Rev Stephen came up to the pulpit and started talking in fluent Thai. At least that's how it sounded and the congregation was taken by surprise. It was a pleasant surprise to hear him speak in Thai. He then introduced his wife Linda, to present a slide show on work done in Thailand at Na Si Thong.
I met Hudson Lee 17 years ago. I want to thank you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. We are here redeemed and we want to proclaim it.
This morning, you are a wonderful group of people here to praise God and to sing to God. And this is why I wanted my daughter to be here to worship with you.
Today I want to talk about what makes voluntary missionaries.
The first reason we have chosen to be in Thailand is based on the poster on your wall. We are here to be oddballs for Jesus. So that all may learn of His glory.
The second reason is found in three scriptures I want to share with you.
In truth I have come to a time years ago when I did not know what God had wanted me to do. I felt like a nobody, not knowing what to do and where to go. That's when I referred to scripture.
Jeremiah 33:3
‘Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.’
First is that we are to call on God. In prayer, in action and in faith to be His light and His purpose. Call on God and listen. And He said He will show us great and mighty things. Not my will but yours be done. That He will give us something to do for His kingdom.
So if God calls us we have to go. If it's Singapore then we go, if it's Katmandu, then we go. And God called us to Na Si Thong which meant the "Face of Gold". When God calls us, we will go.
The other verse applies to what we do when we get to wherever God called us.
2 Corinthians 4:5
For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your bondservants for Jesus’ sake.
So we came back to Thailand to be servants for Him. Not as Americans or missionaries but as volunteers. Servants for Jesus' sake.
When we call on Him, He will call on us. So that His will be done on this earth as it is in heaven. There is nothing in my life to be preached about. My testimonies are all about fears and doubts and a mess. But God did not ask me to preach about myself.
If I preached myself you guys would have walked out the door. We preached for His kingdom and His purpose. We preach as wounded healers.
Let me give you an example.
My father was a righteous man. When he saw my life and what mess I was in, he came to me and said I'm sorry Stephen, let me carry the cross for you. That is a wounded healer. That is what God did for us and that's what God has called us to do.
Drugs are everywhere in Thailand and we can be there to be wounded healers.
1 Corinthians 9:22
to the weak I became as weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.
God calls on us to be chosen. Too few choose to choose. It is hard hard work but God calls us to be His lambs, to be all things to all people that some may be saved. Chinese to be Chinese, Indians to be Indians and Thais to be Thais.
I become all things to all people. I speak Thai to the Thais and speaks like they do. You wear their clothes, their culture, their customs. It is so important to show respect. We wear the gospel but we wear their customs too. It is very important and I have people who says - I have not met an American as Asian as you.
We have to have the aroma of the culture we live in and at the same time, we can be like Jesus. Like Paul says from glory to glory, from earthly things to the heavenly.
With these three verses, we want to make a statement that there is an extreme cost to discipleship.
Linda went through a difficult young life when her parents died in a plane crash. But at four, Linda gave her life to Jesus and already knew she would be called to missions. The tragedy did not make a difference in her life because she was called. She lost her uncle too to aneurism and in three years she lost most of her family. For a young teen, it could have been perilous to her. But it did not. She had many troubles between the age of nine and nineteen but she is faithful to God's call.
My life was a little different. My dad was preaching for 81 years and one day he just told me to preach. I grew up on the lap of a doctor who spoke to me in mandarin. Maybe from there I knew how to speak the Asian language with the intonation. From a young age I already have a call from God.
But after a while I was living for me. And God spoke to me in a dream. And in the dream I had an accident that was fatal and it was terrifying.
On August 6, 1973, an Englishman asked me to take him somewhere. At an intersection, a truck came at me and I flew through the window, through the steering wheel and out the other window. The Thai doctor said let him die. But there was a Christian who took me to a hospital until I woke up and asked where am I? And that was 40 days after the accident. I have a plastic skull and a metal shoulder now. I was in a very bad shape. But God saved my life.
We may have different tragedies in our life but God calls us to be His servants. We may be broken or shattered but when God calls us, we can do it.
All this talk about our life and purpose is based on these three verses.
We are the called out ones. What is God calling you to do in your life? There are people who are specifically there for you to reach. Be like them to reach them that some might be saved.
You are his chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for possession.
In Na Si Thong we have much work to do. It is not a small piece of land, about 4 acres. For the purpose of His glory and kingdom and our hope is that one say He will say well done my faithful servant, welcome home.
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