Good Ground, Good News | Sent To Pray - Pastor Matt Tidmore

We share stories from India that turn into a lesson on honor, legacy, and why we are never the first ones in the field. We open Matthew 9 and 10 to show how Jesus responds to desperate faith, why prayer keeps our motives clean, and why every Christ follower is sent to pray for the nations. 

• Honor as a two-way exchange that blesses the giver 
• The mango grove lesson about harvesting what others planted 
• Refusing to take credit for fruit you only picked 
• Prayer as a spiritual transaction with the Creator 
• Jairus kneeling in desperation and bold faith 
• The woman with the issue of blood and faith over labels 
• Noticing divine interruptions instead of rushing past them 
• Jesus rejecting spectacle and choosing sacrifice 
• The danger of doing right deeds for wrong reasons 
• Matthew 10 and being sent with prayerful dependence 
• Praying for persecuted pastors and the global church 
• Passion defined as patient endurance 

Transcript

Welcome And Guest Speaker

SPEAKER_00 0:03

Welcome to the Rock Family Sermon of the Week. For more information about our church, please visit the RockFamily.tv. Now join us for a message from our special guest speaker.

India Honor And Discomfort

Mango Grove Harvest Lesson

Giving Honor Back Home

Prayer As Daily Transaction

Faith That Interrupts Jesus

Right Deeds Wrong Reasons

Matthew 10 Sent Out

Called To Pray For Nations

Pastors In India And Persecution

Taj Mahal Time Audit

Scotland Ash Wednesday Worship

Leaning Into Church History

Invitation To Meet Jesus

Praying Over Honduras Team

Closing And Ways To Connect

SPEAKER_01 0:20

We just returned from 10 days in 10 days ago, we came back from a mission trip to India. That's going to be a little bit of what I talk about today, all of the timing and everything for that. I'm really, of all the people that are here that I love and that I'm so excited to see, there was one person that was supposed to be here. Our trusted travel companion and man of God, the prophet, the apostle, the pastor, the evangelist, a spiritual mentor of mine, and a fashion icon. Rhinus Ferret is not here today. I got a text at 8 o'clock last night. I was so excited. It's so, you know how it is. It's way more, it's just way better to make fun of somebody when they're in the room. He's got to watch the stream back. And it's just like Ross is probably taking notes for him, or whatever. But he texts me at 8 o'clock last night and was like, I've been called to preach. I'm not going to be there tomorrow. I've been I've been called to preach. That's all he's. I don't know what state, what country, what galaxy, I don't know where he's at, but he's been called to preach somewhere, so he couldn't be here. But I'm just telling you, I have to take a moment and honor him. The fact that he's been around the world with me, I don't know how many times, and trusts me. This is my eighth time in India. He stopped counting. Uh, if you don't know Rhinus, we'll talk a little bit more about him later. You've not been through airport security, so you've been through airport security with Rhinus Fred. That's all I'm gonna tell you. If you know him, find next week when he's here, find Rhinus Solomon Verett and ask him how he gets shaked down in every airport we go to. Let me tell you a little about India on the front end. India is a culture of honor. There is a culture of honor in India. They put great emphasis on it, and I admit to you, one of the most difficult things for me is that experience. It is so difficult for me. It makes me genuinely uncomfortable. They put us on a stage, they give us our flowers. That that's not that's not like a slang. They literally put like a 10-pound wreath of flowers on you. They're so heavy, and there's and they they give you gifts, and they just say all these incredible things about you. And these are people that they don't have a lot. So no matter what, the the small gift they give you, no matter what they give you, it's a financial sacrifice for them. And they do all this stuff, and I have to make such an effort to make sure that my face just doesn't reflect the awkwardness that I'm feeling on the inside. But that's what's amazing about Rhinus and so many of my other spiritual mentors. They have taught me that honor is a two-way exchange. It's a two-way exchange. When pastors and churches in India are honoring us, it's it's not about me. It's probably a good reminder to know nothing is all about me. But in this case, honoring is not all about me. The looks on their faces when they honor us, what it means to them, it's doing something for them too. For the one who gives honor, this exchange matters as much as the one who is being honored. So I just have to like bury my discomfort. Often remind myself, it's a good reminder, comfort is not a kingdom principle. Okay? Comfort's not a kingdom principle. I, if you if you came to this church, I mean, the seats are pretty comfortable, and I mean this is home. I love being around family. There's there is a comfort and just like a warm hug being here. But but the aim and the goal of the kingdom is not comfortable. If your entire life is comfortable, uh you're probably you're really not doing it right spiritually. You need to check in on that. We're not supposed to be comfortable. So here's the thing: this whole culture of honor, now I'm gonna take the opportunity and kind of return this, the honor that was given to us in India. I drink a lot of water. Young people, my young people are up here, right? Young people are up here. Rico's up there, so that's good. So here's the thing, young people. This is for this is for everybody, but you especially, because I probably learned this too late in life. So I'm gonna help you out. If you are next-gen young people, this church you know puts an emphasis on you. We want to make sure that you hear what we're talking about. I want to teach you something by showing you something. Now, listen, I most of you don't know me, or if you do know me when I was your pastor, you were like in diapers or whatever, so you don't, you don't, you don't remember me. That's that's fine. We're not we're not going back there. But don't don't tune me out, okay? Before you start texting your little eighth-grade buddy over there, who is this unk that's aura farming up here thinking because he's streaming to all the campuses, right? He probably thinks he's moging Pastor Scott with his gesture maxing. That's how they talk, by the way. After service, explain to your parents what I said. We don't have time to wait for the interpretation, alright? We gotta keep moving. So in Hyderabad, India, there is a ministry that uh we have supported the church for a long time. And behind uh there's a school there, an amazing school. Last year I got to take Sudaker and Quran there. It was their first time seeing it. Behind this school, there is a mango grove. It's huge, like five to six hundred trees. And so, on this past trip, uh Rhinus and I were walking through this mango grove, seeing they were so proud of it. It it supports the school. And I was walking through this mango grove, God so clearly spoke to me. He told me something. Uh I hate to say God promised something because like God's promises, like it's locked in, locked in, but this is being recorded. I'm just gonna say it that while I was there, God promised me something. And he said, in my lifetime, I will see a harvest, a great harvest of souls in the nation of India. And then I saw something. Like, for those farmers, you don't have to correct me here. There were like the in the process of the mango, there weren't fresh like mangoes to pick. They were still, it's like May or June before they picked the mangoes. So there were no actual mangoes there. So this thing, it wasn't even something that I did. It was something that that I saw as I picked this mango off the tree. It was something that God said to me. What are we on? Good news? Good ground? Oh, remote. We practiced. Boom! As I was there, God told me, God said, if you want to be a part of this harvest, never forget this. You are picking fruit from a seed you didn't plant, a soil you didn't till, and a water in a tree you didn't water. We are all part of a harvest. I didn't plant the seed. I didn't I didn't till the soil. Look at these hands. You think I've ever toiled, silt? Come on, man. I got I got no, no, those things haven't done that kind of manual labor. A tree we didn't water. See, it's about giving honor where it's due for those that have planted, those who have tilled, those who have watered. God says, anyone who tries to take some sort of selfish victory lap or soak up credit for a harvest that they did nothing more than pick the fruit of the season, those workers will just be removed from the field. You realize fruit picking is the easiest part. Read those things. Like I'm getting to do the easy stuff. The fruit picking is the easy part. Planting and tilling and watering. God would rather say that there are few workers, but those workers are giving honor for what's happening in the field than have a field full of workers that are just live streaming every fruit they pick and want all the credit for what little bit of work that they do. I do understand the irony of the fact that this is being live streamed, but I think you know what I'm talking about here, okay? So this award I've got down here. I got something down here that I brought from India. In the bag, still new. So while I was in Hyderabad, this was handed, this was handed to me. Uh only five of these were made to to hand out. Uh to specifically for the 40 years of ministry that Faith Welfare Society has done in India, they wanted to honor five specific churches, people groups, or whatever that have been a part of it. You see, this is not fruit for my table. It got handed to me, but this is not fruit for my table. It can go home with Curtis and Paula Silcox, it can go home with Mom and Dad Nelson, it can go home with David and Deborah Byrd. It can stay here at this church. But I'm just saying in front of everybody, something for us to learn, and again, for young people for you to see, never forget those who honor, honor those who came before you. You're never gonna go wrong with that. And when you get to pick the fruit, if it's not your fruit, don't hold on to it. So I'm just leaving this right here. And whoever wants that can have that. All right. You can let them all touch it. Just hand it straight to mom and dad Nelson. There you go. Just hand it right to them. There you go. We honor you. Thank you for planting the seed, tilling the ground, watering the tree, so that we have some amazing fruit to pick. Amen. That's just the opener. I haven't even gotten into my sermon yet. Alright. Uh let's get into some of the good stuff today. We are talking about, uh I think Pastor Scott mentioned it. We have finished good ground. That kind of that was kind of my good ground sermon there, and now we're talking about good news and the fact that we are, that we are sent to pray. We're talking about how we are sent to pray. I love that that's kind of general and wide open, so I was just able to just go wherever wherever I want with it. Um, we're gonna get into the word in just a little bit. We'll be spending time in Matthew 9 and 10. If you like, like if you're flipping a book or you're clicking on your phone or whatever. Uh, scriptural-wise, we'll be hanging out in Matthew um 9 and 10 today. All right. Everybody in favor knows I love some Charles Spurgeon. Let's start with him. True prayer is neither a mere mental exercise or a vocal performance. It's far deeper than that. It's the spiritual transaction with the creator of heaven and earth. A spiritual transaction between when I read that, all I can think is, why would you not opt in for that every day as often as possible? Like, you get the opportunity to have a spiritual transaction with the creator of heaven and earth. That should just like, that just excites me. I'm already an excitable person, but I read that and I think about my own life. What am I doing? I have that kind of opportunity every day to have that kind of exchange with my creator, and what do I do? I get so busy with nothing. I'm just, I'm just doom scrolling. I'm just like in some sort of like zombie mode. I end up on some Reddit thread that's trying to convince me this year my team is gonna win. Ed Reyes, the Mets are gonna win this year. They're going to win. I read it online. Like, like, how am I spending my time? God is there. Like He He is waiting. You realize wherever your prayer space is, if it's the if it's the back porch, if it's in your room, in your car, wherever you go, He's just waiting on you. Like the God of heaven and earth is waiting on you. He is ready to hear your prayers at any time. That's a big part of what we're talking today. Matthew 9, 18 through 26. I'm gonna read just through 22 to start with. Alright. I just don't trust me in this remote. We're we're gonna fight. All right. 918. While he was saying these things to them, behold, a ruler came in and he knelt before him, saying, My daughter has died, has just died. Come and lay your hand on her, and she will live. And Jesus rose up, followed him with his disciples, and behold, a woman who had suffered with a discharge of blood for twelve years came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment. For she said to herself, If I could only touch his garment, I will be made well. Jesus turned and seeing her, he said, Take heart, daughter, your faith has made you well. And instantly the woman was made well. So we know from other gospels that this ruler is Jairus, who is a synagogue official. Matthew doesn't get into the details, but we know that. He has lost his daughter in desperation, he finds Jesus. Read this, we're talking about a synagogue official. What does it say? He knelt before Jesus. You know what would happen to this guy if other synagogue officials had seen him kneeling before this carpenter's son? Like he could have, like, like there, there's there's a boldness there. There is something about this. But you see, Jairus is desperate. In desperation, his faith just automatically puts him into a humbling posture. He just, he's not even thinking about, oh, what will my friends think if they what will the synagogue officials think? My daughter has died. I'm desperate. Here's Jesus, and he just takes the knee. Jesus follows him. It says, as do his disciples, always watching and learning. Matthew's really good about pointing that out when the disciples are there, hearing Jesus, following, taking notes. Suddenly this story has a guest appearance. This side quest just inserts itself. A woman suffering for 12 years. Twelve years. You got a prayer you gave up on after 12 months? This woman has been going for 12 years. Jesus walked by a lot of people who didn't get healed. In fact, is that because he doesn't have the power to heal? No. Maybe it's because those people just lost the faith to pray. Maybe they just didn't have the faith. This woman, though, she prayed. She has faith. She doesn't even have to turn in a prayer card letting Jesus know what her need is. Like, here's my deed. Could you pass that around to the intercessors, make sure everybody knows about my issue of blood? Her faith says, I don't even have to say anything to him. If I can just get close enough to feel the wool of his cloak, that's enough to get my healing. Jesus felt her faith more than he felt her hand on that garment. And she was healed. Two more important things about this woman before we move on. This woman's issue very well may have had her labeled unclean. Okay? So in her society, if she's not just dealing with the sickness, she's labeled as unclean. We're not talking about 12 years of sickness, we're talking about 12 years of a physical issue, but also of being a social and religious outcast. Which means this Jesus encounter, just by her even touching his cloak and him acknowledging her, Jesus could be labeled unclean by this association. But see, Jesus gives no attention to her condition. He puts the focus on her faith. That's what a good God does. The world just wants to talk about your condition. All of us. The world's got a conditional label for you. The world wants you to get stuck in a label and hope that that will just destroy your faith. You realize that, right? We're all too young, too old, too short, too fat, too tall, too skinny, too poor, too rich, too white, too black, too left, too white. We're all too something for this world, and it'll get you stuck in one or more of those twos. Not Jesus. This woman wasn't too anything for Jesus. Or maybe she was just too faithful for Jesus to ignore. Other thing. Jesus was on an assignment. A synagogue official came to him. He knelt. Jesus heard. He leaves. He brings his disciples with him. The whole crew is there. That qualifies as an urgent matter. This is a big deal. Jesus has got business to get to. Jesus pauses, meets this woman, heals her. Madison campus, hear me. Pastor Ben, wake him up. You're all very important people. You got a lot of things to do. You got checklists, you got goals, you got deadlines. But sometimes faith just has to be more important than that. Jesus didn't tell this woman, I'm busy. I got a deadline. I'm focused on this thing. No, he stopped. He gave her his attention. Do not miss out on divine interruptions because you are so focused on one thing. I'm sure whatever's the thing you're focused on, maybe God gave you that thing, but when he gives you the interruption. Listen, I'm jealous of you hyper-focused type people. That ain't me. Poll anyone at Faithful Campus. Focused is not a word I've ever been called. Alright? I can't do it. My brain is jumping around. I'm in ten places at the same time. They have to put up with it up there. I'm a mental mess. You get me for one Sunday. They're stuck with me forever. I do want to say this. Have the faith to interrupt Jesus and have the humility to be interruptible. Okay? Have the faith to interrupt Jesus. I'm sure his calendar is full too. I'm sure he's got a lot going on. But what he's really just waiting on is who are the ones that have the faith to interrupt me? Who has the faith to jump in? And then if you can get that, then the second one becomes so much easier. When you realize that the God of heaven and earth doesn't mind being interrupted by you, then you must think a whole lot of yourself if you think somehow you're not interruptible. Have the humility. Somebody likes that one. All right. Have the humility to be interruptible. Again, for those of you that don't know me, I'm just not here throwing daggers that don't apply to me. When I go to the Walmart in favor, I'm just telling you right now, um, I'm I'm not that famous or that popular, but Lincoln County is small enough, and the Walmart is booming enough that I'm gonna run into somebody I know in there every time. And sometimes I just gotta get it done. I put the AirPods in, podcast music, whatever, and then I'm just plowing through with a buggy. And like, I mean, there's there's a chance the Walmart could be on fire, and I'm the last one in there, who knows? And I already told you, I'm not hyper-focused. It's not because I'm focused on one thing, I'm already focused on nine things, and my brain's like, we just can't take a tenth. I'm terrible about this. I I am preaching to myself. I have to be more humble so that I can be more interruptible. That one's on me too. All right? We're all in this together. All right, back into Matthew. Uh we interrupted that program. Let's go back here and finish this story. 23. And when Jesus came to the ruler's house and saw that flute players were playing and the crowd was making a commotion, he said, Go away, for the girl is not dead but sleeping. They laughed at him. Don't be afraid to get laughed at by the world. And but when the crowd had been put outside, he went, he took her hand, the girl rose, and the report of this went through all that district. Jesus makes it to the ruler's house. There's a praise band already playing a funeral dirge. They've already got the flutes out. Go rest high on that mountain. Uh I can only imagine whatever, whatever, whatever, whatever people know, whatever sounds good on the flute. Um and and and there's a crowd of mourners there. Very cultural thing at this time. Jesus tells the praise band and the people of the city, get out. You see, when Jesus heals, it's never about it making a public spectacle. Jesus never makes a healing any more public than it has to be. You see, the woman touched his cloak in the street, and because of her faith, she got healed. It was spontaneous. That wasn't like that's how Jesus wanted it. He just couldn't ignore her faith. This girl is dead in her bed in her house. And just by touching her, she is healed. This is now the second time she's dead. So the synagogue official knows good and well. This is a second time Jesus has done something that qualifies as unclean in the eyes of the leaders. Second time in this story, Jesus could be called unclean. But Jesus is breaking the rules. Jesus broke the rules of the synagogue. And Jairus, the synagogue official, he knows the rules, but guess what? Guess who doesn't care about the rules now that his daughter is dead? You see, his soul is in desperation. Desperation also has a way of making you care less about the rules. You just don't sell your member. Rule followers, it does. So we're in the house. Jesus wants everybody out but the family. Can I say to please be aware of your favorite modern holy man that can't say a prayer or do a good deed without a camera on them and a social media post to promote it? Okay? Okay. Again, I realize this is going out on the internet. Uh I can be guilty of the very same thing right now. But notice how Jesus doesn't tell the crowd, gather close. Everybody, get close. Get your phones out, alright? Get close. Okay, worship leader. Okay, watch. I'm gonna I'm gonna touch this girl's hand with like some flair. And then right then, I just want to hear real low, House of Miracles. Just get it started. Just get it started. Let it build, let it build, let it build, and then she's gonna sit up and boom, we're gonna sing it all together. I'm gonna get so many followers after this. Jesus didn't get followers through spectacle, he got followers through sacrifice. Okay? Okay, okay. If if you're if you get followers through through spectacle, as soon as the spectacle ends, they gone. Okay. Jesus and the church have stood the test of time for 2,000 years because when people see that kind of sacrifice, who doesn't want to follow that? Later in this chapter, Jesus heals two. Blind men, and he asked them not to tell anyone. They, of course, tell everyone. Jesus has the compassion to heal. He's not looking for the fame. I don't have it on the screen, but John 21, 25 tells us that Jesus did far more miracles and great things than we can even know. We can feel all the books of the whole world. They couldn't contain it. So it's just safe to assume a lot of people got healed and either said nothing about it, unlike the two blind men, or Jesus asked people to not write about it, and those that were chronicling his ministry obeyed him. We just trust we've got these ones. These are the ones he needs us to know about. These are the ones that already teach us. There's this process Jesus is going through, following the will of the Father. Jesus is a man. Sometimes I have to stop and think. When we're celebrating, doing communion, things like that. I think sometimes my brain doesn't really do Jesus the justice to stop and think about the fact that he was a man. Some people, it makes their faith uncomfortable to read it. They just want to think like Son of God, Son of God, Son of God. He was a man. And part of that was he came to daily wrestle with all the same things we do. So believe it or not, that means daily through his ministry, Jesus had to wrestle with pride the same way each of us do. He had to stop pride from sinking in. When he was healing all these people and he was seeing these miracles, my man walked on water, had to go to the Father to make sure he didn't have any pride, that he knew where that came from, always aligning himself, praying daily to the Father, keep my heart right, keep my mind right, honoring the Father and making sure his motives are pure. We have to make sure as we minister, as we love, as we follow out whatever the command of the Father is that we keep our motives pure. I want to talk about a quote here. Actually, I'm gonna read the quote first and then I'll talk about why inserted it. T.S. Eliot said, The last temptation is the greatest treason to do the right deed for the wrong reason. It rhymes so well. So T.S. Eliot wrote this in Murder in the Cathedral. I bring this up because this is one of the main reasons we have to pray. I feel like most of you in this room knew exactly what the right thing to do is. I don't have to spend any time up here. You know you should feed the poor. You know you should come to church. Why would I say you're here? You clearly got the message. You know, you should share the good news. I think for the most part, you know what the right thing to do is. You know what proper Christian behavior looks like. The danger is that if you continue to do these things and you do not pair it with prayer, suddenly you may find yourself doing the very thing that Eliot wrote about. You see, here's what happens in the book. It's a dramatization of the martyrdom of Thomas Becket in 1170. Tempters come to Becket one by one. The first offers physical safety, the second, political power, the third, revenge against the king. Beckett is able to withstand all of them, but as the fourth and final temptation, the most subtle and the most dangerous, that Becket would be martyred for the sake of his own personal glory. In public, it would seem like he is suffering for God, but secretly, it would be for Becket's reputation, legacy, admiration, and possibly even sainthood. Imagine the idea that someone could be martyred and that that could be the right deed for the wrong reason. That's why I bring this up today. How do you avoid this pitfall? Prayer. That's the list. Prayer. Otherwise, if you keep doing good things and keep saying, I'm a good person, but you don't basically enter into it and exit out of it in prayer. It's gonna look like you're doing the right thing, but your soul's gonna know you're doing it for the wrong reason. This isn't just about there's there's plenty of charitable organizations, there are plenty of people that look like they're doing good things out there, that are doing right deeds. It's a tragic time in our history right now. There are accounts on the internet that gloat and enjoy the downfall of people in ministry and people in front-facing Christian life. And no matter what the circumstance or the situation, I feel for them because I really feel like deep down it's it's prayer. They were always doing the right deeds, but at some point they didn't enter in with prayer, they didn't leave with prayer, and even though we see them still doing the right deeds, they started doing it for the wrong reason. The grace of Jesus Christ gives them a certain amount of time to realign themselves and start doing the right things for the right reasons again. He's so gracious, he's so gracious. But I just pray, God, again, I'm I'm preaching to myself and you're just following along. God, don't ever, don't ever maybe like just tell me to like quit the ministry, go do something else, go figure out something else. Don't please don't put me on a plane to another foreign land if I'm just going there. So it looks like I'm doing the right deed, and in my heart it's just for the wrong reason. I can't, I can't, I can't be that. I can't be that. Praise God. Stick with me, Smith Lake. We got some praying folks down at Smith Lake. They're with me, alright? All right, let's go to Matthew 10. So we just talked about all this stuff at nine. There was even some miracles and stuff that I didn't cover, but the whole point of all that in chapter 9 is you're reading all these things Jesus are doing, knowing his disciples are right there with him. And then coming off the heels of that into 10 is where he sends them out. Boom. All right. Wait, when does this slide end? Okay, make sure I hit the next thing. Alright, we're gonna go five through fifteen. It's a lot of scripture, but I just I couldn't, I just felt like I'm I was gonna read it all. We're not gonna talk about it all. Matthew 10, 5 through 15. These twelve Jesus sent out, instructing them go nowhere among the Gentiles and enter none of the towns of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel and proclaim as you go, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. You receive, uh you receive without pay, give without pay. Acquire no gold or silver or copper for your belts, no bag for your journey, or two tennis or sandals or a staff the labor deserves his food. And whatever town or village you enter, find out who is worthy in it, and stay there until you depart. As you enter the house, greet it. And if the house is worthy, let the peace come upon it. If it is not worthy, let your peace return to you. And if anyone will not receive you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet. When you leave that house or town, truly I say to you, it will be more bearable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah than of that town. Yikers. Jesus is sending them out, just in the manner the Father has directed. He says, We're gonna focus first, we're gonna focus on the Jews, the lost sheep of Israel. We all know they get to the Gentiles eventually. But first, it's about can we restore the lost sheep of Israel? We're gonna focus on the Jews. Everything there in verse eight. Heal the sick, raise the dead. Did I get Oh, you got it there for me. Praise God. Oh, spoiler. Now I'm pointing to the TV. Old man struggles with remote. Um, all that stuff in verse 8. Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the leper, cast out demons. It doesn't say it. That's that's all, that's just prayer. Prayer, prayer, prayer, prayer, prayer. He's just listing all the things you're going to do through your prayer. And don't ask to get paid. Just pray and trust that God will provide. It says, if you pray and if you're welcome to stay, those that welcome you to stay will extend hospitality and generosity. And those believers will take care of you. Well, if you pray and you're not welcomed, make sure those Air Jordans still shine. Dip out, and let them know. See you on Judgment Day. All the disciples had different personalities, legit. There's Peter and a couple of them that probably did exactly that. Some of the kinder ones probably softened the blow, but some of those dudes, they were gangster, man. They're just gonna say what's on their mind. Alright. Alright, 22. We're doing good. I can finish this in 20 minutes. Um, let me take you back to India. These shoes probably still have some India dirt on them. I asked my wife and daughter, I was like, are these too dirty to wear today? I really kind of wanted to wear them. Or are they not fancy enough? But they still have dust on them because they welcomed me. I didn't have to kick off the dust because I was welcomed there. Uh let me say to you, as you as pastors and and Pastor Rusty and Lisa, we love you, are sending us videos from from Israel, and we're gonna be talking about a bunch of different nations today. Can I just say to you right now, please understand? It's cool if you have no interest going to India or Israel or any other foreign land. Honestly, for those of you that are like uh hard pass, I have no interest in going to India. That makes you the normal one. That makes you part of the majority. That's that's really fine. I'm not here to convict you into doing something in in missions or whatever that you're not called to do or you don't have uh the desire to do. I mean, that's just please understand that's not um why I'm here. I will say, and you can talk to to my guys Sudaker and Quran about this, if you do go, it's gonna get in in your pores, it's gonna get in your blood, and and once will never be enough. So I'm just warning you, I'm warning you that now. Bastard will tell you, like, like uh if if you dare go, don't ever think it's just once, but it's okay. For some of you, it it's fine if you never want to leave America. If you like this country and you like where you live and you're happy where you are, there are amazing men and women of God that never leave this country. Our amazing associate pastors at Fayevell, pastors Mike and Carrie Coons, they have no interest in going to a foreign shore. They they like their America, they like where they are, and they couldn't be better people, better Christians. They are incredible. That's just not the call on their life to go. But big thank you for letting your pastors use your pool. Um we all give to the kingdom in our own ways. Here's the deal. Here's what we're talking about today. This is the whole point of this. It's okay if you aren't called to the nations, but understand, you are called to pray for the nations. All right, you are sent to pray. You do not have to get on a plane or a train or a boat or whatever, but you do have to get your tail into the secret place and pray for the nations. I didn't know a war was going to break out and make this abundantly clear, but thank you, God, for the the easy sell here. We're probably already praying for the nations, but you don't get to opt out. My mom was a prayer warrior, um, and there were times in her prayer room, she would come out and tell me she had she had prayed for for nations and people God showed her, and she didn't even know who they were. Like, it didn't even know that she just saw faces. She didn't know, she didn't know what country they were in, she didn't know their names. She was just like, I went to my place to pray, and God said, These are people that need more intercession, and she was an intercessor. She just interceded. That's what God does. Every campus, all ages, all ethnicities, all financial classes, it don't matter how much of your debt cams got paid off. If you claim Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you are sent to pray. Pray for those that are going. That are going and sharing the good news. Alright. Now we get slide time. Let me show you something. Especially if if you're newer, you may not know this. So this is this is good information, alright? This is something that we got to do. This is in in New Delhi, New Delhi, India. I'm I I'm not we're not covering the the whole two-week trip. There's a couple of high points I want to cover. If you can see, there's a banner back there that says two days pastors and family seminar organized by Rock Church India, Abiding in Christ, for everybody's safety, none of our names or faces or anything on it. What you have here is a collection of 60 pastors and most of their wives. You can see uh Rhinus and Tracy and I there in the middle. Um after 2020, after COVID, a whole bunch of missionaries and people that were doing ministry from the West to India got kicked out. So on the other side of COVID, like in 2021, 2022, um, these uh pastors were brought to my attention by someone that that I do ministry with that got kicked out of India. These pastors, they don't have a denomination. They're not Baptists, they're not assembly of God, they're not church of God, they don't have some sort of denomination in India, they don't have any sort of support from any other country, anything else in India. That banner says Rock Church India, because rock, you you are all they've got. Give yourself a hand for that. If you didn't know that. And you gotta start, you gotta start praying for them. Pray for them. I'm the best they've got. Pray for them. And my backup is Rhinus. If you know him, double down on your prayers. I don't know why. But I I I dared to say yes, and this is what's happened. And the reason we're at a we're at a Catholic conference center in New Delhi, because where most of them have churches, it is not safe for us to go there. Nothing would happen to us. But if they see Americans, if they see white people come into the village, they know what they're doing. They're there to go to the church because no what these villages and towns, nobody visits there. So when we leave, the the pastors and their family are gonna face persecution. They could be beaten, they could be killed, that burn their house down, burn their churches down. So for their safety and so that we could uh reach more of them, we we did this. We got together, and their stories are beautiful and heartbreaking. There's a one of the pastors over there, his his son had been beaten to death and killed for his faith six months before this conference. Most of these pastors have never been to a conference, so just to be around other pastors and say that happens in your village too, you're dealing with that too. It was just life-giving for them. And the beauty of the story how many thousands of years later, the enemy still doesn't get the hint. Persecution doesn't kill the church, it grows it, it just grows it, it just grows it. That that's why I don't even question when God says there's a great harvest coming to India because the persecution is getting worse. And I was like, well, here it comes. I mean, that's all that's gonna do. All that's gonna do is just start reviving. Souls just gonna start getting saved. Um the guy sitting on the on the far left there, his name is Pastor Rimish. He and his wife, uh, Molly, is she sitting on that end? Um, they they are our our contact. They are the the people that they live in New Delhi. They keep me informed um through WhatsApp. Uh every Tuesday morning through Zoom, I do a Bible study with these pastors just walking through the the New Testament. And but the the these are your these are your people, Rock. You you call this your church, then this is an extension of you. This is the kingdom over there in India, and you know that we've got it all over the world, Israel, and in a little bit we're gonna we're gonna pray for other places. Um But this the we we are what they they've got, and it's it's a privilege. It's a privilege. I want to tell you one other thing. I already already gave you the the lesson of the mango grove. I got an I got another lesson. So this is my eighth time in India. It was Tracy's fifth. Again, Rhinus stopped counting. And all those times we've never been to the Taj Mahal. Taj Mahal is the most famous structure in India. If I tell someone I've gone to India and they don't know what to say when I say like Christians are being beaten or killed or things like that, they just think, Have you seen the Taj Mahal? Like, they don't know how they don't know. They were like, that that got hard quick, bro. And I was like, Well, I'm just telling you what we're doing there. Um, because Agra, where the Taj Mahal is, is a four-hour drive outside of New Delhi. On purpose, it's not near anything. So you have to like want it. So after this two-day conference, uh Rhinus needs his rest. So we took a day off, and um, they were like, Well, why don't we take you down to Taj Mahal? That's what he gets for not being here, man. So why don't we take you down to the Taj Mahal? I was so excited. I've had the chance to walk through a lot of older buildings, the architecture, the story, the culture, like there's all these things that I love, that just being in those old places, even this, which is a, you know, it's not a Christian place. It's built by the Mughal rulers, by Muslims. So um, but even still, just to see, like, we just don't, we just don't build like we used to, man. Like those buildings and those things like that, maybe it was a giant waste of money, but it's just incredible. And so this four-hour drive, I was just ready to be there. I want to walk through it, I want to be there. This is gonna be amazing. We get there and a guy meets us at the gate. The one signed by the gate, by the way, says, beware of monkeys. They're everywhere. My favorite, my favorite subhead on that is do not stare at the monkeys. I was like, my God, like like I got do not pet, but like, like eye contact in this war, like, okay. All right. Uh so I continue, but I all I wanted to stare at was the Taj Mahal. But we get there, and again, our our pastor Remish is taking this there. He's doing the interpreting. It's like, okay, um, he's gonna take some photos. That's what he's here for, professional photographer, to take photos while we're here. I'm telling you, uh I was mad. We drove four hours. The fur and I'm just I was tired. The first hour we're on property at the Taj Mahal. All we're doing is taking photos. Congratulations, 21st century people. You've ruined the Taj Mahal. They think everybody wants to be there for their social media page. Like, there's the Taj Mahal, one of the seven modern wonders of the world, and this is what we're doing. This is this is what I drove four hours in a small little car. We've been here for over a week. I was promised the Taj Mahal, and this is what I'm getting. I was in a mood. I was in a mood. I was in a mood. This is this is not what I was there for, man. I just wasn't trying to get my TikTok followers up. I wasn't trying to get attention. I wanted to see this. Taj Mahal. By the way, you can't. After we took 1,000 photos outside of the Taj Mahal, guess what's illegal to do? Take photos inside the Taj Mahal. So the one thing worth worth photographing, I mean, from a distance, you get the whole building, but in there, I wanted, and you couldn't do that. Um, and I just security there, everybody's got an AK. I just wasn't gonna risk it, man. Like, like, like, I took illegal photos in the Sistine Chapel because there was nobody packing, but at the Taj Mahal, it's just not worth it, man. It's just not just not gonna do it. Just not gonna do it. As you can see, we took more photos. Just let that. There's there's many, many more. If you like are having a bad day, just text Pastor Tracy. She can send you more. I just had to I had to draw the line somewhere. My God. All right. So we drove four hours, we posed for photos for an hour. I got maybe ten minutes inside of the Taj Mahal. My attitude was at peak frustration, which is when God loves to talk to me. As I'm walking away from the Taj Mahal, not making eye contact with the monkeys on the left. God said to me, Yeah, you know what it reminds me of? Four hours of time on your own efforts, one hour of time on your own interest, and then ten minutes of the place of prayer with me. Maybe that's why you're in a mood. Dang. I almost just like stared at a monkey and just ended it. Like, just just kill just kill just kill me now, God. Like, I'm I just I'm just like, I I don't even we had some ministry left, and I was like, I'm not, I'm not worthy. I'm just I I shouldn't be there. I shouldn't. I shouldn't be there. One note of history about the Taj Maham. Um the Shah Jahan, the Mughal emperor of India, built the Taj for his wife, who had birthed him 14 children. She died before it was finished. After it was finished, he decided he was going to build another Taj, you know, maybe one for himself. Before he could, his children got mad because he was wasting their inheritance. So they locked him in a tower at the Taj where he lived until he died. So I want to make the Silcox children aware that if this place starts going sideways, you can lock Pastor Scott in a tower and you guys just take over. I just wanted you to know history says that's an option, and like the Mughal's children, you have the numbers. So I keep thinking maybe my children should just put me in a tower with a nice view. Maybe that's where we need I need to go next. Oh, good. I'm about to close. Am I supposed to Jonah? Get on up here. Um, I'm close to noon. On our way home from India, we always take a little side quest. This is what's crazy. The last two years, our side quest on the way home was in Doha Qatar. Uh, there's a church that's about 75% Indian believers in Doha Qatar that we also partner with called Bethel Assembly of God. I've been checking on them. Everybody's good, but they're having to like shelter in place in their home. I could tell you a hundred stories. We got to take Felicity there in October and spend a week with them. Just amazing. Believers there in Qatar. But the the Lord told me we were going to do something different. And we went a week early. Also, we might have been in Qatar when this all went down. God, God is good. And you'd have missed out on this, and wouldn't that have been a terrible shame? So this year we came through Edinburgh, Scotland. We spent a couple of days in Edinburgh, Scotland. I thought I knew why we were going there, but then when we got there, it just wasn't adding up. The people of Scotland are incredible. It was freezing cold, bro. After leaving 85 degree India for 35 degrees Scotland with the wind, it was harsh. But I can't recommend the country and the culture enough. The Scots are the best. The accent, 10 out of 10. Oh, we got a Scott in the house? Let's go. Way in the back. Why'd we put you in the back? Those people are fire. Get them up front. So we had this long layover that that really turned into a moment. This is how like Protestant charismatic we are. Between Rhinus and Tracy and I, we did not even realize we were in Scotland on Ash Wednesday. Like that was that was lost on us. I didn't prepare that or plan that. I mean our brains were cooked after two weeks in India. I didn't look at the schedule. I didn't even realize. So what ended up happening is we ended up at St. Giles Cathedral, 902 years old, the Church of Scotland, which is essentially Presbyterian, and we attended the noon Ash Wednesday service. And we sang the hymns, we recited the prayers, listened to the scriptures. I mean, it was a it was a holy moment. It was breathtaking. It was emotional. And as that service came to an end, it just dawned on me that that hour of that Ash Wednesday service in Edinburgh, like, it literally couldn't have been any more like diametrically opposite than the services we did in India. This is St. Giles Cathedral, outside, inside, and then the three ministers that were participating in uh the Ash Wednesday service. The guy on the right is American. When he started speaking, I was like, that is not a Scottish accent, but I didn't find out where he was from. But I was like so moved by this place, 902 years old. We just don't have anything that old here. And I'm telling you, I've had the opportunity in other cities, regardless of what you think about Protestant or or Catholicism or anything else, when you just walk into a place where where people have genuinely prayed. Okay, they maybe they've prayed differently than you, but a place for 902 years, genuine prayer has been lifted up. If Holy Spirit is in you, there is just something in you that resonates. And the beauty of the loud and audacious and just like Pentecostal services we had in India. And then to be in like this sacred space and this quiet moment, it just hit me. Both honored God the same, both honored the culture of the people that were worshiping him. One's not better than the other, one's not holier than the other, one's not more scriptural than the other. It was amazing. I even did something I've never done before. I got ashy. Is my forehead that big? Alright. Really hits you on that screen. On one of the flights back, I can't remember which which one, I just can't. I was listening to a podcast. And it was so it was so right on time. Um John Mark Comer was being interviewed for this podcast and was just talking about where he's at and um his theology and everything that he's dealing with and what how he's approaching now in this world and Christianity and believers and just he just kind of paused for a minute, and I I don't know if I got this verbatim word for word, but this is what he said. In a world where everyone's asking if you lean right or if you lean left, now is the time to lean back into church history. Better versions of everything is found leaning backward into church history. Can I just tell you this world is so is so loud. It's so loud. We need some silence. Our brains are digitally destroyed. Young Christians, I don't I don't know if you've been around the the new generation of believers. Like, there was a time when the world was kind of quiet, and then what did God do? He did whatever the world's doing, God's gonna do something else. There was a time the world was so quiet, God got loud. Well, now the world's gotten loud, and it feels like maybe God is getting quiet. And we have a young generation that's longing for a place of rest and reflection. You see, especially for us, in the way that we like to worship, incredible worship set today, and the way we like to partner with God. There's one last thing, one last slide I want to remind you. Passion is not emotional intensity, but patient endurance. Passion is I the English language wants to tell you passion. It's like this this emotional intensity. That's the world's that's the world's definition. Those that are passionate about God from the early church through the years, their passion was shown in their patient endurance. And I know I'm not good at that, but what I'm saying is it's not new. What a relief. You don't have to invent anything. Everything we need can be found by leaning back into the proven history of God's global Christian church. There's not an American way of doing it, it's not an Indian way of doing it, there's not a Scottish way of doing it. It's God's kingdom, his global kingdom. Leaning back into Him. I have to pray. Doesn't matter where you travel, what your calling is, what God's asking of you, you have to pray. And then hopefully, out of that prayer, you have to be patient. That woman, twelve years physically, socially, religiously outcast the patience of her prayers, the faithfulness of her prayers. Need I remind you, within the expanse of Christ's life, he spent 30 years patiently praying for three years of robust ministry. We want it the other way. We want to pray for three years and be on the scene for 30 years of ministry. Regardless of what or where your calling is, you have a mandate to pray. Pray for the workers. Don't just get focused on the harvest. Pray for the workers. Pray for the workers first. If there's going to be a harvest, we got to start with the workers. Pray for your church, other churches, your evangelists, missionaries, churches around the world. You are sent to pray. With all the goofy stuff, with everything I've said up here, that's the reason, that's what this message is about. If you don't leave here with anything else, leave here knowing that if you are going to do your job as a Christ follower, then you have to pray. The funny thing is, if you've not really ever engaged in a prayer life with Jesus, once you experience it, like I don't, I don't know why anybody would do it any other way. It's so awesome. It's so fulfilling. It's so free, the freedom of knowing I don't have to provide the power, I don't have to provide the answer, I don't have to invent new ways. Like God's already got everything, like he's already handled it. He's all like even when you come in here to this space, sometimes we'll say, like, like, Holy Spirit, like, we invite you here. And he's like, nah, man, I've been here. Like, I've been, I've been, I've been waiting on you. Like, he's he's not too busy. Interrupt him wherever you are. Listen, Huntsville, Madison, even, like, you you need to invite, make sure Holy Spirit's in your car the moment you crank that thing up. Like, it is it is dangerous in them streets. I can't get through Huntsville without seeing something crazy. Like, you got to understand you are sent to pray. All right, I'm gonna throw it to the campuses. Thank you, campuses, for being with us. Let you do your thing. We're gonna wrap up here. I love you, campuses, all of you, Madison Smith Lake, especially Fayetteville. Love you. Alright. Here's how we're gonna close today. First, everything that I'm saying may feel a little foreign to you if you've never accepted Jesus into your life. That's where it starts. When you see the power of the repentant prayer of salvation, that is the first flicker of like a flame of what God wants to do. So I'm told there'll be people over on, I'm gonna have people, my my prayer team, altar team, over here on each side. If you're here today, sometimes we do this like the whole bow your head, close your eyes or everything else, just because of the form of the service day and other stuff we're doing. Um, sorry, you're just gonna have to be bold. We're not we're not looking away or looking around. But here's what I am to tell you. There's no reason for anyone in here to bow their head and close their eyes. Because if you don't know Jesus and you want today to be the day that you meet him and call him Lord and Savior, not only will all of heaven rejoice, all of this room will rejoice. Isn't that right? Isn't that right? If you're if you're here today and you're saying, This Jesus, this Jesus is being lifted up around the world for whatever reason. I've never met him before, or I met him a long time ago, and I let something pull me away, something got me out of alignment with him. I need to get realigned with Jesus today. If you are bold enough today to say, I I want I want to ask him to be Lord and Savior of my life, or I need to get back with him. There's gonna be prayer warriors on either side. Come and meet them, come and get prayed for. Let them encourage you and speak to you in a mighty way. We will give you a minute for you to meet with the prayer team. We have one other prayer that we're gonna be doing after this, but they're gonna be over here, just gonna keep the this little part. Never too late. Even after we start this other prayer, you can still come up. It's never too late. Holy Spirit's always here. There's always somebody in here willing to pray for you. The other thing we get to do today, I am so psyched I get to do this. This is just God's timing, it's so good. We have a team about to leave for Honduras. Talked about so many other nations. Yes. If you don't know about Danny Dyer and what's happening down in Honduras, I've got to go there too. If you're a part of the Honduras team, come right up here to the front. Students, teachers, faculty, whoever part of the Kingdom Heights are gonna come here and we are gonna pray for them. Come on up. Give it up for our Honduras team. Students. Don't be shy, students, because when you get Honduras, uh, Brother Danny ain't gonna give you a chance to be shy. He's gonna throw you in the fire right from the jump. Come on up. When we get everybody, get on up here. It's gonna be amazing. Honduras, another amazing place you should go. Everybody by bunching. You're gonna have to tell me when everybody's here, when we got everybody. Kingdom Heights students, let me give you a tip. A little insider tip from someone who's been to Honduras. I got inside jokes with everybody. When you get down there, if you can get Danny a Red Bull, we call it Toro Rojo down there. You get him a Red Bull. He's my Red Bull buddy. He loves them things. You show up with a Red Bull for Pastor Danny. Oh man. He's gonna know Toro Roho. He's gonna know who sent you, and he's gonna be. My guy loves. All right, church. Stretch your hands for this team, for what's gonna be happening for them in Honduras, those that feel compelled to surround them. Um this is a chance. Look at this, we're not even out of the room, and we get a chance. If you are a parent of someone down here, even Scott and Britt, even Leah, whoever, parents, parents come on down too. Just surround them, call for them. We get to activate the thing I've very much been talking about all day right here. God, we thank you for Pastors Danny and Lorena Dyer down in Honduras. The favor you've given them in schools, in prisons, in the streets, God. There is good fruit down there to be picked. And you have called out these Kingdom Heights students and faculty to go. God, we send them right now. Easy travel, easy travel, safe travel. It's gonna be so smooth. They're gonna get down there, God. And right now I proclaim, because I know this is how Pastor Danny is there is a schedule. There is a plan. But Holy Spirit, by your power, if you need to interrupt a plan or a schedule, you do that. They want to do kingdom work, they want to do what you've called them to do, Holy Spirit. We open our hearts to what you want to do today, Holy Spirit. As they go to Honduras, as they go all through that nation, God, that Jesus would be lifted up, God. For those that may be nervous, I proclaim boldness over them, God. I proclaim healthy bodies over them, Lord God. The strength to do everything that they've called to do, God. For every word that's preached, for every service that's done, God, that your hand's in it, God. This is a divine appointment. You already knew before they even committed to go to this trip. You knew who was going, you knew what you'd called them to do, you knew it was gonna happen, God. This is divinely ordained by you. There will be no nerves for parents that are back at home. They will know that they're in the they're in the will of God as they travel. They're gonna be in the hands of God and an incredible team down there in Honduras, God, to do mighty works for your kingdom. We already posture ourselves in a place of expectation that when they return, the testimonies of what God did in Honduras, the testimony of what everyone in this team, everyone in this team will do some ministering, but they will also get ministered to God. You can count on that. It will be a two-way street. They will minister to and get ministered to God. We cover them. We thank you that we will remember, God, every day they are gone. Bring them to our remembrance. We are sent to pray. We will pray for those in the nations and those that on this Honduras trip will be in our prayers every step of the journey. And we will celebrate all that you're doing in your kingdom in Honduras around the world. I pray for the global church, God, the mighty move of God over the global church, specifically for those areas that the rock touches, Lord God, that we would be mindful to pray for them and bless them, God. We bless the nations. You love your children, all nations drawn to you, Jesus. God, we thank you for the day of the service that you are here present, Holy Spirit, that you joined us, that you blessed us with your presence, God, that you are mighty to save. For any that are saved today, God, and this Honduras team and our missions workers all around the world. We bless them. We give you honor, we give you glory, we give you praise, we lift you up. Only the name of Jesus is lifted up. No church, no man, no ministry. Jesus, you are lifted up. And everything that we do, God. All God's children said, Amen. Let's go.

SPEAKER_00 59:38

We hope and pray. This message was encouraging and impactful. Join us live on our website or Facebook on Sundays at 9 and 11 a.m. You can stay connected with us on Facebook and Instagram at the RockFamily. Have a Jesus.