In this sermon, the speaker discusses the story of Hudson Taylor, a missionary who faced challenges in spreading the Gospel in China. Despite being bedridden and having no paid helpers, Taylor's call for workers resulted in an overwhelming response. He emphasized the qualities needed for missionary work, including valuing God's approval over man's disapproval and being willing to sacrifice for the sake of souls. The speaker also highlights the importance of loving and studying the Word of God in a missionary's life.

My wife and I have been on staff at Red Rocks Baptist Church for the past 11 years. God is leading us to leave Red Rocks and to come and, or to go and plant a church in the heart of downtown Denver. Denver is the 23rd largest city in the U.S., but it's more unchurched than even Seattle, Washington, with less than seven out of a hundred people attending an evangelical church on any given Sunday. I think I got a picture here of my family, my wife and four boys, Hudson, Champlin, Payton, and then the little baby there in the middle is Spurgeon, and that's from our DVD shoot this past weekend, getting ready for our church plants, and you'll see the city there in the background. So we leave to go on a support-raising endeavor over the next year. We want to plant something that's multi-ethnic, grace-based, word-centered, life-touching life there in the heart of the city. I like the city because it's kind of had a gentrification thing going on, and I say you have the homeless, the high roller, and the whore all within three blocks, and that to me is an exciting type of ministry. In the New Testament, masters and slaves worshipped in the same church, and we just want to see that kind of thing happen there in downtown Denver. We are looking for help, so if you would like to have an internship next summer, or you'd like to come out and help be one of our elders, I'm looking for some people, especially if you're not white. Never mind. Asian would work too. Hispanic. We want leadership to look as beautiful as God created the world. But if you're interested, I'm really definitely looking for some guys who want to do something gutsy for the Lord. I really would like somebody too that wants to give their life to kids, and if you're interested in that, come and talk with me. When I came in 1991, I immediately struck up a friendship with two guys, Bob Roberts and Will Galkin. We have been friends now for the past 16 years, and we wanted to get together with some of the guys that we went to college with, and so we did a little retreat up in the mountains of Colorado this past January called the Valley of Vision Retreat, and I just wanted to connect with guys with the same philosophy of ministry. We've kind of been through the initial geek stage of ministry and taken the knocks of the first 10 years, and now we're all getting ready really to launch our life ministries. We did something there where we did some biographical sketches on people that we felt embodied the Northland heart, and we are compiling together on a book. We have a publisher, and the book will come out probably in January of 08. But the very first meeting we had, and Dr. Olson will remember this, but a kid that we all went to school with typed up and said, I've drifted from God and haven't been what I should be. And he said, I'm empty. I have no friends. And he flew in from overseas for the retreat. That's how much he craved fellowship, and when you get in ministry, you'll realize relationships are vital. Spent three days with him there, and guys rallied around him. At the end, he wrote a check to give every single student here a copy of the book for free, because God gets to work in his heart. So hopefully you will be graced with that gift from his heart to yours to perpetuate the Northland heart. My contribution to the book was a biography on the life of J. Hudson Taylor, and that's what I want to share with you this morning. I've entitled it Songs on His Pilgrimage, the Life of J. Hudson Taylor. Taylor was born in England in 1832 to godly parents. His parents dedicated him to God's service from the womb. At the age of five, he began talking about his burden for China, and at 22, he set off and sailed for China. Started his own mission, the China Inland Mission. Died at 73 in 1905. Besides the apostle Paul, he left the greatest gospel imprint upon the world of any man in Christian history. So I want to give you seven things out of his life parallel with Psalm 119, because he was a man dedicated to the word of God. It was his lifeblood. When I preached in this pulpit my senior year, I preached on 2 Timothy 3.16. The greatest contribution Northland made to my life was a life centered on the text. And now it's been 10-12 years, and I want to say the same thing. The greatest thing this place did for me was plant my two feet solely on the word of God. So I'll give you seven characteristics of why he loved the word of God. Number one, he loved the word of God because it showed him the path of salvation. At 16, he said he struggled with the lure of the world. He was working in a bank, and he wanted a horse, and he wanted everything that the world had to offer. But he was struggling with that, and at home one day, he was looking for something to read, and he picked up a gospel tract entitled The Finished Work of Christ. He decided to read it. He said, I'll look at the pictures and read the illustrations, and then I'll put it down. But he couldn't put it down. At that hour, his mother was 70 miles away on her knees, praying that Hudson Taylor would receive eternal life. And that's when Hudson Taylor said he was converted from darkness to light. And then he said he dedicated his life to go to China, what he called the Gibraltar of heathenism. He says in his diary, some of the reasons that make me think they make me sure that I am truly converted to God are as follows. Here was the nature of how he knew he was saved, not because he prayed a prayer. He said this, the things I used formerly to delight in now give me no pleasure. While reading the word, prayer and the means of grace, which were formerly distasteful to me, are now my delight. That was the evidence of the spirit of God's transforming work in his life. His desire for the word was unquenchable, unquenchable. There was nothing striking about the man at all. I have a picture here of a rendering of who he was, but they said he was bright and fairly educated, but he had no university or college training. He had taken no medical degree and disclaimed the title reverend, given him at first on all hands. He was connected with no denomination, not sent out by any church. And he expected to do medical work, but he was not a doctor. He was accustomed to preaching, but he was not ordained. His salary was insufficient and they said his appearance was shabby, but he changed the world. He loved it because it showed him the path of salvation. Number two, he loved the word of God because it gave him guidance. Psalm 119, 133 says, order my steps in thy word. He liked his sister's friend, a young music teacher named Miss V. She was a Christian. She was decidedly attractive. When she sang, it said she blessed the room with her voice. He fell in love with her. He didn't say much to her about his desires because he said he secretly prayed that some other guy would fall in love with her. So he didn't have to wrestle with this thing in his life. In a letter to his sister, he wrote, dear Amelia, remember me in all your prayers. Never did I feel a greater need of watchfulness and prayer than at present. Praise be God. Without his aid, I cannot stand for one moment, but I look to the strong for strength. The letter continues talking about his love and burden for China. And in one page, he references scripture 12 times. Scripture was part of his very language and his flow of writing. It was part of his vocabulary. This was a time of great angst for Taylor. He said, I would often go to a warehouse stable or anywhere to be alone with God. It's the most precious seasons I have. Let me remind you, he was a teenager. He began to have doubts about Miss V. And he wrote in the letter to his sister, it's not reasonable to suppose that Miss V would be willing to go and starve in a foreign land. I'm sure I love her too well to wish her to do so. Think not that I'm cold or indifferent, but what can I do? I know I love her. To go without her, though, would make the world a blank. Do you ever feel that way about somebody? To go without her would make the world a blank. He goes, oh, pray for me. It's enough to distract me, I guess. May God bless and enable me to trust him fully. Taylor was so serious about foreign missions, he went and voluntarily lived in a place called Drainside, basically the city's slum where the sewage dumped out. And he got an apartment because he wanted to know what it was like to live with nothing. For two years, he waited for love to bloom. But then he got a letter and he said, now the dream was over and how bitter the awakening. She could see that nothing could dissuade me from my missionary purpose. And she made it plain to me that she was not prepared to go to China. Her dad would not hear of it, and she didn't feel herself fitted for such a life. And Taylor's sitting there in a one-room apartment in a foul-smelling area of the city. He says Satan came in and caused him to question the love and faithfulness of God. And if Satan would have won the war at Drainside, we would not have the China Inland Mission today. He writes in his journal, I was numb with sorrow. And instead of turning to God, I kept it to myself and I nursed my grief. Then came the insidious suggestion, is it all worthwhile? Why should you go to China? Why toil and suffer all your life on an ideal of duty? Give it up now while you can yet win her, for you can win her yet. You ever feel like you get a chance to manipulate what God's doing in your life because you want what you want? He's real. Well, I felt no desire to go to church and was tempted very much. Satan said, you never used to be tried as you have been lately. You cannot be in God's will or God would bless you more. And I felt inclined to give up. But he goes, but I reflected on the love of God, the number of blessings he's granted me and how small my trials are compared with those that some are called to endure. And his love melted my icy, frost-bound soul. And sincerely did I pray for pardon for my ungrateful conduct. Hudson sailed to China as a single man, but fully in love with the word of God. In verse 23, it says, thy testimonies are my delight and my counselors. He relied upon the text for directing his every step. Number three, he loved the word of God and it cultivated a trust in his life. Verse 81 says, I hope in thy word. He was leaving drain side to take a course in medicine so he could be better prepared for the field. His father volunteered to pay all of his expenses. And also the Chinese evangelization society volunteered to pay his expenses as well. So he prayed about it. After praying about it, he sent a letter to his dad and said, dad, I do not need your offer of finances. Knowing his dad would realize he took up the mission board's offer. Wrote a letter to the mission board and said, I've decided to decline your offer. Knowing full well that they thought his dad would pick up the tab. So he writes these two letters, declines all the money. And he says this, I now was simply in the hands of God and that he who knew my heart. If you wish to encourage me to go to China would bless my effort to depend on him alone at home. You don't get that kind of faith as a 20 year old kid without an unwavering trust in God and his word. When he arrived in China, he had no place to live. Other missionaries helped him, but he couldn't find a permanent place. Then he got a letter from the, from the board saying, we're sending another couple over there. Please find them a place as well. And he, he looked for months and couldn't find a place to live. And he writes to his sister. Oh, Amelia, one needs an anchor for one's faith. And thank God we have it. The promises of God stand. Sure. When I have troubles, this is what I do. I take them to the Lord. Now listen to how he was in love with the word of God. Since writing the above, I've been reading my evening portion. The old Testament part of it happens to be the 72nd and 74th Psalms. I don't know how it is, but I seldom can read scripture now without tears of joy and gratitude. Is the text of scripture in your daily time with God that relevant that you are weeping tears over the text? Taylor landed in China, in the middle of the Taiping rebellion. He finally finds a place to live, but it's right in the crosshairs of the fighting. He said this, he said the rebels had two cannon constantly aimed upon his street and the imperialists were threatening to burn the street. And if you hear, he writes a letter to his parents. If you hear my being killed or injured, do not think it's a pity that I came, but thank God I was permitted to distribute some scriptures and tracks and to speak a few words in broken Chinese of him who died for me. As to my position, it is certainly one of great peril on two successive nights bullets have struck the roof over my head. How little difference in the direction of the gun might have rendered them fatal to me. But as the mountains are roundabout Jerusalem, the Lord is on every side to protect and support me to supply all my need temporal as well as spiritual. I can truly say my trust is in him. When I hear the guns fired near me in the winds of the balls, as they pass the house, I do feel alarmed sometimes, but a sweet still voice says inwardly, Oh, that little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt? Bullets are whizzing. What is splitting? And he's trusting. Where do you get that kind of faith? Psalm 119, 114, thou art my hiding place in my shield. I hope in thy word. Taylor, when he died, he had one third of the entire Protestant missionary world working with him in China. 2,400 missionaries worldwide, 800 were with him. And he told them when they came, I have no promise for support. Whatever comes in, I will give. And people went by the bowels. I saw one picture in Christian history magazine, 55 single women. He said he would trust a single woman in the interior more than a married couple any day. 55 taking language school. When it came time and they didn't have the money, one coworker said, I remember dear Mr. Taylor's exhortation to keep silent to all around and let our wants be made known to the Lord only when they were out of cash. His famous statement was we have 25 cents and all the promises of God. And one day he said, well, we had a small breakfast and there was nothing for dinner. I was so thrilled to hear him singing, walking through the missionary house, singing the hymn. Jesus loves me. This I know for the Bible tells me so you don't need money. You don't need any of that kind of stuff. You just need to, you're going to follow somebody though, who solely is trusting in God and his word. One day, the big test came. His eyes settled on a young lady in her teens named Maria Dyer. And he said, I was attracted to her heart for God. And I so was consumed the fact that she filled a spot in my heart that had never been occupied, that I must subdue my heart hunger that threatens to overwhelm me. His labors transferred him out of Ningpo for four and a half months. And he finally writes a letter to Maria declaring his love for her. And her heart leaps as she sees, this is the man that I love as well. She runs into her schoolmaster's house. And she says to miss Aldersley, Hudson Taylor would like to marry me. Miss Aldersley responded in wrath and demanded she sit down. And she dictated a letter for her to write back to Taylor. She forced her to write it. Taylor gets the letter and he says, I've never been in such sorrows of late, but the principle cause I find to be lack of willing submission to and trust will repose in God my strength. Oh, to desire his will be done with my whole heart, to seek his glory with a single eye. Oh, to realize more of the fullness of our precious Jesus. Taylor had one court of appeal, Mr. Tarn in London, because Maria, her father had died and he was the guardian. So he writes a letter. Miss Aldersley gets a drift. She writes a letter to Mr. Tarn. You can imagine if you're sitting there in England and you get two letters, the boy that wants to marry her and the woman who's over overseeing your daughter or the person you're a guardian for. Miss Aldersley in her letters, we have the letter. She took up issue with his native dress, his independent spirit. And she says he's called by no one connected with no one and recognized by no one as a minister of the gospel. He's fanatical, undependable, diseased in body and mind and in a word, totally worthless. What are your chances there? Taylor says God can bring us together. He brought ravens and angels to do his bidding. He said this. I've never known disobedience to the command of a parent, even if that parent were mistaken, that was not followed by retribution, conquer through the Lord. He can open any door, no manipulation there to those who knew Mr. Taylor in life and may be surprised to learn that when he fell in love, it was a headlong plunge. This was not a slight or ever evanescent passion. He got the letter back from Mr. Tarn and Mr. Tarn granted Taylor permission to marry Maria Dyer. The prolific writer after the wedding writes nothing for eight solid days. Go figure. When he finally commences, he says this. We're so happy. The Lord himself has turned our sorrow into joy, giving us the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. Oh, to be married to the one you love and love her most tenderly and devotedly that is bliss beyond the power of words to express. I want to thank God to the giver of all good gifts for this best of earthly gifts. He's a real man. Number four, he loved the word of God and it produced in him a compassion for the sinner. Look in Psalm 119 verse 136. Rivers of water run down mine eyes because they keep not thy law. When we look at sinners, do we weep over them or do we ourselves become self-righteous? He loved sinners so much he was willing to undergo sacrifice. When he went to Drainside, he said, I have learned that I can live on it very much less than I thought. Butter, milk, and other luxuries I cease to use. Now he goes, I can give two-thirds of my income to the work of God. He took dozens of trips to the interior. And you know, Christ, when he showed compassion, sometimes he did it by teaching, okay, and sometimes he did it by giving. We always think of compassion in the feeding the hungry kind of idea, but teaching people the word of God is also a sign of how Christ showed compassion. He was in the interior and a man said, Taylor says, is there a teacher in the village? And the man said, no, last year we had one, but now we're too poor. We don't even have, we scarcely have clothes to cover us. And Taylor looked at me, a small little pair of ratty pants on, no shirt. And Taylor looked him in the eyes and he goes, if you would not smoke opium and spend so much time worshiping dead relatives and the queen of heaven and other idols, you'd be far better off than you are at present. Your idols have eyes, but do they see? They have mouths, but do they speak? Can they preserve you from robbers and quarrels and sickness and disaster? And the shocked little man says, true, true. They are certainly not much use. And so Taylor stands on a rock and preaches to him, Jesus. He loved sinners. Psalm 119, 158, I beheld the transgressors and was grieved because they kept not thy word. Number five, his love for the word of God gave him strength in the middle of suffering. The test of a saint who's going to be long-term ministry is can they undergo suffering and make up for the sufferings of Christ? As Paul says, 92, unless thy law had been my delight, I should have perished in mine affliction. I remember a quote I just read recently that said, if you succeed without suffering, remember somebody went before you and suffered without succeeding. And Taylor suffered a lot while he was on a steamer going up the Yangtze River. He was climbing one of those vertical stairs on those ships and he fell down and compressed his back. Didn't really know that he had hurt it until he got back to England. He was traveling around the churches and reporting on his ministry. But finally it rendered him to his bed and he says, I was confined to a bed with four posts. And so he hangs a map of China on the footboard as his prayer map. It got so bad he had to have a rope down from the ceiling down to his bed so that he could even turn over. In the Christian press, an article appeared and it said on behalf of the 150 million Chinese asking for missionaries to go to inland China. And it said, if we need you to go, we have provinces that have not been open to the gospel. The article, the ad in the paper also said that 4,000 pounds have been donated to help support this cause. And the article asked for 18 new workers. What people that read the article did not know was this. The 4,000 pounds was from Hudson Taylor's own checkbook. The mission was a one-man show and the director was flat on his back and couldn't move out of his room. The mission had no paid helpers at this point. Volunteers responded to the article and started coming to his room by the droves. He started dictating letters. He goes, it was one of the happiest periods of my life. Forced inactivity. I could nothing but rejoice in the Lord and wait patiently for him and seeing him meet my needs. People began volunteering to go to the field, but he couldn't get off his bed. So they came into his room and he started teaching them Chinese by his bedside. Why did God make him weak? He says this, had I been well and able to move about, some might have thought that my urgent appeals rather than God's working had sent the 18 men to China. In total, he was in bed for five solid months. He asked for 18 men. He got 60. And when the 60 men came into his room, this is what he said. If you want hard work and little appreciation, if you value God's approval more than you fear man's disapprobation, if you're prepared to take joyfully the spoiling of your goods and seal your testimony of need be with your blood, if you can pity and love the poor Chinese and all their mental and moral degradation, as well as literal filth and impurity, you may count on a harvest of souls now and a crown of glory hereafter and on the master's well done. He didn't say, great, I've got 60. He said, no, I still need 18. But I want 18 Christian Marines. For 32 years, this China Inland Mission went without the loss of life, without really anybody experiencing any hardship. But during the Boxer Rebellion, at the end of the 19th century, the government came in and tried to push the missionaries out. And the first one to die was the helper of William S. Fleming from Australia in the province of Quichao, and he was murdered while trying to protect his helper. Taylor writes in his diary, how sad the tidings. Blessed for the martyrs, but sad for us, for China, for their friends. And not only sad, but ominous. It seems to show that God is about to test us with a new kind of trial. Surely we need to gird on afresh the whole armor of God. Doubtless it means further blessing, but only through deeper suffering. He put all of his weight on God and his word for his very life. And the trials were soon to deepen. Because in the China Inland Mission, 58 adults and 21 children were murdered. Two single ladies, Ms. Whitchurch and Ms. Searle wrote Dr. Taylor a letter. When he got it, he realized he was reading it, and they had written it the day before they were martyred. He says that's oh, to think what it must have been to exchange that murderous mob for the rapture of his presence, his bosom, his smile. They do not regret it now. A crown that fades not away. They shall walk with Jesus in white for they are worthy. Taylor is sick at this point. He's flat on his back in England. And he said, I cannot go. I cannot read. I cannot think. All I can do is trust. We need a tailor. We need some good old fashioned CIM missionaries who will go and just give their lives and die for the cause of Christ. No holds barred, no fear, totally anchored to the word. 107 I'm afflicted very much. Quicken me, O Lord, according to thy word. That was the first stage of suffering, but then the suffering got personal because number 60, love the word of God, and it provided him comfort in the biggest trials. Verse 50 says, this is comfort in my affliction for thy word hath quickened me. In 1870, his wife, Maria, gave birth to their fourth child. And it soon became obvious that the baby was sick and wasn't nursing well. And Maria was sick as well. And by the time they finally got a nurse to come in and help the baby, the baby didn't make it. Hudson and Maria strolled out to the graveside. They sang a hymn together and buried their little one. And Hudson, though, was unaware of what was happening to his wife. His wife had contracted cholera. On July 23rd, he went to prepare some food for her and she awoke to severe symptoms and he runs to her side and he could see that she was dying. She looked in his eyes and said, I'm sorry. He said, you're not sorry to be with Jesus. Oh, no, it's not that, you know, darling, that for 10 years past, there's not been a cloud between me and my Savior. I can't be sorry to go to him, but it does grieve me to leave you alone at such a time. Yet he will be with you and meet your need. And she dies. A Mrs. Duncan, a missionary with the mission said this, I never witnessed such a scene. As dear Mrs. Taylor was breathing her last, Taylor knelt down, his heart so full and committed to the Lord, thanking God for having given her and for the 12 and a half years of happiness they had together, thanking him for taking her to his own blessed presence. And he dedicated himself anew to the service of God. He had just put his three oldest kids on a ship to England for education. His three oldest are there, his baby's in the grave, and now he's preparing to take his wife and put her in the grave as well. He has nothing left. And when the sufferings of life and ministry come upon the ship of your life, folks, you better have a sure foundation. Taylor was so solid and he learned it when he was your age. That not only did he not take six years off to recover, he just kept plowing on for the work of God. Mr. Judson, he's so happy in the Lord Jesus, he needs no words of ours. Listen to this. God is at this time his refuge and strength, and for some months past has been teaching him more and more of his own fullness, thus preparing him for the stroke. That is what he was learning from God in his time with him was preparing him. I sit there and go, what if he got too busy and he just slid the Bible over to the side of the table? Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him. Taylor said how lonesome were the weary hours and confined in my room, how I missed my dear wife and the little pattering footsteps of the children far away in England. Then it was, I understood why the Lord had made that passage so real to me. Whosoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst. 20 times a day, perhaps as I felt the heartthirst coming back, I cried to him, Lord, you promised you promised me I should never thirst. And quickly he came and satisfied my sorrowing heart. Verse 28 says, my soul melts for heaviness. Strengthened out me according to thy word. Most people don't know this, but the greatest financial supporter of Hudson Taylor was George Mueller who ran the orphanages. And George Mueller lost his wife as well. And in the correspondence between the two, we have the letter. It says, you do know, beloved brother, what the cup is that I'm daily called to drink. Yes, many times every day. You know that it does not become less bitter, nor is the lack of help less felt as days run into weeks and week and months. They tell of him who in the poor and needy seek water and there is none. He opens rivers in high places and fountains in the midst of valleys. That's why Taylor would say in his memoirs, fruit bearing always involves cross bearing. My soul cleaves unto the dust, quickened down me according to thy word. Dr. Dale report who is on his board said this. If we, if he, if he were not in the habit of casting his burdens on the Lord, he would have sunk underneath them. Grace, not natural temperament has supported him. When people saw him, they could tell that there was Jesus stuff going on in his life. And when you talk about ministry out of the overflow, it can only come out of the overflow. If Jesus is doing work under the hood of your life. Last of all, he loved the word of God and it produced in him a righteous resolve. I'm one of his trips to the interior. He was stopped by a Buddhist priest who asked him to bow down to his Buddha and offer incense and give an offering afterwards. Stirred to the depths, Taylor said he could refrain no longer. He mounted the stool he had been desired to kneel on and he addressed the throng about him in Mandarin, setting forth the folly and the sin of idolatry and the love of God in Christ, which passes knowledge. He loved the work of God. When he was speaking to missionary candidates, he tried to scare as many off as he could. This is what he said about women. Unless you intend your wife to be a true missionary, not merely a wife, homemaker and friend, don't join us. She must be able to read and be master of at least one gospel in colloquial Chinese before you get married. You too must master the initial difficulties of the language and open up a station. If they seem too hard, don't join us. These are small things to some of the crosses you may be permitted to bear for our dear master. China is not to be one for Christ by self-seeking ease-loving men and women. In short, the men and women we need are those who will put Jesus, China, souls first and foremost in everything at all times. Life itself must be secondary. Somebody said he saw Taylor come home at the close of a day, foot sore and weary. His face was covered with blisters from the heat of the sun. He threw himself down to rest in a state of exhaustion and he got up in a few hours to another day. It had been evident that he enjoyed the highest respect from the Chinese. He was doing a great amount of good among them. His influence was that of a fragrant flower, diffusing the sweetness of true Christianity around. Verse 54, thy statues have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage. He breathed Jesus, he breathed the word. When I say this, this is the essence of knowing God. It is when you take life experience and you take the sacred text and you marry them together and it develops through faith a trust in what God says is true. We don't need people who are so concerned about every single step and how they're going to look and how it's going to work out. We just need people are going to say I'm going, I'm going for the call of God in my life. Look what the psalmist says in verse 47, I will delight myself in thy commandments which I have loved. 48, my hands will lift up thy commandments which I've loved. 97, oh how I love thy law. 128, I love thy commandments above gold. 159, consider how I love thy precepts. It is time to begin to love the word of God. Hang up the phone. Log off the internet. Put away the PlayStation and start seeking Jesus. Taylor said this, the hardest part of a missionary career is to maintain regular prayerful Bible study. Satan will always find you something to do when you ought to be occupied about that if it's only arranging a window blind. You ever feel that way? He experienced the exact same temptations that you experience. He was called Nuiti and Ren, inland China's grace man. And let me close by just telling you the impact this man has had on the world. I hope I've laid the foundation to say why he had an impact, but this is the impact he had. When he died, there were 205 missionary stations, 849 missionaries, and 125,000 Chinese Christians in the China Inland Mission. One missiologist has said this, no other missionary in 19th century since the Apostle Paul has had a wider vision and carried out a more systematized plan of evangelizing a broad geographical area than Hudson Taylor. Amy Carmichael, Eric Lidell, Jim Elliott, all those people said we flow out of Hudson Taylor. He was our mentor. And he's been dead for 100 years, but his influence is still felt. Today the China Inland Mission has now been renamed the Overseas Missionary Fellowship. They have 1,200 laborers around the world. I met with their directors and talked with them and I said, what perpetuates the mission? And they said, it's still the values that J. Hudson Taylor embraced. Herbert Hudson Taylor, his son, went back as a missionary teacher. James Hudson Taylor II became a missionary to the interior during World War II. James Hudson Taylor III started the Chinese Evangelical Seminary. James Hudson Taylor IV was in seminary and felt the call of God on his life. And later he wrote a Chinese girl named Ki Ye Min and they met at the Chinese Bible Church of Greater Boston where he's now serving. He was serving as associate pastor and he got married the first tailor to marry a Chinese woman. Now they're in Hong Kong. They partner with colleagues in Chinese ministries and have been active in the Hong Kong Mandarin Bible Church. The home of James Hudson Taylor IV has three little kids in it. Selena, Joy, and James Hudson Taylor V just turned six. James Hudson Taylor III, who wrote the two-volume biography, this is a classic work in his life, says one decision to serve God in the 18th century has influenced our family for nine generations. To God be the glory. Think carefully and prayerfully as you make decisions. They have far-reaching consequences. Let's pray. Dear God in heaven, I don't pray for a thousand. Lord, I pray for one Maria Dyer or James Hudson Taylor in this room who would catch the challenge to be word-based, Christ-based ministers.