Otto Koning shares a powerful testimony about a widow who, despite her poverty, becomes a channel of God's blessings by committing to give everything above her basic needs to support missionaries. Through her faith and prayers, she experiences miraculous provisions as businessmen in her community prosper due to her intercession, leading her to give even more to missions. Koning emphasizes the principle that those who lose their lives for Christ's sake will find true life, illustrating this through the widow's story and his own experiences in the mission field. He challenges listeners to consider their own willingness to sacrifice for the sake of the Gospel and to trust in God's provision.

I would like to talk about or illustrate the verse in Matthew 10, 39. This will be more like a illustration or a testimony. The verse says, He that finds his life shall lose it, and he that loses his life for my sake shall find it. And this became so very, very vivid to me there in the jungle as I just finished up my first term. And I was discouraged. Not much had happened. And I said, I prayed, I said, God, if something else could happen to give me that, that courage to come back and try it again a second term. And this is what happened. This village of Amenda, which was next village over to where I lived, had resisted the gospel. Well, they had a false gurus in their false religion. When you have these false religion mixed with the animism, the spirit worship and the demonism, and they stir up the people against us, you know, and threaten them with witchcraft and so on. If they ever listened to us, there was virtually no way into a village like that. But this guru, they had made a mistake. And that's many times, you know, he turned the people off. They came to me. We want your teacher. We want your school. So I got a Bible school graduate. His name was Paulus, Paulus de Pondoyer. He was a coastal native. I wasn't too sure about this fellow. He had a wife with a couple of children. They sent him to me. I guess we were really short of teachers. So we got him. I said, Paulus, this will not be easy. This other religion, they're stirring up trouble all the time and they will threaten. He says, oh, don't worry about me. I used to be a policeman. He says, I can handle them. I didn't like the sound of that. But anyway, there was no other teacher. And we were so desperate to try to get something started there. We sent him over there. I said, Paulus, and I wish I'd never told him this. I said, Paulus, when they come and cause trouble, send word, send one of your students and I'll stand with you. I wish I hadn't said that because that they came. All right. One of this runner came across the trail of this one of the schoolboys just covered with sweat. And he said to him, Paulus calls you. They're all coming from the east. All the villages there from the east side of east of here are all have all gathered to gurus from all the villages have come. All their henchmen called Tuan Gamas. They've all come to chiefs. They're all coming with arrows. And indeed, even where we were, we could hear the sound in the jungle of the drumming. And it's a psychological thing. They come real slow. They don't hurry. They're painted up. They've given themselves to demons. They're ready to shed blood. They move in the whole jungle kind of thunders with the drumming and the chanting. And they come slowly to prepare these people over here that they're coming. And so we had time to get over there. We the men of our boys that were our friends, even though we had only very few believers said, we'll go with you. And they came out with their spears and arrows and ready to go. And I said, no way you guys put those spears back, put those arrows back. We can't we can't beat those people. We can't fight. Let's have a fight. And that's their entertainment. I mean, what else have you got in a jungle? And and so I said, no, put the arrows away. We're going. He says, John, you're going to get us all killed. I said, I'm not asking you to go. I'll go myself. He said, well, they're never going to miss a good fight. And so they they reluctantly took the arrows back. What I didn't know was that as they followed me down that trail to Aminda, that their children were coming with the arrows and spears around a couple of bins back of us. They weren't going to get caught anywhere without those. And so the arrow ammunition was coming, which I didn't know. And they were muttering at me all the way to and you're going to get yourself killed. You know, they're all possessed. And and, you know, you don't say that to a pessimist. I'm I start to believe now here I should be walking in faith, saying, God, this is your work. I'm going with you. But I wasn't even thinking about that. I thought I've made him the promise. I've got to go. How can I get out of this thing? And but their mother and then the then the Amanda people came out to meet meet us. And I told those men. And when I got to the village, the whole army hadn't gotten there yet. We still heard the sound. And I said, no, put your put your spears away. Put your arrows away. They looked at me to honor. Are you crazy? I mean, they they're they're warring people. That's all they do. And and I finally said, no, look, we can't fight. We're not going to shed blood over this thing. If God wants our school to be here and our church. Well, we didn't have a church. I went and used the schoolhouse for for church services. I said, if God wants us to have a school and church here, then he will have to do it. But we can't fight over this thing. And they looked at me. They'd never been in a situation like this before. And but they put the arrows in their homes, the Amanda people. But what I didn't know is they were just at the door. I mean, they'd set them right around the door. As a matter of fact, they had assigned their children to throw them down when you know. And the whole throng on my side was within seconds of being fully armed, which I didn't know. But they were all fussing. Now, then we came to the schoolhouse and I said, now, you men stay with Richard back towards these posts. The government rules. If you don't own property in a village, you have no business being there. So I said these this this school building has to stand. And so as long as. So I said, protect those folks. You stand by a post so they can't cut it down. Defend your post. And I got some of the bigger guys. But now how can they defend it with bows and arrows? I thought, well, they can't cut it down if the guy is standing there, see. And so they reluctantly said, OK. And I got one guy at each post there. And we went on to the other end of the village, there was Paulus and his wife and little children. And Paulus, it was evident he was afraid. He didn't say anything about how he was a policeman anymore. He he said, John, what are we going to do? I said, Paulus, we've got to pray. There's nothing else. It's got to be God. And he looks at me and he's looking at me to see if I'm ready to lay down my life for this thing. And I'm looking at him, wonder if he will. And I don't want to and he doesn't want to. And is it worth it? I mean, I'm so tempted to say, Paulus, let's just get the blackboards and the slates and schoolbooks and and go home and try another time. And I was so tempted to do it. And yet God wouldn't let me do that, although I so definitely wanted to do that. And then it came in this horde of people. You've never seen anything like it with the war paint. There must have been a thousand of them from all these villages east of us, fully armed, more arrows than there was people hit. I mean, you know, more. And they all came in through that swamp, single file out the swamp. But when they got to the dry land, they all waited and they came in and filled the whole center of that village, just filled with people shouting and yelling and cursing and pulling their bows back and and just one mob of demon possessed religious people. Terrible. And I just stood there. I thought, no way. I thought of the verse, God, you long to show yourself strong. I said, God, you've really got a good opportunity because I my faith doesn't hold in this thing. I've been struggling for the term. Things have been so discouraging. And I wasn't victorious. See, this was before I ever went to a seminar, before I ever understood anything about the spirit filled life. Can you imagine sending up a missionary over to a place like that? And it doesn't know he's a spirit filled Christian. And you have all these people filled with demons. I mean, what? Well, it's ridiculous. And I can imagine that Satan was laughing at us. And I didn't even know what lordship was. I didn't know surrender. I was fighting for my right. So obviously, I wasn't confident in Christ. And and yet I stood there. What else could I do stood there? And all my people stood on this side of me. I was closest to this center of the village. And we're all these people. And they look at me, too. And you're crazy. You told us put a spears away. Look at them. How can we fight them with our bare hands? That's that's the kind of thing they're looking at. And I just stood there. I said, Paul, let's pray again. We bowed our heads and I said, God, it's now or never. If you don't come through, it's all over for us. And and I really thought about my wife and my child. You know, you think about these things. And I thought this I really believe that this is the closest I got to to leaving this world and all my escapades there in the jungle. But we stood there and nothing happened. This army was became confused. They when the army's meet, they always wait for the first guy to shoot. I mean, somebody has to let go that first arrow. And they're hesitant. Who is going to be the one on which side? But now the army here knew that our side didn't have any arrows to let go. They were totally confounded. They they didn't know how can this be? They have no arms. If we shoot one day, they can't shoot back. Then what do we do? You see? And so it's always retaliation. The whole thing's based on retaliation. Obviously, there can't be retaliation when you only have one side armed. And and so this this was very confusing to them. They've never been in a situation like this before. Well, I hadn't either. But they stand there and hesitate and they're yelling and cussing. Take your books home. Take your and move your thing. And our people stand there shaking their heads to on this can't be. We haven't got any arms. And so in this confusion and in this noise, this this main guru had had somehow left. We didn't know this. And he was at the schoolhouse. By now, the men at the post, they didn't want to. Everybody wants to see that first arrow go and the first guy get hit. And they didn't want to miss the action. And there was nothing going on back there at the schoolhouse. And so they had left their posts and they were now somewhere over here looking. And I didn't know that. And first thing, you know, that one guru has slipped around somehow quietly with this large machete. He's cutting that building down. Man, he was a softwood post. You know, that's what all they had the thing on. He had about six posts on each side. And he would have a strong man with a sharp machete can can do a lot of damage to softwood posts. And he was chopping away at that and got a post cut. And he was on the second one. And all of a sudden, the people's yelled at me. My people yell him. He says to them, they're cutting down your school. And I thought, oh, those dummies. And I reacted. I reacted now when I get excited. And my language isn't all that good anyway. And he's one. And when I get excited, I'm saying to this guy, I yell at him. Why are you guys get at your posts? You know, I'm trying to say, hey, defend the post. What's the matter? And all of a sudden, but they didn't interpret it that way. My language was really a mistake. And they interpret my saying, hey, get at that guy. You see, and and my they had the permission of the missionary and all of a sudden, I couldn't believe what happened. Arrows and and then spears came out of the houses thrown out and they caught him as they ran. And they were on their way. I tell you, they were they had the permission of missionary. Go get him. And that's all they needed. And they tore off. And I'm saying, oh, no, I said, no, no, no, no, don't go. They couldn't even hear me for the excitement. I mean, they were yelling their blood curdling, screaming and gone. And I thought, oh, how do you stop a gang? And all of a sudden, I said, God, room for a bigger miracle for you to show yourself. I mean, there's no way I can stop this. This guy is a dead man. And all I said, pray. I prayed. I knew this guru. He was a bad guy. I didn't like him. He didn't like me. And but I prayed for him. I said, God, help that guru so and so to help him to run like he's never run before, because I knew my guys. He was he was a goner. And I thought I could just see the headlines, you know, missionary orders gurus killed in the jungle. You know, I could just see our whole mission expelled from the from the country. And I thought, oh, I said everything. I said, God, room for a bigger miracle. And this guru, he started running and he ran and he outran him. And these guys come, he tore off into the jungle from where this whole horde of people. And these people come to a screeching halt at this building to see what damage had been done. And they stood there looking at it. But this guru was gone. Praise the Lord. He ran. And then this whole this is amazing. This whole army became silent. All these. And because it was strange, it wasn't coming towards them, it was coming, going away from them. See, our guys armed were rushing away from them. Now they're armed, but they're going the other direction. So they still don't know what to do. And they all look around and they look at they look at this other guru that was one of the main ones from one of the larger villages. And he I saw them look at him and I saw his face. Now he has to make a decision. And he doesn't want to make a decision. You know what he did? He just walked out. He just walked right in front of all these warrior warriors and walked out that path behind the other guy. And he didn't want the responsibility. Well, they looked at the next one. He did the same thing. And all those gurus one by one from the greatest to the least walked out of that village. And it was totally quiet. It was unbelievable. And then they looked at those two and garments, the henchmen, their citizens, and they walked out. And then they looked at the chiefs and they walked out. And we just stood there. All I did was stand there and took forever for all of them single file to get out of that village. And and my people said to him, don't let him go. We haven't fought yet. I said to him, we came here to see a fight. What a waste of trip. And I said, look, we're not it doesn't look like we're going to fight anybody. And my people were uncomfortable with this. They're itchy, you know, and they keep going out. And finally, the whole horde of people went out. We never saw them again. And they look at me, says, John, what are we going to do? I said, well, let's just go home. But first, thank the Lord. And that teacher stood beside me, just stand there, started to smile. He says, John, should I stay? I said, yeah, you stay. God has sent them home. And we had a village and that village became one of our strongest churches, Amanda. Now we went back 26 years later. I went back just two years ago. And that that village has gotten God so blessed that village with children and population that now half of them had to move to another site. There wasn't enough food here. And now Syracuse is one of our largest churches, two large churches out of this thing. God got into being. And, you know, I sometimes think, you know, I feel a bit proud to be part of a big miracle like this. You know what I mean? But, you know, I can't be proud because all I did was make a mistake in language. And God can use our mistakes to glorify his name. It's not encouraging for those of us to do nothing but make mistakes that become famous over our mistakes, you know. Oh, and but God showed himself. And it was this thing that I had to. At the moment, I wouldn't have stood that ground, but I had promised a young man that. And but I had there was a choice to make in that thing. I don't know if you've had to make a choice. There's a choice. Sometimes we either are willing to lose our life for the cause of Christ. And that's what illustrates that he finds his life, shall lose it. If you if you if you seek all the soft choices and all the easy ways out and you're going to lose things. But there's a time when Christ asked, God asks us to lose our life for his sake. And then what he does. This was so illustrated to a young man. It was a fantastic thing. I don't know if you've heard about the Donny tribe in the Bali Valley. Our mission didn't work there, but Christian Mission Alliance does and UFM and RBMU and Australian Baptist. There was a couple of pastors from the Australian Baptist mission group there, and they had occasion to be on the south coast and swamplands. We had some of their teachers and they wanted to see how how their teachers were doing some literacy teachers. And they said to me, Tuan, are you all by yourself among these people? I said, yeah, there's just me here. He says, Tuan, all these villages and all these people. I said, yeah. He says, Tuan, you need help. I said, I know it. He says, suppose we send a missionary from the Donny to help you. I said, oh, that'd be wonderful. They had strong churches among the Donny tribes, strong men they were strong. And they had 40 pastors in their village of Tiom in the highlands. And he says, Tuan, we can spare one of our pastors to come and work with you as a missionary. And they were going to support him. These Donny natives were going to support this guy. They couldn't support him enough. Well, so we took care of the rest. But the amazing thing is how they went back to their people, sat all those 40 pastors and their wives down in one big circle, and they told the head of the church, and they said, there's a Tuan, there's a missionary there that's all by himself. There's hardly any Christians. We've got to send a missionary. And they all decided that they would follow. The head elder stood up and said, first of all, we've got to find out who is going, who should go. And they're all sitting there, you know, wondering who should go. And he said, first of all, let me ask this question. Are all of you willing to go? And every man, 40 of them, said we're willing to go. And every wife said, I'm willing to go with my husband. Now, that is fantastic. It brings us back to Acts 13, where the church sends the missionary. We don't wait for, don't ever ask for volunteers. You always get the wrong people, the wrong one. The church sends the best they have to the field. And they said, OK, well, let's pray. So they all start to pray. They all start to pray, all these 40 men and their wives. And finally, you know, the prayer was ended. They all got quiet. And the leader stands up. He says, has God given any of you an answer who should go? And several of them raised their hand. About four or five of them said, God has given me a name. Well, the leader said, God has given me a name too. And he had them come forward. And he says, now, so that we don't influence each other, when I count to three, we all say the name together. And all, all of them together said, Ngaratwe, Ngaratwe Koya. And it was obvious, because they all had the same name. And there sat Ngaratwe. And they said, Ngaratwe, when can you go? He said, well, I can be ready tomorrow morning. So you don't have any deputation. That isn't scriptural anyway, is it? But yeah, I'm ready to go tomorrow. Well, the MEF plane couldn't bring him the next day. So it took about a week or a week and a half before they could get the flight to us. But here came this man with his wife, three children. I'll never forget that man. What an example he was to me. This man always smiled. He had, now he was in a foreign culture. They didn't have any sweet potatoes there. And so on. He had never been, he didn't know the language, but he came and he still smiled. That was amazing. I didn't smile for the first four years. And what an amazing man. And this man, but you know what he had? He had behind him 39 pastors and their wives praying for this guy continually, because they all knew they could have been in his situation. And that's a good way to, you know, I don't think you pastors have a right to send out a missionary to a tribe like ours until you first go in and help open up the tribe. And then you will pray. And maybe all your mission boards should be there before they are eligible to serve on a missions committee. But anyway, this man had programs. So we put him in this village of Hashima. And that was four villages away from us. And I supplied him. I taught him the language to a certain extent so he could start up. And he settled there with his people. The people didn't know what to make of this guy. He immediately starts making gardens. He had some vines with him. He's planting sweet potatoes on the south coast, where it's never been done before. And he's planting his things and making his garden and working. And he's learning, sitting with the people, learning language, always kind, always serving them, always helping them, always helping them build their houses. This guy's just winning this village, except for one guy, that witch doctor. He didn't like him at all, you know, because the people were drawn to this guy. And so he got some chickens in his chicken pen. And this witch doctor stole one of his chickens one day in full daylight. We wanted him to know that he did it. He was challenging him. And so the whole village gathered. The chief said, we've got to, Uru said, we've got to work this thing out. And they had this big powwow in the middle of the village. And they made this witch doctor stand there. And Garutwe stood over here, my preacher man. And they said, Garutwe, is it true that he stole one of your chickens? He said, yes, it's true, chief, he did. He said, Garutwe, we rule as a village that he should, the witch doctor here, should give two chickens in return for the one he ate. Would that be all right with you? Preacher Garutwe. He says, no. He says, I don't want his chickens in my chicken pen. Hey, would you want the witch doctor's chicken in your chicken pen? And he says, well, how many chickens do you think he should repay you? He says, I don't want his chickens. And he just stood there. He says, well, Garutwe, what do you want? He says, I want that man. Oh, what do you mean? I want him. The guy himself. Everybody says, well, what do you mean? He says, I want him to do this. If you all feel that this is okay, tell him to bring his bag of witchcraft out here in the open. And there's a tremor goes through the crowd. That bag is always in the dark. It doesn't come out in the middle of the village and then bright daylight. He says, I want him to bring his witchcraft and set it right here. And he says, and I will take God's book. And he had a New Testament in Donny. And I will lay it beside it right there. And the people thought, oh, this is great. This is a confrontation. This would be exciting. Yeah, make him do it. And they forced the chiefs, make him do it. And the witch doctor says, I'll put witchcraft on. He says, no, make him bring the witchcraft, make him bring it. And finally they fussed at him enough. And he brought the bag and set it right there. My preacher and Garutwe knelt down beside that. You know, no. First thing he did was picked up the bag, turned it completely out and shook all these, all these fish bones and pig bones and rat teeth and all this bark and all this junk. I mean, all this there was there were there berries and whatever he had in there. The people gasped because it never comes out of the bag. You know what I mean? And this is and then my preacher kneels beside it. And he takes a piece of that bark, puts this between his teeth and breaks it and spits it out. They said, oh, no. And people backing off the wrath of the demons are about to hit. I mean, this whole thing is going to explode. And then he picks up another piece of bark, cracks it between he gets a pebble and breaks it and spits it out. So, I mean, he handles it all. I mean, he sticks it in his mouth, bites at it. Hey, that witch doctor was he was so scared. I mean, he couldn't believe he wouldn't even touch it himself, put it to his mouth. People say you're going to die. Got it. You're going to die. No doubt. And he says, all right, you've all seen that I've handled and his his witchcraft. And now you handle this book, stand there and hold my book. Oh, this guy. They made him hold it. I've never seen a guy so scared. He says, all right, now I've touched your stuff. You stand to hold the book to all the people cheered. They love they love my preacher by now because he's you know, he's won them. And this guy's putting witchcraft on him. See, so the people are signing and they said, make him hold it. And he stands there. How long do I have to hold this thing? Oh, man, his eyes are big as saucers. And he says, all right. He says to the witch doctor, if you steal any more chickens, I'm going to make you hold the book again. He says, I won't steal any more chickens. I'll bring back the chickens and whatever. I mean, he's and he took the book back and all the people said, got it. You're going to die. No doubt about it. You're gone. And he says, no, I feel fine, he says. And the powwow was over. He went home. The people came to his house next day to see if he was all right. He said, got it. We aren't you feeling sick? Are you vomiting? Are you sick? And he says, I'm fine. You're lying to us. You've got to be sick. And then he got some food. He had his wife bring us some food. He ate in front of them, ate his food to show them that he was fine and he was healthy. And they marveled. It was another person that came. The witch doctor came. And you know what he did? He started raking his yard. He got new wood to put new sticks in his defense of his chicken pen. He started working for him. They said, what are you doing? He says, don't make me hold that book again. Don't make me hold that book again. I'll fix your chicken pen. And got it to a got what he wanted. He became his servant. He would say, I need my fence fixed. And this guy comes with a bundle of wood and starts fixing his fence works in the sun all through the day. Whatever he had to do, got it. He says, I need this grass cut and he'd be out there with his machete cutting the grass. The guy became his servant. He became a slave, so to speak. And that's exactly what my preacher said. I don't want his chickens. I want the man. He eventually wins that man. He could have told him, you better accept Christ or I'll make you hold the book. And he probably would have done it. But he didn't. You know what made it worse? Well, he said to the witch doctor, I don't want your chickens. I was fighting over my pineapples. Oh, how God condemned me. My dear native pastor doesn't want any chickens. He isn't concerned about what he has to eat. He wants the man. And I'm fighting over my pineapples and turning everybody away from me and angry and they're all calling me the angry missionary. And I'm fighting over pineapples. And friends, that is terrible when your own natives teach you spiritual lessons. That's, that's, that hurts. He that finds his life shall lose it. But he that loses his life. If I could have only just said, God, I don't want his chickens in my pen. Hey, let them have the pineapples and die to all this self that I'm fighting for. Then I could have won those people so much earlier. There's a beautiful story comes out of Ethiopia that I'll never forget. A missionary told me the story about the crippled evangelist. The missionary gathered all his natives, all his people every year for conference. All the Christians of the villages over the hills, wherever they came from, would gather in the central location and they'd have this great conference and they would sing and preaching and so on. But this missionary got up this given year and he said, man, there's enough of you Christians now. I can't go any further to carry the gospel. I'm getting old myself. I said, you younger men must now go and take the gospel across these ranges to the south and to the south parts of the mountains. I can't do it anymore. You must now carry the message. It is time. We foreigners cannot keep doing it. And then he preached at them and talked to them about their great commission and so on. And then at the invitation, 21 young men stepped out of this huge crowd of people and said, we will take the gospel south of the ranges. Now, that wasn't going to be easy because there's tribes over there were dangerous tribes. They had killed all the foreigners and people that ever went in there. And it's one of these things where you have to lay down your life to go and take serious this verse. And the 21st man was this crippled man. He was such a bad, his legs were totally useless. One was the knee was locked in a kneeling position and the other leg was bent right underneath him. He actually sat on that leg and couldn't move it. And he would propel himself by taking a stick. He had a pointed stick and he dig that into the dirt and then he would pull himself towards that stick. He would jump kind of half jump and half drag himself eight inches at the time. He pushed the stick in again and go another eight. That's how he came. That's how he came down the aisle to surrender to be the missionary to cross the ranges to the south. They all shook their heads. No way. No. I mean, you'll die of exposure on those mountains. You won't be able to cross them fast enough. You'll run out of food on the way. And then somebody said, and when those dangerous people come chasing you, you won't be able to get away and they'll kill you. Isn't that the way we think? We're concerned about our welfare and not about the soul south of the ranges. Anyway, they turned and they said, you better not go. So the other 20 went and got prepared to go. And this man was disappointed, but God was on him so strong to go that he just couldn't sleep. And he just had to go. God seemed to say, go south of the ranges, carry the gospel of Jesus. And so one day, knowing that the people would probably stop him or would discourage him, one day he set out. And all of a sudden he was missing. And they wondered what had happened to the crippled fellow. And they didn't even know where he was. And but he set out towards those ranges at the south, eight inches at the time, hobbling along, had a little bag, string bag with some food, whatever, he had a knife with him. And that's all he had. And he had God's book, you know, whatever the booklet they had with the gospel. And he goes on and he goes, friends, he took 30 days to cross those ranges to get to the other side. He almost died of exposure. He was so thin, he ran out of food, he cut roots, he cut berries, he ate leaves. He prayed and begged God to help him. And he was at the point of death when he got down on the other side of the ranges. And some people saw him. They didn't kill him. It was amazing that people saw him, called others, and they carried him, because he was so weak, to the house of the chief of the village down further down. And there, he said, and all the warriors of the tribe sat around this crippled fellow. They gave him the best of their food. They gave him the best they had. They treated him. They got him back to health. The language was not so far different from the other tribe. He picked it up rather quickly and he sat there talking to him. And in the days and months that came, they talked and they sat around, listened intently to what he had to say. And when the time came, friends, those warriors were saved. He led one after the other to Christ, groups of them. It was a people movement. He led them to Christ and then he taught them the songs that they sang. And they sat with him daily and teaching him the songs and teach them the gospel and the message. And a year went by and the conference was back on. And he says, now you've got to come to the conference where all the Christians gather. We've got to cross the mountains and go to the conference. And he says, that's what everybody does. All the Christians always come. Nobody ever misses the conference. So they carried him. They carried him across the mountains. There was 250 of them came to the conference after one year. They carried him down and finally when they saw the masses of people, the Christians there and singing, he said, now I want you to set me down. I want to lead you to the people, to the Christians. So they had a, and they followed eight inches at the time. And they were singing as they came, singing the songs that he taught them. Can you imagine a conference when somebody got to speak and it was quiet over here and they hear this singing of gospel songs and they question, well, there are no more Christians in the area or everybody has come. This was well into the they were late. How, how is it? And then as they come closer, they see that crippled man hobbling ahead of them, bringing his converts into the conference. Thrilling, thrilling situation. He went back with them again. And now all these leaders said, God used this fella. He can use anybody, can't he? And, and eventually after years, there's thousands of converts. That tribe is mostly all reached now through this fella. The whole tribe. You know what it was? God, God had something prepared. Have you ever heard of redemptive analogies, how God prepares ahead of time people before the coming of the missionary? Oh, how encouraging that is. That our people were prepared many, many years before I was ever born for my coming. And there was people appointed to take care of me. And I was, that's the ones I was most afraid of. But they, God had prepared those people and this way he had prepared. There had been a plague in that place and people had died and looked like the whole tribe was going to be, all of them were going to die because of this disease, whatever it was. There was a crippled man in that tribe who found in the jungle, some berries or something, a natural thing. And he started eating it and was relieved of the sickness of the fevers. And he brought that and he says, eat this and you will live, eat this. And well, there was no choice. They all started gathering that particular thing, whatever it was, and start eating it. And they started to live and their health was restored and they got better from disease. Well, they honored this crippled man. As a matter of fact, this tribe started to honor all cripples. They believed cripples had extra knowledge from gods, the gods, whatever. And so cripples became their chief. Cripples became their leaders, their spokesmen. They honored cripples in this tribe. They killed everybody else that came in from the outside. And so the only one that could win this tribe was a cripple. And so God prepared his guy, had him come and they honored him and made him chief, so to speak, the chief of the church. And he taught them that's the only guy that could reach him. But isn't that God's ways? His ways are so far above our ways. But this man was willing to lay down his life. And I think this is what Jesus means. If you're willing to lose your life for my sake, then God gets excited about it and gets goes to work. If you keep all your bases covered and take care of yourself, you don't see any excitement. But if you're willing to take a stand, if it be till death, friend, God starts to move. And because that's so much like Christ, that's what he did. And so when the time comes, we've got to take a stand like that. And God will honor it In your bulletin, it shows that tells that I was going to tell the story of the widow woman. And I will tell that because that is she is such an illustration of an American here in the church who was willing to die in order that the gospel would go on. This was this was a story. The widow woman was in a church in Pennsylvania. The pastor told us this story. The widow woman sat in a Sunday evening service where a missionary was speaking and the missionary had great needs. And so he he had such needs for finances to build that hospital or whatever he was building. And and the whole crowd, you know, they're not they're not a large church. And they said, oh, I wish we could help him. The widow woman said what every one of us has said. Oh, God, I wish I had a million dollars and be able to take care of this whole missionaries need. We've all said this kind of thing. And and she said, oh, God, I I have so little. Her husband had died. She had several children. She lived in a little cottage. She didn't even have a telephone. She didn't have a car. She walked to everywhere in the village. She was a cleaning lady. She cleaned the houses of rich people in the town. Some she went to every every once a week. Some she went to once every two weeks. So that's how she made her living. She was making only about four or five thousand a year. And that's what she was living on. Always getting hand-me-downs from the rich people for to clothe her children and so on. Just barely had enough money to feed them and to pay her rent for this cottage. This lady said, oh, God. And she made a promise. I will give to this missionary everything that you give me above my basic needs. Now, it is easy for a person that has nothing to make a promise like that. It's very hard for those of us that have bigger incomes to make a promise like that. But she said, God, I long to give this. Would you give me something extra? And this lady, if she had any extra, she should have bought a little better food to keep the children healthy. But that's what she said. And she made that commitment that night. On Monday morning, she went to the first house to clean and she stood there as the businessman went out the door with his briefcase. And God had her say this. This is what she said to the businessman. Sir, I'll be praying as I work in your house. I'll be praying that God will give you good success in your business and bless your business. The businessman kind of grinned and went on his way. But for some reason, God and God can do this even to unsafe people. He had not forget. He did not let him forget that this widow woman said, I'll pray for you today as I clean your house. This lady was always known for singing and praying. Godly widow woman. And God gave that businessman unusual blessing in his business that day. Just like only God can do. And had customers and had deals and made sales and so on. And he thought about the widow woman. He wondered, is there a connection or is this just happenstance? He went, took us, stopped his big car by the house of the widow woman and said, have you prayed for me today? And she said, yes. Has my God answered? He says, lady, I don't know. It's either the biggest coincidence, but I just wanted to ask if you had prayed. Then he pulled out a large bill of money and gave that to her. He said, I've had such a good day in business. I want to share this with you. See, and then he went away. She looked at this money. She said, God, that's for the missionary. And she's all excited. And she can take this to the banker because she doesn't even have a checkbook. And so she goes to the banker and said, I want to send this to the missionary. Well, finally to find out where the mission board was and whatever. Anyway, she handled it. Next day, she does the same thing. But she's in another home now. She does the same thing. And again, this thing happens. God blesses that man. God can bless any business he wants to. Do you believe that? God can make your chickens lay eggs. God can make your grain grow. He can grow bigger pineapples. You can. He can do anything better than we can, if he wants to. And all of a sudden, God started blessing this next businessman. And they didn't all come to her door. But after the next week, and it happened again, when it happened twice in a row to one of these businessmen. And she would say that every morning, I see, I'll be praying that God will give you good success in your business today, as I clean your house. And she kept doing this. And this kept happening. And God keeps reminding the guys. When it happened the second time to this first man, he said, he said, did you pray for me again today? She says, yes. She says, it's amazing. We had these two Mondays. We've had the greatest amount of business more than the whole months in the past. And he says, why don't you work for me every day? No, no, that's what, he didn't say that. He said another thing. He says, why don't you pray for me every day? Oh, she says, I can't do that. Because I pray for my master. And on Monday, you're my master. And, but on Tuesday, I've got to pray for other people. He says, wow. He says, why don't you work for me all the time? I guess anybody can have an employee like that on staff, right? And because week after week, this happened. And he knew it was, as a matter of fact, what he was doing is was keeping the main business deals. He made the appointments with the biggest companies on the Monday when she was in the house. Now, she is controlling his schedule now. See, he might as well come home the rest of the week. He was doing so much business on Monday. And then this happens on Tuesday with another guy. And this happens on Wednesday with the third guy. And so on all through the week. And some every try out every once in two weeks. But it happened and God made him. And so they all started raising her pay. You would too, right? You want to keep an employee on the road, don't you like that? So you make him happy, double their pay, right? And she's thanking God for this, this extra money, which probably was given to the missionary, you know, by the way, the banker. Now she's going to the bank so many times that the banker made her get a checking account and told her that she could send her checks directly to the mission boards and so on. So she don't have to bother him every day. That's because she was getting checks in the mail. Now people conscience, you know, money because they were getting rich over this lady and she had nothing. And so they they the checks were in the mail, which she took to the bank and and and then doubled her pay and more and gifts. And one man, one of them said to her, here's $80, go buy you a new coat. She had a black coat that she wore every day. She only had one and that's all she could wear at once. That's the way she figured. So a new coat was not a basic need. So she took that $80 and said, God, this is not a basic need. I've got a coat. And that coat money went to the missionary. Well, when this man saw that she never bought a new coat, he thought, well, she probably has has greater needs than a coat. Maybe they're starving, maybe they're hurting over there. So he went to the grocery store and he told the grocer, I'm making a deposit. And all that widow woman, so and so, if she comes in here and that's the only grocery store in her area and she walked there, when she comes in here, you put it on my bill, charge it against this account. So can you imagine the widow woman picking out her meager weekly groceries and he tallies it up and he says, put your purse back, put your money back in your purse. It's already paid for. There's a deposit here. And we have to charge your groceries against that. So just be on your way. And she stands there with the grocery money now goes to the missionary because that was her. And and so can you imagine the next week her picking out some other groceries that were better nutrition wise for her children and having more expensive stuff in her basket? And again, it's all paid for. She is eating better now. You see, if you lose your life for Christ's sake, you gain it. And that's a perfect illustration. She's eating better and every week she dares to put more better food in her basket and takes it home praising God and her children are eating this food and they're all healthier because of it. And it's all paid for. And besides that, she sends the grocery money to the missionary. And then she went to the landlord and she said to pay her monthly at the end of the month. And he said, no, he says, somebody made a deposit. Somebody's paid your rent for the whole year. So you don't have to come back till next year this month. And she stands there with the rent money. And what do you think she did with it? It went to the missionary. And can you imagine the joy? Christ said that your joy may be full. He also said it's more blessed to give than to receive. Have you discovered that? How true, how she experienced, she had full joy. And to make the story short, she went to pay her utilities and they were all paid for. And she virtually couldn't because all these businessmen were thinking they were the only ones involved with the widow woman. They didn't know that this was happening every day of the week. And so they were all taking care of her because they were all becoming wealthy over her. Do you believe God can do this? Hey, didn't God take the gold of Egypt and give it to the Hebrews as they left? Remember, they plucked off their earrings, they plucked off, they took their bracelets and and Israel, God's people walked off with all the gold of Egypt, right? They had so much gold they could make a golden calf out of it, right? Wish they hadn't done that. Maybe they had too much gold. But God can take the treasures, God can take the gold of the world and put it in our hands any day of the week He wants to, if we needed to get God's work done. Oh, I'm so pleased with the messages we heard on finances from Brother John. How true it is. God's got it. God can take it out. He can give it to anybody He wants to, if He can trust them with it. Hey, that is the catch, isn't it? If a person's going to buy a sailboat and then he won't be in church and worship on Sunday at all, right? And we have these strange, these strange things. You know, well, this is something I always wanted. Finally, my ship came in, right? And saying, this is something I've always wanted my whole life. I wanted to make that trip, or I wanted to own that. And that almost makes it an excuse, that makes it right to spend it on yourself. Everybody says, yeah, well, if you've always wanted it, poor soul, finally she got her way, you know, whatever, you know. But see, if we spend it on ourselves, God, God is not impressed. As a matter of fact, He says, I want this person to be dependent upon me and need me. If he's got all this money, no way. But this widow woman kept herself totally dependent. Everything extra was given to the missionaries. So she was still praying daily for for needs to be met. She still was very, very poor. She still only had one coat, even though they were eating better and so on. Strange things happened. She couldn't spend a dollar in the whole town. All her salary now went to the missionaries, because it was above her basic needs. And now that wasn't four thousand a year anymore. That was far more, because the wages, there was increases all the time in pay. She probably was one of the highest paid employees in the whole town by now. And all this money was going to missions, and she's delighted. And then a furniture truck, can you believe it? The furniture truck comes, and they carry in new beds and take the old ones out. And she's sleeping on new beds. And they look around, and they put a new table there, a new couch there, and they put new chairs in her house. And whatever they see as needed, they couldn't know. They were all looking for ways to spend money on her, you see. But others were beating them to it. So they were all sort of all finding and so on. And so she's sleeping on better beds and sitting on better chairs, eating better food. And then the clothing, she wasn't here wearing hand-me-downs anymore, you know. They knew that if the money didn't do anything, see, they'd all discovered that. They didn't know what, but she's still wearing. So new clothes was brought in for the children and so forth. You can just use your imagination, let it run wild. It happened to her. And see just living, see as living a fullness of joy, and see that your joy may be full. See as discovering life. It's far better to live for others than live for yourself. If you, I've lived for myself so long, that's miserable living. But when you start living for others, that's when the excitement starts. And that's, can you imagine a whole church full of widow women? Can you imagine that? You say, well, I haven't got that many poor people in our church. Well, there's rich people doing the same thing. Stanley Tam, have you, we had him at headquarters speak to us not long ago, who owns that business there in Lima, Ohio, on Route 75 between Toledo and Dayton, in there. And he's one of those guys, he just can't out-give God. He's still a millionaire. The more he gives, he still can't be anything but a millionaire, or multi-millionaire. Because he's done that when he started out as a poor man with his business. He said, God, you're the major owner of this business, 51%. I think now he's gotten with it, and God's got the whole thing. And he just asked God, what do you want me to spend on myself? But the thing is, God is so blessing, and he's doing this work for missions. R.G. Luterno was like that down in Texas. Remember, made those big earth-moving equipment, and supported so many missionaries in South America and Central America. Built their airstrips and did everything. Flew in machines and what have you. Just loved it. And he died as a millionaire. The guy couldn't be, he always said, God's got a bigger shovel than I have. He can shovel it in faster. And this guy makes the biggest earth-movers, the biggest shovels that are made. And he says, God's got a bigger shovel than I have. I can't out-give him. And so, somewhere between the widow woman and R.G. Luterno or Stanley Tam are you guys. I don't think anybody's poorer than the widow woman. And I don't think too many of us are richer than Luterno or Stanley Tam. There might be, I don't know. But somewhere most of us fit in between. Now, does this hold true all the way across the board? It certainly does. And can you imagine what would happen if your people made a promise like that? Huh? We could get this world one to Christ. My son is going to, my own son's going to Japan as a missionary in the first of December. He's got 91% of his support. Japan is very costly. My son has been on the road, beating the bushes for three years trying to raise that support. And he doesn't believe deputation is scriptural. And I don't believe it. But he says, Dad, I've got to do it. There's nobody with it. They don't understand. And he's been getting his support for three years. And I prayed for the lad because I thought he was going to quit several times. He wants to get to Japan so bad. He's learning the Japanese language and all. And his wife. And finally, this December, he's going to go with 91%. He said, I'll teach English if I haven't got enough. Hey, it's and yet God has all this wealth, hasn't he? And God could bless us. You know, you know how we heard about the widow woman? The missionaries come home, right? Where do missionaries go when they come home on furlough? Yeah, you go where it comes from, right? I know I'm talking. I've been there. And and so the missionaries show up at the church, right? Can you imagine you being that pastor? And the missionary says, who is this wealthy family sending us these checks of $500 every couple of months? It's man. And the pastor says, we don't have any rich people like that in our church. He says, well, you do. I was here last furlough, remember, and and ever since. And he says, what's the name on that? And he told her the widow woman's name. He says, no way, no way. She's the widow woman. We support her out of our benevolent fund. That's what he said. What do you think she did with the benevolent money? So some of the church's money was getting to the mission field by by the benevolent. You know, but but now they go to the cottage. You can just imagine the scene as they as they knock on her door and and the pastor introduces, oh, yes, I remember you, brother missionary. She shakes his hand. Well, have you have you sent money? And she says, oh, praise God. Praise God. He's given me money to send to you, brother missionary here. And they just stand there, shake their heads and can't believe it. She's still wearing the same black coat, happier than can. And they go back and he says, I can't believe it. How much is he sending? Well, he says this year, they send us six thousand dollars, five hundred dollars every other month. But see, by now, the widow woman had many missionaries. It's not good to give that much money to one missionary. I mean, you've got to keep them poor. You've got to keep them dependent. And so, you know, so they keep praying. And so she was now she was very wise. She was now giving. And so another missionary comes by. They keep coming over the next couple of years. As soon as a missionary hits furlough, they come to that church first because that's where the biggest checks come from. That's what you do. That's I guess that's what you're supposed to do. You've got to keep it coming. And so every all these missionaries are short and eight missionaries show up within the next couple of years. That's how the pastor found out. And he asked each one what they were receiving. And the best he could find out, she was giving between twenty, twenty five thousand a year to missions. And her salary, when she started, was only four to five thousand. She was giving five hundred percent of her salary. Now, some of us pat ourselves on the back when we're tithing and some of us get the wild idea we double tithe. And then and then some businessmen will even, I mean, go to fifty percent of their earnings. Wow, isn't God pleased with us? That's just chicken feed, folks. I mean, God's laughing at us. This this lady was given five hundred, five times what her salary was at the beginning. God loves to do the impossible. God's looking for channels to work through. God wants to. God wants people that are sincere to say, if I give him money, he's gonna he's gonna carry out the Great Commission. That is God's greatest concern. I don't care how many buildings you build or what you're trying to do with your church or your denomination. Christ said, reach the unreached of the gospel. Do you believe that? That ought to be our priority. And that's where they've made a woman tapped in. I mean, the bride isn't complete. Who wants to marry somebody that isn't all there, right? The bride needs to be completed. And as soon as the bride is completed, I believe that the groom will be here. Because today, six hundred thousand people will be born. Do you believe that? You know, the city of Karachi has sixteen million people in Pakistan. Sao Paulo down in Brazil has got about eighteen million people. Six hundred thousand people are going to be born today. Now, how many of those people do you believe are going to be saved at the end? Now, that's that's God's concern. And if you're homeschooling, the bottom line for your homeschooling is ought to be teaching those children to get get into this great commission thing and get the job done. That's the bottom line. That's what that's what Christ is saying. And we to lose our lives if necessary. Every one of us. I encourage you. As you are a pastor, you ought to set the example. If you don't do it, who is? And to go, say, go one year and challenge your people, go one year and say, God, anything above my basic need is going to that missionary to get that unreached people group reached. Get in touch with the U.S. Center for World Missions. They'll tell you twelve thousand different people groups in the world that are not represented in the bride that are still lost that we've got to get before the job is done. And say you challenge your people to do that. I challenge people wherever I go. Give it one year. Say, God, I'll sit on the same couch for a year. You can do that. I'll sleep in the same bed for a year. I'll wear the same suits. Tell the women to wear the same dresses. They can do it. And drive the same car. You can do it. And live in the same house or get a smaller house. And give all the excess for one year to missions. In other words, you don't improve your own life. You're going to, you're going to. All right. But what would happen? What do you think God would do that year? God is looking for channels. I believe with all my heart. People have tried. God is looking for channels that will give. We saw that with the illustration Brother John gave to us with a little child and his pictures and so on. And if you do that, you'll have joy like you've never had before. And God will. You know what people that do this for a year, you know what they say? I'm going to do it next year. Man, this has been the greatest year of my life. As a matter of fact, when they do it the following year, they do it the rest of their lives. They sleep on better beds. Now we don't do it for that motive. But if God wants you to have something, do you think he can get it to you? He can give you anything he wants you to have. Anything that's good for you. And friends, I stay in homes when I go out speaking, and I usually stay in the spare bedrooms. That's usually where the lady of the house keeps all the clothes that she can't get into her own closet, you know. And I know people can go a year without buying clothes. I mean, some of those closets are so tightly packed. I try to hang my suit up, and folks, there is no way to get it in there. I've been in a closet where I just shoved it in between and didn't even hook it, and it hung. Friends, we could go a lifetime without buying more clothes, most of us. And I believe we're listening to Satan. You need that dress. You need that suit. You need those shoes. You need that car. You need a bigger house. No, you don't need anything. You need to be content with what you got. You need to be concerned with the Great Commission getting the job done that needs to be done. Oh, friends, if you had a church full of widow women, you could send, and that's the way it ought to be, not deputation like my son. You could send the best team, the sharpest people, a good language person, a good medical person, a good builder, a good agriculture person, a good teacher, and send the best team, and send them to one of these unreached people groups. And friends, within a year's time, a good linguist, a linguist that just eats up the language. Don Richardson was one. He was next door to me in there in New Guinea. And a good linguist, just have him sit on the stump while you build a house around him. And a good linguist can get a language within, now with computers and everything, they can get a language year, year and a half. Almost any language can be broken down. Another year, and within a couple of years, you could have converts in any unreached people group. When you have that team, now it's going to cost your church $20,000 a month, or maybe $25,000. But that's nothing, folks. Not if you've got a bunch of widow women in your church. You'll be looking for places to give it. And we could get this job done. I believe with all my heart, and I believe with all my heart that before the year 2000, we could have these 12,000 lost people groups represented in the bride and have churches where those people can actually make an intelligent choice, yes or no Jesus. And it could be all done within the next few years. I don't know what you're thinking this morning. You might be thinking of building a new church and getting it done in 10 years. Hey, you don't even have to build it. Forget it. If the Lord, if we can get him to come back, because he doesn't like 600,000 people born every day, because most three, seven out of eight of them will be lost forever. And he's not willing to answer prayers. And he wants to stop this terrible avalanche of souls that are going to hell. There'll be 400,000 or more people dying today. How many is that by the time we get together next year? And if that's what we're concerned about, we ought to take heed to the message and get this job done that he told us to do, which we've neglected. And we ought to confess our sins that we haven't done it. Not only us, but all the generations that were before us. And friends, I believe within four or five years, we could get all these tribes reached and represented in the bride. And the bride will be complete. The bride's got to be complete before this is all over. Do you believe that? It has to be. Because in Revelation 5, 9, you say all peoples and tongues and language groups will be there around the Lamb, around the throne, praising God. They're all going to be there. It's going to be done. The question is who's going to do it? Maybe it's going to be South Korean churches doing it. Wouldn't it be exciting if your church was one of them? I told the Southern Baptist pastor, I said, you pastors in the Southern Baptist, your denomination is big enough and wealthy enough to get the job done all by itself. You've got more than 12,000 congregations. You could do the whole job yourself if you got with it. Friends, there's so many churches in the Western world. And I trust that this would motivate you to pray about this, would you? Let the Holy Spirit speak to you on this. It means death to self. That's what it means. If you're willing to lose your life for Christ's sake, you'll find it. You'll find joy unspeakable. You'll never know what real joy is until you do it. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, here's all these pastors and all these men before you and oh God, the potential is here in this room to get it done. Oh Lord, Holy Spirit, would you just seal this message? Would you just speak to our hearts? I've probably said too much already. Just go ahead and keep us awake of necessary whatever it needs to be done. But Father, may this not escape us. And may we be willing to let you be and do what you want to do so badly because you love men. You love the souls of men so much more than we do. We don't even care. We're so callous and we're thinking about our little church. And Father, you're thinking about the completion of your body, your bride. And oh Lord, help us to get with it in Jesus' name. Amen.