SPEAKER_03: Ministering to the heart of Western Arkansas's River Valley for over 165 years, welcome to Chapter and First, the Bible Teaching Ministry of Fort Smith's First Baptist Church.
SPEAKER_03: You'll find sermons and teachings from Pastor Greg, our ministry staff, and guest speakers.
SPEAKER_03: Thank you for listening.
SPEAKER_04: I wanted you to meet someone from the Jesus Film Project.
SPEAKER_04: So we have with us, I'm going to invite to the stage, a guest with us this morning, Peter Mooley.
SPEAKER_04: He is an executive with Campus Crusade International and the Jesus Film Project.
SPEAKER_04: So he is here with us today to tell us some more about that.
SPEAKER_04: He is the partner that leads, that we are leading with in selecting the people group that we've selected and to be a part of that project.
SPEAKER_04: And so, Peter, we are glad to have you in Fort Smith and at First Baptist this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Pastor Greg.
SPEAKER_00: I'm glad you'll be here as well.
SPEAKER_04: Well, we're excited.
SPEAKER_04: Peter will be here tonight to do some QA with us and talk some more about the Jesus film.
SPEAKER_04: We'll also have someone from Arkansas, I think, who is over the Arkansas region of Jesus Film.
SPEAKER_04: So Peter, let us just get to know you for a minute.
SPEAKER_04: I think you're good.
SPEAKER_04: You're you're on, right?
SPEAKER_04: Is he on?
SPEAKER_04: Good.
SPEAKER_04: All right, just make sure you hold it up close.
SPEAKER_04: There you go.
SPEAKER_04: And uh so tell us a little bit about yourself, Peter.
SPEAKER_00: Let us just get to know you for a minute.
SPEAKER_00: Well, good morning, Church.
SPEAKER_00: I like the response.
SPEAKER_00: Beautiful.
SPEAKER_00: I'm so glad to be here.
SPEAKER_00: Uh my name as Pastor Sadies Peter Mooley.
SPEAKER_00: I am from Kenya, but I I live in Orlando, Florida.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody asked me, Oh, well, you must be suffering from jet lag.
SPEAKER_00: Having come from Africa, I said, well, maybe about an hour only.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, but uh, as I said, I'm I'm from Kenya.
SPEAKER_00: I work with uh uh Campus Crusade for Christ, the Jesus film more specifically.
SPEAKER_00: I've been on staff with Campus Crusade for the last 37 years.
SPEAKER_00: I first uh joined the ministry in Kenya, served there for 10 years, then moved to Zimbabwe with the Southeast Africa Regional Office.
SPEAKER_00: We were there for about another nine years, and then moved to South Africa, and we were there for another nine years.
SPEAKER_00: And so that's that's been our journey.
SPEAKER_00: And uh about eight years ago, the Jesus Film Project uh leadership asked if we could consider coming to the US to be more of a liaison or a link, if you will, uh, between the headquarters and and Africa.
SPEAKER_00: Because of the little experience that we have uh from the field, they thought it would be beneficial to have us uh be in in the US and help, in a sense, uh be the link or or the liaison between uh Africa.
SPEAKER_00: And so for the last uh eight years we have been overseeing work in uh 22 countries.
SPEAKER_00: Um, but about uh two years ago that changed, and so now we oversee work in 50 countries with a colleague who's from Ethiopia and just a small population of 1.2 billion people uh in that part of the world.
SPEAKER_00: And uh first and for all, if you don't mind, if we don't just roll, there's a slice to to introduce my family.
SPEAKER_00: That is my beautiful wife, Elizabeth.
SPEAKER_00: Uh she's actually watching the service online right now, so I'm sure she's very envious of me, but she sends her greetings to you all as a church.
SPEAKER_00: And let me just uh while we're still there, we we watched the service last Sunday in Orlando, and she said, Oh, if I could have been in Fort Smith, I could have applied to join the worship team.
SPEAKER_00: And the choir just sounded so brilliant, and it's true.
SPEAKER_00: The uh sound brilliant.
SPEAKER_00: We'll savor a spot when y'all get here next week.
SPEAKER_00: All right, we'll do, we'll do.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and then that's that's our family.
SPEAKER_00: We have uh uh uh four children, uh two two daughters, actually, one daughter-in-law, and two two two boys.
SPEAKER_00: And uh I normally say, and then of course a granddaughter who is about two years old.
SPEAKER_00: I normally say that in Africa there are so many languages, Pastor, and uh we have about over 80 in uh in Kenya and uh we speak different languages.
SPEAKER_00: So I speak Kamba, that is my first language.
SPEAKER_00: My wife speaks Kikuyu.
SPEAKER_00: And so I was asking the the Sunday school class, what does that make our children?
SPEAKER_00: If we have uh Kamba and and Kikuyu, what does that make our children?
SPEAKER_00: And uh they thought, but I said, well, it makes uh cucumbers because so Kikuyu and Kumba, we have uh uh three cucumbers there, so so glad to be here.
SPEAKER_04: I'm trying to figure out what my kids are now.
SPEAKER_04: I'll get in trouble if I say.
SPEAKER_04: Now tell us a little bit about the Jesus film.
SPEAKER_04: I know as we've started talking about this in the church, um we we uh a lot of folks were not familiar with it.
SPEAKER_04: And so as I understood what you said, you're you're coordinating that over all of those people groups in that in the African area.
SPEAKER_04: So tell us how the Jesus film works and tell us what we're doing with it.
SPEAKER_00: Great.
SPEAKER_00: Well, the Jesus film, I normally refer to it as a tool on time.
SPEAKER_00: And Pastor, I must commend you.
SPEAKER_00: Uh uh last Sunday you did a great job of just talking about the Jesus film and the beginnings of it.
SPEAKER_00: 1979, that's when this tool was released.
SPEAKER_00: Uh Dr.
SPEAKER_00: Bill Bright, the founder of Campus Crusade, had a dream to have the gospel message in film.
SPEAKER_00: And so he challenged Paul Escherman, who became then the director of the Jesus film.
SPEAKER_00: And they took put together, after a lot of study, a lot of theological also engagement as well, to ensure that we are close to the scripture, came up with the Jesus film.
SPEAKER_00: It's from the Luke Gospel in film.
SPEAKER_00: And that is why it's really a powerful tool.
SPEAKER_00: And since 1979, of course, the first language uh translation was in the Philippines, and then thereafter we began doing other translations.
SPEAKER_00: And so now to date we've done about 2,085 languages.
SPEAKER_00: Two say that again.
SPEAKER_00: 2,085 languages have taken the story of Jesus around the world.
SPEAKER_00: That's incredible.
SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
SPEAKER_00: Praise God.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
SPEAKER_00: And you know, uh Paul Escherman said that uh no one needs to learn a new language to understand how to spend eternity with God.
SPEAKER_00: And that is why uh the Jesus film in the heart language makes a big difference.
SPEAKER_00: I say that uh well, I speak uh English is actually my third language, first is Kikamba, second is Kiswahili, and then English is my third.
SPEAKER_00: Now, when I had the Jesus film in Kikamba, my heart language, it really tagged my heart.
SPEAKER_00: And every time when we go and show the film out there, and people watch, in fact, I just watch their faces in terms of their responses.
SPEAKER_00: It's it's just it's just amazing because other people and I say this in some villages, this would be the very first motion picture that they would be ever seeing in their life.
SPEAKER_00: And they're seeing the story of Jesus being played in the film in their mother tongue.
SPEAKER_00: Surely.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, the ex the expectation is just enormous because of course they they they respond.
SPEAKER_00: And they respond, right?
SPEAKER_00: I normally say between 70 and 80 percent of the people that watch this film out there would indicate decisions for Christ.
SPEAKER_00: So fine.
SPEAKER_00: This is a powerful medium.
SPEAKER_00: Very important.
SPEAKER_04: You mentioned that.
SPEAKER_04: Help just a little bit them to understand the power and the importance of hearing the film in your heart language.
SPEAKER_04: Um, as you said, this movie is the book of Luke, and so all of the words spoken, like if Jesus speaks, these are red letter from Luke words, and it's being translated into their heart language.
SPEAKER_04: Talk just for a minute, help us understand what that means to someone who is seeing that film.
SPEAKER_00: Someone who's seeing that film in in their heart language, because sometimes if you're if you get the message, for example, if you if you relay information and you translate it, something something will be lost between translation.
SPEAKER_00: But if they're hearing it in their first language, on their heart language, it really sinks in.
SPEAKER_00: And the gospel is understood so so well.
SPEAKER_00: So so well.
SPEAKER_00: And that's why I think we're seeing a lot of response the response rate.
SPEAKER_00: In one place, I think we showed the film and uh and uh the uh the crucifixion, we we held it there, and then we made an altar call for when we said any anybody who has never given their life to the Lord, uh just raise up their hand, and everyone raised their hands.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, the the person who was making the altar call thought I think they didn't understand.
SPEAKER_00: They said, put your hands down, please.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Let me explain this.
SPEAKER_00: If this is the very first time that you're making a commitment to the Lord, please raise your hand.
SPEAKER_00: Everyone raise their hands.
SPEAKER_00: It's because of the power of the heart language, it communicates the gospel in a very personal way.
SPEAKER_04: Okay, you want to be on that trip to watch that happen, don't you?
SPEAKER_04: That is incredible.
SPEAKER_04: Um all right, so you're over African, the the in the different African nations and all in that in that part of the world.
SPEAKER_04: And so we are um partnering with you to cover the expenses of the translation into the ANUFO language.
SPEAKER_04: I said that correctly.
SPEAKER_04: ANUFO language.
SPEAKER_04: So tell us a little bit, if you will, about that people group and and all of that.
SPEAKER_00: As I do that, first of all, let me just register my appreciation, Pasta, to you and the leadership for really embracing and for helping sponsor take that language.
SPEAKER_00: You're going to bring transformation not only in one country, but in three countries.
SPEAKER_00: Because this language, the Anufo people group, close to about 250,000 people.
SPEAKER_00: They live in Benin, in Togo, and in Ghana.
SPEAKER_00: But of course, the bigger majority is in is in Ghana.
SPEAKER_00: And before I talk about that, let me just show you the expanse of Africa.
SPEAKER_00: If you could just maybe uh run some slides there.
SPEAKER_00: Africa is a huge continent.
SPEAKER_00: And uh these uh slides here will probably just show you what uh what how big the expanse of the continent is.
SPEAKER_00: It actually can take several continents in that one one continent.
SPEAKER_00: So it's a huge, huge, huge, huge continent.
SPEAKER_00: The 1.2 billion.
SPEAKER_00: That is the expanse of Africa.
SPEAKER_00: It has many challenges.
SPEAKER_00: And of course, now dealing now to Ghana, the Anufu Anufo people group, this tool is going to bring transformation among that community.
SPEAKER_00: The Anufo people group, they are actually uh about the they are they are they are what we call an enriched people group.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, the Joshua Project says that they are an enriched people group because uh they they the 90-80% of them actually embrace Islam and then also uh the ancestral worship and the practice of the same.
SPEAKER_00: So they have that that mix.
SPEAKER_00: And so having this tool, this tool, I want to believe probably it might be the I think it's the only, definitely the only tool in that language, it's possible that some people may not have seen the film or any other motion picture film before this one.
SPEAKER_00: So this is very significant.
SPEAKER_04: So um uh a little over a quarter of a million people.
SPEAKER_04: Correct.
SPEAKER_04: Um, we would refer to that, use the term an unreached people group.
SPEAKER_04: That's right.
SPEAKER_04: What that would mean in Baptist life is less than two percent of that population um has had the opportunity to hear Jesus and accept Christ as their savior.
SPEAKER_04: So we're talking about literally an unreached people group.
SPEAKER_00: That's correct.
SPEAKER_04: Um now um what happens?
SPEAKER_04: We go and we show the film, people get saved, then what happens?
SPEAKER_00: Anybody say that uh we don't want to raise dust and go.
SPEAKER_00: We want to go and find churches planted, people walking with the Lord, following the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Because as I say, the response rate is high, but there's need to ensure we have a responsibility that those who give their lives to the Lord that are nurtured, that are helped to grow.
SPEAKER_00: And that is why we've we came up with a tool uh that would really help, in a sense, bring solidify uh those that have come to know the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Because I normally say uh I guess in many cultures, but in Africa, it's like discipleship is like peeling an onion.
SPEAKER_00: Uh you need to peel a layer after a layer until we get to the core.
SPEAKER_00: Because assuming if if I've had several props like maybe ancestral worship and so on, I need to begin to understand what it means to walk with the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And that's why we've come up with a tool that is going to help now the people beyond uh the Jesus film that we we've translated.
SPEAKER_00: This tool is going to help now, in a sense, church planting bring discipleship and help people to walk with the Lord.
SPEAKER_04: So after the after the film has been shown in a number of places, the the tool you're talking about, they now have, in addition to church planting partners that go in and help plant churches, there is a series of of short films that unpack the journey now of following Christ and begin the discipleship process, right?
SPEAKER_00: Correct.
SPEAKER_00: Because uh it's like saying, now what?
SPEAKER_00: Now what?
SPEAKER_00: Now that you have given your life to the Lord, what happens now?
SPEAKER_00: Uh what happens about your your old lifestyle?
SPEAKER_00: Uh what happens about you going to see the witch doctor?
SPEAKER_00: Uh can I just go see, can I come to church in the morning and just go to the doctor in the in the afternoon?
SPEAKER_00: Go to the witch doctor in the afternoon.
SPEAKER_00: That is in the afternoon.
SPEAKER_00: What does that mean?
SPEAKER_00: And so so it's about transformation, not just conversion.
SPEAKER_00: We are looking at transformation, and that is why we came up uh in about 2006, we came up with a series.
SPEAKER_00: Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_00: It's a five 30-minute episode, a series of uh we call them Walking with Jesus, Africa.
SPEAKER_00: They were filmed in and actually in Kenya.
SPEAKER_00: Um the scriptwriter was from actually from Africa, West Africa.
SPEAKER_00: Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_00: We had our team there on location filming, uh-huh.
SPEAKER_00: And uh it really helps address some of those issues.
SPEAKER_00: And of course, we we have uh the theme is assurance of salvation, uh-huh, the Holy Spirit, uh-huh, uh, the word, study of the word of God, fellowship, and and growing in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: So those are, and then we begin to engage because they so they will watch the series and they'll have somebody who'll ask questions, uh, and they can begin to say, okay.
SPEAKER_00: And then of course they use a scripture because the scripture has to be there.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, let's let's go, let's not go off scripture.
SPEAKER_00: We need to be uh be center in scripture, so they'll have scripture and talk about it and ask questions and ask things which are more uh relevant to their culture and say, How do I address this?
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, and that's really important.
SPEAKER_04: A lot of times we don't really grasp that unless you have traveled around the world or been involved in missions in a detailed way.
SPEAKER_04: So, like here, if someone comes forward in the invitation and they get saved and they go home and life looks fairly simple, Jesus has changed it.
SPEAKER_04: You've been redeemed, you've been saved, but you go to Walmart, you go to work the next day, you know, you talk to your family, and it all fits in that culture in America.
SPEAKER_04: But in most of the world around the country, when you are saved, you have radically altered every opportunity that you have in life.
SPEAKER_04: You have put yourself at odds with your heritage, your culture as a nation, even your family.
SPEAKER_04: And so some Muslim countries, for example, you've become an outlaw.
SPEAKER_04: Your family disowns you.
SPEAKER_04: In African countries, you are really moving against the culture, and it has it is a sacrifice to give your life to Christ.
SPEAKER_04: And so this series tells the story of discipleship, begins the story of discipleship by introducing it in the story of someone who's been saved and how to unpack that in the culture in which they live.
SPEAKER_04: Peter has been kind enough to share a clip with us.
SPEAKER_04: This is a short clip, but we want you to see this is from the first episode, and it sets up the story so you can see the kind of culture issues that Peter's been sharing with us that a person now has to learn to walk by faith through.
SPEAKER_04: Bobby?
SPEAKER_02: Well.
SPEAKER_01: I am the chief priest of the god of the land.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, defy the gods.
SPEAKER_01: Why do you allow this man to destroy our traditions?
SPEAKER_01: You are coming against the gods.
SPEAKER_01: You, the sounding mouth of the village, team with this stranger to pitch the villagers against the gods.
SPEAKER_01: This man is my guest.
SPEAKER_01: You have been telling the villagers to abandon their gods for your modern god.
SPEAKER_01: I have never troubled you for your religion.
SPEAKER_01: Why are you doing this to us?
SPEAKER_01: I have done nothing wrong, Mother.
SPEAKER_01: You have crossed the boundaries, and I will resist.
SPEAKER_01: I haven't done anything against you.
SPEAKER_01: Tai is my son, and it is his duty to pour the blood of divination on the shrine.
SPEAKER_01: He needs to be present at the ritual of slaughtering the coat.
SPEAKER_01: Ask him to follow me now, or I will have him dragged to the shrine.
SPEAKER_01: But why did he do it?
SPEAKER_01: He keeps talking about this new blood.
SPEAKER_01: He says it is a sin for him to perform the ritual or bow before our God.
SPEAKER_01: He needs to do the ritual.
SPEAKER_01: I don't think it's right for you to force him.
SPEAKER_01: Why don't you let him choose yourself?
SPEAKER_01: What's wrong with you?
SPEAKER_01: You have no business telling me what to do with my child.
SPEAKER_01: I hear that your son is now a follower of this stranger.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, we shall alone watch how this new blood of yours is going to help you.
SPEAKER_01: You fool.
SPEAKER_01: You see how you brought me to distribute here?
SPEAKER_01: Is that the kind of teachings you give your followers?
SPEAKER_01: To disobey their fathers?
SPEAKER_01: I taught them to obey God.
SPEAKER_02: Don't worry, it'll be okay.
SPEAKER_02: Taye, we're going to pray for you right now.
SPEAKER_02: I don't want you to be disturbed by what you see.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus will protect Taye.
SPEAKER_02: Be with him.
SPEAKER_02: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_04: That's an incredibly powerful picture of what it means in another culture when someone trusts Christ as their Savior.
SPEAKER_04: And I guess that's what we're teaching is once they've made that decision, how we unpack and unfold that life in the culture in which they live.
SPEAKER_04: The cross may not be light.
SPEAKER_04: It may be heavy.
SPEAKER_04: Peter, we would like to pray for you as a church and then pray over this people group and this project that we're engaging with.
SPEAKER_04: So, church family, if you'll join me in prayer, Lord, we thank you for our brother and we thank you for his heart for the nations and for Africa and for uh creating the opportunity for us to partner with Campus Crusade, with his team, in presenting the message of Jesus to this people group.
SPEAKER_04: Lord, we call them out by name, the Anufo people.
SPEAKER_04: We know that you love them and Jesus has a plan for them and died to save them.
SPEAKER_04: And so, Father, we pray as plans are made to take this film throughout their people group, that as they hear the words of Jesus, the living and powerful word of God verbalized in their heart language, we pray, Father, that people will be saved, will be redeemed, that the gospel will spread through their culture.
SPEAKER_04: New brothers and sisters in Christ who give their life to Christ and face these kinds of cultural issues and questions that you will protect.
SPEAKER_04: Them and strengthen them and give them grace to learn to walk with Jesus and to lead their families to know you as their Savior.
SPEAKER_04: Lord, I thank you for a church that has a heart for missions and for the nations.
SPEAKER_04: And I pray, Father, that you will take our gifts next month as we give and as we prepare a team to go and participate in the distribution of the film.
SPEAKER_04: We pray that you will empower us and provide for us to go, for us to send, for us to use this film, and then be whatever role you would have us be moving forward with those new brothers and sisters in Christ to help them to be able to walk with you.
SPEAKER_04: Lord, we thank you again for Peter and his family.
SPEAKER_04: We are glad his family has shared him with us today.
SPEAKER_04: We pray that you'll keep him safe while he's here, give him traveling mercies when he returns, and we pray for tonight an opportunity for us to get to know him better and this project better as we move forward into sharing the gospel.
SPEAKER_04: We thank you most of all for the incredible gift of eternal life through Jesus.
SPEAKER_04: In his name we pray, and all God's people said.
SPEAKER_04: Peter, thank you very much for being with us, and we look forward to getting a chance to be with you more tonight.
SPEAKER_04: We are grateful to have Peter with us because we had so many folks who who were not aware of the Jesus film and what that is.
SPEAKER_04: It's really a blessing to be able to get to learn more about that, see some about the project.
SPEAKER_04: And tonight he'll be there.
SPEAKER_04: One of the great things about it having a portion of the Nights, a fellowship night is you'll get a chance to talk to Peter and the other gentleman who will be here from the Arkansas structure of Campus Crusade to walk through that.
SPEAKER_04: Then we'll have a time where we'll have Peter and they'll be able to talk with us and answer some more questions.
SPEAKER_04: You'll get a chance to see the film.
SPEAKER_04: One of the tables will have it playing, and you can see it and what it looks like and all of that if you've never seen it.
SPEAKER_04: But picture, if you will, in today's culture, the chosen.
SPEAKER_04: I know a lot of people watch that, and it's the power of seeing dramatize the person of Jesus.
SPEAKER_04: Imagine now seeing that if you've never seen a movie before, and you get a chance to see the sacrifice, Jesus dying on the cross, the incredible power of him walking out of the tomb and leaving it empty, having created eternal life.
SPEAKER_04: And so I pray you'll be here, you'll get a chance to meet some of those other things.
SPEAKER_04: We are finishing this week, our study through telling your Jesus story.
SPEAKER_04: And since today is missions day and missions night, I want to talk to you about this topic today in the few moments that we have left, and that is the call to reach a lost world.
SPEAKER_04: The call of lostness.
SPEAKER_04: I want to give you three things and a response here in just a few moments.
SPEAKER_04: Three things that Jesus told us about a world that needs him.
SPEAKER_04: Now, when we use the term lost or lostness, that comes from, you know, it's been derived from scripture and it's spiritual speak, it's a church type of word that we use.
SPEAKER_04: And so let me take just a moment to tell you what we mean by that.
SPEAKER_04: It's not a negative term, it's not a cut down, it's not anything like that, but it's used to describe someone who has not ever met Christ as their Savior.
SPEAKER_04: If you think about illustrations in Scripture, for example, uh, when there's a shepherd and there's one lost sheep out of the hundred, and Jesus as the shepherd goes to reach out and find the one lost sheep.
SPEAKER_04: It talks about in Scripture, gives the illustration of someone who doesn't know Christ as their Savior and the effect of sin on our lives.
SPEAKER_04: Uses the example of us as sheep, and scripture says, all we like sheep have gone astray.
SPEAKER_04: We've turned away from God and gone off in that direction, and we're lost.
SPEAKER_04: And when you meet Jesus, these illustrations will use the term found.
SPEAKER_04: We've been found.
SPEAKER_04: So there's a lot of ways to say someone who is not a follower of Jesus, and that's what we're talking about when we talk about lostness.
SPEAKER_04: Let me give you this first thing that Jesus says about a lost world.
SPEAKER_04: Truth number one is this Jesus made us, all of us as his followers, we are responsible for the entire world, not just our little corner that we live in.
SPEAKER_04: Certainly, we're placed here to reach the river valley, and we have a passion to reach the river valley.
SPEAKER_04: But the Great Commission, what we refer to as that commissioning from the Lord for all of us to go out and share the gospel to people who don't know Jesus.
SPEAKER_04: It does not give us the opportunity to say that we'll just reach here and then someday we'll maybe go out there and help or whatever.
SPEAKER_04: Jesus has made us responsible for the entire world.
SPEAKER_04: Look at these scriptures.
SPEAKER_04: They're familiar to you, but but pay attention to how it makes this connection.
SPEAKER_04: Matthew 28, verses 18 and 20.
SPEAKER_04: This is one description of Jesus before he ascended in heaven, after he had risen from the dead.
SPEAKER_04: And here's what it says Jesus came near and said to them, his followers, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.
SPEAKER_04: Go, not stay, not wait for them to come to you.
SPEAKER_04: Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_04: Teaching them, this is what Peter and the Jesus film folks have created in that follow-up process afterwards, teaching them to observe everything I've commanded you.
SPEAKER_04: It's not over when someone accepts Christ.
SPEAKER_04: Now we go into the journey of helping them walk with Jesus.
SPEAKER_04: And remember, I am with you always to the end of the age.
SPEAKER_04: Here's what he said in Acts 1.8 in that description of a moment, right before he ascends into heaven.
SPEAKER_04: Here's what he tells them.
SPEAKER_04: You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you.
SPEAKER_04: And you will be witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.
SPEAKER_04: Why are we working so hard through our financial gifts and cooperative missions through the cooperative program and the Southern Baptist International Mission Board?
SPEAKER_04: Why do we spend so much time?
SPEAKER_04: Why do we take Lottie Moon?
SPEAKER_04: Why do we do that?
SPEAKER_04: Why do we send missionaries?
SPEAKER_04: Because we do not have a choice.
SPEAKER_04: Jesus has not given us the freedom to just focus on the River Valley.
SPEAKER_04: It is focusing on the entire world around us, and it is our responsibility to find ways and opportunities to go into all of the nations.
SPEAKER_04: That word nations, every time you hear that in Scripture, that's not talking about the government structure of a country.
SPEAKER_04: As we know, government structures change throughout the course of time.
SPEAKER_04: What that word means is people groups.
SPEAKER_04: As we've talked about the Anufo people, we're talking about a people that have a common heritage and language.
SPEAKER_04: They spill over from Ghana into Togo and in that area, but they have a common language, a common heritage, a common history as they became a people group.
SPEAKER_04: And so every people group.
SPEAKER_04: Now let me give you just an understanding.
SPEAKER_04: According to the studies in the Joshua Project, for example, or our International Mission Board, they tell us that there are over 12,000 people groups in the world.
SPEAKER_04: There are over 12,000 different heart language, cultural people groups in the world.
SPEAKER_04: That's 8 billion people on the planet.
SPEAKER_04: And our International Mission Board, as they strategize these things, they talk to us about certain terms, and Peter and I had that discussion.
SPEAKER_04: An unreached people group.
SPEAKER_04: Of that 12,000, there are over 7,200 unreached people group.
SPEAKER_04: More than half of the peoples on our planet are unreached with the gospel.
SPEAKER_04: Why does God make all of us as followers of Christ responsible for all of the peoples on the planet?
SPEAKER_04: Because it takes everybody to reach 8 billion people.
SPEAKER_04: It takes all of us, every church, every follower of Christ, every evangelical faith heritage like us, like Campus Crusade.
SPEAKER_04: It takes all of us to reach them, and we are less than halfway done with the job.
SPEAKER_04: Does that make sense?
SPEAKER_04: That means of these over 7,200 people groups, less than 2% of them know Jesus as their Savior.
SPEAKER_04: And so it takes all of us.
SPEAKER_04: We also use this term, unengaged people groups.
SPEAKER_04: And so when you talk about an unreached people group, you're talking about less than 2% evangelical.
SPEAKER_04: Unengaged, unreached people group, that means we don't have a current evangelism strategy.
SPEAKER_04: We have now developed an evangelism strategy, the collective we, the church, for the ANUFO people.
SPEAKER_04: There is the Jesus film, and there are people in that area, and there is a structure in the IMB that can relate to them.
SPEAKER_04: And now there is the Jesus film, and there are churches like us.
SPEAKER_04: We're going into these, and there is a strategy now.
SPEAKER_04: But there are over 3,000 people groups that don't even have a strategy to take the message of Jesus to them.
SPEAKER_04: That is 25% of the people groups on our planet that don't even have a strategy of evangelism.
SPEAKER_04: I mean, it's incredible when you begin to think about that.
SPEAKER_04: But here's what I, as I was praying this morning for you and praying for what we're doing today, here's what I thought.
SPEAKER_04: I can give us stats.
SPEAKER_04: We can talk about what's happening out there in the world and what it means to accept Christ in a different culture and the effect of that and all that.
SPEAKER_04: But here's the deal: it's just so easy to get in our cars, go eat Mexican food for lunch, or whatever it is your guilty pleasure is, go home, be excited about the NFL starting soon, go to work tomorrow, kids go to school, and easily slide back into the structure of our lives.
SPEAKER_04: The only way to get a heart for the nations and the magnitude of lostness is for the Holy Spirit to birth that in our lives.
SPEAKER_04: I don't possess the eloquence to try to tell stories and describe what it means that a world is dying and going to hell.
SPEAKER_04: It is a Holy Spirit-driven thing for us to understand that it is my responsibility to be a part of the advance of the gospel beyond simply the River Valley or Arkansas.
SPEAKER_04: And Jesus has given us that responsibility.
SPEAKER_04: Here's the second truth I want you to see that Jesus tells us about the lostness around us.
SPEAKER_04: Jesus' example, who he was and how he did ministry and showed us what he wanted us to do, modeled it for us.
SPEAKER_04: Jesus' example requires us to have a deep compassion for those who do not know Jesus.
SPEAKER_04: Listen to this description from Matthew chapter 9 of Jesus.
SPEAKER_04: Jesus went to all the towns and villages teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and every sickness.
SPEAKER_04: When he saw the crowds, he felt compassion for them, because they were weary and worn out like sheep without a shepherd.
SPEAKER_04: Then, after seeing and his heart breaking, he says to his disciples, The harvest is abundant, but the workers are few.
SPEAKER_04: Therefore, pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into his harvest.
SPEAKER_04: You see, we can't consider a lost and dying world and not have a heart that breaks for people who will spend an eternity separated from God in hell.
SPEAKER_04: There has to be something that the Holy Spirit does inside of us if we are considering Jesus and his heart for the lost, his heart that would cause him to step out of heaven as omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient God, and to humble himself to being squeezed into the life experience of humanity.
SPEAKER_04: Becoming a man, a human, a person, so that he could live through this life.
SPEAKER_04: He could show us that he understands and what his compassion means for us.
SPEAKER_04: And then to go to the cross and take all of our sins and to sacrifice his holiness for us and to die in our place, that horrible death on the cross, and then to conquer death and sin and walk out of that tomb for us.
SPEAKER_04: And it not affect us and how we view every person that we can imagine who does not know Jesus as their Savior.
SPEAKER_04: What does it mean?
SPEAKER_04: For God so loved the world that he gave his only son.
SPEAKER_04: It's that picture.
SPEAKER_04: Jesus standing over a crowd, telling them how much God loved them, that he had provided a sacrifice and forgiveness of their sins.
SPEAKER_04: To see throngs of people standing in line, bringing their children who are lame, their brother who is blind and can't see, pleading for Jesus for their leprous cousin or sister or uncle who is in a leper colony outside of town and they have no hope.
SPEAKER_04: And please heal them.
SPEAKER_04: And Jesus heals this one and he tells that one to get up and walk, and he tells that one they can see, and he puts his hands on the next one, and he covers their ears, and now they can hear.
SPEAKER_04: And when he looks up, all he sees is a line of hundreds and hundreds of people waiting for them to heal him.
SPEAKER_04: And it breaks his heart to see all of this brokenness, the weariness of life without hope.
SPEAKER_04: And that's why he came.
SPEAKER_04: And the Holy Spirit has to birth in us this incredible depth of passion and brokenness for people who have no hope.
SPEAKER_04: Can you imagine a people group, a world, a culture that has no way to hear that Jesus is the hope of the world?
SPEAKER_04: And we have an answer.
SPEAKER_04: We have the message.
SPEAKER_04: Truth number three.
SPEAKER_04: Jesus saw that brokenness, but Jesus also knows there is hope and came to bring hope.
SPEAKER_04: And this is what he tells us about that lostness.
SPEAKER_04: He saw an abundant harvest of people who would and could be saved.
SPEAKER_04: Again, look what he says.
SPEAKER_04: In the midst of that, as he sees that line and his heart begins to break with all of these people that need Jesus, he also understands, I have brought them hope and they're going to be saved.
SPEAKER_04: And as he looks at his disciples and he tells them, I want you to pray for workers.
SPEAKER_04: Pray that God will bring those workers.
SPEAKER_04: He is giving them a heart to build the church.
SPEAKER_04: He is preparing them to go out into the world and plant churches, to preach the gospel, to be missionaries.
SPEAKER_04: He is trying to plant in their minds the understanding that he came to save people and the gospel saves.
SPEAKER_04: He wants Peter to understand that when Peter stands up on the day of Pentecost and preaches to that crowd, he is not shocked by the thousands of people who come to be saved.
SPEAKER_04: It is Peter's expectation that people be saved when he shares the gospel.
SPEAKER_04: And so why do we partner with the Jesus film to create this method of sharing the gospel and the people?
SPEAKER_04: Because we believe it works.
SPEAKER_04: And we believe that those people, when they see about Jesus and they understand he did that for him, we believe people are going to be saved.
SPEAKER_04: Why are we studying how to be a personal witness here in the River Valley?
SPEAKER_04: Because I believe when we share Jesus, people get saved.
SPEAKER_04: I told the staff guys the other day, as we're going through this uh evangelism training deal and you're signing up and we're doing all that, listen, I just believe in the middle of that, with all these people thinking about Jesus and thinking about sharing Jesus, I believe somebody's going to get saved from this process.
SPEAKER_04: I hope that when you see our culture, you don't just see what they tell you in politics or you read in the newspaper on some website or see on television.
SPEAKER_04: I hope you don't just see a world that is tacking Christians and we have forwarded ourselves up in this so that the devil can't get to us.
SPEAKER_04: I hope what you see is a world that needs Jesus, but a world that will get saved when we stand up as the church and we stand out with a belief that lostness is the place where people are saved, so we're going to share Jesus.
SPEAKER_04: Jesus saw a harvest of people who would be saved.
SPEAKER_04: Jesus said, pray for lots of workers.
SPEAKER_04: Pray for more people, teach them how to share Jesus.
SPEAKER_04: Teach them how to go.
SPEAKER_04: Because a world out there needs Jesus and they will be saved when they see him.
SPEAKER_04: And as the church, we've got to get out of bunker mentality and not be afraid about what the world is doing to us, because the Bible says, greater is he that is in us than is in the world.
SPEAKER_04: He says, yet in all things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
SPEAKER_04: And Jesus saves.
SPEAKER_04: And I believe there is a harvest in the River Valley, in Africa, in America, and around the world.
SPEAKER_04: If we will have that compassion and take the gospel, people will be saved.
SPEAKER_04: We go on mission trips and we're sending people to London because Pastor Joel has seen people saved, and he knows people will get saved, and he wants more workers to tell more people about Jesus so that his city can be saved.
SPEAKER_04: I mean, we've got to get excited about the power of the gospel and believe that people will get saved.
SPEAKER_04: Jesus believed they'd be saved.
SPEAKER_04: That's why he came in the first place.
SPEAKER_04: And so we need to see what Jesus sees and see the harvest.
SPEAKER_04: Here's a call, a responsibility that is now on us.
SPEAKER_04: The final truth of this.
SPEAKER_04: It is incredible to be there and watch when someone gives their life to Christ.
SPEAKER_04: It is incredible to be a part of the person who stands up when Pastor Matt or Jake or Brad or whoever's up there and they've got that person in the water and they say, if you're a friend or a family member, if you're a person and you have been praying for them and you love them and they're being saved, and you get to stand because they were on your love list.
SPEAKER_04: When you bring someone to church, you invite them to church and they come because you've prayed over them and they come and they hear about Jesus and they get involved and he changes their life and they get saved.
SPEAKER_04: Listen, you'll never get a paycheck that good.
SPEAKER_04: And when you get to heaven, you get to rehearse that all over again with Jesus.
SPEAKER_04: Well done, good and faithful servant.
SPEAKER_04: So he's called us to be apart.
SPEAKER_04: I want you to bow your heads as we close this morning.
SPEAKER_04: If you're here and you've never trusted Christ as your Savior, I know that this morning is a little bit more about us as the church.
SPEAKER_04: But listen, I believe the word of God is living and powerful and it speaks to your heart.
SPEAKER_04: And all it takes for you to understand how much Jesus loves you is to hear and read that story where Jesus had compassion on you.
SPEAKER_04: He saw your life without him, and he wants to bring you hope.
SPEAKER_04: If you've never trusted Christ as your Savior, just as I said as a moment ago, Jesus stepped out of heaven and he became a man so he could live this life and he could live it sinlessly, and there would be no judgment attached to his life.
SPEAKER_04: And then he voluntarily went to the cross and there took your sin and paid the price that God demands for sin.
SPEAKER_04: He died on the cross to pay the price for your sin.
SPEAKER_04: Now his death can be a substitute for yours because there was no judgment attached to Jesus.
SPEAKER_04: There was no sin in his life, and so his death can be a substitute for yours.
SPEAKER_04: And when you trust him as your Savior, literally, what that means is you come and you say, Lord, I know I'm a sinner, and you confess those sins, and you know I, Jesus, I know it was my sins were part of the sins that put you on the cross.
SPEAKER_04: And I want to surrender my life to you, and I want to make you the Lord of my life, and I trust you as my Savior to pay the price for my sins.
SPEAKER_04: And when you give him your life, there is a spiritual exchange that occurs, and he pays the price for your sin, and you are cleansed, and now God looks down out of heaven, and he sees us through the blood of Jesus, and he sees us as righteousness and adopts us as his children, and you are saved forever.
SPEAKER_04: That's the compassion and the hope that Jesus desires for you.
SPEAKER_04: In a moment, our people are going to stand and sing a hymn, and we've got pastors here, we've got some in the balcony.
SPEAKER_04: If you need Jesus, if you want to be saved, you come.
SPEAKER_04: As we conclude this study of telling your Jesus story in this time of commitment, I want you to make sure if you have not yet committed to be one of those workers, this is the time now.
SPEAKER_04: Don't leave here uncommitted to the mission this morning.
SPEAKER_04: If you need to join our church and become a part of the army battalion that's here at First Baptist, you come.
SPEAKER_04: If you need to make a commitment to train yourself, make a commitment to sign up for that thing or however you do that, make a commitment that you're going to go to Jared's class.
SPEAKER_04: Whatever it is, make a commitment to prepare yourself to share.
SPEAKER_04: Make a commitment to build your love list and begin to pray.
SPEAKER_03: We pray this message has been a blessing to you and helped to strengthen your walk with Jesus.
SPEAKER_03: Please know we want to minister to you and pray for you.
SPEAKER_03: Send an email to contact us at fsfbc.org and let us pray for you and help you in any way we can.
SPEAKER_03: Thank you for listening to Chapter and First, the Bible Teaching Ministry of Fort Smith's First Baptist Church.