Thank you.
All right, everybody.
Good morning and welcome to
Sherriff Foundation Baptist Church.
If you could find your seat and grab your song book
in the green and turn to page 309.
Dare to be a Daniel.
Welcome to Sherriff Foundation Baptist Church.
If you could find your seat and grab your song book
and turn to page 309.
Dare to be a Daniel.
Page 309.
Page 109 in the green.
Dare to be a Daniel.
Let's sing it on the first.
Who forgot
had been a host by joining
Daniel's band.
Dare to be a Daniel.
Dare to stand alone.
Dare to have
a purpose firm.
Dare to make it known.
Many giants great
and tall stalking through
the land. Had long
to the earth would fall
if met by Daniel's band.
Dare to be a
Daniel. Dare to
stand alone.
Dare to have a purpose
firm. Dare to make it
known. Hold the
gospel banner high
on to victory grand.
Satan and his
host of I and shout for
Daniel's band. Dare
to be a Daniel.
Dare to stand alone.
Dare to have
a purpose firm. Dare
to make it known.
Amen.
Amen. Our second song is
number 230, Heavenly
Sunlight.
Song number
230, Heavenly Sunlight.
Song 230,
let's sing it on the first.
Walking
in sunlight
all of my journey
over the mountains
through the deep veil.
Jesus has said
I'll never forsake
the promised
divine that never
can fail.
Heavenly sunlight,
heavenly sunlight
flooding my soul
with glory divine.
Hallelujah
I am rejoicing
singing his praises
Jesus is mine.
Shadows
around me, shadows
above me
never conceal my
savior and guide.
He is the light
in him is no
darkness ever
I'm walking
close to his side.
Heavenly sunlight,
heavenly sunlight
flooding my soul
with glory
divine.
Hallelujah
I am rejoicing
singing
his praises
Jesus is mine.
In the bright sunlight
ever rejoicing
praising
my way to
mansions above
singing his praises
gladly I'm walking
walking in
sunlight, sunlight
of love.
Heavenly sunlight,
heavenly sunlight
flooding my soul
with glory
divine.
Hallelujah
I am rejoicing
singing his praises
Jesus is mine.
And we have
our verse of the week on the front cover
it says from the rising of the sun unto the
going down of the same
the Lord's name is to be
praise psalm chapter 113 verse 3
great verse there
our service times are Sunday
morning at 10 30 am
Sunday evening at 3 30 pm Thursday
bible studies at 6 30 pm
our soul winning times are listed below
concerning soul winning
today I'm not canceling
soul winning because it's hot
alright however
I'm not expecting you to go
take your little ones out and fry
them like an egg in the sun
so
so it's basically going to be up to your discretion
if you go or not
so it is supposed to be
114 degrees today which is
smashing the record of
any previous day now
if you lived in Phoenix and every day it was like that
I could understand you know not
wimping out or whatever but
it's not
that big of a deal to wimp out
today alright I'm not going to
judge you or whatever so
and obviously if it's
114 degrees outside make sure
if you're going soul winning
if you're going soul winning make sure you drink
plenty of fluids get something
some salt in you and some
Gatorade but we have plenty
of water we brought six jugs so
if you guys are thirsty today there's plenty of
stuff to drink but you might need
some electrolytes to put back in your body if you're planning on
going soul winning make sure you let brother Brandon
know he'll have a map for
you and that will be ready to go
let's see so moving on
here we had I think a couple of salvations this
week and we have
let's see
so soul winning is going on
regularly as scheduled
in all of our soul winning times it is supposed to be hot
next week I think the next time
is going to be Friday so
but I think it's supposed to start to cool
down a little bit towards the end of the week
so you'll be safe
so no worries
if you look at the praise report you can see the salvations
baptisms attendance totals
and on
the right side we have
kids Spanish classes coming
next Tuesday at 6 p.m.
and please make sure
you're letting Miss Alejandra know that you're planning on attending that
and also we have the
I'm preaching
on July 1st
at Faithful Word Baptist Church
in Tucson Arizona
this Thursday night so
I'll be in Tucson
and I'm not going to be able to escape the heat
down there either apparently so
I think it's like this hot
everyday there this time of year
so anyway
it's a vacation
so let's see July 4th
we'll have our back to back
services so we are changing the service times
for one Sunday
you know we don't do stuff like that very often
but it is the 4th of July so
we're going to do that
we're going to have a Christian Liberty party over at the Sawyer residence
and that'll be at
3 p.m. so
food and fellowship and fun
and fireworks so the church will be
providing the fireworks if you want to bring your own
fireworks you're welcome to do that
we do have like a controlled
set off though so
we don't want just everybody willy nilly
just lighting stuff off
because that's what most of Vancouver does
we need to do things decently and in order
so
I will try not to blow up any children
this year and
so yeah
but anyway we're going to have so there's going to be swimming
so bring your swimming gear
and also
yeah so if you are going to bring food
we need people to bring sides and desserts
so please see Mrs. Sawyer
for that
and make sure that you're not all bringing the same thing
and what else
yeah there's going to be a men's preaching night
so the back to back services
when I get done preaching at 1227
then men's preaching
will be at 1230 p.m.
so anyway
that's a joke I'll
I'll just chop
my notes in half then I know I'll be okay
I'll only preach till 1215
then anyway so
we're just going to have a short break in between the services
so from like 12ish
to 1230
and then we'll have the men's preaching
and then we'll have the party
alright so we're going to have a great day
let's see July 15th
through 18th is the Red Hot Preaching Conference
and that will be at Verity Baptist Church in Sacramento
California you can see all
the information on
I'm not sure if on our website but you can watch
the videos for the Red Hot Preaching Conference on
Verity Baptist Church's
YouTube page
so I gave
some false information out so
I'm going to correct myself here
so the table tennis tournament I thought was
only for men but it's not
it is a co-ed tournament
it wasn't really specifically spelled out in the video
so I'm going to blame them
no I'm just kidding but I didn't know that it was
a co-ed tournament so
I got a
table tennis or ping pong whatever you prefer
to call it
it's downstairs so if anybody wants to
volunteer to build that up
after the service
for those people that are
going to try to get
into the tournament be a good table
to practice on
except for I don't think anybody
does anybody have their table tennis
paddles
here today well
you might have to go out and get one or get some
on Amazon or whatever but if you want
to be in the tournament
the top four people 16
and older will be the adults so
we can only have four
so we need to have some kind of a
tournament does anybody want to head that tournament
up and pick a day
during the week yeah
we can practice
yeah we can do the seating tournament then if you
want
yeah is it a good table
yeah cool
is it heavy
heavy is reliable so
alright well we can do it then
but who wants to head up the seating of the
tournament and do all that
stuff I just don't have time for that yeah Brandon
ok so Brandon we had like
kind of a mini one at Remy's house yesterday
and I got beat
by a how old are you
who beat me yesterday
was it Julia
huh Emily beat me
good night I can't I can't still can't tell
them apart so Emily crushed me
yesterday severely
I didn't even know we were
playing and she was like 1-0
I was like what I was still practicing
I think I scored five points
on her and she just totally obliterated me
I think she just accidentally missed or
something a couple times but
anyway so we can have that kind of a tournament
and it's co-ed so now
the sixth so under 16
we can have four representatives but here's the
thing you have to be going to the Red Hot Preaching
Conference and I'm not paying for your ticket
to go to the Red Hot Preaching Conference just because you made the
seating tournament so if you're not even
planning on going then don't
I mean you can be in the tournament but you can't be
one of the team
you know members that's going to be there so
anyway so we have
like table tennis
all over the place for the next
month or whatever
but let's not forget that we still have a building that we're
moving into so if I start
seeing nobody helping with the building
and like everybody's playing
table tennis then I'm going to take
a sledgehammer and I'm going to destroy it
like a false idol
and
it will get
ugly alright
so let's keep everything
in perspective alright so anyway
I definitely want to send some representatives
and if we don't
have enough people that make it
whatever for that under 16
group then
we'll just have to have people added
from a different
from a different church or something so
anyway July 30th through
August 1st is our
3 year anniversary and grand reopening
and Pastor Bruce Mahiel will be preaching
for us Friday night at 7 PM
so that will kick off our
grand reopening so but that
week just so you know is going to be when
we have to move everything from the church so I
definitely going to need we're going to need some help
like filling up a U-Haul
taking all the chairs and all the stuff over
so we'll probably try to just get one
shot or if somebody has a trailer or whatever
we'll get it done
that week we got to have
we got to be out of this building by
Thursday
so I mean we have till the
first to be officially out but like
I'd like to get everything done and
cleaned and out of here and ready
to go Thursday that way
when we go to church Friday
you guys can just relax and enjoy yourselves
and listen to some
ripping face preaching
and then we're going to have a
soul winning marathon on the
next day which is Saturday and
then Pastor Jones will be preaching for us
on Sunday night so
it's going to be a great
great weekend so
anyway yeah
looking forward to it but we definitely do
need help with the building brother Roberts
kind of and brother Anthony have been
over there doing some stuff and getting things ready
but
if you want to talk to brother Robert about
anything that needs to be done or if you want to
schedule a time where you're going there or something
just kind of talk to brother Robert
he doesn't know I'm just doing this and now he's hearing it
for the first time but he kind of knows
what's going on and so if you have
like if there's if you guys want to schedule to be there
at the same time as other people are going
then talk to brother Robert
so anyway
yeah so we need the table tennis thing set up
make sure if you're going soul winning
please go out with
discretion we usually go out
for like an hour to an hour and a half
anyway so if you're one of those hard chargers
that wants to go out and get some
extra rewards today then
I'm not discouraging you from
going but I would just say don't take
small infants out in
this heat it's probably not a good idea so
don't be so
zealous that you
cook your kids out there alright
so anyway we're a family
integrated church that means the children and infants are welcomed
in the church services we have available
for your family and mother baby rooms and a dad baby room
downstairs for your convenience during all the services
comfortable seating and all that
and please reserve the back rows
for families with young children please
no men in those mother baby rooms
or vice versa
and use caution when going down the stairs
and latch the baby gates okay
and no food
is allowed in the assembly area which is this area right here
silence your cell phones
at this time if you would please
and escorts to the vehicles
to your vehicles are available
by the ushers and they're the guys that
have the pins that say usher on them
and they'd be happy to walk you to your car
just tap them on the shoulder and say I need
you to walk to my car okay
and if you're a guy
do some push ups whatever
anyway online donations are available
at surefoundationbaptist.com
and then
we've covered all the June birthdays and anniversaries
but one thing I was thinking
about when I printed this
is there anybody who has a birthday this
week this coming week
Candice
alright
busted
what day is her birthday
the first
alright cool so that's Thursday
alright well let's sing happy birthday
to miss Candice alright ready
happy birthday
to you
happy birthday
to you
happy birthday
god bless you
happy
birthday to
you
anybody have an anniversary coming up this
week I know there's a lot on the 7th
but that's next week
alright so that covers everything
in the announcements one
last thing I need some help
with a couple ushers here we have
so I got these made at
First Works from First Works Baptist Church
the Good Works
Raiment so these ones
here on the right are the Spanish
Bible Way to Heaven by
Pastor Mejia so
what I thought I'd give
each person an English and a Spanish
one and you can put those in your Bible
and so if someone doesn't have time to hear
the gospel then you can say well just
scan this a lot of a lot of young
younger people do this so if you get some like
69 year old lady or something they're not going to
scan these things but
these are great if someone
doesn't have time you can just set you know just like
put them in a strategic place in your Bible
they scan them you walk off
and then they can they can have the Bible
Way to Heaven so this is the English one
so
can you do the
you do the English that's your Spanish
you do the Spanish
I don't think
Ramon speaks Spanish do you?
yeah he does I don't know I can't remember
anyway
so just take one each
and obviously
children if you're
doing soul wanting then
you can have one too but like it's not like
sticker time so
I don't want to find these
sticking on our walls
or furniture please
put them up
where'd they go
alright we're going to sing another song while
they're handing out those
things and then
we'll receive the offering
alright
the next song will be song number 411
hold the fort
song 411 hold the fort
and the green hymnal
song 411
let's sing it on the first
oh my
comrades see
the signal
waving in the sky
reinforcements
now
appearing
victory is
nigh
hold the fort
for I am coming
Jesus
signal still
wave the
answer back to
heaven by thy
grace we will
see
the mighty
host advancing
safe and leading
on
mighty men
around us falling
courage
almost gone
hold the fort
for I am coming
Jesus
signal still
wave the
answer back to
heaven by thy
grace we will
see
the glorious banner
waving here
the trumpet
blow
in our leader's
name we'll triumph
over every
foe
hold the fort
for I am coming
Jesus
signal still
wave the
answer back to
heaven by
thy grace we will
fierce and long the
battle
rages but our
health is near
onward
comes our great
commander cheer
my comrades
hear
hold the fort
for I am coming
Jesus
signal still
wave the answer
back to
heaven by thy
grace we will
praise the
Lord
the Lord
Alright go ahead and open
your Bibles to Acts chapter 1
Acts chapter 1, if you don't have
a Bible raise your hand and one of the Ushers will
bring you one. Acts chapter 1
Acts 1, the Bible reads,
the former treaties have I made, O Theophilus,
of all that Jesus began both to do and teach
until the day in which he was taken up.
After that, he, through the Holy Ghost,
had given commandments unto the apostles
whom he had chosen, to whom also he showed himself alive
after his passion by many infallible proofs,
being seen of them 40 days,
and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God,
and being assembled together with them,
commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem,
but wait for the promise of the Father,
which saith he, ye have heard of me.
For John truly baptized with water,
but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost,
not many days hence.
When they therefore were come together,
they asked of him, saying,
Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again
the kingdom to Israel?
And he said unto them,
it is not for you to know the times or the seasons
which the Father hath put in his own power,
but ye shall receive power.
After that, the Holy Ghost has come upon you,
and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem
and in all Judea and in Samaria
and unto the uttermost part of the earth.
And when he had spoken these things while they beheld,
he was taken up, and a cloud received him out of their sight
and while they looked steadfastly toward heaven
as he went up, behold, two men stood by them
in wide apparel, which also said, ye men of Galilee,
why stand ye gazing up into heaven?
This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven,
shall so come in like manner
as ye have seen him go into heaven.
Then returned they unto Jerusalem
from the mount called Olivet,
which is from Jerusalem, a Sabbath day's journey.
And when they were come in,
they went up into an upper room
where both Peter and James and John and Andrew,
Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew,
James, the son of Alphaeus, and Simon, Zelodes,
and Judas, the brother of James.
These all continued with one accord in prayer
and supplication with the women
and Mary, the mother of Jesus and with his brethren.
And in those days,
Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples and said,
the number of the names together were about 120,
men and brethren, this scripture must needs
have been fulfilled, which the Holy Ghost
by the mouth of David spake before concerning Judas,
which was guide to them that took Jesus,
for he was numbered with us
and had obtained part of this ministry.
Now this man purchased a field with the reward of iniquity
and falling headlong, he burst asunder in the midst
and all his bowels gushed out.
And it was known unto all the dwellers at Jerusalem
in so much as the field is called in their proper tongue,
a seldoma, that is to say the field of blood.
For it is written in the book of Psalms,
let his habitation be desolate
and let no man dwell therein.
And his bishopric let another take,
wherefore of these men which have accompanied with us
all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us,
beginning from the baptism of John
unto the same day that he was taken up from us,
must one be ordained to be a witness with us
of his resurrection.
And they appointed two, Joseph called Barsabbas,
who was sure named Justice and Matthias.
And they prayed and said, thou Lord,
which knowest the hearts of all men,
show whether of these two thou has chosen,
that he may take part of this ministry and apostleship
from which Judas by transgression fell,
that he might go to his own place.
And they gave forth their lots,
and a lot fell upon Matthias,
and he was numbered with the 11 apostles.
Brother Drew, will you pray for us?
Amen.
All right, I wanna springboard off verse number eight
in our text here.
It says, but ye shall receive power
after the Holy Ghost has come upon you,
and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem
and in Judea and in Samaria
and unto the uttermost part of the earth.
Let's have a word of prayer.
Heavenly Father, we thank you, Lord, so much
for the scriptures this morning
and for the great commission, Lord,
that we're supposed to take very seriously at this church.
I pray, Lord, you'd help me to preach this sermon.
I pray you'd help me to put a burden
on the heart of our people for the places
that I'm gonna be preaching about today.
And Lord, I just pray that you'd put a burden
and keep that burden to my heart, Lord,
for these places also.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
All right, so Jesus, before he left,
he went up into a cloud in front of all of his disciples,
and the last thing he says is this statement here,
but ye shall receive power after the Holy Ghost
has come upon you, you shall be witnesses unto me,
both in Jerusalem, so that's where they were at,
Jerusalem, right, and in Judea,
which is basically like the whole country of Judah,
and then in Samaria, which is their closest neighbors,
and unto the uttermost part of the earth.
So then basically he says, hey,
you're gonna take the gospel into the whole world, okay?
This is what I want you to do.
This is the last words recorded before Christ was taken up,
and it says that when he had spoken these things
while they beheld, he was taken up,
and a cloud received him out of their sight.
What do you think Jesus' most important mission
that he left us with is?
It is absolutely, without a doubt,
reaching the world with the gospel.
That is what he wants from us.
That is what our mission here on this earth is.
It's not the only mission, but it is the main thing, right?
I mean, what did he say?
He said, go, go out, preach the gospel,
do it here where you're at, do it in this whole area.
So if you would look at it in perspective from our church,
obviously Vancouver, Washington's our Jerusalem.
We've reached a lot of our own Jerusalem.
It's not really that, I mean,
it's about 200,000 people, I think, here,
but across, over in, I don't even know,
I'd call that Sodom, Sodom area,
but there's a lot of people
that can be reached over there, too, right?
But our state is Washington,
so I guess that would kind of be like our Judea, right?
And then our Samaria would probably actually be
across the river there,
but it is closer than a lot of places in Washington,
but our uttermost part of the earth
would include every place on the face of the planet, right?
And so, of course, we have a church in Hawaii,
and I love that church,
and our church is doing really well over there, by the way.
There was 19 people in the service,
so it's built from ruins to, you know,
we had 19 people and some salvations.
We had 43 people saved when we went on that trip,
and we really didn't have as many people
as we did the first time we went,
so we worked really hard to get those 43 salvations,
and Brother Sean and his wife were with us,
and there was some people from other churches
that went with us also.
Now, we hit a couple places that weren't very receptive,
but we also hit some places that were very receptive,
and so Hawaii is a receptive place.
That's why we put a church there,
and we want to reach the uttermost parts of the earth,
and you know, Hawaii is like one of the most isolated places
on the whole planet.
It's out in the Pacific,
and there's a lot of islands out in the Pacific
that people are not reaching,
and so while I was there,
I kind of got this burden in my heart
about the other places that are in the Pacific,
and it's not, you know, it was reached in the colonial days
as they would call it.
Ships came with missionaries and things like that,
but my sermon today is the plan to evangelize
the Pacific Islands,
the plan to evangelize the Pacific Islands,
and I mentioned it in my sermon when I was in Hawaii
about how I'd like to do this.
Now, we need to get on Christ's missions program, don't we?
What's his missions program?
To reach the uttermost parts of the earth.
You know, obviously we gotta reach where we're at.
There's places all over the world that need Jesus,
but a lot of times I see the Baptists
are falling down on the job
when it comes to the Pacific Islands,
and like if you look up the countries,
if you look up these islands,
when it talks about religion,
it says a lot of them are Christian,
but like it never mentions Baptists on there.
So that means that the Baptist reach there
is very small, very minuscule,
but the Bible talks a lot about reaching the isles,
which would be like the beach
and sea coast areas of the world.
Isles can mean islands,
but the Bible does mention islands also.
So obviously it's something in God's thoughts
that he wants these islands to be reached,
and so like if nobody else has a vision for it,
don't you think our church should have a vision for it?
Yeah.
So, and it's tougher than people think.
People like to accuse me of just wanting to go
and set up vacation homes in Hawaii
and stuff like that, which is complete garbage.
Hey, if that's my goal, I'm doing it wrong.
Okay, I need to bring the purple lights
and the smoke in here and change the music
and change the doctrine,
just change everything about our church,
and yeah, maybe I could have a fortress over in Hawaii,
but our church can't afford something like that,
and it never will.
And second of all, I don't want that,
because this world is not my home.
I'm not building a kingdom for myself here.
We're trying to build the kingdom of God.
That's what our goal is.
That's what our mission is,
but Hawaii is like the pearl of the Pacific,
and there's a lot of, you know,
obviously it's an American state,
and so we have abilities to do things,
but Hawaii is a hard mission field.
It's harder than people realize.
First of all, it's hot.
You know, Brother Sean and I were soul-waning,
well, we all were, and Waianae,
which is the hottest part of the island
on the last day that we were soul-waning there,
and it was hot, man.
And a lot of people didn't have air conditioning
where we were at.
We did get invited in.
It was fairly nice in one of the places,
but you know, it's a harder mission field
than people realize.
There's a lot of enemies there.
There's a lot of just hurdles to jump through.
I mean, just one of the things alone is that, you know,
just how crazy they are with COVID right now.
I mean, and just there's an entitlement mentality
on the island.
There's just all kinds of pitfalls
and things that make it hard to preach there
and to start a church there,
and everything's more expensive there.
It's like one of the most expensive places
that you could live.
So starting a church there is difficult,
and starting a church like ours is even more difficult,
because if I wanted to change the music
and I wanted to change our culture and things like that,
it'd probably be a lot easier.
But see, I want Christ's culture to be preached
in the places that we put our feet on,
our souls of our feet on.
So, but why the Pacific?
Well, I believe the Pacific is receptive.
You know, it's just proven even in an American state
called Hawaii, and we've only been to the one island.
You know, we've only hit Oahu.
Like, we haven't even scratched the surface
of the Solonine in the Hawaiian Islands yet.
So you're like, well, Pastor Thompson,
why are you jumping ahead and trying to go
to all these other islands already,
and you haven't even evangelized Hawaii?
Well, part of the plan is to go to Hawaii first, okay?
And I'll lay out my plan here in just a minute,
but I want to look at some scriptures,
because I want you to see, and this is just
some of the scriptures that I've found
about islands and isles and things like that.
But I want to show you some scriptures.
Look at Isaiah chapter 42, verse four.
Isaiah chapter 42, verse number four.
And while you're turning there,
I just want to explain to you,
and I know you probably can't see this,
but this is like where we're at up here,
and Hawaii's right here.
And then you got like Polynesia,
like this triangle called Polynesia.
You got Melanesia, which is Papua New Guinea,
the Solomon Islands, and then New Caledonia.
You got Micronesia over here.
This is the Carolinian Islands, the Mariana Islands, Palau.
That's right by the Philippines here.
The Marshall Islands, and here's Hawaii
to the Marshall Islands.
And so a lot of these places,
maybe you've never heard of it before,
but like Polynesia, you got the French Polynesia,
which is over here, and Easter Island is way over here.
That's where they put all those big stone statues are.
And then you got the Cook Islands, Samoa, Tonga.
So there's a lot of islands out in the Pacific,
and that might look like a small little area,
but every place is like hundreds and hundreds,
thousands of miles away from.
The Pacific Ocean is so huge.
This might help you put it in a little bit of perspective,
but it's still not really a very good perspective,
because Samoa, which is, okay,
so you got Hawaii right here,
and then you got, I'm trying to find Samoa is right here.
So it looks pretty close together, right?
That's a five and a half hour plane flight.
That's like the equivalent to flying to New York
from here, basically.
So everything is far away from each other.
Is this gonna be an easy thing to do?
It's not gonna be an easy thing to do.
It's not gonna be a cheap thing to do.
It's gonna be expensive.
But how much are souls worth?
And who else is doing it?
We're gonna count on the United Methodist to reach them?
We're gonna count on the Presbyterians to reach them?
We're gonna count on the LDS church to reach them?
That's who's reaching them right now?
How about the Jehovah's false witnesses?
No, we don't want those people to reach them.
We want independent fundamental Baptists to reach them.
I want that statistic to change in those areas.
When it looks at religion,
I want Baptists to be on the top of the list.
Now, will that ever happen?
I don't know.
But you know what?
I'm gonna try.
I'm gonna try to make it happen.
So Isaiah 42, verse four.
Now, the book of Isaiah has a lot of verses
talking about isles and islands and things like that.
And so that's kinda,
Isaiah's kinda like my island book, right?
So look at verse four in Isaiah 42.
It says, he shall not fail nor be discouraged,
talking about Jesus Christ,
till he have set judgment in the earth,
and the isles shall wait for his law.
So what does that verse tell you right there?
Well, it tells you that the isles and the islands
are waiting for the law of God.
They're waiting for God's word to reach them.
And you know what?
It takes people to do that.
It takes dedicated people to do something like that.
Look at Isaiah chapter 51, verse number four.
Isaiah chapter 51, verse number four.
The Bible says, hearken unto me, my people,
and give ear unto me, O my nation,
for a law shall proceed from me,
and I will make my judgment to rest
for a light of the people.
My righteousness is near.
My salvation is gone forth,
and mine arms shall judge the people.
The isles shall wait upon me,
and on my arm shall they trust.
So what does that tell you?
That the isles are waiting for God's word to get there,
and once it gets there, what's it say?
On my arm shall they trust.
So it's not a matter of if we go, will people get saved?
No, when we go, people will get saved.
That's what it's saying there,
that people will trust on the arm of the Lord.
That's talking about salvation there.
Look at what it says in verse six.
Lift up your eyes to the heavens,
and look upon the earth beneath,
for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke,
and the earth shall wax old like a garment,
and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner,
but my salvation shall be forever,
and my righteousness shall not be abolished.
So you know what else?
Is when we go to these places,
we believe in eternal security of the believer.
You know what the Bible preaches that?
The Bible teaches that.
So when we go to these places,
are we gonna be able to reach every single person?
I don't know.
But I know the ones that we will reach,
the ones that will get saved, they're saved forever.
Forever.
Now look at Isaiah chapter 60, verse number eight.
Isaiah chapter 60 in verse number eight.
The Bible says, who are these that fly as a cloud,
and as the doves to their windows?
Now when I read this verse this morning,
I was like, man, that's a great verse.
You know, because one of the great things
about being able to go to the Pacific
is that we can fly to these places now.
You know, when you're flying in an airplane,
clouds are outside your window a lot of the time.
So who are they that fly as a cloud?
Well, you know, now is the time
where we can fly to these places.
We don't have to take some ship
that takes months and months and then you get scurvy
and you turn into a scurvy swab and all that stuff, right?
You turn into a pirate, yeah.
But we can fly to these places.
And look, even flying to some of these places is difficult.
Like I was just, I did a lot of research
just looking at all these different islands,
and obviously I got a lot more to learn.
I'd probably zero in on whatever specific island
I was gonna go to.
I've watched several documentaries
about some of these places.
A lot of these places were war torn in World War I
and World War II and we had to fight
and take some of these islands away from the Japanese.
And so they've gone through a lot,
even in the Marshall Islands.
They did like nuclear testing out there
and a lot of the people died of cancer because of that.
And they actually, basically the US government just said,
hey, we need to be able to put these nukes out here
so we can make sure that the rest of the world is safe.
In the meantime, a lot of their children were born
with deformities and things like that.
So they've gone through a lot, these islands,
and they went through World War II.
There was a battle for the Pacific.
Did you guys know that?
And our state in Hawaii was bombed by,
Pearl Harbor was bombed.
And so obviously a lot of recovery's been made,
but there was a time when war was just over
all the whole Pacific and I want another war to go there.
But this is a war for peace.
I want these people to have,
I want to battle for the hearts and minds
of these people for Christ.
That's a good battle to wage, isn't it?
I had you turn to Isaiah 60, look at verse eight.
It says, who are these that fly as a cloud
and as the doves to their windows?
So me and brother, we were all soul wanting the other day.
And I don't know if anybody saw the video
where Rylan was attacked viciously by that dove.
I think it was a pigeon.
But it sounded like a dove.
I don't know, I've never, usually pigeons are like,
brrr, you know, they make that sound or whatever.
I've never seen one going, ah, ah.
Like that thing attacked me first,
like that's the video you didn't see.
Is that it like came out of nowhere,
we're just out knocking doors
and this attack falcon dove came after us.
That's why I think it was probably maybe half pigeon,
half dove, I don't know what the deal was.
But look, it says, who are these that fly as a cloud
and as the doves to their windows?
So doves are like a symbol of peace in the Bible,
a symbol of the Holy Spirit, right?
And so, but who are these that fly as a cloud?
Hey, we can fly as clouds.
We can fly to these different places
and drop in and do like a week's worth of soul wanting
or maybe a few days worth of soul wanting
and change people's lives out there.
It says, surely the isles shall wait for me.
And the ships of Tarshish first
to bring thy sons from far.
Their silver and their gold with them
and unto the name of the Lord thy God
and to the Holy One of Israel because he hath glorified thee
and the sons of strangers shall build up thy walls
and their kings shall minister unto thee
for in my wrath I smote thee
but in my favor have I had mercy on thee.
So the isles are waiting for the mercy of God
and God, you know, it says, in my wrath I smote thee.
A lot of these places have been smitten
because a lot of them have like cannibal cultures
and you know, worship false gods.
But you know, when the Christian missionaries
started to come in the 1800s, people did start,
or in the 1500s, 15, 16, 1700s,
people started to change their culture.
You know, when the God of the Bible
comes to these heathen lands, people change, you know?
And these places are not known as cannibal cultures anymore
so he did have some wrath but he also,
in his favor, had mercy on them.
And you know, but a lot of these islands
are ruled over in religion by false religion,
false doctrine.
In Samoa, the Methodist Church
is like the biggest church there.
And I'm not saying that they're like the Methodist Church
that's over here because they don't like mahous over there
so I can't imagine that that's like a big thing for them
but you know, they still have false salvation.
You know, the Methodists do have a false salvation.
They believe you can lose your salvation.
And so, you know, I believe if we went to Samoa
that we would see a lot of people saved
because you know what, in Hawaii, they're very receptive.
And so look, they're just waiting for the true gospel
to get to them.
It says, surely the isles shall wait for me.
And why should they have to wait when we can go
and bring the gospel to them?
Easier than we ever have been able to do
in our whole lives.
So someone has to do it.
Why not our church?
You know what I want is I want our people to have a vision
for the people of the Pacific Islands.
And you're like, well, I've never been
to any of those places.
Well, you know what, neither have I, just Hawaii.
But it doesn't mean that I can't look with my eyes of faith
and see that the hearts of the rest of the people
in the Pacific Islands are ready to hear the gospel
and also they're bottled down and bottlenecked
by false doctrine.
A lot of them claim to be Christians.
But you know what happens when we go into a place
that claims to be a Christian
and we preach the true gospel to them?
People get saved in droves.
So what is my plan?
Well, it's definitely not to do it by myself, okay?
I can't do it alone.
And I would even attempt to try to do it by myself.
I need people to share that vision with me.
And so how long will it take to do this?
Well, it depends on what people's level of commitment is.
It depends on what my level of commitment is.
This is not just like, hey, we can do this in one year
and it's all gonna be good.
No, it's not gonna happen in one year.
Now, would I like it to happen in one year?
Absolutely, I'd like it to happen in one year.
But we just don't have that much time.
We don't have that much resources at this time.
But we can go and strategically hit different islands
and win as many people in that week to the Lord as possible.
So my plan to evangelize the Pacific is,
number one, Hawaii first, okay, Hawaii first.
Now, we have a church that's in Hawaii
that's gonna reach people by knocking doors
every single week.
But my plan is that every time I go back to visit Hawaii,
my plan is to go to a different island
in the islands of Hawaii and do like some recon missions
and do some small soul-willing bursts while I'm there.
And so I wanna make sure to reach at least part,
you know, obviously, there's like 1.4 something million
people in the islands of Hawaii.
So that's like, just to reach the islands of Hawaii
is like a lifetime goal.
But it doesn't mean we can't hit each island
and start to gain some traction in some of these places.
And that's kind of my plan.
And then my plan is also once a year
to hit one of these islands in the Pacific.
So to just make that one trip that we do,
that, whatever Pacific island that is.
Now, Hawaii is usually a good launching point for these
because trying to fly to one of these places in one shot
is gonna be really difficult, okay?
I don't like flying on planes for that long
of a period of time, so it'd probably be like Hawaii
and then preach and then head to one of these places
on a mission strip.
Now, if somebody wanted to go that far, they could,
but like, I believe just flying to Guam itself
would be 12 and a half hours or something from Portland.
And I think you still have to stop in Hawaii
to fill up or something.
I don't think you can fly for that long without,
you know, because it's not like, you know,
these jetliners are just having people line up
to fly to these islands.
So you're usually gonna be like, you know,
have you ever flown around the northwest
on Alaska Airlines and you got the like,
pond jumping type planes or the ones with the propellers
still and you're like, eh.
It's kinda like that, so you probably would have to,
it's probably gonna, it would take careful planning.
But my plan is to hit at least one of these places
and you know, the best places to hit first
would be the United States territories, okay?
And so American Samoa, so the Samoa is divided
in American Samoa and then the nation of Samoa.
So you do have, you don't, in American Samoa,
all you have to do is have a pass,
you do have to have a passport but like,
American, they're like, they're basically like
American citizens that can't vote.
So the best place I think to go to first
would be American Samoa and then of course,
Guam is also a territory of the United States
and so Guam is one of the islands
that was fiercely fought over
and it's in the Mariana Islands, I believe.
I got a bunch of papers up here, so.
And then the Northern Mariana Islands
is also a territory of the United States.
You're like, well, I've never heard
of any of these places, Pastor Thompson.
Well, if you haven't heard of Guam,
maybe you need to read a history book or something
but Guam was explained to me like this,
that it's Hawaii from 50 years ago.
It's very beautiful, it's very tropical
but the problem with Guam is it's 95% Roman Catholic.
So that's a stronghold, is it not?
It's a stronghold of Catholicism
but we don't really have a hard time winning people
that are Catholic to the Lord.
As long as they're not like the dyed in the wool,
whip their backs and all that kind of stuff.
If they're not like the ones that have like
the Shrine of Mary right inside their house,
I think we'll be okay and I think, you know,
but every island is gonna have its own challenges.
So Guam is probably one of the closest ones
or best ones we can go to because
the American dollar works there,
the American dollar works in Samoa.
So a lot of these places, they accept the American dollar
so the less amount of things that we have to do
to go to these islands, the better
and that's why I think it's best to go
to those islands first.
Now, there's also sovereign states
that are in free association with the United States
and these are the republics of the Marshall Islands,
the ones I was telling you that nuclear testing was done
and then the federated states of Micronesia
and then the Republic of Palau.
Now, these places are friends with the United States
and basically the United States
helps them do a lot of things.
The Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands
is also one of those places.
So we can reach those places and you know what
the great thing about it is is that they speak English.
A lot of these places, a lot of these Pacific islands,
they speak English in these places
because English is a very dominant language now in the world
so my plan is to what first hit Hawaii first,
then hit like the territories of the United States
and then make sure that we hit
the English-speaking ones first.
Now, I would definitely love to go to French Polynesia.
Who's ever heard of French Polynesia, right?
Well, we have two people in our church that speak French
and I'm not one of them but I would like to learn French.
You know, if I can, it's a very difficult language to learn
and especially when you're older but like,
hey, you know, we can still try, right?
So I would love to hit the French-speaking people
of Polynesia so that would be like Tahiti, Bora Bora,
the Marquis Islands and things like that.
So who's ever heard of Tahiti?
Okay, who's heard of Bora Bora?
All right, who's heard of the Marquis Islands?
Yeah, okay, so these are French-speaking places
so hey, if that's something that you would desire to do
is to learn how to speak French,
well, there's a lot of people that would love
to hear the gospel in French
and obviously, there's people from Europe
that we could, you know, have partner with us.
Well, you know, it can't just be our church alone.
Obviously, a lot of people have to get in on the philosophy
and have a heart to reach these places
and like I said, it's not cheap.
You know, it can be expensive to go on these types of trip
and so that's what makes it difficult
because they are paradise.
You know, you're like, well, you just wanna go in paradise
and mother, shut up, okay?
It's hot and I figure, well, today is a good day to do that
because it's the hottest day ever recorded in this area
but it's definitely a different kind of hot.
It's tropical hot so in those islands, it's tropical
so it can be difficult to do so
when in humid and hot places like that
but we need French speakers.
We need, you know, I mean, part of my plan
is to hit the French speaking areas, you know,
and obviously, we're not gonna be able to knock
every single door on one trip to one of these islands
so like I'm just hoping that this takes off
and people just like get really super motivated
to wanna go to one of these places.
You're like, I don't know, I don't know if I could do that.
Well, you know, God makes all things possible
to them that believe.
So look, we limit ourselves by what we think we can do
and what we need to start getting on is the mind of Christ
so that we know that, you know, God will do all things,
you know, through faith so when we just have lack of faith
and it really hinders us from being able to do the things
that we could do and, you know, Jesus, you know,
he went into his hometown and he went into different places
that were not wanting to hear him or receive him
and he couldn't do very many works in those places.
Why?
Because of their unbelief.
And so, you know, maybe God's not doing things
in your life because of your unbelief.
Maybe you need to like broaden your mind a little bit
and just say, hey, look at all the great and wonderful
things that God's done in the history
and just in the Bible alone.
You know, there's so much stuff that's not even written
in the Bible that God's done and, you know,
the books can't even be, the tale can't be told
because there's just so much stuff that God has done
but yet we limit God in our own minds by our lack of faith.
Do you know that God can dominate every single sport
in the world?
I mean, think about that for a second.
We have people that just train every single day
and they're just like, you know, the best at their sport,
the best at their abilities and they fail all the time.
But you know who never fails?
God.
And so, and I'm just talking about people
just in a worldly sense, who's the best swimmer
that's ever been?
Was it, what's that guy, the pot smoker guy,
what's his name?
Michael Phelps.
Is he the best one of all time or?
Okay, yeah, so.
Michael Phelps, you know, has he ever lost a match?
I don't know if he's ever, I'm sure he has.
Yeah, so he's failed, hasn't he?
So people that are like the best of what they are,
you got the best hunters, you got the best people
in the military, all these people, but what is my point
is that they fail all the time.
But you know who never fails?
God never fails.
God would hit the bullseye at our men's shooting
every single time.
God made everything.
God spoke this world into existence.
He made everything.
He knows what the ins and outs of everything,
and so you know what, he'd do with all things well.
He's never gonna fail at anything.
You know who fails?
We fail with our lack of faith.
We fail.
So we need to have like a mindset where we can do
all things because Christ has given us the power
to do those things.
Isn't that what Acts chapter one says?
You're gonna receive this power, the power of the Holy Ghost.
Well, you know what, each person that's saved
in this building has the power of the Holy Ghost,
but you're restricting yourself by your unbelief
and the things that you think you can't do.
So I say that this is not gonna happen overnight,
but just by saying that, I'm limiting God.
Obviously, it's not gonna happen tonight,
but what is my mindset about how long it might take?
Well, 20 to 25 years it could take.
It could take that long, and I just kinda got through,
I just was like lettering all these islands
as different islands that we could go to,
and I got to T in my lettering.
There's so many, and that's just the ones I got to.
Those are the major ones that we should go to,
but if you figure 20 to 25,
then if you figure a trip a year,
then that's how long it's gonna take.
Now, what's an X factor to speed things up?
What's gonna exponentially grow this thing?
Well, people, they get behind the vision
to reach these islands.
Maybe people from other churches, or our church grows,
and more people get a burden a lot,
maybe we can step up and have more trips.
We can have people go in and do little commando missions
to these places, and we can just,
God's kingdom builds by exponential growth.
But if people aren't doing the work,
then it's not gonna grow.
So we need people to have the vision to do that.
So we need people that wanna be missionaries to these places
and people that are interested
in taking these kinds of trips.
And I think what would help is native speakers
that would get saved and baptized,
and they could be trained as missionaries
and wanna win their own island to Christ.
So I just think that we can't limit what God does.
We have to just think, well, hey,
we have this vision to reach these islands,
well, let's get it done, or start it.
We can't just sit around and go,
well, I think God's just gonna do it,
he's just gonna appear out of the sky,
and he's gonna save these people.
It says that they're waiting, we're not Calvinists here.
We actually have to go out and preach the gospel,
that's why he told us to do it.
That's why the last thing he said
was for us to go and reach these islands.
Turn to Matthew chapter 13, Matthew chapter number 13.
And Jesus puts all kinds of parables forth in the Bible,
and he really talks a lot about the kingdom of God.
And here's a parable that's very important,
I think, to this sermon.
It says another parable, verse 31,
put he forth unto them, saying the kingdom of heaven
is like a grain of mustard seed,
which a man took and sowed in his field.
So the word of God, just even the smallest amount
of the word of God sown into a field, right?
And the mustard seed is the smallest seed that there is.
So it's like this big, you can't see that little hole,
but it's really small.
And so, but what's it say?
It says, which indeed is the least of all seeds,
so the Bible, Jesus actually says
it is the least of all seeds,
but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs,
and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come
and lodge in the branches thereof.
Attack pigeons, right?
No, but what is Jesus saying?
Well hey, just a little bit of the word of God
can grow into a gigantic tree
that birds of the air can come and lodge in.
And you know, you think you got this little small seed,
but it can do great things.
God's word can do great things and grow
and become a mighty, powerful kingdom in this world.
But see, it's limited by people's faith.
If you don't even have the faith
of a grain of a mustard seed, you're in a lot of trouble.
I mean, everybody has a little tiny bit of faith, right?
So, but people just won't get on God's program
and they don't believe these things.
So there's another parable spaking
unto the kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven,
which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal
till the whole was leavened.
So what is it saying?
Well, you just take one person, that one woman.
She took and hid three measures of meal.
So a lot of times, leaven is pictured in the Bible
as something bad, but in this, it's not.
It's showing that the word of God is like leaven
to where it'll grow up and just take over
the whole lump, right?
So we need to understand that God's,
just a little bit of God's word does a lot of stuff.
Does a lot, does big things.
Look at verse 45, it says, again, the kingdom of heaven
is like unto a merchant man seeking goodly pearls,
who when he had found one pearl of great price
went and sold all that he had and bought it.
So like, you figure like Hawaii's kinda like that pearl,
right out in the Pacific Ocean,
but you know, and we went out and we bought it.
We went and got a church started there and everything,
and you know, we went out and bought it,
and we didn't sell everything, though.
But we need to be sold out, though.
We need to be sold out for the kingdom of God,
and that's the problem that a lot of churches have
is they have no vision for anything.
You know, it's just like, well, let's just keep meeting here
and you know, we'll have a taco bake for kids to go to camp
and then maybe, you know, the preacher we bring
can preach all these kids up the aisle
and get them saved again this year, right?
That's their vision.
You know, and I like going to camp.
I liked going to the kids' camp and I thought it was great,
but you know, if the same kid's getting saved every year,
then maybe he didn't really get saved.
I don't know.
Maybe that's another way to look at it, right?
But look at verse 47, it says,
again, the kingdom of heaven's like unto a net
that was cast into the sea and gathered of every kind,
which when it was full, they drew to shore
and sat down and gathered the good into vessels
but cast the bad away.
So shall it be at the end of this world,
the angels shall come forth and sever the wicked
from among the just and shall cast them
into the furnace of fire.
There shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.
So the kingdom of God is like this net,
and you know what, we dragged this net,
and that's what we do when we canvas neighborhoods.
People call it canvassing, but we're like this big net
that just goes through the neighborhood,
and we're trying to grab all these good things,
but sometimes some junk gets caught in there.
But you know, the word of God's gonna go forth
and do what it is supposed to accomplish,
and if it's reprobating someone,
then it's reprobating someone.
If it's getting someone saved, it's getting someone saved.
But regardless, when the word of God goes out,
it does the things that it's supposed to accomplish.
And unfortunately, there's gonna be some people
that are in hell, a lot of people.
A lot more people are gonna be in hell
than are gonna be in heaven.
But you know, we need to redeem the time
that we have here on this earth.
You know, a lot of people didn't get saved
until later in life.
I didn't get saved until I was 25 years old.
Look at Ephesians chapter five verse 13.
Ephesians chapter five verse 13.
We gotta stop thinking and having this mentality
that we have all the time in the world.
I can serve God later on when I've made all my money.
I can serve God later on when I've done
all the things I wanted to accomplish.
But that's not necessarily true.
You could be in a wheelchair next week.
You don't know what's gonna happen.
You don't know what's going to happen.
We don't know what a day may bring forth.
Why are you wasting time and being idle
when we could be doing great things for God?
Don't start thinking that I'm gonna do this
later on in life.
That's a bad mentality to have.
Look at Ephesians 5, 13.
It says, but all things that are reproved
are made manifest by the light,
for whatsoever doth make manifest is light.
Wherefore, he saith, awake thou that sleepest
and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.
Hey, it's time for the Christians in this country
and in this world to wake up because we are,
there's a lot of people that are asleep at the wheel.
There's a lot of Christians that are just asleep
and just trudging through life, not caring about anything.
And you think you got all this time, but you don't.
Look at verse 15.
See then that you walk circumspectly,
not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time
because the days are evil.
Wherefore, be not unwise, but understanding
what the will of the Lord is.
What is the will of the Lord?
That you should seek him, that you should worship him
and all these things, but you know what else
he wants you to do, is to redeem the time.
Because a lot of people think that you just have all,
you know, you think you're gonna be knocking,
you're gonna live to 100 years old,
and the last thing you're gonna be doing is like,
Lord, one more door.
You think that's what you're really gonna be doing
the day you die?
I mean, maybe somebody in here might be.
But think about the life of Jacob.
Think about the life of, Isaac was blind, right?
Wasn't Isaac blind at the end of his life?
How many doors was he knocking?
Probably not a lot.
And as a matter of fact, he was like ready
to give the blessing to his son that was not even,
he wasn't really, he wasn't the one
that Christ was called through.
And he cared more about meat.
He cared more about the venison that his other son,
Esau, made over the one that God said,
this is who your seed's gonna be called through.
You think Isaac didn't know that?
Of course he knew that.
But at the end of our lives, we're not as spiritual as,
you know, was Isaac a spiritual man?
Absolutely, he's one of the patriarchs.
He's a great man in the Bible.
But at the end of his life, what was he doing?
Trying to give the promises to the wrong guy.
Had to be tricked with a goat's hair on Jacob's arm.
Jacob had to go through this elaborate thing
to get the blessing.
You think that you're gonna be doing
all these spiritual things at the end of your life,
but you might not be, that's my point.
Jacob, at the end, he was worshiping the Lord,
but was he knocking doors?
Was he getting people saved?
No, because look, when you get old,
you're like, you know, people have this expectation
that, you know, people, you see on gravestones, right?
You know, so and so live from here to here.
And you think that you're gonna be just serving God
through that whole dash?
You're not.
First of all, you're not serving God
even until you get to the first part
where you're actually saved.
And then the other dash goes to whenever you
lose your mental capacities,
or lose your physical ability to do things.
So what, you know, you think you have all this time,
rethink, you know, what you're thinking about.
Be renewed with, you know,
you need to have your mind renewed.
And you need God to do that.
So we're not supposed to walk,
we're supposed to walk circumspectly.
That means you're looking around at all the angles.
What's gonna happen, what, you know,
and you need to plan your life out accordingly.
So we need to walk circumspectly and redeem the time,
because the days are evil.
And your last 20 years on this planet
might be you sitting in a wheelchair
on dialysis or something.
You don't know.
You really don't know.
So why not get busy for the things of God right now,
and just get on the program with whatever
the church is doing, and just work as hard as you can.
Maybe you don't have a vision.
Well get on the church's vision.
Get under the vision of what the pastor wants to do.
And if that vision's good, honestly,
turn to James chapter four, verse 13.
James chapter four, verse 13.
Here's the problem, is we think we know
what we're gonna do in our life.
But life can strike you a blow
that might put you out of commission
for the rest of your life.
You just don't know.
James chapter four, verse 13 says,
go to now, ye that say, today or tomorrow
we'll go into such and such city,
or excuse me, such a city, and continue there a year,
and buy, and sell, and get gain.
This is exactly the mentality I'm talking about.
Whereas you know not what shall be on the morrow,
for what is your life?
It is even a vapor that appearth for a little time,
and then vanishes away.
If you've ever cooked Top Ramen noodles,
you have that vapor that comes up, right?
Okay, I'm just using that as an example,
because I've cooked a lot of Top Ramen noodles in my life.
But that vapor goes up, and when you turn it off,
the smoke's gone, right?
That's what the Bible's explaining to you right here,
is that your life is short.
It's shorter than you realize.
I mean, I'm about to have 20 years' marriage
to my wife over here, praise God.
But you know, it seems a lot faster after 20 years.
We're here, and it's like, man, where did the time go?
And that's exactly what's gonna happen to you.
You think the days are long,
but really, the more time you waste, the faster.
Honestly, it's gonna go fast
when you're doing a lot of stuff,
but it can seem to go slow.
And you can seem to be doing,
if you're not doing anything, it'll still go by fast.
Maybe not as fast as if you're working hard.
You know when you're at work,
and you're just working really hard,
and all of a sudden you're like,
oh, it's already time for lunch.
That's what's gonna happen when you're working hard,
and that's great.
But even if you're not working hard,
if you're looking at your watch every five minutes,
and it's like you're working a 12-hour day,
those days can go long.
But I'll tell you what, your life is still like a vapor,
regardless of whether you're working hard
or whether you're not working at all.
And when you're not working at all,
and you think, five years from now,
I'm gonna really hit the missions,
I'm really gonna go on these trips and all this stuff,
but then you get to that point,
and you haven't done anything.
So what I'm trying to tell you is that
we don't know what's gonna happen.
We don't know what our life's gonna be like.
We don't know whether we're gonna develop
some disease that puts us out of commission.
We don't know.
And so now is the time to do things.
Behold, today is the day of salvation.
It's the day, today is the day of salvation
for all these people that are in these islands
and have nobody to preach to them,
except for United Methodists,
who believe you can lose your salvation.
Charles Wesley, that's the Methodist religion,
and you know how there's an argument
of Armenians and Calvinists?
Well, the Wesley brothers are the ones
that started that whole Methodist movement,
and they're a bunch of lose your salvation heretics.
Yeah, they're Armenians.
They believe you can lose your salvation.
So we need to get busy,
because there's a lot of people dying
and going to hell in these islands
that haven't even got to hear the true gospel,
and we need to bring it to them.
So only what's done for Christ
is gonna last on this earth.
The only thing that's gonna be done for Christ,
only what's done for Christ will last
in your judgment or whatever,
because the things that are wood hay and stubble
are gonna burn up.
They don't mean anything.
It's like all the times you played ping pong
at the church.
Do you think that's wood hay and stubble,
or do you think it's eternal rewards?
But it's not wrong to play.
I'm not saying it's wrong.
I'm just saying that if you spend all your time
playing ping pong and no time serving the Lord,
all that stuff's gonna burn up.
It's all gonna burn up,
and again, I'm not saying not to play, okay?
Don't get me wrong.
I don't think we should just not have fun ever,
but too much of a good thing, you know?
As Pastor Shelley preached a couple weeks ago,
good sermon.
So only what's done for Christ is last.
Well, what if you die, Pastor Thompson?
You could die tomorrow, Pastor Thompson,
and where's your vision gonna go?
Well, my goal is that other people get on that vision
and carry the torch forth,
and I wanna have not only just IFB influence
in the Pacific Islands, but new IFB, right?
So I want people to understand the Bible and truth,
not go over there and say, hey, at any moment,
Jesus could come and take you off the island.
I mean, he could, but just not in the way
that they're trying to say.
So, but anyway, hopefully someone will pick up the torch.
Look at Matthew chapter 24.
Now I'm gonna rattle off some verses, and we'll be done.
Matthew chapter 24, verse 14 says,
and this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached
in all the world for a witness unto all nations,
and then shall the end come.
See, what are we supposed to do?
We're just supposed to keep going forth
and preaching the gospel all throughout the world
as a witness to all the nations,
and then the end's gonna come.
Do you know when the end's gonna come?
No, but God does.
And what are we supposed to do?
We're supposed to be busy doing these things.
I was thinking about these different gates in heaven
and how they are made up of all these different jewels
and things, and I just wondered, like,
I wonder what that represents, you know?
And you're like, well, someone's gonna email me
and go, Pastor Thompson, you're a pastor,
and you don't know what that represents.
Well, maybe I don't, I don't know.
But one thing I know is that there's gonna be a place
where there's a gate, there's gonna be 12 gates,
and they're gonna be made of pearls.
Now where do pearls come from?
They come from the ocean, don't they?
So if you think about the city,
if you're on one part of the city,
and then you gotta go all the way across
to the other side of the city,
isn't that, that's gonna be a far distance, right?
And the New Jerusalem's pretty huge, right?
So, but it's gonna have these 12 gates that are 12 pearls.
Revelation 21 verse 21 says,
and the 12 gates were 12 pearls.
Every several gate was of one pearl.
And the street of the city was pure gold
as it were transparent glass.
So this city's gonna be very beautiful,
but what I think is very interesting
is that it's made of pearls.
And what is usually the uttermost parts of the earth?
These islands where you can get pearls.
So I mean, and obviously you can get pearls
on most seacoasts and things like that,
but like in Tahiti they have what's called a black pearl.
Have you ever heard of the black pearl?
And so there are one in 10,000
of a specific kind of oyster produces these black pearls.
So they're very rare.
But I wonder what the,
if those city gates are supposed to represent
the uttermost parts,
because like the farther you are,
it's the farthest point to the outside, right?
If you live in the center of the city,
isn't it the uttermost part?
If you're in the center of New Jerusalem,
the gates would probably be the uttermost parts
of the earth.
So I just thought that was an interesting little tidbit.
So let's roll through some verses,
and I'm gonna show you a lot of the verses
just in Isaiah alone,
but how the Bible talks about these islands.
And I'm not gonna go through all of them,
but I just, there's just so many of them
that I wanted to hit the highlights here.
Isaiah, Psalm chapter 97, verse one.
I'm just gonna have you like rapid fire.
So if you don't have time to turn all these,
just write them down.
You can look at them and study them later.
Or you could just do like a search on isles or islands,
and you'll find all these verses.
But Psalm chapter 97, verse one says,
the Lord reigneth, let the earth rejoice,
let the multitude of isles be glad thereof.
Isaiah chapter 24, verse 15,
wherefore glorify ye the Lord in the fires,
even the name of the Lord God in Israel,
in the isles of the sea.
Isaiah chapter 41, verse five says,
the isles saw it and feared.
The ends of the earth were afraid and drew near and came.
So when the isles see, you know, the things that God does,
you know, think about Rahab the harlot.
You know, she heard about the fame of the Lord.
That was the point of why God did that in the first place
so the whole earth would know the things of his glory.
So when the isles see the things,
it says they and feared and the ends of the earth
were afraid, drew near and came.
See, fear is the beginning of knowledge, right?
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.
And look at Isaiah chapter 42, verse 10.
Isaiah 42, verse 10 says,
sing unto the Lord a new song
and his praise from the end of the earth.
Ye that go down to the sea and all that is there in
the isles and the inhabitants thereof.
See, God wants his name to be praised
from all locations on the earth
and notice how he specifically says,
from the end of the earth,
and then he says, ye that go down to the sea.
So the ends of the earth are these island locations
in these far-reaching lands.
So it says, Isaiah 49, verse one.
Listen, O isles, unto me and harken ye people from far.
The Lord hath called me from the womb
and from the bowels of my mother
hath he made mention of my name.
Isaiah 66, verse 19, Isaiah 66, verse 19.
You see why I call Isaiah like the island book?
So Isaiah 66, 19.
And I will set a sign among them
and I will send those that escape of them
unto the nations to Tarshish, Pol, and Lud
and draw the bow to Tubal and Javan
to the isles afar off that have not heard my fame,
neither have seen my glory,
and they shall declare my glory among the Gentiles.
You see, God wants his name to be put out there.
The people that have not heard of the fame of the Lord
or have not seen his glory, hey, they need to be,
those Gentiles need the glory of God declared unto them.
And who's gonna fulfill these scriptures?
Who's gonna fulfill them?
Save people, Christians that are going forth
and preaching the gospel, and that's what needs to happen.
Turn to Jeremiah chapter 25, verse 22.
Jeremiah chapter 25, verse number 22 says,
And all the kings of Tyrus, and all the kings of Sidon,
and the kings of the isles which are beyond the sea.
Jeremiah 31, verse 10.
Hear the word of the Lord, O you nations,
and declare it in the isles afar off,
and say, He that scattered Israel will gather him
and keep him as a shepherd doth a flock.
So God wants all the nations to hear his words.
Hear the word of the Lord, O you nations.
Declare it in the isles afar off.
Isaiah chapter 11, verse 11.
Now this actually specifically talks
about islands themselves.
Isaiah chapter 11, verse 11.
Why am I rambling through all these verses
about isles and islands?
Because I wanna show you how much there is
in the word of God about it.
It's not just some very obscure thing
that God just mentions every once in a while, no.
It's very prevalent through the scriptures.
Look at Isaiah 11, 11, it says,
And it shall come to pass in that day
that the Lord shall set his hand the second time
to recover the remnant of his people,
which shall be left from Assyria, and Egypt,
and Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam,
and from Shinar, and from Hamath,
and from the islands of the sea.
So it says the second time to recover
the remnant of his people.
Now look at Isaiah 41, verse one.
Keep silence before me, O islands,
and let the people renew their strength.
Let them come near, then let them speak.
Let them come near together to judgment.
Let them give glory unto the Lord
and declare his praise in the islands.
So does God want us to reach the islands?
Yes or no?
Yes, he does.
And so what if we don't reach them, though?
What's gonna happen if we don't reach them?
Well, we know that they're gonna end up in hell
and it was designed for the devil and his angels,
but there's gonna be multitudes of souls
who go to hell too.
Look at Isaiah chapter 13, verse 22.
Isaiah chapter 13, verse 22 says,
and the wild beasts of the islands
shall cry in their desolate houses
and the dragons in their pleasant places,
and her time is near to come,
and her days shall not be prolonged.
See, these places where the wild beasts are,
it says of the islands shall cry
in their desolate houses.
Why are they gonna be desolate?
Because their time has come.
Their days shall not be prolonged.
So there's a danger in not reaching them.
The danger is that these people
are all gonna die and go to hell.
Do you actually care about whether people die
and go to hell?
Right.
We should.
Amen.
If you're saved, you should care.
Ezekiel chapter 39, verse six.
Ezekiel 39, verse six says,
and I will send a fire on Magog
and among them that dwell carelessly in the isles
and they shall know that I am the Lord.
See, there's people that dwell carelessly.
They just don't care, you know,
and the fact is is that they're not being reached.
Maybe they would care if they got reached.
Obviously, this is way into the future,
but there's apparently in the thousand year reign,
there's gonna be people that dwell carelessly
in the isles too, you know,
and God's gonna send a fire on Magog
and among them that dwell carelessly.
So it's not just gonna be Magog and Gog that get destroyed.
It's gonna be people that are careless in the isles.
So turn to Daniel chapter 11.
Turn to Daniel chapter 11.
I almost don't have any turn, I know.
It's not even 12 yet, so quit whining.
Daniel chapter 11, verse 18.
And after this shall he turn his face unto the isles
and shall take many, but the prince,
but, excuse me, but a prince for his own behalf
shall cause the reproach offered by him to cease.
Without his own reproach, he shall cause it
to turn upon him.
Now you're like, well, Pastor Thompson,
what's the context of this, the anti-Christ?
You know, and obviously it's, you know,
things that have been fulfilled in the past,
but it's also things that are gonna be fulfilled
in the future.
So at some point, you know, the anti-Christ
is gonna take over the whole world.
And what part, you know, so if we don't reach
these people, a lot of these people are gonna go to hell,
they're gonna be taken over by the anti-Christ.
And so it's super important.
You're like, well, how many people live in these places,
Pastor Thompson?
A lot.
There's a lot of people that live in these islands.
And is it like 10 million people?
No, it's not 10 million people.
Is it 20 million people?
No, it's not 20 million people.
We're talking hundreds of thousands
that equal up to millions.
So Isaiah 15, let's see, I'm gonna have,
you turn to Isaiah 59, verse 18,
I'm gonna read Isaiah 40, verse 15.
Isaiah 40, verse 15 is a very famous verse.
It says, behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket
and are counted as the small dust of the balance.
Behold, it taketh up the isles as a very little thing.
And they are a very little thing, aren't they?
They're like little specks out in the ocean.
If you, and you're free and welcome to come up
and look at these after the service,
but I mean, like, you see just little dots
all over this paper?
Those represent little tiny islands all over the Pacific.
And there's people that are dying
and going to hell there, too.
People die and go to hell in paradise,
and it's very sad, but that's what the goal
of this sermon is, so that you can have a fire in you
to reach these people.
And Isaiah 59, verse 18, it says,
according to their deeds, accordingly,
he will repay fury to his adversaries,
recompense to his enemies,
to the islands he will repay recompense.
So even in the islands, there's gonna be people
that God is gonna smoke.
He's gonna puff up and go, you know,
look, in most of these places, guess what?
They've been raised up from the ocean by volcanoes.
You know, and so when God really wants to smoke it,
you know, there's gonna be some literal smoke
in these places.
And why would they be desolate?
Well, if there's lava all over them,
then I guess that'd be a reason
why they'd be desolate, right?
Like I said, Guam is 95% Catholic right now.
So what is the other 5%?
Atheist?
I mean, I don't know.
I'm sure that there's little percentage points
of other different people, but hey,
Guam needs to be reached before it's 100%.
You know, it's probably never gonna be 100% Catholic,
because, you know, there's always gonna be somebody
that thinks that that's the great whore,
but I mean, we need to reach Guam before it's too late.
In Psalm chapter two, verse eight, it says,
ask of me and I shall give thee the heathen
for thine inheritance and the uttermost parts
of the earth for thy possession.
You think Jesus is asking for it today?
Do you think he wants those places,
the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession?
Absolutely, he does.
You know what God says?
I'm gonna give it to you.
But see, the plan for Christ in Acts chapter one,
verse eight, is for us to go out from Jerusalem,
reach our Jerusalem, reach our Judea, reach our Samaria,
and then the uttermost parts of the earth.
We're like, well, what about all the other places,
Pastor Thompson?
We're gonna reach them too.
This is just one part of the plan, guys.
So we got more than we could ever possibly do
in our lifetimes.
So let's start working on it.
Let's start getting onto it.
And this is the last verse.
I'll have you turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 16, verse nine,
and we're almost done.
It's almost exactly 12.
I think that clock is fast or something.
Isaiah, or excuse me, 1 Corinthians chapter 16, verse nine.
The Bible says this, and this is true as the day is long.
For a great door and effectual is opened unto me,
and there are many adversaries.
Let's not forget that in this type of work,
when we go and do great things for God, it never fails.
When we go do something great for God,
that enemies are trying to attack us on the up.
Just like when we went to Yakima the first time,
where people were attacking us.
Yes, they were.
We had the Sodomites here to bookend our trip, right?
And just there's always people attacking.
Don't ever forget this,
that when you're doing great things for God,
that there's always gonna be multiple adversaries.
There are gonna be adversaries that live there.
There's gonna be adversaries that live here.
There's gonna be adversaries
that rise up out of our own church.
There's gonna be adversaries in every place that we go.
Once we go through that open door,
once we go and say, hey, the great door's been opened,
let's walk through it, mark my words,
there's gonna be adversaries at the other side of that door.
When we do great works for God,
there's always a great letdown, it seems like, afterwards.
But we just have to understand
that that's just the pattern of how things go.
And we have to just understand that, you know,
the devil's always gonna be trying to stop us.
He's always gonna be trying to stop this church
and tear it down and destroy it.
There's always gonna be these enemies
that are without and within that wanna destroy
and distract us from the work that needs to be done.
Just know it, just understand it.
And then it won't catch you by surprise
every single time that it happens.
And they're like, well, what about this, what about?
There's many adversaries, people, many adversaries.
And they take all shapes and forms.
They're the lower level demons
and the higher level demons, okay?
And usually, you know, when our first church started,
our church first started,
we had a lot of lower level demons that popped up, right?
The Sebastian's and people like that.
Low level, right?
Very easy to spot, very easy to flush out the,
what's that guy's name, the other moron?
Taylor, yeah, thank you.
I said moron, Justin's like, Taylor, yeah.
Guy's not even saved, he's a Mennonite now.
You know, and the lower levels happen,
but then the higher levels kick in.
At some point, they do kick in.
You know, then all of a sudden,
you got a Garrett Kerchway on your hands,
or you got a, you know, whatever,
Dominique Davis on your hands.
You gotta, you know, there's just,
there's so many enemies, so many adversaries,
we always have to have our guard up.
Because when we go to do great things for God,
when we go to try to reach the islands of the Pacific,
I guarantee you, there's gonna be battles
that take place then, too.
So just expect it, just expect it to happen, okay?
But you know, the most important thing
that I want you to get out of this message
is that we don't have a lot of time.
And so we need to reach these places
while we have the health and mental capacity to do it.
If you're like Joe Biden, it's gonna be rough.
You know, he can't even speak a single sentence
without making a mistake.
You know, I mean, and I'm not saying
you guys are gonna get to that capacity,
but I mean, you just don't know.
We don't know what a day's gonna bring forth,
so we need to reach this world.
We need to reach the Pacific Islands
while we have the opportunity,
while there's a vision to do it, all right?
Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, we thank you, Lord, so much
for this wonderful day and for all the great people
in our church, and just pray, Lord,
that you would bless our church and this vision
that we have to reach the Pacific Islands.
I pray that people, multiple people,
would have a burden to do this,
and Lord, yeah, it's expensive,
but like, is there anything too hard for you?
There's nothing too hard for you.
You know, we need to learn that lesson
and understand that you can do all things,
and by faith, you can make it happen.
I pray that you'd bless the rest of our day, Lord.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
All right, the last one will be song number 328,
I Want That Mountain.
Song number 328 in the green, I Want That Mountain.
Song 328 in the green, let's sing it out on the first.
I saw the giant of prayerlessness
upon the mountain high.
He laughed so hard at my unbended knee.
No longer in the wilderness I'll stay,
and so I cry, I want that mountain,
it belongs to me.
I want that mountain, I want that mountain,
where the milk and honey flow,
where the grapes of ashe will grow,
I want that mountain, I want that mountain,
the mountain that my Lord has given me.
There was a giant of laziness who said I wouldn't go
and witness for the one who set me free.
I'll come from out the wilderness,
I'll witness now I know,
I want that mountain, it belongs to me.
I want that mountain, I want that mountain,
where the milk and honey flow,
where the grapes of ashe will grow,
I want that mountain, I want that mountain,
the mountain that my Lord has given me.
One faithless giant upon the crest of Hebron's lofty hide
has vowed that he's the one to make me flee.
I'll climb from out the wilderness
and trust Jehovah's mind,
I want that mountain, it belongs to me.
I want that mountain, I want that mountain,
where the milk and honey flow,
where the grapes of ashe will grow,
I want that mountain, I want that mountain,
the mountain that my Lord has given me.
Let every giant of distress and unbelief and sin
get ready now to vacate for you see.
I've come from out the wilderness,
I know I'm going to win,
I want that mountain, it belongs to me.
I want that mountain, I want that mountain,
where the milk and honey flow,
where the grapes of ashe will grow,
I want that mountain, I want that mountain,
the mountain that my Lord has given me.
Amen, good to see you brother Eli,
could you close your water for him?
Wow.