Kevin Rodgers, Professor of Missions at Southwestern Seminary, preached from Mark 5, verses 1-20, in SWBTS Chapel on September 4, 2025.
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In that video, my friend Eric said the biggest danger kind of finished with this phrase. The biggest danger is thinking someone else can do it. But what if it’s you, that God has called to come to Sub Saharan Africa? You know, in our story, our testimony a long time ago, almost 30 years ago, Africa was not even on our radar when we decided to go with the IMB. We just went to a conference. We felt like God was calling us to be missionaries. We went to a conference, and we were going as International Service Corps missionaries, and we looked at 800 job requests and that’s how we decided where we were going to go.
I never even heard of the country of Zambia before I got to that conference, and after filling out an application, six months later, I was standing in an African seminary classroom with just my little MDiv from a Southern Baptist seminary teaching BACHELOR OF THE. Ecology students, and so I started doing ministry with those students and and I would teach them in the classroom during the week, and on the weekend, my wife and our little sons and US would go out with them, and we would do ministry on the weekend. And one of the formal experiences probably that basically set the tone of my ministry.
There was one day I was preaching in a prison, and so because it was a men’s prison, an open air prison, my wife and kids could not go. So I dropped them off at this little Baptist church called mwenebeshi, Baptist Church, little mud wall, grass roof, kind of church with about 20 or 30 people in there, and dropped off one of my seminary students there with my wife and my two sons. He preached that morning, and then I went with a couple of other guys that I was discipling, who were also my seminary students, Bachelor of theology students. We went to the mwenebeshi prison and had a preaching service and had about 30 people come to Christ that day.
By the way, I had just been pastoring in Arkansas the last year, and after 30 years of banging my head against the wall in Arkansas, we had baptized 30 people, and in one day we were baptized in 30 I was like, what I’m in a different universe. So then we get back to the church. Afterwards, we walk back down the road, back to where the church is after we get off the prison grounds, get through the gate, get out, and we’re coming up to the church, and they’re in an invitation time, I can tell they’re finishing the service, and the guy who’s preaching is giving an invitation for people to come if they want to be saved.
And so I told the two guys with me, because, hey, I’m the, I’m the I’m the teacher, right? I’m the Knower. I told these two guys, let’s just stand here under the mango tree, because we don’t want to disturb the service as they’re finishing. So they finished the service and they have an invitation. People come to respond. My wife goes outside, and she’s talking to some women and so my students tell me, they say, Mr. Rogers, do you see wasn’t Dr Rogers. Then, by the way, Mr. Rogers, do you see pastor Kevin, these, these two women talking to your wife. I was like, Yeah, I see them.
They said, well, you know, you’re probably not going to believe this, but those two women are demon possessed. And I said, You guys are crazy. They’re not demon possessed. They didn’t look abnormal to me. They weren’t they weren’t doing anything boisterous or or making any kind of crazy noises or anything that you would think that looked like, maybe the Exorcist, which was my worldview when it came to demon possession. And they said, no, no. And I said, so.
So, okay, typical American scientific perspective, prove it to me, how can you? How can you? How can you prove that? To me, they said, well, honestly, we don’t know. We can’t tell you. It’s just their mannerisms. It’s kind of the way they’re talking, sort of the way that just something on their face, but, but they just had a sixth sense. They just knew that those women were demon possessed. They said, We could be wrong. These were young guys, 18 years old, brand new college students. We could be wrong, but we’re pretty sure that’s true. About the time that I was deriding them and going to pull out my Bible, my wife walked across that courtyard about 50 feet to where I was, and came to me and said, Kevin, I don’t know how to tell you this, but these two women over here are telling me they’ve got evil spirits, and they would like for you guys to come pray for them.
Well, I had to pick my chin up off the floor. It took me a while to do that kind of get myself together. And I realized some things in that moment. I can remember that moment like it was yesterday, even though it was almost 30 years ago, I realized I was woefully unprepared for such things, and I had two choices. I could either ignore it, like some of my other missionary colleagues had historically done, or I could begin the humbling journey to learn from my students who were much more in tune with these things than I was. So during the week, I taught them Greek systematic theology and biblical studies, and on the weekend, I learned spiritual warfare and church planting in the real world laboratory of Central Africa. That’s my history. If you want to learn the fruit of those studies, you can take my spiritual warfare class this winter for a balanced perspective that’s both biblically grounded and confessionally guided. And yes, that was a shameless plug for my winter class that’s being offered in both the seminary and the college.
This message today that I’m going to preach from Mark Chapter Five is not really a message on Spiritual Warfare as such, but it’s actually a message about missions. And so for those of you, especially my college students, who are listening for my theme, okay, because you’re going to write this down, this text shows us a couple of things. One that Jesus loves the most unlovable. World. And number two, that he sends the least likely candidates to do the greatest task for His glory. He loves the most unlovable and he sends the least likely candidates to do the greatest task on the planet for His glory.
That the title of this message. Message is the first missionary Mark five, one to 20. However, in this text, we’ve got one, I believe, of the most memorable stories in the entire New Testament. And in some cases, we see Jesus encounter evil spirits, and they appear quite benign, like maybe the woman with a spinal infirmity, while at other times, the encounter is a bit more chaotic. This story of the Gerasene demoniac in Mark Chapter Five is is by far the most sensational of Jesus’s encounters with the demonic. This text is quite unique in several ways. Some things I need to cover with you before we get into it.
First of all, the story is included in all of the Synoptic Gospels. You find it in Matthew, Mark and Luke. But it’s interesting here for me, because I like this mark and passage, which is, I think, a little atypical of Mark. First of all, it’s interesting because Mark is typically concise and to the point, but this is actually the longest with the most detailed story of all the synoptics. Additionally, there are a couple of discrepancies that have puzzled scholars for years in these texts. If you compare Matthew, Mark and Luke, first of all, in Luke here, and in Luke, he’s called the garrison demoniac, but in Matthew, he’s referred to as the Gadarene demoniac. And we’re not really sure where those places were, whether it was referring to a village or a region.
It could be either the second kind of discrepancy that people have to wrestle with in both Matthew and Luke, or are that in Matthew and Luke, there are two demoniacs, but in Mark, Mark probably through the eyes of Peter. Recording for Peter, he tells us about only one, maybe the most significant one. Now these different these details are difficult to reconcile, unless one holds, as I do, to matthean priority, or maybe even complete independence. Mathian Priority addresses these and many other issues that proponents of Mark and priority struggle to explain. Finally, these ties, these things tie into the theme of my message. There’s a secrecy motif in Mark. It’s interesting.
If you look at Mark in mark one and Mark Three, Jesus encounters demoniacs and tells them, instructs them not to reveal his identity. In Mark one after healing a leper, he tells him not to tell anybody. In other places in the book, after this, he commands people not to disclose who he is. But in our passage today, we see the first person that Jesus ever sends out. It’s not who we would expect, the missionary. This missionary, the first missionary would be at the bottom of our list of candidates for missionary service. Joel Sutton wouldn’t be out there coming to Southwestern and looking for the Gadarene or geracene demoniac to send overseas. And yet, I believe he’s the first one that Jesus ever sent to do the work of missions. If you have your Bibles, turn with me to Mark chapter five. Let’s begin.
And we want to go through this, this verse, this chapter, verse by verse. And I want you to see several things with me today. Forgive me, I’m recovering from a terrible, terrible cold. The first thing I want you to see with me this morning is the plight of the sinner. The plight of the sinner. Look, in verse one, the Bible says they came to the other side of the sea, to the region of the gerasenes. As soon as he got out of the boat, that’s Jesus, a man with an unclean spirit, came out of the tombs and met him.
He lived in the tombs, and no one was able to restrain him anymore, not even with a chain, because he often had been bound with shackles and chains, but had torn the chains apart and smashed the shackles. No one was strong enough to subdue him. Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains, he was always crying out and cutting himself with stones. Now in this text here, when we get to this story, Jesus is moving from one kind of spiritual warfare to another. When we use the term spiritual warfare, we tend to think about the demonic, but actually there are multiple ways we struggle against the world, against the flesh, against the devil. But Jesus had just gone through a storm to get to this location, even in that storm, he had to stand up and rebuke the wind, the same word for rebuke that he used to rebuke demons earlier in the book of Mark. And so now he leaves that battle, the chaotic battle with the storm and the sea and potential loss of life. And then now enters into another battle, a personal battle, a spiritual battle, where he sees this demoniac, and the demoniac sees him and runs across to him, someone that is has been unable to be tamed. No one could tame him. The man lived in terrible torment.
The Bible says he wandered aimlessly in the mountains and among the tombs. People knew him, and they avoided him. He probably lived in the tombs, because that’s where he could find shelter. You know, they would hew the out of the side of rocks to create these tombs. So he had a place of shelter. It was also a place of solitude for him, where he could get away from people, and he could do all the terrible things that he did. It was also a place of perhaps even food. I’ve seen in Africa many, many times, people who live, we call them Mad Men. Sometimes they’re demon possessed, other times they’re just not they need to be treated mentally, and they’ve not had an opportunity to have that. And they run wild, they run naked, and they and their hair is matted and their nails are long, and their and their bodies are torn, and they live like that for months, even years.
They eat whatever they can find. I’m sure this demoniac lived in the tombs, because there he had access to the dead flesh of bodies that was there in those tombs to sustain himself. The demons gave him supernatural strength, and no one could subdue him. This man was an unclean. Man, not unclean simply because he was a sinner, born a sinner, as all of us are unclean before God, but he was unclean in a place among lived among Gentiles in a Gentile location. We’ll see that in a moment. He lived in a place where they kept pigs. He lived in a tomb in a graveyard where no one could go.
He was filled with demons that were unclean. Everything about this life, this man’s life, screamed unclean, and the world had offered its best answers, let’s tie him down. Let’s chain him up. But in the end, he was hopelessly possessed with nothing that could be done to change his life. That’s the plight of the sinner. The second thing I want you to look at with me this morning, though, is the power of the Savior. Let’s get away from the devil. Let’s talk about who’s really important. Let’s talk about Jesus. Look in verse six, what does the Bible say? When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and knelt down before him, and he cried out with a loud voice, what do you have to do with me?
Jesus, Son of the Most High God. Now in Matthew He says, the demons say, what do you have to do with us? What do you have to do with me? Jesus, Son of the Most High God, I beg you, before God, don’t torment me. Other versions say, Don’t torment us before the time, for he had told him, come out of the man, you unclean spirit. What is your name? He asked him, my name is Legion. He answered here it changes to plural, because we are many. And he begged Him earnestly not to send them out of the region, out of the area. A large herd of pigs was there feeding on the hillside. The demons begged him send us to the pigs so that we may enter them.
So, he gave them permission, and the unclean spirits came out and entered the pigs. The herd of about 2000 rushed down the steep bank into the sea, and they drowned there. When you look at this text, it’s interesting, because it looks like, I think the time bears this out, that actually the demons Legion, they attempted to resist. They were resisting Jesus. Every situation in the Bible is different. There’s no magic bullet for demon possession. There is no formulaic approach to how these things are dealt. Every encounter that you see in the Bible, when Jesus encounters demon possessed people is always a bit different. Many times they come out just like that. But in this case, they actually were resisting him. It’s like they were trying to push back.
Because look again, and listen to the way the text reads. It says, When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and knelt down, and he cried out with a loud voice, what do you have to do with me? Jesus, Son of the Most High God, I beg you, before God, don’t torment me. See for he had told him, come out of the man, you unclean spirit. Jesus had commanded them to come out. They didn’t come out. Interesting in this text, they, they resisted coming out. They, they tried to to reason with Jesus. They tried to talk with Jesus. Jesus asks him, tell me what your name is. That’s not to say that we’re supposed to do that, and a lot of people believe you have to do all of these things exactly as it’s written here, that it’s not a formula. But Jesus is showing us more about this man and the plight that he’s in and the power that he has. They said, don’t send us out before the time.
You know, it’s fascinating. When you look at all the synoptic accounts together, you pick up different pieces of the puzzle. Their name was Legion. The Legion of Roman soldiers was approximately 6000 soldiers. We don’t know how many demons possess this man, but it could have been as many as 6000 demons. And they say, what do you want with us? In verse nine, they say, we are many. I’ve encountered demon possessed people who have multiple demons, sometimes with different voices, sometimes with different personalities. Those things are real. Those things are in many parts of the world, every day, occurrences that people live with. And these demons here, they feared the Abyss in Luke they say, please don’t send us to the abyss, the ultimate place of asylum or torment for demons. And so, it’s fascinating that they did not want to be cast into the deep or into the abyss. So instead, they were cast in a 2000 swine.
And if you look at the luken account, who actually went, rushed down into the abyss, the abyss of the sea, not the abyss of the book of Revelation, the demons respected Jesus. They fell at his feet, but they didn’t they didn’t worship Him. They knew who he was, but they feared him. They feared him. They knew him, and they feared him, and they feared the abyss, but Jesus sends them out. Look at the next part of this text, I call it the plea of society. The plea of society, verse 14, the man who the men who tended the pigs, the Gentile herders of the pigs, they ran off and reported it in the town, in the countryside, and people went to see what had happened.
They came to see Jesus, and this is what they saw. They saw the man who had been demon possessed sitting there, dressed and in his right mind. And they were afraid. Those who had seen it described to them what had happened to the demon possessed man, and told about the pigs. And then they began to beg him to leave their region as he was getting into the boat, the man who had been demon possessed begged Him earnestly that he might remain with him. Jesus did not let him, but told him.
The gentile pig herders ran to report what happened. When the crowds from the nearby villagers came. They observed several things. Here’s what they saw. First of all, they saw the man they had feared. Let me tell you, this guy was known. He had been living there for some time. He was feared he would, night and day, roam around the hillside, roam around the cemetery, and gash himself with stones and do everything he can, and he’s trapped inside this body with 1000s of demons who are tormenting him and tormenting the village and scaring everyone around him.
This guy was known, and now, all of a sudden, people come back after this man has been delivered, and they see this man sitting there, the man they’d always feared, the man they tied up, the man they’d put in chains, the man who had broken every shackle. They see him now sitting there in his right mind, sitting dressed, and in his right mind, the man they feared, was delivered, delivered from sin, delivered from demons, delivered from his circumstances. He was, he was sitting there dressed in his right mind a picture that Jesus offers hope for all people. Nobody is beyond the saving power of Jesus. Nobody is too far gone, nobody’s too lost.
But also they saw that all their pigs were dead. All their pigs were dead, 2000 that’s a big herd of pigs. These were Gentiles. This is the area of Decapolis on the other side of the lake, and on a Gentile area. They’re raising these pigs, probably to sell to Roman soldiers and so this was their livelihood. So they see this man they’re afraid of sitting there in his right mind. They see the fear and power that they, that they, that they held, is now dissipated because this guy’s okay. They see all their pigs are dead, and they see something else there, this person they call Jesus, that somehow has power to deliver somebody that no one could ever restrain. So what do they do? Hey, do you could you leave? Jesus. Could you leave? It’s heartbreaking.
The people wanted Jesus leave. We don’t know if it was because they lost their property, or because they feared someone who could command demons, or if they were unhappy with the change in the status quo. Mark simply says they were afraid. They were afraid. And because of their fear, they chased away the best thing that had ever come to their village, that had ever come to their region. Because if this man could deliver, if Jesus could deliver, this man from all of these demons, think what Jesus could do in my life. Think what Jesus could do in our village. Think what could happen for us. It just reminds me of today, how even when Jesus changes lives, often the world asks him to leave.
Asks him to leave. I’ve had people that I’ve led to Christ, and then after they get saved, it’s like their family doesn’t want to be around them because they’re too spiritual or too holy or too whatever. You know, the Bible says that men love darkness rather than light, for fear that their evil deeds will be exposed. I think what made these people uncomfortable was the fact that this guy’s life had been changed. It was obvious that something significant had happened in his life, something that was beyond their understanding, something that was beyond their comprehension, and that scared them, because they were happy, just like they were.
My last point for you this morning is the proclamation of the soul winner. The proclamation of the soul winner. Look with me in in verse 18, as he was getting into the boat, Jesus, he didn’t stay around where he’s not wanted. He comes and does this most amazing miracle, this incredible encounter, delivers a man from 1000s of demons, restores his life, turns, literally, the world upside down. And then they’re like, We need you to go and so Jesus gets with his disciples right back into the boat he just got out of after the storm they just came through. And when he gets in the boat, what does this guy do? I think he does exactly what you would do as he was getting into the boat, the man who had been demon possessed begged Him earnestly that he might remain with him, Jesus, can I? Can I come with you? I don’t, I don’t.
I don’t have anything here. I was living in the graveyard. I was wearing tattered clothing. I was in an uncontrollable situation filled with demons. I’ve been I’ve been governed and controlled by fear and pain and loss, and nobody here loves me. Nobody here cares about me. Everybody here’s afraid of me. Jesus, can I come with you? I just think about that, and I think we would all have said the same thing, but verse 19, Jesus did not let him, but told him, No, no, no, I got something else for you to do. Go home. Go home to your own people and report to them how much the Lord has done for you and how he has had mercy on you.
So he went out and began to proclaim in the Decapolis. The Decapolis was that entire region stands for decades, 1010 cities, an area of 10 cities, how much Jesus had done for him. And they were all amazed. They were all amazed. It’s no surprise that he desired to follow Jesus. That’s how you know the Savior has touched somebody, because they want to follow Jesus. Jesus. They want to be with Jesus. They want to abide in Christ. They want to abide with him. That’s how you know, his life was changed. It wasn’t just the fact that he was sitting there clean and clothed and in his right mind, he wasn’t just cleaned up on the outside. He was cleaned up on the inside. And you can tell his life’s been changed. He wants to go with Jesus.
And Jesus makes that surprising decision where we would expect a warning, maybe to tell no one, according to Mark, but as he often does, but Jesus instead commissions him to go. He commissions him to go. You know, the one who’s been forgiven the most loves the most. I was this guy. I’ve never been demon possessed, but if you ask my parents, they’d probably say, yeah, maybe I because I sure drank like a fish and did every drug I could get my hands on, and lived a terrible life and had a terrible mouth and did terrible things, was not the one that people loved, was not the guy that your dad wanted you to bring home to him, and I can remember the day in a dorm room on the University of North Carolina Wilmington campus, when Jesus entered my life and delivered me from a life of darkness, a Life of deception, a life committed to everything unholy and ungodly.
I said, Jesus, I want to go with you. I want to go with you. I get that. I understand that. But Jesus had something else for him, not that he wouldn’t spiritually abide in Christ. Of course he does, but he was sent to go and do what nobody that far had been sent to do. He was an unlikely, unlikely missionary. Now we can quibble over the fact that he wasn’t a sent one in the apostolic sense or that he went back to his own people. So maybe he wasn’t really a cross cultural missionary, but the fact remains that Jesus saved him and then sent him to be a sent one to this area of Decapolis. In my mind, that makes him the first one, or the first sent one, or the first missionary.
Now, what are the implications of that?
I think it’s profound, and that’s what drew me to this text for this missions message today. The implication is this, if Jesus can use this guy, Jesus can use you. If he can use this guy, he can use me. If he can use this guy, he can use anybody. Nobody is so lost that they are so demon possessed, so hell ridden, that they are beyond the power of Jesus to save. In fact, that’s who Jesus loves to save. He loves to go to the depths of the the people that we avoid, the people that we overlook in our evangelism, the homeless that we don’t want to engage on the street, the people that we run from.
Let me tell you something that’s the people that Jesus delights to save. He delights to save them because in changing them, he is magnified and those who are forgiven the most often love the most. It’s not about your background, it’s not about your education or giftedness. If God can use this man, he can use you, I think that’s fascinating. Now listen, I left the mission field to come here and train people to go to the mission field, because I do believe that a call to serve is a call to preparation. A Call to Mission is a call to be prepared. I believe that I’m here investing in you, because I believe that. But this guy never went to a seminary.
This guy never even went to a Bible study. This guy never, you know, he never had any training. Nobody gave him a four spiritual laws, or, here’s the three circles, or whatever. What did Jesus do? He gave him a command, you go back and tell people. And then he gave him a strategy, just tell people what God’s done for you. It wasn’t, it wasn’t complicated, it wasn’t rocket science. You just go and you tell people what God has done for you. I wish I had time. My time’s gone. But if you go and you look in, in Mark 7:31, after this, to write it down, look later, you’ll see that there you. Goes back to Decapolis, and he meets people who already know about him because of this guy. In Mark 81 you’ll see that Jesus found crowds of people, crowds of people that came to here and preached.
But it was because of this guy. Jesus cares for the lost, even for those who don’t care for him, that’s also significant to me. What’s significant about Jesus sending this guy to the Decapolis is number one, he sent somebody who wasn’t a Crip, wasn’t trained, and was the lowest of the low in every way that we count status, and yet Jesus used him, and God can use you. But the second thing it is that I think is so important, is that this demonstrates that Jesus cares for those who don’t care for him. You know what Jesus did? These people said, hey, get out of here. We don’t want you get on the boat.
So Jesus got on the boat, but he sent a missionary to him. He sent a missionary to him. The people sent him away, and he got in the boat to leave, but he did not leave them without a witness. He did not leave them without a witness. He not only went home, but he went to all 10 cities. This man was sent to people who did not want to hear. He was sent to people did not want to hear. Now that’s significant, because listen to me today. As important as it is to go where people are responsive to the gospel, we also have to go where people are not responsive to the gospel. We got to go to the hard places, to the zero to one, places we got to go where people don’t want to hear we got to go where it’s going to cost you something to be a witness. We witness to everybody, not just the easy ones, but nobody is beyond reach. Nobody’s beyond reach.
There’s an old story about a woman who was actually, you know, this is before the days where you had the keyless entry on your car. She had been out shopping at night, kind of in a bad part of town, and she is coming out of the store. She’s a little bit nervous. I’m sure some of you ladies have felt that before. Her car was the last car in the parking lot, little bit sketchy area. She’s got her keys out, you know, kind of like in between her finger, in case something happens. And she gets to the car, and she opens the door, and she left the car door locked. Hadn’t thought about that. And she gets in there, but she locks the doors and she breathes a sigh of relief.
So then she cranks up the car and she starts driving home. As she’s driving home, she pulls out into the street, eventually takes an exit, gets onto the interstate, and a tractor trailer kind of pulls up beside her, a big semi-truck, and as the tractor trailer kind of rides her along beside her for a while makes her a little bit nervous. She’s still kind of, you know, trying to be brave, a little sketched out by her experience back at the shopping center and so she kind of changes lanes. And when she does that, tractor trailer actually moves up behind her and is right on her tail. That scares her.
So she starts actually speeding up, but when she speeds up, the tractor trailer speeds up behind her, and then, as it’s matching her speed, now she’s really getting nervous. He’s got his brights on in her rear view, in her inner it’s a big truck, and got her brights, his brights on, and it’s flashing his lights. And so she gets out of the way, thinking he’s going to pass, but he doesn’t. He gets behind her again, and when she changes lane, he matches her to the point where now she’s trying to weave and get away, and regardless of traffic, this guy’s matching her every move. Now she knows she’s in trouble, so she gets off an exit, and she’s looking for a place to go, and there’s no police station, but she sees a 711 there in the distance, and so she drives as fast as she can. She Squeals on the brake, slams up, jumps out the out the door of the car. Jumps out the car and leaves the door open and is running inside to tell the guy behind the counter to call the police.
And as she gets to the door, she looks behind her to see if the driver the truck is chasing her, and she looks and the driver has gotten out of the truck, but what he did was he went to the back seat of her car and pulled out a would be rapist that had been laying there in the back seat all that time, you see from his vantage point in the truck, he could see in there, and could see her danger, and she never knew that she was in danger. And I’m telling you; that’s the way it is with lost people.
Many times, there are people who are going to hear this message right now that don’t. Know that they don’t have a relationship with God. They’ve never been born again, and they are in danger, and God sees that. God can see into your life and your situation. He’s pursuing you because He loves you, not because he wants to do you harm, but because he wants to save you. He wants to deliver you like he delivered this man. That’s why God pursues us. I know the majority of you are born again Christians, but I promise you there are some of you here that are love the Lord and walk with God, but this whole missions thing, you feel like he’s been pursuing you on that too, and you’ve been running from him instead of running toward him.
You see, what God does is God pursues us because He loves us, not because he he’s not trying to ruin your life. He’s not trying to send you somewhere and make you have to leave your family and suffer and go through he’s not trying to do all that to you because he does, because He loves you, he wants what’s best for you, and He’s calling you to Himself. Today, we’re going to do something we don’t typically do, but we’re going to have an invitation right here in this chapel program today, and I’m going to ask you to come now, if you’re here, maybe you’re visiting or you’re watching this, and you’ve never received Jesus, you’ve never been born again.
You don’t know for sure whether you’re a child of God. I’m available. I would love to talk to you. I would love to help you to know how God can deliver you, the way he delivered me, the way he delivered this man. But I want you to know that for the rest of the world, there is a world of people out there that God wants to use you to pursue. He’s calling you to go and to pursue them. I don’t know where you are on your missions’ journey. Not everybody supposed to be a cross-cultural missionary. Not everybody should go to Africa. Maybe most of you should. I think maybe, if I’m being honest, but not all of you. If God calls you to stay, stay, but if God’s calling you to go, go. If you think you’re not smart enough, you are. If you think you’re not old enough, you are. If you think you’re not good enough, you are. It’s not about you. It’s about Jesus in you. He loves.
I love those verses in Corinthians where Paul says that he uses the shameful things of the world to shame the wisdom of the wise. That’s what God does. God uses the little things. He uses the nobodies to do great things. I’m going to ask you to stand to your feet, and the band’s going to come. And as they come, I’m going to pray. But also, too, I’m going to ask missionaries. There are missionaries here who in, who are with us this week, and they’re going to be here at the front if you’d like to come and ask one of them to pray with you about your call. Maybe you’re feeling called to missions. Maybe God’s been tugging at your heart. You’re not sure what that means or what that looks like. They would love to pray with you. They’d love to talk with you about that you just do whatever God’s put on your heart.
Father, I love you, and God, I thank you for the gift of being able to preach today, in spite of the sickness, in spite of the all the cold medication in my body and everything else, God, I just pray that you in your grace, would somehow use these very inadequate words to bring glory to yourself and to solidify a call in the hearts of people. God, you delight in saving to the uttermost those who seem the most unable to be saved. That was all of us. Thank you, Jesus, for doing everything that you did, to die for us, to save us, to pursue us, to call us to yourself, to love us, to choose us and then to give us the grace to be able to share that message with others. I pray for everybody in this room, Lord God that for those who are wrestling with a call today, God, would you work in their heart? Would you have them during this time to come, have them to come, have them Lord to pray with someone, and God, would you do an amazing thing here in our presence, for Your glory and for no other reason? And we ask You, Lord for these things today, in Jesus’ name Amen.
