All right, it's a blessing to be here this evening.
I'm going to give a shameless plug for my missions trip that our church is going to be taking.
If you say, well, is it on YouTube? Well, it's going to be now on YouTube.
So I'm looking at the camera. Hey, make sure you come to Belize, March 16th to the 20th.
And we're going to be going in a couple months to Belize for a couple days.
And so we've already been out there a couple times, been very receptive,
and actually that's what I'm going to be preaching on this evening.
But it's exciting to be a part of a movement, part of a church that has a heart to reach,
not just the people in their Jerusalem, but also the people in the uttermost parts of the world.
So I'm excited about that.
The conference has been a big blessing to me because I've been saved for about 14 years.
And in that time span, I've been to many missions conferences.
At my old church, our church used to put conferences on every year to cast vision
and to place a burden on our heart, to reach people all around the world.
And so this is a good reminder to me.
And I think churches should have something like this every single year.
We always need a reset button for certain things,
because sometimes we as Christians, we can get cold regarding soul winning.
We can get cold regarding missions.
And these type of conferences and sermons can help us push that reset button
and to recast that vision for the uttermost parts of the world.
And so I'm thankful for this privilege and honor that I have.
Thank you, Pastor Anderson, for inviting me to come preach.
I'm excited about it.
I also like this conference because I get to see my pastor friends.
And I love all my pastor friends, and I'm so thankful for their friendship and their fellowship.
It was funny.
Earlier this morning, I was with Pastor Anderson, and we were studying Greek.
I went to his Greek study.
And yesterday, I went out to eat with Pastor Fritz,
and he was like, hey, what are you doing tomorrow?
And I was just like, yeah, I'm going to be doing the Greek meetup with Pastor Anderson.
And he hasn't talked to me since.
So I don't know.
I mean, he read the Bible.
This is all he's done for you is read the Bible for me before the sermon.
But I don't know if that's a coincidence.
Was that too soon?
That was probably too soon, huh?
Anyways, but I love my pastor friends.
I'm thankful to be able to see them and fellowship with them.
And so I'm thankful for this.
And then I just want to mention that immediately after the service,
we're going to be passing out some Faith Promise cards for you to just sign away your life.
And those of you who know life, you know what I'm talking about.
If you don't know what I'm talking about, I'm just kidding about that.
We're not passing out any cards.
Only I am going to be passing out those cards.
And then we also got a special.
I'm going to be singing, Here Am I.
People need the Lord.
Kind of prepare your heart for that.
And so, no, I'm just kidding.
All right, let's get into the sermon.
The title of the sermon this evening is The Nobility of Belize.
The Nobility of Belize.
Look down at your Bible at Acts chapter 17, verse number 10.
The Bible reads here,
And the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night unto Berea,
who coming thither went into the synagogue of the Jews.
These were more noble than those in Thessalonica,
and that they received the word with all readiness of mind
and searched the scriptures daily whether those things were so.
Therefore, many of them believed also of honorable women,
which were Greeks, and of men not a few.
So this is what I want to preach on this evening is the topic of Belize,
and more specifically, the nobility thereof.
Now, what does the Bible mean when it states that these people were more noble
than those in Thessalonica?
Well, the word nobility can mean a person or can define a person
who has moral excellence.
They have character and moral excellence.
But it also means someone who is just distinguished,
someone who is different than anybody else.
And in other words, they kind of stand out.
You look at somebody and when they say these people are noble,
more noble than this other group.
In other words, they're kind of different than one another.
They're distinguished.
They kind of stand apart from everyone else.
Now, let me give you a rundown of what's taking place here in Acts chapter 17.
Look at verse number 1.
This is shortly after Paul has been released from prison.
He goes to Lydia's house, and from there they depart.
And it says in verse number 1,
Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia,
they came to Thessalonica.
Where was the synagogue of the Jews?
And Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them,
and three days' Sabbath days reasoned with them out of the Scriptures,
opening and alleging that Christ must needs have suffered,
and risen again from the dead,
and that this Jesus whom I preach unto you is Christ.
So he goes there as his manner was, begins to preach the gospel,
begins to testify and witness of these things.
And what is the result of this?
Well, look at verse 4.
And some of them believed. Amen.
And consorted with Paul and Silas, and of the devout Greeks a great multitude,
and of the chief women not a few.
So we see there that he goes, he preaches the gospel,
and what is the result?
People get saved.
Not only do people get saved,
but people begin to consort with Paul and Silas.
They begin to associate with him, follow him, and listen to him.
This is a great blessing.
This is great when someone gets saved, and they come to church,
they get plugged in, they start hearing the preaching,
they start repenting, they start getting their life right,
they start living for the Lord.
This is great.
But I want you to notice that it says some of them believe.
So he goes there to the synagogue of the Jews,
he preaches, and they see some fruit, but it's only some.
Okay.
Now, whenever an open door of opportunity is opened unto us,
there's always an adversary, isn't there?
You know, the Bible tells us for a great door,
an effectual is opened unto me, and there are many adversaries.
What does that tell us?
Any time God opens up a door of opportunity for us,
whether to go take a missions trip or preach the gospel
in a specific city that's receptive, Satan doesn't like that.
You know, the forces of darkness are not just going to let you get away with it.
They're going to try to put hindrances, wicked men before you,
try to distract you from the work of God.
Why?
Because whenever there's an opportunity,
evil men always arise to try to hinder the word of God from having free course.
So whenever we do something big for God and there's an adversary,
let that be a confirmation, not a discouragement.
You know, whenever wicked men arise to try to hinder the work of God
when we're preaching the gospel, let that be said.
Hey, let it teach you, okay, what we're doing is right.
God is leading us in the right direction.
We are in the right place at the right time because, you know, Satan's here.
The adversaries have arisen.
We're doing that which is right in the eyes of the Lord.
But whenever there's an opportunity, you know, evil men arise and they try to hinder the work,
the Bible tells you you don't have to turn there.
In 2 Thessalonians 3 verse 1, finally, brethren, pray for us
that the word of the Lord may have free course and be glorified even as it is with you
and that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men for all men have not faith.
So he says, look, when you pray for us, I want you to add two things on your prayer list.
One, that the word of God will have free course.
In other words, it's successful, it's prosperous.
Secondly, that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men
because these things often go together.
Whenever the word of God has free course, it's successful, it's prospering,
wicked men arise to try to hinder the work.
Well, look at verse number 5.
But the Jews, but the Jews which believe not, that's not very surprising.
Moved with envy, took unto them certain lewd fellows of the base or sort
and gathered a company, set all the city on an uproar
and assaulted the house of Jason and sought to bring them out to the people
and when they found them not, they drew Jason and certain brethren
unto the rulers of the city, crying,
These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also whom Jason hath received
and these all do contrary to the decrees of Caesar saying that there is another king, one Jesus.
By the way, notice that the people, if they don't get the main leaders,
they're going to go for those who they associate with.
If you're in this church and you feel like you're not on the front lines
and you feel like you're not doing much for, well just being in this church,
being, you know, consorting with the leaders of this church will get you in trouble, right?
But it's a good place to be.
Jason was in a good place, he's receiving that persecution,
therefore he can leap for joy, for his reward is great.
We see in verse 8, it says,
And they troubled the people and the rulers of the city when they had heard these things
and when they had taken security of Jason and of the other, they let them go.
Now look at verse number 10, so this is after they kicked them out,
or they leave, excuse me, they depart.
Look at verse 10, it says,
And the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night unto Berea,
who coming thither went into the synagogue of the Jews.
Basically what we see in the beginning of the chapter, right?
These were more noble than those in Thessalonica,
in that they received the word with all readiness of mind,
and searched the scriptures daily whether those things were so.
Now look what it says in verse 12,
Therefore many of them believed,
also of honorable women which were Greeks and of men not a few.
So what do we see?
We see in verse 4, some of them believed,
but then the contrast in verse number 12 is that many of them believed.
Why is it that one group seems to be more receptive than the other?
Well we see there that the second group that they went to
received the word with all readiness of mind.
We would say today they were receptive.
They had ears to hear what these soul owners had for them.
And what was the end result of that?
Many of them believed.
When it comes to common sense missions,
this factor plays a major role in getting the job done.
Now what is that?
I'm basically going to reiterate to you what you've been hearing this entire conference,
which is this,
Hey, when we're doing missions,
let's go to the place that's the most receptive.
You say, well I know a group that's receptive.
I know, you know, this area is receptive.
Okay, but if we find something that's even more receptive,
go there, right?
We go to the areas where we know many will believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
What was the essential element that caused many of them to believe?
It says they received the word with all readiness of mind
and searched the scriptures daily whether those things were so.
Now we often use the scripture to basically say,
Hey, prove all things, hold fast that which is good.
You know, when you hear preaching,
don't just believe everything you see or everything that you hear.
Make sure you prove it according to the word of God.
You compare scripture with scripture.
You know what the Bible says.
Prove all things.
Study to show that self-approve them to God.
A workman that needed not to be ashamed.
And that's not a bad secondary application,
but the main interpretation of this is that these are actually unsaved people.
And what were these unsaved people doing?
They hear the gospel, they receive it,
and then they search the scriptures to see if those things were so and they get saved.
This is great.
They were ready.
They were far more open to the gospel than those in Thessalonica.
Now this evening I want to talk to you about the Americas, okay?
Specifically, Spanish-speaking countries and, respectively, the country of beliefs, okay?
Now let me just start off by saying this,
is that the Spanish-speaking world needs to be reached with the gospel, okay?
Needs to be reached.
Now, obviously, we have many Spanish speakers here in this country alone,
but you know what, there's tons of them out there in South America and Central America
that need to be reached with the gospel.
And they're very receptive to the gospel.
Not only are they receptive, but when they get saved, they love hard preaching.
And they need to be reached.
And, in fact, approximately 527 million people in this world speak Spanish,
which makes Spanish the fourth most spoken language in the world.
How many of you here speak Spanish?
How many of you here speak Spanglish?
More people, there you go.
By the way, you can lead people to the Lord speaking Spanglish.
Now, I want to inspire those of you who speak Spanglish to go to these countries.
Because it's easy to make an excuse, is it not?
To say, well, you know, my English and my Spanish is not that good.
I just can't really speak it that well.
Well, you know what, you got a couple months.
And look, if Pastor Anderson can go to Cyprus and win people to the Lord speaking Greeklish,
right?
So can you, speaking Spanglish, okay?
I want to inspire you to go and reach this people group.
Why is that?
Because it makes up such a large population of the world, these Spanish speakers.
And they need the gospel.
They need to get saved.
They just need someone.
They need a church.
They need a pastor.
They need a soul winner to get a heart for them, to get a heart for their country.
And you know what?
All they need is a person who knows the gospel, who can preach it.
And look, I'm not saying if you have zero interest in going to a Spanish speaking country,
let this sermon just speak to your heart in regards to missions, okay?
You apply it to wherever you want to go.
But you know, if you do speak Spanish, I encourage you, I challenge you, go to one of these countries.
Go to Mexico.
But more specifically, I'm talking about Belize today.
And I'm going to explain to you why I think it's a great idea to cut your teeth going to Belize.
Now this message was brought to you in part by Brother Mike Madison actually, okay?
A couple months ago, I was, maybe a year ago, I don't remember, my time is up.
I don't remember how long it was ago.
But I was preaching here.
And I was already planning to go to another Spanish speaking country.
And I was walking back there and he called me and he said, hey, I know you're planning to go to this country.
But have you ever thought about Belize?
And I was like, nope.
Not interested, you know.
And he's like, well, think about it.
And he kind of gave me some statistics.
He told me how it was very receptive and how they speak English and all these things.
And I'm thinking to myself, wow, this sounds a little, it intrigued me a little bit.
So I planned a missions trip there and honestly, it changed my life.
After Belize, my view and perspective on missions just changed completely.
My heart for those who are lost in the uttermost parts of the world changed drastically because of it.
You know?
And I came back with a great appreciation for missions because of it.
And it helped me to realize that, you know what?
Obviously, there's people here that need the gospel and this is priority, amen?
Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, this is our priority.
This is what we need to reach.
This is where we need to preach the gospel.
But there's so many people out there that need it too.
And sometimes you can go to these places whether, you know, in Los Angeles or in Tempe
and it can get discouraging sometimes, right?
You go to really dry areas where they're not really receptive towards the gospel
but we do it because, you know, this is our Jerusalem, we got to do it.
But then you go to a place like Belize and it's just a breath of fresh air.
It's almost unreal.
Like, are you serious?
You're this receptive?
And I'm going to share some stories with you of my trip to Belize
and I'm not exaggerating here, okay?
In fact, after I'm done with this sermon, the half still has not been told, okay?
This is a great task to accomplish.
And look, we as independent fundamental Baptists, we need to capitalize on a Spanish-speaking world.
I need to preach more sermons in Spanish.
I need to make more videos in Spanish.
We need to do something because there's a group out there.
And you know what?
You know who they're listening to?
Calvinists, unfortunately.
Paul Washer.
That's who they're listening to, you know?
They need independent fundamental Baptists, soul-winning, King James only,
Reina Valera, not the 1960, you know?
Baptists to come in there with the right gospel, with the right teaching, with the right doctrine.
This is what they need, okay?
Now, how are we going to do this?
Well, we need a gateway country to get our foot in the door
and I believe Belize can be that gateway country.
Now, let me give you some statistics regarding Belize.
The Spanish ruled Belize since their arrival in the New World but Britain gained full control in 1798.
Belize was actually formerly known as the British Honduras and it was a crown colony from 1862 to 1964
and in fact was the last continental possession of the United Kingdom in the Americas.
The economic decline after World War II led to their independence which was granted in 1964.
This independence is being continuously challenged by their neighboring country, Guatemala.
So, Guatemala is constantly trying to fight for territory there in Belize and, you know,
when you go to Belize you'll see, you know, Belize is the only country in Central America
that does not want to be associated as like a Spanish-speaking country or a Spanish Central American country.
You'll literally go there and you'll see billboards.
They'll say, don't call us Belize.
Belize is the Spanish way of saying Belize.
They'll say, don't call us Belize.
We are Belize.
Okay.
And they're a bunch of racists, man.
I'm just kidding.
Hey, the Belizean population is just over 390,000 people.
Now, I come from Long Beach, California.
Long Beach has just under 490,000.
So, Long Beach is actually larger in population than the whole country of Belize.
Now, what does this tell us?
This tells us that we need to strike while the iron is hot.
We need to go to Belize because there's not that many people there.
We need to go there and capitalize.
We're here for such a time as this and we need to go there and give them the gospel.
We don't know how long they have.
It's a country that's very easily accessible.
It's not very far.
It takes a couple hours to get there by plane.
It's very inexpensive, too.
The food is great.
The weather's awesome.
And it has a Protestant background.
I'm not a Protestant, but this is good.
I'm going to explain to you why.
Because most Central American countries are very Roman Catholic based.
This is the only country, though they have Catholics, that has a really strong Protestant background.
And for that reason, because they were colonized by the British, they used the King James Bible.
And only the King James Bible.
The entire time that I was there, I never saw any other Bible other than the King James Bible.
They teach the King James Bible in their public schools.
They have a memorized scripture.
In fact, many times when we're out sowing, my sowing partner, brother Milan,
he was witnessing to a teenager and the teenager was literally finishing up the Roman's road for him.
He wasn't saved.
He's like, yeah, but God commended his love toward us and that while we were at sinners, Christ died for us.
And he's just like, you know it.
He's like, look, you know, for the wages, it's in his debt.
But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
What else you got?
Like literally just finishing up the verses.
I mean, the Bible has presence there.
Now, it is said that the majority are Roman Catholic, but I'll be honest with you.
When we were there, not a whole lot of people ascribed to Catholicism.
At least the city that I went to.
But the heavy British influence has caused a lot larger Protestant population than any other country in Central America.
You do have Mayan and Garifuna practice and they have their own mixture of traditional shamanism and Christianity.
But there is a biblical presence there.
Now, brother Mike Madison, he's gone a couple times with a couple people from here from Faithful Word.
And when we went there a couple months ago, we went in November.
We were there and we're out.
Honestly, we didn't even get to finish our assignment because we couldn't even get past our street.
So many people getting saved.
Like as soon as we're done with one, we're walking and they walk towards us, we talk to them, they get saved.
We literally would spend like hours just in that one street alone talking to people.
And I remember I was talking to this young lady and some of them have a really, really thick accent because the major language there,
their language, their national language is English, but they also speak Spanish and Creole.
But they have a really thick Caribbean accent.
Some of them have a really thick to the point that I just don't understand what they're saying.
And I remember I was trying to give this girl the gospel and I gave her a YouTube card and then she kind of like looked at me for a while.
And then she said, someone already gave me one of these.
I was like, oh, okay. And I thought maybe it was one of the guys from our team. He's like, it's a tall white man.
He's like, last year a tall white man gave me this. And she said, and the guy on the card preaches just like you.
I was like, great. Yeah, those are my friends, you know.
But there's already a presence there.
People know the Bible. The Bible's taught in schools. Verses are memorized. The Ten Commandments are everywhere.
And, you know, we would walk by and just people would make time to hear the Word of God.
You know, here people are always in a rush, right? We live in a microwave society and people are just going everywhere and they don't have time.
You know, or they lie and they say they don't have time, you know, playing Xbox or whatever.
There, literally, and they'll tell you, we were walking down the street and this guy, he was walking and he was on his way to pick up his wife from work.
It was already late at night and I guess his wife worked in a very dangerous area and so he wanted to go pick her up.
And my sowing partner started talking to him and he said, you know, I got to go pick up my wife from work but I always make time for the Word of God.
So go ahead. You know, and, you know, he got saved. And, you know, my partner was very thorough to the point where, you know, his wife met him like halfway, basically.
She's like, where was he? So she comes and then, you know, I talked to her and she got saved.
But they're very, they have this reverence towards the Word of God that they just can't say, maybe it's just the culture that they just can't say no.
But I'll take advantage of that. You know, I'm good with that. Because many times we've talked to someone and they're like, I'm on my way to work but I always make time for the Bible.
You know, and I can't think of one time where I was rejected. They're so receptive towards the Gospel. You know, it's great.
So why do I believe that Belize is a place of spiritual nobility? Why does it make sense to go to Belize?
Because look, we want to reach all Spanish-speaking countries, but why not cut our teeth in a country that predominantly speaks English, right?
Because they do speak Spanish. You know, if you go to Belize City, the majority speak English. I think Pastor Anderson went there and he said that not many people, I don't think he ran into anybody who spoke Spanish.
But I went to San Ignacio, which is closer to Guatemala, and there's tons of people that speak Spanish there, but there's also tons of people that speak English. They speak both.
And we went there and it was just very receptive. People were listening to the Gospel and they were getting saved.
But I believe Belize is a gateway country to reach the Spanish-speaking world. And look, if you are nervous, if you're like, man, I'm not confident with my Spanish, I don't know if I can hack it, Belize is a perfect place for you to go then.
Because here's the thing, you're there and the vast majority of the people you're going to run into speak only English. And you can say, hey, I went to a Spanish country.
I'm in Central America, I went to a Spanish country and I want these people to the Lord and I don't even speak a lick of Spanish.
But it's also good in case, you know, because I ran into a bunch of people that spoke Spanish and I got to lead them to the Lord and it was very receptive.
Now let me give you a couple things here. Why? Number one, as I mentioned, I believe the country of Belize is a country of nobility because Belize is the only English-language speaking country in Central America.
Forty percent of the country speaks English, Spanish and Creole, but English is the main one that they speak. So you don't have to go to language school.
Those of you who we would refer to as pochos, those Hispanics who don't speak a lick of Spanish, you don't have to worry. You can go and speak English and they won't look down on you for it.
Go to 1 Corinthians, chapter 14, if you would.
It's the only English, look, here's the thing is, I don't think that's by accident. I think God is leading us as churches, as pastors, to find the easiest country.
Because don't we get discouraged easily sometimes? But we're also encouraged easily as well. You know, if we have immediate success, that kind of catapults us.
It kind of works as a catalyst and gives us the confidence to say we can win the rest of Central America now. You know, we're making such an imprint and we're making such an impact in this country.
You know, why don't I learn Spanish? Or hey, my Spanish is not that good, but you know what, I'm going to improve it so much more because if Belize is like this and God is blessing this country by sending soul owners here, let's get the job done here so that God can open up more opportunities in different countries in Central America and South America.
You know, I think we need to be a good steward of the open doors that we have today, right? We need to be a good steward before we go anywhere else that may be a difficult area.
We need to make sure that we hit the areas that are very receptive, that are clearly open to the Gospel. Take advantage of that and then deal with the rest later.
Look what the Bible says in 1 Corinthians chapter 14 verse 6, it says,
Hey, you don't need a translator when you go to Belize because you are going to make a distinct sound and that distinct sound is called English.
And it's pretty trippy to be honest with you because when I was there, you run into some really dark Guatemalan Mayan looking people and they speak perfect English.
In some instances, they don't even speak Spanish. You know, I'm like talking to the guy in Spanish, I like judge him by his skin color and stuff.
And he's like, sorry man, I don't speak, I'm like, whoa, I'm sorry. And they got saved. And it just showed me like, wow, you know, this is, we need to take advantage of this.
You know, if you are considering even missions just in general, this is a perfect place to go. Come with us and march. Try it out.
I went for, I literally went for like two days. And in two days, three of us, four of us, we saw, I think it was over 45 people saved.
Brother John, your group, you guys went for how many days? How many did you see saved?
136. Lots of people saved. And honestly, we couldn't even finish our area. Like, San Ignacio's not done yet. You know, very receptive.
Now, why do I believe that Belize is a place of spiritual nobility? Because Belize is the only English language speaking country in Central America.
Go with me, if you would, to John chapter number three. The second reason is because they have ears to hear.
They are extremely receptive. As I mentioned in Acts chapter 17, verse 11 says,
These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, and that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily whether those things were so.
Look at John chapter three and verse 18, it says,
He that believeth on him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
And this is the condemnation, the light is coming to the world, and men love darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil.
For everyone that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.
But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.
Let me say this, is that the reason Belize is as receptive as it is, is the same reason that Pastor Anderson was talking about this, or yesterday about Asia.
They are responding to the light that God gives them. They have so much Bible. They have such a biblical foundation.
They have the Bible in their hearts, they're causing their people to memorize scripture.
God is basically telling them, okay, I'm going to send people there. They fear God.
In fact, one of the things that really left me astounded was this.
You know, here when I preach the gospel, when I talk about sin, I'll ask people, I'll say, you know, give me an example of a really bad sin.
And people here will often say murder or suicide.
I took that over there and I said, give me an example of a really bad sin. And they said adultery.
They said adultery. And they would tell me this, adultery is really bad.
I was like, whoa, you sound more fundamental than most fundamental Baptists.
I can't even get some Baptist to say that. I can't even get some Baptist pastors to say that.
Good night. And I'm telling you, with fear in their hearts, they said adultery is very bad.
That's a big sin. I'm like, yeah, you're absolutely right. Punishable by death, according to the Bible.
They said yes. That showed me something very unique about these people, that they're still sensitive to sin.
And I'll be honest with you, you know, living in L.A., I'm not saying it's like this everywhere,
but, you know, you hear people cussing all the time, whether in restaurants and speaking with vulgar language and things like that.
I didn't believe. I literally, when I was there, I didn't hear, the most thuggish person that I met there did not cuss at all.
Didn't use vulgar language, very respectable. I remember we were crossing this bridge, my soul-wanting partner and I,
and there's these two guys and they were looking like really thuggish. And my friend,
I'm not going to say his name because I don't want to embarrass him, but Milan, he was walking and he was just like, this looks sketchy.
I'm like, don't worry, man. It's going to be cool, you know. These guys look bad, though.
You know, I was like, let's just try to give them the gospel. Let's see if, you know, you really think they're going to jump us or something?
And then I stopped them and literally they took off their hats, they folded their arms in front of themselves and said,
Yes, sir. No, sir. Like, respect them. And we're like, what in the world?
And actually, I take it back. These are the only guys that actually said no to the gospel.
Okay. But as respectable as it could be, though, they're like, we're so sorry, but we have to go.
But we really appreciate everything. I was just like, no problem, man. Just don't rob me, you know. We'll call it even.
I was I was like taken back by that.
And even the young people, the children, the teenagers, they're taught to be very respectable and to listen.
You know, you get a group of young people that you speak to and they will literally they won't joke around.
They'll just stand there with their hands like this and they'll just they'll give you their complete undivided attention.
It's a soul owner's paradise in the Spanish speaking world.
Okay, that's great. But they're ready to hear.
They have ears to hear what we have to say into them.
Okay. Look at chapter 13, if you would.
Acts chapter 13.
Now, with any missions trip, with any area you go to, there's always going to be a bar Jesus.
Always. And as soon as we got off the bus, there was a bar Jesus there.
We ran into like three of them. Okay. And these guys were demon possessed.
For sure. These guys were demon possessed. The one guy, he was like a drunkard.
And Milan was witnessing to this guy and he like wanted money or like,
I don't have money, but I'll give you the gospel. And he's just like, no.
And then he just started like yelling at me. And I'm like, hey, quiet down.
They're trying to talk here. And he's just like, he's just yelling at me.
And he was like distracting Milan from giving the gospel. And finally he went away.
But there's this other time when we're Milan was preaching the gospel to this guy and this guy interrupts.
And he he basically like Milan tried witnessing to him.
And Milan said that when when this guy looked at him, he was just like looking into his soul.
And he just he was like bleeding out of his ear. It was like weird stuff.
And it was weird because Milan had actually told him, he said, you know,
he asked Milan a question and Milan answered him and the guy just looked at him.
And then Milan said, what do you have to say about that? And the guy said, I already answered you.
And Milan was like, OK. Well, there's the YouTube card.
You know, it's like, watch the video if you have a chance to, you know.
Oh, man, I forgot to tell you about this one. We're at a restaurant.
And by the way, here's another thing about Belize. They have zero concept of time. Zero.
Here it's like we start at seven. We go by a schedule. They have zero concept.
They're just late to everything. Like.
Literally, we're on the bus and we got to brother Mike Madison say, hey,
take the transportation because you get to witness the people there. And we did.
We got people saved on the bus and start witnessing to these two kids and like, hey,
you got a couple of minutes so I can show you what the Bible says on how to go to heaven.
And he's like, oh, I don't know, man. We got we're about to get off the bus, like in 15 minutes.
He's like, OK, well, you know, just take a couple of minutes. He's like, all right.
He was on the gospel. They both get saved. An hour and a half later, they get off the bus.
I was like, did that guy say 15 minutes? That was like an hour and a half ago.
But they're all like that. It's just a different pace.
OK. You know, like literally, like we would go to a restaurant and it would take like two hours to get our food.
You know, that's just the pace that they have. You know, I don't know what that had to do with anything,
but I just had to get off my chest. Look at Acts 13, verse five, it says,
And when they were at Salamis, they preached the word of God in the synagogue of the Jews.
And they had also John to their minister. Oh, that's what I was going to say.
I remember now. So we're at this restaurant. You know, it's taking forever for the food to get out.
And then we see some other people at a table. And I don't know if they're a tourist or what,
but they look like they're from Belize. But maybe, you know, they were living in the United States and they came to Belize kind of thing.
And we're about to leave. And one of them says, Hey, are you guys missionaries?
We're like, yeah, we're missionaries for First Works Baptist Church. We're missionaries. Like, oh, man, that's awesome.
So what do you think about that Kanye West album?
I was like, I hate Kanye West. And they're like, why?
I'm like, that guy is wicked. He's a false prophet.
And man, I mean, they end up being some sodomite who likes Kanye West, you know?
You know, but I remember he was just like and literally they like wasted our time.
And I regret it because I kind of got I got into the flesh a little bit. I was kind of going at it with him.
And but I was thinking about I was like, man, there are bar Jesuses even out here.
They try to hinder the word, try to distract us. You're like, well, did they attack you?
No, but they wasted my time is what they did. You know, and time is valuable, obviously.
Look at verse six. It says, And when they had gone through the isle of Paphos,
they found a certain sorcerer, a false prophet, a Jew whose name was Bar Jesus,
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.
Look, that's what we want to talk to. Right. We don't want to waste our time with people who don't want the word of God.
We want to talk to people who desire to hear the word of God.
You know, when I go so many and I knock on the door and people are just like, ah,
then I'm just like, all right, I'm out of here because I need to go talk to someone else who's actually receptive.
Well, you know what? In Belize, pretty much everyone wants to hear the Bible.
They want to hear the word of God. They want to hear the gospel.
You can take an hour explaining the gospel and they will just stand there for an hour and just listen to you the entire time.
They desire the word of God. Skip down to verse 12.
Then the deputy, when he saw what was done, believed, being astonished at the doctrine of the Lord.
You know, we're at it was at night and we're preaching the gospel.
We're looking for people on the streets. And this this this young lady walks around and I stop her and I start talking to her.
And I think about 15 minutes or so to give her the gospel. She gets saved. And she says this.
She goes, OK. She says, thank you so much for that. Can I go use the restroom now?
Yeah, go for it. You know, you could have just told me that.
They have ears to hear. Amen. You know, they gladly receive the word of God all the time.
Go with me if you went to John, chapter four. John, chapter number four.
I will say this. Belize has a lot of mosquitoes. That's the only bad thing. There's tons of mosquitoes.
So it was at night and we're all we're basically finishing up our first day.
And I think we're like at thirty seven salvations. We've been working all morning, all night.
And we're at thirty seven salvations. And don't you hate it when you have like thirty seven or like thirty nine?
You're like, man, can we just let's go look for something? This is even 40. So we're at thirty seven.
And I'm like, we're heading back. I'm like, man, there's no one out here. Let's just try to let's go look for these last couple of people.
And we literally prayed like, Lord, you know, lead us to someone. These are three people.
You know, so we can we can talk to them to see if we can get them saved, get an even 40.
And so literally, we pray that we're walking and down a street, you just see a light, right?
We follow the light. We see a light and we're like, oh, look, this looks like there's people over there.
We walk over and there's like a family. There's a there's a there's a husband, a wife and a son.
And they're like looking up in a tree. Have this flashlight. You're kind of like looking out of a tree.
And I'm like, what are they looking at now? We went there to give them the gospel, but we just got intrigued and we just looked at the tree, too.
So we're just like, what? And they're like, it's an owl, man. It's an owl.
We're like, wow, an owl. So we were looking at this owl and I'm like, oh, yeah, we got to give him the gospel.
It's time to give him the gospel. This is the only time I actually like animals other than when I eat them.
OK, is the fact that I feel like God places stupid owl in the tree to intrigue this family to go look at it in order for us to catch them because it was already late.
And they just randomly came out of their house to go look at the owl. This stupid little bird.
Hey, but he worked on our favor. So we get there and then I start talking to the guy.
I said, I told I told me last year, I'm going to I'm going to get the parents, you get the their son.
And we start giving them the gospel. They all get saved. There's the three right there.
And he says, he says afterwards, he asked where we're from and we tell him what church we're from.
And, you know, we're from the states in California, we're from Los Angeles.
And he says, if you guys come back, tell me I'll go with you.
Because you guys can stay with me if you want. Because if you come back here, you can stay at my house and I'll go with you.
Very inspirational for someone to say that, you know, obviously, you know, the guy got saved, but something, you know, his heart was touched.
To the point where he said, I want to be involved in this work as well.
That was a blessing. Look at John Chapter four, verse thirty five.
He said, well, you know, it's really nice to pass from here.
And, you know, that sounds great and everything. But, you know, I got a lot of things going on in my life right now.
I just don't really have a whole lot of time. And maybe next year, maybe in four months, maybe in six months, maybe in a year, I'll consider doing like a mission trip.
No, do it now. Look at the Bible says, say not ye, verse thirty five, there are yet four months and then cometh harvest.
Behold, I say unto you, lift up your eyes and look on the fields, for they are white already to harvest.
And he that reapeth receiveth wages and gathers fruit unto life eternal, that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together.
Hey, now's the time to go out there and give them the gospel.
Now's the time to go out there, make time to go get them saved, because we don't know.
You know, the song so little time. First of all, they have little time, but you know what? So do you.
We're not promised tomorrow. We're not promised this week.
We're not promised this year. Take advantage of if if if the word of God,
if the preaching of God's word is touching your heart this week, make that decision.
So, you know, I'm going to go on a missions trip and it might just change your life.
It might just deepen your love for lost people.
It may just give you a vision to to to reach people for Christ in different parts of the world.
You know, it's great to see people saved in our Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria.
But man, it's just something else. When you go somewhere else around the world and you meet people.
You know, who are in dire need of the gospel. When you get those little children saved.
When you get that family saved. When you get that husband and wife saved.
Changes your life. It gives you more of an eternal perspective.
Say not either, you have four months. Do it now. We don't know how long this receptiveness will last.
So why do I believe Belize is a place of spiritual nobility?
Well, I mentioned because Belize is the only English language speaking country in Central America.
Makes it a great open door for us to go to for you to cut your teeth.
Learn how to preach the gospel. Take a missions trip. Inexpensive. Successful.
Also because they have ears to hear. They are extremely receptive.
And then number three, as a whole, they are a God fearing people.
They're not saved, but they are God fearing people.
In fact, let me just say this. I've never met a more God fearing people.
Unsaved people than the people of Belize.
Okay. I was taken back. Go to Acts chapter number ten if you would.
Acts chapter ten.
I was taken back by their demeanor, their attitude, their kindness towards us as missionaries.
And look, I honestly believe that Belize is being blessed by God.
That God is blessing Belize because of the fact that they have the word of God.
And He's blessing them with soul winners and missionaries.
We just don't know how long that's going to last for though.
So we've got to capitalize on that.
And in fact, it's interesting because while we were there, you know, we had a taxi driver the entire time and we got him saved.
And he was driving us around and he actually asked one of our guys.
He said, before he got saved, he said, hey, so what's that? It's a Bible right there, huh?
Yeah. He goes, so what does it say about like, you know, eternal life?
It's just like.
And he's like, he like started quoting scriptures.
I mean, low hanging fruit. It's like touch. It's barely.
It's hanging by a thread.
It's like.
Easy.
Well, this same guy, he gets saved and he's driving us around.
And I thought that Belize that excuse me, that this sodomy was illegal in Belize.
I hadn't heard that it was illegal in Belize.
And so I told this guy, I said, hey, I heard, you know, sodomy is illegal in Belize.
He's like, no, no, no.
It's not illegal. They can marry.
They can marry. I'm like, oh, man, I thought that was otherwise.
He goes, no, he goes, they won't go to jail, but they will go to hell.
My man.
I was great.
I was like, I love this place.
This is an awesome country, you know.
They are a God fearing people.
You know, they still and obviously I'm not saying that like no crime takes place there.
People don't die there. People don't get murdered there.
People, you know, obviously these things happen all around the world.
But generally speaking, as a whole, Belize is a lot different from a lot of the Central American countries.
You know, you think of El Salvador, for example.
You think of Honduras where they tell you, hey, you got to be careful.
I mean, I think of Guatemala where my parents are from.
There's specific areas where my mom's from, for example, from the capital where you can't go down certain streets.
The violence is so heavy there, it's very dangerous to even walk down the street at night.
Belize tends to be a little different.
You say, well, what are you saying about Guatemala? You don't want to go to Guatemala?
Well, I think that if we just take care of Belize, then God will open doors in Guatemala.
I think if we take care of Belize, you know, this country that's very receptive,
I think God will begin to open doors in these countries that may be a little dangerous
to the point where we can go in there and win those people to Christ as well.
But what I'm saying is that as a whole, they seem to be a God-fearing people.
Look at Acts chapter 10, verse 1, it says,
Now, people don't get saved by doing these things.
But you know what this does? It gets God's attention.
Because this guy is just responding to the light that God is giving to him.
He's sincerely trying to worship God. He's looking for the Lord.
And what is God going to do?
He's going to allow that person to come to the saving knowledge of the truth
by bringing a soul winner to that person.
Right?
Look at verse 30.
Send, therefore, to Joppa, and call hither Simon, whose surname is Peter.
He is lodged in the house of one Simon a tanner by the seaside,
who when he cometh shall speak unto thee.
Immediately, therefore, I send to thee, and now it is well done that thou art come.
Now, therefore, are we all here present before God to hear all things that are commanded thee of God.
Then Peter opened his mouth and said,
Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons,
but in every nation he that feareth him and worketh righteousness is accepted with him.
Now, it's not saying he's accepted in the Beloved.
Only people who are saved are accepted in the Beloved. Amen?
What this is referring to is the fact that God sees when these people respond to the light that God gives them,
and he gives them a little more light after that.
Until that person, that's why this whole, you know, the guy in the jungle,
you know, in the Congo, you know, is that guy going to get saved?
That's such a stupid illustration, because God is giving us the light,
and if we respond to that light, God is a good steward,
and he's going to send people to go give that person the gospel.
Okay?
You know, I mentioned Guatemala.
It's interesting because I feel like Belize, as I mentioned, is being blessed by God.
Well, Israel is actually assisting Guatemala in trying to gain possession of Belize right now.
You know?
And here's the thing.
So, Belize is not a Zionist country.
They're not blessing those, right?
They're not blessing Israel.
But yeah, there's a ton of people that are getting saved.
Hmm.
Makes you wonder, right?
No, it doesn't.
You know exactly what that means.
Okay?
I don't think that's a coincidence.
The fact that they're not Zionists, and I understand that, you know,
United States is, you know, there's a lot of Zionists here,
but there are people getting saved and stuff,
but in Belize, you know, they're very much anti-Zionist
because of the fact that they want to remain an independent country,
and yet God is blessing them.
Okay?
I don't think that's by accident.
Now, I will say this, is that, you know, because they're so receptive
and because they have so much light, you know,
they can receive the greater condemnation as well.
Right?
They're going to receive a greater condemnation
because of the fact that they have the Word of God,
you know, schools that are teaching the Bible,
missionaries that are going there, people are preaching the gospel.
I mean, they have a lot of light.
So we want to make sure we reach that country before it gets to that point.
So what I believe Belize is a place of spiritual nobility
because Belize is the only English language speaking country in Central America
because they have ears to hear, they're extremely receptive,
and as a whole, they are a God-fearing people.
Now, this is my plan in order to reach, to fulfill the Great Commission,
okay, for our church.
In our church, we have set up a system of discipling converts, okay?
The system is comprised of seven teams.
Each team leader is responsible to develop the people in his group
in sowning matters of Christian living and leadership
and ultimately produce more team leaders.
Now, in our church, we started off with about four or five teams.
Those four or five teams developed leaders and now those guys are leaders
and now we have seven teams.
And in fact, within the next four to six months,
we're going to get two more leaders to become team leaders
and lead a sowning group and train them, et cetera.
So what does that have to do with Belize?
Well, each team leader has not only been designated an area in Los Angeles to evangelize,
they're also being designated countries.
So we have a guy in our church, his name is Glenn, okay,
and he has what's called the Glenn Gang, right?
That's his group.
I mean, he disciples these guys.
He loves these guys.
He trains them.
He's taught them how to sew one.
He's taught them how to get jobs.
You know, he's teaching them in Christian living and he's been very successful.
Well, he's being designated Belize and he's already gone.
Like, as soon as we talked about Belize, he's just like,
all right, I'm on the next airplane taking some of the guys we're going.
And John went with him.
So we're going in March to basically kind of be like a catalyst for our church
to just get everyone excited about it.
But once we pull out, he's staying there.
As far as, like, that's his country, okay?
He's going to be designated that country to evangelize that country
until God moves us somewhere else.
And this is our plan.
These men, you know, I'm basically encouraging these men,
get a vision for a specific country.
You could be a missionary, okay?
You don't need the video.
You don't need the prayer card.
You don't need the faith promise, you know,
sign your life away and your social security and all these things.
You don't need any of that.
You just need to make a trip once a year, twice a year.
Inspire the people in your group to go out there and preach the gospel,
go out there for a couple days, get people saved, and get a heart for missions.
When I was growing up as a Christian,
spiritually speaking, I remember I felt like there was, like,
a division between those who wanted to be pastors
and those who wanted to be missionaries.
There's always, like, this division.
And, you know, the pastors were very much, they were honored,
but it's, like, the missionaries were, like,
those were, like, the legitimate heroes, you know?
And there's always this division, but you know what?
Fool you with that.
We're all missionaries.
There's no division between pastor, missionary, and layman here
when it comes to the mission work.
We can all be a part of that.
You know, you don't need to go to Bible college.
You don't need to go to language school.
You just need to go to that gateway door to cut your teeth and go do the work.
Be a great commissionary, amen?
To go out there, you say, well, I'm not called to be a pastor.
You don't need to be.
Why get a calling when you have a command?
To go out and preach the gospel to every creature.
I want to challenge you to join us in this endeavor
to evangelize, baptize, and disciple beliefs.
And maybe you're in this conference, you're like,
well, man, I want to go here, I want to go here.
Or you might be saying, I don't know where I want to go.
You know, you're kind of undecided.
Well, hey, it doesn't hurt to just come with us for a couple days,
try it out, and who knows, you might even fall in love
with the country of beliefs.
I know I did. Amen?
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you for your word,
and thank you for the leaders in this movement.
Obviously, we're independent churches, but I'm thankful for these men,
pastors, and laymen churches that have ignited a fire
under the church members and their congregations
to go out and preach the gospel to every creature.
This is not a job just for those who have done four years of Bible college,
but rather, this is for all of God's people to go out
and evangelize the world just as we evangelize here in the States.
And I pray, God, that you'd help us, help us as First Works Baptist Church
to do our part in evangelizing this world,
the Spanish-speaking world as we start with Belize.
I pray you continue to prepare the hearts of the people that are out there.
Bless the missions trip in March.
We would see tons of people saved, Lord.
And Lord willing, if you would so open a door, maybe we can start a church there.
And that could become a base where we can send more soul winners
and missionaries to Central America and Guatemala and Honduras
and El Salvador and Costa Rica and all these other areas.
I pray, God, that you'd help us to do so.
And please continue to expand our influence.
Continue to expand our churches, Lord, so we can do more work for you.
And I pray that, Lord, whoever's here that may be undecided of where they're going to go,
may they just make a decision to come with us.
But may they make a decision to go somewhere
and invest that time to win people to Christ in the uttermost parts of the world.
And in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Go ahead and grab your song sheets.
We're going to sing Cristo Me Ama.
Thank you.
Sing it together.
Sing Cristo Me Ama
La vivia di sesi
Cristo Me Ama me salvo
En la cruz por mi muyom
Mi peccado perdono
Vida terda me dolo
Si Cristo Me Ama
La vivia di sesi
Cristo Me Ama de verdam
Y me cuida en su bondam
Me con dulce buen pastor
Es mijiai protector
Si Cristo Me Ama
La vivia di sesi
All right. Amen. Great message.
A couple things. Tonight we do have the baptistry set up.
If anybody needs to be baptized, if you've not been baptized after you were saved, come and see us.
Brother Segura is here to help you out.
We do have change of clothing and everything we need, towels.
We got the water set up.
But we're also going to be baptizing tomorrow morning,
and we can also baptize tomorrow night if you let us know before the service tomorrow night.
So either tonight right now it's set up, or tomorrow morning, or Sunday night.
And then there was something else that I needed to announce, and it's slipping my mind.
Did we do the cards yet? I don't think we did the cards for the service.
So let's go ahead and hand out the America cards for all the kids.
If you're under 18, put up your hand and we'll get you some trading cards.
Gentlemen, you want to help me out?
All right. Pictures. That's what it is. Okay.
So also we wanted to take some pictures of people that are from different parts of the world.
So if you traveled here from another part of the world, we're getting pictures.
How are we breaking down the pictures?
By continent.
By continent. Okay, yeah.
So what we want to do is basically the same people who do the testimonies and go to the lunches and everything by continent.
So we want to get a picture of all the Asia people, get a picture of all the Africa people, Australia, et cetera.
I think we already got a picture with the Australia crew, but we just want to take pictures of the different groups.
So who do they see? You? You volunteered. This was your idea.
Brother Segura. Go go see Brother Segura.
He's going to help make those pictures happen as well in this part of the auditorium.
And then we're going to be back, of course, tomorrow morning for church tomorrow morning at 10 30 a.m..
All right. We're dismissed.
We are.