Sanctified, Sent, Serving

I'd like to explain this envelope that's in here, both in, if you have a bulletin. This is the fourth year we've done this and Mary Middleton heads this up. If you'd like to give to a needy family this year for Christmas time, she puts together packages. If you'd like to help her with that, please contact her. I don't think she's here today in a way this weekend, but make contact with her and you could be a real help with that project. It's a great blessing. Christmas time is a time in which we are so, made so aware of the character of our God that he is a giving God. He's a God who loved the world so much that he sent his only begotten Son. He gave his son. So we have an opportunity to give as well.

So if you'd like to participate in that, please do. Today we're going to be taking communion together as a church. It has special significance for us when we come to that time in just a few minutes. Today is Miriam Bell's last weekend, last Sunday with us before she goes to Uganda. So we want as a church to let her know that we are committed to her. As she goes, we're going to be praying for her and being a supporter in every way that we can be. And so we're going to take some time to pray for a little later before we take communion. Right now I'd like you to turn with me in the Word of God to John 17. If you're a Bible reader, you know that John 17 is the prayer of our Lord Jesus Christ is priestly prayer.

This is really the Lord's prayer because in John 17, he prays before he's about to be arrested and go to the cross. Of course, since this is his last prayer, it has great import to us. Because we hear Jesus bear his heart to the Father. He's asking the Father for certain things that are very important to him. What we want to do is zero in on one. We want to zero in on something as soon as I find out where it's at. We want to zero in on John 17, the midst of this prayer. Listen to these words as Jesus prays for his own. He says concerning his disciples in verse 16, they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world, sanctify them in the truth. Thy word is truth. As thou did send me into the world, I also have sent them into the world.

And for their sake, I sanctify myself that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth. When you think about the prayer of Jesus Christ in regards to our sanctification, what I want to point out this morning that's so clear in this text is that it relates to the fact that we, he has given us a mission. He has sanctified us in order that we might serve. He has set us apart so that we could serve him. And this week, Miriam is going to experience this in a way that she never has before exactly. And being set apart for a mission, she has experienced this for these last few months. In fact, the culprit that got her thinking this way is here today, Robert and Sharon Kauffman. And probably I'll have him come up a little later as we pray for her.

But he simply came here and showed some video about his trip to Uganda and his ministry there for about six weeks. And it's so touched her heart, the need there, the opportunity to be sent by the Lord Jesus Christ to do something that has eternal value to it, to actually lay down your life, to give yourself to something that's truly significant. Have you ever thought about the questions in Scripture when God asked people questions? One of the questions that's always haunted me was when Jesus called a blind Bartom AS and he says to him, what do you want me to do for you? And I thought if the Lord Jesus was to stand before me and ask me that question, how would I answer it? How would you answer it?

How would you answer it if the Lord Jesus was to say to you this morning, what do you want me to do for you? There's another haunting question in the Bible. It's on the next of the chapter five when Moses comes face to face with the living God and the burning bush. And in the course of their conversation, the fear of Moses rises up as God begins to tell him what he wants him to do for him. And then God says to him, what is that in your hand? What would you answer to that question? The living God today was to ask you, what is that in your hand? You know, it was in the hand of Moses, it was a shepherd's staff and it just so happened that the God of the universe wanted to use Moses as the shepherd who would lead his people out of bondage.

The type of Jesus Christ. What do you have in your hand? When God asked Miriam that, she had some books in her hands. She's a teacher. She's been teaching children for years. Of these last several years, seven or eight years, she's been teaching homeschoolers, science from a biblical perspective. That's what she had in her hand. And so when the Lord said to her, what do you have in your hand, of course, this is how he's calling her to serve him? But what do you have in your hand? Since he has sanctified you, since Jesus is praying that you would be set apart so that you could serve him. I want you to think about this this morning as we look at this text. What is it that you have in your hand and what is it that God wants to set you apart to do?

Now at the most basic level, the idea of sanctification, the word sanctify and holy and holiness and sanctification, those all come from the same root. That word at its most basic level, the basic meaning is, in fact, it's almost an adjective for God. He is the holy one. It means to be set apart, to be separate, distinct. He is high and lofty and above his creation. Theologians call that transcendent. He is a transcendent God. He is set apart from his creation, but he is also separate in character. The only attribute of God that is repeated three times by the seraphine is holy, holy, holy. This is a holy God that we serve and derivatively from that because God is holy. We are told that people and things that are reserved for him are also called holy.

In the Old Testament, there were certain implements, whether it was a censor for an altar in the temple of God under the Old Covenant or even a man who was set apart as a priest in the Old Covenant. He was set apart, Jeremiah himself and Aaron and his sons were all sanctified, the scriptures tell us. They were set apart for the service of God. The word saint is simply a form of this word sanctified. Now in the Catholic tradition, they have given sainthood to certain individuals in church history, but the Bible does something very, very different. The Bible says every person who believes in the Lord Jesus Christ is a saint because you have been set apart under God. You have been set apart for God and because of this sanctification, the Bible also speaks about another implication of being sanctified.

That is moral purity. Ideally, if someone is set apart for God and for God's purposes, the person will only do what God wants and what God commands and he will hate what God hates. That's what it means to be holy as God is holy. That's what God says to us because I am holy, you shall be holy. And since we serve a holy God and since holiness and sanctification is important to him, then it ought to be important to us. If you turn back to John 10, verse 36, I want you to look at this one verse, John 10, 36, Jesus says, do you say of him whom the father sanctified and sent into the world? That is Jesus himself, he's speaking these words, referring to himself, do you say of him whom the father sanctified and sent into the world?

You are blaspheming because I said I am the Son of God. You see, Jesus Christ was set apart. He is the one whom the father sanctified as his very own and sent into the world. You can see this pattern throughout Scripture that God sends those that he sanctifies. He sets them apart and then he sends them. The father reserved the Son for his own purposes in this mission into the world. He was the sent one, the son sanctified himself, we are told here in John 17. He set himself apart for this work. That's what Miriam has been experiencing, setting herself apart for this work in response to God's desire for her life. Now he prays that God will sanctify the disciples, that we would be set apart. It's important in John's gospel that this kind of sanctification is always for a mission.

It's always been set apart to accomplish the mission to which God has given us. The mission of the disciples is spelled out in verse 18, as we'll see. In verse 17, the focus is on the means of this sanctification. How does God set people apart for mission? Well he does it, he tells us in this phrase, sanctify them by the truth. Your word is truth. Now what I want you to do is take note of these three things. First of all, the means of sanctification in verse 17. Jesus expects the Father to use truth as the means of sanctifying His followers. God immerses disciples in the revelation of Himself and in His Son. I want you to see that back in verse 11. In chapter 17, it says, and I am no more in the world, and yet they themselves, that is His disciples are in the world, and I come to thee, Holy Father, keep them in thy name.

Now the picture that is given to us there is it says, though, He wants God to immerse them in His name. He wants God to take His disciples and immerse them in His name. But what does He mean by that? Well notice what He says, the name which thou has given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. God gave the Son the responsibility to reveal who God truly is, and that's what He means by sanctified and placed and immerse them into your name. Immerse them into the truth of who you are, as you have revealed yourself to be. The word name in Scripture always refers to the revelation of a person is. God's name is the revelation of who He is. If you remember back in the Old Testament when Moses wanted to see God, he wanted to see God because he was in a pickle, and he didn't know exactly what to do.

The people had failed so miserably and He had failed, and so He asked God, will you reveal yourself to me? And so God takes Him, puts Him in a cave, puts His hand over the cave, and then He walks by. You know what He does to reveal Himself to Moses? He declares His name. You see, He reveals Himself by declaring His name, and Jesus Christ came to the world to reveal God. He has proclaimed His name. He's unveiled the true character of who God is. And so Jesus is asking the Father to immerse His disciples into this revelation of who He is. You won't go to Uganda unless you know who God is on a mission like this. In fact, you won't go to your neighbor if you don't know who God is. You won't go across the street for Christ.

If you don't really are not really gripped by the truth of who this God is, who He has revealed Himself to be in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so He prays for them. And the means of their sanctification is truth. They'll be set apart from the world and reserved for God's service as they think and live in conformity with this truth that has come through Jesus Christ. Here we have the ultimate revelation of who God is. I don't know if you've ever noticed them in the first chapter of the book of Hebrews. The brighter Hebrews says God has spoken in many different ways on many different occasions throughout the Old Testament. But in these last days, He has revealed Himself in a sun. You want to know what God's like?

You look at the sun. The Lord Jesus Christ reveals who God is. And this is the means by which men are sanctified. Is this revelation of who God is as He has revealed Himself in Jesus Christ. Here is the truth. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth. And the life. And the way people are sanctified is by being immersed into this truth. This word of revelation is supremely mediated through Jesus Christ. The closer you get to Christ, the more your eyes are going to be open to who the Father really is. Jesus is the truth. He is the word incarnate. Remember what He said in John 1? John said in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. And then a few verses later in verse 14, it says, in the word became flesh and dwelt among us.

And we beheld His glory. The glory is of the only begotten who is in the bosom of the Father. Jesus is revealed who God is. And when we look at Jesus, we see the Father. We see what God is really like. And this revelation is now embodied in the pages of this book, because this book is a revelation of Jesus Christ. When you look at the book of revelation, it's not revelations. It's revelation because it is the unveiling of God in Jesus Christ, the revelation of Jesus Christ. And God revealing Him in self and Jesus Christ is the means by which we are going to be sanctified. Set apart in order to accomplish the mission that He has called us to. As all kinds of practical implications to this truth, sanctification comes only through God's revelation of Himself in Jesus.

That's the only way it comes. It doesn't come by contemplating the stars. This creation does reveal certain things about God. That reveals His Godhood. It reveals His divine nature, the fact that He is an awesome, all mighty God. That the only way we know the character of God. The only way we come to know that God is the kind of God who is a loving Father, who loved the world so much that He gave His only Son is through Christ Himself. We come to know His heart. We come to know His character. We come to know His nature through Jesus Christ. This revelation is imminently trustworthy. It's not only true. Jesus didn't say, I am the way and I am true. He said, I am the way and the truth and the life.

He embodies truth. He is truth. And if you want to come to Him, if you want truth, you must come through Him. You can read a million books of man's wisdom in this world and you will learn some things, but you will not come to be confronted with truth until you were confronted by Jesus Christ. There's a process that John mentions about being set free. In fact, why don't you turn there? It's back in John chapter 8, John chapter 8 verse 31. Jesus said, therefore, to those Jews who had believed in Him, if you abide in my word, then you are truly disciples of mine and you shall know the truth. How are you going to know the truth? By abiding in His word. By abiding in His revelation. By abiding in the unveiling of truth that He has brought.

You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free. You want to be free? You got to know the truth. You want to know the truth? You must know Jesus Christ. He is the truth. And this truth will sanctify. Now, there's all kinds of examples of this in the New Testament. We have all kinds of commandments in the New Testament. The New Testament is filled with commandments. Anybody who thinks because we are not under law, as Paul says, means that there are no commandments. It doesn't understand the New Testament because the New Testament is absolutely filled with commandments. These commandments are the implications of who God is as He has revealed in Jesus Christ. And we are gripped by the truth that comes to us because of who Jesus Christ is.

The more you take in this revelation of God in Christ, the more it's going to impact your life. And it's going to prepare you for mission. We're told in 2 Corinthians 3 that as we come face to face with Christ, He transforms us from glory to glory. It's communion with Christ that changes us. And we are told that in Galatians chapter 5, that neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything in Christ, but it is faith working through love. And in that context, He's talking about faith in Jesus Christ working itself out. In love. See, I can't say that I'm believing Christ if I withhold love from you. I can't say that I have faith in Christ that I am believing in Him, that I am trusting Him if I don't love, because that's how love is worked out.

That's how it is made manifest. And so this is what He says is significant in among the people of God. Now notice in verse 18, He says, back in John 17 verse 18, as thou did send me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. Here is the purpose of sanctification. You want to be holy? I grew up in a holiness group, an old classical holiness group, who believed in the theology of the holiness movement. And that is that there were three blessings. There was a first blessing, salvation. There was a second blessing, sanctification. There was a third blessing, the baptism of the Holy Spirit. You didn't receive these all its salvation. That was progressive. And it may be years between the time you were saved and sanctified.

And so they were sought to be sanctified. They wanted to be sanctified. They wanted an experience that would eradicate their sin nature. I knew a lot of those folks, some of them are family members. And I can tell you, even after they had the experience, they still had the sin nature. It's like I do. And so do you. All you have to do is ask your spouse. Ask your kids. They know the truth about you. They know the truth. They used to have sinclaiming to you. But notice that sanctification is something that God does through his word. It is immediate salvation, but it is also progressive that he is changing us and setting us apart for himself. But why? Why do we want to be sanctified? So we can be holier than now.

So we can think that we are the most holy people in all the church world, because we live up to a certain standard that are made up of externals. No. The purpose of sanctification is mission. That's what he's saying. The major theme of one of the major themes of John is that Jesus is the Saint One. That's one of his titles in the Gospel of John. The Saint One. You know where that comes from? That comes from the Old Testament. Really the entire testimony of the Old Testament in regards to Jesus Christ. But in particular, in Isaiah chapter 8, we have a passage that refers to the gentle, flowing waters of Shalala. The pool of Shalala. What Shalala means, it means the Saint One. The pool of the Saint One.

And in Isaiah chapter 8, it's really quite humorous. You see, because the nation of Israel, Judah in the South, what they wanted to do was, they were threatened by countries all around them. Nations all around them. They weren't a great threat. And so, instead of trusting in God, as God had commanded them to do, they wanted to seek help elsewhere, just like we are prone to do at times. And so, God uses this metaphor. He says, because you wouldn't turn to the gentle, flowing waters of Shalala, the Saint One. I will bring upon you the mighty Euphrates. You want Babylon as your Savior. Babylon, you shall have. And of course, the Babylonians came in. He says, they're going to come in like a mighty flood.

And it's going to sweep away the Assyrians first. They're going to sweep away Israel. And it's going to flow right up to the neck of Judah. Judah is almost going to perish because of this. Now, what he's doing in there, the great sarcasm, is the thing that you're looking to, to say to you, will destroy you. And the thing that you have no confidence in is my promises, the gentle, flowing waters of Shalala, a little stream, the water supply of Jerusalem, was so unimpressive. And yet, it was to impress upon their minds that what they needed could only be obtained through the living God that they served. There's many things in your life like that that God has promised to supply your needs in very simple ways, trusting Him, believing His promises.

And yet, there are things in this world that promise to meet your needs in such a more grand and glorious way. They're like the waters of the Euphrates. And God is saying to us, the sent one will deliver you. The unimpressive one, the one who came in an animal shelter, was born in an animal shelter, born to what would be equivalent today to an unwed mother. She was wed, but that baby wasn't her husband's baby. That she was born in the most humble of circumstances, so unimpressive. And yet, he is the delivering God, this sent one. You see, that's one of the themes of the gospel of John, that this Jesus who has come is the sent one from God. And people who are looking to be impressed by Him will always turn their back on Him.

Isn't that what happened to the nation of Israel? Oh, there were great crowds that followed Him, and they saw His miracles, and they heard Him teach, and they knew that He was teaching the wisdom of God. But ultimately, because they wanted Him to be impressive, when He stopped being impressive, they turned their backs on Him. That's the same way in our lives. God wants you to trust Him so much that you can trust Him to deliver through things that are not impressive at all. There are powerful implications of our to our lives in the fact that we look to the sent one, the sent one to deliver us. Our lives are not to be aimless. God has sanctified us. Jesus has given His life to sanctify us so that our life could be given to a specific mission in this life.

Please don't live your life in such a way that when we attend your funeral, all we hear is what a friendly guy you were. And we don't hear about the truth. The God works in the life of the believer that he can take the most insignificant person. When that person begins to understand just like the one that they believed upon, they are a sent one. Wherever you go each day, maybe to a hospital, it may be to a mechanic shop, it may be to building a house. Wherever you go, you are a sent one. And God is asking you every day, what is that in your hand? What is that that I have put into your life to do in my name? In my name. You see, Jesus is dying in order that He might sanctify His disciples so that they could be sent on a mission.

Jesus died for you and sanctified you so that you could be sent on a mission. To give your life to something that is really significant, to build something worthwhile, that Jesus was to say to Mitch Peterson, what do you have in your hand? It's a hammer. What does he want him to do? He wants him to build. He wants him to build. He wants him to be involved in the building of the kingdom, to build a household that honors Christ. And I was thinking about this this morning, that Ryan and Haley and Holly are products of that household that he's been building until the last 30 years. What has God put in your hand? What has he put in your hand, yeah? He's put something in your hand, hasn't he? He's given you something to give your life to and in doing it to serve Christ.

To give your talent and your abilities and the wisdom that he's given you in order to serve Christ, to honor him. What are you going to do with your life now and the future? Some of you are getting ready to retire. What is your mission? You know Bob Kaufman's here this morning. He retired. They retired him. He's just a young man, but they retired him early. And God obviously sovereignly did that because he has a different mission for him now than climbing telephone poles, right? He's got another assignment in this stage of his life. And every single one of you, every single one of you, whatever phase of your life you're in, whatever it is that's in your hand at this point in your life, God says to you.

You know, notice what he says to Moses? He said, throw it down. He throws it down and he turns it into a serpent. It's going to be a sign not only to the people of Israel, but to Pharaoh himself that this man comes in the power of God. And you got to understand, maybe you don't know this because Charlton Heston isn't like this, but Moses was, that Moses was a very timid man. Moses was afraid to speak in public. That ought to give some of you encouragement. We're having a baptism today and some people are very, it's scary to have to stand before people and speak. Moses was afraid to speak as well. But see, God used that staff, that shepherd staff, that position that he had placed him in to accomplish his good purpose.

One of the greatest acts of God that's recorded in the redemptive history is that God delivered his people through Moses as shepherd. You know, he's working in your life. He has a mission for you. There really is a mission for you, a significant mission, and that's why he has sanctified you. Don't settle for anything less. And I'm not saying you got to go to Uganda. I'm not saying you have to go somewhere else in the world. I'm saying when you go to work tomorrow. You know, this is the first day of the week. You know that, don't you? This is not the last day of the week. This is the first day of the week. We're not sabitarians. We're Christians who celebrate. We get together on the first day of the week, the day that Jesus rose from the dead, and we prepare ourselves for this week.

We go out of this place ready to serve the living Christ. We want to be encouraged about who he is and what he's promised. That he promised you that he'll be with you wherever you go. If you're going into the gates of hell. If you're going into a place that's like sticking your head into the gates of hell, he says the gates of hell should not prevail against this kingdom and this kingdom work. And so if you have to stick your head into the gates of hell and proclaim the truth about Jesus Christ, be assured that he said, I will be with you to the end of the age. You know, there is some danger that Miriam is facing. I know her families, they got to be concerned about it. She's going to a place where the AIDS virus, the AIDS epidemic is so bad that it's going to destroy so many people.

And she's going right in the middle of that. She's going into poverty. She's going into a situation. There are difficulties there and there are some stark realities that we don't have to face every day. But she can go with confidence because Jesus Christ said, wherever I send you, I will go with you. Now he sanctified you. He has set you apart for a work and he's promised to be with you. And then notice this final thing, he says, in verse 19, here is the pattern that we follow. The pattern that we follow is the Lord Jesus Christ. In verse 19 and for their sakes, I sanctify myself. I sanctify myself. What does he mean by this? I sanctify myself that they themselves also may be sanctified and truth.

This is the night in the Garden of Gethsemane when he is going to be so full of agony over the fact that he is going to be made sin in our place that he cries out to the Father. Is there any way that this cup can pass without me drinking it? Yet not my will, but your will be done. Jesus is saying, I am willing to sanctify myself and go to the cross in order to prepare them, to sanctify them, to get in the position and the place that I can be in in order to be with them to the end of the age. This Christ who commissions us is seated at the right hand of the Father ruling over this universe. There is no place you can go and he doesn't go with you. There is no place that you can go for Christ that you can go without Christ.

He is going to be with you and he sanctifies himself. The true prominent uses of this word in the Bible, the first, for example, in Deuteronomy 15, it speaks about the sacrificial animal that was consecrated, set apart in order to be sacrificed for our sins. In the second use is the consecration of the prophet or the priest or the king who has set apart for the service of God, and both of these things are true of Jesus. The Bible says, when Jesus says, take up your cross and follow me, please understand that doesn't mean put a little gold cross around your neck. It's very beautiful and decorative. It means take up the means of your own death, the cross. In other words, settle that issue now. Are you willing to die for Jesus?

You know what? I think every single believer should be asked that because the only answer that you can give is yes, I'm willing to die for Jesus. Are you willing to live for Jesus? Yes, I'm willing to live for Jesus. That's what happens at baptism. I mean, think about the picture when these people get into this tank and they are immersed under this water, this picture of absolute total immersion into Jesus Christ, a death and a burial and a resurrection, a person going in it as one person and coming out as a completely different person in Christ, completely committed to Christ, and you may think, well, I don't know if I'm willing to die, well, you should be, and you will be if you're a follower of Jesus Christ.

He will work a work in your life that you come to value Him and His mission, the mission that He has for you more than you value those things that you would love to experience in this life. He's got his hand on your life. He's got something for you to do. Dave Davis, he's got something for you to do. And I feel like saying, and it may not be in North Carolina, it may be in Brentwood. I won't do that to you. But if he sends you to Carolina, he's got to work for you, doesn't he? He has sanctified you. He has set you apart. And there's a mission. This mission has to do with this one who has laid down his life for us. He's a substitutionary language here. He died for us. He sanctified himself for us.

Why did he do this? Why was he willing to die for us? For us. And now he's in a position to guard us. Think about all the things that you face as a Christian, all the failures, all the stuff you're struggling with right now and you can't seem to get victory over it. All those things. Do you think Jesus is passive? Do you think He has His face turned away for you and He's not engaged in involved in your life? No way. He is at work in your life. Coney O'Donnell, and most of you know Coney, she has Lou Gehrig's disease. And she is one of the most encouraging people on the face of this earth. If you need encouragement, call her. Because she is so filled with the conviction that God is up to good in her life.

Oh, it's a great encouragement to me. I got to tell you because some of us, all of us struggle at times over the, I mean, the piddling little stuff of life. It's as though we can't live for Christ because we've got this little problem that's so nagging. And I talked to her and she still can barely walk. Most of the time in a wheelchair and she tells me, oh, God's doing some good things. I don't know exactly what they are, but I know that God's doing some good things. You know, she is theologically correct. She is biblically right. That's the truth. God is at work. And you may think, I got these horrible problems in my life and it's the only thing I can focus on. Let me tell you my brothers and sisters.

Whatever your problems are, they are a part of the means of the living Christ to sanctify you and set you apart so that you can fulfill the mission to which he has called you. So you can live your life in such a way that when you stand before the living God and Jesus presents you to the Father, every single one of you, as the Bible says, every single believer will receive his word of praise from the Father. If you ever thought about that, that's God's going to look at your life and you're going to receive a word of praise from the Father. Can you imagine that? Christ is going to accomplish that in your life. He died for you. He sanctified himself in order to sanctify you. He has sent you on a mission.

And soon or later, if you truly have Christ living in you, sooner or later, you are going to respond to that mission. You're going to take what is in your hand. Whatever it is that God has provided you, whatever skill, whatever life experience, whatever life situation, he sovereignly has brought you into. And you're going to say, I want to give this to you. I want to do this for you. I want to build for you. I want to serve for you. I want to lead for you. I want to live my life for you. You're going to do that because he's gone to such great lengths to bring you to that place. I see people in this room that I watched them for years and they didn't know that. They didn't believe that. They didn't act upon that.

And now they are. I was thinking about Jim Miller, who I don't know how long have you been saved, Diane? How many years? 11 years. I remember when Diane got saved. And for 11 years, I have heard people pray for Jim Miller. For 11 years, I've heard people pray, save him, change him, turn him, open his eyes to the glory of Christ. And just a few weeks ago, God did that. See, because people persevered in prayer. There's people in this room that all of us have observed, God worked in their life. And he has sanctified them. You know why he sanctified them because he has a glorious mission for their life, a glorious mission. I think back probably that about that long ago when I was doing premarital counseling with Miriam and Bill.

And I really had some doubts in my mind whether this was ever going to work. Now God has changed her and sanctified her. Not perfecting her, but sanctified her, set her apart for this work. And he's doing the same thing in all of your life. So I'd call you to live in recognition of this reality and this truth. If you have to, maybe you need to do what Cortez did when he landed at Vera Cruz in 1519 to begin his conquest of Mexico. He had a small little band, 700 men. And what he did was he had them set fire to the 11 ships so they couldn't turn back. Some of us need to burn the ships. Some of us need just to cut the cord and say there is no turning back. I am going to live my life for Christ. I am going to spend my energy and my resources for Christ and his glorious work.

What else is there worth living for? What else is there worth living for? Except for Christ. You know what I want to do right now? I'd like Miriam to come up and I'm going to I'm going to all of you to stand, in fact, if you would. If you'd all stand and I want Miriam to come up here. And I'm going to ask Bob Kaufman if you would. Would you come up here, Bob? I want you to pray for Miriam as well. Yeah, why don't you come and stand up here so they can see you? Yeah. Yeah, you're pretty good. Yeah, I'm going to have Bob spent six weeks the last time, huh? Six weeks. Six weeks and he wants to go back and his pastor Steve told me he wanted him to go. He's ready for him to go. And he's going to be going back there but because of this experience and because of what he shared, it gripped the heart of this woman.

And I want you to pray for her because you know what she's going to face. And then I will pray. Thank you, Father, thank you for giving us the opportunity to meet ourselves. But now we say we want to live for Christ. Now we say there's no other name in heaven that we rather proclaim than his name in the Savior's name. There's no other greater work that can be done. And we're just grateful that you're sending us out, you're scattering us throughout the ends of the earth to proclaim the name of Christ. The blessed Miriam as she goes is you send her out to proclaim his name to these dear people of Uganda who have such a great need that she can meet. Thank you for meeting those needs, oh God. Thank you for using her.

May as she enters into this barren land. May she draw her strength from you. May your name, O great Jehovah, be her resource. May you be everything that she needs while she's away. May she look to you for comfort. And those days when she feels alone and friendless, may she remember and know that she has a friend in Jesus and that she looked to him for all the needs that she will face. And may she be used by you mightily and proclaiming this great name. And we lay our hands on her. As a church and we say, oh God, we send her forth in the name of Jesus and in the name of Jesus, we will not forget her. We will pray for her. We will talk to her. We will email her. We will stay in touch with her. We will let her know that we are always reminded of her and ask your blessing upon her that she know that she's not alone, that she goes with the church as well.

And so all the days approaching, we ask for a safe journey, we ask for fruit, much fruit, for the kingdom of God, for your kingdom, for your glory and in your name we pray. Jesus, amen. Our kind and gracious and loving Father, we are so grateful for this this time. And we thank you, Father, for the way you've been working in Maryam's life. How? How this is like you, Father, to take a widow, to take a person who is a picture of weakness in the eyes of this world and yet the user as an instrument in your hand to accomplish things that will glorify you for all eternity. We pray as a church, Father, as her brothers and sisters, as her family, that as she goes, she won't be alone, as she'll know that we are holding the rope.

As she goes into this pit, we pray, oh God, that she'd be aware that we haven't forgotten her, that we are interceding that her name's going up into the third heaven every day from our lips as we pray in our seed for her. We pray you would just fill her Father with a great anticipation. Thank you for the way you've worked. And I pray, even as these days grow closer, I pray that her heart would be so filled with the joy of obedience to Jesus Christ that it would just dispel every other emotion that you would go in the fullness of your strength. Oh, God, we pray. We thank you for this opportunity to be a church that is going to support her and care about her and know what's going on in our life.

And we pray your rich blessing in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you, Father. Would you like to say anything? You may be seated. You know, I don't preach. No, not good at that. I just wanted to thank all of you. I want to thank Frank. I sat under his teaching now for maybe 13 years of teaching in church on Sunday and in Bible studies. And I'm just so grateful for the truth that he has imparted to me and for the way the Lord has used those truths over the years to build me up in him. I know I'm going to a place that's not exactly the safest and I know that some worry. But I know the Lord has called me to this. Those of you who have heard the story, there is no doubt that he has called me. This is not for me.

This is absolutely from him and I put myself in his hands. He will be glorified. He's just using, yeah, he's my boss. He's using me right now at this point in my life and I'm just so grateful because I know where he took me from and that he could still use me is absolutely amazing to me. I go with real joy and real peace because I have, I feel the three most powerful things a person could have going into the mission field. One is the power, the Holy Spirit that lives within me and I pray that that will always show force in everything I say and do. The second thing is your prayers. Those are going to be powerful and they're going to come up many, many times. I'm going to feel those prayers. Yes, we do feel prayers.

I felt them when Bill was going through his trial. I felt your prayers. They do work and they aren't powerful and the third very powerful thing is that I go with the promises of God and it's going to be during those times when I'm not sure where to turn and what to do next or what to say next or how to respond next that I'm going to rely on his word, his promises, his wisdom, his light and so I just want to thank you again my church family for the love you've shown me over the years of support through some of the hardest times in my life. I don't think anything will ever compare to the struggle and trial that I've been through in the past few years. So this is this is working for God and I don't I guess the reality has been hit of all that I'm going to face but I know that the Lord will be with me through every single step and I'm grateful to you.

I'm grateful to Frank, his family, the ministry that I've gotten to see your hearts, your love, your caring. I'm so grateful. So absolutely grateful. I am so grateful to Bob Kaufman and Sharon. Thank you for your obedience to God and your faithfulness. You know, the mission field is not it's not about Uganda. It's about the people that God puts into your life and where he calls you to be and what he calls you to do and because of the faithfulness of a person I met many years ago he brought God's words to me and that touched my heart and that changed me through that I've been able to reach a lot of people and so I would encourage you you missionaries to be faithful with God's words and spread it to your families because you just don't know how he's going to use the people that he brings into his family.

So one person's faithfulness, obedience to God, led me to Christ and if he didn't obey, see we don't always want to obey God when he calls us to spread his word but God said if we don't respond he'll raise up a rock and so don't turn your back when God calls you to preach his word and his gospel because if you don't he will use someone else and I just am so grateful that he's going to use me and so I have been brought into the family of Christ and then through the work of Bob and Sharon I'm so grateful for their faithfulness. Without you, I would have never known about Uganda and I'm just I'm grateful thank you so much and thank you everyone here thank you Frank. Be careful. I don't want you falling off this.

We're going to sing a little bit and then come to the Lord's table in just a moment and sanctify ourselves as those who support this work of the gospel and the world.