May 15, 2024 • 34 mins
Embark on a profound journey with me, W. Austin Gardner, as we traverse the vibrant paths of world evangelism, expanding from the bustling streets of Peru to the spiritual hunger in Bangladesh. Prepare to be enchanted by the tales of dedication and fervor that define the missionary experience. This episode promises to be an enlightening exploration of the roles played by both those who go and those who send, with a special focus on the indispensable 'Remainers' or 'Senders' whose contributions fuel this global endeavor.
Witness the candid reflections and lessons learned from the mission field, where cultural immersion and humility pave the way for potent, life-changing ministry. From the historical legacy of William Carey to the timely wisdom found in Thomas Hale's "On Being a Missionary," this episode is an intimate look into the triumphs and trials faced by those called to serve. Join us as we uncover the complex beauty of missionary work, and may you too be inspired to expect and attempt great things from God.
Thanks for listening. Find us on YouTube, Substack, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.
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Episode Transcript
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W. Austin Gardner (02:08):
I want to start right off with those of
you that are the laymen, theregular people in the church.
You know you're the people thatare the backbone of the church.
It is crucial to have you andthe ministry that you do.
Without you, there'd be nomissions.
All missionaries are born andbred in good, strong, bible
(02:29):
preaching, bible teachingchurches, and so I was just
thinking you know I spent a longtime actually much less time in
the podcast as I am preparingfor the podcast and I thought
about a message.
I used to preach a lot when Iwas on the deputation and
furlough and I called itRemainers.
(02:51):
Remainers, those that stay,stayers, or another word of
saying that would be senders.
And one of the key stories tothat message is found in the
book of Ezra.
Now, I know that's OldTestament, I know it's not New
Testament, but we have provenbeyond a shadow of a doubt that
God of the Old Testament is theGod of evangelism and wants the
(03:13):
entire world to be saved.
And so I know, you know thatalready.
In Ezra, chapter one, in verseone, ezra writes that it's the
first year of Cyrus and the wordof the Lord came by the mouth
of Jeremiah, so the guy whowrote a book in your Bible, and
he stirred up the spirit ofCyrus.
(03:34):
And Cyrus then begins to havein his heart and in his mind
that he should see to it thatthe house of the Lord is built
in Jerusalem.
In Ezra, chapter 1 and verse 2.
Now, cyrus isn't going to gobuild the wall and not all of
you are going to go bemissionaries.
But he said to them God's givenme all of this.
And he recognized that God gaveit to him.
(03:56):
And as a believer, I know yourecognize that, I know that you
know that everything you have isa gift from Almighty God.
In fact, as David said that in1 Chronicles 29, verse 14, he
said who am I, what are mypeople?
That we could give you anoffering?
Because everything we havecomes from you and what we give
(04:18):
back to you is what you alreadygave to us.
It comes from your hand and wegive it back To us.
It comes from your hand and wegive it back.
So Cyrus says I really want tosee the house of God built.
The Lord, god of heaven, hesays, has given me the kingdoms
of the earth in verse two.
And he's charged me, he's puton me a burden to build the
(04:39):
house.
He's going to stay in place.
He is not a goer, he is asender, he is a remainer.
And so then he begins tochallenge the people, and he
challenges them that throughpreaching and written word, he
challenges them that they are tobuild the house in Jerusalem.
(04:59):
And so, knowing that God hadgiven him everything, knowing
that God had a plan for his life, he decides that's what they're
going to do.
And so he says to the people ofGod I need some of you to
volunteer, some of you to stepforward and say we will go and
build the temple and I want youto go, but only go if the Lord
puts that in your heart.
He said God would stir up thehearts of those that he raised
(05:24):
up to go build the house of theLord in Ezra, chapter 1 and
verse 5.
But he realized not everybodywould go and so he said in verse
4, some of you are going toremain here.
He called them remainers.
He said you'll stay here,you'll live here, you'll sojourn
here, but I want you to helpthem with silver and gold and
goods and animals, beasts whichwould be machines in our day and
(05:48):
time, and a free will offer.
I want you to be giving it tothem.
I want you to strengthen theirhands.
You may not be going, butyou're going to help those that
do go and it's going to be apart of who you are to help them
.
So he says in verse 4, if youstay, if you remain here, I want
you to be a big part.
Now, as you think about thatand you think in terms of world
(06:10):
evangelism, I want you to thinkabout what you're doing and how
what you do affects what's goingon all over the world, how your
life impacts the life of others.
I want to challenge you to getinvolved in discipleship and
ministry.
I want you to know you'repreparing workers.
When I was a little boy in aSunday school class, causing
trouble and getting fussed atand sent to my mother, no one
(06:32):
knew that God would open thedoor for me to learn the
language and go to South Americaand see literally thousands of
people come to Christ.
But he did, and so everybodywho taught me, everybody who
loved me as a child, everybodyhelped lead me to Christ and
then disciple me all had a partin that.
So you may be a stayer, you maybe a person that God has called
(06:56):
to stay here, and so I justwant to challenge you to use
your staying here, use yourremaining here to help others go
.
That's your job.
It's really not about what youget.
You're not about being moreselfish by staying here.
Instead of that, you're abouthelping others get there.
(07:17):
That's a great calling, isn'tit?
I don't want you to dareforsake that.
I want you to realize that whenyou hold that baby in your arms
in the nursery, you're holdinga future missionary, possibly a
future pastor, possibly.
I want you to know that whenyou're teaching that children's
class.
You have little idea which oneis going to be greatly used of
(07:38):
God.
A fantastic story is told aboutwhen Charles Spurgeon was a boy
and an old preacher came tovisit him and rubbed him on the
top of his head.
He said I want to meet you outin the playground it's early in
the morning when you get up andhe did, and he had a word of
prayer for him, rubbed hislittle six or seven-year-old
head and said I know God has bigplans for you.
(07:58):
That impacted Spurgeon for therest of his life.
He never forgot that.
That impacted Spurgeon for therest of his life.
He never forgot that.
So I want to thank you forlistening.
Now, as you know, every day I amwriting.
For those of you who get it,I'm writing articles that go out
of my blog.
It's called W Austin Gardner atSubstack, and I want to invite
(08:22):
you to subscribe.
If you're not subscribed,invite others to, because it's
there that I use that tochallenge you and to help you,
and I don't know if it'd be ahelp, but I pray it is.
I work at it being a help, Ipromise you.
I put in long hours just tryingto prepare material and be
ready.
Well, that brings me to oursecond very important thing that
we do today, and that is what'sour verse of the week.
(08:43):
Do today and that is what's ourverse of the week.
Well, I decided to go all theway back to the Old Testament,
from out of the Old Testamentall the way to the New Testament
.
Don't worry, we'll be back inthe Old Testament soon, because
I want to continue to show youthat all through the Bible,
god's saying the same thing.
But in Revelation, chapter 7and verse 9, he said I beheld a
great multitude, such a largenumber.
(09:07):
No man could number all of them.
All of the nations of the world, all the kindreds, all the
peoples, all the tongues orlanguages were standing before
the throne of the Lamb, clothedin white robes, purified you get
that Purified wearingrighteousness provided by Jesus.
They had palms in their handsso they could worship with him
(09:29):
and they cried salvation to ourGod.
You realize what's going tohappen, folks, when we talk
about world evangelism, we're onthe winning side.
I know you may be hearing allkinds of dire and doom and gloom
and you may be thinking it'sall over, but in in heaven,
there's a number so large thatman could not number it.
The church and the 144,000Jewish witnesses have fulfilled
(09:53):
their job.
God is getting the gospel tothe world Today.
While we still have a chance, weshould use everything at our
disposition.
We ought to be trying to useradio and social media and
television and the Internet andthe printed page.
All of you young people outthere, you know how to use
social media.
How about turning it from me tothem?
(10:15):
How about turning it fromtalking about me to talking
about how to get the gospelmessage to them?
We ought to be using theprinted page.
We ought to be supportingmissionaries.
We ought to be sendingmissionaries.
We ought to be using a printedpage.
We ought to be supportingmissionaries.
We ought to be sendingmissionaries.
We ought to be supportingnationals.
See, god does a great work.
He saves people from everywhere, of all religious backgrounds,
and he's closed them in therighteousness of Jesus Christ,
(10:38):
not the filthy rags of theirmerit.
You know why?
Because our God is a saving God.
He says in verse 9 a greatmultitude.
You know, he wants all meneverywhere to be saved.
In first timothy, chapter 2,verses 3 and forward, he says he
wants all men to be saved andall men to come to the knowledge
(11:00):
of the truth and he gave andpaid the ransom for all.
Second peter 3, 9.
He's not willing that anyshould perish, but that all
should come to repentance.
In Hebrews 2, 9, he's alreadytasted death for every man.
In 1 John 2, he's the paymentfor the propitiation for our
sins, but not ours only, but forthe sins of the whole world.
(11:21):
You know he's the Savior, god,all the way through the Bible.
In Psalm, they forgot God,their Savior.
In Isaiah 43, beside me, thereis no Savior.
In 1 Timothy 2, 3, in the sightof God, our Savior, he's the
Savior of all men.
The Bible says in 1 Timothy 4,10.
He wants to abolish death andgive life to everybody.
(11:44):
So I just want to challenge youto get involved in the greatest,
most wonderful work that isgoing on anywhere in the world.
That's the job of worldevangelism getting the message
to the world.
God wants them all to be saved.
It's the blood of Jesus thatsaves, certainly not the
denomination that I'm a part ofor you're a part of.
It's the blood of Jesus, thegospel of Jesus Christ and what
(12:06):
he did on Calvary, and so youand I have the privilege of
telling people about it, so thatthey can be purchased by his
blood Acts 2, verse 28, so thatthey can have faith in his blood
, they can believe, so that theycan have peace made through the
blood of Jesus Christ, so theycan be reconciled to God by the
death of his son and that theycan be redeemed through his
(12:29):
blood and through the blood ofhis cross.
You see, the Lord saves andchanges, and he's given us all
that privilege and all thatresponsibility of getting the
gospel message to the world.
I hope you're a part of that.
Thank you so much for listening, boy.
I am so excited that you wouldtake the time to listen and to
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think about all of this and haveit on your heart and mind.
And that brings me now to ourcountry of the week.
Are you ready?
Our country of the week,bangladesh.
Now you know I'm going to useand what is it?
Good night, just slipped mymind.
I'll get it right back to you.
(13:10):
That's a sign of old age, forsure.
But operationworldorg that'swhere you can get a lot of
information.
Plenty of other websites too.
But just northeast of India isa place called Bangladesh.
Bangladesh has 173 millionpeople approximately.
They're living in the country.
(13:31):
The fact is, one source is 174million, and so I want you to
know that, like 27, I'm aroundthe age of 15.
That means they're ripe to hearthe gospel.
They speak english and a totalof 45 other languages, so it's a
lot of work.
I couldn't hardly find.
(13:51):
I looked.
I found a charismatic couplethere trying to preach the
gospel.
Praise the Lord for that.
But I couldn't hardly findanybody else over there in the
country.
It's a Muslim country andpersecution is large.
Eighty-nine percent of thepopulation is Muslim and at
least 50 percent of the countryis un-evangelized and only 0.7
(14:13):
percent consider themselves tobe Christian.
Operation World asks you topray for the leadership of the
churches.
Back in the day, lots of peoplegot saved, but not much has
happened Now.
I chose the man of the day togo along with the country today
because you know, bangladesh iswhere Sarah, sarah, sarah poor
(14:37):
was, where William Carey was.
We always called him admissionto India, but he was in
Bangladesh and they even honorhim there, the Beng, and they
suffer much persecution at thehands of the Muslims.
(14:58):
Would you pray that God would doa work there?
I don't know if God's callingyou, but man, I've tried to
offer this book to you.
I really would like to see you.
In fact, if the first five ofyou that write me send me a text
or something, I'll send you afree copy of the book.
Are you Called?
(15:19):
And I'd love to help you.
So just a checklist to help youfind out if you're called or
not, to help you check and seewhere you are on your stage
towards getting ready to go as amissionary, because that's who
you are and that's what youought to go as a missionary,
because that's who you are andthat's what you ought to do.
God's calling you to do that.
Well, that's been exciting, butlet's talk about this.
I've tried to talk to thestayers, to the remainers.
(15:43):
They're great people.
God's using them because God'sgot a place for all of us.
No judging going on here.
We're rather more excited aboutGod getting his word to the
world.
But how about to the goers?
Can I talk to you from heart toheart?
I just returned from Peru, fromthree weeks down in Peru and
had the time of my life.
(16:04):
Now, when you go to the missionfield, one of the first things
you want to learn how to do isidentify with the people.
Now, mr Ray, I'm talking to youNow.
Tomorrow, after this one airs,the very next day will be
another podcast on mentoring.
But I want you to know thatyour job is to identify with the
(16:26):
national.
To be an effectivecross-cultural ministry or
missionary, you have to be astudent of the culture.
That means you have to learnhow they think.
It's their integrated system ofbeliefs, it's what they think
about God and reality and valuesand customs and work.
It's how they express theirbeliefs and their values and
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it's what gives them a sense ofcommunity.
And so an effective missionarylearns to identify with the
culture.
You see, that's what Jesus did.
He's the best example of all.
In fact, when this is discussedin missionary circles, it's
called incarnational ministries,because it is you putting
yourself in their skin and intheir world.
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That's what Jesus did.
When Jesus left heaven and cameto earth, he became one of us.
He became fully human.
He was birthed the way we'rebirthed.
He was raised the way we wereraised.
He knew hunger and thirst andpoverty and oppression.
He experienced rejection andanger and loss.
He wept.
He experienced all of the humanside of life.
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He became one of us, and sothat's important for you and I
to do the same things.
If we're going to reach thesepeople Now.
You can't go down there andhold on to who you are and ask
them to adapt to you.
You got to kind of leave whoyou are and leave all your
preconceived notions behind andadapt to them.
You see, the word was madeflesh and dwelt among them.
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He identified with the people.
He came not as a great saviorin the beginning, but as the
helpless infant.
He didn't show himself to be aleader or a teacher or an expert
or a visitor from a superior,dominant culture.
He came to show them he wasn'ta big shot, but to reach them.
(18:22):
Jesus was a learner.
He learned the language fromhis parents.
He learned how to play with hispeers.
The very son of God sat in thetemple asking questions Are you
willing to be a learner?
Are you willing to approach thenew people you work with as
humbly learning a learner?
(18:43):
Can you spend three dayssitting with their leaders and
let them teach?
You Get this.
The God who created it allstudied the language, learned
the culture, learned thelifestyles of the people for 30
years before he began his publicministry.
He knew about their family life.
He knew about their problems.
He heard the neighbor and hiswife arguing.
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He heard the other childrenbeing disciplined.
He identified with them beingdisciplined.
He identified with them.
You see, he increased in wisdomand statue and in favor with
God and man.
Now we're taught biblically tolet this same spirit be in us.
He was in the form of God.
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He didn't find it funny to beGod, but he humbled himself and
became a legitimately andcompletely Jewish person.
He was so ordinary that whenpeople recognized him they said
isn't that Mary's boy?
Don't we know his brothers andsisters?
Isn't he one of us?
And even the people of hishometown rejected him.
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He came to be a minister.
Now I say that I'll give youmore at a later date, but let's
just leave it with this.
As a missionary, your job is tocross the cultural bounds and
become as much one of them asyou possibly can.
I have a ton more material onthis and I'll be glad to talk to
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you about that just a littlebit later.
But I want you to know, being amissionary is quite a heavy
burden because in a lot of waysyou've got to forget who you are
, forget where you come from,forget who your country is and
love them enough to become oneof them, and that can be quite
(20:31):
difficult to accept, quitedifficult to accomplish in your
life, but that's what God'scalling you to do Now.
I would like to talk to younext about my book of the week
Before I do, I'm not sure you'reup to date on it, I'll put a
link to it, but I've got thebook Are you Called, and I've
(20:54):
already gotten rid of all thebooks that I purchased to resell
on marriage, the fulfillingmarriage, but I'd sure like to
invite you to get one of those,and here in the next few days
I'll be running a special andtry to get as many of you to get
the Kindle version as you will.
But today I want to talk to youabout a book called Own being a
Missionary.
I don't have it in print, it'sa digital copy Own being a
(21:17):
Missionary by Thomas Hale, andit happens to be a book that I
like very much, and it's kind ofa book that you would read as
you're learning about doingministry.
It's kind of like a primer,it's kind of like getting
started, it's kind of like whereyou want to start out as you
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learn about being a missionary,and so let me share with you
just some things I think are ofvalue, that you need to know
from the book, because I want towhet your appetite to buy it.
I want you to get a hold ofthis book.
It's going to help you withcultural adaptation and
cross-cultural challenges and itis worth it because when you do
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not overcome those, you hinderyour ministry.
He helps you deal with theemotional strains and loneliness
from being away from your homeand away from your family and
friends and witnessing so muchpoverty and suffering and how
you want to deal with it.
He helps you understand how toseek counseling and support
(22:23):
groups.
I recently posted on socialmedia a comment that such and
such a percentage ofmissionaries needed counseling
when they came home and severalpeople commented that's not
right.
It's a lot higher than that.
He helps get you ready forspiritual warfare and what goes
on when you go to the missionfield.
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You leave a place that's gotquite a bit of light, though
it's still dark, but you stepinto the darkness itself.
He helps you deal with healthissues.
He helps you deal with thedisappointments that things
don't work out like you think.
The brand new mission is alwaysvery excited, but it doesn't
take long for things to startfalling apart, and that's when
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you're going to find out do youbelieve Jesus or not.
It helps you to realize thecultural relevance of what's
going on and how to learn aboutwhat's happening.
It helps give you a biblicalbasis.
This is a great book.
I only recommend to you booksthat I truly find to be of great
(23:25):
value to me, and so Own being aMissionary by Thomas Hale.
I've read it several times andI want to challenge you to read
that same book and spend a lotof time in it and learn all that
you can from it.
Thank you so much for listeningand always being with me.
I hope that it's being of greatvalue to you.
I hope you'll help me spreadthe word, get people to give it
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likes and shares.
We are now approaching 250downloads, but I'd sure like to
see that go up a lot more thanthat, and I'd like your help.
Let me get you to ourhistorical person of the week.
I chose William Carey because,by size of countries, I was down
to Bangladesh, and Bangladeshis where Serampore was, where
(24:12):
William Carey served.
William Carey was born inEngland in 1776, on August the
17th, one day before Betty and Imarried and he died in
Serampore, india, in 1834.
Now you always hear a lot ofgreat things about him, so I
don't want to bust your bubble,but because if you go into
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missions you're going to thinkwell, everybody has a high and
lofty thought and no one wouldever attack and there'll never
be challenges.
But there were trouble.
William Carey dealt constantlywith trouble.
He had trouble from his wifewho was crazy, who literally
walked the streets calling himan adulterer in front of
everybody, and people were leeryof him and stayed away from him
(24:57):
, even though his closestfriends knew it wasn't true.
He suffered greatly.
She was literally crazy.
Then the younger missionariesbroke up with him in 1873.
There was this big squabble andso the older missionaries were
working hard and maybe theyounger missionaries didn't
agree with how things were beingdone.
And that's a constant thing.
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The veteran missionary and thenew missionary can often get
into trouble and fight and fussamong themselves.
That happened.
And then they broke up with themission board back in America.
You know the American missionboard was trying its best to
tell them what to do, thoughthey'd never lived there and had
no idea what was going on.
A lot of times that's whathappens, the givers that have
the money.
(25:38):
They want to control what'sgoing on in the field, though
they've never lived there.
So I just want you to know.
I want you warned up front.
Trouble's on the way it alwayscomes.
Life is full of trouble andit's coming your way.
Now here's the positives.
He was probably the greatestself-educated English missionary
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we can possibly think of.
He was a cobbler, a shoesmith,he was a pot mender, a shoesmith
, and he learned six languagesand translated the Bible, the
full Bible, into six languagesand parts of 29 others.
Now again, just kind of funny,his buddies said that much of
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what he wrote was indecipherable.
They said you know, histranslations aren't near as good
as he thinks they are.
Isn't that typical?
There's always this competitionbetween the missionaries, so be
sure, don't be shocked whenthat happens.
Don't be shocked Now.
He was baptized in 1783.
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He's about 22 years of age in ariver there and he became a
pastor about four years laterand he learned in no time at all
.
In seven years he learned Latin, greek, hebrew, french and
Dutch and he had almost noteachers to help him do that.
You know what excited him?
Reading the adventures ofCaptain Cook, which was a
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secular book.
But it filled his mind with allthese people in all these
foreign places and he began towonder what happened to their
souls when they died.
So he was trying to geteverybody started up in the
mission.
And again, whenever you getexcited about missions, it kind
of ruffles people's feathers.
Everybody's willing to do alittle bit, but not too much
kind of ruffles people'sfeathers.
(27:27):
Everybody's willing to do alittle bit, but not too much.
So he wrote a booklet called AnInquiry into the Obligation of
Christians to Use the Means forthe Conversion of the Heathen,
and it really did have an impacton his friends.
He later preached a message onMay the 30th 1792, expect great
things from God and attemptgreat things, and that stirred
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people up.
His buddy, andrew Fuller, wouldwrite a book which would be
about the gospel being for allpeople, and so together he and
Fuller and others formed theFirst Mission Agency in England.
Now, he wasn't the firstmissionary to India.
He certainly wasn't the firstmissionary to Bangladesh.
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There was a Baptist surgeon bythe name of Thomas who had
already been preaching Christoccasionally to the natives and
he happened to be back in townwhen they're having a meeting
and Carrie's speaking and heshows up and the next thing you
know he andrie are hugging andkissing and he's excited they'll
work together till he finds outthat the doctor not all he's
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supposed to be.
But that's another story foranother day.
Things were hard on the missionfield.
The home agency couldn't seewhy he spent so much money,
didn't want to send so muchmoney, so he ended up being in
charge of an indigo factory tostay alive and they later moved
over to Bangladesh because theBritish businessmen didn't want
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them in India, ruining thenatives.
They set up a printing press,started a large boarding school,
eventually founded a college heauthored—now this will
sometimes bother preachers inAmerica.
They're like how can he do this?
I had a friend who wrote a bookas a missionary and the pastors
got mad.
But Carey authored grammarbooks and foreign languages and
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he did dictionaries and heauthored a lot of different
secular works.
But they got the Word of God toroughly one-third of the world
in 40 languages in his day andtime.
You already know, I'm sure, thestory that he led.
Christian of Powell was thefirst guy to get saved and then
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churches started coming.
Two of his wives died.
Well, three wives died.
He married one while he was athome and two, while he was on
the field.
He had such strong characterthat nothing could and would
stop him.
He'd pay whatever price.
No matter how many people wereagainst him, he would stop him.
(30:07):
He'd pay whatever price.
No matter how many people wereagainst him, he would not quit.
He used every minute and workedas hard as he could.
He was mocked and sneered andlaughed at.
I know you don't hear thattoday, but as they were called
low-bred, low-born mechanics,they did more to spread the
gospel and accomplish God's willaround the world than anybody.
(30:28):
He had a genius for languagesand God greatly used him.
So from shoemaker to salvationsharer, that's our man and he
was never ashamed of it.
The gospel, worthy of allacceptation by Andrew Fuller,
helped back him up and you know,when Kerry first wanted to go
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to the mission field, you recallthe story.
He said let's send a missionary.
And the old preacher said sitdown, young man, when God
pleases to convert the heathen,he'll do it without your help or
mine.
But he didn't give up.
He still went on to see God dogreat and mighty things.
When they formed the firstmissionary society, he offered
(31:09):
himself to be a missionary andJohn Thomas and he would go over
and start doing a work overthere and God used them greatly,
in spite of all the junk thatwas going on and all that had
happened.
It was so bad while they werein India that they had to live
as one family in one house andmake decisions all based
(31:30):
together.
They didn't have any money,they didn't have any way to pay
the bills, but God blessed thework and God helped them get the
work out and see lives savedand people changed.
By the time Kerry died, he hadhelped found some 30 missionary
agencies, trained 40 nativeteachers, 45 preaching stations,
(31:54):
600 church members and aBaptist society to get the
gospel out.
Wow, what a man.
Can you believe that?
Now, who are you?
You know God's got.
I used to tell the Peruviansand I tell you God didn't make
one William Carey and say that'sit, I don't need to do anything
big like that again.
(32:15):
God still wants to do it and hewants to do it with you and
you're important and valuable tohim and he has a plan for your
life and you're not somethingoff to the side.
So would you surrender yourlife?
Who knows?
You might just be a humble,poor shoemaker, pot mender, but
(32:36):
God has bigger plans than thatfor you.
You may feel like you're alittle too old to go to the
mission field, but God has goodplans for you.
You may have a wife that's notas into it as you want her to be
, but God has big plans for you.
So I just want to challenge youNow.
As I close up today, I want toask you to invite your friends.
Would you help me share this?
(32:57):
If I'm doing anything of valueto you, I really am working at
it, and if it's a value, wouldyou help me spread it?
Would you tell your friendsabout it?
Would you get other people tolisten?
They can turn it on in apodcast app and listen on the
way to and from work.
They can hear it.
You can do it on double speed.
You'll be finished in less than20 minutes.
I'd just like to challenge youwith world evangelism.
(33:19):
I want to inspire worldevangelism.
I want to empower you to be allthat God's called you to be,
and I do want to.
I'm writing every day.
I'm preparing material for youevery day.
Get a hold of the copy of Areyou Called, and then the book on
fulfilling marriage.
I'll have it by the time I donext week's podcast.
(33:40):
There are more of them in themail on the way to me right now,
and so I'd like to invite youto do that.
Well, you got there.
You have it.
Folks.
We've dived into some epicinsights, some jaw-dropping
stories.
I hope you're as fired up as Iam to take the gospel of Jesus
Christ to the world.
Thanks for tuning in and joiningme on the World Evangelism
(34:03):
Podcast.
I'll catch you next time formore adventure, inspiration and
awesomeness, but for now, thisis W Austin Gardner signing off.
Keep spreading the gospel,being amazing.
God bless you.
Now listen to meworldevangelismpodcastcom.
That's all you have to remember.
Worldevangelismpodcastcom.
(34:24):
All you need to do is sharethat with people and you'll be
able to share with them thepodcast and they can sign up and
be a part of what's going onhere.
God bless you.
Thank you everyone for all youdo.
God bless.
I want to start right off with those of
you that are the laymen, theregular people in the church.
You know you're the people thatare the backbone of the church.
It is crucial to have you andthe ministry that you do.
Without you, there'd be nomissions.
All missionaries are born andbred in good, strong, bible
(02:29):
preaching, bible teachingchurches, and so I was just
thinking you know I spent a longtime actually much less time in
the podcast as I am preparingfor the podcast and I thought
about a message.
I used to preach a lot when Iwas on the deputation and
furlough and I called itRemainers.
(02:51):
Remainers, those that stay,stayers, or another word of
saying that would be senders.
And one of the key stories tothat message is found in the
book of Ezra.
Now, I know that's OldTestament, I know it's not New
Testament, but we have provenbeyond a shadow of a doubt that
God of the Old Testament is theGod of evangelism and wants the
(03:13):
entire world to be saved.
And so I know, you know thatalready.
In Ezra, chapter one, in verseone, ezra writes that it's the
first year of Cyrus and the wordof the Lord came by the mouth
of Jeremiah, so the guy whowrote a book in your Bible, and
he stirred up the spirit ofCyrus.
(03:34):
And Cyrus then begins to havein his heart and in his mind
that he should see to it thatthe house of the Lord is built
in Jerusalem.
In Ezra, chapter 1 and verse 2.
Now, cyrus isn't going to gobuild the wall and not all of
you are going to go bemissionaries.
But he said to them God's givenme all of this.
And he recognized that God gaveit to him.
(03:56):
And as a believer, I know yourecognize that, I know that you
know that everything you have isa gift from Almighty God.
In fact, as David said that in1 Chronicles 29, verse 14, he
said who am I, what are mypeople?
That we could give you anoffering?
Because everything we havecomes from you and what we give
(04:18):
back to you is what you alreadygave to us.
It comes from your hand and wegive it back To us.
It comes from your hand and wegive it back.
So Cyrus says I really want tosee the house of God built.
The Lord, god of heaven, hesays, has given me the kingdoms
of the earth in verse two.
And he's charged me, he's puton me a burden to build the
(04:39):
house.
He's going to stay in place.
He is not a goer, he is asender, he is a remainer.
And so then he begins tochallenge the people, and he
challenges them that throughpreaching and written word, he
challenges them that they are tobuild the house in Jerusalem.
(04:59):
And so, knowing that God hadgiven him everything, knowing
that God had a plan for his life, he decides that's what they're
going to do.
And so he says to the people ofGod I need some of you to
volunteer, some of you to stepforward and say we will go and
build the temple and I want youto go, but only go if the Lord
puts that in your heart.
He said God would stir up thehearts of those that he raised
(05:24):
up to go build the house of theLord in Ezra, chapter 1 and
verse 5.
But he realized not everybodywould go and so he said in verse
4, some of you are going toremain here.
He called them remainers.
He said you'll stay here,you'll live here, you'll sojourn
here, but I want you to helpthem with silver and gold and
goods and animals, beasts whichwould be machines in our day and
(05:48):
time, and a free will offer.
I want you to be giving it tothem.
I want you to strengthen theirhands.
You may not be going, butyou're going to help those that
do go and it's going to be apart of who you are to help them
.
So he says in verse 4, if youstay, if you remain here, I want
you to be a big part.
Now, as you think about thatand you think in terms of world
(06:10):
evangelism, I want you to thinkabout what you're doing and how
what you do affects what's goingon all over the world, how your
life impacts the life of others.
I want to challenge you to getinvolved in discipleship and
ministry.
I want you to know you'repreparing workers.
When I was a little boy in aSunday school class, causing
trouble and getting fussed atand sent to my mother, no one
(06:32):
knew that God would open thedoor for me to learn the
language and go to South Americaand see literally thousands of
people come to Christ.
But he did, and so everybodywho taught me, everybody who
loved me as a child, everybodyhelped lead me to Christ and
then disciple me all had a partin that.
So you may be a stayer, you maybe a person that God has called
(06:56):
to stay here, and so I justwant to challenge you to use
your staying here, use yourremaining here to help others go
.
That's your job.
It's really not about what youget.
You're not about being moreselfish by staying here.
Instead of that, you're abouthelping others get there.
(07:17):
That's a great calling, isn'tit?
I don't want you to dareforsake that.
I want you to realize that whenyou hold that baby in your arms
in the nursery, you're holdinga future missionary, possibly a
future pastor, possibly.
I want you to know that whenyou're teaching that children's
class.
You have little idea which oneis going to be greatly used of
(07:38):
God.
A fantastic story is told aboutwhen Charles Spurgeon was a boy
and an old preacher came tovisit him and rubbed him on the
top of his head.
He said I want to meet you outin the playground it's early in
the morning when you get up andhe did, and he had a word of
prayer for him, rubbed hislittle six or seven-year-old
head and said I know God has bigplans for you.
(07:58):
That impacted Spurgeon for therest of his life.
He never forgot that.
That impacted Spurgeon for therest of his life.
He never forgot that.
So I want to thank you forlistening.
Now, as you know, every day I amwriting.
For those of you who get it,I'm writing articles that go out
of my blog.
It's called W Austin Gardner atSubstack, and I want to invite
(08:22):
you to subscribe.
If you're not subscribed,invite others to, because it's
there that I use that tochallenge you and to help you,
and I don't know if it'd be ahelp, but I pray it is.
I work at it being a help, Ipromise you.
I put in long hours just tryingto prepare material and be
ready.
Well, that brings me to oursecond very important thing that
we do today, and that is what'sour verse of the week.
(08:43):
Do today and that is what's ourverse of the week.
Well, I decided to go all theway back to the Old Testament,
from out of the Old Testamentall the way to the New Testament
.
Don't worry, we'll be back inthe Old Testament soon, because
I want to continue to show youthat all through the Bible,
god's saying the same thing.
But in Revelation, chapter 7and verse 9, he said I beheld a
great multitude, such a largenumber.
(09:07):
No man could number all of them.
All of the nations of the world, all the kindreds, all the
peoples, all the tongues orlanguages were standing before
the throne of the Lamb, clothedin white robes, purified you get
that Purified wearingrighteousness provided by Jesus.
They had palms in their handsso they could worship with him
(09:29):
and they cried salvation to ourGod.
You realize what's going tohappen, folks, when we talk
about world evangelism, we're onthe winning side.
I know you may be hearing allkinds of dire and doom and gloom
and you may be thinking it'sall over, but in in heaven,
there's a number so large thatman could not number it.
The church and the 144,000Jewish witnesses have fulfilled
(09:53):
their job.
God is getting the gospel tothe world Today.
While we still have a chance, weshould use everything at our
disposition.
We ought to be trying to useradio and social media and
television and the Internet andthe printed page.
All of you young people outthere, you know how to use
social media.
How about turning it from me tothem?
(10:15):
How about turning it fromtalking about me to talking
about how to get the gospelmessage to them?
We ought to be using theprinted page.
We ought to be supportingmissionaries.
We ought to be sendingmissionaries.
We ought to be using a printedpage.
We ought to be supportingmissionaries.
We ought to be sendingmissionaries.
We ought to be supportingnationals.
See, god does a great work.
He saves people from everywhere, of all religious backgrounds,
and he's closed them in therighteousness of Jesus Christ,
(10:38):
not the filthy rags of theirmerit.
You know why?
Because our God is a saving God.
He says in verse 9 a greatmultitude.
You know, he wants all meneverywhere to be saved.
In first timothy, chapter 2,verses 3 and forward, he says he
wants all men to be saved andall men to come to the knowledge
(11:00):
of the truth and he gave andpaid the ransom for all.
Second peter 3, 9.
He's not willing that anyshould perish, but that all
should come to repentance.
In Hebrews 2, 9, he's alreadytasted death for every man.
In 1 John 2, he's the paymentfor the propitiation for our
sins, but not ours only, but forthe sins of the whole world.
(11:21):
You know he's the Savior, god,all the way through the Bible.
In Psalm, they forgot God,their Savior.
In Isaiah 43, beside me, thereis no Savior.
In 1 Timothy 2, 3, in the sightof God, our Savior, he's the
Savior of all men.
The Bible says in 1 Timothy 4,10.
He wants to abolish death andgive life to everybody.
(11:44):
So I just want to challenge youto get involved in the greatest,
most wonderful work that isgoing on anywhere in the world.
That's the job of worldevangelism getting the message
to the world.
God wants them all to be saved.
It's the blood of Jesus thatsaves, certainly not the
denomination that I'm a part ofor you're a part of.
It's the blood of Jesus, thegospel of Jesus Christ and what
(12:06):
he did on Calvary, and so youand I have the privilege of
telling people about it, so thatthey can be purchased by his
blood Acts 2, verse 28, so thatthey can have faith in his blood
, they can believe, so that theycan have peace made through the
blood of Jesus Christ, so theycan be reconciled to God by the
death of his son and that theycan be redeemed through his
(12:29):
blood and through the blood ofhis cross.
You see, the Lord saves andchanges, and he's given us all
that privilege and all thatresponsibility of getting the
gospel message to the world.
I hope you're a part of that.
Thank you so much for listening, boy.
I am so excited that you wouldtake the time to listen and to
(12:50):
think about all of this and haveit on your heart and mind.
And that brings me now to ourcountry of the week.
Are you ready?
Our country of the week,bangladesh.
Now you know I'm going to useand what is it?
Good night, just slipped mymind.
I'll get it right back to you.
(13:10):
That's a sign of old age, forsure.
But operationworldorg that'swhere you can get a lot of
information.
Plenty of other websites too.
But just northeast of India isa place called Bangladesh.
Bangladesh has 173 millionpeople approximately.
They're living in the country.
(13:31):
The fact is, one source is 174million, and so I want you to
know that, like 27, I'm aroundthe age of 15.
That means they're ripe to hearthe gospel.
They speak english and a totalof 45 other languages, so it's a
lot of work.
I couldn't hardly find.
(13:51):
I looked.
I found a charismatic couplethere trying to preach the
gospel.
Praise the Lord for that.
But I couldn't hardly findanybody else over there in the
country.
It's a Muslim country andpersecution is large.
Eighty-nine percent of thepopulation is Muslim and at
least 50 percent of the countryis un-evangelized and only 0.7
(14:13):
percent consider themselves tobe Christian.
Operation World asks you topray for the leadership of the
churches.
Back in the day, lots of peoplegot saved, but not much has
happened Now.
I chose the man of the day togo along with the country today
because you know, bangladesh iswhere Sarah, sarah, sarah poor
(14:37):
was, where William Carey was.
We always called him admissionto India, but he was in
Bangladesh and they even honorhim there, the Beng, and they
suffer much persecution at thehands of the Muslims.
(14:58):
Would you pray that God would doa work there?
I don't know if God's callingyou, but man, I've tried to
offer this book to you.
I really would like to see you.
In fact, if the first five ofyou that write me send me a text
or something, I'll send you afree copy of the book.
Are you Called?
(15:19):
And I'd love to help you.
So just a checklist to help youfind out if you're called or
not, to help you check and seewhere you are on your stage
towards getting ready to go as amissionary, because that's who
you are and that's what youought to go as a missionary,
because that's who you are andthat's what you ought to do.
God's calling you to do that.
Well, that's been exciting, butlet's talk about this.
I've tried to talk to thestayers, to the remainers.
(15:43):
They're great people.
God's using them because God'sgot a place for all of us.
No judging going on here.
We're rather more excited aboutGod getting his word to the
world.
But how about to the goers?
Can I talk to you from heart toheart?
I just returned from Peru, fromthree weeks down in Peru and
had the time of my life.
(16:04):
Now, when you go to the missionfield, one of the first things
you want to learn how to do isidentify with the people.
Now, mr Ray, I'm talking to youNow.
Tomorrow, after this one airs,the very next day will be
another podcast on mentoring.
But I want you to know thatyour job is to identify with the
(16:26):
national.
To be an effectivecross-cultural ministry or
missionary, you have to be astudent of the culture.
That means you have to learnhow they think.
It's their integrated system ofbeliefs, it's what they think
about God and reality and valuesand customs and work.
It's how they express theirbeliefs and their values and
(16:51):
it's what gives them a sense ofcommunity.
And so an effective missionarylearns to identify with the
culture.
You see, that's what Jesus did.
He's the best example of all.
In fact, when this is discussedin missionary circles, it's
called incarnational ministries,because it is you putting
yourself in their skin and intheir world.
(17:13):
That's what Jesus did.
When Jesus left heaven and cameto earth, he became one of us.
He became fully human.
He was birthed the way we'rebirthed.
He was raised the way we wereraised.
He knew hunger and thirst andpoverty and oppression.
He experienced rejection andanger and loss.
He wept.
He experienced all of the humanside of life.
(17:37):
He became one of us, and sothat's important for you and I
to do the same things.
If we're going to reach thesepeople Now.
You can't go down there andhold on to who you are and ask
them to adapt to you.
You got to kind of leave whoyou are and leave all your
preconceived notions behind andadapt to them.
You see, the word was madeflesh and dwelt among them.
(18:01):
He identified with the people.
He came not as a great saviorin the beginning, but as the
helpless infant.
He didn't show himself to be aleader or a teacher or an expert
or a visitor from a superior,dominant culture.
He came to show them he wasn'ta big shot, but to reach them.
(18:22):
Jesus was a learner.
He learned the language fromhis parents.
He learned how to play with hispeers.
The very son of God sat in thetemple asking questions Are you
willing to be a learner?
Are you willing to approach thenew people you work with as
humbly learning a learner?
(18:43):
Can you spend three dayssitting with their leaders and
let them teach?
You Get this.
The God who created it allstudied the language, learned
the culture, learned thelifestyles of the people for 30
years before he began his publicministry.
He knew about their family life.
He knew about their problems.
He heard the neighbor and hiswife arguing.
(19:05):
He heard the other childrenbeing disciplined.
He identified with them beingdisciplined.
He identified with them.
You see, he increased in wisdomand statue and in favor with
God and man.
Now we're taught biblically tolet this same spirit be in us.
He was in the form of God.
(19:26):
He didn't find it funny to beGod, but he humbled himself and
became a legitimately andcompletely Jewish person.
He was so ordinary that whenpeople recognized him they said
isn't that Mary's boy?
Don't we know his brothers andsisters?
Isn't he one of us?
And even the people of hishometown rejected him.
(19:48):
He came to be a minister.
Now I say that I'll give youmore at a later date, but let's
just leave it with this.
As a missionary, your job is tocross the cultural bounds and
become as much one of them asyou possibly can.
I have a ton more material onthis and I'll be glad to talk to
(20:10):
you about that just a littlebit later.
But I want you to know, being amissionary is quite a heavy
burden because in a lot of waysyou've got to forget who you are
, forget where you come from,forget who your country is and
love them enough to become oneof them, and that can be quite
(20:31):
difficult to accept, quitedifficult to accomplish in your
life, but that's what God'scalling you to do Now.
I would like to talk to younext about my book of the week
Before I do, I'm not sure you'reup to date on it, I'll put a
link to it, but I've got thebook Are you Called, and I've
(20:54):
already gotten rid of all thebooks that I purchased to resell
on marriage, the fulfillingmarriage, but I'd sure like to
invite you to get one of those,and here in the next few days
I'll be running a special andtry to get as many of you to get
the Kindle version as you will.
But today I want to talk to youabout a book called Own being a
Missionary.
I don't have it in print, it'sa digital copy Own being a
(21:17):
Missionary by Thomas Hale, andit happens to be a book that I
like very much, and it's kind ofa book that you would read as
you're learning about doingministry.
It's kind of like a primer,it's kind of like getting
started, it's kind of like whereyou want to start out as you
(21:39):
learn about being a missionary,and so let me share with you
just some things I think are ofvalue, that you need to know
from the book, because I want towhet your appetite to buy it.
I want you to get a hold ofthis book.
It's going to help you withcultural adaptation and
cross-cultural challenges and itis worth it because when you do
(22:01):
not overcome those, you hinderyour ministry.
He helps you deal with theemotional strains and loneliness
from being away from your homeand away from your family and
friends and witnessing so muchpoverty and suffering and how
you want to deal with it.
He helps you understand how toseek counseling and support
(22:23):
groups.
I recently posted on socialmedia a comment that such and
such a percentage ofmissionaries needed counseling
when they came home and severalpeople commented that's not
right.
It's a lot higher than that.
He helps get you ready forspiritual warfare and what goes
on when you go to the missionfield.
(22:44):
You leave a place that's gotquite a bit of light, though
it's still dark, but you stepinto the darkness itself.
He helps you deal with healthissues.
He helps you deal with thedisappointments that things
don't work out like you think.
The brand new mission is alwaysvery excited, but it doesn't
take long for things to startfalling apart, and that's when
(23:05):
you're going to find out do youbelieve Jesus or not.
It helps you to realize thecultural relevance of what's
going on and how to learn aboutwhat's happening.
It helps give you a biblicalbasis.
This is a great book.
I only recommend to you booksthat I truly find to be of great
(23:25):
value to me, and so Own being aMissionary by Thomas Hale.
I've read it several times andI want to challenge you to read
that same book and spend a lotof time in it and learn all that
you can from it.
Thank you so much for listeningand always being with me.
I hope that it's being of greatvalue to you.
I hope you'll help me spreadthe word, get people to give it
(23:47):
likes and shares.
We are now approaching 250downloads, but I'd sure like to
see that go up a lot more thanthat, and I'd like your help.
Let me get you to ourhistorical person of the week.
I chose William Carey because,by size of countries, I was down
to Bangladesh, and Bangladeshis where Serampore was, where
(24:12):
William Carey served.
William Carey was born inEngland in 1776, on August the
17th, one day before Betty and Imarried and he died in
Serampore, india, in 1834.
Now you always hear a lot ofgreat things about him, so I
don't want to bust your bubble,but because if you go into
(24:34):
missions you're going to thinkwell, everybody has a high and
lofty thought and no one wouldever attack and there'll never
be challenges.
But there were trouble.
William Carey dealt constantlywith trouble.
He had trouble from his wifewho was crazy, who literally
walked the streets calling himan adulterer in front of
everybody, and people were leeryof him and stayed away from him
(24:57):
, even though his closestfriends knew it wasn't true.
He suffered greatly.
She was literally crazy.
Then the younger missionariesbroke up with him in 1873.
There was this big squabble andso the older missionaries were
working hard and maybe theyounger missionaries didn't
agree with how things were beingdone.
And that's a constant thing.
(25:18):
The veteran missionary and thenew missionary can often get
into trouble and fight and fussamong themselves.
That happened.
And then they broke up with themission board back in America.
You know the American missionboard was trying its best to
tell them what to do, thoughthey'd never lived there and had
no idea what was going on.
A lot of times that's whathappens, the givers that have
the money.
(25:38):
They want to control what'sgoing on in the field, though
they've never lived there.
So I just want you to know.
I want you warned up front.
Trouble's on the way it alwayscomes.
Life is full of trouble andit's coming your way.
Now here's the positives.
He was probably the greatestself-educated English missionary
(25:59):
we can possibly think of.
He was a cobbler, a shoesmith,he was a pot mender, a shoesmith
, and he learned six languagesand translated the Bible, the
full Bible, into six languagesand parts of 29 others.
Now again, just kind of funny,his buddies said that much of
(26:22):
what he wrote was indecipherable.
They said you know, histranslations aren't near as good
as he thinks they are.
Isn't that typical?
There's always this competitionbetween the missionaries, so be
sure, don't be shocked whenthat happens.
Don't be shocked Now.
He was baptized in 1783.
(26:43):
He's about 22 years of age in ariver there and he became a
pastor about four years laterand he learned in no time at all
.
In seven years he learned Latin, greek, hebrew, french and
Dutch and he had almost noteachers to help him do that.
You know what excited him?
Reading the adventures ofCaptain Cook, which was a
(27:06):
secular book.
But it filled his mind with allthese people in all these
foreign places and he began towonder what happened to their
souls when they died.
So he was trying to geteverybody started up in the
mission.
And again, whenever you getexcited about missions, it kind
of ruffles people's feathers.
Everybody's willing to do alittle bit, but not too much
kind of ruffles people'sfeathers.
(27:27):
Everybody's willing to do alittle bit, but not too much.
So he wrote a booklet called AnInquiry into the Obligation of
Christians to Use the Means forthe Conversion of the Heathen,
and it really did have an impacton his friends.
He later preached a message onMay the 30th 1792, expect great
things from God and attemptgreat things, and that stirred
(27:51):
people up.
His buddy, andrew Fuller, wouldwrite a book which would be
about the gospel being for allpeople, and so together he and
Fuller and others formed theFirst Mission Agency in England.
Now, he wasn't the firstmissionary to India.
He certainly wasn't the firstmissionary to Bangladesh.
(28:13):
There was a Baptist surgeon bythe name of Thomas who had
already been preaching Christoccasionally to the natives and
he happened to be back in townwhen they're having a meeting
and Carrie's speaking and heshows up and the next thing you
know he andrie are hugging andkissing and he's excited they'll
work together till he finds outthat the doctor not all he's
(28:35):
supposed to be.
But that's another story foranother day.
Things were hard on the missionfield.
The home agency couldn't seewhy he spent so much money,
didn't want to send so muchmoney, so he ended up being in
charge of an indigo factory tostay alive and they later moved
over to Bangladesh because theBritish businessmen didn't want
(28:58):
them in India, ruining thenatives.
They set up a printing press,started a large boarding school,
eventually founded a college heauthored—now this will
sometimes bother preachers inAmerica.
They're like how can he do this?
I had a friend who wrote a bookas a missionary and the pastors
got mad.
But Carey authored grammarbooks and foreign languages and
(29:24):
he did dictionaries and heauthored a lot of different
secular works.
But they got the Word of God toroughly one-third of the world
in 40 languages in his day andtime.
You already know, I'm sure, thestory that he led.
Christian of Powell was thefirst guy to get saved and then
(29:46):
churches started coming.
Two of his wives died.
Well, three wives died.
He married one while he was athome and two, while he was on
the field.
He had such strong characterthat nothing could and would
stop him.
He'd pay whatever price.
No matter how many people wereagainst him, he would stop him.
(30:07):
He'd pay whatever price.
No matter how many people wereagainst him, he would not quit.
He used every minute and workedas hard as he could.
He was mocked and sneered andlaughed at.
I know you don't hear thattoday, but as they were called
low-bred, low-born mechanics,they did more to spread the
gospel and accomplish God's willaround the world than anybody.
(30:28):
He had a genius for languagesand God greatly used him.
So from shoemaker to salvationsharer, that's our man and he
was never ashamed of it.
The gospel, worthy of allacceptation by Andrew Fuller,
helped back him up and you know,when Kerry first wanted to go
(30:48):
to the mission field, you recallthe story.
He said let's send a missionary.
And the old preacher said sitdown, young man, when God
pleases to convert the heathen,he'll do it without your help or
mine.
But he didn't give up.
He still went on to see God dogreat and mighty things.
When they formed the firstmissionary society, he offered
(31:09):
himself to be a missionary andJohn Thomas and he would go over
and start doing a work overthere and God used them greatly,
in spite of all the junk thatwas going on and all that had
happened.
It was so bad while they werein India that they had to live
as one family in one house andmake decisions all based
(31:30):
together.
They didn't have any money,they didn't have any way to pay
the bills, but God blessed thework and God helped them get the
work out and see lives savedand people changed.
By the time Kerry died, he hadhelped found some 30 missionary
agencies, trained 40 nativeteachers, 45 preaching stations,
(31:54):
600 church members and aBaptist society to get the
gospel out.
Wow, what a man.
Can you believe that?
Now, who are you?
You know God's got.
I used to tell the Peruviansand I tell you God didn't make
one William Carey and say that'sit, I don't need to do anything
big like that again.
(32:15):
God still wants to do it and hewants to do it with you and
you're important and valuable tohim and he has a plan for your
life and you're not somethingoff to the side.
So would you surrender yourlife?
Who knows?
You might just be a humble,poor shoemaker, pot mender, but
(32:36):
God has bigger plans than thatfor you.
You may feel like you're alittle too old to go to the
mission field, but God has goodplans for you.
You may have a wife that's notas into it as you want her to be
, but God has big plans for you.
So I just want to challenge youNow.
As I close up today, I want toask you to invite your friends.
Would you help me share this?
(32:57):
If I'm doing anything of valueto you, I really am working at
it, and if it's a value, wouldyou help me spread it?
Would you tell your friendsabout it?
Would you get other people tolisten?
They can turn it on in apodcast app and listen on the
way to and from work.
They can hear it.
You can do it on double speed.
You'll be finished in less than20 minutes.
I'd just like to challenge youwith world evangelism.
(33:19):
I want to inspire worldevangelism.
I want to empower you to be allthat God's called you to be,
and I do want to.
I'm writing every day.
I'm preparing material for youevery day.
Get a hold of the copy of Areyou Called, and then the book on
fulfilling marriage.
I'll have it by the time I donext week's podcast.
(33:40):
There are more of them in themail on the way to me right now,
and so I'd like to invite youto do that.
Well, you got there.
You have it.
Folks.
We've dived into some epicinsights, some jaw-dropping
stories.
I hope you're as fired up as Iam to take the gospel of Jesus
Christ to the world.
Thanks for tuning in and joiningme on the World Evangelism
(34:03):
Podcast.
I'll catch you next time formore adventure, inspiration and
awesomeness, but for now, thisis W Austin Gardner signing off.
Keep spreading the gospel,being amazing.
God bless you.
Now listen to meworldevangelismpodcastcom.
That's all you have to remember.
Worldevangelismpodcastcom.
(34:24):
All you need to do is sharethat with people and you'll be
able to share with them thepodcast and they can sign up and
be a part of what's going onhere.
God bless you.
Thank you everyone for all youdo.
God bless.
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