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00:06 Good morning. I've entitled my message mobilizing the
00:13 local church for missions. Thank you. This is a a a vital one um that I've
00:21 been working in and I've been part of this whole thing at least in our church. And I've gone around several churches
00:27 and actually spoke on this one. And so when they asked me you you you preach
00:34 anything on missions then I say I'll do this. Okay. The point is this. Why am I doing this? Why why am I even wanting to
00:40 talk about mobilizing the local church? If a church when it is mobilized is able
00:47 to raise five missionaries. Now later I'll tell you the categories of missionaries but I'll tell you now the
00:54 first category will be the goss. These are the ones who would go. Now missions
00:59 picture has changed a lot. It is no more crossing the seas. It is no more crossing the boundaries that are now we
01:06 talk about in terms of people to that's what the Bible says in Matthew 28 that go and make disciples of nations their
01:13 nations do not refer to geopolitical entities like a country they refer to
01:19 people groups and these nations those days they seem to be out there but today they have come just as brother Andrew
01:25 has shared uh nations have come to these people so there are people who go there are goers there are goers that is the
01:32 first category The second category what I call the logistic missionaries. Now logistic
01:38 missionaries are very powerful. These are people in the mission agencies. They interface between the missions field and
01:44 the local church. Uh brother Andrew as much as he is uh engaged with the migrant workers. Now he is also a
01:51 logistic missionary because he interfaces with the church and with the mission with the with the people groups.
01:57 So he comes and then talks to the church and say hey be part of this logistic missionaries. And then you have the
02:03 third category what we call tent makers. And I think that is still one of the best uh that the Moravians uh took the
02:11 world just being a tent maker. They they went over uh to to to countries and sold
02:17 themselves as slaves so that they could work in sugar plantations along with the Indians and and reach out to them and
02:24 and that is amazing thing. And then of course the fourth category is what I call short-term. When I mean short-term
02:29 means they go on a short-term mission trip. Now what do I mean by that? I know of a professor from Florida that he takes three months every year and he
02:37 comes over to Cambodia. I know of people from our church that every year they will take one month and
02:44 go to China. Every year they would do it. Short-term they committed. You are committed to to work in Sabah. If you
02:52 could just commit yourself and say we would go to Sabah every year during this
02:57 period. They're very powerful short-term. So we have four categories of missionaries.
03:03 Four categories of missionaries. And so when when when each church if the church
03:08 can now since I've given you four then if each church could raise up 10 such
03:13 people in Malaysia. Could you imagine the impact of the body
03:19 of Christ in Malaysia? And that's for one reason why I would go to any church
03:25 and speak on missions. then the missionary force of Malaysia would actually rise.
03:32 You know I told you that our church we started with five and we went on to 200
03:38 along these four categories. Some of those missionaries are engaged with people who are working here. Some of
03:43 them are working in very interesting groups and and so you need to understand these four categories. At one point of
03:49 time we had logistic missionaries in practically every mission agency in the country.
03:55 Our people were all over there. And if you ask me how did we do it, it is through mobilization. Hey, you have ways
04:01 of engaging people in in missions. And therefore, one of my my my passions I
04:06 would is to go to churches and say, "Hey, God could raise up missionaries from your church." I went to my
04:12 brother-in-law's church uh in Kuching and uh basically talking about these things and he said, "You know, our
04:18 church people are not interested in missions." He said, "Not interested in missions." So it was Saturday. So I I
04:23 flew in on Friday next day and and about 40 people turned up you know I don't
04:29 know prophetic seminar 100 people turn up mission seminar 40 people turn up uh
04:34 how the gospel will prosper you thousand people sign up I I don't know how how it works you know uh so 40 people uh were
04:43 there and it was a three three four hour session you know it's kind of race through and I at the end of it I I made
04:51 an alter call it is not some kind of emotional alter call just based on what the scriptures say based on what the
04:57 facts on the ground I made an alter call I said how many of you would therefore commit yourself to come out of that 40
05:05 23 people came out and when I told my my
05:11 brother-in-law who was a pastor of the church I said I had 23 responses
05:17 he said like that there Ah there are goers in our midst.
05:25 There are logistic missionaries in our midst. There are several tent makers in our midst. And the work of mobilization
05:32 is to uncover them and take them through until they find their strategic place in
05:39 missions. And that's why I've come here and and and spoken to you uh mobilizing the
05:47 local church. Let's see.
05:52 All right. Why mobilization? There is no death or no lack of missionary
05:58 challenge. You know, you get a missionary here and they he would give you a powerful m uh uh message and then
06:04 at the end make a challenge. I can guarantee you he can get you to stand up. I remember many preachers have come
06:11 to our church and they have spoken on missions and these are very these people are practitioners. They've got they've
06:17 come and they would share and at the end when they make an altar call
06:22 the whole churches stand up and when I say whole church our church first first service is 1,200 the second service is
06:28 1,200 plus and to get the two services to stand up
06:34 but after that nothing happens. Now this is not new here. Everywhere a
06:42 BA where varsity students gather in thousands and they would get missionaries all across the world and
06:48 they would challenge the students and give your life towards serving God and in in different parts of the world and
06:54 when they make that challenge the whole auditorium would be filled. When I say auditorium is actually a stadium will be
07:01 filled thousands and thousands but when they see how they could translate it to
07:07 actual working very few they call it the funnel effect big challenge but only a
07:13 few trickle and they found that mission challenge alone is not enough so I'm not
07:20 going to make a mission challenge at the end of this all right I'm not going to ask you to stand up because I know it doesn't And
07:34 some of us have translated the great commission where it says go into all the
07:39 world and make disciples of all nations. We translate it as go into all the
07:45 churches and make people stand up. But that's not what I'm going to do. And
07:52 so they studied this phenomena and they said hey what's happening and they felt
07:58 what was lacking was mobilization. What is mobilization?
08:05 I leave the slides here because this is important and I want to say this is one concept that changed us.
08:15 One concept that changed us. And I've told my missions department, never
08:21 depart from this. Never depart from this. I understand you
08:26 have a missions department here. Now, mobilization is a process by which God's
08:31 people are awakened and kept moving and kept growing and they find until they
08:37 find their place for strategic involvement in world evangelization. Maybe you want to cut it and then put it
08:42 on your bedroom and then look at it and look at it and look at it. First of all, I want you to know it is a
08:49 process not an event. So when you have a let's say a mission Sunday like today, yes, it
08:56 is an event. You must see it as a part of a process. And that's why very often we will call on a missions conference or
09:02 something like that. But it ends up as an event. But when you see mobiliz
09:09 after this event, after this conference, how do we move on? That is where we changed. We used to
09:16 have some of the best minds in missions to come and speak to us but nothing happened. Really really nothing
09:22 happened. Oh just now brother Andrew said come and join us. I'm talking from
09:28 mission experience. Nothing will happen.
09:34 Nothing will happen. I must give you context. I was in I became a missions pastor in 93 and then I became the
09:41 missions director in 97 and then I passed it over to my colleague uh in in
09:47 2010. So I have quite a number of years to tell you uh what works and what
09:52 doesn't work. But today I'm going to tell you about missions mobilization what works. But I also want to tell you
09:59 because you know how it is uh just as doctors or scientists or engineers or mathematicians when they ask you to
10:04 solve a problem or show you how to do it, they'll tell you in four steps. This is how it is. What they don't tell you
10:10 is that they have worked 11 times and found out that didn't work.
10:15 It's only on the 12th time it worked. And when they present to you, they present to you the 12th one. And you say
10:21 so easy. So when I present to you here, it is minus the tears, minus the
10:28 discouragement, minus the failures, minus the disappointment, minus all the
10:33 flesh and blood and just facts. And you may think if this is the case, it can happen. But it won't happen.
10:41 And so uh while having said this, it is first of all, I want you to know it is a
10:47 process. they have worked out for a person who actually says yes to missions
10:53 by the time they actually get to the field or some form of engagement even if
10:58 it means somebody inside here on an average it would take 7 years
11:05 on an average there could be shorter but generally it's about 7 years so the
11:11 first thing you must remember is that it is a process and then I want you to know
11:17 there are three words where God's people are awakened
11:22 and then they are kept moving and then they kept growing until they find their
11:30 place in missions. Actually, if you ask me what is the single most factor that
11:36 turned our church into a missionary sending church, it is this one. And it's
11:41 for this reason I brought the slides. Normally I don't speak with slides.
11:47 uh partly because it slows me down. Uh but I I want to impart this. This is one
11:54 single most factor that turned us around. Meditate on it, drink it, see
11:60 it, walk it, feed on it and call me 2 years later and see whether any change has happened or not. But this is it. But
12:07 remember it is a process. All right.
12:12 Now uh in this portion of scripture I saw some very interesting things of
12:18 mobilization uh from Luke 24:45 to 49. Our brother has read it so I won't read it. And the
12:26 first thing you see is that uh that we embrace the mission of God. Okay, we
12:32 embrace the mission of God. And you look in in verse 45, then he opened their
12:37 minds so they could understand the scriptures. He told them, "This is what is written that Christ will suffer and
12:44 rise from the dead on the third day and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations
12:49 beginning at Jerusalem." You might ask, "All right, where where is the where is the mission?" Well, first of all, the
12:55 Christ the Christ is the is is the Messiah. So, the Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day. And
13:01 verse 47 is the mission. Repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in
13:07 his name. That is his mission. That is the mission of God. NLT says forgiveness
13:13 of sins will be preached. That is the mission. And so embrace the mission of
13:19 God that this gospel will go to all the nations. This gospel will go to the people who are coming into Malaysia.
13:25 This gospel will go to people who are who are barred from the from from the salvation of Jesus Christ. This gospel
13:31 will go to every people group in Malaysia and beyond.
13:37 The second one is you need to engage the people of God. No, it's not going to happen. A concept alone will not do it.
13:44 It has to work through a people. And so in verse 48, he says you are witnesses of these things. God works in and
13:52 through people. Just now when our brothers said that when you come and engage with our
13:58 Myanmar brothers or Nepali brothers or the Vietnamese sisters and and you engage them, they may not know about
14:05 Jesus Christ. You have not preached Jesus Christ to them. They might know not know the gospel and you have not
14:11 even said anything to that effect, but they could experience the love of God
14:17 through you. I think Philip Yansy put it very well. He said through those actions
14:23 you make God visible to them.
14:30 When you go into the prisons, when you go into the among the Rohingyas, if you go to the Chins, if you go to the Shans
14:37 and if you go to the Nepali brothers and if you go to and as you begin to demonstrate that love,
14:44 you make God visible to them. And so it is through people. So you are the asset.
14:52 The greatest asset in missions is the church yourselves. You are the greatest asset
15:00 unless we God cho have chosen to work through you and me. And that's an amazing thing.
15:07 You are the you are the people that he would work through. The next one is be endued with power of God.
15:15 You need the power of the Holy Spirit. And I must tell you this, uh, by
15:21 definition, I'm an activist. So, you tell me one thing, I can tell you four steps how to accomplish that. And so,
15:28 years of trying to get missionaries. In 1995, I had four missionary candidates,
15:34 all graduates, fresh graduates, you know, uh, you know, sometimes when when you ask for missionaries, the unemployed
15:40 will come, the depressed will come. Uh
15:47 uh I'm I'm not joking. This is really true, you know. I mean this this is what really happens. And um but this time I
15:55 have four intellectually uh well-trained uh four graduates, young
16:01 people. Wow. Young people. And they came and I said I told my my wife these are my four trump cards. This is the
16:07 beginning of 95. At the end of 1995 the four missionary candidates became zero.
16:16 I was very very depressed at the end of the year. We had a Thanksgiving night service and people
16:22 were all rejoicing but I was crying my heart out before God. The video camera
16:28 man who was going around taking and suddenly saw me crying. They thought he thought the Holy Spirit is upon me and
16:33 he begin to zero on me. You know what happens in a charismatic
16:39 church. Huh? So, but no, I couldn't even care less what he thinks. I cried my heart out of
16:45 disappointment of all the failures. And then I realized I remember a Korean friend who came and talked to me and he
16:52 said she she said she was a she was a pastor in and we studied together in
16:58 Pasadena. So going through one and it's just after that she said Dai mission is God's work and therefore you have to
17:04 depend on God's power. And then I and then I realized we are a charismatic church. Yeah. I want to I
17:11 want you to understand this when I say this. We are a charismatic church. And therefore we commit ourselves to the
17:18 Holy Spirit. And yet we can go and do things without the power of God. What do
17:25 I mean by that? Very quickly. Without prayer, you won't have the power of God.
17:30 Without prayer, you won't have the power of God. So there are three things that you see. Embrace the mission of God,
17:36 engage the people of God and be endued with the power of God.
17:42 Uh that is a clue that when I come to the third one, the sermon is over. So the first one is embrace the mission of
17:49 God. And here in verse, you know, one of the fascinating things that I saw was he
17:56 opened their minds so they could understand the scriptures. How do you mobilize the church into missions? How
18:03 do you do that? And I found one of the powerful ways is to open your minds to
18:08 understand the scriptures. And what is the scriptures here? It talks about is about that it is written. And I've read
18:15 this before you and I I think I've also spoken to this to you before. But the key thing there says it is written. And
18:21 what is it that is written? It is in the Old Testament. The New Testament has not been written then. But he's talking from
18:27 the Old Testament. You know I grew up and I think many of us do when you talk about missions it's always in the New
18:32 Testament and it's always about Matthew 28 18 to20 very often very very often in
18:37 fact nine out of 10 times whenever it is missions you hear something from the gospel something from the New Testament
18:44 very very often how many of you I have experienced like what I did missions means it is Matthew 28 anybody all right
18:51 I'm the only one okay never mind you all come Dr. Peter, you all come from the Old
18:57 Testament church. Amen. Praise God. Wow. Great, great, great. I'm talking to the wrong church. Can I go to the next
19:03 church, please? Yeah. You know, I mean, so he say is
19:09 written in the Old Testament. You don't know what it is. It it actually gripped my heart when I saw that when I actually
19:14 saw that when I saw that that right from Genesis right up to Malachi that that
19:20 there is this God on his mission. I I went through the scriptures and saw that saw that saw that saw that right
19:27 through. It is not a mission message that God had plugged somewhere in Matthew and in Luke and in Mark and John
19:35 and then you speak out of it. No, right from history. When God acted, God acted
19:41 on mission. He's still acting on mission. I saw right through from Genesis on.
19:48 When I saw that it gripped my heart and I think I told you that when I saw
19:54 that I told my wife I will not speak on any subject again except missions
20:01 and I said being a good wife she said no no you must also talk on family you must also talk on giving you must also talk
20:08 on character. Yeah, but inside I said no.
20:15 But to do that you need missions education. You want to mobilize the
20:20 local church to missions have missions dedic education as a regular part of
20:26 your uh Christian study. In our church we run three mission
20:34 courses. One is the perspectives course. the condenser version which is the um
20:42 uh is the kyros but we run the full perspectives course we still run today in fact this year when we ran we had 64
20:50 people signed up is still running we in fact just finished the eighth lesson we have four more lessons to go and so and
20:56 I want to tell you this this is missions is not easy and this year when we uh
21:02 year after year we have been running this since 1997 h my my colleague came to me and All right. There are not many
21:08 people who registered. Five people only registered. It is not going to be easy. By the way, when I say run missions
21:14 education, Dr. Peter, if you're going to say we are going to run this missions course and we want the church to go
21:19 through, please sign up. I can tell you they won't because if
21:25 they study mission, if they study missions in the scriptures, they afraid God will call them.
21:34 But I want to say this as as a a brother said, God will not call all of you to
21:39 cross and go and live in Bangladesh. But if God were to say go to Australia
21:52 so we should change our mission strategy. And God is so good. He is actually sending missionaries to
21:58 Australia and US. And he is sending the Vietnamese by payloads to Australia. He is selling the Arabs to Australia. He's
22:05 sending the Malays to Australia so that you can reach them.
22:10 So when people from our church say you want to go to migrate, I say great. At least now you can do missions without
22:16 fear. If God is calling you to migrate, my friends, it is a missional movement. You
22:23 must remember that. By the way, we were migrants ourselves, right? So it's now migrants reaching migrants.
22:31 Our brothers from Africa, they are here.
22:37 Our brothers from Vietnam and Myanmar, they are here. God is moving around. And if you can see, yeah. So, if I were to
22:45 make it, I did say I won't make an altar call, but if I were to make an altar call
22:50 that God will send you to Australia and US, you will have many missionaries, Dr. Peter.
22:58 But what I'm saying is this. I'm not necessarily saying that you have to be a
23:03 missionary in that sense, but you'll be engaged with God's mission.
23:10 You'll be engaged with God. That changed us. Now, one of the things I did with the missions committee, we have a missions committee. When I came back
23:16 from the states doing this course, I took them through the perspective course. Every one of them. Now, they
23:22 were there, some of them were there longer than I was in the missions committee. So in practically I mean in
23:27 in in reality they would know much more than I did but I took them through and when they when they went through at the end they said they'll give their lives
23:35 for missions. I didn't do it. It is the scriptures. God by his spirit challenged
23:41 their hearts and they said if this is what God has been doing and is doing and will be doing this is what we want to
23:47 do. When somebody comes to me and asks me I want to know God's will. I open up the scriptures.
23:54 You can't go wrong when you I talk about destiny. So what's my destiny? Your destiny has to be plugged in the mission
24:01 of God. Any other track will not satisfy you.
24:06 Any other track will not satisfy you. And I'm not saying by that you should quit your job and become a missionary.
24:11 No, I'm not saying that. You could be a person who with the such entrepreneurial skills that you could go and set up a
24:18 university and bring forth all people groups into your university and then preach the gospel to them through your
24:23 lecturers or invite the pastor Dorai to come and talk to them. But you can go and build universities to
24:29 do that. You can start businesses to do that. But you have a missional you are engaging with the mission of God. You
24:36 can start hospitals. You can start uh many other things. is much larger than
24:41 just going jumping on a plane and then going on to missionary. It is much larger
24:46 much much larger and so uh understand the scriptures go through
24:54 missions again. So what we did was we have the perspective course. The other one we we run was uh we still run is the
24:60 book of acts but we teach the book of acts not as a bible study approach. Do you know when you sometimes go on a
25:06 bible study approach at the end of it you don't know really what you learned. you lose the train of the of the thought
25:13 of the of the passage and so but we we teach it from a missional point of view uh what we call missional hermeneutic
25:19 that means the the whole scripture look from from mission of God and there's one great resource that you can actually look on is by Peter Wagner called
25:26 spreading the fire you have three volumes I think his was uh theund
25:31 1,239th commentary on the book of acts so he asked why should I write 1,239th
25:39 commentary when there were 1,238 already and this is the only one that writes on
25:46 missions seeing the whole book of acts. So we actually run the book of acts and then we run a short form of uh of the
25:52 perspectives called beyond acts. Uh if you want to talk to your people don't say missions they'll run away. But if
25:58 you say acts ah acts acts a bible word. By the way the way to mobilize is always
26:04 talk about the bible. It is in the bible. God said oh god said we will listen. Oh book of acts we will listen.
26:11 So how to take them to perspective cause? I call it beyond acts. Oh, Beyond X, you still X.
26:20 And so we run that and then we run the perspective. Then we run intercultural crosscultural communication. But that I'm not saying you ought to run all of
26:26 that. But what I'm saying is you need to have missions education here. Now the
26:32 missions I saw your missions work already that is happening that's happening. But to sustain this in the
26:37 church, you need to have missions education. In fact, it was Ralph Winter, the late Ralph Winter who said, "The
26:43 single most factor to mobilize the church and listen, the single most factor that would mobilize the church
26:49 into missions is missions education.
26:56 So, can you bring in missions education right into the church and teach it?" And so if you read the
27:04 scriptures as Jesus put it that this is written and how did it grip the early church and I want to put it as the words
27:11 of William Blay. The early church saw the mission of God in all of history and
27:17 Christ the central figure. If you want to summarize verse 46 and 47, the early
27:23 church saw the mission of God in all of history and Christ the central figure
27:29 and they set the world a flame.
27:34 But whatever you do, it has to be part of mission of God.
27:41 Secondly, we look at
27:48 engaging the people of God. In verse 48, he says, "You are witnesses of these things." Now, when you do missions
27:54 education, one of the things we ask in, you know, after the class, after this class, we have finished at the end of
28:01 the class, we'll ask them three questions. Uh, what is the highlight of the cl class? Number two, what is the
28:07 one significant lesson that you learned? And the last one is what are you going to do?
28:14 But you must remember whatever they're going to say they are it's it's on informed decision. It is not an
28:20 emotional thing. Over a 12week period, over 8 week period they have studied, they have done their assignments and now
28:25 when they say something so we actually ask them these questions and out of that we will always get a group of people.
28:31 You know my own experience has been we have been sending people on mission trips short-term mission trip. Oh we have been very good in mission trips.
28:37 You know home fellowships go on mission trips. The elders go on mission trips. The pastors go on mission trips. Everybody children also go on mission
28:43 trips. Talk about mission trips. No problem for us. But no missionaries, you know. So what I did was at the end
28:51 of each mission trip, I would sit with them and then debrief them and ask them what is the highlight of the course of
28:57 the of of their trip. What what is one thing that they learned? But I'm interested actually the first two are
29:02 just appetizers, you know, highlight of the course. Oh, I like their curry laka very much. You know, kuchen curry laka
29:08 is very very good. They say you know what is one one lesson that said oh I saw God move through me I pray for the
29:13 sick sick you know the blind open you know and all that so oh that is high but that is not what I'm asking for I'm
29:19 asking for the third one what are you going to do and I want to say this in
29:24 every one of these mission trips that where two persons will say I have a missionary call
29:30 I have a mission so I gather them so you need to gather them into small groups you need to gather them into small
29:36 groups you know the Bible speaks about two groups what we call community of
29:41 witnesses. The first group is the church. This is acts 242. I don't want to spend time into that. You already
29:47 know. Acts 242 where they devoted themselves to the life of Christ. Where they demonstrated the life of Christ
29:53 where they proclaimed the life of Christ. You read that Acts 242-47. You read that that is this is this is that
29:59 community of witness. This is this is a modality we call it. This this is this is that part. But there is another
30:05 community a community of witness much a smaller group and this this this group is a much smaller group and you find
30:11 that uh in acts 13 and this is Paul's missionary band in acts 13 1-5 in the
30:17 church of Antioch they were prophets and teachers I won't mention the names here verse two while they were worshiping the
30:23 lord and fasting the holy spirit said set apart for me Barnabas and saul for the work to which I have called them
30:29 after they had fasted and prayed they placed their hands on them and sent them of and these small groups is what Paul's
30:36 missionary be this is another community of witness the church is very well very well aware of acts 242 but it is acts
30:43 232 acts 13 that takes the gospel to the furthest place of the earth
30:51 like the group that went to sabah it's not the entire church that went it is the team that went
30:57 you follow that so there are two structures two structures so when people rise up after this education they want
31:02 to do something now don't tell them now go and figure out how you're going to do this no you form them into small groups
31:09 form them into this what I call form missions fellowship so what what we do with them uh like when one group said I
31:15 have a burden for the cindis you know I have a burden for cindis I said can you form a prayer group for the cindis in
31:22 Malaysia one of my burdens was also praying for the cindis and I can tell you how god
31:27 led for us to come and then meet up with other cindis and actually plant a Cindi church and then get connected with other
31:34 people in the world who are who are working with the Cindis. But it all started with a prayer fellowship for the
31:40 Cindis. We gather every Wednesday Versus Day and we'll pray for the Cindies, pray for the Cindies, pray for the Cindies.
31:45 So form fellowships, form fellowships, form uh mission fellowships first. So you have to form the small communities.
31:51 It is through people that people begin to work. I remember preaching way back in the 80s about the Nepales and the
31:57 Myanmar is coming and how we should reach out and all that. The reason why it didn't really work is because we
32:02 didn't have small groups to engage it. In fact, when I after preaching, they came and asked me is that Dorai's vision
32:07 or the church vision. I said neither God's vision.
32:13 This is way back in the 80s. And so you need to form fellowships. Now I think
32:18 you already have a missions department. But nothing to stop among varsity students forming mission groups, small
32:24 mission fellowships. Nothing to form. You know in the school you have photography club, you have rotary club,
32:29 you have lions club, you have science club, you have literary and debating club. Same concept form mission
32:35 fellowships. Mission fellowships. Mission fellowships. My desire is to see in churches having mission fellowships
32:41 for all the unreached people groups in Malaysia.
32:47 Wow. Why you all so quiet?
32:53 I thought dai you would come and challenge us and then say here am I send
32:58 my friend
33:03 but you are saying form yourself in missions fellowships that's that's what it takes you know
33:10 when we were mobilizing uh we had to supposed to send 300 missionaries from our church and so I came out with a list
33:16 of uh countries they are supposed to focus
33:21 And there were some many and in our mobilization efforts there were people who said they wanted to go to China. So
33:27 I talked to the late Dr. Co then uh Dr. Co what about China? Uh he said D don't
33:32 don't don't think about China. Let the Chinese church handle ch China because you know the language and all that. So I
33:38 I I I in my list and my thinking China is not there. China is not there. So one
33:43 day you know I was coming down and I saw three ladies. They said Dai uh you want to join us for prayer? I say who pray
33:50 for what? Pray for China. Pray for China. It's almost like saying praying for Jupiter, you know, because you never
33:56 think about Jupiter, right? Unless that Jupiter is the name of your dog. So you you don't you you you don't you don't
34:02 think about China. So I said, "No, no, no. Carry on." No. And so they went they went and prayed. Do you know these three
34:09 people actually landed in China themselves? And they're from the English church, by the way, not Chinese church.
34:16 They actually became missionaries to China. And I only realized it in 2009. And I
34:21 must tell you this that because this small fellowship they were praying for China, our greatest missionary
34:28 concentration is in China. And I when I saw that
34:36 God like a panoramic view went back flashback that time when they say what are you doing? Uh praying for China. You
34:42 want to join us? I said no. Hey, those three ladies, they were not
34:48 in the missions committee. They are not who is who in the missions committee. They are not who is who in the missions
34:54 field. But they got together over lunch and begin to pray. And today the largest concentration of our missionaries are in
35:01 China. Can that happen in First Baptist Church?
35:08 Who who said yes? Oh,
35:14 we have only one missionary candidate so far, only one mission mobilizer so far,
35:20 but he's a good place to start because he's the chairman. So, it must flow from the head down. And I want to say this,
35:26 if you could just gather that and begin to pray like brother Andrew was talking about the migrant, hey, we have a burden
35:32 for migrant ministry. Hey, let's come as a as a prayer fellowship, mission fellowship for the migrant workers. That's how it's going to be done. If you
35:38 just gather a few, it doesn't take two. It doesn't take many. No wonder Jesus knew the human the human nature of
35:44 things. And that's why he said two or three. He didn't say 12 or 20. He said two or
35:50 three. So when two or three gather together and say hey uh let's this this brother Andrew talked about let's let's let's talk to him and let's go and visit
35:57 and bring that as a prayer. Study the migrants. No. Hey, if it's all Nepali, start learning Nepal. I had some sisters
36:03 who actually started to learn the Nepali language in our church. Yeah, I have a sister in our church who
36:10 is a full-time staff. She started to learn Vietnamese, reach out to the Vietnamese around our church and brought all the Vietnamese girls to the Lord.
36:17 She's in the mission department. That's why she's did it. If she's in the finance department, won't do it
36:26 because it is in this this this whole you can form a a group of housewives got together and they said, "Hey, what this
36:33 this this what the church is doing is great. They got together and suddenly their eyes were open to their Indonesian
36:38 mates. They were there for the last 12 years. They didn't see. They saw the Indonesian maid as M A D. Then suddenly
36:46 they saw unriched people group right in the house. I told you last time last
36:52 last uh last Sunday if you do not go God will send you into the house. In fact he
36:59 doesn't even send he drop them into your house.
37:05 But you need to form these fellowships. I I this is the most the powerful one. In fact, the student volunteer movement,
37:11 the haste movement in Britain or uh in a all that started through small fellowships or prayer mission
37:17 fellowships. You need to form this mission fellowships meet just as you have a cell form this mission
37:22 fellowships and begin to pray. God in his time will work a miracle. God in his
37:28 time. And so when you say you are witnesses, this is the most important thing. Yes. Missions dedication is very
37:33 very powerful but you need to have some place of expression in those missions fellowship and so today we have in our
37:38 church here migrant movement ministry and we have people who are engaged in it you know continuously in fact from
37:44 mobilization we have got into engagement I started when we started off we had five divisions in our missions department today we have 23 divisions uh
37:52 it's all because we started with the small mission fellowship starting and people had these burdens you know and so
37:57 uh you you could you could actually do that great so need to move on What else did I I got here? Yeah. Okay.
38:05 Now this mission fellowships can be divided into few groups but out of it you'll become goers senders. You see
38:11 when somebody says I want to go to China he's not going tomorrow right so what we need to do if this
38:19 fellowship is there then they can come inside here and then you can nurture that burden you can disciple them you
38:26 can actually when one one particular person wanted to go to Thailand and we begin to nurture that person and
38:33 actually wanted to go in 6 months time he said no there are a lot of things issues that you have to handle and so
38:38 one year later she actually went to Thailand So you need to have that so they can say yes I want to go but there is no vehicle
38:45 there is no platform and so it it forms this I remember a person who wanted to go to China and uh but he said I'm not
38:52 going now I'll only go 5 years later and so 5 years later when we went to him he's gone not to China but it's no more
38:59 no more vision miss missions burden anymore uh he's gone out of the mission you know so but once we started to have
39:05 this fellowship they they begin to uh preserve it nurture it grow it this is the is where they keep moving. We move
39:12 them, we move them. We actually when they come in we actually ask them to write a strategy paper and very often they cannot write and that is where we
39:18 engage them and say hey and that's that's when I think the university education has helped me write there we
39:25 write proposals research proposals here we write strategy proposals and so how do you engage them so we actually get
39:30 them through uh until that point where they can go and I can tell you those who have gone through out of say 20 people
39:37 the fallout rate maybe two or three 17 or 18 actually get to in the field
39:43 but over a period of time over over a period of time so you need to have missions fellowship you need to move on
39:49 uh you need to engage the people they're either goers or senders now senders the
39:54 church is divided into into cell groups or things like that no okay senders make senders is great what we did was uh we
40:02 actually turn each uh cell group to be a sender so when we were mobilizing I I
40:08 don't know whether you were still there I would go to all the home fellowships and I said look we can Can the home fellowship pray for two missionaries to
40:14 be sent out? You mean from the from our home fellowship two missionaries? No, no, no, no. From the church. Oh, that
40:21 one we can pray. Then one of them said, "Hey, Dorai, are
40:28 you going around the whole church?" I said, "Yeah, you mean somebody else is also praying for us?" I say, "Yeah."
40:37 And it is true. One particular group I'm just giving you as an example one particular group they said their burden
40:43 is for law and they began to pray for Laos and God just within two months send a
40:50 couple to so you can that the cell group can great
40:55 way to to to mobilize prayer senders is is great and what we do is we put every missionary in a in a cell group so that
41:01 they can support in prayer they can pray for them they can uh visit them some we actually help them to visit them write
41:08 to them and encourage them send us. The third one is welcomers which much of what we what brother Andrew talked about
41:13 is we may not leave the shores but people come here we can engage them. I actually go around and talk to them who
41:19 is in your office. One particular sister she said her clients are all Japanese and I say right there
41:26 right there. And so we we through the fellowship we actually nurture that encourage her uh
41:33 and and give her that kind of training so that she can read the Japanese. Other one said this is from Iran and so we did
41:40 that and did that and there are so many stories like that but what I'm saying is all this for it to happen it must have a
41:46 a a fellowship uh by the way mission trips are great uh
41:52 eye openers if you can get 70% of your church to go to miss on mission trips
41:57 that will be great but after that do a debrief you have an overnight mobilized church you know and the last one is be
42:04 endued with power be filled with the spirit And here he says in verse 49 he says uh
42:10 I'm going to send you what my father has promised but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high. And in Acts 18 you read that uh
42:20 Jesus said to them that you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you will be my witnesses. One of
42:26 the things we emphasize is prayer missions prayer. We actually, you know, that will be the crucial turning point
42:34 of any person's commitment to missions. It is prayer. It is prayer. And so,
42:41 um, prayer first of all, you receive the power. Number two, you receive the
42:46 boldness. You all that in book of acts, you receive guidance from the Holy Spirit. You get wisdom. Now, many times
42:52 we will face obstacles in missions mobilization and getting missionaries out of the field, out into the field.
42:58 You will face a tremendous opposition and the only place I I like the song
43:03 where you said lead me to the cross where I will lie before him many times when I sang that song and when you sang
43:09 that song I it's like a flashback how many times we have gone before God and just cried just cried because we do not
43:17 know how to move here I told you how to move it looks like step one two three but
43:22 you know what it is uh many times I've gone before God and
43:28 Lord, I don't know what to do. I really don't know what to do. I I just don't know what to do. And then as we begin to
43:33 pray, I please, it is not this triumphalistic prayer. You know, it's
43:38 not the triumphalistic prayer. There are sometimes triumphalistic prayer, but sometimes it is the cry of Jeremiah
43:44 lamentation, but in the process, God begins to lead and guide and order your
43:51 steps and do that. Because if you don't process it before God, you can become
43:56 bitter. You become resentful. You can become angry with the church.
44:07 And so you have to process it before God. The presence of God, the presence of God more than the power is the
44:14 presence of the Holy Spirit, the person of Christ
44:20 made manifest through the spirit of God. And that is that relationship that will
44:26 take you through the presence of the Holy Spirit. So how is it translated? Prayer. So in our church and the
44:32 missions department, Tuesday that time when I was leading, Tuesday is a day of prayer. Um Wednesday is business
44:38 meeting. It is not open for the word. No whole day we just one one hour we'll
44:43 just pray. Sometimes more goes more than an hour but definitely we pray we pray pray pray. So when we start to think we
44:50 trust that we will think God's thoughts we will we will catch on to the leadings of the Holy Spirit and we begin to pray
44:57 and I don't know whether I've told you this you know there is 2004 Dr. CO that time said can you gather all our
45:03 missionaries and have a missions conference and I felt that and so we gathered all of them the stage was full
45:09 remember from five missionaries the stage was full and I was the chairman so I was reading
45:15 the names I know what I had gone through and my team what we have gone through so
45:20 it's very easy for me to choke with emotion as I read out the names if I had
45:26 cried and wept I think the people would have understood but nothing of that nature took is rather there was a stream
45:32 of joy, a fountain of joy. Reason I could step back and look and say, "God,
45:38 you did it. God, you did it. God, you did it." And it's because in that
45:44 atmosphere of prayer, coming before God, coming before God, it is he. Finally, it
45:51 is Christ Jesus who mobilizes the church.
45:57 We must come to that realization. Finally, it is he who does it through
46:02 his holy spirit through you and through the scriptures he does it. So finally it
46:08 is him and so when you do that we say God we give you thanks you are faithful.
46:15 Amen. I will finish here and all of you will stand up and when I go out you will say
46:22 thank you brother that's a good message but nothing will happen.
46:30 nothing will happen. But
46:37 I've already said this, the real need after this
46:43 is to get mobilizers. Mobilizers will have a ringing call.
46:50 Mobilizers who would want to train others or see others train. Not necessarily you train. We don't really
46:56 train. What we set up is what we call uh prefield training but we actually send
47:02 to mission agencies for further training. So you want to see others trained, prepared and sent you need
47:08 mobilizers. Now I want to say this had we not played a role of mobilization or as role as mobilizers we would not have
47:14 done what we have done or what God had done in our church would not have happened. I want to tell you this.
47:22 So you need mobilizers. And I think here there are mobilizers. I know there's a
47:27 missions department here. That's great. But switch gears. Switch gears. Mobilize
47:33 this church. How do you move these people here? And I'm sure and Dr. Peter,
47:38 if you could identify them and say, "Hey, the day Dai talked about
47:43 mobilizers, is there something from here that you think that's what you would like to do? We like to talk to you." If you take move from this message to that,
47:51 I think you're well on your way. Well on your way.
47:56 All right. I've said everything that I have in my life as far as mission is concerned. And I pray the Holy Spirit
48:03 will water this, will lead this and guide this one day you will become a missionary church. We were a missionary.
48:09 We were a missionary supporting church. Then we became a missionary sending church and now we are a missionary
48:15 growing church. That means we create conditions where now missionaries will
48:20 automatically grow from our church. Shall we pray? Father, we thank you
48:26 today that you are a God of mission. You're on a mission. And Lord, I pray
48:31 for this church that this church will rise up as a powerful missionary church.
48:38 Not because they have nothing else to do, but it is the thing that is upon
48:43 your heart. And I pray you'll raise up mobilizers and out of their work under
48:49 the power of the Holy Spirit, they'll be able to form this mission fellowships and there will be goers and there will
48:54 be senders and there will be welcomers and truly Lord that this church will be a faithful church to your mission in
49:03 Jesus precious name. Amen. Amen. God bless you.
