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00:00 to deal and that is Acts 27.
00:06 I brought slides though I normally don't preach with slides. It slows me down
00:12 but for the subject today I thought we we need to have some slides.
00:18 And I I I've got only four things to tell you. Just four things. And if you get
00:25 the four things you're safe and I think we'll finish at 10:30.
00:33 that we can. All right. The first thing is this. You're taking down notes. Fit
00:39 into God's mission. Are you writing it down?
00:47 The second thing is this. Handle risks for the sake of God's mission.
00:56 I have a professor who said whenever you teach have a cup of coffee
01:02 and before you make a point pause and take a seat. It will sound very profound.
01:10 So the third point is trust God to guide to direct and protect.
01:18 And the fourth point is recognize the opportunities that abound
01:26 as you pursue God's mission. Well, you got four points. You're quite safe. The
01:32 title I somewhat changed a bit. Said trust God in God's mission. Now, I want
01:38 to read just portions of scripture so that we can anchor our thoughts. And I'm going to use Paul as a figure to
01:45 navigate through this entire passage. In fact, if you look at this passage in Acts 27, it is perhaps the longest one.
01:52 Not just by chapter, but by the time he reaches Rome, it is perhaps the longest one uh very close to uh Acts 7, Steven's
02:00 sermon, it is perhaps the longest one uh that is in the book of Acts. And so I'm
02:06 just going to use Paul. Paul while they were traveling, the the journey was getting uh difficult. And at one point
02:14 Paul warned them in verse 10 he says men I can see that our voyage is going to be
02:19 disastrous and bring great loss to ship and cargo and to our own lives. And then
02:24 in verse 20 when neither sun nor stars appeared for many days and the storm
02:31 continued raging we finally gave up all hope of being saved. But then emerged
02:36 Paul, the man of hope, and he stood up and said, "Men, you should have taken my
02:42 advice not to sail from creed." Or the Malaysian way of saying is, "I told you
02:47 of I told you so." You know, in counseling, they say, "Never use that word." Huh? And parents, I give you a
02:54 tip. Never use that word to your children. Uh, and he said, "Then you would have spared yourselves this damage
02:60 and loss. But now I urge you and I want to use the word courage. As I was preparing the word courage kept coming
03:07 to me and I want to say for the church to step one step further into mission
03:13 you need c o r a g e.
03:19 You have all the knowledge. You have all the information. You have all the strategy. But what you need is that
03:25 courage. And here twice he says keep up your courage. If there is a word that is
03:31 coming to the church this morning, if Dorai had come and said something, what is it? He said, courage,
03:39 but I thought it was trust. And he says, I urge you to keep up your
03:46 courage. Some translation says, take heart because not one of you will be lost. Only the ship will be destroyed.
03:52 last night an angel of God whose I am and whom I stood beside me and said do
03:57 not whom I served stood beside me and and said do not be afraid Paul you must
04:03 stand trial before Caesar and God has graciously graciously given you the lives of all who sail with you. So keep
04:09 up your courage for I have faith in God that will happen just as he told me. And
04:15 then when the uh when the sailors tried to escape or uh on a lifeboat, Paul said
04:23 to the centurion in verse 31, he said, "Unless this man stay with the ship, you cannot be saved." Again, Paul coming in
04:31 and directing uh the entire crew. And then 14 days they have been without
04:36 food. And so he got up again and said, "You have been in constant suspense and have gone without food." And this is in
04:43 verse 33 onwards. You haven't eaten anything and today you won't eat
04:48 anything after the service. Okay.
04:55 Uh now I urge you to take some food when you get home. Uh you need it to survive.
05:03 Not one of you will lose a single hair from his head. And after he said this, he took some bread and gave thanks to
05:09 God in front of them all. Then he broke it and began to eat. They were all encouraged and ate some food themselves.
05:15 There were 2 276 of them. And I just want to say those uh uh read those
05:21 portions of scripture to anchor us. I've entitled the message trust God in God's
05:26 mission. And one of the things we need to see here while Acts 27 speaks of the
05:33 journey to Rome speaks of that voyage to Rome that is a narrower theme of what
05:41 Luke is trying to say. But there is a larger theme and the larger theme is the
05:46 mission of God. The larger theme is Paul moving to Rome to testify of Jesus
05:53 Christ. In Acts 23 11 it says that the following night the Lord stood near Paul
05:59 and said take courage the word again as you have testified about me in Jerusalem
06:05 you must also testify in Rome. In Acts 19 in verse 21 earlier on Paul says I
06:13 must also go to Rome. Rome was at his heart and Jesus himself said you must
06:19 testify in Rome. Jerusalem was the center for the Jews. But Rome was the
06:25 center for the Gentiles. In Paul's mind, the apostle called to the Gentiles. He
06:32 felt that going to the going to the center of the gentile world, Rome, in
06:37 that day would be strategic. And therefore, going there would be a time
06:42 to testify. And as if in Acts 28, Luke stops writing
06:48 because that objective of proclaiming Jesus Christ so that nations might
06:54 believe and obey him. That is the mission of God. So while there is this
06:59 narrower theme of the journey to Rome from Ceseria, there is the larger theme
07:05 of pursuing God's mission. And it is in that context you need to see this
07:12 passage otherwise you will see a Hollywood movie
07:20 called the perfect storm. Yeah, this is when I read Acts 27 over and
07:27 over again, all I see is storm, storm and storm and storm and so but if you
07:33 see a larger picture that gives you in fact the mission of God is the compass
07:40 that navigates us or helps us to navigate our lives and Paul had that and
07:46 so with that Paul sails to Rome in in Acts 2 I won't read all the scriptures
07:53 uh here here and there I might read for time and so Paul sails to Rome you read there from verse 1 to 6 and one of the
07:60 things I want you to note that uh that's the reason why I use the PowerPoint this time because you do not know where we
08:06 are going and so at least you have a picture uh you know they they they began to
08:14 travel along the coast along the ports of the coast and then uh then they they faced a storm right up there in the
08:20 middle And then they were cast ashore on the island of Malta and from then on 3 months later they moved down to Rome. So
08:27 it's a it's a journey uh long journey that they they had taken. All right. So
08:33 you have a picture here. In fact, when I looked at this uh Acts 27, I thought I
08:38 could have four Sundays to do this. Really, if you want to get into it, there are four Sundays and I could
08:45 probably have uh one month to speak on missions just out of this Acts 27. There's so much things inside there. Um,
08:53 uh, Paul fitted into the mission of God. Now, Paul wanted to go to Rome, but in all his journeys, his first missionary
09:00 journey, the second missionary journey, and the third missionary journey were all very intentional, very, very
09:06 intentional. But in this case, when Paul Yes. He said, "I must go to Rome also." But little did he ever think that he
09:13 would go as a prisoner. Yeah.
09:18 There was a there was a girl called Linda. Linda when she was young wanted to
09:25 become a missionary. She wanted to become a doctor. But at in her teenage years they found
09:31 out that she had a very chronic situation that required hospitalization very frequently and at several in fact
09:38 at one point she was there for 6 months. She was so used to the hospital that everybody knew her but she was a
09:44 believer and anyone seeing her would see such sh such cheer on her face and such
09:51 radiance. In fact, at one point she was there over different uh uh over a period
09:58 of two years just in in the hospital because of her condition and uh yet many
10:03 were drawn to her. And so the person who is writing concerning her name is Julie Aman who wrote about Linda and she said
10:10 you know Julie I always wanted the hospital to be my mission field but I didn't know I would
10:18 be a patient to do that. Yeah. When we say we want to be the
10:24 hospitalitable to the I mean to to to Mises to the sick, we thought we would be a nurse or a doctor. But God has
10:32 other ways. And so while we say embrace God's mission, embrace the mission of
10:38 God. One of the things we need to do is to fit into the mission of God. We have
10:44 to fit into the mission of God. Now very often we tend to ask this question and the question is this. How does God fit
10:53 into my life? Or to be put more dramatically, how does
10:59 God fit in into the story of my life? But the question we should ask is, how
11:05 do we fit into the story of God's mission? Will you write that down?
11:13 The question that we should ask is how should we fit? meaning how should my
11:18 life fit into the story of God's mission
11:26 and so we fit into the mission of God Paul fitted into the missions of God there are four mechanisms in missions
11:33 four mechanisms by which we could engage we can go voluntarily this is Matthew 28
11:40 verse 19 Jesus said go therefore this is going voluntarily and those of you who
11:45 went to Sabah to run And then to that interior. You went voluntarily.
11:51 You were not kidnapped there. I went voluntarily to Thailand and then
11:57 I was kidnapped into Burma. I remember years ago, you know, my I
12:04 started ministry by being a spare tire. People who are supposed to go couldn't go, they'll call me. And that's how my
12:10 mission trip started. Really, it's an amazing uh thing. So anyway, let me come back to this because of time is that I
12:17 was supposed to go to Thailand and they told me this place and place called TA
12:22 and I that time I was still in the university and I had a master student I was overseeing his work and then since
12:29 he came from Thailand I took out the map and I said where is this place Ta and he looked around he said no such place the
12:34 closest place we ever had was Kjanaburi Kjinaburi yes uh but but not TA but he
12:40 said I do not know this place so I thought maybe a uh interior prayer rural place. So I
12:45 went on that trip with two ladies. They were supposed to cheat teach on children ministry and I was supposed to teach the
12:51 the younger ones and then the adults and so we went. So from Kjanaburi then I
12:57 learned I said where's this place Tita? The person who was taking in he said this is not in Thailand. The whole
13:02 church was praying for Thailand by the way. Uh I said where is it? This is in Burma.
13:10 Burma. And then he said if I tell you Burma, you won't go
13:18 and I realized why because then we have to go through the checkpoint. Very weird
13:23 way of going into the check into Burma. And that was Karan state at that time. Now Karan state is no more. That was
13:28 Karan state and they were fighting for autonomy. We went into Karan state. TA is in Karan state and it is a war zone.
13:34 Everyone is carrying guns. Everyone, children, everyone is carrying guns. If
13:40 they had told me, I wouldn't have gone, you know. And so, and I was a young
13:46 father. My my daughter was just a barely a year old. By the way, I I've my
13:52 three daughters brought themselves to church. Can can you please all stand? My my three daughters, could you please stand? The Yeah, I've talked about them
13:59 and there they are. Okay. Yeah.
14:04 They have come to see whether I've talked about them or not. I've already talked about them. So, that's okay. Now
14:10 so to until Kjinaburi I went voluntarily. Do you follow that? But I went into war
14:16 zone into into Karan state involuntarily. Here was Paul who who was
14:22 doing the first three missionary voluntarily. But never did he think that he would go as a prisoner involuntarily
14:28 even though he had that desire. Daniel was taken into Babylon exile. He went
14:34 involuntarily. Joseph went into so sold as a slave into
14:41 Egypt. He went involuntarily. You see that? So there are four mechanisms. Then
14:46 the come mechanism. People who come to the place of blessing voluntarily. They they flock to the United States because
14:53 of studies or whatever or because of prosperity or it's a free land. They they they went there. But some of them
14:59 had had to go because they were fleeing persecution elsewhere. when the Russians
15:05 over overran Hungary uh many Hungarians ran into Canada and into the US and one
15:12 of them was a Hungarian professor who who who who from Canada then later went
15:17 and came to teach teachers here and he taught me forest engineering and that changed my course of my of my life. So
15:26 that is going uh or coming involuntarily. Here people come the the Myanmar refugees running into Malaysia
15:33 they come involuntarily. I want to tell you this. If you don't
15:39 go, go can God can send you involuntarily
15:52 choose you this day whether you want to go as a free person or a prisoner.
15:59 The second thing is this. If you still don't go, they will come.
16:07 All right, we deal with this in our missions classes anyway. But so here was Paul. Paul as a prisoner. He knows he's
16:14 as a prisoner, but he fitted into God's mission. So fit into the mission of God. Uh then
16:22 the journey becomes difficult and dangerous. I won't read everything. Uh the journey becomes difficult and
16:28 dangerous. In fact, the journey runs into a storm and results in a shipwreck.
16:36 And Paul faced great risks but the value of God's mission was greater. Now if you
16:43 say life is difficult if I were to go around this room every one of us have faced difficulties. Every one of us has
16:50 faced storms. But one of the things in the kingdom of God is this that you know the Bible
16:56 talks about we are in Christ especially in Ephesians that we are in Christ. But
17:02 there is another thing that we need to add on. Not only we are in Christ, we are in Christ mission. And when you
17:09 embrace the mission of God or the mission of Christ, then you process all
17:15 the obstacles, all the hazards, all the trials that come in the light of the
17:22 mission of God. If you look at just the trials alone by
17:28 themselves, they could be daunting. It will strike fear into our hearts. But
17:35 if you see those trials in the light of God's mission,
17:40 you will be able to handle those hazards. God will help you through. And
17:47 that's what uh that's what you see in Paul's life. So I
17:55 put 2 a because there are sub points. Handle risks for the sake of God's mission. One of the reasons why we don't
18:02 step into God's mission is because these are too risky. And I want to tell you this, the largest unriched people group
18:10 that starts uh who who are the majority people are here in this country and of course
18:16 elsewhere. One of the reasons why they are like this today, it is because the missionaries of old never engage them
18:25 because it's too risky. And today we pay the price.
18:31 Today we pay the price. I like scientists and engineers because scientists when they have a problem,
18:38 they may fail it this time, but they say we'll find another vaccine. We'll find a way. 10 years down the road, they find a
18:44 way. Engineers doing the same thing. The core of engineers in the United States, their moto is we'll try.
18:52 It's not cannot. And so we will try. But somehow in the
19:00 church we don't sing that song. It's too risky. But when you have the mission of
19:06 God ahead of you, then you process the risks in the light of that mission. It
19:11 is Ralph Winter uh the late Ralph Winter who said who's a miologist. He said risks are not to be
19:19 evaluated by the probability of success but in terms of the value of the goal.
19:25 Now this is nothing new. The parents parents really work very hard and hard
19:31 earned money they buy a beautiful home and then one of their daughters say I
19:37 want to do medicine. What do they do? They sell their beautiful home.
19:44 Why? The value of that goal is much greater than selling off the house. Do
19:52 you follow that? But when you don't have that goal at inside and only look at
19:58 sell this house are you
20:04 so the mission of God very often we are discouraged by things because we don't
20:09 see the mission of God so risks will come hazards will come difficulties will
20:14 come but you need to see the mission of God in order to process this
20:20 do not let obstacles cause you to stop or retreat from God's mission.
20:27 You should be like, is it John MacArthur who said I shall return, you know, I
20:33 shall return? In Japan, remain connected with God in all
20:38 circumstances. I just want to go back here. Do not let obstacles cause you to stop or retreat from God's mission. Very
20:45 quickly, when I was missions director, I was just appointed as mission director in 1997. And uh the we always have staff uh
20:52 devotions and during the staff devotion we had a speaker come over he and uh he took part in our devotion I was the
20:59 chair ch I was chairing the devotion and when he st came to speak he looked at me and he said I've got an encouraging word
21:05 for you all eyes on me and then he said don't be discouraged
21:14 and then he went on to say you will meet wall you'll meet a wall you'll hammer
21:19 your head against the wall. I'm glad for that word because I'm faced
21:25 many walls really as a miss missions director I faced many walls and it came even a
21:33 point where there were council given to me dor why don't you quit good counsel
21:40 but I saw the mission of God I saw the mission of God
21:46 in the light of the mission of God I said I will scale the walls Of
21:52 course in in in scaling the walls some of my hair became gray. Some of them begin to fall.
21:59 But I want to tell you this the time when we started we had only about five missionaries. Today we have 220 missionaries.
22:08 In the light of if it is not that mission of God I can tell you I would have resigned quit just in the first
22:15 three years in that post. So do not retreat, do not stop,
22:23 be connected to God. Now this is the one I remember somebody very close to me coming and said, "Do why don't you just
22:29 go to the elders? Tell them go." And I pondered over that and I told myself and
22:35 I searched go I I I I went to God and said Lord is this something that you're telling me that I need to move? You know
22:43 there is a way if you don't want to move God sets a fire.
22:48 So I asked God, are you setting a fire so that I could go to Sarawa?
22:54 And but the Lord spoke through his word. He said be faithful in the land. That was the word for me. I told my
23:02 colleagues I said I remain and so remaining connected with God is very
23:08 powerful. And I want to say here here if you read uh Paul's here he said last
23:13 night an angel of God whose I am and who I serve stood beside me and said do not
23:18 be afraid Paul you must stand trial before Caesar that mean the mission of God will still be there and God has
23:25 graciously given you the lives of all who sail with you. What was Paul doing? Paul was praying praying for safety not
23:31 only for himself not only for his fellow uh workers Luke and Aristocus but also for the entire crew. And that is why he
23:38 said God has given you. God has given you because he had prayed. One of the things I found the one of the greatest
23:44 key missions is prayer. We would not have survived had we not prayed. Every
23:49 Tuesday we pray. Every Wednesday we have business meeting.
23:55 Uh Paul trusted in the sovereignty of God to see him through in God's mission.
23:60 Now God could have stopped the storm, right? God could have prevented the shipwreck. Now remember Jesus steal the
24:06 storm and we could have even prayed like that. God stop the storm but the storm comes. One of that is sovereign work of
24:12 God. But what God does is he gives us the resources the sustenance the power
24:18 and the courage to go through the storms. In fact I want to say this if you go through the scriptures more often
24:25 than not it is not the troubles that he will stop. He will give us a way to go
24:30 through the troubles to reach our goal. Very often it is not setting away the
24:36 troubles but going through the troubles. Trust God to guide, lead, protect and
24:44 provide for you. And here we see in several places where
24:49 he has given an encouraging word and he said uh that we will not perish but we
24:55 will lose the ship. He said and then another place when the sailors were supposed they were trying to escape he
25:02 he told the centurion they if they leave the ship they will they will not survive
25:08 and then when they were all down and out in fact it's very interesting how Luke had put it he said when all hope was
25:13 gone Paul rose up as a man of hope
25:19 so Paul trusted God to guide direct and protect
25:24 I want to just stop here for a while and say this while we begin to pray. I was on a mission trip in Bario, my wife's
25:31 place. You know, I had asthma when I was 6 months old and every year I would have
25:38 about three attacks in a year. I grew up in a rubber estate. The only treatment they ever gave me was rub a lot of wicks
25:45 and leave me like that. Never had medication. So, I grew up as an adult just like that. Every time I just v and
25:52 then off. Never saw a doctor for asthma. Nobilizer. What new animal is that? You know, we don't know. I never never heard
25:59 of that. Uh ventiline. Is it a new vegetable? I don't know. We never heard of that one. Uh I remember when I was in
26:05 bario and Joanna, our elders was just one year plus and I was the leader of
26:10 the mission trip. Many of them are our city students. But I was very sick. So sick I I could hardly walk. In fact,
26:18 next morning when we were to move from one village to another, I could hardly walk. I was carrying Joanna. And then I
26:24 have to tell my wife, you have to carry her. I couldn't walk. So, but somehow I made that small trip about 10 15 minutes
26:31 to our long house. And this other long house was 2 hours away of walking.
26:38 And I told the team I can't go. I can't. And uh the reason why I said is because
26:46 in the previous trip I nearly died. Next time I'll come I'll tell them another story. All right. I won't go into that
26:51 one. And then the team I said you have to go. And I was staying at home. My wife was
26:59 back with me. She didn't go cuz she had to look after me. It's about 2:00 and I was very very I I was talking to God and
27:05 said, "Lord, how come the team is a very young team and I'm the leader and I'm
27:11 sick. I can't even go. He's just talking and I just you know
27:16 what was I doing? Washing dishes." But as I thought about it, the time was
27:22 now 3:00 in Bario the it becomes dark 4:30 becomes dark. So about 3:00 I
27:31 suddenly felt strength coming from my leg coming up all the way
27:40 and suddenly I could breathe. I told my wife let's go. Are you sure? I said let's go. And I
27:48 carried Joanna, put her on my chest, you know, with that strapper that carrier. And I people say, "Are you sure?"
27:55 Because the whole village knew I was sick. Are you sure? Are you sure? Are you sure? Are you sure? My brother-in-law said, "Are you sure?"
28:01 Yeah. And I walked. I walked like Gandhi, you know. I walked like Gandhi. I walked.
28:07 Really? I walked and God in his mercy halfway through two motorbikes came
28:16 and we jumped on it and then we went and that day that night I took the meeting
28:21 powerful move of the spirit really powerful at the end of the meeting I then not only I prayed the team said we
28:29 cannot do this we do not know how to preach just now they said only Mark could preach we do not know how to
28:35 preach how to teach we do not know they say we have only one thing to do. Cry out to God so that Dorai will get well.
28:44 They were praying. They were crying. But what I'm saying is this. Trust God.
28:49 Trust God. And the way to trust God is not just to say trust God. It is a life
28:55 of prayer. A life of prayer during times of peace that will set you through
28:60 during times of difficulty. I need to move on. You will experience God's presence. I
29:06 experience God's presence. You will experience God's promise. Paul, the Lord spoke to Paul. You will stand before
29:12 Caesar and of course you get God's answer. They were all saved. And then
29:17 believe that God is with you in the journey. And God is with you in your troubles, in
29:24 your difficulties, he is there. How to find out? Pray.
29:30 How do you pray? When you pray, you will see the assurance of God and he is with you. All right. Uh Paul demonstrated an
29:37 active faith. Now an active faith is a faith that acts on what we believe. Paul
29:43 demonstrated a maturing faith. Paul is the one in Philippians who said, "I want to know Christ." That means there is a
29:50 there are vistas in in Christ that we need to know. There are lengths and breadths and depths and heights in in
29:56 Christ that we need to know him, not just at this level. And so he was continually uh had his focus on knowing
30:02 Christ and a serving faith. And one of the things about uh missionary service is you serve people. We don't say I
30:08 serve God but don't serve people. You serve people. He served the crew. He served the people on board. And when he was cast ashore, he served them as well.
30:16 All right. Paul rose to be a blessing to the entire ship. And which we already read. I won't go through that.
30:23 Paul was an agent of hope, counsel, and encouragement. I'm going to leave the slides here so they can actually use it.
30:30 uh Paul made God visible to the people on the island when they were cast ashore and you remember the story of the viper
30:36 on his hand and how that was uh and and miraculously he was not harmed and then
30:43 the chief of that place he went and prayed for the father and then prayed for the sick and they all got healed. So
30:49 go Paul made God visible to the people on the island. So recognize the opportunities that
30:56 abound in the mission of God. recognize the opportunities that abound in the mission of God, which we just saw in the
31:02 case of Paul. And Paul arrived at Rome. That was God's purpose. Paul arrived at
31:10 home. No centurion could stop him. No storm could stop him. No shipwreck could
31:17 stop him because he was on a mission of God.
31:26 And Paul preached the gospel in Rome. You read that in Acts 28:30 and 31. And
31:31 then in his prison, that's when he wrote his prison epistles from Rome.
31:36 And so the mission of God, proclamation of Jesus Christ, so that nations might believe and obey him. And let me just
31:43 close with this illustration. I was nothing could stop us in the mission of God. The church in 96, they sent me to
31:52 that is before I became missions director. They sent me over to US center in Pasadena in California to study for
31:59 one month admissions and I was all ready to go. I got my air ticket. I had $2,000
32:04 with me and my friend of mine who was in California said, "It's going to be sunny here. Go and get some sunglasses and
32:11 things like that and slippers." He wanted Japanese slippers. So, I went to get and there was a a supermarket along
32:16 Old Clank Road. And I took my children, my wife, and we went up there. You know, in my bag, in my bag, I there was my
32:24 passport, the $2,000 US, the ticket kept in my bag, and over it was this
32:30 Japanese. Put it over there. And I left in the back. I left in the car. We were going up this escalator. And a voice
32:37 spoke to me, go back to your car. Somebody is in it.
32:43 And I told myself, I didn't even tell my wife that is money in the back. I didn't tell anyone. I said, this is just my imagination. Stay in the voice. Go back
32:50 to your car. There is somebody inside. I want to tell you this. The reason I'm saying is that God is not far away. God
32:56 speaks to you. But you must be in the habit of hearing his voice.
33:02 Not suddenly. We all want suddenly.
33:09 No, it's only in the communion with God you will be able to hear that voice. So,
33:14 but I said no. You know, we went shopping for 2 hours buying everything
33:19 and then we came and when I came into the car, everything was thrown on the on
33:24 the seat, you know, the envelope, the two envelopes that I had, one was the ticket and the and the passport and the
33:30 $2,000 envelope were thrown. And man, my my organizer book was and I told the children and I said, "Children, why do
33:37 you play with my things?" I I told the children, very easy to blame, huh? Children are very easy. two two people you can always blame the children and
33:43 the women okay because they're considered weak you
33:49 see uh so we always blame them so why did you why why did you play with this never thought about it and then I open I
33:56 found my sunglass missing I saw all the coins taken away and suddenly
34:02 it dawned upon me that it was broken into and then what then I opened my envelope
34:10 where the $2,000 was, it was there. And then I opened the other envelope. This was all on the seat. I opened where
34:17 the passport and the ticket was. They were there. And I quickly put all in the
34:22 back and I said, "Let's drive." I think when I was driving, my hand was shaking. Not the tires were shaking. I was shaking.
34:29 And when I reached Pasadena and I was the I was the only person who came the furthest or farthest for that
34:36 for the for the cause and they asked me to share something and I shared that you know what they said God wanted you to
34:44 come to Pasadena. I want to tell you my friends embrace
34:50 the mission of God and God gives you a plan and a strategy and hold on to that.
34:56 God will make sure you get to that destination and process all other trials
35:02 and testing in the light of the mission of God. Amen. Amen. God bless you. It's I pass the time. 10
35:11 more minutes. Time past time. Let's all stand. Let's all stand. We won't we won't sing that song yet because I think
35:17 it's uh we'll just uh we want to just want to pray. I have come to say to some people here take courage.
35:24 There are some people here you need that word take courage but the courage is to come from God
35:31 and therefore spend time communing with God he'll give you the courage the second thing I want to tell you is this
35:37 embrace the mission of God embrace the mission of God shall we pray father we thank you today that you love us and in
35:45 loving us you have also given us a cause you have given us a mission and we pray
35:54 this church, every brother and every sister will embrace your mission and you
35:59 will guide them through until it is accomplished in their lives in Jesus
36:05 name. Amen. Amen. God bless you.
