In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of sending and being sent in the work of the church. He highlights the need for both those who go and those who send to work together in harmony. The speaker also emphasizes the significance of prayer in the ministry, urging the listeners to develop a ministry of prayer and find prayer partners. Additionally, he discusses the role of work in mission work, emphasizing the importance of serving and helping others. Overall, the sermon encourages the listeners to understand the biblical principles of sending, prayer, and work in the mission field.

We're praying for 100,000 Antioch churches. I talk about that in this book. I show and break down the different countries to show how easily this can happen. 100,000 new churches who will take a step similar to Acts 13. Of course, there may be some that are already doing this. Then my prayer is to do something more. The numbers, that is not important. I put a lot of numbers, statistics. That is not the main thing. I'm asking for 100,000 churches to send 200,000 workers. I'm asking for 100,000 churches to send 200,000 workers into the harvest field. Of course, that has to be put on top of what already is happening. But the big numbers are not the main thing. The main thing is this biblical principle from the word of God. Actually, it should be a lot more than 100,000 churches. A lot more than 200,000 workers. Then my fourth word is the little word, send. Verse 3. They fasted, they prayed, they laid hands on them, and they sent them off. They fasted, they prayed, they laid hands on them, and they sent them off. There is a fantastic book. I hope it is available here. It is called, Serving as Senders. We have a lot of books about going. In this book it is about sending. What are the problems? We talked about some of them last night. If you can't find that book, send me an email, we will try to get a copy to you, because that book is absolutely basic for what we are trying to do. Written by a great missionary leader named Neil Parolo. Neil Parolo. He has written another new book especially for the church on how to handle returning missionaries. It is called, The Re-Entry Team. It is a tremendous book. YWAM has a book on the same subject, though quite different. It is written for the missionary. It is called, Re-Entry. And we need to understand. Many young people after two or three years out on the field found it more difficult to come back to their hometown than they did to go to the mission field in the first place. But we can learn from these books. Sending is a vital ministry. Many of you want to go. You need to find prayer partners. You need to find support partners who are going to send you. You need to learn how to relate to business people. Because the local church never hardly covers enough to make it happen. The history of mission shows it is the local church plus individuals, often business people who make missionary work happen across the globe. Please understand that. In verse three it is the people who lay hands on them and send them away. But look at verse four. Here it is the Holy Spirit. So they being sent forth by the Holy Ghost. Isn't that beautiful? It is not one or the other. It is the church working in symphony, harmony with the Holy Spirit. If you look at Romans chapter 10 verse 15 it says how will they go? How will they preach? Unless they are sent. There is that word again. The greatest mistake we made in our early days we did not put enough biblical emphasis on sending. We were all go, go, go. And sometimes in our meetings if you weren't going you felt second class. Then God showed us from his word. Those who send and those together who go we are one in the task. Both are important. And then the fifth word. Or is it the fourth? Fifth right? Is the word prayer. They were worshipping in verse two. But the worship in verse three moved to prayer. Praying for workers. I want to urge you to develop a ministry of prayer. I was 17 years old when I said to God I want one thing in life and for me to say this was very, very unusual. Because I was interested in so many things. But I said God I want one thing in life. I want to know how to pray. And from the age 17 until this very afternoon every day I have known something of the reality of prayer. Group prayer, personal prayer, all kinds of prayer. Sometimes I enjoy it. It's just a great time of blessing and prayer. Other times I have to really push myself to get in my car and drive to that half night of prayer. And even in the prayer meetings I have many struggles. I remember a prayer meeting in Switzerland. And I was trying to pray. And of course when we pray we often close our eyes. There's no bible verse teaching that you have to close your eyes. But I think for people like me that are always looking around at the pretty girls it's better to close your eyes. But some of us become very, very sneaky in the prayer meetings. Because when someone new comes in we like to see who that is. So I remember praying, maybe about 15 years ago. And I didn't have any glasses at that time. And I was praying. With my hands it looks very spiritual when you're praying with your hands. But then I could open this and I could peek through that little crack. So when the door opened and someone came into the prayer meeting I opened my little door, my little crack and I saw this beautiful girl. Whoa, Jesus! And suddenly I could not pray. Then I followed her as she went to sit down. Then I felt condemned. Then Satan reminded me what a hopeless case I am. And to think that God would even listen to any of my prayers. And I had to battle my way back to forgiveness and to some degree of prayer in my heart. Not that I even lusted after that woman. I don't remember that. It was just so beautiful to look at. That is a mystery, isn't it? There's a fantastic book out written for men You know English and you're a man I'll send you this book. It's dynamite. So how to deal how to deal with sexual temptation? The first chapter Why are naked women so nice to look at? Of course it's not really true because some naked women surely are not nice to look at. I've never been to a nudist camp but once I saw some pictures of a nudist camp it was not attractive at all but that is not the theme of my message today. The ministry of prayer it is not just for super saints it's for ordinary people like me needy ragamuffins who are constantly having to claim the blood of Jesus Christ over my mind and over my life. And then very quickly the sixth word it's the word work. Verse 2 Separate Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them. There's a lot of work to be done and we need to understand that I'm going to talk more about that later after the break. There is so much work. I think of our two ships I also know the YWAM ships the mercy ships I just visited one the big one in Newcastle there's so much work to be done it's not just for theologians and bible teachers you need men and women who can work with their hands on our ship Logos 2 we have a German woman in the deck department the deck that's hard work with the ropes and I think when she returns from her vacation in Germany I've heard she's going to be in charge of the deck department on the ship that's the men who work on the decks the ropes when the ship comes in the word work Arbeit is an important word in God's vocabulary there's a work for Jesus Paul and Barnabas were sent out for the work where unto I have called them God does the calling we do the responding and then the final word is there in verse 5 the 7th word how many have 7 words it's the word helper the little word helper very similar in German and English in this translation it uses the word minister other translations use the word assistant the Bible speaks of the gifts the gift of helps that's a great gift we're having this wonderful conference people have been helping with the food, with the cleaning all kinds of organizational things people who corresponded and sent me emails over the past 2 years if it wasn't for my secretarial staff I might not even be here I have people telling me you take too many meetings almost 400 meetings a year but I can do that because I have a lot of help I have staff who are when you send these emails they're going to help send out those books I'm not going to be able to put those books in a plastic bag and send them to you and often when we go out to mission work in short term or for a year that's our main ministry we just go to serve we just go to help some of the people who came in our fellowship when they were very young they just came to help today 20, 30 years later we have thousands of former OM people thousands in leadership position in the church and other agencies all over the world God has a great plan for your life but generally the first steps are small steps and you're just helping and growing and becoming stronger in God what a tremendous passage of scripture we can get 7 life changing words from 5 verses imagine what you can get if you go through the whole book of Acts you surely will never be the same again let us pray our God and Father we thank you for this special time together in your holy word Lord I thank you for so many in this room that sense a call that sense your call upon their lives Lord we just believe that you O Lord of the harvest are going to send forth workers into the harvest we thank you for this tremendous example in Acts 13 the way that you can work in a local church and we pray that this will happen in local churches all through Germany and that many more Paul and Barnabas will be sent out into the harvest fields we ask this in the name the glorious name of Jesus Christ Amen Amen