Every one of us is called to go and to reach the people who have not yet heard and are still lost. All of us know lost people. The danger is that we forget that we were once lost, and we forget what it was like to be without hope, to be in darkness, to be lost.

Then we start to build and construct walls—not physical walls, although sometimes they could be—but we construct walls around ourselves. We try to keep those lost people out there because they are scary, and they look funny, and they talk funny. They can be kind of rude and sometimes mean, just like us. But that's them, right? So we keep them out there because they might taint us and they might hurt our little thing we have going on here.

The story is told about an area along the coast where many shipwrecks would happen. Over a period of time, there was a small, crude rescue life center set up. They had one small, rickety boat, and the task of the people at this rescue center was that when they would see a ship that was about to go down, they would go out and they would...

Rescue as many people as they could. Over the years, they rescued people, even though there were those who were lost; they saved many. After a while, the people in the community started to see this and thought, "What a noble cause! How wonderful it is, and we'd like to be a part of that." They looked at the rude, crude little building they had and said, "Oh, we could make this so much better." There were wealthy people and architects among them, all eager to contribute. They built it up, adding heating and showers, creating a great place, and everyone joined to be a part of the life-saving station.

Then one day, there was a great storm. They could see out in the ocean that ships were in peril. A small group of people grabbed the boats to go out after those in danger. The others in the rescue center exclaimed, "What are you doing? Oh, we're going to save those people!" The response was, "Oh no, they're dirty and wet, and we don't want them here. If you want to do that, go down the street and build your own rescue center. That's not what this one's for."

So often, it happens so quickly and subtly that we fail to realize that Jesus came to seek and save the lost. He sends those who are found out to find others, and He has called us to this task. One of the reasons we struggle with this mission is that it feels overwhelming. There are so many people; how could I do anything? Have any of you ever felt inadequate or insufficient for the task? I do every day.

Jesus said to His disciples in Luke 24:47, "Repentance and remission of sins needs to be preached to all people, beginning at Jerusalem." That is a big task, an impossible mission. The Gospel of Luke actually comes in two parts. The second part, the sequel, is called the Book of Acts. Would you turn to Acts chapter 1 in your Bible?

Acts chapter 1 describes how Jesus died on the cross, rose from the dead, and appeared to His disciples. He was with them for a little over a month, preparing to ascend back to heaven. While gathered with His disciples, He referenced Luke 24:47, stating that repentance and remission of sins need to be preached to all peoples, beginning at Jerusalem. Then, in Acts 1:4, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem but to wait for the promise of the Father, which He had previously mentioned. He said, "For John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now."

The response of the disciples is quite interesting. Jesus tells them they will preach the gospel to all peoples, starting in Jerusalem, but they are instructed to wait for the promise of the Father. Their response is a fantastic example of a Christian inquiry. They asked Him, "Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?" They wanted a prophecy update. Nothing has changed in 2,000 years. Jesus says to go and reach people with the gospel, but they respond by wanting to sit down and discuss the rapture. They missed the point.

Jesus had to redirect them, saying, "It is not for you to know the times or the seasons which the Father has put in His own authority. But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be My witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth."

We are so easily distracted; we have what could be called church ADD. I am just as guilty as anyone else. Yet, we are reminded that we shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon us, and we are to be witnesses to Him in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth. Why? Because we have a mission to reach all people, and we have not yet finished that mission, that commission. Sometimes we may feel uncertain about our ability to accomplish it.

You're right. You cannot accomplish it in and of your own strength. It is an impossible mission, but He doesn't want you to do it in your own strength. He says, "You'll receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts." Not only that, He has called us to be a part of a church, and it's there, within the context of the church, that He equips us for the work of the ministry.

Ephesians 4:11-12 says, "And He, Jesus, gave some to be apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers." Why? For the equipping of the saints, the church, for the work of the ministry, for the building up of the body of Christ. You see, many Christians wrongly think that the work of the ministry is the job of the pastors and ministers. No, actually, the work of the pastors and ministers is equipping the church for the work of the ministry, which is to seek and save that which is lost. So we come here to be equipped, empowered by God, by His Spirit, for the work.

Point number four on your outline: Jesus empowers and equips us to reach the lost. It is an impossible mission that we, in and of our own strength, cannot accomplish, but He empowers and equips us to reach the lost.

For the last three weeks, we've been talking about our vision here at Cross Connection: life in connection with God, one another, and the world through Jesus. We talked in our first week about connecting with God and in our second week about connecting with one another. This week, our focus is connecting with the world, bringing the world into connection with God through Jesus Christ. He came to seek and to save the lost. As the Father sent Him, He has sent us with a commission to reach and find those lost people. He empowers and equips us for that mission.

So the question is, how? What do we do to reach those people? Well, point number five on your outline: we connect with the world through letter A, evangelism. Evangelism, the gospel in Greek, is "euangelion." We transliterate that to "evangel." Evangelism is the task, the work of sharing the gospel, and an evangelist is the person who shares the gospel. When we hear the word "evangelist," we think of Billy Graham, Greg Laurie, and Billy Sunday.

We think of D.L. Moody, George Whitefield, and Charles Spurgeon. We don't think of Greg Graham, even though he has the Graham name. We may not think of Ron Hendricks or Mike Richardson. Yet, every one of us is called to be an evangelist. All of us are called, equipped, and empowered by the Holy Spirit to speak forth the good news of the gospel to those who are lost.

Every one of us knows lost people—people that I will never meet and who may never come through the doors of this building unless you share the good news of the gospel with them. What is the good news? I once was lost, and now I'm found. How did that happen? Jesus came and sought me out and rescued me from sin and death. It's simple; it's not hard. We try to complicate it with all these different things.

I think one of the worst things that happened in the last 30 years of Christianity in America was the apologetics movement. Not that apologetics are bad, but here's what apologetics has done to many people in the church: it has made them afraid to share their faith because they think they have to have an answer for every question that someone asks them. With so many different worldviews, they get hung up and feel overwhelmed. They think, "I don't know how to answer all those questions from the atheist, the Mormon, the Jehovah's Witness, or the Muslim."

The answer is simple. It's the answer of the formerly blind man in John chapter nine. He said, "I don't know all that other stuff. All I know is I once was blind, and now I see." They really had a hard time with that one. I once was blind, but now I see.

We named our third child, our daughter, Evangeline Grace. It's a really good thing because when I'm angry and I say, "Evangeline Grace," it reminds me of good news and grace.

We connect with the world through evangelism. Let her be number two: charity. We connect with the world through charity, giving in Jesus' name for the needs of those in need. The church has done this for centuries. The church is known for its charitable giving. Churchgoers, in every study done, are multitudes more likely to be charitable than those who are not.

Many people are not involved in church. Why is that? Because Jesus teaches us to be charitable. He teaches us that it is more blessed to give than to receive. This may seem like a foolish thought to some until you know Jesus. Then you realize it is indeed more blessed to give than to receive. We connect with the world through evangelism, charity, and compassion, loving in Jesus' name those who are hurting and in need.

A few years back, I was really bothered when a very prominent news person started to drum up the idea that there was a problem with social justice. He made the comment on his news show that if your pastor preaches about social justice, you should get out of that church. That is the worst thing I've ever heard in my entire life. So, I've changed the term "social justice" to "compassion" because it is really hard to argue against compassion. We connect with the world through compassion by lovingly reaching out to those who are hurting and in need.

Jesus spoke about this in Matthew chapter 25. He told a story about something that is going to happen in the future, where he separates the righteous from the unrighteous. He says to those who are righteous, "I was sick and you took care of me. I was hungry and you fed me. I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink. I was naked and you clothed me. I was in prison and you came to me." They will say, "Master, when did we see you thirsty, hungry, sick, in prison, or naked?" And he will respond, "Inasmuch as you've done it to the least of these, you've done it unto me."

You see, Jesus sees your act of kindness towards someone in need as an act of kindness to him. We connect with the world through evangelism, charity, and compassion. All of these can be summed up in one word: friendship. We connect with lost people through friendships.

Here’s one of the devastating things that has been happening in American Christianity for the last decade and a half: we have decided that we can only be friends with Christians and cannot be friends with people outside the church. When I mention friendship, I know there is someone who might object, citing James chapter four, verse four, which says that friendship with the world is enmity with God. But wait one second; let’s back the Bible bus up.

Jesus was accused by the hyper-religious of His day of being a friend of sinners. There is obviously a difference between friendship with the world and being a friend of sinners. So, here’s the simple question: Who are you connected with that you’re seeking to connect with Jesus? Hopefully, there’s somebody.

One of the things that our pastoral team has talked about a number of times is the danger of being in pastoral ministry, which is that you never spend any time with non-believers. We have to intentionally get out of our little Bible bubble here at 1675 Seven Oaks Road. I’m not saying that I’m a chaplain with the fire department, but I do spend some time with people who are not Christians. Not all firefighters are non-believers, but some of the guys I hang around with and some of the homes we go into are not Christian. They look at me and say, "Chaplain, what’s that?" because people don’t know what that is anymore.

Pastor Mark is down on the dock at his boat, talking with people there. We are intentionally reaching out, asking how we can connect with people to connect them with Jesus. That’s what we’re called to do.

I want to introduce you to two different ministries that we are partnered with as a church, which are doing that on your behalf. One of them has a big bus in our parking lot. I want you to check it out afterward. It’s called Alternatives, the Alternatives Women’s Center. Alternatives is a pregnancy resource center here in Escondido that we’ve been partnered with since its inception. We have been alongside them from the very beginning. They reach out to women who are pregnant and in a crisis situation, showing them that there are alternatives to abortion, which our culture often presents as the only option in that situation.

Listen, it’s a presidential election year, and we’re not really into being political here. However, one of the things you will hear us talk about, which is also discussed by politicians, is the issue of abortion. It’s not a political issue; it’s a moral issue. You need to understand that we are wholeheartedly against the killing of babies in the womb, and we always will be.

You helped buy that bus to extend the outreach of Alternatives, and you have a chance to take a look at it, walk through it, and meet some of the people who work there. I also want to introduce you to Pat and Sherry Bailey. We have been partnered with them for about 10 years as a church. They serve the Lord in Mindanao, in the Philippines, reaching out to unreached people groups, including Muslims.

In Mindanao, the Bajau people are being served by starting medical clinics, schools, feeding programs, and vocational training. Most importantly, they are preaching the gospel and planting churches. Please welcome Patrick and Sherry Bailey.

Thank you. We don't have a lot of time, so Sherry is going to go back out that way and meet you at our booth. When you get there, you will see some pearls from the Bajau Livelihood Program. We use the money from these pearls to help feed them. We also have some cards available; please take one and pray for us. We need prayer. If you would like a little trifle that tells more about our ministry, you can get that, or you can meet us at 1 o'clock for a little session.

Do you want to go ahead and leave, or would you like to stay here? Sure, you want to stay here? Well, I'll wait and get prayed for by Pastor Mike.

The Bajau live in a city of 1.3 million. We have been in the Philippines for 13 and a half years. In this developing city, with malls and all, there is a group of about 1,000 people who are desperately poor and unreached, called the Bajau. There are 13 unreached groups in the Philippines, and we work with about three or four of them through our different outreaches that Pastor Miles talked about.

This one group, the Bajau, had their village burned down. Some of you know this because you receive our newsletter. We signed up for our newsletter a year and a half ago. When they were placed in the internment camp, they were only given a three-quarter inch water line, and 20 people died of dehydration. Sherry gave 300 shots, and we were desperately getting water to them to keep them alive.

We built a temporary school and signed up 40 kids. I have had a kinder school for about eight years now, but we had to move it because they were relocated back into the village. We had to rebuild our school and our church, and we ended up losing students. Instead of graduating 40 kids, we only graduated 20, which is unusual for us; we have never had that many dropouts.

This past year, we talked to the parents and asked them if it would help if we fed the kids two meals instead of one. They said yes, and that keeps the kids in school. We can feed a child a meal for $7.50 for one month.

One meal a day. Two cups of coffee in the States will feed a kid one meal a day for 20 days. So, $75 a year will feed a kid his entire school lunch money. If you'd like to help us out, please talk to us afterwards. These kids are wonderful. They live in terrible circumstances. There's no community toilets, but they come to school. They're excited and want to learn. We teach them about Jesus. The teacher teaches them how to read, write, and spell.

In another city, in the elementary school, we have a feeding program. An hour away, we have kindergarten, first grade, second grade, and third grade in our church. We also have kids coming in, the Bajau kids, from the city. We feed over 350 meals a day, and next year, we expect that number to increase to 400 meals a day. We need your help. We want to keep these kids off the street because if they don't get fed enough, the parents yank them out of school and go begging in the streets. They are the untouchables, the unwanted people of the Philippines.

We also minister to the Muslims. Some areas where the Bajau live are Muslim, while others are not. In one area near these Bajau, we have a computer school in a Mononau Muslim village. Our pastor there teaches values education and the Bible, along with computer skills. At the end of the three weeks, 95% of the Muslims ask Jesus into their hearts. We do this in our medical clinics as well. Wherever we go, whatever we do, we always teach about Jesus.

In the medical clinics, patients see the nurse first. Sherry, my bride of 30 years, is one of the most compassionate people I know. She cares for them deeply. After that, they go to the prayer circle, where we talk to them about Jesus. We have done this repeatedly, and over 1,000 Muslims have come and asked Jesus to forgive them their sins, as it says in Luke 24:36. God is moving, and we are there watching.

We have a staff of 15 and four churches, including two secret Muslim churches. We also have a farm, where the church was planted. One of the church members died this year, and during the funeral, a man was outside the house, kind of wandering around.

He came up to the pastor afterwards and said, "I'm an assassin for the communists, and I don't want to do that anymore. I heard you talking about peace, and I don't have peace in my heart." He came to the Lord that night, and now he's going to our church on that farm. God is moving, and we just thank you so much for your prayers. We'd love your partnership. You can come out and talk to us about that.

There's so much more to tell, but we're running out of time right now. We go five and a half hours away to a Muslim group. We have a medical team in Pakistan that does ministry that we've taught, and they're bringing Muslims to the Lord there. Muslims have heard about Jesus, but they don't know the truth about Him. When they hear that, they want their sins forgiven, and that's what it's all about: to join the kingdom of heaven. Thank you so much.

Sherry, I know that at your medical clinics, you guys pray for everybody who comes. People say there are no healings happening anymore. Can you share about how that's not true? I know you have some stories, so would you share?

I'd love to share. We have been so blessed. As Pat said, we're just reporters, but we use the medical as an access point to get into areas that we wouldn't otherwise be allowed to enter. After each patient is seen, they go and get prayed for in the name of Jesus Christ. God is so awesome. Then they receive their free medicine and leave.

But so often, they come back the next day and say, "We have been praying to Allah our whole lives, and He doesn't answer our prayers. But when your pastors pray in the name of Isa Al-Masih, Jesus the Messiah, God answers our prayers." That's the God we serve! They then ask, "How do I get to know more about Him?" Well, that's easy. The pastors have all been trained in how to share Jesus with Muslims, and Bible studies are started.

Do we have time? Okay, thanks! It is so awesome to tell you guys what God is doing over in the Philippines and all over the world.

Talk to people. It's happening to Muslims. But I'm sorry. Anyway, let me get back on track with the Bible studies and stuff. That's happening all over.

The very first time we went into a Muslim village, we didn't quite know what we could share or not share. Our agreement with all of our supporters is that every patient gets prayed for individually in the name of Jesus Christ. If we're in Pakistan, we don't care what kind of holy men they are; they all get prayed for in the name of Jesus Christ. The only person we had not wanted was a Jehovah's Witness. The pastor asked, "Do you want to be healed or not?" She replied, "Well, yeah." He said, "Then you've got to be prayed for." Even in Pakistan, the Muslims don't care.

We do this all the time. How many years' worth? Anyway, we were praying for all these patients in a Muslim village. It was the first time they had ever had medical care, and they had no sanitary conditions, no running water, and no toilets. These kids had lesions on their bodies so close together that you couldn't put two fingers between them. It was disgusting. I felt so much for them. Every child had lesions from the top of their heads to the bottoms of their feet. We put every single child on two weeks of antibiotics because we had to clear out all kinds of bacteria from their systems to get them well. We explained that they must complete the full two weeks because these kids had so much to deal with. The moms were okay with that, and then they were sent over to get prayed for.

The next morning, we showed up, and these moms came running towards us. There were eight moms, I think, holding their children up in the air. We thought, "Well, it's not husbands with M16s, so that's a good thing." Truly, this was the best of the villages we were in. I got out of the van, and these moms said, "Look what your Jesus did! Your Jesus healed our children." There was not one lesion on any of the eight kids. Praise God! I was just amazed. This was my very first time in a Muslim village, and I had never seen anything like this.

And I was just like, "This is a medical miracle. I mean, medically, this isn't possible. This is Jesus." We found out after we had left, three days later, that 28 Muslim women went to the closest church in the area, which was a Baptist church, and offered to move out of the village to be able to go to Bible studies. Our first thought, since we didn't know anything about Muslim ministry, was, "Yeah, I'll move out." But people were saying, "No, no, no, no. You wanted to stay in and minister to others." It was then that we realized we needed a lot of education about Muslim ministry.

So they stayed in and started a secret Muslim movement, which went on for three years. That was our introduction to Muslim ministry. Anyone can do it. All you have to do is recognize that Muslims pray to a God who doesn't answer them. If you work with people, if you know people in the community—everyone has problems—offer to pray for them in the name of Jesus. They won't turn you down. They may get a little uncomfortable, but just pray with them in the name of Jesus, and then let the Lord show up. They will come back to you.

Thank you. God bless you. I wish that you were more excited. We're going to pray for Pat and Sherry as we close our service. If anyone wants to come up and pray with us, then we'll close. So come on up. Let's pray.

Let's stand together. Father, we rejoice in the testimony that Patrick and Sherry have just shared and the good things that You're doing. There are hundreds and hundreds of other stories like this. Thank You for the work that You're doing through them and through the other missionaries that we're connected with. We're so grateful to partner with them and to be a part of this work.

We ask, God, that You would bless them. We pray for the outpouring of Your Spirit upon them as they're back here in the States on furlough. Bless them financially, spiritually, emotionally, and physically for the next stretch of ministry, Lord. We pray that You go before them and open doors that no man can shut. And, Lord, we ask for the work not just in the Philippines but in Pakistan.

And the other places that You're leading them, Lord, they're so busy doing all this stuff. We just thank You for their willingness to continue to press on. We pray, God, that You would use them mightily. We thank You for them.

Lord, we pray for this church, Cross Connection. We pray for this body as we prepare to leave from this building and go out into the mission field here in North County and throughout San Diego this week. God, would You use us to be bright shining lights? Lord, give us opportunities to be compassionate, to be charitable, and to share the good news of who You are. Help us to be friends to those who are in need and lost, that we might be able to show them the right path to You.

We just ask that You would use us to be a bright shining light in this community. We praise You and we thank You, Jesus. Now may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, and the fellowship of His Holy Spirit be with all of you and with Pat and Sherry as we go from this place.

And all God's people said, Amen. God bless you again. Pat and Sherry will be available at 1 o'clock today up in Room 6 if you're interested in meeting them. May the Lord richly bless you. We'll see you next week as we continue our study in the Scriptures. God bless. Have a great day.