Join a young man touching lives at an Indian Reservation known for its high suicide rate.

 

 

Okay Mommy Daddy. I wanna be a missionary when I grow up. Those aren’t the typical words. We hear friends from our little eight year old son or daughter. And that begs the question, what is a missionary. Anyway, as christians, We’re always hearing about missionaries. We read the bible and we come across paul’s missionary journeys. What is a missionary? We get these pictures in our heads of someone fighting in a jungle with a machete through tall grass and risking their lives and contracting some weird diseases. Is that a missionary? The missionary, someone that leaves home and goes way yonder and gives up Starbucks and fast internet connection and the comforts and the crew shipments of the american life. I don’t know. But today we’re gonna find out on the way the master and we’re glad you’re with us. These are my two favorite missionaries in all the world. Mark Spence and Ray comfort. That was such a long eloquent introduction. I was gonna leave and come back. You could have basically, I’m sure everyone’s turned off the channel by now. But guys, missionary stuff, we joke about a little bit, but it’s serious stuff. So I wanna ask you guys when you think of missionaries, uh, what comes to mind why, why our mission is so important? Just what you said. It’s something ingrained in. You think of David Livingstone through the bush and mosquitoes and all that stuff. But it’s not just we’re fulfilling the great commission mom is with and nice try comfort. You’ve done the other one. You know, it’s basically someone who is sent out right. It’s someone going to a mission field, a foreign area to share the gospel. That’s the design. I like what john piper says concerning missions to the parent who’s wondering wavering back and forth, what happens if something happens to my child? And frankly he puts it, then they die to the glory of God. Listen, your, your life is not your own. You’ve been bought with a price and what lies before you is a stewardship from the owner. For the owner, we cannot tell the pot or what to do with the clay, whatever he wants to do. So you are, what’s the quote? You’re either a missionary or an imposter Spurgeon’s quote, we’ll call it Ray comfort’s quote. You’re either a missionary. We’re always going forward. We’re always sharing the gospel no matter where you go mark. You know, I don’t know if I’m glad you brought that up, but I have to admit as a christian, you know, it’s easy to say, right, my child is gonna be a missionary or praise the Lord. But as I became a father and I even thought of the possibility, it’s hard, I love the Lord. I want to reach the world. But those words by piper are convicting. But Ray, I put you in that position, I don’t even know if you remember, but if you remember when Rachel and I were first newlyweds. I got this sense like the Lord may be calling us to Lebanon. Um, horrified because I didn’t know how nice Lebanon was? I just thought it’s everyone’s were in the a little slot thing, but she went to India when she was 17 and I was terrified as a father, I had to put my trust in God and I couldn’t wait for her to get back to safe Los Angeles. You know, we have to remember that the safest place to be is the center of God’s will. So whether that’s in the belly of a, well maybe you’re in the midst of fire, like maybe you in the heart of compton or maybe you’re just south of Beverly Hills. Listen, the safest place to be is where God wants you to be. So if God wants you on the mission field and in the meantime you go, no, no, no, it’s safer for me to be here in Beverly hills. Listen people die in Beverly Hills, you know, you need to be where God wants you to be and you need to blossom or die in Beverly hills, but they’re not eaten by cannibals. Well look, here’s the thing that I want to touch on today because we’re gonna look at an interesting aspect of missions. One of my biggest challenge is to especially young people who say I want to go out on the mission field, even a short term missions trip because those are popular today in the church. My question to them is, are you sharing the gospel with the people around you? Because the way I look at it is you’ve got a A bunch of people that are diseased dying. They’re all around you, you’re a physician, you have the ability to heal them and you’re looking out, I think I’m gonna go help the people out and you know $10 to or wherever they need my help. But you’re not doing anything about the people that are immediately around. You were willing to go across the world are not willing to go across the street. Yeah, I heard of a young missionary that went to India and she said that the team went on a hill and prayed for the city and she said I could have done that at home, could just go into all the world and preach the Gospel Gospel is the power of God to salvation. Amen. And so friends we wanna visit that today because of course the church is called to international missions were called to go out. But if you look at the biblical model, you see that jesus talked about starting in Jerusalem, going out to judea, then Samaria, then the remotest parts of the earth. So you’ve got to start with your Jerusalem and reach the lost there. We have a huge mission field. We’re all missionaries. In fact, Second Corinthians five tells us we are ambassadors for christ and we can be ambassadors here at home. This is where it should start. So we want to take a look at a video of a young man who did that. He didn’t go across the seas. He didn’t travel thousands of miles or sit on an airplane for hours on end. He went to people that were right around him. They were different than he was. But the gospel message was the same. Check this out. Yeah. Yeah. The Pine Ridge indian reservation has one of the highest suicide rates in America. There is depression, there is drugs, there’s, there’s meth, there’s marijuana, there’s alcohol, there’s child molestation. The people here are in desperate need of the knowledge of the true gospel there, there’s a lack of understanding of what it, what it means to be a christian and even even the, the christians that are here, I think that there’s a confusion. What’s the issue? What’s the problem? Here is the problem is not alcohol. The problem is not the myth. The problem is not the marijuana. The problem is idolatry that there’s been a god formed to suit their own selves. A god that is not just a god God that will not punish somebody and they have no no hope because there is no knowledge of the true sacrifice of jesus christ. Okay. Mhm. Hey, welcome guys. Hey, yeah. Hi. Just so you know my name is, my name is Matthew just because I want to get this out out of the way and up in the front. I know that I’m white, I’m caucasian. Have you guys ever heard that? The bible is for the white man’s book, raise your hand if you’ve heard that before on the reservation, it’s obvious I’m a white guy. I stick out like a sore thumb to overcome the fear of man is that we need to trust in the Lord, whether that’s being a a white person and going out into a native community and sharing the gospel, we need to to know that they were there to represent the Lord. We don’t need to be worried about what we look like. Okay. And so this, this movie here is gonna address suicide. Living waters put out a video called exit. The appeal of suicide. I have a friend that actually took a copy of it and they played it in in the jail and he said that everybody in that room was was quiet basically and that normally doesn’t happen. Think about your own death. Yeah, specifically just recently in the jail there seems to have been a very positive response to not only watching the video but to the gospel. You’ve heard about the evil things that the white man have done right. We’ll come out as a white man to you and say all white men deserve to go to hell, but the bible doesn’t end with the white man. It says all people in this world are guilty before God repentance is saying God I’ve been on the wrong track and you turn to jesus, the messiah who loves you and died for you and will forgive all of your sin and change your life. This this showing your hand isn’t necessarily what what saves you is just to say I’m going to follow jesus. I wanna be forgiven. I want to be counted for christ. So can I get a show of hands If you’d like to do that today, you would you would as well. You you thank you. Thank you. Thank you all of you guys. All right, okay. Bless you for that. I want to pray for you. Okay. Cause time’s short. There’s so much that I’d like to say trust me and you won’t hear this every day. I do this because I love you. Mhm. Mhm. A native american friend of mine, he wanted to go and start reaching out to people with the gospel and so him and I we’d go, we’d knock on the door. We asked if we could talk, we’d start talking to them and I’d pull out are you a good person tracked? And we go through the the good person track. I like that one specifically because got got pictures and it can keep people’s attention. And so I don’t know how many houses we’ve we’ve gone too and we’ve done that and there’s there’s been a positive response to that. That message. Takashi can’t say doing the sweat can’t save being pierced. Can’t save only jesus, dying for your sins. Can save you all people are guilty. Okay. Um the bible says there’s not a just man upon earth that does good and since not okay, if someone tells you they’re perfect, they’re not okay. Living Waters has helped me realize the importance of evangelism, not that you have to be an evangelist or a full time missionary, but but even being in school or going to the grocery store and taking the opportunity to do the greatest loving thing that you can do and that share the gospel of christ with somebody. I don’t know how jesus did that, That’s what I always look at that he did because he loves you, he did it because he loves people. Do you want to put your trust in christ? You want that now would be the best time to do it now? Okay, right on. I don’t know that I would be out even evangelizing if it if it weren’t for Living Waters and their encouragement in that I don’t know if anybody has influenced me more than than Ray comfort in the ministry with way the Master, I would hate to look back in my life thinking why didn’t I tell that person about christ or them thinking why didn’t he tell me the truth of the gospel, I’m thankful for the opportunity to be able to do this and I hope to do it for the rest of my life, sharing the Gospel with people that may lead to their eternal salvation. I gotta say the Avengers have nothing on this guy. You know, superheroes are big thing today in our day and age. That’s, that’s heroism for us as Christians hebrews 11 yeah. The whole of faith, I mean this is, this is what I want my kids to be inspired by. This is the kind of guy Matthew that I want my kids to say, I want to be like that. He’s a young man. Think of all the things he could be doing, what most young people are caught up in, but look what he’s doing for the glory of God. You know, that’s uh, you know, there’s a motto that I’ve kind of adopted that I heard somewhere and it’s, if I’m gonna fail, I’m gonna fail by falling forward, You’re gonna step out of the boat, I’m gonna get into the batter’s box. You know, I, I love the fact that he’s doing what he can do. You know, we’re not called to do a lot other than do what you can do, right? And if you’re going to fail at that. Well then hey, I tried, I got into the batter’s box and he’s going to his Jerusalem, that’s his area and I love that. I was saying, I’m not sure who said it, but you don’t have to cross the sea to be a missionary, you just have to see the cross. You know, that was, that definitely wasn’t your clothes. You know, it’s a quality quote, but it’s so true. If you see the cross, you don’t have to go on an overseas and that you’ve got your neighbors, you’ve got friends and family. You’ve got the mall everywhere. Just if you care about people and the most effective missionaries are those that were effective at home. Like we talked about earlier. Now let me ask you guys this, you know, I think there’s a perception sometimes of missionaries going in the areas and trying to change people’s culture. I’m sure that that’s probably one of the concerns that maybe even some of the tribal people had of who’s this guy, Companies trying to change us from who we are. Is that what mission? Let me say this. I’ll say it depends well what is going on within their culture, right? I I have a friend who went to Northern Uganda and he overheard an individual saying, hey, if there’s a spear being thrown at you right before it hits you, if you flex it’ll bounce off. Where did you get that information? The witch doctor and share this with. Listen, so we are going to change that culture from information. That is false. Especially because it’s deadly. But look, we’re not looking to change culture and customs and anything along the nature. We want to preach the gospel, the gospel sets people free. So we need to be careful with that. We’re not looking to change culture unless it’s sinful and we have to be culturally sensitive obviously, but you don’t have when you meet natives, if they’ve got bones through the nose, you have to put a bone through your nose, you just share the gospel with them in love and be sensitive when we went to 13 countries and 13 days in europe. Who thought of that? Some crazy man. But we didn’t clip on clogs when we went to Holland. You know, I would have given anything to see you with those looking over the top. Yeah, yeah. We just went in there and showed love and preach the gospel and that’s what we call. Yeah, that’s important. There are certain aspects of culture that are beautiful and legitimate. We’re not, we’re not out as christians to go out and make people americans, you know, I mean imagine americans coming into new Zealand and trying to get you to stop eating marmite. Don’t even talk, Can you imagine that? Right. Right. But no, it’s a matter of bringing the gospel of christ and once you do, like you say Ray, even when you talk about, hey, we’re not trying to get people to stop being homosexuals or to stop not liking abortion. We’re trying to give the gospel because once they get it, that automatically happens, it’s the fruit. Now I loved one of the things that Matthew touched on in there and I want you guys to talk about. He said, look, it’s not about then being into this and into that, that the heart of the issue is idolatry, idolatry. Was it piper Mark that said that missions exists because worship doesn’t Yes, yeah, yeah. The heart of the problem is the problem of the heart and like you said, I mean before I think all of us became christians, we had uh, certain things that we adhere to that were just our, our baby, right? I was into evolution. I was pro choice feminism wasn’t big, homosexuality was not big at the time, but I would have been into all of those things, whatever they were feminism and then if need be right, I mean once you become a christian, you’re a new creature, a new creation, all things become new. So the message is very singular, right? We worship God through the words of the gospel on the mission field, everything else will fall into place. Yeah. Someone told me that they always saw missionaries as ladies in dressed in white, in the front row of the church. That was a particular domination. They were the missionaries and all they did was help people in the local area and that’s the twisting of what a missionary is to take the gospel to every creature. And he said that was a revelation to him when he understood what a missionary was and you know, isn’t it interesting to think that the greatest missionary in the history of the universe was the creator of the universe. I mean God’s a missionary God, he sent his son to become a man and christ who was the second person that God had left the glories of heaven as it tells us in Philippians, right. He didn’t consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation taking the form of a bond servant and coming in the likeness of men and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death. Even the death of the cross. That’s our model. That’s our example. And wait a minute. Light bulb. I think we’re sitting with a missionary mark. I know someone who left their country traveled thousands of miles and came to these glorious shorts. Mr comfort. You’re a missionary. Quite a self denial to come to southern California. So we’re in short in the middle of winter, it’s just the blue skies, day after day after day when the rest of the country is freezing. But I’m dealing with Yeah, sacrifice. But in reality though you did experienced sacrifice in terms of leaving your family and leaving what you’re comfortable with my wife, your daughter Rachel. She spent a year almost daily in tears because of of of moving. So there is some sacrifice involved. Yeah. I remember one night I bawled my eyes out then it was over. But that’s you. Mr that’s how your personality works. But speaking of Ray being a missionary, we joke about it often, but you get on your bike with your dog Sam and you cruise the area every saturday you go down to huntington beach and preach the gospel. And I thank God. I know Mark, thanks God and millions around the world. Thank God. Because you capture those encounters on video, we’re gonna look at one of those and see what it’s like friends to be a missionary at home. You said I had an accent, where am I from? I said, Britain french said Russia Canada Yugoslavia from New Zealand I would have never said that. So mike you think there’s an afterlife? Yeah, there is. It’s either I’m gonna die and either go to heaven or hell or I might just come back as an insect. Do you believe in God’s existence? I am God. No, you’re not. Yes, I am. I’m a christian. So I would say it’s up to God to decide whether you know what my route will be. You’re a mere mortal and you’re going to die. So you’re not God, I’m sorry to bring you down to earth, but that’s the way it is in the bible. I mean, I’m not sure, I don’t really read it. What does it say about the afterlife? I don’t know about that part shouldn’t you find out this is the biggest thing that will ever happen to you. You know, our birth was pretty important but our death is where we’re gonna spend eternity, a birth into this life was just for a short period of time compared to you know, the eternal consequence. So you better find out what the bible says. Are you sinless? Yes, I am. Are you going to make it to heaven when you die? You’re a good person. I’ve done a lot of stuff that I’m not proud of. You’ve lied and stolen. I don’t Yeah. How many lies have you told in your life? More than ever stolen something downloaded music off the internet. That’s not yours. God, your witness. I am God. And jesus said, if you look at a woman and lust for her, you commit adultery with her in your heart. Have you ever looked at a woman with lust? Yes, I have had sex out of marriage. Yeah. If you had sex out of marriage. No. Are you a virgin? Are you married? Did you have sex before you’re married? It’s fornication mike. I’m not judging you. You just told me you’re a liar. A thief. A fornicator and an adulterer at heart. We’ve looked at four of the 10 Commandments. If God judges you by the 10 Commandments on judgment day, you’re going to be innocent or guilty, I am innocent. Well, no, you’re guilty. You like the rest of us. You’ve broken the commandments. You’re a liar and a fornicator and adulterer at heart. And if you don’t face your sins, you’ll never see God for mercy. And if you don’t see God for mercy, you’re in big trouble on judgment day. You know, the bible says all liars of their part in the Lake of Fire, no thief, no blasphemer, no adulterer or fornicator. And here at God’s Kingdom, our opinions don’t matter what matters is truth. And the truth is if you die in your sins, God gives you justice, you’re right. You’ll end up in hell and I’d hate that to happen to you. I mean, I love you, I care about you and the thought of you ending up in hell horrifies me. You know God is holy and righteous and the scripture says, you’ll have no other gods before me. That’s the first commandment and making yourself God is another God before him, Man, I wouldn’t do that. It seems you’ve got no fear of God before your eyes. You know, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Did you know that? But Fortunately God is rich in Mercy and he sent a savior. We brought God’s law. The 10 commandments, Jesus paid the fine. That means God can commute your death sentence just like a judge can let a criminal go, even though he’s guilty. If someone pays his fine. God can forgive your sins commute your death sentence, let you live forever, All because of what jesus did on that cross taking the punishment for the sin of the world, you understand that I understand it, but don’t believe it okay, when he was on the cross, he cried out, It is finished. In other words, the debt has been paid. So that means God can freely give you everlasting life as a gift because of the death and resurrection of the Son of God. What you have to do is repent and trust alone in him. Don’t trust yourself. Trust in him. And the bible speaks of Fruit of repentance. In other words, there should be evidence that you are soundly saved. The Fruit of righteousness, The Fruit of praise, thanksgiving. Fruit of repentance. The Fruit of the Spirit Mike. There’s no fruit. If you’re not living a life of holiness, you can have no assurance that you’re saved. You’re part of the multitude that will say to jesus on judgment day, Lord Lord, you say depart from me, you workers of lawlessness. I never knew you. So can I. I encourage you to examine yourself as the bible says to and see if you’re in the faith Mike, will you think about what we talked about? Because I’m very concerned for you for your salvation. And I want to see you in heaven. I don’t want to see you in hell. And this is what Jesus said, he said, strive to enter at the straight gate for straight is the gate and narrow is the way that leads to life, and few. There be that find it broad is the path that leads to destruction and many go in that way and there are multitudes within churches who think they’re saved and they’ve got no evidence and they need to be awakened and I think you may be one of them and I want you to think seriously about your eternal salvation because you don’t know when you’re going to die. Does that make sense? That does make a lot of sense to think about this. Yes. I will spell the word shop out loud. S. H. O. P. What do you do when you come to a green light? You stop green light. Oh you go spell the word silk S. I. L. K. Milk. They can’t reach the outer. They’re stuck with water like the other animals. So it just shows you you’re not God, you’re fallible like the rest of us and you need to repent and trust the savior. So you’re gonna think about what we talked about. Okay, great to talk to you. I appreciate it. Ray. You have gotten so much mileage out of that. I love it. And it goes to show how something so silly can show someone how so silly mistake. Yeah. So missionary Ray, I mean there you go folks, you just saw what we were talking about. You don’t have to cross the seas to get people with world views that conflict with the truth. Where was that Ray? By the way? Just local. But if you want to go to a primitive tribe, go to a local university. Yeah, that’s true. Why? That makes me laugh so hard. That’s funny. Okay listen, um, let’s let’s break that down a little bit because what what what blew my mind right? There was the contrast. I mean you had the guy mike, he’s sitting in his car. He’s like broken with humility and you, you go to the next shot and there’s God and he’s heads up, you know? And then so what what’s the deal with that mark? Why do we see those different reactions from people? Well there’s there’s a saying that the same sun that hardens wax, hardens the clay softens wax. Right? It’s the same message. The message that goes forward. You can see one person respond one way, another person responded another way. But we really truth be told, I don’t know how they are really internally responding. There’s also another stand when you throw a rock into a pack of wolves. The one that yelps the loudest is the one that got hit. You know, it doesn’t mean that he’s not ready and willing to give up those darling sins. He’s just perhaps thinking through it. Maybe. Maybe not, but we still have to be faithful with the message. It reminded me Ray of good old larry. Remember larry? He was God too. That was one of the, it was that that deep, It blew me away because his voice was so deep. I think it was in. was it santa Monica or was it a big, big crowd and this guy comes up, I am the, I mean deep voice speaking like these prophetic type utterances and, and I don’t know how you thought to just even ask this, but you know, what’s your name? Larry was so awesome every time I think about it. Yeah, Larry’s gonna write in, he’ll meet the other God do too. But again, the point of what we’re discussing today is the fact that there are unbelievers all around us, friends. My hope is that we’ll get enthused. You know, one of living waters callings is to inspire and equip christians to fulfill the great commission that inspires me that that enthuses my heart. If that’s a word enthusiast? Whatever it works, we can create language make our own, It fills me with enthusiasm because that’s what we’re called to do. And there are people all around us and the christian life can be an adventure when you realize that we are ambassadors and we can watch people be transformed for the glory of God Ray. You’ve often asked people, are you afraid to bungee jump, are you afraid to skydive? Are you afraid to do roller coasters? How many of you do it and hands go up. Hey, you want adventure, you want that feeling, go share the gospel. But what comes on the flip side of that? Is the joy of seeing people be touched by the Gospel. So friends, we want to encourage you to catch that, be inspired and get out there and do that for the glory of God. Thanks for joining us. On way, The Master, we’ll see you next time we hope this episode of Wave, the Master has inspired you to share the message of eternal life. You can watch our award winning movies such as the Atheist Delusion freely on our website, where you’ll also find articles, videos, and audio messages, as well as books, Dvds, gospel tracts and other resources to help you share your faith Biblically, and effectively make sure to visit Living Waters dot com today.