In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the power and significance of John 3:16, which states that God loved the world so much that He gave His only Son for the salvation of all who believe in Him. The speaker highlights the importance of truly understanding the depth of this verse and its implications for all nations and peoples. The sermon also addresses the need for prayer and support for missionaries who are sent to preach the Gospel to those who have not heard. The speaker acknowledges the overwhelming and despairing nature of the task, but reminds the audience that God longs to save even the most lost and sinful individuals.

Hello, this is Brother Denny. Welcome to Charity Ministries. Our desire is that your life would be blessed and changed by this message. This message is not copyrighted and is not to be bought or sold. You are welcome to make copies for your friends and neighbors. If you would like additional messages, please go to our website for a complete listing at www.charityministries.org. If you would like a catalog of other sermons, please call 1-800-227-7902 or write to Charity Ministries, 400 West Main Street, Suite 1, EFRA PA 17522. These messages are offered to all without charge by the free will offerings of God's people. A special thank you to all who support this ministry. It's pretty sobering, isn't it? Does it move your heart? God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever of all the millions and millions of people that whosoever will hear and believe in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. We're so used to that verse, aren't we? It's just like a common verse to us. What a powerful verse it is. When God lets us sit for 20 minutes and just look at the world and all the nations and kindred and tongues and peoples scattered all over the world, it gives new meaning to that simple, common verse, doesn't it? Can we bow for a word of prayer before we get into the message tonight? O Lord, there's nobody in this room who can do what needs to be done in our hearts. There's no man who has words enough who can move our hearts. Lord, only You can do that. We ask You to send Your Spirit again down upon our hearts and our lives that we may hear what the Spirit of God is saying to the churches in these last days. God, open our hearts. We trust You for this. We thank You in Jesus' name. Amen. The cry of believing prayer and missions, that's the title of the message. The Father said to the Son whom He exalted, the Son whom He anointed, the Son whom He gave a name which is above every name. The Father said to the Son whom He made King. He said these words to His Son, Ask of Me and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. Psalm chapter 2 and verse 8. The Father said to the Son, Ask of Me and I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. It's very interesting to me that this phrase, the uttermost parts of the earth, is only found two times in the Bible. Once in the Old and once in the New. I don't know about you, but whenever I find those kind of things, I count them as being significant. When God says something once in the Old, He says it again in the New. I think it's important that you take a look at both of them and see how they tie together. And of course, we know where that phrase is used in the New Testament. We find it there in Acts chapter 1. The disciples were there in that chapter, reviving their dreams. Dashed after the crucifixion, but revived after the resurrection. The disciples were reviving their dreams of an earthly kingdom in Israel. But Jesus saw the kingdom through different eyes than they did at this point. He saw the kingdom through prophetic eyes and spoke a prophetic promise over them which tied this messianic psalm into the New Testament day. When Jesus said to them, as they were deliberating about the kingdom, as they were imagining, as they were dreaming out loud, as they were asking Him questions, Lord, will Thou at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? We're Your followers. You're our King. You just rose from the dead. Will You now restore the kingdom to Israel and put Jerusalem on the map again and make Israel that nation that You promised You would make it? Would You do that now, Lord? No, disciples. You don't understand. You don't understand the kingdom, disciples. You don't understand what I want to do. You don't understand what I'm after. But, I'll tell you one thing. Ye shall receive power. After that, the Holy Ghost is come upon you. And when that happens, ye shall be witnesses unto Me. Ye shall be witnesses unto Me in Jerusalem and in Judea and in Samaria and under the uttermost parts of the earth. He lifted up Himself and ascended up into the sky and into the clouds and disappeared from their sight. And He was gone. Brothers and sisters, we still live in that age. That day and that age has not gone away. It's still the same. What Christ was saying to them, though they in their ignorance did not understand what He meant. And it would be many years before they got the grasp of the depth of what He said when He said those words. But they did not understand what He meant. Oh, I'm going to build Me a kingdom. Yes, I am. But it's going to be built in a different way than you think. I'm going to use you. I'm going to work through you. You're going to be My body. And I'm going to be your head. And together we're going to ask the Father for the heathen. Out of every nation and kindred and tongue and people. But they didn't understand those things. And sometimes I wonder if maybe we don't understand them either. Really, what He meant by that? Well, for nearly 2,000 years this process of asking and receiving the heathen as an inheritance has been taking place. For nearly 2,000 years. It has been functioning. Study the history books. You will see the secrets are sometimes revealed. How this asking and receiving takes place. Wherever there is an outpouring of the divine Spirit of God upon man, there was first an outpouring of the human spirit before God. That outpouring of the human spirit before God is called prayer. You study the history books. You know, you'll see that wherever God poured out His Spirit, and by the way, it is for the heathen that God pours out His Spirit. It is for the lost that God pours out His Spirit upon man, His people. It is that we might be energized, that we might be empowered, that we might be a living witness upon this earth of Jesus Christ to the world around us. Whether it be in Ephrata, or whether it be in Leola, or whether it be in Five-Pointville, or whether it be in Pennsylvania, or whether it be in California, or whether it be in Manitoba, or whether it be in Tanzania, on the other side of the world, God fills His people with His Spirit that they might be witnesses. I don't know if we grasp those things. Seriously, I don't know if we grasp them. But that's the way it is. That work continues. That work of asking and receiving continues as the outpouring of prayer continues around the world. The history of successful missions can be traced back to the closets of praying men and women who, in secret, sought God and received open rewards. That is the history of missions. Whatever little history of missions we have can also be traced to the same place where men and women sought God in their closet, in secret, and have received the blessing of open rewards. Oh, do we believe that this evening? It only seems right for us to look at the subject of believing, prevailing prayer this evening, as we see how God is unfolding this missions conference. We've gotten a small glimpse into the heart of God as we've listened, as we've considered the many things that were said, as we've attended the workshops. We've gotten a small glimpse into the heart of God. And I say small, I make that on purpose, that emphasis. It's a small glimpse, dear brothers and sisters, how He longs after the world that does not know and that has not heard. God longs after that world. It only takes us a few minutes ourselves just to sit here in the quiet in the evening and look at those pictures and look down into the soul of all of those different kinds of people. And there's something inside of our own hearts. There's something that happens in our own hearts as we look upon those people. How much more God! We've heard about the cry of the lost in this world. Again tonight, we've gazed into their faces and their hearts. We looked at the cry of the animists. We heard the cry of Ishmael last evening. So beautiful. Such a good, deep look into the history of a people whom God loves. Amen? Today we learned about our neighbors, didn't we? Such a beautiful word. And oh, how my heart thrilled to hear Brother J. Irvin Fox get up here and talk to us about the city. What a testimony he is of Christ in a city where no one else seems to want to go. But those cries, those burdens, they can be overwhelming, can't they? They can be even despairing. I thought as I sat and watched this evening you know, the sin of neglect in some of the pictures that we looked at as we considered the sin of neglect. Because we know what happens when people don't hear. And the months turn into years and the years into decades. And whole lives are just lost down a tube of a Christless eternity. And whole lives just go into debauchery and filled with evil and demons and all kinds of things. And you look into the faces of some of those evil men and it's overwhelming. You think, Whoa! What do we do with that? How do you reach that? Yes, it can be a bit overwhelming and even despairing when you look at those things through human eyes. But God says, these are the very people that I want to save. Do you believe that? My, some of the beautiful missionary stories that I've read. Just recently read another one of one of the fiercest chiefs in Zululand in South Africa. Everyone was afraid of him. He looked just like one of those fellows we looked at tonight. He struck terror in the hearts of everyone who saw him. He killed people everywhere he went. But I believe it was John Mott who was not afraid to go and talk to that chief. And all the people warned him, if you go near that man, he will kill you and cut you up and eat you for dinner. Somehow John Mott, he saw something deeper than that. And he went and he sat down with that man and he looked into the eyes of one of those terrible looking men that we looked at tonight and preached the Gospel to him. And the Spirit of God gripped that man's heart. And he got born again! Changed by the power of God! He became one of those many where the Scripture says, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new. And all things became new in that wild man's heart and life. And he became the friend of the missionary. And when the missionary was sick and dying and he didn't know if he was going to live any longer, that wild, fiery, terror-stricken man humbly waited at the feet of the missionary and bathed his sweating brow with towels and water and cared for him and got him back up on his feet again. How can it be that a wild man like that who killed multitudes of people could be turned into a lamb who would kneel down at the missionary's bedside and stay up all night bathing his brow, his sweating brow, as he sweat with malaria. How can this be? Except that Christ can change the most evil of beasts. He can do it. These are the very people that God wants to save. The ones who were not a people shall be called the people of the living God. Well, how do you get from that despairing place to a place where you could believe that God could change a soul like that? God has given us promises, brothers and sisters. Precious promises. Beautiful, motivating, inspiring, prophetic certainties. Promises about these very people. Promises that we might pray believing prayers. Promises that call those things that be not as though they already are. Promises. Promises about the Gentiles, the heathen, the tribes, all the other peoples of the earth. God, in His Word, has given us promises. Promises that apply to the people that we looked at this evening. Promises that apply to the worst of them. God has given us promises by which we can rest on, that we can stock our lives in. God's promises. I'd like us to read a couple of those in the Old Testament as we prepare to look a bit at this matter of prayer. I'd like us to look at some of these promises that God says about the heathen. There are so many of them. I wasn't sure where to start. It was very interesting to me as I was studying this afternoon, again, to note words. Words are important, aren't they? Words are powerful. Especially when they're words in this book. Because the words in this book are not just words. Amen? They're God-breathed words. And if God breathes words out over and over again, we should take note to that. And I took note as I was studying today that the word Gentile doesn't appear very many times in the Old Testament. But when I came to the book of Isaiah, remember Isaiah? That gospel prophet? Isaiah, the Messianic prophet? When I came to the book of Isaiah, there it was. Gentile, Gentile, Gentile. All down through there, Gentile. And again, my heart thrilled as I realized that that is exactly where the Apostle Paul went after his experience on the road to Damascus. As he left Damascus and went into Arabia, it says he went there, he conferred not with flesh and blood, but he went into Arabia and searched the Scriptures. And he was looking for that word, Gentile. And he found it repeatedly in the book of Isaiah. Interesting to me. I don't know if you find that interesting, but I do. But here in the book of Isaiah in chapter 60, we have one of those passages that I'm sure the Apostle Paul came on and found new light and new strength and new inspiration and new vision as he read these words in Isaiah chapter 60 in verse 1. Arise, shine, for thy light is come. And we know what thy light is now. We're way down here past the New Testament day. We know what thy light is come is. We know that Jesus is the light of the world. He's the light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. That's who Jesus is. Arise and shine, for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. And I don't know what your Bible says at the top of it, but my Bible says, the conversion of the Gentiles. What does yours say at the top? Does it say something like that? Say it again. The glory of the church in the abundant access of the Gentiles. There it is. For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness shall cover the people. But that doesn't matter. That doesn't matter if gross darkness covers the people, because Jesus is the light of the world. And when you put darkness and light together, things begin to happen, don't they? When darkness and light come together, darkness always flees, and light always wins. Do we believe that this evening, brothers and sisters? Gross darkness covers the people. But, the Lord shall arise upon thee, and His glory shall be seen upon thee. Isaiah is speaking prophetically of the glory of God upon the church. And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising. What God is saying there is simply this. This darkness that has covered the people. These Gentile people that are in darkness. These multitudes of people that we've been looking at on the screen the last two evenings, that we can look at them, and clearly we can say, surely darkness is covering those people. They are in darkness. They live in darkness. They walk in darkness. But the glory of the Lord shall arise and light upon thee, and they will be able to see the light. Lift up thine eyes round about and see. All they gather themselves together. They come to thee. Thy sons shall come from far, and thy daughters shall be nursed at thy side. Then shalt thou see and flow together, and thine heart shall fear and be enlarged, because the abundance of the sea shall be converted unto thee. The forces of the Gentiles shall come unto thee. Can you imagine the Apostle Paul reading those words as he's searching out the heart of God and what he's supposed to do with what happened to him on the road to Damascus? Because Ananias told him, God is sending you to the Gentiles, and you're going to suffer many, many things. But God is going to use you to bring this light to the Gentiles. I'm sure for one thing, his heart was affirmed as he read those things. But I'll tell you what else happened as he began to read those things. The thing that happened inside of his heart is faith began to rise up in his heart. Because you see, these are the words of God. And faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. I believe that faith began to rise up in Paul's heart as he began to realize these things are going to happen. God said they're going to happen. And if God said they're going to happen, then they're going to happen. Amen? Because He's the God who calls the things that be not as though they already are. The conversion of the Gentiles. Beautiful words, but brothers and sisters, these are promises as we look at them here this evening. As we consider the whole subject, the whole idea of prayer, and believing prayer in light of missions. God wants us to believe verses like this. Because God wants to do this. He's not finished yet. Turn with me also to one other reading. There are many we could go to, but I found it in my heart to go to Malachi chapter 1 and verse 11. You know that verse? This one must have thrilled Paul's heart as he came upon this verse in Malachi. In verse 11. And in Malachi chapter 1, you know, God is kind of sharing the grief of His heart with Israel. He's saying in the flow of the context here, you're not doing right. You're not following me. You're not representing me right. And this is kind of the burden of the flow of these verses. But right in the middle of that, the prophet Malachi just bursts forth this beautiful prophetic promise about what God's going to do in the future. And he says in verse 11, For from the rising of the sun, even unto the going down of the same, my name, my name, shall be great among the Gentiles. And in every place, incense shall be offered unto my name, and a pure offering for my name shall be great among the heathen, saith the Lord of hosts. And what God is saying in that beautiful prophetic verse there, He's saying, My son is going to come. The Lamb that was slain before the foundation of the world is going to come. And because of that offering, because of that sacrifice, because of that atonement, I'm going to call out a people unto my name, from all the heathen lands, from all the Gentiles. And you can look at it, from the rising of the sun to the going down of the same. That's a long ways. In other words, from one side of the world to the other, from the east to the west, and all the way back around again, there's going to be a people who are offering up a pure sacrifice unto me. A pure sacrifice? Yes, a sacrifice made pure by the blood of Jesus Christ. Paul read those verses. You can imagine how despairing it must have been for him at first as he began to ponder the thought that God wants to send me to the Gentiles. And, you know, there were lots of people just like that in Paul's day also. We look at it and it kind of scares us and it overwhelms us and we wonder, oh, what could we do? How would we ever help somebody like that? But the truth of the matter is, God is the One who will help them. He is the One. Malachi 1 and verse 11 so clearly states what God is wanting to do. And brothers and sisters, these become promises that we can rest upon as we look at this whole matter of prayer. Because if you know that God is going to do this, and He is, that changes your prayers. Very much so. In Revelation chapter 5, I believe it is, we see the end of this whole thing. In Revelation chapter 5, we see the whole process completed. That process of asking and receiving the heathen for thine inheritance. When we look in the book of Revelation, we're at the end of that whole process. All the years have gone by. The centuries have come. The centuries have gone. God's people have come. They've passed on. Others have come. And the centuries have passed away. Now we're in eternity. As we look into the book of Revelation here, what does John see in Revelation chapter 5 and verse 9? Here's what he hears, and here's what he sees. A group, a multitude of people, and they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book and to open the seals thereof, for Thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to God by Thy blood out of every kindred and every tongue and every people and every nation and hast made us unto our God kings and priests and we shall reign on the earth. Now, brothers and sisters, it might be a little easier for us to read those verses. Being who we are, being in the context that we live in, it might be easier for us to read those verses and think, Yeah, yeah, someday I'm going to be a king or a priest unto God. But when you let your mind go back a little and look at some of the faces of some of those people that we looked at this evening, it may be a little bit harder to stretch yourself and get your mind around that and say, Yes, God wants to make a king or a priest out of that one also. And I know they have to make their choice just like we made our choice. I know they've got some deep repenting to do in order for that to happen. But bless God, if I understand my Bible right, there's going to be some out of every nation and kindred and tongue and people. They're going to be there. And if they're going to be there, that means it's a done deal. Amen? It's already been done. It's not a matter of whether it's going to be done or not. It's just a matter of who's going to do it. Because it's going to be done. Oh, the joyful opportunity that we have to open our hearts and begin to grasp and to put our minds around the truth and the reality of what God would still want to do in this our day among some of those kind of people that we looked at. Those are not old pictures that you're looking at. Those are like today pictures. Six months ago pictures. A year ago pictures. Maybe three years ago pictures. These are the peoples of the world where we live, brothers and sisters. These verses and many others like them inflame the heart with vision and infuse the heart with faith. Oh, God can do that. God wants to do that. These verses and many others like them instruct our human hearts to pray believing prayers. These promises make prayers bold and confident and inspire a holy audacity. Because God's word is sure. And what God says. He cannot lie. He cannot lie. Promises like these take care of all the lame and the timid asking. You know? You know how some of our prayers can be? You know, we just kind of say the things that we know we're supposed to say. But when we begin to look at promises like this, they move our prayers out of the realm of just saying what we're supposed to say and into the realm of believing that God will actually hear the prayer that I'm praying. And do something in those people because I'm praying. I don't know about you, but I do believe that. I believe that we can pray prayers that will touch the hearts of people on the other side of the world. Because we pray in accordance with the heart of God, the will of God, and the word of God. So promises like this, there's no mere lame and timid asking, but rather a confidence which flows from a faith-filled heart. God will do it. It was very interesting to me as I studied and prepared for this message, studying a bit of the history of missions 150 years ago, which would go back to 1860, 1870, 1880, back in there, and to see the powerful prayer support that was underneath that movement of God in missions that planted churches in so many places where there was none at all. And there were churches planted in the South Sea Islands, and there were churches planted in New Zealand, and there were churches planted in Australia, and there were churches planted in Africa, and there were churches planted in India, and there were churches planted in China, and there were churches planted in Korea, and there were churches planted in Tibet, and there were churches planted in many, many places around the world. It was a powerful time. But, oh, brothers and sisters, that didn't just happen because somebody was willing to go. It happened because there were people at home that were praying. And some of the accounts that I read were staggering. The accounts of weekly prayer meetings that lasted for two and three hours where a hundred people would gather together on a weekly basis and storm heaven for that country over there where the missionaries are laboring. It's so clear. It's so beautiful and exciting to me as you study history and then you look at a subject like what I've been given to give here this evening, and you realize that this is really the way that God does it. God works in answer to believing prayers. And I know, if we go by our own natural response, if we look at some of the pictures that we saw and go by our natural response, we back away from it all and say, whoa, that's way too much for me. But come, let us reason together, brothers and sisters. Let us reason together. If it's too much for me, who's going to do it? Who's going to do it in this soft and easy American society? Who's going to do it? In Luke chapter 11, you've turned there with me now. We're just kind of moving our way up into the aspect of prayer. But in Luke chapter 11, we have some beautiful encouragement to us on prayer. You know, there's a lot of ways that we can look at prayer. And I've preached on prayer a lot of times in my many years as a minister. But you know, usually when you preach on prayer, you know, it's more local and you know, it's more, you know, meet your needs and you don't feel well and it's, you know, take care of the need of this one in the congregation. But this evening, I'd like us to look a bit deeper than that and maybe cast the eyes of our heart a bit further away than just right here where we are. And I'm not saying we shouldn't pray right here where we are. I think a good prayer meeting should cover Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and the uttermost parts of the earth. I do believe that a good, solid, mature congregation ought to have a prayer meeting that covers all four of those. But what about the ends of the earth? In Luke chapter 11, we have the story there of the importunate friend who needed bread to give to his friend. And we're not going to read the whole thing there. I'd like to just drop in in verse 8 and go from there. Jesus is teaching them a lesson. Remember, they asked Him, would You teach us how to pray? We've watched You. We've listened to You. We've seen the answers that come when You pray. Would You teach us how to pray? And Jesus tells them the story about the man who needed bread to give to his friend at midnight. And Jesus says these words in verse 8, I say unto you, though he will not rise and give him, because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him as many as he needeth. Now, that word importunity means two things. For one, it means boldness. But for two, he kept on asking. He asked and he said no. Well, he asked again. Because of his boldness and his frequent asking, Jesus said, because of his importunity, he will rise and give him as many as he needeth. Now, he's going to teach us something about prayer. And this evening, let's just think about prayer in light of this world that needs to hear yet. Just think about prayer that way. And I say unto you, ask and it shall be given you. Seek and ye shall find. Knock and it shall be opened unto you. For everyone that asketh receiveth. And he that seeketh findeth. And to him that knocketh, it shall be opened unto you. Now, let's just think of that in light of missions this evening and in light of a closed country or a closed people or a hard people or a difficult field over here or there. Let's just consider these verses here because what Jesus is saying is this is something that you need to do. You need to ask and keep on asking and keep on asking. Because that's what it means. Jesus is not saying ask one time. He's saying ask like that man did. Get up! Get out of bed! Give me the bread that I need for my friend! And Jesus said, that's how you pray. You got some place where the door's shut? No problem. Knock and keep on knocking and keep on knocking and the door shall be opened. I think of all the prayers that were prayed. And by the way, there were multitudes of prayers that were prayed. Many people prayed. Many intercessors prayed that the iron curtain would fall down. That didn't happen by accident. It wasn't just the time. It wasn't just that communism failed. There were intercessors around the world that were storming God's throne. God, bring down that wall! Bring down that wall, Lord! Lord, bring down that wall! I mean, you look at that wall, and it's still there and it's still there and a year goes by and it's still there and a year goes by and it's still there. But there were people, there were intercessors who prayed. Some of the beautiful examples of intercessory prayer that you'll find in the biography of Reese Howells, who was an intercessor. There's staggering answers to prayers. People gathered themselves together and united their hearts together and stormed God's throne just like this. And when you consider all this in light of missions, what God is simply saying to us is, here are the promises. I will do this. Here's the reality. Revelation chapter 5. It is finished. Now, who will pray this one through? Will you? Will you? Could I find a few that would pray this one through? In Luke chapter 18, he speaks a parable. And he speaks the parable unto them, to this end, that men ought always to pray and not to faint. Again, focusing on the world tonight, there is a tendency to faint, isn't there? There's a tendency to go by what you see. There's a tendency to go by the sight of the eye and look at the circumstances and say, nothing's happening. But things are happening. You just can't see it all. But it's happening. But Jesus gives this story, this parable to encourage us that we ought always keep on praying and not faint. Because we do faint, don't we? Amen? We faint. Again, I'm not going to read it all because I have a few more that I want to cover here. But in verse 6-8, you know, this is the story of the unjust judge and the woman who wanted to be avenged of her adversary. And I think of the people groups around the world who need somebody who will stand up for them and let them be avenged of their adversaries. Would there be somebody who would keep on knocking on the door of the unjust judge that the peoples of the world might be avenged of their adversaries? In verse 6, Jesus, after finishing to tell the story, then He makes the application and brings it right home to our hearts and says in verse 6, And the Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge saith. And shall not God, who is a just judge by the way, not an unjust one, a just one, shall not God avenge His own elect which cry day and night unto Him? Though He bear long with them, I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man cometh, shall He find faith on the earth or shall He find this kind of faith on the earth? This kind of faith who will storm heaven for some group of people on the other side of the world? Who will storm heaven for some needy tribe of people who've never heard? Will He find this kind of faith on the earth when He comes? These are examples of importunity that Jesus encourages us with these two examples. First of all, start. But after you start, don't give up. Don't give up. Keep on praying. Because the promises have already been given. And we read the last chapter of the book. Amen? You know, there are intercessors all over the world that we don't even know about. They're the ones that open up many of these doors. You know, we'll never know until we get to eternity, but look at the concumbers and the degombers. Look at the gongers. As the doors open up there and you realize, wow, this is a fruitful field. We just walked right into a fruitful field. That wasn't happenstance. Somebody prayed. Somebody's prayed. In 1 John 5, we have another illustration of prayer and this one emphasizes the praying according to the will of God. In 1 John 5, in verses 14 and 15, we have the emphasis made on praying in the will of God. Well, we just read the will of God, didn't we? Concerning the peoples of the world. But listen to what John says to us here. And this is the confidence that we have in Him. That if we ask anything according to His will, He heareth us. And if we know that He hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petition that we desire of Him. Now, what John is saying, he's actually saying the same thing that he said over in John 15. If you abide in Me and My words abide in you, you shall ask what you will and it shall be done unto you. He's saying the same thing here. You know, we have to be in that place where the will of God is the desire of our own hearts. But the point I'd like to make this evening again is just to simply have confidence in what God says. And that confidence in what God says causes us to pray bold prayers. Bold ones! Because we know that if we ask according to His will, He hears us. Amen? Over in John 14. Not 1 John now. Over in John 14. Jesus is giving some instruction to His disciples. You know, it's in the middle of that time where He's giving them their last-minute instructions. And He says to them in verse 12 of chapter 14, He says, Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on Me, the works that I do, shall he do also. And greater works than these shall he do, because I go unto My Father. There are many ways that you can apply those verses and I know that there are groups that would take a verse like that and say, I'm going to go raise the dead. Jesus raised the dead. I'm going to go raise the dead. Okay, I'm not sure. I don't believe that's what Jesus is emphasizing here. I believe rather what He's emphasizing is the kind of things that happened in the book of Acts. 3,000 get saved. 5,000 get saved. And on and on and on it goes. Greater works, yes. So much greater. I mean, greater works than these shall you do. Because I go to My Father and I'm sending the Holy Spirit down upon you and guess what? He's going to be in and on all of you. Here I am. I'm just me. I'm going back to My Father and I'm sending the Holy Spirit down to you. He's going to be in and on every one of you. Yes, greater works are going to be done because I go to My Father. But look what He says then. It goes on in verse 13 and says, And whatsoever ye shall ask in My name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask anything in My name, I will do it. Look at that verse. Now what is Jesus saying here? Jesus is not saying, if you tap My name on in the end of one of your prayers, you'll get your answer. That's not what in My name means. In My name is pretty powerful. But it's not too powerful that we can't attain it. In My name simply means your life is sold out to Me and your heart and your desires beat for Me and what I want in this world. That's what in My name means. He's been given a name which is above every name. In My name, Jesus said. When you begin to get a grasp of that and you realize that it's His kingdom and He's the King of His kingdom and His reign has already come in that sense through His Spirit, you begin to see that way. Then you begin to pray prayers. In My name, yes. In Jesus Christ's name, we ask it. Now Jesus said, you got My attention. You got My attention if you do that. Well, let's apply this now to missions this evening. Is there anything that is more near to the heartbeat of God? Anything clearer and nearer to in My name than the burden for the rest of the world who hasn't heard? If you ask anything in My name and one only has to look at the flow of the context there to know that Jesus had His work in mind when He was saying those words. He didn't have a car in mind or a house or money. But, okay, maybe that fits in there somewhere if your heart is beating for His work and that's what's guiding you. Yeah, maybe you need a car. Yeah, maybe you can in My name ask for one if in fact that's what you're going to do with that car. But Jesus said those words in light of His work. In My name. You ask anything in My name. I'll do it. I'll do it. He went on to say in chapter 16 took that a little bit further because you know we have fellowship with the Father and with His Son. Amen? But He goes on in John chapter 16 in verse 23 and 24 and He says this And in that day ye shall ask Me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in My name He will give it you. Hitherto have ye asked nothing in My name. Ask, and ye shall receive that your joy may be full. Now He's bringing the Father into this thing and He's saying listen My name is very, very powerful before the Father in heaven. You ask the Father in My name and you'll be bending His ear. What are we saying by all of this? God is calling us to pray believing prayers for the world around us. It can be believing prayers for the city where you live. It can be believing prayers for the community around you. It can be believing prayers for the German speaking people that live in Canada. It can be believing prayers for all of these peoples. Wherever they are around the world. The point I'm trying to make is God has already made the promises. He's already spoken His word. He has a people. He will call out a people for His name. He will do that. Among all of these people that are represented by all the people that we know. He's going to do that. I think of the story of St. Patrick. You know, the first missionary, the apostle to Ireland. And how St. Patrick went to Ireland and was actually taken there as a slave and kept in captivity, I don't know, a couple of years. But in the midst of that time he got converted and God miraculously made a way for him to escape and he got away from Ireland. But Ireland never got away from him. Hallelujah! There's such a burden on his heart for the people of Ireland. Imagine that! Those scary, fiery, all painted up, wild men in Ireland. And that's the way they were there, by the way. They didn't wear suit and ties. I guarantee it. So he escaped Ireland, but Ireland never escaped him. And he wanted to go back. He wanted to go back and preach to those people. And he went to his church leaders. And in those days, the churches in England were pretty dead. And you can always tell dead churches, they're not really interested in the rest of the world. Amen? And he went there and he went to his leaders and he said, God's calling me to go to Ireland. I want to preach the gospel to the people in Ireland. His elders said, No. We don't think it's right. We don't think you're ready. You know, they made their excuses. But he didn't despair over that. He just turned all of his emotional energies into prayer. And that man prayed. I mean, he prayed for hours every day. For Ireland. And not for a month. And not for two months. He prayed for years. He kept going back to the elders. I beg you. God's calling me to Ireland. But I'm not going on my own. Please. Send me. Here am I. Send me. And they wouldn't send him. And those months turned into years. But those were not wasted years in Patrick's life. Because he believed in prevailing prayer. He believed that God wanted to save those Irish people. And he prayed toward that end. And I believe that God was gathering up his prayers and storing them up in a vial. And waiting for the time to dump them out on Ireland. And the day came when those elders finally woke up enough and said, Let's send him. And they sent him to Ireland. And when St. Patrick landed on the island of Ireland, Revival landed with him. And thousands got converted. Thousands of vile ones. Like what we looked at. Thousands of them. Why? Because a man prayed. Just one man. Just one man. What would ten do? What would twenty do? What would thirty do in one place? Who would get underneath the burden? And carry it like God would? I wonder what that would happen. I thought about the work in Lancaster City. And I think some of the workers would testify to what I'm going to say. There was a day. There was a point in time. When all of a sudden the burden to pray for the work came upon the workers. And it was no longer a little prayer that was being prayed. One person over here and one over there. But all of a sudden there was a spirit of prayer and a burden of prayer that came upon the workers. And they started to pray. And they started to fast and pray. And they had more prayer meetings. And they had special times where that's all they did was pray for the work in Lancaster. God moves in answer to prayer. The souls of men are the nearest thing in God's heart. If we pick it up and carry it, God will work in answer to our prayers. My mind also went to the Moravians. Which we just kind of touched on a couple of times through the weekend. But I just want to remind you of what happened there. You know how that the Spirit of God descended upon those dear Moravians at Hernhot in 1727? And in that beautiful spiritual atmosphere, which didn't go away, which stayed there, a burden of prayer began to come upon them. They started getting a vision for the world that had never heard. Interesting. They started getting a vision for the world who had never heard. The Spirit of God did that. The Spirit of God began to brood upon those people. And they started to pray. And after two years of praying like that, they started sending out their missionaries. And after those two years, they started a prayer meeting. They set that thing up so beautifully. They realized what I'm saying tonight. This principle, they had it down. So much so that they set up a prayer meeting. A 24-hour-a-day prayer meeting, which lasted for a hundred years. I think they understood what we're talking about here tonight. What do you think? 24-hour-a-day prayer meeting. Two, two, two. Who will pray from 12 to 1? Who will pray, two of you, from 12 to 1? Who will pray from 1 to 2? Who will pray from 2 to 3? Who will pray from 3 to 4? And they had it covered like that. 24-hour, all the time. Two people were always praying. Always praying. For what? For the people and the missionaries. Well, that would be beautiful if that just happened at Hernhut. But they passed that tradition on to all the other communities that were started. And as soon as those communities became solid New Testament churches, they got the prayer meeting going in that one too. And because they did that, the Moravians, oh, they reached, they reached out into the world in ways that nobody else was even thinking about it yet. How did they do that? They believed those promises and they started praying those promises before a holy God and they had enough courage to step out in faith and go to places where they probably will never come back again. And God honored it. God saw it and He honored it and He put His hand on it. That's what happened. God hasn't changed. Amen. He's still the same. I think about the dear Amish. And I'm not saying we're the only ones, but it's significant to note that five years ago, we at church were having a three-day fasting prayer weekend. You know, seeking the Lord like they did in Acts 13. What will God say to us? And God spoke to us in that fasting prayer weekend. And God spoke to us about our neglect for the people of the community where we live. God spoke to us. He convicted us. You have neglected the people where you live. You're all wrapped up in the tape ministry. You're all wrapped up in Africa. You're all wrapped up in all the other places, in the remnant, in all those. But what about the people who live where you live? This is the way that God convicted us. And we repented. And after we repented, we begged God, would you give us another chance to help reach the people in our community? And from there, prayer was wont to be made. Saturday after Saturday. Five till seven. Saturday after Saturday. And brethren, not a little prayer here and there. God bless the Amish. But I'm talking about intercessions with groanings that cannot be uttered. Week after week after week. God! Do something in this county! It's not happenstance that God is working among the Amish people. It's not happenstance that God is saving the old colony Mennonites and other Anabaptist groups. It's not happenstance. It's prayer. Not our prayer. Listen, in my travels, I've met people in a Pentecostal church who said, we're praying for revival among the Amish. I thought, what? We're praying for revival among the Amish. There's a couple of people that used to sneak into our church when nobody was there and go up to the altar and pray for revival among the Amish. They live in this area, but they go to another church. They used to go there when nobody else was there and hit the altar up there and weep and cry to God that God would send revival among the Amish. It comes by prayer, brethren. It's already written. God wants to save them. But it comes by prayer. Here's a beautiful story that will bless your heart, I believe. Dear missionary lady out on the field in India. She was out on the field and doing her job and riding around in an ox cart and going from village to village one day preaching the gospel to the people that were there. And she and her co-worker, which would have been a national worker, noticed such an unusual day that they had. It just seemed like everything went well. It seemed like everybody's heart was open. It seemed like every village received them. It seemed like people were very happy to hear the words that they said. And the missionary turned to the worker, the native worker, and she said these words. Somebody's praying for us today. Three months later, you know how it is back in those days. The mail doesn't come like e-mail back then. Three months later she gets a letter from a certain lady that she doesn't know. And the lady says this in her letter. I prayed for you. I took up your name on this and such date three months ago and I gave my five hours of prayer that day to you. For her five hours of prayer. I gave my five hours of prayer to you. How did it go that day? And the missionary, she said, Whoa, it went very well that day. Hello. One plus one is two. God answers prayer. God is burdened for the world. God reaches out to the world when His people pray. The Bible says, we've read it probably a couple of times, and it's probably been quoted three or four more times. But the Bible says that the harvest is plenteous and the laborers are few. You want a prayer request? There it is. Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest that He will send forth laborers into His harvest field. And I agree with Samuel. He told us that many times God doesn't send because the laborers aren't prepared. But hey, guess what? There's a few ways that we can get those laborers prepared and one of them is to pray because God will send forth laborers. And that word send there, it's a pretty powerful word. I think in the Greek it's ekballo, and it means to thrust out. You know, it's a little bit like this. Ekballo. Pray ye therefore to the Lord of the harvest that He will ekballo laborers out into His harvest field. That's something we can pray. I mean, God said to do it. Surely if we pray it, He'll do something about it. How many think He will? Yeah, He'll do something about it. Listen. Maybe you have some burden about, maybe you're a bit burdened about some of the young people in the church. Have you prayed this prayer lately? I mean, let the Holy Ghost put a little pressure on those light-hearted youth in the church. How? Pray that the Lord of the harvest will send forth laborers. Oh, but He'll have to prepare them before He sends them. Yes, that's right. He will prepare them before He sends them. He will get their attention. He will stir their heart. He will arrest their minds. But how often do we pray, Lord, oh Lord of the harvest, send forth the laborers into the harvest. Let's see, where am I here? I thought about the church. You know, the church is the body of Christ. Your church is a local expression of the body of Christ. Our church is a local expression of the body of Christ. But it's not, that's kind of a shallow way to say it. Our church is the body of Christ in our locality. What is Christ after? Souls around us. I thought about how the mission enterprise gets started in a church. You know, first you get under the burden. Maybe you come to a weekend like this, and all this input comes. You know, you see the pictures, and you hear the stories, and you hear the sermons, and you read the verses, and you go to the prayer meetings, and you share with others, and you talk to a missionary, and he's got just the right thing to say to you, and all those things work together, and all of a sudden you find yourself with a burden, and you go back to your church that way. By the way, that's what we had in mind, that you would do that. So if this mission enterprise gets started right, that's how it starts. With a burden and a vision that begins to settle down on a local church. From there, they begin to pray. And as they pray, God raises up laborers. And as God raises up the laborers, then they send them out. Right? But I want you to think of something here this evening. They're not just sending out a laborer. They're sending out part of their body. It's their body. And I thought about it this way, and it's just an illustration, but it's worth considering this evening. Maybe the missionary is the hand of the body. You know, the body's back here in Pennsylvania, or the body's in Manitoba, or the body's in Arizona, or wherever it is, but the body's here. But the body, through a missionary, can reach its hand all the way to the other side of the world. See, now that's the way it's supposed to be. I mean, that's so different than just, here, here's your $50 a month. You go to the mission field and we'll say your name on the Wednesday night prayer for two minutes. Oh, by the way, when you come home on furlough, stop in. We'll give you 20 minutes to show your slide and we'll decide whether we're going to support you for the next three years. That is so far, far, far away from the heart of God. The heart of God is that a church, which is His body, gets underneath the burden, gets the vision, begins to see, begins to pray. As they pray, God raises up labors. They see them. They're sent forth, right? How shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except they be sent? And they're sent! Ek balo! They're sent! But does that mean now, okay, we've sent our missionary, now we've got other things to do and let's be about our other things here at home. No, no, no. You just reached your hand over to the other side of the world, but it's still connected to you. You need to send energy out there to that hand. And I thought about, you know, the illustration of a body and the heart. You know, the heart is, you know, that's where the blood gets pumped. Amen? And I thought about the prayer meeting being the heart of the church and where the prayers get prayed. And you know, hot, boiling prayers send lots of blood which reach all the way out through the body, through the arm, and all the way out into the hand. You know, it takes a lot of blood pressure to push blood out into the fingers of a hand, doesn't it? And there's that missionary out there with a body at home that is still under the burden that they had. And see, this happens when you send your own. It doesn't happen if you just get some guy who comes by and says, Hey, would you support me $50 a month? But when you send your own, you just release part of your body and put it in another place. But it's still connected to you. Pray! Send blood to the fingers of that hand! The missionary needs blood in his hand. Amen? And just like that lady who knew that one day, somebody's praying today, the missionary also knows when the blood is pumping well, when the center or the soul of the church where the prayer meeting is moving forward and they're under the burden and they're holding that missionary and they're praying those prayers and carrying the burden of that missionary and finding out what's going on and responding to the prayer requests that come back and sending strength over there through prayer. Ah, blessed is that missionary. Listen, when missionaries have those kind of experiences, it is at the top, top, top of their list. How many accounts I read in my studies, how many accounts I read of missionaries writing letters back and saying, Money is not the issue. Pray! Pray! Money is not the issue. Pray! That's what we need. We need prayer. Which, by the way, when your heart's in there like that, money isn't an issue either, is it? When the heart is in it like that and the blood is pumping in the heart. See? Because where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Amen? Someone asked me on a plane, I think the last time I was going to Africa. Talking to some African there. Told him, I've been to Africa 26 times. It totally shocks them. What? I said, Yes! Why are you going so many times? I told them. The Bible says, Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. I told him, I have sent many of my children over here to this country. My heart is also gone with them. It's the same way in a church. When we send our own, they're our treasure, aren't they? They're our own brethren. They're our own sisters. Many times we watch them grow up and we send them. Ah! Where your treasure goes, there your heart also goes. God wants us to pray, believe in prayers and hold our missionaries up in supernatural ways in answer to believing prayers. Oh! The power of a consistent praying body. Amen! God has showed us a little glimpse of His heart through this weekend. He has also given us a measure of burden for all the peoples who haven't heard. The natural thing for us to do from there is to pick up the burden and begin to pray. Don't you think so? Don't you think that's the natural thing to do next? Is to pick up that burden and keep on going with it and see where it leads us as a people, as a church, or even as a family, or even as an individual to pick up that burden and pray it through and see where that leads us. The Father said to the Son, whom He exalted, whom He anointed, whom He gave the name, which is above every name, whom He made the King. The Father said to the Son, Ask of Me and I will give you the heathen for thine inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. Brethren, sisters, that's not just for Jesus. Jesus asks through us. He asks through us. Lord, give us the heathen. For Jesus' sake, give us the heathen. Let's bow for prayer. Father, our heart reflects again on some of those pictures. Those sweet little bright children who are innocent now, but will not be someday. Those hard looking teenagers. Those scary looking men. Those oppressed women. Lord, we, our mind goes there again at the end here of this message. And we pray, Father, somehow You continue to allow us to reach out to that world, Lord, that's around us. Whether it be outside the walls of this building, or there's some hard looking teenagers walking up and down the streets in Ephrata, and New Holland, and Lancaster, and Reading. Oh, Father. God, we acknowledge that we don't always see them the right way. Just like Ishmael, we don't always see these people the right way. Would You change our hearts, Lord, and fill our hearts with Your compassion for the world around us. And, oh God, yes, would You put us to praying. In Jesus' name, Amen.