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>> It is son XX219075, what a great kid.
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>> Very good to see each and every one of you here for our Saturday morning service.
Continuing with our Missions Conference.
Find your seats now, grab a song, but go to Hymn 405.
We'll get started this morning, 405, this is the banner of the cross.
Hymn number 405, and once you find your place, we will lift our voice together.
Starting on that first, there's a royal banner given for display.
Hymn number 405, sing it out together now.
There's a royal banner given for display to the soldiers of the king.
Signs there we lift it up to name, while as best song once we sing.
Marching on, marching on, for Christ counts everything but loss.
And to crown him king, so let's sing the banner of the cross.
Though the foe may rage and gather as the blood, let the standard be displayed.
And beneath its folds, as soldiers of the Lord, for the truth be not dismayed.
Marching on, marching on, for Christ counts everything but loss.
And to crown him king, so let's sing the banner of the cross.
Over land and sea, wherever men may dwell, make the glorious tidings known.
Of the crimson banner, now the story tell, while the war shall play their song.
Marching on, marching on, for Christ counts everything but loss.
And to crown him king, so let's sing the banner of the cross.
When the glory thud's destroying very near, it's as they sing day by day.
Then before our king the foe shall disappear, and the cross the world shall sway.
Marching on, marching on, for Christ counts everything but loss.
And to crown him king, so let's sing the banner of the cross.
Marching on, marching on, for Christ counts everything but loss.
Marching on, marching on, toiling on, toiling on, toiling on, toiling on, let us all, let
us watch, and labor till the master comes.
To the work, to the work, let the hungry be fed, to the fountain of life, let the weary
be led, and the cross and its banner, our glory shall be, while we herald the tiding salvation
is free.
Toiling on, toiling on, toiling on, toiling on, let us all, let us watch, and labor till
the master comes, to the work, to the work, there is labor for all, for the kingdom of
darkness and error shall fall, and the name of Jehova exalted shall be, in the loud swelling
chorus salvation is free.
Toiling on, toiling on, toiling on, toiling on, let us all, let us watch, and labor till
the master comes.
To the work, to the work, in the strength of the Lord, and the robe and the crown shall
our labor reward, when the home of the faithful, our dwelling shall be, and we shall with the
rest of salvation is free.
Toiling on, toiling on, toiling on, toiling on, let us all, let us watch, and labor till
the master comes.
Amen.
Good singing.
We're going to go over a couple of announcements.
If you don't have a bulletin that has the schedule on the back, stick your hand up nice
and high so that you can have a copy of that schedule for the conference.
Of course, we have the morning service now.
We're going to be hearing about Germany from Brother Dylan Oz, and then after the service
here, you're on your own for lunch, but maybe just get something light.
Don't go full like Kevin Rowe on a cruise ship mode or anything like that.
So just get something light, because we're going to be having the German picnic, and
the food's going to start being served there around 430.
So there is a soul winning opportunity here at 1 o'clock.
Again, if you're a little bit early for that, no problem.
Little bit late for that, no problem.
But around 1 o'clock, you can be sent out to do some soul winning, and then we'll be
showing up at the park for the church picnic around 3 o'clock.
But again, you can get there early, you can get there late.
It's not a hard and fast thing, about 3 o'clock.
Just roughly around 3 o'clock, people start getting there.
But again, the food's not going to be served until 430, and the food is going to be amazing.
It's going to be really good.
You won't want to miss it.
And so lots of pretzels, cheesy pretzels, and these are the most authentic pretzels
on the planet.
Like if you literally went to Germany, it would be less authentic than what you're getting
here.
I'm not even joking.
Stop laughing because this isn't funny.
Okay?
It is the most authentic possible pretzel imaginable, okay, in any universe, okay?
And then also there's going to be bratwurst, other little German treats and things, the
roasted candied almonds, and a lot of cool stuff.
There's also a special, the cheese dip, right?
Did you, Lola?
Did you?
Cheese spread, oh I'm so sorry.
Cheese spread, but that is part of the deal, right?
I'm pretty sure.
Yeah, there's going to be the cheese dip.
Apparently it's based upon Brie, so if you like Brie, you're going to like the cheese
dip.
If you hate Brie, well then just skip it, all right?
And so it's going to be awesome, and that's going to be this afternoon.
And then we're going to have another church service tonight at 7 o'clock, and so that'll
be hearing from Brother Anselm Urban, also about Germany.
And then tomorrow, we're going to have our normal church services tomorrow, 10.30 in
the morning, six at night, and then soul winning in the afternoon.
All right, that is about it for announcements.
So let's go ahead and sing our next song.
All right, we'll go ahead and sing one more song before the reading of the scripture.
You should find the insert in the brother hymnal with the hymn entitled "The Regions
Beyond."
If you don't have an insert, you can slip up your hand and we'll get you one, "The Regions
Beyond."
To the regions beyond, I must go.
Sing it out.
To the regions beyond, I must go, I must go, where the story has never been told.
To the millions that never, ever heard of this love, I must tell the sweet story of
old.
To the regions beyond, I must go, I must go, where the story has never been told.
To the millions that never, ever heard of this love, I must tell the sweet story of
old.
To the regions beyond, I must go, I must go, where the story has never been told.
To the millions that never, ever heard of this love, I must tell the sweet story of
old.
To the regions beyond, I must go, I must go, where the story has never been told.
To the millions that never, ever heard of this love, I must tell the sweet story of
old.
To the regions beyond, I must go, I must go, tell the world, all the world, his salvation
shall go.
Oh ye that are spending your leisure and powers in pleasure so foolish and fun, away from
your selfishness, folly and sin, and well to the region beyond.
To the regions beyond, I must go, I must go, where the story has never been told.
To the regions beyond, I must go, where the story has never been told.
To the regions beyond.
To the regions beyond, I must go, I must go, tell the world, all the world, his salvation
shall go.
To the regions beyond, I must go, I must go, tell the world, all the world, his salvation
shall go.
To the regions beyond, I must go, I must go, where the story has never been told.
In seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain, and when he was set, his disciples
came unto him, and he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying, "Blessed are the poor
in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled.
Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.
Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom
of heaven.
Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you and persecute you, and shall say all manner
of evil against you falsely for my sake.
Rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so persecuted they
the prophets which were before you.
Ye are the salt of the earth, but if the salt have lost his savor, wherewith shall it be
salted?
It is thenceforth good for nothing but to be cast out and to be trodden underfoot of
men.
Ye are the light of the world.
This city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.
Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick, and it giveth
light unto all that are in the house.
Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father
which is in heaven.
Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets.
I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill.
For verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass one jot or one tittle, shall no
wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled.
Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments and shall teach men so,
he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven; but whosoever shall do and teach
them the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
For I say unto you, that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes
and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.
Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever
shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment.
But I say unto you, that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be
in danger of the judgment; and whosoever shall say to his brother, Hrachah, shall be in danger
of the counsel.
But whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire.
Therefore, if Thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath
aught against thee, leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first, be reconciled
to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.
Agree with thine adversary quickly whilst thou art in the way with him, lest at any
time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer,
and thou be cast into prison.
Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come out thence till the house paid the uttermost
for thee.
Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery.
But I say unto you, that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed
adultery with her already in his heart; and if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out,
and cast it from thee; for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish,
and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.
And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee; for it is profitable
for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast
into hell.
It hath been said, Whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement;
but I say unto you, that whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication,
causeth her to commit adultery; and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced, committeth
adultery.
Again, ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time, Thou shalt not forswear
thyself, but shalt perform under the law of thine oaths; but I say unto you, swear not
at all.
Neither by heaven, for it is God's throne; nor by the earth, for it is his footstool;
neither by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great king; neither shalt thou swear by
thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black; but let your communication
be yea, yea, nay, nay; for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.
You have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth; but
I say unto you, that ye resist not evil; but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right
cheek, turn to him the other also; and if any man will sue thee at the law, and take
away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also.
And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain; give to him that asketh
thee; and from him that would borrow of thee, turn not thou away.
You have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy;
but I say unto you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that
hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you, that ye may be
the children of your father which is in heaven; for he maketh his son to rise on the evil
and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.
For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye?
Do not even the publicans the same?
And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others?
Do not even the publicans so?
Be therefore perfect, even as your father, which is in heaven, is perfect.
Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, thank you for allowing us to be here today, Lord.
We just pray that you would fill Brother Dylan Ols with your spirit, Lord, and have us, your
children, to be edified, Lord, since you sent me to pray.
Amen.
Well, good morning, everyone.
It is a great pleasure and honor to be here.
Thank you, Pastor Anderson, for inviting me and allowing me to preach at this conference.
Great Forward Baptist Church has been a great inspiration to many when it comes to missions.
And a lot of souls have been saved as a result of the efforts of this church.
And Lord willing, it's the same in the future.
That's why we go to missions conferences like this.
And thank you all for coming on a Saturday morning to hear about missions.
It definitely is encouraging to see people care about lost souls.
And today we're going to be talking about Germany.
In March, I got a chance to go to Germany, to a city called Pforzheim, and visit a soul-winning
group that is there, preach a couple sermons for them, go soul-winning throughout that
week.
And I had a great time.
Basically, it was just a random day in March, and I get a phone call from Brother Segura
just saying, "Hey, you want to go to Germany?"
I'm like, "Sure, let's do it."
And I just got out the Pimsleur app, and I just started doing two lessons a day in Duolingo
all day, and my wife was so annoyed hearing German all the time, but I was just trying
to cram as much German as I can into that.
And I got to a pretty OK level to survive there.
But the title of my sermon this morning is "Germany Light Shining in Darkness."
Light Shining in Darkness.
Now, I want to break up this message into two parts.
First, I just want to explain how the trip went from just a pure enjoyment perspective,
and just from a pure carnal perspective, how the trip went, and then we'll talk about some
spiritual lessons.
So just some observations from going to Germany, and this was the first time I've been to Europe
or to Germany, was that the place was absolutely beautiful.
Pforzheim is located on the southwestern portion of Germany, right on the edge of the Black
Forest, which is known as just a very beautiful place.
It kind of reminded me of Washington State a little bit, the weather and beauty there.
But what was funny is I was told, "Oh, sorry, you had to experience the ugly part of Germany."
And I was like, "Okay, well, if Pforzheim's the ugly part, I'd love to see what the beautiful
part is like," because I thought it was wonderful.
It was a great time.
The city Pforzheim is known as being a jewelry and watchmaking city, so its nickname is Goldstadt,
the City of Gold.
It's known for making those things.
The weather there, if you are like me and you don't like sunburns, the weather was wonderful.
If you love the weather here in Phoenix, probably not going to like the weather that much, but
good weather.
The hospitality of the Germans there was amazing, and it was really encouraging to meet these
soul winners and Christians, how we're separated by the Atlantic Ocean, we're separated by
multiple time zones.
But when I went to Germany, I just instantly had great camaraderie and fellowship with
the Christians there, and they really inspired me.
They're really just excellent, awesome people.
I get off the plane, and this guy, Brother Kai, who's the most stereotypical-looking
German you could possibly imagine, he shows up and he's like, "Here's some German pretzels
and some German water from the Black Forest," and he's just driving me around everywhere
and he's a great guy, and that whole group there was really wonderfully hospitable.
They put up with my thousands of questions, wie sagt man auf Deutsch, how do you say this
in German?
Just asking them a million times, how do you say this in German, how do you say this in
German?
They put up with it.
They were great fellowship, really encouraging.
The language, when it comes to Pforzheim, at least this is my experience, there was
not really a lot of English speakers there.
The English that I did encounter was very, very rudimentary to the point where even the
hotel staff, one of the hotel staff members, I was trying to communicate like, "Hey, the
lights aren't working in my room," because I didn't know you had to plug a card into
the wall in Germany to get the lights to work.
She couldn't communicate with me, so I'm glad I hit those Pimsleur apps really hard because
it kind of helped me survive and asking like, "Wie viel Uhr ist die Fruchtstücke?
Wann ist das Frühstück?" and stuff like that, I was able to kind of survive with a little
bit of Pimsleur, but I would say if you go to Pforzheim, Germany, you should spend some
time learning German.
I was able to get one person saved on this trip because it was pretty much the only person
that I could find that could speak good enough English to where I could preach them the gospel.
Now, the Germans, of course, were getting lots and lots of people saved, and that's because
they speak German.
So really, I was mostly a silent partner on this trip, but it was still really fun, and
it was really a good time.
The food there, I will say, of all the missions trips that I've been on, I've been to Mexico
and the Bahamas, I will say Germany had the best food by far of any of the missions trips.
Germans know how to cook steak, and boy, that is important to me, and that was wonderful.
The breakfast there, the coffee, I mean, everything about the food there was great.
When it comes to the people, one big issue that Germany has right now is there's so many
Muslims there, and when I landed in the airport, I landed in Stuttgart, I think, when I was
going through customs, I was the only, the only white person in that entire line.
Everyone else was Muslim, and I was talking to people, they're like, "Oh yeah, I'm a refugee.
I'm escaping the war that's going on right now in Israel."
So they were either Jews or Muslims basically, and even when we were just walking around
in Pforzheim, there was just a lot, a lot of foreigners there, so what was interesting
about that is, you know, in the United States, when we go soul winning, at least for me,
I'm trying to go to like the Hispanic areas, I'm trying to go to like the African American
neighborhoods, because like those are like the most receptive people in the United States,
but it was kind of funny because in Germany, we were like looking for white people, which
is just so much different than anywhere else, because everyone else is pretty much Muslim,
and let's be honest, those are not the most receptive people in the world.
So it was like, we're like looking for people that look like me, I was like, "This is weird,
you know, this is the opposite of the United States," but it was really fun.
One interesting thing about the culture there was how quiet it was.
You never heard any honking, shouting, fighting, screaming, cussing, construction, it was just
like eerily quiet and peaceful, and especially on Sunday.
On Sunday, when everything's closed, I mean, I was flying my drone around to get some footage,
and I could fly that thing like a half mile away, and I could still hear like the buzz,
because it's just so quiet in Germany, it was just kind of strange.
One of the things about the culture there, I drove on the Autobahn, and it was interesting
seeing that the cars people drive there, it's all German cars.
Like in America, you see Japanese cars, American cars, German cars, a whole just litany of
different cars, but in Germany, they were driving German cars.
It was Audi, BMW, Volkswagen, you know, things like that, you really didn't see Fords anywhere,
so that was kind of cool to see the German culture there.
But I will say, the German culture is kind of being overshadowed a little bit by the
influx of the Muslims there, and that is something that's a little bit unfortunate to see.
But when you get to the spiritual lessons that I learned from this trip, number one,
it's that there is still light being shown in Germany.
There is still light shining there, and you know, the title of the sermon is Light Shining
in Darkness.
You know, let's just be honest about Germany.
Germany is not the Bahamas, right?
Germany is not Africa, Germany is not, you know, going to be the greatest, soul winning,
most receptive area you could possibly go to in the world, but let me tell you something,
there still is the light of the gospel shining in Germany, and there still are people getting
saved.
Now, like I said, the title of the sermon is Light Shining in Darkness.
I kind of want to explain to you some of the darkness that's going on in Germany, and specifically
Pforzheim itself is a city that has a very dark history, and it's got a very tragic history,
and the reason I say that is because Pforzheim was virtually wiped off the face of the earth
in World War II.
It was almost completely destroyed.
I want to read an excerpt from a book that I read.
It's called Masters of the Air, America's Bomber Boys Who Fought the Air War Against
Nazi Germany.
If you like history, this is a really good book, I recommend it.
This is a quote from that book, "As long as the German government did not seek peace,
there was no reason to stop the bombing.
It is what was bombed and how it was bombed that is questionable, both morally and militarily.
The world's focus on Dresden has obscured equal excesses."
You know, most people have heard of the Dresden firebombing, right, that happened in World
War II.
That's a very common thing that people know about, but not a lot of people know about how
Pforzheim was bombed.
Pforzheim is a medium-sized city in southwestern Germany that produced precision instruments
and had marginal value to the Wehrmacht as a juncture for military trains.
Ten days after the Dresden raid, Harris's crew, Bomber Harris, he was the air commander
of the British Royal Air Force, so this is talking about the British here.
Ten days after the Dresden raid, Harris's crews destroyed over 80% of the town's developed
area and wiped out over a quarter of its wartime population, compared to roughly five percent
in Dresden.
So, you know, everyone knows about the Dresden firebombings and the Dresden firebombings
killed five percent of the wartime population, but in Pforzheim, it killed over a quarter
of the population living in Pforzheim.
That's insane.
It says the, where did I go here?
The whole place has, this is a quote from Bomber Harris, "The whole place has been
burned out," Harris reported to his fellow air commanders on March 1st.
"This attack," he added with evident satisfaction, "is what is popularly known as a deliberate
terror attack."
Bomber command has now destroyed 63 German towns in this fashion, he declared.
So according to the Royal Air Force bombing commander, he said this was a terror attack.
You want to talk about a holocaust.
Like this was a literal, like Pforzheim was a literal holocaust.
It was a literal whole burnt offering where 25% of that population was killed in bombing
in one night.
This is another article I read about this, it said, "The astronomical attack that destroyed
yet another medieval city center occurred on the evening of February 23rd, 1945.
The first bombs were dropped at almost 8 p.m. and the last at a little past 9 p.m."
So an hour straight of bombing.
The attack on the clockmakers of Pforzheim included 379 aircraft and they attacked from
a height of 8,000 feet, dropping half a million high explosive and phosphorus incendiary bombs
with a weight of 1,825 tons.
Having been there, it's really hard to imagine this because Pforzheim is so small, you could
walk the entire city.
And when we were going slow winning there, we didn't use cars, you know, some of the
Germans, they don't understand why Americans need cars.
Well, and then you come to America, you realize, yeah, we need cars here.
But there in Pforzheim, like we were just walking everywhere.
And imagine just this little small city being bombed for over an hour.
The amount of devastation that happened in this place is really mind blowing.
It says, "A firestorm immediately enveloped the heart of the town in complete devastation.
The bombed gasworks added fuel to the fire.
The smoke over the town was so high that returning bomber crews could see the glare of the fire
160 kilometers away.
In an area about three kilometers long and 1.5 kilometers wide, all buildings were reduced
to rubble.
17,600 citizens, or one out of every three Pforzheimers, were officially counted as dead
and thousands were injured."
Think about those numbers.
This is 1945.
You know, we think about 9/11 in 2001 and roughly 3,000 people died.
And that's burned into the American psyche, into the American conscience, just thinking
like, wow, 9/11 was crazy.
How many people died in 9/11?
3,000 people.
That's a lot of people.
Well, here in Pforzheim, in 1945, 17 plus thousand people died in one night.
That is a major tragedy right there.
I'm just, trigger warning, this is going to get kind of, it's going to explain how they
died here.
But you know, there's some rough stuff in the Bible.
There's some rough stuff in life.
And I think this will help you appreciate what God is doing now in Pforzheim.
Some died instantly from the impact of the explosions.
Those were the ones that were lucky.
Many from burns due to the hellish burning phosphorus that seeped into the cellars of
houses where they hid and others suffocated from lack of oxygen and poisonous gases or
were crushed to death by collapsing walls.
Many drowned in the river into which they had jumped, trying in vain to escape from
the burning materials in the streets, but even the rivers were burning as the phosphorus
material floated on the water.
The phosphorus bombs formed a burning gel which water, while extinguishing normal fires,
did not quench.
The gel would reignite instantly when the victim reemerged, giving them a choice between
drowning or burning to death.
And some people drowned themselves and/or their burning children to end their suffering.
That is the tragedy that happened in Pforzheim, Germany.
That is just insane.
But you know, to me, and before I move on, let me also explain how devastating this was.
On the edge of the city, there's this mountain.
But it's not a real mountain.
It's simply the Germans after World War II just took all the rubble of the city, put
it on the side of the city and just trees overgrew it and grass and it looks like a
mountain, but it's just the rubble from World War II.
And everywhere you go in Germany, you could still see the scars of World War II to this
day.
That country was pretty much pulverized and Pforzheim, specifically, was basically razed
to the ground, okay?
Now the reason I bring this up is not just because, you know, I like history, which I
do.
You can't go anywhere in Pforzheim without knowing about this and thinking about this
because all over the city, there's these little memorial placards saying, like, 1945, you
know, Pforzheim, 1945, and it'll show pictures of the city and then it'll be like, hey, look
at this building where part of it is still standing.
You know, look at this monument where part of it is still standing.
All around the city, you could see the scars from World War II and this is something that
they think about all the time, right?
And that river where so many people died, like, it's a big part of that city.
Everywhere you go, you see monuments to the bombing of World War II.
So that's why I bring that up.
But look at Matthew chapter five, verse 14.
The Bible says, "Ye are the light of the world.
A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid.
Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick and it giveth
light unto all that are in the house.
Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your father,
which is in heaven."
You know, why, why is this sermon light shining in darkness?
Well, because this city has a dark past, a dark tragedy happened there.
But today, basically 80 years since this happened, the light of the gospel is still shining forth
in Pforzheim, Germany.
And you know what, even though in the past several thousands of people died there in
a very just hellish experience, you know, now the gospel is going out and people are
getting saved from the fire, from the eternal fire of hell.
And you know, yeah, it may not be as many people as get saved in the Bahamas or Africa
or Mexico, but you know what, there's still real souls that are escaping the fires of
hell.
And you know what, that is amazing to see God's mercy and love being extended towards
a people who was once destroyed.
That is encouraging to me.
And you know what, there's about 15 to 20 soul winners there in this soul winning club.
And last year they had over 400 salvations.
That is amazing.
400 salvations in Europe?
I mean, that's great news.
That's encouraging to see that the gospel still has power.
You know, the German people are still listening to God.
There's the remnant there getting saved.
This year there's been about 175 salvations.
So you know, in the two years time, 575 souls being saved from hell by a small number of
people.
You know what, there's light shining in darkness in Pforzheim, Germany.
And that is encouraging to me.
Go to 2 Corinthians chapter 4, when I went on this trip, Brother Anslem added me to their
WhatsApp group.
And I'm still in it.
And I see the reports that they get of salvations.
And it's very often that I saw when they went soul winning to have equal number of salvations
to soul winners that they had.
And that's great by even standards in the United States.
I mean, if we go out and we send out 10 soul winners and get 10 people saved, like that's
a great day of soul winning.
That's fantastic.
And I was seeing that happen multiple times in Germany.
Like that is pretty cool.
Now obviously that doesn't happen every time.
There's times where you go out and you don't get anyone saved.
But what I'm saying is that people are still getting saved in Germany.
That excites me.
2 Corinthians 4 verse 3, it says, "But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that
are lost.
In whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest
the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto
them."
So, you know, what is the light of this world?
It's the gospel of Jesus Christ.
And when you have a country that's historically dark spiritually, and that is dark spiritually
right now, you know, the cure for that is the light of the gospel.
And it doesn't matter how dark it gets in this world, the light of the gospel will always
have power.
Why?
Verse 5, "For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your
servants for Jesus' sake, for God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness hath shined
in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ."
And to me, it is encouraging to see a group of people in Germany that face persecution,
that don't live in the most receptive place in the world, where it's not the easiest
place to be a Christian, yet they recognize, "Hey, the light of the gospel has been shown
in my heart, and so you know what I'm going to do?
I'm going to go out and shine that light where I am in Germany."
And that was exciting and encouraging to see.
These people don't have a pastor, these people don't have a new IFB church, they don't have
someone holding their hand and, you know, teaching them every single thing.
And these people are going out, traveling huge distances.
Many of these people are driving four hours away from different parts of Europe and Germany,
just to go soul winning.
Yet there's Christians today that can't be bothered to show up to a soul winning time
once a week when someone will drive you, someone will give you the material, someone will give
you a soul winning seminar, you got the freedom to do it here, and there's Germans that are
sacrificing so much and preaching in a dark place just out of the love of souls, out of
love of the gospel.
And you know what, that is encouraging to see, go to Psalm 126, Psalm 126, and you know,
it also is just amazing to me to see a place that was once virtually completely destroyed,
yet we're seeing hundreds and hundreds of people being saved.
That is the long suffering of God right there.
Psalm 126 verse 1, the Bible says, "When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, we
were like them that dream," you know, talking about the children of Israel that were under
the Babylonian captivity, and of course, God turned again that captivity, and that's something
to rejoice over, right?
Well, in the same way, you could look at the Germans as being people that have experienced
some really dark, terrible things, and now there's some good things happening in Germany,
the gospel being shown.
Verse 2, "Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing.
Then said they among the heathen, 'The Lord hath done great things for them.'"
And you know, that's what the Germans are doing.
The German soul winners there are going under the heathen, and they're saying, "Hey, the
Lord has done great things for God's people."
What is the great thing that God has done?
Well, "But God commandeth His love toward us, and that while we were yet sinners, Christ
died for us."
That's the great thing that God has done for all of us, and that's the message that these
Germans are bringing to the lost in Pforzheim.
Verse 3, "The Lord hath done great things for us, whereof we are glad.
Turn again our captivity, O Lord, as the streams in the south."
And I would imagine that's the prayer of the German soul winners there, is that Germany
would become more free, more godly, more open to the gospel.
But look at verse 5, "They that sow in tears shall reap in joy.
He that goeth forth and weepeth bearing precious seed shall doubtless come again with rejoicing,
bringing his sheaves with him."
You know, a lot of people would be down on a missions trip to Germany or dedicating so
much time, resources, money into Germany, but you know what, it doesn't matter where
the Word of God is being preached.
If you go forth weeping, bearing precious seed, you will doubtless come again with rejoicing.
And you see that even in Germany, yeah, it's not the most receptive place in the world,
but still they're going forth with the Word of God, with a tear in the eye, with love
in their heart for their fellow man and for Jesus Christ, and they are doing a great work
for God there.
Go to 2 Timothy chapter 3, 2 Timothy chapter 3.
Number 2, there are still steadfast Christians in Germany.
Number 1, hey, the light of the gospel is still going out there.
Number 2, there are still steadfast Christians in Germany.
Second Timothy 3, 10, the Bible says, "But thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner
of life, purpose, faith, long-suffering, charity, patience, persecutions, but out of them all
the Lord delivered me; yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution."
You know, the Bible promises us that if you have a desire to go out and live godly for
Christ Jesus, you will suffer persecution.
And it doesn't matter where you live in this world, here in America, we've experienced
some persecution, you know, we've gone through protests, we've had our money stolen, we've
had lawsuits, we've had stuff like that, but I'm going to be honest, the persecution that
the Germans have gone through, in my eyes, is way more than we've gone through.
And these guys are like my heroes in the faith, seeing the things that they have been through
and the steadfast attitude that they have.
Now I understand Brother Anselm this evening is going to get into depth as far as to some
of the things that they've gone through as far as persecution, so I'm not going to get
too much in depth into that this morning, but I do just want to touch on the surface
a couple of things.
So first, these Christians there, they're not just preaching the gospel, which in and
of itself is great and something to be celebrated, but the Germans there, they are taking a bold
stance on every word of God.
And let me tell you something, in America, we're so blessed where we can get up and preach
whatever we want, and very rarely do we face any consequences for that.
But the men in Germany that have done this, that have stood up behind a pulpit and preached
the word of God, they have faced real consequences for doing that.
And to see their attitude and their steadfastness and their love for God and just continuing
through that is inspirational to me.
You know, one thing that they constantly go through is that they're constantly in the
news media over there.
Let me read a couple of headlines for you.
German Baptist Church wants death penalty for gay people.
Good job Germans.
That's great.
That's wonderful.
That's good preaching right there.
Leviticus 2013.
Here's another headline.
Four time Baptist Church praise for the death of a theologian.
Now it's not just a theologian that's saved.
It's a false prophet that teaches you could lose your salvation.
That's damning people to hell.
And one of the preachers there got up and prayed for the death of that false prophet.
And you know what?
They got hated by the community for it.
They got on the news for it.
Four time congregation praise for the death of a pastor again, just keep praying for it.
Here's another one.
Gay hatred and death wishes, the balance sheet of the radical sect in four time.
So you know, in the eyes of the world, God's people preaching the Bible is radical.
And they think that they're that Christians are so radical.
When I showed up to Germany, I somehow made the news in four time, I didn't even do anything.
All of a sudden I just see this German article, it's like, it could be confirmed that Dylan
Oz is in for time.
The guy that said that faggot should be lined up against the wall and shot in the back of
the head.
It's just like, you just show up as a Christian and all these atheistic fag loving freaks
in Germany are like, ah, the Christians are here.
But to me, that's a testament that these are some steadfast Christians.
Not only they're soul winning, they're preaching the whole word of God.
Thank God for that.
They also receive opposition from false prophets.
Go to Acts chapter 13, Acts chapter number 13.
Acts 13, verse five, the Bible says, and when they were at Salamis, they preached the word
of God in the synagogues of the Jews.
And they had also John to their minister.
And when they had gone through the Isle of Tepaphos, they found a certain sorcerer, a
false prophet, a Jew whose name was Bar Jesus.
That's a good trifecta, right?
Sorcerer, false prophet, Jew.
By the way, in Germany, it's a little un, it's not politically correct to talk about
Jews.
I don't know if you realize that in Germany.
And so the Germans there called them Brazilians.
So when I was preaching, I was preaching about the Brazilians and just every time the Bible
said the word Jew, I said the word Jew.
But when I was just talking, I said Brazilians trying to become all things, all men, you know,
fit into the culture there.
Verse seven, which was with the deputy of the country, Sergius Paulus, a prudent man who
called for Barnabas and Saul and desired to hear the word of God.
So there's a deputy there.
He wants to hear the word of God.
He wants to get saved.
But Eliamis, the sorcerer, for so is his name by interpretation, withstood them seeking
to turn away the deputy from the faith.
So what did this false prophet wanted to do?
He wanted to turn people away from the truth.
And this is what false prophets always do.
And they've got a big name, false prophet that the German Christians there deal with
is man named Lothar Gossman, and he is a guy that teaches that you could lose your salvation.
And he's constantly preaching against the soul winners there.
And he's constantly trying to turn people away from the truth of the gospel.
But verse nine says, then Saul, who is also called Paul, filled with the Holy Ghost.
So he's not in the flesh here, set his eyes on him and said, oh, full of all subtlety
and all mischief, thou child of the devil, thou enemy of all righteousness, wilt thou
not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord?
So notice when someone's trying to turn people away from salvation, Paul being filled with
the Holy Spirit of God, called this man a child of the devil.
And you know what we should have no love or respect or friendship with false prophets.
And yes, if someone is a false prophet, turning people away from heaven, there's nothing in
the world wrong with praying for that person's death, like the Germans have done.
And of course, that causes a lot of problems for them.
You know, the community thinks they're crazy.
But look at the result.
Verse 11.
And now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon thee, and thou shalt be blind, not seeing
the sun for a season.
And immediately there fell on him a mist and a darkness.
And he went about seeking some to lead him by the hand.
Then the deputy, when he saw what was done, believed, being astonished at the doctrine
of the Lord.
You know, even though Paul had to deal with this false prophet, even though he called
him out, even though this false prophet was trying to stop the gospel from going out,
trying to stop people from getting saved, there still was this deputy that believed.
And you know what I saw in Germany?
I saw a group of people being steadfast Christians, preaching the whole word of God, being persecuted
by the community, and people still getting saved.
And there's actually a funny story where I was soul winning with Brother Moses.
And Brother Moses was preaching the gospel to someone in German.
And I noticed these two big dudes near us.
One looked like kind of an Arabic guy, another one was a black dude.
And I'm looking at these guys, and like they are just staring at me.
And the way soul winning worked in Pforzheim, like I said, we're not going door to door,
we're just walking around the city.
We usually walked down this like common strip mall area all the way down one side, all the
way back.
And you pretty much just do that all day long, talking to people.
So we start on one side, I see them, they're looking at us.
They're watching us.
I'm like, okay, I'm going to keep an eye on these guys.
We keep walking and going on doing our thing, soul winning.
And I noticed there they are again.
They're still staring at me.
And we move a little further down the road.
There they are again.
They're still staring at me.
And I was like, we're about to get jumped.
I was like, we're about to get jumped in Germany here.
You know, we're going to experience some sort of fight.
I'm like, oh, man, I was like, hey, Moses, these guys are following us.
Like, I don't know what their intentions are, and I'm just like preparing for this.
I was like, man, what's going on?
Well, he gets done preaching to someone.
And all of a sudden, these guys, they start walking over, and they start talking to him.
And I'm like, oh, man, it's about to go down.
And I don't understand anything they're saying or speaking German super fast.
And my German was not at that level of proficiency.
But turn to find out they weren't wanting to fight us.
They didn't hate us.
They saw him in the news and they saw the persecution of the church.
They're just like, we just want to encourage you.
We agree with your stance.
We like you guys.
You guys doing awesome.
It was like, that is amazing.
That is so cool.
You know, you got Lothar Gossman trying to turn people away from the faith, trying to
teach.
Trying to get salvation, you know, calling the cops against the Christians there, trying
to get them arrested, trying to get them to deal with all the stuff.
Yet you got the community there who hears about it and they're on God's people's side.
And that is that's a cool thing to see.
Many of them receiving persecution from the government.
I'm going to let Brother Anselm talk a lot about that.
I just want to say one story that I heard of a lady who was a first time visitor to
the soul winning club and she showed up to hear the preaching and she came home and was
greeted by the police at her home interrogating her simply for showing up to a preaching service.
And people in America like to complain, oh, you know, the police are so bad here, you
know, dude, you don't even know what you're talking about.
Like there's Christians in Germany that get questioned by the police simply for listening
to a church service.
And that was incredible to me to see her.
Here she is with the group.
I mean, how many Americans if they came to our church for the first time and then they
were followed by the police and questioned by the police would ever come back.
Probably wouldn't happen very often.
Yet this lady, she was questioned and then she came back and she was there when I was
there.
That was great to see.
They face oppositions from their jobs.
Many of them have lost their jobs.
They face oppositions from the laws of Germany itself, being that it's illegal to homeschool
in Germany.
It's illegal to spank your children in Germany.
It's illegal to preach hate speech.
Doesn't that mean heating people up?
Yeah, you can't, you can't heat people up in Germany.
Okay.
I just, I just love how these atheistic, you know, liberal Germans, they just want to get
away from their history of being Nazis so bad that they end up being like the Nazis.
Like you can't say this, we're going to dictate what you can and cannot say.
Oh, you can't raise your children.
Give your children to the government.
It's like, wait, I thought you were like ashamed of like your Nazi past.
Now you want to be a Nazi saying like, you can, I can't do this.
It's like, what is wrong with these people?
Can't heat people up.
No hate speech.
Can't preach against the Jews.
That's for sure.
The Brazilians go to Matthew chapter number five, Matthew chapter five, verse 10.
Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake.
That's that group there.
For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you and shall say all manner of
evil against you falsely for my sake.
Rejoice and be exceeding glad for great is your reward in heaven.
And you know, one of the reasons why I was so encouraged when I went to Germany and I
met these people is I saw a group of people that was experiencing more persecution than
any of us in America have faced.
And I saw them have a good attitude.
I saw them rejoicing, I saw them happy to be a soul winner.
Happy to be around God's people.
Happy to preach the word of God.
You know, that is a great example for us that we too should rejoice when we're persecuted
for righteousness sake.
Number three, last spiritual lesson that I learned, we're almost done this morning is
that there is still a lot of work to be done in Germany.
You know, I'm not going to sugarcoat it.
Germany is a tougher place to exist as a Christian than in the United States, than in the Bahamas,
than in other places.
There's 84 million people in that country.
And there's as far as I know, one soul winning group in that country that I know of.
So there is I mean, am I right on that is one that you know of, or is there more?
One that I know of.
Okay, now it's going to take a lot more than one soul winning group to reach Germany with
the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Look at Matthew chapter five, verse 13, "Ye are the salt of the earth.
But if the salt have lost its savor, wherewith shall it be salted?
It is thenceforth good for nothing but to be cast out and to be trodden underfoot of
men."
You know, though it is a harder place to preach than here, you know, those soul winners
there are still the salt preserving that nation.
Because what if Germany didn't have that soul winning group?
Well, then those 575 people in Pforzheim would be going to hell when they die.
And so yeah, you know, you could just choose to look at Germany and have a pessimistic
attitude.
Well, it's a liberal nation.
Well, it's got all these issues.
Yeah, but you know what, there's still salt in Germany.
There's still soul winners there and there's still a lot of work to be done.
And what we should do is we should be praying for those soul winners there.
We should be encouraging them, and if you can join them, if you can go on a trip to
encourage them, you know, that's really what they need more than anything is just encouragement.
Because a lot of them, they feel kind of alone because they don't have a church there.
They don't have a Pastor Anderson there.
They don't have a missions conference there.
They don't have all these independent fundamental Baptist churches on every street corner like
we do here in America.
And so, you know, they really need some encouragement from God's people.
Matthew chapter 9, Matthew chapter 9, Matthew chapter 9, and if you also get your place
in 1 Corinthians 15, those will be the last two verses we go to this morning.
Matthew 9, 1 Corinthians chapter 15, Matthew 9 verse 36, "But when he saw the multitudes,
he was moved with compassion on them because they fainted and were scattered abroad as
sheep having no shepherd."
That really is the spiritual case in Germany right now, there's a lot of sheep without
a shepherd.
"Thus then saith he unto his disciples, 'The harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers
are few.
Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest that he will send forth laborers into his
harvest.'"
So, you know, God is ready to reap a harvest.
You know, the fields are wide under harvest.
The work is available to be done in Germany, but the problem is that the laborers are few.
The same problem that they have is the same problem that everywhere in the world has,
that every community has, is that we're lacking soul winners.
And what they need, they need some more soul winners in Germany.
They need some more soul winners to go there or to be trained there, but they need more
laborers.
So, you know, my assessment for Germany is, no, it's not the most receptive place on earth,
but yes, people are still being saved.
And for that reason, it is worth it to invest in that country.
It is worth it to invest in those souls.
Yes, God's people are being persecuted there, but they're still doing great works for God.
Yes, they're receiving opposition from the community, from false prophets, from the news,
but you know what?
They're doing a great work there.
They're shaking things up there.
Germany needs more soul winners, needs more soul winning clubs, and Lord willing in the
future, it needs more churches, you know, because I think when you go out, you try to do a great
work for God, especially in a dark place like Germany, where the devil has pretty much conquered,
right?
And you're trying to fight against that.
You're going to experience a lot of persecution, but you know, I think there is hope for Europe.
And I would love to see in the next 10, 20 years, churches being started all over Europe
and trying to turn the tide there a little bit.
Most importantly, I think that Germany needs a German born pastor, a German citizen pastor,
because I just don't see it in the cards of, you know, it's already hard to find pastors
in this world.
I don't really see it in the cards of taking an American pastor and sending him to Germany
where it's illegal to homeschool his children, where it's illegal to spank your children,
where you're going to be facing all these issues.
To me, it makes sense, of course, common sense missions, you know, let's go to the receptive
first.
But, you know, if there's a German out there that has a heart for reaching his country,
you know, I want to encourage that man to take the work of God seriously, to get qualified,
to work hard because Germany does need a German born pastor for sure to lead the work there.
First Corinthians 15 58 to be the last place that we go.
First Corinthians 15 58 Bible says, Therefore, my beloved brethren, be you steadfast, unmovable,
always abounding in the work of the Lord, for as much as you know that your labor is not
in vain in the Lord, you know, I just want to encourage the soul winners that are there
in Germany to know your labor is not in vain.
You know, you might be going through hard times, but you need to remain steadfast because
the work that you are doing is of eternal value.
It is making a difference.
You are saving lots of people.
And so don't give up.
Even though it's hard, even though you're in persecution, don't give up.
Continue to be steadfast, continue to fight.
And for us, I just hope that you would join me in praying for the brethren in Germany.
Let's pray Lord.
Thank you for this day.
Thank you for this great conference and for Pastor Anderson's vision here to reach the
world.
I do pray that the gospel would go forth powerfully in Germany and in Pforzheim.
I pray that you would bless and protect the soul winners that are there, that they would
be encouraged to be a light in their community in any way that they can.
We love you, pray for safety, and blessing for the remainder of this conference.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
Amen.
Let's take our songbooks together, go to hymn 384, hymn 384, "In the Service of the
King."
Hymn number 384.
384 begins, "I am happy in the service of the king."
Let's sing it out together.
384.
"I am happy in the service of the king.
I am happy, oh so happy.
I have peace and joy that nothing else can bring.
In the service of the king.
I am happy in the service of the king.
In the service of the king, I will bring, I have peace and joy and blessing.
In the service of the king, I am happy in the service of the king.
In the service of the king, I am happy, oh so happy, all that I possess in him I gladly
bring.
In the service of the king, in the service of the king, I will bring, I have peace and
joy and blessing.
I am happy in the service of the king, I am happy in the service of the king.
In the service of the king, I am happy in the service of the king.