May 30, 2024 • 20 mins
Imagine a world where your prayers could change lives and uplift those tirelessly working to spread the gospel. In this heartfelt episode of the World Evangelism Podcast, we uncover the profound impact of prayer on missionaries and pastors. Through scriptural insights and personal stories, we delve into the essential role of praying for safety, acceptance, and support for those on the mission field. Reflecting on Romans 15:31, we emphasize the necessity of prayer for deliverance from unbelievers and the acceptance of ministry efforts by the saints. We also shed light on the unique challenges missionaries face, from cross-cultural barriers to the demanding process of raising support during deputation.
Moreover, we turn our focus to the pastors who guide us spiritually and the vital role our prayers play in ensuring their messages are impactful. Hear personal anecdotes about the dedication of individuals like Jean Smith and the powerful prayer practices of devoted supporters that uplift those serving in ministry. This episode is not just a discussion but a call to action—urging you to fervently pray for and actively support your missionaries and pastors. Feel inspired to make a significant impact in the world of missions, ensuring those on the front lines of spreading the gospel feel valued and encouraged.
Thanks for listening. Find us on YouTube, Substack, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
W. Austin Gardner (00:01):
Well, I'm excited to welcome you again to
the World Evangelism Podcast.
This is your host, austinGardner, and I am excited to
share with you more on the ideaof praying for missionaries.
As you know, yesterday Imentioned the fact that this
young couple it seems that threepeople were killed in Haiti.
They were down there trying toserve God, trying to see people
(00:24):
saved, see lives changed, and soyesterday we talked about how
Paul asked for prayer and wetalked about how we were in a
spiritual war and we talkedabout how that there were
unreasonable and wicked men.
Well, Paul also, in that sameverse, asked that their ministry
would be acceptable.
And so I want to ask you, asyour second prayer request if
(00:48):
you pray what the Bible says,you're pretty well guaranteed to
get an answer, because you'repraying what the Word of God
says.
The Bible says in Romans 15, 31,that I may be delivered from
them that do not believe inJudea, and that my service,
which I have for Jerusalem, maybe accepted of the saints.
That's an interesting conceptbecause it comes, verse 31,.
(01:14):
It comes with a whole lot ofstuff.
It comes right after verse 30,which Paul said y'all pray for
me and pray with me about this.
And now he comes along and hesays, hey, that I may be
delivered from them.
That's all there in this strongverse.
(01:35):
And so I want to just challengeyou that we also want to pray
that their ministries will beacceptable.
Now, if you know anything aboutmissionaries, you've watched
them travel from church tochurch trying to raise support.
They are trying to raisesupport from the saints.
(01:57):
See, the ministry would beacceptable to the saints, and
they travel from place to placeand we're asking that what they
preach would be acceptable.
Do you understand how thatmight affect what we call
deputation?
Or when they're trying to raisesupport, they come to your
church and they've beentraveling for an hour, two hours
(02:18):
, three hours, four hours, orthey traveled all that time
yesterday and then they sleptlast night and uh, and they're
in a strange place and theirchildren are about to be
expected to go to strange Sundayschool classes with people they
don't know.
They've got to separate fromtheir mother, they've got to go
to a nursery they've never beento.
They're going to cry abouthaving to do that and it's going
(02:38):
to be a little bit hard forthem to accept.
Accept, and so as we travel,and we travel and try to raise
support as missionaries.
It's a stressful time, and so Iwould just like to say to you
that God calls on his people, orthe Apostle Paul calls on his
people, to pray that theministry would be accepted by
(03:02):
the saints.
If you don't accept theirministry, if you don't get
behind them, they can't raisetheir support.
If they can't raise theirsupport, they financially will
not be able to go to the missionfield.
So I would ask you to pray forthem that their ministry be
accepted.
I'd also ask you to pray foryour pastor.
Your pastor, as he goes up intothe pulpit, walks up into that
(03:23):
pulpit with a hunger and adesire to see God use him.
But will it be accepted by thesaints?
And so many of us sit in thepews with a critical spirit and
a critical attitude, rather thansaying to ourselves what can I
do to pray for my pastor?
What can I do to help him andto be a blessing to him?
Pray that his ministry will beacceptable.
(03:45):
Now, just because you preachBible doesn't mean that it can
and will get through.
It doesn't mean that peoplewill hear it and understand it
and accept it.
It doesn't mean that peoplewill say I got it.
That's just not the way itworks.
We need the touch of God, weneed the Holy Spirit to give us
wisdom and power to be able tosay and do that in a way that
(04:07):
makes it work.
So what they're doing needs tobe done in a way that makes it
acceptable.
It's not just what you say,it's how you say.
It's not just what you say,it's what they hear.
And so I'd ask you to pray thattheir ministry would be
accepted.
Then I'd like to remind youthat they're fixing to go to the
mission field.
(04:27):
They're on their way to amission field, to another place,
a cross cultural ministry, andso now they've not only got the
barriers of taking the Bible to,from a God perspective, to
people and people understandingit, but now they've got to go
from a God perspective,translate it through a different
language to a different culturethat they don't fully
understand and take.
It's a cross-cultural ministryand we have to remove every
(04:53):
barrier that our backgroundmight cause for the kingdom.
And sometimes I bring baggageinto my message and baggage into
my attitude and baggage intowhat I'm saying and doing, and
we want to help the missionaryremove that so he can be a
blessing to the people thathe'll be preaching to.
It's a cross-cultural ministry.
Some pastors and somemissionaries never connect with
(05:16):
the people that he'll bepreaching to.
It's a cross-cultural ministry.
Some pastors and somemissionaries never connect with
the people.
They preach the truth andthey're good men and they love
God, but they never connect.
And when you don't connect, themessage doesn't reach its
intended person with the powerit was meant to go with.
I use as an illustration here astory I got off of the Andy
Griffith show, I believe, but Ican't for the life of me find
(05:39):
that story, but I call it thewell bucket.
And in that story, as Iremember it let me just say as I
remember it Opie sees this poorperson that needs a new well
bucket and so he goes and buys awell bucket.
And he goes up to this poorperson and offers him the well
bucket.
And the guy says what are youtrying to do?
Treat me like I'm poor?
Are you trying to treat me likeI need you?
(06:02):
I won't be beholden to nobody.
I won't be owing anybodyanything.
You have no right to look downon me and think that my stuff
isn't as good as your stuff.
And Opie is astounded, he can'tbelieve it.
He wants to help.
He goes to see his dad and hisdad says well, son, you got to
know how to give a bucket, youcan't just give a bucket.
And so he said okay.
(06:25):
And so they go back up and Andygets out of the car and walks
over to me.
He said, son, don't come uphere, sheriff, your boy's
already been here and I don'tneed y'all doing that.
And Andy said no, I'm here totell you I need to buy your
bucket.
And the guy said I ain'tselling you my bucket.
He said you can go down to thestore and buy your own bucket.
And Andy said but your buckethas character, it has something
(06:47):
I can use.
It's the kind of decoration Iwant, because it's a bucket
that's been used and hascharacter and it says something.
It's not just a generaleveryday bucket.
And the guy said look, buddy, Ican't help it.
Buy your own bucket.
And Andy said that won't do.
And he said I can't help you,andy, I ain't going to give you
it, it's the only bucket I got.
And Andy said I got one ofthese buckets from the store and
(07:16):
it's just a brand new, common,everyday, the meal bucket.
It has no story to tell, it hasno history.
It's not that good.
Can I trade buckets with you?
And the guy said well, andy, ifit needs that much to you, I
could do you a favor and tradebuckets.
And they got in the car andstart down the hill and the LP
says Dad, I can't believe it.
And Andy says you got to knowhow to give a bucket.
And so a missionary has tolearn how to cross that cultural
barrier so that the person canreceive the bucket, so they can
understand the gospel, so thatyou know you're not coming at
(07:38):
them like you're better thanthem, that you're there to help
them.
And so I want to challenge youto pray that God would protect
the missionaries.
And I want to challenge you topray that God would help the
missionaries, that their messagewould be acceptable.
And then the third thing I wantyou to pray about and pray for
is that they would enjoy successin their ministry.
In Romans 15, 32, it says thatI may come unto you with joy by
(08:05):
the will of God, and may, withyou, be refreshed.
See, the Apostle Paul wanted Godto do a work in his life and
his ministry that would help himto carry on long beyond what he
was doing.
He wanted to see God do a work.
He wanted to see God open doors.
He wanted to see God changelives.
He wanted to see God make adifference.
(08:31):
The missionary is going to becoming home on furlough, but can
he come home happy?
I have seen missionaries returnfrom the field with their tail
between their legs and theirhead hanging low and their feet
dragging on the ground, andthey're so discouraged Many of
them don't go back.
They saw no success.
They saw God didn't do a workin their lives and ministries
and they're very sad about it.
But what if we prayed for them?
(08:53):
I've seen many preachers go upto the pulpit and they so
desperately want to be used toGod, but nobody's praying for
them.
Paul said, brethren, pray forme, strive with me, get involved
with me.
So would you pray that thatmissionary could come back and
say, boy, god did this and Goddid this and God did this.
You see, we have not, becausewe ask not.
(09:13):
And this message is a messageof calling you to pray, calling
you to pray for people and prayfor you to care about the
missionaries.
You see, when Paul got throughwith his missionary journey in
Acts 14, 25, when they hadpreached the word, they went
back.
And in verse 26, they sailedback to Antioch, to their home
(09:35):
church where they had beenrecommended to the grace of God
for the work which they hadfulfilled.
They go back to where they camefrom and the work had been done
.
Your missionary needs to returnhome feeling like I got the job
done.
There's a lot more to do, but Isaw God move.
Now Paul's going to make moremystery trips, but he saw God
(09:58):
move.
And then look what he says,verse 27,.
He says and they rehearsed allthat God had done with them.
They rehearsed all that God haddone with them.
They rehearsed how God hadopened the door of faith unto
the Gentiles.
And they stayed there a longtime telling stories about the
great things God had done.
That's what we want your pastorto be able to do.
We want your pastor to be ableto walk out of the pulpit and
(10:20):
say you won't believe all God'sdone.
You won't believe all God'sdone.
That's what we want our pastorto be able to feel like when he
walks out of the pulpit.
That's what we want themissionary to feel like when he
comes home.
And it's so easy to sit injudgment Well, did he get enough
people saved?
Is he worth the money we givehim?
And we never pray.
(10:41):
We never pray.
We sit in a critical judgment,but we never pray for him.
I want to ask you to pray.
Get in the battle with yourmissionary.
Get in there and stand with himas he preaches and teaches.
Get in there and make adifference through prayer.
You see, paul said inPhilippians, chapter 4 and verse
17,.
Not because I desire a gift,but I desire fruit that may
(11:03):
abound to your account.
Paul was doing it for Jesus andhe was doing it for others and
I call on you to get involvedand help them.
I had a lady named Jean Smith,and Jean Smith loved us so much.
I had met her when I was ayoung kid.
She was old enough to be mymother and she had been going
through a divorce and she justneeded somebody to show a little
(11:25):
bit of love and appreciationfor her.
And the pastor called on me todo that at the altar in front of
hundreds of people, and I justwent and prayed with her From
there.
She took me under her wing.
She bought me every Oliver BGreen commentary there was.
She bought me a red backSchofield reference Bible.
She wrote me a letter by handevery month until she died.
(11:46):
She sent $10.
She was always praying for me.
I knew that if no one else waskeeping up with everything going
on in my life, jean Smith was.
She stood with me.
I remember when Dr Thurman Wade,who was the president of
Massonia Missions, I was in aconference and he held up a
prayer card and on the prayercard it was all covered up.
(12:08):
You could barely see the wordWade and he loved a prayer card.
And on the prayer card it wasall covered up.
You could barely see the wordWade and he loved that prayer
card.
And he told this story.
He said this lady came to himat a missions conference and
asked him if she could haveanother one of his prayer cards
and he said well, of course youcan.
And he reached to get one andshe said well, this one's all
used up.
And he said how can you have aprayer card that's all used up?
(12:29):
And she said well, every time Ipray for you, I put a hash mark
and I come back and put theother part of the hash mark and
I've done that.
And she had literally coveredall of the card, front and back,
except for his name, and heknew that meant she was in the
trenches with him.
She'd been praying with him.
I challenge you not to be socritical.
(12:51):
I challenge you not to be soquick to judge ministries and
question their fruit andquestion their ministry and
question what they're doing.
I challenge you not to do that.
I challenge you to pray forthem.
I challenge you to imaginewhere they are.
I challenge you to get out ofyour mind and into their mind.
I challenge you to get out ofyour mind and into their mind.
I challenge you to get out ofyour heart and into their heart.
(13:11):
I challenge you to think abouthow you'd feel if you were
living on the mission field Along ways from your family, a
long ways from your in-laws, along ways from everything you
know, a long ways from Walmart along ways.
And you had to realize I'm hereto reach people for Christ but
I miss home.
I challenge you to pray forthem that God would use them to
(13:33):
do great and wonderful things.
It's a mighty strong prayerrequest that God would do
something with them, that theirlives would count, that they
would see God do something.
That missionary wants to comehome and say I want to rehearse
with you all God has done.
I had a missionary come to meand he wanted to take pictures
(13:57):
of all my work so he could usethat in his slideshow.
When he came back home that'show far back that was he would
call me up and say can you tellme how many people got saved?
You know I had part in startingthat church.
I need some numbers.
He was padding his account.
He wanted his supporters to feellike he had accomplished his
job.
He had to kind of feel beat andI just want you to understand
(14:21):
what he needs is your sympathyand your love and your prayer,
because it's God that enablesthe preacher, it's God that
gives strength to the preacherto get the job done.
You know that your pastor howoften does he carry all the
burdens of all the people andalmost no one says I love you,
preacher, and I'm praying foryou.
I'm with you, preacher.
How often does he get a prayer,get a text that just says
(14:44):
preacher, I love you and I'mpraying for you and I'm looking
forward to today's message?
So I want praying for you andI'm looking forward to today's
message.
So I want to challenge you thatyou would pray that he would be
able to come back with joy.
He'd be able to get down out ofthe pulpit with joy.
I want to challenge you to praythat God would use him in a
great way for his honor and hisglory.
I want to challenge you to praythat his ministry would be
(15:05):
accepted, that other Christianswould get behind him.
Sometimes, when you're thepastor or the missionary, you
feel like the Lone RangerNobody's helping, nobody's there
and nobody seems to care.
But what if somebody prayedlike Gene Smith?
What if somebody stood with youand cared?
(15:27):
What if you stood with othermissionaries?
I'm just challenging you toconsider helping others do the
work that God's called them todo.
See, the Apostle Paul said prayfor me.
If Paul needed prayer, how muchmore does the average
missionary need prayer?
Paul said strive with me, getin the battle with me.
(15:50):
And I'm challenging you insteadof having this judgmental
what'd you get done, fill outthis questionnaire to answer for
what you've accomplished.
Why don't you say this?
I'm with you, I care.
There was a time in my ministrywhen I returned to the mission
field for the second term aftermy first term and all my
(16:14):
ministry was gone, buddy.
It was in the toilet.
The pastors had all messed up,everybody had fallen in sin.
I was ready to quit.
I called one pastor and I saidare you going to come see me?
And he said what about I seeyou if the whole ministry is
falling apart?
Okay, thank you for the loveand thank you for the comfort.
I called this other pastor,paul Forsythe.
Paul Forsythe always loved meand that's what I want to ask
(16:37):
you to do.
Paul Forsythe was always in thebattle with me.
He called me once a month andhe wouldn't even say who was
calling.
He'd just say hey, buddy, andwe'd start talking.
And he'd talk 20, 30 minuteswhen it was costing $3 and $4 a
minute to call.
He did that once a month and sowe were talking on the phone
and I told him.
I said I'm thinking aboutquitting, I'm going to resign.
(16:58):
I said the whole ministry'sfalling apart and he said you
ain't quitting, no-transcript.
Everybody knows what it's likewhen things go wrong and I know
you've had a rough go of it, butthe Lord's with you, you're
(17:20):
going to stick in this, you'regoing to do the job.
And I said I don't know if Ican.
He said, yes, you can, and hewouldn't quit and he wouldn't
let me go.
And then he came to Peru and hepreached to my guys and he
cried and soaked his shirt withtears, loving my guys and
helping me get them to get theirlives right.
(17:40):
He was with me.
Of all the people of all theyears, the one guy I always knew
was with me.
He's in heaven now.
I miss him so much.
But I would just say to you dothey know you're with them?
Do the missionaries say boy,this pastor's with me, this
supporter's with me, he cares,he hurts when I hurt.
(18:02):
The other day, a missionary'shouse was broken into and he was
robbed of hundreds of dollars.
How did that affect you?
Did you think about that?
Did you consider how you mighthelp?
Did it break your heart?
How would you have felt if itwas you?
Would you have wanted a littlebit of help?
So I challenge you to considerwhat you might do to help, to
(18:24):
get in the trenches, to pray forthem.
They're in a spiritual war.
Everything's going against them.
The devil's trying todiscourage them.
They need their ministry to beacceptable.
They need people to accept it.
They need to know how to givethe bucket, remember, and they
want to have success.
They want to be able to comeback and report all that God has
(18:46):
done, and the only way they'reever going to be able to do that
is if you help them.
Would you help them in prayer?
Would you get involved withthem?
I really call on you to do that.
Well, I just want to thank you.
I've taken a break from ournormally scheduled stuff to
share this about praying.
I'm going to do that once ortwice more.
I may do an extra podcastbecause I want you to pray and I
(19:08):
want you to know how to pray.
But would you help me?
Would you help me spread theword about this podcast?
Would you put it on socialmedia?
Would you just say you enjoy itand invite others to get with
it?
Right now, we only have about20 people listening regularly,
downloading.
But, buddy, I really want to bea blessing.
It is my heart's desire toinspire missions.
(19:29):
It's my heart's desire to helppeople want to see the gospel go
forward.
It's my heart's desire to makea difference.
I want it so much in these lastyears of my life I want to see
God still make a difference inme.
Would you pray with me aboutthat and would you help me
promote this If it's a blessing.
If it's not, let me know andI'll try something else.
(19:50):
Let me know what I can do toimprove, because we got a lot to
do.
Time is short.
Many people need to be saved.
Well, this has been AustinGardner in the World Evangelism
Podcast and I am so happy totalk to you and I look forward
to hearing from you Share thiswith others.
God bless you so much.
Well, I'm excited to welcome you again to
the World Evangelism Podcast.
This is your host, austinGardner, and I am excited to
share with you more on the ideaof praying for missionaries.
As you know, yesterday Imentioned the fact that this
young couple it seems that threepeople were killed in Haiti.
They were down there trying toserve God, trying to see people
(00:24):
saved, see lives changed, and soyesterday we talked about how
Paul asked for prayer and wetalked about how we were in a
spiritual war and we talkedabout how that there were
unreasonable and wicked men.
Well, Paul also, in that sameverse, asked that their ministry
would be acceptable.
And so I want to ask you, asyour second prayer request if
(00:48):
you pray what the Bible says,you're pretty well guaranteed to
get an answer, because you'repraying what the Word of God
says.
The Bible says in Romans 15, 31,that I may be delivered from
them that do not believe inJudea, and that my service,
which I have for Jerusalem, maybe accepted of the saints.
That's an interesting conceptbecause it comes, verse 31,.
(01:14):
It comes with a whole lot ofstuff.
It comes right after verse 30,which Paul said y'all pray for
me and pray with me about this.
And now he comes along and hesays, hey, that I may be
delivered from them.
That's all there in this strongverse.
(01:35):
And so I want to just challengeyou that we also want to pray
that their ministries will beacceptable.
Now, if you know anything aboutmissionaries, you've watched
them travel from church tochurch trying to raise support.
They are trying to raisesupport from the saints.
(01:57):
See, the ministry would beacceptable to the saints, and
they travel from place to placeand we're asking that what they
preach would be acceptable.
Do you understand how thatmight affect what we call
deputation?
Or when they're trying to raisesupport, they come to your
church and they've beentraveling for an hour, two hours
(02:18):
, three hours, four hours, orthey traveled all that time
yesterday and then they sleptlast night and uh, and they're
in a strange place and theirchildren are about to be
expected to go to strange Sundayschool classes with people they
don't know.
They've got to separate fromtheir mother, they've got to go
to a nursery they've never beento.
They're going to cry abouthaving to do that and it's going
(02:38):
to be a little bit hard forthem to accept.
Accept, and so as we travel,and we travel and try to raise
support as missionaries.
It's a stressful time, and so Iwould just like to say to you
that God calls on his people, orthe Apostle Paul calls on his
people, to pray that theministry would be accepted by
(03:02):
the saints.
If you don't accept theirministry, if you don't get
behind them, they can't raisetheir support.
If they can't raise theirsupport, they financially will
not be able to go to the missionfield.
So I would ask you to pray forthem that their ministry be
accepted.
I'd also ask you to pray foryour pastor.
Your pastor, as he goes up intothe pulpit, walks up into that
(03:23):
pulpit with a hunger and adesire to see God use him.
But will it be accepted by thesaints?
And so many of us sit in thepews with a critical spirit and
a critical attitude, rather thansaying to ourselves what can I
do to pray for my pastor?
What can I do to help him andto be a blessing to him?
Pray that his ministry will beacceptable.
(03:45):
Now, just because you preachBible doesn't mean that it can
and will get through.
It doesn't mean that peoplewill hear it and understand it
and accept it.
It doesn't mean that peoplewill say I got it.
That's just not the way itworks.
We need the touch of God, weneed the Holy Spirit to give us
wisdom and power to be able tosay and do that in a way that
(04:07):
makes it work.
So what they're doing needs tobe done in a way that makes it
acceptable.
It's not just what you say,it's how you say.
It's not just what you say,it's what they hear.
And so I'd ask you to pray thattheir ministry would be
accepted.
Then I'd like to remind youthat they're fixing to go to the
mission field.
(04:27):
They're on their way to amission field, to another place,
a cross cultural ministry, andso now they've not only got the
barriers of taking the Bible to,from a God perspective, to
people and people understandingit, but now they've got to go
from a God perspective,translate it through a different
language to a different culturethat they don't fully
understand and take.
It's a cross-cultural ministryand we have to remove every
(04:53):
barrier that our backgroundmight cause for the kingdom.
And sometimes I bring baggageinto my message and baggage into
my attitude and baggage intowhat I'm saying and doing, and
we want to help the missionaryremove that so he can be a
blessing to the people thathe'll be preaching to.
It's a cross-cultural ministry.
Some pastors and somemissionaries never connect with
(05:16):
the people that he'll bepreaching to.
It's a cross-cultural ministry.
Some pastors and somemissionaries never connect with
the people.
They preach the truth andthey're good men and they love
God, but they never connect.
And when you don't connect, themessage doesn't reach its
intended person with the powerit was meant to go with.
I use as an illustration here astory I got off of the Andy
Griffith show, I believe, but Ican't for the life of me find
(05:39):
that story, but I call it thewell bucket.
And in that story, as Iremember it let me just say as I
remember it Opie sees this poorperson that needs a new well
bucket and so he goes and buys awell bucket.
And he goes up to this poorperson and offers him the well
bucket.
And the guy says what are youtrying to do?
Treat me like I'm poor?
Are you trying to treat me likeI need you?
(06:02):
I won't be beholden to nobody.
I won't be owing anybodyanything.
You have no right to look downon me and think that my stuff
isn't as good as your stuff.
And Opie is astounded, he can'tbelieve it.
He wants to help.
He goes to see his dad and hisdad says well, son, you got to
know how to give a bucket, youcan't just give a bucket.
And so he said okay.
(06:25):
And so they go back up and Andygets out of the car and walks
over to me.
He said, son, don't come uphere, sheriff, your boy's
already been here and I don'tneed y'all doing that.
And Andy said no, I'm here totell you I need to buy your
bucket.
And the guy said I ain'tselling you my bucket.
He said you can go down to thestore and buy your own bucket.
And Andy said but your buckethas character, it has something
(06:47):
I can use.
It's the kind of decoration Iwant, because it's a bucket
that's been used and hascharacter and it says something.
It's not just a generaleveryday bucket.
And the guy said look, buddy, Ican't help it.
Buy your own bucket.
And Andy said that won't do.
And he said I can't help you,andy, I ain't going to give you
it, it's the only bucket I got.
And Andy said I got one ofthese buckets from the store and
(07:16):
it's just a brand new, common,everyday, the meal bucket.
It has no story to tell, it hasno history.
It's not that good.
Can I trade buckets with you?
And the guy said well, andy, ifit needs that much to you, I
could do you a favor and tradebuckets.
And they got in the car andstart down the hill and the LP
says Dad, I can't believe it.
And Andy says you got to knowhow to give a bucket.
And so a missionary has tolearn how to cross that cultural
barrier so that the person canreceive the bucket, so they can
understand the gospel, so thatyou know you're not coming at
(07:38):
them like you're better thanthem, that you're there to help
them.
And so I want to challenge youto pray that God would protect
the missionaries.
And I want to challenge you topray that God would help the
missionaries, that their messagewould be acceptable.
And then the third thing I wantyou to pray about and pray for
is that they would enjoy successin their ministry.
In Romans 15, 32, it says thatI may come unto you with joy by
(08:05):
the will of God, and may, withyou, be refreshed.
See, the Apostle Paul wanted Godto do a work in his life and
his ministry that would help himto carry on long beyond what he
was doing.
He wanted to see God do a work.
He wanted to see God open doors.
He wanted to see God changelives.
He wanted to see God make adifference.
(08:31):
The missionary is going to becoming home on furlough, but can
he come home happy?
I have seen missionaries returnfrom the field with their tail
between their legs and theirhead hanging low and their feet
dragging on the ground, andthey're so discouraged Many of
them don't go back.
They saw no success.
They saw God didn't do a workin their lives and ministries
and they're very sad about it.
But what if we prayed for them?
(08:53):
I've seen many preachers go upto the pulpit and they so
desperately want to be used toGod, but nobody's praying for
them.
Paul said, brethren, pray forme, strive with me, get involved
with me.
So would you pray that thatmissionary could come back and
say, boy, god did this and Goddid this and God did this.
You see, we have not, becausewe ask not.
(09:13):
And this message is a messageof calling you to pray, calling
you to pray for people and prayfor you to care about the
missionaries.
You see, when Paul got throughwith his missionary journey in
Acts 14, 25, when they hadpreached the word, they went
back.
And in verse 26, they sailedback to Antioch, to their home
(09:35):
church where they had beenrecommended to the grace of God
for the work which they hadfulfilled.
They go back to where they camefrom and the work had been done
.
Your missionary needs to returnhome feeling like I got the job
done.
There's a lot more to do, but Isaw God move.
Now Paul's going to make moremystery trips, but he saw God
(09:58):
move.
And then look what he says,verse 27,.
He says and they rehearsed allthat God had done with them.
They rehearsed all that God haddone with them.
They rehearsed how God hadopened the door of faith unto
the Gentiles.
And they stayed there a longtime telling stories about the
great things God had done.
That's what we want your pastorto be able to do.
We want your pastor to be ableto walk out of the pulpit and
(10:20):
say you won't believe all God'sdone.
You won't believe all God'sdone.
That's what we want our pastorto be able to feel like when he
walks out of the pulpit.
That's what we want themissionary to feel like when he
comes home.
And it's so easy to sit injudgment Well, did he get enough
people saved?
Is he worth the money we givehim?
And we never pray.
(10:41):
We never pray.
We sit in a critical judgment,but we never pray for him.
I want to ask you to pray.
Get in the battle with yourmissionary.
Get in there and stand with himas he preaches and teaches.
Get in there and make adifference through prayer.
You see, paul said inPhilippians, chapter 4 and verse
17,.
Not because I desire a gift,but I desire fruit that may
(11:03):
abound to your account.
Paul was doing it for Jesus andhe was doing it for others and
I call on you to get involvedand help them.
I had a lady named Jean Smith,and Jean Smith loved us so much.
I had met her when I was ayoung kid.
She was old enough to be mymother and she had been going
through a divorce and she justneeded somebody to show a little
(11:25):
bit of love and appreciationfor her.
And the pastor called on me todo that at the altar in front of
hundreds of people, and I justwent and prayed with her From
there.
She took me under her wing.
She bought me every Oliver BGreen commentary there was.
She bought me a red backSchofield reference Bible.
She wrote me a letter by handevery month until she died.
(11:46):
She sent $10.
She was always praying for me.
I knew that if no one else waskeeping up with everything going
on in my life, jean Smith was.
She stood with me.
I remember when Dr Thurman Wade,who was the president of
Massonia Missions, I was in aconference and he held up a
prayer card and on the prayercard it was all covered up.
(12:08):
You could barely see the wordWade and he loved a prayer card.
And on the prayer card it wasall covered up.
You could barely see the wordWade and he loved that prayer
card.
And he told this story.
He said this lady came to himat a missions conference and
asked him if she could haveanother one of his prayer cards
and he said well, of course youcan.
And he reached to get one andshe said well, this one's all
used up.
And he said how can you have aprayer card that's all used up?
(12:29):
And she said well, every time Ipray for you, I put a hash mark
and I come back and put theother part of the hash mark and
I've done that.
And she had literally coveredall of the card, front and back,
except for his name, and heknew that meant she was in the
trenches with him.
She'd been praying with him.
I challenge you not to be socritical.
(12:51):
I challenge you not to be soquick to judge ministries and
question their fruit andquestion their ministry and
question what they're doing.
I challenge you not to do that.
I challenge you to pray forthem.
I challenge you to imaginewhere they are.
I challenge you to get out ofyour mind and into their mind.
I challenge you to get out ofyour mind and into their mind.
I challenge you to get out ofyour heart and into their heart.
(13:11):
I challenge you to think abouthow you'd feel if you were
living on the mission field Along ways from your family, a
long ways from your in-laws, along ways from everything you
know, a long ways from Walmart along ways.
And you had to realize I'm hereto reach people for Christ but
I miss home.
I challenge you to pray forthem that God would use them to
(13:33):
do great and wonderful things.
It's a mighty strong prayerrequest that God would do
something with them, that theirlives would count, that they
would see God do something.
That missionary wants to comehome and say I want to rehearse
with you all God has done.
I had a missionary come to meand he wanted to take pictures
(13:57):
of all my work so he could usethat in his slideshow.
When he came back home that'show far back that was he would
call me up and say can you tellme how many people got saved?
You know I had part in startingthat church.
I need some numbers.
He was padding his account.
He wanted his supporters to feellike he had accomplished his
job.
He had to kind of feel beat andI just want you to understand
(14:21):
what he needs is your sympathyand your love and your prayer,
because it's God that enablesthe preacher, it's God that
gives strength to the preacherto get the job done.
You know that your pastor howoften does he carry all the
burdens of all the people andalmost no one says I love you,
preacher, and I'm praying foryou.
I'm with you, preacher.
How often does he get a prayer,get a text that just says
(14:44):
preacher, I love you and I'mpraying for you and I'm looking
forward to today's message?
So I want praying for you andI'm looking forward to today's
message.
So I want to challenge you thatyou would pray that he would be
able to come back with joy.
He'd be able to get down out ofthe pulpit with joy.
I want to challenge you to praythat God would use him in a
great way for his honor and hisglory.
I want to challenge you to praythat his ministry would be
(15:05):
accepted, that other Christianswould get behind him.
Sometimes, when you're thepastor or the missionary, you
feel like the Lone RangerNobody's helping, nobody's there
and nobody seems to care.
But what if somebody prayedlike Gene Smith?
What if somebody stood with youand cared?
(15:27):
What if you stood with othermissionaries?
I'm just challenging you toconsider helping others do the
work that God's called them todo.
See, the Apostle Paul said prayfor me.
If Paul needed prayer, how muchmore does the average
missionary need prayer?
Paul said strive with me, getin the battle with me.
(15:50):
And I'm challenging you insteadof having this judgmental
what'd you get done, fill outthis questionnaire to answer for
what you've accomplished.
Why don't you say this?
I'm with you, I care.
There was a time in my ministrywhen I returned to the mission
field for the second term aftermy first term and all my
(16:14):
ministry was gone, buddy.
It was in the toilet.
The pastors had all messed up,everybody had fallen in sin.
I was ready to quit.
I called one pastor and I saidare you going to come see me?
And he said what about I seeyou if the whole ministry is
falling apart?
Okay, thank you for the loveand thank you for the comfort.
I called this other pastor,paul Forsythe.
Paul Forsythe always loved meand that's what I want to ask
(16:37):
you to do.
Paul Forsythe was always in thebattle with me.
He called me once a month andhe wouldn't even say who was
calling.
He'd just say hey, buddy, andwe'd start talking.
And he'd talk 20, 30 minuteswhen it was costing $3 and $4 a
minute to call.
He did that once a month and sowe were talking on the phone
and I told him.
I said I'm thinking aboutquitting, I'm going to resign.
(16:58):
I said the whole ministry'sfalling apart and he said you
ain't quitting, no-transcript.
Everybody knows what it's likewhen things go wrong and I know
you've had a rough go of it, butthe Lord's with you, you're
(17:20):
going to stick in this, you'regoing to do the job.
And I said I don't know if Ican.
He said, yes, you can, and hewouldn't quit and he wouldn't
let me go.
And then he came to Peru and hepreached to my guys and he
cried and soaked his shirt withtears, loving my guys and
helping me get them to get theirlives right.
(17:40):
He was with me.
Of all the people of all theyears, the one guy I always knew
was with me.
He's in heaven now.
I miss him so much.
But I would just say to you dothey know you're with them?
Do the missionaries say boy,this pastor's with me, this
supporter's with me, he cares,he hurts when I hurt.
(18:02):
The other day, a missionary'shouse was broken into and he was
robbed of hundreds of dollars.
How did that affect you?
Did you think about that?
Did you consider how you mighthelp?
Did it break your heart?
How would you have felt if itwas you?
Would you have wanted a littlebit of help?
So I challenge you to considerwhat you might do to help, to
(18:24):
get in the trenches, to pray forthem.
They're in a spiritual war.
Everything's going against them.
The devil's trying todiscourage them.
They need their ministry to beacceptable.
They need people to accept it.
They need to know how to givethe bucket, remember, and they
want to have success.
They want to be able to comeback and report all that God has
(18:46):
done, and the only way they'reever going to be able to do that
is if you help them.
Would you help them in prayer?
Would you get involved withthem?
I really call on you to do that.
Well, I just want to thank you.
I've taken a break from ournormally scheduled stuff to
share this about praying.
I'm going to do that once ortwice more.
I may do an extra podcastbecause I want you to pray and I
(19:08):
want you to know how to pray.
But would you help me?
Would you help me spread theword about this podcast?
Would you put it on socialmedia?
Would you just say you enjoy itand invite others to get with
it?
Right now, we only have about20 people listening regularly,
downloading.
But, buddy, I really want to bea blessing.
It is my heart's desire toinspire missions.
(19:29):
It's my heart's desire to helppeople want to see the gospel go
forward.
It's my heart's desire to makea difference.
I want it so much in these lastyears of my life I want to see
God still make a difference inme.
Would you pray with me aboutthat and would you help me
promote this If it's a blessing.
If it's not, let me know andI'll try something else.
(19:50):
Let me know what I can do toimprove, because we got a lot to
do.
Time is short.
Many people need to be saved.
Well, this has been AustinGardner in the World Evangelism
Podcast and I am so happy totalk to you and I look forward
to hearing from you Share thiswith others.
God bless you so much.
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