Thank you very much.
Thank you.
You're a natural.
Thank you.
Let's go.
Thank you.
It's always cool when you run into people that are
screaming.
Like loud.
But that's cool.
When you run into someone that's encouraging you.
You can go back amongst the fleas.
Thank you.
Amen.
Thank you.
If you leave, you can't go back.
Because it's an all-day wristband.
But once again, the video games are free.
Nothing with coins.
Nothing with tickets.
Laser tag is free.
You can go as many times as you want.
One game of bowling, that's free.
And unlimited food.
Amen.
Not the best food, but it's unlimited.
Yeah, I mean, whatever it lacks in quality, you just make up for on quantity.
Amen.
All right.
With that, let's go ahead and tally up the soul winning for the past few days.
So anything from Monday.
Let's get our soul winning totals from Monday.
Okay.
All right.
Gotcha.
I see that.
Okay.
See, I have all these obstacles to my vision because of these decorations.
So somebody maybe call out.
Yeah.
All right.
Anything else from Monday?
All right.
Anything from Tuesday?
Okay.
Gotcha.
Okay.
Am I missing anybody?
Help me out.
All right.
Very good.
And then what about today, Wednesday?
Okay.
Gotcha.
Okay.
Anybody else?
I'll go where you want me to go.
If you don't have an insert, you can raise your hand and one of the ushers will hand you one.
We'll sing it on that verse.
It may not be on the mountainside or the stormy sea.
I'll go where you want me to go.
Yeah.
It may not be on the mountainside or the stormy sea.
faithful minister of Christ, who also declared unto us your love in the Spirit.
For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire
that you might be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding,
that you might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good
work and increasing in the knowledge of God, strengthened with all might according to His
glorious power unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness, giving thanks unto the Father
which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light, who
hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of
His dear Son, in whom we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins, who
is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature.
For by Him were all things created that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and
invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, all things were
created by Him and for Him.
And He is before all things, and by Him all things consist.
And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the
dead, that in all things He might have the preeminence.
For it pleased the Father that in Him should all fullness dwell.
And having made peace through the blood of His cross, by Him to reconcile all things
unto Himself, by Him I say, whether they be things in earth or things in heaven.
And you that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath
you reconciled, in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable
and reproveable in His sight, if you continue, and the faith grounded and settled, and be
not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached
to every creature which is under heaven, whereof I Paul am made a minister, who now
rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions
of Christ in my flesh for His body's sake, which is the church, whereof I am made a minister
according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfil the word
of God, even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is
made manifest to His saints, to whom God would make known what is the riches of the
glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you the hope of glory,
whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present
every man perfect in Christ Jesus, whereinto I also labour, striving according to his working,
which worketh in me mightily.
Father, thank you for the opportunity to hear your holy and precious word.
I ask you bless the preacher with your Holy Spirit, open our hearts and our ears, receive
your word.
I pray this in Jesus' holy name.
Amen.
All right.
I would like to thank Pastor for this opportunity to preach tonight and to kick off the missions
conference and I'd like to thank everybody who's traveling and visiting our church right
now and supporting our church here for the missions conference.
And I'm so thankful to be a part of a church that loves missions and loves winning so much.
And so recently, also I'm a little sick tonight too, so if I'm coughing then that's why.
But recently me and my friend Alexander Larson right here, we went to the island country
of Samoa and we had a great mission trip there and so I'll be talking about that tonight.
So you know, there's the country of Samoa and then right beside it there's the territory
of American Samoa.
And so we ended up going to the country of Samoa this time and it's in the South Pacific
so it's way out in the middle of nowhere in the ocean and it was a great place.
It's an extremely Christian nation so it's already, you know, everybody there is Christian
already.
Everything is closed on Sundays there, so literally everything.
And they call Sunday sleep day because they just sleep all day basically on Sundays.
And they have the biggest, craziest church buildings I've ever seen before.
They're just monolithic type church buildings, just huge.
And so it was an interesting place.
And oh, and I just want to mention this as well, it has nothing to do with the sermon,
but one really cool thing that happened while we were there, we were on one of the college
campuses that's there in Samoa and actually we met a couple of people there who remembered
our soul owners from Fiji because the Fiji trip happened about three months earlier than
the Samoa trip and then these Fijians were just happening to, or was just visiting Samoa
at the time that we were there.
And so they actually still had the church invite that the group had already given them
and they were saved and everything so that was really cool.
So yeah, that was an interesting thing that happened there.
And of course we did lots and lots of soul winning.
We did soul winning in Fiji a little bit because we had a long layover there.
We also did a little bit of soul winning in Los Angeles as well because we had a 15 hour
layover there as well.
But of course we did most of our soul winning in Samoa and Samoa was a great place to do
soul winning.
I actually broke my personal record for getting the most amount of people saved in one day
just because people are just so receptive and willing to talk to you there.
And then here are kind of results from our trip.
So for the entire trip together in Los Angeles we had three salvations.
In Fiji we had 21 salvations and in Samoa the full week that we were there we had 180
salvations.
So all together we had 204 salvations for this trip.
It was just a little over a week long and yeah it was a great trip.
Also Alex kept very detailed records from Samoa of basically who we talked to and everything
so I'll go over that.
We went soul winning for 42 hours all together.
We approached 720 people to try and preach to them.
We gave them a card and tried to show them what the Bible says.
Out of those 720 we preached 455 of those and out of those 180 got saved.
So of those approached 63% of them listened and 25% of them got saved.
So we're talking about a very receptive country where basically if you walk up to somebody
then there's like a one in four chance that person's getting saved at the end of the day.
So it's a really great place.
Samoa is a really great place.
And so tonight I'll be talking about some things, some lessons that we've learned from
the Samoa trip.
Either lessons that we learned or that we were reminded of in Samoa.
And so the title of my sermon tonight is Global Evangelism Lessons from Samoa or you could
also just call this Lessons from Samoa.
And anyone who knows me personally knows that I love the topic of reaching the whole world
with the gospel.
That's what I'm always talking about.
That's what I'm always thinking about and praying about.
And almost every time I get the opportunity to preach I talk about it just because it's
so important that we get this vision to reach the entire world with the gospel.
And so I'm going to talk about that again tonight as well because there were things
that in Samoa that we saw that basically I think are great lessons that could be applied
to reaching the whole world with the gospel as well.
And so I'll talk about that tonight because like I said I'm all about this.
In fact this topic of reaching the whole world with the gospel is the reason I'm even here
right now.
It's the reason I moved to Faithful Word back seven years ago because I listened to the
sermon The Strategy to Evangelize the Entire World in Our Lifetime and that sermon was
just so motivating for me that I wanted to be a part of a church that had that great
big vision to reach the whole world.
And so I'm going to be talking a little bit about that tonight.
So you're there in Colossians chapter 1 and I'll get there in just a moment but I just
want to before we get into the lessons tonight I want to basically go over this idea of reaching
the entire world with the gospel and just kind of prove it from the Bible that it is
something that we are required to do from scripture right.
It's something that God wants us to do and you know I keep calling it a goal I keep calling
it a vision because it is it's a great big vision it's a great big goal but more than
a vision and more than a goal it is it is a commandment as well.
It's a commandment in the Bible.
It's something that God expects us to do to reach every single person in the entire world.
Mark 16 15 says go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.
You know that's something that God expects of us is to reach the entire world with the
gospel and you know Mark 16 15 is more for individuals to go out there two by two door
to door just preaching the gospel but then we also have the command in Matthew 28 and
I'll just read to you from there you're still there in Colossians but in Matthew 28 it says
go ye therefore and teach all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father the Son and
the Holy Ghost teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I've commanded you and lo
I am with you always even unto the end of the world amen and this this is kind of like
the second part of the Great Commission where it's more for churches right baptizing and
teaching them all things that we that Christ commanded but both of these are so important
right soul winning and and churches right and that's really how we're going to reach
the world is through local churches sending out soul winners to go preach the gospel door
to door and this is kind of the the this is the goal here right and so you're there in
Colossians chapter one and I kind of want to just prove to you first of all well first
of all that we have that commandment right but then also too that we have the precedent
in the Bible that it's already been done before right so this is not something new this is
not something that's a novel idea but rather it's already been accomplished before in the
first century A.D. and so let's go ahead and take a look at that you're there in Colossians
chapter one look down if you would at verse number five the Bible says for the hope which
is laid up for you in heaven where have you heard before in the word of the truth of the
gospel which is coming to you as it is in all the world and bringing forth fruit as
it doth also in you since the day he heard of it and knew the grace of God in truth and
so there it talks about how the gospel has gone out in all the world right now let's
skip down to verse 23 if you would in verse 23 it says if you continue in the faith grounded
and settled and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you have heard and
which was preached to every creature which is under heaven where of I Paul and made a
minister and so here there's no doubt what he's talking about he the gospel has literally
been preached to every creature which is under heaven during the time of Paul right and not
only that continue down to verse 27 if you would that's why I chose Colossians 1 because
it says it multiple times but in verse 27 it says to whom God would make known what
is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the gentiles which is Christ in you
the hope of glory whom we preach warning every man and teaching every man and always and
that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus where into I also labor striving according
to his working which worketh in me mightily so again it's every man right they reach the
gospel to every man every creature which is under heaven is what it says here and so and
that's our job as well right this is not just a one and done deal this was not just
for Paul during that time but rather it is a commandment for every generation to go out
and preach the gospel right because think about it if nobody preached the gospel for
you know a hundred years right or a hundred and 110 years 120 years then you know everybody
who saved would die and then there'd be nobody left to preach the gospel to the next generation
that's why this is not just a one and done deal this is for every single generation to
accomplish in their lifetime in their generation now turn if you went to Matthew 24 and I'll
talk about this last point as well is well in the introduction is that not only is it
a commandment of God and not only has it been done before God is basically motivating us
by telling us hey it's already been done you can do it as well but not only that he also
tells us that it will happen again as well before the rapture before we're taken up out
of here into heaven basically you know it will happen again that will preach the gospel
to every single creature and to prove this look down if you would in Matthew 24 and look
down at verse number 12 where the Bible says and because iniquity shall abound the love
of many shall wax cold but he that shall endure to the end the same shall be saved in this
gospel the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations and
then shall the end come so before the end can come before the rapture happens before
we're out of here we're gonna preach the gospel one last time to every single person in the
entire world you know that's kind of the the prophecy that's here and even mark 13 says
this as well it says in the gospel must first be published among all nations and these are
end times prophecy or prophecy chapters and everything so um you know this is the one
of the very last things that create that we as Christians do on this earth to reach everybody
right and just as a side note has nothing to do with my sermon but you know people are
always you know worried about how close we are to the end they're like oh no you know there's all
these evil people and you know the Antichrist is probably gonna show up any moment now and you know
they got the 2030 plan and they're just gonna ruin everything and you know whatever but you know I
personally I would rather be thinking about what God's people are doing right rather than what
Satan's crowd is doing and I look at the fact that you know we're not close to reaching the
world with the gospel yet there's so many areas that that we don't really preach the gospel as
much in and everything and so we I still think that we have a long way to go before we're at the
end you know and that's kind of what I how I would view that but I'd rather just be thinking about
what we're doing instead of being worried about what the evil people out there are up to and
everything so that's just kind of a side note but you know with that in mind you know this idea of
reaching the entire world with the gospel I kind of I have seven or I have six lessons for us
tonight that we basically learned or that we were reminded of in Samoa that could basically you know
be used to help us reach the world with the gospel right it's so sorry for that but um lesson
number one is being globally minded being globally minded okay and what do I mean by this let me let
me tell you this story from Samoa so whenever we first landed in the country we we we were at the
airport we got our rental car and then we had to drive to our VRBO that we had rented the house
that we had rented that we're going to be staying at and it was about a 45 minute drive and what
was so strange was that every mile on this road that we were driving all the flags would change
as we're driving by and it looked like we were in a different country every few minutes and they
weren't Samoan flags they were flags from all around the world you know we we went through a
Lebanon area and a Dominica area and a Taiwan area and an Israel area and a Saint Lucia area and an
India area and just all these different countries and we're just thinking ourselves why are all
these flags out here of different countries why does it keep changing and then we got to our house
and our house was in the Malawi neighborhood and so you know but we weren't in Africa or anything
but there were just flags everywhere we just opened up our door and there was just flags
everywhere from my way we were just really you know wondering why that was later in the week we
went sewing in a Mozambique neighborhood in a Nigeria neighborhood and all these different
neighborhoods and so I looked it up you know why why are they celebrating all these different
countries and all I could find online was that basically that they do it and that each
neighborhood basically celebrates a different country and they've been doing that since they
got their independence in 1962 even though I couldn't really get a reason why they do it I
guess they just I don't know like like you know being a part of the world I guess I don't I don't
know but but and but even though that I don't know why they do it I like that they do it right I like
that they have this you know that they're not just hyper focused on themselves not thinking about the
rest of the world and and you know I I like geography right I think about geography I care
about geography but I hadn't always you know cared about geography whenever I I got the vision to
reach the world of the gospel then I started really liking geography because I'm like okay
I want to learn about these places that we got to reach right you know I want to learn about these
places you know if we if I meet a missionary that's you know Sao Tome and Principe or whatever
and I want to you know be able to know what that even is or whatever you know what I mean so you
know I want I like start liking geography and started liking learning about the world whenever
you know I got this this mindset and and then this is just kind of a funny funny note here but you
know I do believe that there's a serious problem here in America with you know Americans not really
knowing geography very well or not really knowing about the rest of the world very well and I kind
of looked up some funny statistics here okay and I'm gonna read these off to you these were some
studies taken of college-age students between the years of 2006 and 2019 and so these are just kind
of funny here but um 20% of Americans in this college age you know bracket 20% of Americans
believe that Africa is a country and and for those of you who are confused no Africa is not a country
right it's a continent but then and then another 63% of people in this age group could not find the
UK on a map so and and then another 71% could not identify the Pacific Ocean from the Atlantic
Ocean and and then 40% could not find South America 27% could not name a single country in
Asia so not even China or Asia I don't know where they think China is I don't know but and then 30%
couldn't even find Mexico on a map so I don't even know how that's possible I don't know but you know
here's the thing about it these sound ridiculous but you know I actually believe this though
because I have met people and I've even been one of those people who didn't really know geography
and things like that I feel like back in school I had the same problem you know maybe not to this
degree but you know I still you know I still didn't really know too much right and I just
feel like people are just so um you know focused on America and focused on our own little thing
that we're not really thinking about the rest of the world but you know as Christians and as
soul owners and as people who who care about reaching the world this is something that should
be on our mind is the world right and you know you don't have to go everywhere in the world you
don't have to go to all these far-flung places you never have to go to Samoa but you could pray for
Samoa right you could pray that God would send for the labors and his harvest and you could pray
about the rest of the world and think about these things and about a year and a half ago now I
preached a sermon here called think global act local and the the the point of that sermon was
that we should have a global mindset where we're thinking about the entire world and you know
praying that God would send for labors into into the world and basically letting that translate
into us doing more here at home right doing more right here in our own backyard because you don't
have to go around the world to fulfill the Great Commission you just have to go someone right here
you know you just got to go someone at your local church right where you're at and so but um but I
do believe that we should care about the entire world though as well and so yeah because we want
it to happen we want the entire world to be reached with the gospel but we have to have faith
that it can be done and the first step to having that is to you know care about these places and to
be praying for them and thinking about them and so that's kind of the the first lesson is not to
be you know hyper focused on yourself or on our on you know America or whatever but just be thinking
about the entire world care about the entire world right so turn if you would to revelation
chapter 7 revelation chapter 7 all right so lesson number two that we learned in Samoa okay is the
desperate need for soul owners to learn other languages okay and look you know I'm not here
to cast any stones at all I don't know any other languages okay so I'm not here to judge anybody
or to give any advice whatsoever people ask me you know Raymond are you learning Spanish and I
always say occasionally right because because it's so hard to stay consistent everything but you know
I saw firsthand in Samoa we both did of the great need that there is for people to learn of the
language somebody else not me but somebody else can't no I'm sure but no there is a great need
out there for sure and so because in Samoa only 40% of people there speak English so we went there
we didn't really trust that number online we figured surely more people speak English but
really whenever we got there we found you know if anything it was less than that that spoke English
so primarily whenever we were there we were focusing on the college campuses because everybody
there pretty much spoke in English so we had great success success on the college campuses
but outside of that we did not have good success at all and so you know there is a great need for
soul winners to learn some other languages right and especially even these obscure languages right
because you know if you know there's not a Samoan speaking soul winner then I don't think anybody's
gonna really reach those people right or right like um I don't think that they're you know these
40 50 60 year old people are gonna just learn English tomorrow and that we can preach them
right so there are there is a great need for that and that's why I was excited whenever Alex said
that he was started learning Samoan he started learning Fijian as well just because he went on
these two trips and he really liked them and everything so yeah hopefully he can reach those
people and and yeah you know we need people to basically try to pick up a new language and
everything like that because if we don't reach them then nobody will right and you're there in
Revelation chapter 7 look down if you would at verse number 9 where the Bible says after this I
beheld and lo a great multitude which no man can number of all nations and kindreds and people and
tongues stood before the throne and before the lamb clothed with white robes and palms in their
hands and cried with a loud voice saying salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne and unto
the lamb and so in heaven there will be people of every tongue right every every nation every tongue
and so you know it's up to us to reach those people right we need to reach those people with
the gospel because yeah I'm not sure how much so winning is going on in Samoan but yeah I'm not I
don't know I hope some some is for sure but um we definitely more so owners to basically learn
different languages and be able to preach in these different countries now lesson number three
lesson number three is the importance of of doing things that make sense writer well what I have
written down here is pragmatism or pragmatic decision-making right and this was almost like
a theme on our trip of basically making decisions that make sense and it really is on all of our
mission trips right but this was on my mind because recently I heard a sermon and it wasn't
a sermon from one of the pastors in our group or anything but it was from a missionary where he was
basically saying in a sermon he said pragmatism only accepts what is helpful useful and meaningful
and I believe one of the biggest concerns of Christianity today is how much the philosophy
of pragmatism influences what we do in the ministry he was basically talking about how you
dangerous it is to do things that make sense and I just thought it was kind of a weird point that
he was making in that sermon and and you know he's basically talking about deputation and furlough and
all these things that really don't make any sense and you know I and so I wanted to I thought that
was just kind of a silly point and I just wanted to talk more about it in my sermon that you know
we try to do things that make sense right we want to make decisions and we try to do things that
make sense obviously not to you know sin in order to do something right you know like the ends
justify the means or anything like that not like that but obviously you know if you're not sinning
you know then we should do things that make sense right and so I wanted to talk about some of the
decisions that we made in Samoa and and one thing is like for example here in Arizona we almost
exclusively go door-to-door soul winning and that's because we're trying to systematically
reach every single person in our area right with the gospel and we have markers and we mark it all
up and we and we have our maps and everything but you know whenever we go on a mission trip we don't
typically do door-to-door because you know we want to go somewhere like a park or a college campus
where basically people are gonna be more social more open to talking to you and you know you kind
of choose who you you know walk up to maybe there's an old grumpy guy over here but then there's you
know a couple of teenagers over here so then you go talk to the teenagers things like that and so
we kind of do that mostly on these trips and for the majority of our trip in Samoa we went to
these two college campuses and so we went there and and we were having great success there but
on Saturday and Sunday of course the college was closed so we went to other areas we went
door-to-door and things like that and just so you have an idea you know those days were really bad
for us you know like like on Sunday we went all day after church and we only got two people saved
and we got chased by dogs and everything so it was crazy and and and and let me tell you about
these dogs okay because it was it was bad you know us who live here in Arizona we know about
res dogs or whatever but um and we know that res dogs can be vicious but you know our res
dogs could take a lot of lessons from the Samoan dogs because it was bad I mean these dogs I felt
like that they were trained as like attack dogs or whatever I mean it was it was really bad like
one time we were walking back to our car from this neighborhood because just all these dogs
just just growling at us and getting close to us and trying to bite us and stuff like that and the
people there were not friendly to us at all maybe it was just because they didn't speak English or
whatever I'm not sure but anyway we just started walking back to our car and as soon as we turned
around this dog just silently just starts sprinting towards us and the only reason I
knew that he was there was because I heard some faint rustles from from the bushes and I turned
around I'm like Alex watch out or whatever and so we were just flailing our arms and flailing our
legs at this at this dog and he's really trying to get to us and then these old ladies had to come
out with brooms and like chase the dog away and stuff I mean it was bad and that wasn't even the
only time every single night while we were sleeping there were just these just vicious
dog fights right outside our window we've just woke us up and we were just like man and we thought
we'd find a dead dog the next morning or whatever and it was just it was just really bad I hate dogs
I hate dogs so much so just as a side note I want to tell why I hate dogs okay here's here's why
it's not just because they they try to eat us in Samoa but but on but seriously though on average
dogs kill 35,000 people a year and you know globally right they're the third most dangerous
animal after mosquitoes and snakes so they kill more people than any other animal and the majority
of those fatalities are children you know so it's really bad I hate dogs with a passion I want them
all dead I don't like them and you know there's a reason that the Bible you know likens reprobates
to canine creatures right like you got you got you got sodomites compared to dogs and Deuteronomy
you got false prophets compared to wolves you know you even have a Herod compared to a fox and stuff
it's just like man you know canons are just it's just crazy you know and and just in case pastor
Russell is listening in the u.s. 70% of fatal attacks are from pit bulls so specifically so
it's just you know he hates pit bulls I just I've just expanded that to all dogs so I just I just
hate them all but anyway that's just a side note but you know we made that we made the pragmatic
decision to get out of there right and the decision that makes sense to stay far away from
those crazy dogs and to basically go back to the colleges and stuff like that but yeah you know if
one plan is lacking then of course you know change it to something else that makes more sense right
and so we should you know try to make decisions that make sense and everything and typically on
these trips you know what I originally planned and what actually happens ends up you know being
quite a bit different just because you know you you kind of have to make different decisions you
know as time goes on so let's move on to the next lesson lesson number four so lesson number four
this was kind of an eye-opener for me but I basically saw that receptivity for mission trips
everything receptivity is really more important than even having a large population and so I've
always had in the past in my mind like okay we want to go to the biggest population places and
everything which is true I mean obviously you know hopefully we would find places that are
receptive and have a lot of people but even in Samoa even though there was a very small population
we had a fantastic trip because it was extremely receptive so and you know I like how the Daniel
Daniel Ryder says he's like we got to find these hidden gems for soul winning fields and stuff
right these just little pockets of really really good soul winning and so Samoa I feel like was
one of those hidden gems where we could have a big impact and it was really really good Nagaland
was one we talked about that last year Kevin went to Antigua and he said that was one of the best
places in the Caribbean that he ever found so these just little hidden hidden gems these little
pockets right and so now I'm getting you know I'm convinced on this point that like that we need to
find all these little hidden gems throughout the world there's all these little hidden gems where
it's not a huge population but we can have a big impact if we go soloing there right it's very
receptive and so I feel like Samoa was one of those places now um lesson number five this one
was cool too we've seen this in lots of different countries but lesson number five is that there
are other very good churches that are out there in these countries and everything this was a this
was great too you know we've seen a lot of really good churches in different countries that we've
gone to I know that we've gone to Nigeria and there was a great church there we've gone to the
Bahamas Jamaica Guyana I know that there was one there so like there are all these great and of
course Samoa as well we found a great church there and I want to tell you that story oh and and I
know that Caleb's gonna talk about his experiences with some great churches in the countries that he
went to as well we'll talk about that tomorrow but basically what happened was before we went to
Samoa we were looking online for Baptist churches and we literally only found one in the entire
country that had any information online whatsoever and so it had its location and service times and
and then I also had some sermons on there but it was all in Samoan so we couldn't really listen to
it or figure out what they're talking about so we kind of went in there blind so we just kind of
showed up and it was in yeah they were very welcoming to us there was about 40 people there
most of them did not speak English basically just the the pastors did there were two pastors I guess
pastors Maliki and Lau and that was their names but um but anyway it was a great service it was a
great sermon the sermon was really good he translated a lot of it into English so that we could
enjoy it as well but it was it was a sermon about the parable of the wedding feast and having the
right garment on and the right garment is the right salvation he was just talking about salvation
and things so it was a really great sermon and after the service he and they invited us to eat
dinner with them and so that was really cool we got to eat dinner with them later in the week and
and you know they taught us a lot about Samoa while we were there and so that was really cool
they taught us about this Samoan holiday called White Sunday and it's a really cool it's a really
cool holiday where basically all the children at church it's the second it's the second Sunday in
October all the children at church dress up in white and then they get up before the church and
then they recite Bible verses that they've learned and then they they tell things that
they've learned from the Bible and everything and so I thought that was a really cool that's a
really cool holiday that they have there also he taught us that the that the Samoan word for white
people is Palangi and Palangi means sky opening up because whenever the first missionaries got
there in the 1800s they thought that they came from the sky so they just dropped down from the
sky so even to this day the Samoan word for white people is Palangi so I thought that was funny
and then also he told him he told us why they're called Samoans and the reason that they're called
Samoans is because every night at dinner they get they say give me Samoa give me Samoa is what they
say so anyway these guys were funny they were great they were really nice to us and everything
and yeah it was a really great time that we had with them and you know they had all these stories
of people that they had won personally to the Lord just at their jobs and things like that but
unfortunately the only thing that I could find with you know I guess wrong with the church was
that they didn't really have a dedicated soul-winning program right they didn't have
door-to-door soul-winning everything and so you know I would love it if like somebody could go
there and help them start a soul-winning program you know I think that that's something that could
really be beneficial if somebody wanted to go do that in the future these were great people and
they really wanted to work with us in the future they were really wanting us to come back and they
really wanted us to preach for them as well but we didn't have time we were only there for one Sunday
but yeah they were great people and everything but yeah I mean I think that it'd be great to you
know if somebody went there and started some sort of a soul-winning program there because we've had
you know people have had success doing those types of things in the past you know I know that brother
a lot of people here know brother Brad Papyrus you know he wasn't able to make it here today
but you know he's in Indiana and yeah he has his church that he goes to and they did not have a
soul-winning program before he got there but then he showed up and he started it and now the pastor
soul-winning and they've won hundreds of people to the Lord and they brought all these people to
church and and then those people have now become soul-winners and it's really cool what he's done
and you know we definitely need soul-winning churches around the around the world you know
and you know we need thousands and thousands of churches working toward the goal to reach the
entire world with the gospel and so yeah I would I would love to be able to go back to that church
that we found in Samoa and basically help them get a soul-winning program sorry I think that's
something that could be highly beneficial and it's something that would have a huge impact
and I'm sure that they would love that as well those people were great so there are all these
churches out there that we could help motivate and work with and everything and so I thought
that was a really cool lesson that we saw there was just their willingness to work with us and
and have us back and have us preach for them and all that cool stuff and and they were really great
people and I really like that and so let's move on to our final lesson tonight lesson number six
is that we need to focus on the places that make sense now right and it makes sense for us now
because here's the thing you know we've been talking about how we got to reach the entire
world with the gospel and that is true and we and we all know that we need to go to everywhere
eventually but you know some places just need to wait until later right we need to do the places
that are receptive safe and legal now and then wait for other places later wait for you know
Saudi Arabia or North Korea or something like that for much much later whenever things open up
but obviously you know we we don't want to forget about those places and just never go but you know
the things need to change first basically and but also not only just receptive safe and legal but
just also just logistic places that logistically make sense as well and so for Samoa you know I
feel like that Samoa is a great place for like small groups to go to right I'd say like groups
of six and less should go to Samoa because you know there's not really enough people there to
talk to for an entire week if you've got a really large group right so Samoa wouldn't make sense for
us as a church to have like a big soul winning group go there like 20 30 people for an entire
week but rather I do think that small groups would have a huge impact there right and just like me
and Alex did but even me and Alex you know we were there and by the last day on the college campus we
were basically running into every single person we talked to basically had already gotten a card
and already we've had already talked to them and so I do think that small groups would be better
for Samoa but yeah I mean I would love it if like a couple of guys you know got a vision for Samoa
learn Samoan like what Alex is trying to do and then go back there and spend a few months and just
reach the whole island with the gospel and just like teach that church how to go soul winning and
all that great stuff I mean I would love that and so Lord willing you know some people would do that
and and who knows you know maybe in the future more people in Samoa learn English and then it'll
get better and better for us to bring a big group there and everything but um but you know not all
places are gonna be perfect right now but some places need to wait or we need to change up the
tactics to reach it and things like that and so that was an interesting lesson for me personally
was just like hey you know Samoa might be better reached with small groups you know and things like
that and so I loved Samoa I loved our trip there I thought it was a fantastic trip we had great
results and love the people that we met there and everything and I can't wait I Lord willing I get
the opportunity to go back and and hopefully we could check out American Samoa as well we'll see
how that is I know that their English level is gonna be a lot better there and so basically these
were the six lessons that we found in Samoa that we in that these these these lessons could also
translate into us reaching the entire world with the gospel as well Lord willing we can do that as
well Lord willing we can reach Samoa we can reach the whole world and you know I can I cannot overstate
the importance of having this big vision to reach the entire world and hopefully you know even
during this week right we're gonna learn about these different countries be praying for these
countries right be praying for Samoa and Fiji and Dominican Republic and all these different places
you know because you know the the harvest is great but the labors are few right so we need to pray
that God will send for the labors in this harvest we need to have this global mindset where we're
thinking about the entire world we need to have this great big vision to reach the entire world
and and look you know the last thing I want to say is just have faith right have faith that it
can be done because it can be done God wants us to do it and and and yeah it can be done so let's
just go ahead and pray so dear Lord thank you for this opportunity to preach Lord and I just pray
that something I said would help somebody and and Lord just please help us to have our minds
set on on this world Lord and and to reach this world with the gospel Lord you want that to happen
even more than we do Lord so just please enable us to do that please please help us Lord and it's
in Christ's name I pray amen amen take your hymnals together go to him 402 number 402
402 is our best hymn number 402
number 402 sing it out together now
for the praise
every word for Jesus
is
Oh
yes
everyone
Everyone is best.
Our talents may be new.
These may be small.
But to give is new.
Our best, our home.
Amen.
Great start to the conference night.
Thank you so much, Brother Cooper.
What an amazing trip.
And let me just add another lesson
that I gleaned from the stories is just
how much God can use two people.
I mean, just two people go somewhere for just a week,
week and a half.
And they can be used greatly by God to impact a lot of people.
And I really like that story about them
running into people who'd already been saved in Fiji.
They still had the literature that they
were handed in Fiji and everything.
It just goes to show how little is much when God is in it
and how God can greatly use us.
I hope that this is inspiring you.
I know I was inspired by tonight's sermon.
Makes me want to get out there and win somebody to Christ.
And so super exciting.
We're going to learn about a lot more cool countries.
And I hope that you do get out a map
and figure out where Samoa even is.
I was just showing my daughter on the globe
right before the service.
Figure out where these places are.
We want this to be inspirational but also educational.
And also that you would, like you said,
pray for these places and think about these places
so that God could continue to work in these places.
So we'll be back here tomorrow morning at 10.30 AM.
Again, I encourage you to walk around and look at the different shrines
here around the auditorium with all the pictures from these trips
so you can kind of put a visual to what we're
going to hear about tomorrow as well.
So let's go ahead and pray quickly and be dismissed.
Lord, we thank you so much for this wonderful group
that's here tonight for the conference.
We thank you so much for Brother Cooper and Brother Larson
and their amazing work in Samoa.
Lord God, please help us to also be inspired
and go and do likewise.
Lord God, please just bless every part of this conference.
May everything that's said and done bring honor
and glory to you.
And in Jesus' name we pray, amen.
All right, we're dismissed.
["POMP AND CIRCUMSTANCE"]