Called to be a Lifesaver

Well, I want to ask you, who's the marshal in your life? A couple of years ago, almost two years ago now, when Jeanne and I moved to our home, one of the things we were looking forward to was getting to live around some pagans maybe, you know, out here on Hall's Ridge, you know. So we were hoping to be around a few pagans. And so we made it, we made it our hearts commitment that our neighbors in this complex where we're living, we would try to get to know all of them and try to introduce them to Christ. When we moved in, there was only one other person living there and she was an elderly lady and we got to know her fairly quickly and found out that she knew and loved the Lord. And then not too long after that, a few months after that, we had someone move next door to us. And we got to know them and also found out they loved the Lord, go to a good church. Since then we have two other folks last summer who moved in and I know them well enough to know where they go to church and don't know yet whether or not they know Christ. What about that list? I don't want to put those two people off too late. Who's the Marsha on your list? Each year in the President's State of the Union address, we've come to expect that he's going to introduce us to some hero who's probably seated in the balcony and maybe more than one and we'll get to know a little bit about them and who they are and they'll stand, everybody will applaud and it'll be quite a story. In fact, there have really been some unforgettable moments because of that in 2005 President Bush introduced a woman by the name of Sophia. Sophia was a female government leader in Iraq. Her father had been executed by Saddam Hussein and just three days prior to that state of the Union address, she had voted in the first three elections in Iraq and who knows how long and she was there to represent her country. A few minutes later President Bush introduced Pat and Janet Norwood, the Norwood's repair of a young Marine who was killed in action in Iraq. And it was at that point when you made that second introduction, this was not in the script, this kind of blew away from the script and the Iraqi woman made her way to the mother of the Marine and they embraced there in the gallery. It was quite a moment. Maybe you remember the moment in 1994 when former President Clinton introduced Jack Lucas. Jack Lucas was the youngest congressional Medal of Honor winner in our country's history. He landed on the sands of the beach of Iwo Jima in World War II. Two grenades awaited him and he dove on top of those grenades to save some of his buddies and miraculously lived through that explosion. He was being honored that night as a war hero and sitting beside him were his son who was a West Point graduate and his grandson who was 17 years old, the exact same age Jack Lucas was when he gave himself up for his buddies. But you know the first time that ever happened when President and the State of the Union message introduced a guest or a hero was in 1982. Do you remember the name Lenny Scottnik? Probably not. Lenny Scottnik was introduced by Ronald Reagan, that night President Reagan as a hero. He was just an everyday average Joe guy who was a government employee and one day in January a couple of weeks before that address, he was walking home from work. And he was walking along the banks of Potomac River and he heard something that didn't sound right. He looked up and sure enough here's an airplane crashing into the Potomac River. You remember that? The airplane, Air Florida 90, took off from the downtown Washington Airport, had ice on its wings, immediately crashed into the river. He watched the scene unfold before him. It was absolutely amazing. Some people survived and were crawling out of the windows into the icy waters in a few minutes. Rescue personnel were there, helicopters, rescue vehicles. And Lenny Scottnik watched as a woman tried to put her arm through the loop of a rescue apparatus hanging from a helicopter and she couldn't hold on because her arm was broken. And at that moment Lenny Scottnik dove off of the bank into the Potomac River, grabbed that woman and dragged her to safety on the river bank and then went back in for someone else. In that day Lenny Scottnik became not just your average Joe government employee, became a national hero because he saved someone's life. I believe that God calls us to be lifesavers. I'm going to start a new series of messages this morning entitled lifesavers. It's about evangelism. It's about the opportunity and privilege God has given us to reach out to other people and to share the gospel with them and hopefully be a lifesaver to them. God has called every person in this building who knows Jesus as your savior to be a lifesaver, to be a part of a great rescue operation that He has designed for planet earth. Now He's done that over the years through history. In fact we're going to look this morning at Exodus chapter 3 at a man that He called to be a lifesaver. And the call of Moses to be a lifesaver I think is very similar to the call that God gives to every one of us in this room to be a lifesaver to someone else. To be the person who will be God's hands and feet to reach out to someone and share the gospel with them and literally be the lifesaving instrument to bring them to Christ. Let's look in Exodus chapter 3 this morning. Open your Bibles there and we'll look at to see what Moses call was. Now I know what you're thinking. Calls from God are for preachers and missionaries. I've never received a call from God. I've never heard a voice from heaven. Well I'll clue you in on something. Neither have I. I think God has called everyone in this room just like He did Moses to be a lifesaver. And He has called us to that through His word because Jesus said before He went back to heaven in His high priestly prayer in John 17, He said, Father, just like you sent me into this world, I am sending these, these disciples who are with Him into the world. And then the very next verse He says, I speak not only of these but those who will also come to know me through their word. Not you and that's me. We've trusted Christ as our Savior. If you've done that, you've trusted Him because of the Word that those men sitting in that room that night with Jesus wrote. So He was talking about us and He was saying, I commission you, I send you, I call you and send you out into this world to do what I've done and that is to reach people with the gospel. Would it be a lifesaver? Well let's take a look at Moses and see four different elements of God's call in His life that I think really mirror the kind of things that God is doing in our lives, too. Element number one in God's call on Moses was an ordinary day. Just vanilla kind of day, ordinary day. Look at verse one. Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian and he led the flock to the far side of the desert and came to Horab the mountain of God. This is an ordinary day of tending sheep. He is the assistant shepherd to his father-in-law, Jethro. And this day starts like every other day. In fact, Acts chapter seven tells us Moses has been doing this for 40 years. Forty years, he's been tending sheep on the far side of the desert. I would say he's probably developed a pretty comfortable routine in his life. So let's just take a look at Moses' routine. He's out here in a barren desert, a place that quite frankly hasn't changed much today from what it was back then. It looks like a moon scape. There's very little vegetation. Vegetation, it is mostly just craggy rocks and desert. And so Moses has a few sheep out there on this end of the earth. And not only is he in this desert, the Bible says, he's on the far side of the desert. He's in the worst place you can possibly get in this moon scape kind of territory. And he's got a few sheep that he's tending to. He's focused on finding some bushes or a few shrubs for them to feed on, maybe an oasis for them to get some water. And he's done that day after day after day for 40 years. Same thing. Now Moses has daily responsibilities for the flock. He's got to find sustenance for them every day. He's got daily responsibilities for a family by now. He has a wife and two boys. So he's got responsibilities. His life in some sense is full, but he is living in a very small world. Moses is in a very safe, comfortable, small world. And today's going to just be more the same. He has no idea that today is the day God is going to blow the lid off of his life. He has no clue that's going to happen. He just goes about this day like he always has. There's been no meteor go across the sky early that morning to alert him this day is going to be any different. There's been no voice from heaven. There's been nothing by any of that kind of thing. This day has started just like any other day. In fact, there's no evidence that God has spoken to him in 40 years. And it's just been like this day after day after day. There's been no angel warn him. Now pay attention to day Moses because today is going to be different. Today is going to be really special. Nothing like that. It makes up in the morning. The sun is already hot. The sheep need to find a place. He needs to lead them. He's trying to get out of the dryness and the heat. It's just like every other day. Moses routine. Just like every other day. And I suspect that probably most of us here this morning live our own routines very much like that. God is coming to us this morning. He's taking his seat beside you. He's showing up at your pew at your chair. And he is saying to you this morning in the life of your routine, I got something to say to you today. Now I would say most of us here this morning have lives full of responsibility. We've got work responsibilities. We've got family responsibilities just like Moses did. Our lives are probably fairly full, but we live in safe, comfortable, small worlds. For most of us probably our lives are on cruise control. You know, you've got your career niche. You've got your work already kind of set out in front of you. You've got your relationships in place. Those are settled, staked out. Everything is kind of going along in your life. Your beliefs are pretty well settled maybe. Even the spot where you sit in church is staked out. Got your name on it really. I mean, every sudden pretty much where you sit, you park in the same place unless somebody got there a little earlier than you and you come in sitting basically same place. Full routines, small world. Very small world that we live in. And you didn't feel like this today would be any different. You got up this morning and you put your makeup on or you shaved this morning. You had no clue this day was going to be any different. There were no voices from heaven. There were no drum rolls, no symbols. Nothing to say this is going to be a day when God speaks to you specifically. There was nothing like that. You just came to church like any other day. March 19, 2006. I'm going to church. Yeah, just like any other day. No different, right? Comfortable routine. Our safe, secure, small little world. And we have no clue. You have no clue that today is the day that God just might blow the lid off of your life, that he might just show you a bigger destiny than you have ever imagined for yourself, that he might just invite you. No, no, he will call you to be a part of a life-saving operation that he's already got in mind for some people around you. And he's going to point the finger at you this morning and he's going to say, I want you to be a part of this. I'm calling you today to be a part of this. Get off the bank into the icy water, leave your safe, comfortable environment, get in the game and save some lives. If you stay on the bank, somebody's going to die. And I'm calling you today, God is saying, to get off the bank, to get out of the far side of the desert and get into the action and be a life saver for someone who needs Jesus Christ. But this is just an ordinary day, started like any other day. You had no clue that was going to happen to you today. But there's a second element of Moses' day that's, I think, very much like ours and Moses' call. And that is, on an ordinary day, he saw an unusual event. Something unusual happened. Look at verse two. There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire, it did not burn up. So Moses thought, I will go over and see this strange sight why the bush does not burn up. When the Lord saw he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush. Moses, Moses, and Moses said, here I am. Now Moses sees something very unusual. On this very ordinary day, he notices a bush burning. Now that in itself is not unusual. That could probably happen fairly frequently in this part of the world and this kind of desert, a lightning strike or even just the heat of the desert. You know, glancing off a rock or something could cause a bush to burst into flame. That's no big deal. But as he starts to walk on by, he takes another look and he notices this bush is still burning and the bush is still there. Now that is weird. You know, usually if a bush did start burning, obviously in a few moments it's a pile of ashes, but this bush is still a bush and it's burning and nothing's happening to it. Now God has already clued us into what's happening in verse two and he says the angel of the Lord appeared to him. The angel of the Lord and the Old Testament is really Jesus Christ, making an appearance on planet earth to bring special communication to somebody. So this Moses doesn't know it yet, this is going to be a big deal. This is going to be an unusual event. Now all he sees is that there's a bush burning and it's not burning up. It's continuing to burn. The bush is still there. This is really strange. And so Moses says, I'm going to take a little closer look. I want to examine this a little bit more. There's a very interesting word in verse four. It's the word when. You see that? When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush. That's when God spoke to him. When he saw that Moses had stopped to take note of that unusual event in his life, that was when it was almost as though God was waiting. Now God knows all things, had this all planned from the beginning, we know that, but it's almost as though from our perspective, God is waiting to see if Moses is going to turn aside and pay attention to what's going on. And when he does, that's when God speaks. And Moses says, here I am. What about in our lives? In the humdrum, daily routine, existence of our lives, when we're going about things as we normally do, on occasion, there is an unusual event that happens. Somebody calls you, you haven't heard from it a long time. You see someone at the grocery store, you haven't talked to in months, maybe years. Maybe something exciting happens, maybe you get something in the mail that you didn't expect. Maybe something happens to you of a tragic nature or a difficult nature. Something unusual, something out of the ordinary happens. An unusual event happens. And you know what most of us do most of the time, we kind of blow it off. Coincidence, bad luck, good luck, whatever kind of blow it off would go on our way, because we got stuff to do. We got things on our to do list that need to be done. And so we kind of move right along. You know what? On those events in our lives, when something out of the ordinary happens, that unusual event, God is seeking to draw us aside, to cause us to sit up and take notice, to cause us to realize I'm speaking to you. I'm trying to get your attention. And we dare not just blow that off and walk on by. We need to turn aside and examine a little bit, pause a little bit, take that opportunity and begin to say, Lord, are you speaking to me? What are you saying to me? What do you want to show me through this unusual event in my life? In other words, we do like Moses and we say, here I am. Now today or tomorrow, you may have some here I am moments in your life. You may have some moments where something happens that is not the normal ordinary routine, run of the mill stuff that happens to you every day. And when that happens, when you get that phone call or something out of the ordinary happens in your life, you need to say, Lord, here I am, I'm listening. What do you want for me? Are you getting my attention? Are you trying to put a little blip in the screen of my life to get my attention to tell me something? I'm listening. Here I am. Here I am moment. An unusual event in your life. It could happen at any time. And it can break into the routine existence of an ordinary day. But there was also a third event on that day, a third element of Moses call and it's this. It's an awareness of a need. Look at verses 5 and 6. Do not come any closer, God said. Take off your sandals for the place where you are standing is holy ground. Then He said, I am the God of your Father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. At this, Moses hid his face because he was afraid to look at God. Now, what happens here first is that Moses becomes aware of his own need first. And there's a very important part, a very important thing that happens in those here in my moments, where God's getting our attention, where the first thing He wants us to see is our own need. So seeing our need is the first thing that we need to see. And you know what it was for Moses? Moses needed to be reminded of who God was and who he was. Now, you see, Moses needed to remember that God is a holy God. Who he is? Jacob and Abraham and Isaac and his fathers, this great God that Moses knows, but it's been a long time, since Moses has really dealt with God. And he needs to understand that this is a holy moment and a holy place where God is speaking to Him, so Moses, take off your sandals. You know, in the ancient Near East, that was a way of showing respect. That was a way of showing something special is going on. It's interesting that in some places in the world they still do that. In Japan, for instance, when you go into someone's home, you take off your shoes. That's just automatic. I mean, it's unheard of that you wouldn't do that in Japan. That's just to show respect for those people and their household. And so what God is saying, take off your sandals. You're in a holy place. This ground is set apart for a special purpose today. And that is for communication between me and you. And I want you to know, Moses, you are in a holy place on Holy Ground. I am a holy God. And when Moses heard that, the Bible says he hit his face, he was afraid to look at God. He was aware of his own sinfulness. You see, the first thing we need to understand, when we have these unusual encounters in life, these unusual events that happen on ordinary days, when God is trying to get our attention, the first thing he wants us to see. So he wants us to remember who he is and who we are. And we need to see our own need, that we simply are sinners before a holy God. Let me pause there for just a moment. Let me run a little detour here, okay? Because there may be someone here this morning who's never, ever seen that for the first time. Maybe you've never, ever realized that God is a holy God. Absolutely perfect. Never has thought said done anything that was evil or wrong. Perfect. Absolutely holy. And you know what? None of us can claim that. We get in the presence of a holy God like that. We would do the same thing. We'd bow our faces and shy away because we would all be ashamed. Because if we would admit it and be honest, all of us, we know, we have done said thought, had bad attitudes, things that were wrong. We are sinners, we've sinned, we've done things that are wrong, and said and thought things that are wrong. All of us have if we're honest. And so here you got this holy God and we've got us down here. sinful people. And maybe you've never seen that before. Maybe you've never understood that the real problem is that you are facing a holy God. And like Moses, you have no right to stand in the presence of a holy God. But the good news is this. That holy God also loves you. And he wants you to be a part of his family. He wants you to live eternally with him in heaven someday. And so he sent his holy Son Jesus, who never, just like God the Father, never had thought, said, done anything that was wrong. He sent him perfectly qualified because he was holy to do this for you. He sent him to take all of your sin and be punished for you, for your sin and me, for all of us. Jesus did that when he died on the cross. So that if we would trust him as our Savior, we would place our confidence and trust in him, then we could have all of our sin forgiven, and we could be made holy in God's sight before a holy God. That's called salvation. That's called being born again. That's called being right with God. And if you've never realized that before, my friend, that you stand before a holy God, and you need to be saved in order to spend eternity with him someday. If you've never understood that, then today would be a great day for you to do like Moses did. Bow your face before God and humbly ask Jesus Christ to be your Savior. Recognize your own need. But God didn't stop there just dealing with Moses and his need. He also showed Moses the need of others. And sometimes after we see our own need, the very next thing we need to see is the need of others. Seeing the needs of others is very important. Look at what he says. Look at what God says in verse 7. The Lord said, I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians. And to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey, the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Parasites, Hivites and Jebiusites. Verse 9. And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. So now go, I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people to Israelites out of Egypt. Now what God does is he tells of his care for the people. He tells Moses, I see my people down there. I hear their cries. In other words, I feel the despair and the pain that they are suffering. And I am troubled by that, Moses. It moves my heart that these people are in such despair and such heartache that their lives are so broken. And Moses, I am going to do something about it. I have come down to rescue them, he says. Their cry has reached me, and I have heard them. And I am going to do something about that. I am going to lead them out to a land that I am going to give them. And I am sure Moses was thinking, yay God, that is awesome God that you would do that for these people because they do not stand a hope without you. They do not have any hope without you doing something to get them out of Egypt. They will continue on in despair. I have been there, I have seen it, I know God, and I am so glad that you are going to deliver them God. You see God wants us to look around and see the hurting people that are all around us. Some of them you work with, some of them are your neighbors, some of them may be friends, old friends, maybe all the way back to high school, some of them may be family members. There are people all around you that fit the description that God gave of the people of Israel. They are laboring in despair under an awful slave driver. And that is the tyranny of sin. And not knowing how to get clean, not knowing how to get things settled in their lives, not knowing how to make things right with God. And just going from day to day with the heartache and the headache of dealing with life and relationships that are all out of kilter and problems in their lives, they have no clue how to deal with those things. God wants us to see and look with his heart with compassion to people who have those kinds of needs. They are crying out for some help. And God hears that cry. And they are burdened down to the point of despair. And God knows that. And He senses that. And He feels that. And God is going to do something about it. And here is where we come in. Because the last element of this call of Moses, and what I believe is true in all of our lives too, if we know Jesus as our Savior, is a call to action, a definite call to action. We read it in verse 10, look at it again. God says, so now go, I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people to Israelites out of Egypt. And all of Moses celebrating and saying, hooray God now turns to, oh me, because Moses heard some shocking words that would change his life forever. And that is in this great thing that God is doing, this great rescue operation that God says, I am going to bring for my people Israel. God says to Moses, I want you to be a part of this. A very important part of this, Moses. So now you go, you go, you go down to Pharaoh. And I'm going to use you to bring the Israelites out of Egypt. What I want to do to relieve those people from all of their misery and their suffering, they've cried out to me, they're looking for answers, I'm going to use you. I'm going to use you to rescue them. When a use you as their life saver knows us. Well, immediately if we were to read on, we would find that Moses starts offering excuses, Lord, I can't do this. I can't talk well enough to be in front of people. I was a failure before. Who am I that I just can't do this? And God does not listen to any of his excuses. He does not accept any of them because God is asking Moses to do what an average guy like Lenny did back in 1982. Get off of the bank, quit watching what's happening, get into where the action is and start saving some lives. Because if you don't get off the bank, there are going to be some people that die. And so you need to be God's instrument to save those lives, to rescue those people. There are going to be some people that die if you stay where you are. That's what he's saying to Moses. And guess what? That's what he's saying to you and to me too. What God is saying to us is that there are people. There are people around us who are crying out to him. You may not hear it, but God hears it. People that you work with are your neighbors down the street. And they've gone through some difficult times in life and they have nowhere to turn. They have no hope in life. They are trying to make their life work without a savior. And you know some of them. And there are people all around us who are crying out at night in the loneliness of their bedroom for some answers, for some help. And God hears those cries. And their lives are shattered and their relationships are broken and their hopes are dashed and their dreams are gone. And their lives are full of sin and they don't know how to deal with stuff anymore. And God hears all of that. And He knows the depth of the cry of their hearts. And more than that, God knows the awful eternity they will face if they do not understand that the answer is in the Savior Jesus Christ. But God is here this morning. He's pulled up a chair beside you. And He's here to say, you go now. I want to send you. I want to use you. I've got a life-saving operation for those people. But I've providentially in my own wisdom, I have placed you where you can be the one on the bank to jump in the river and offer the help that can save their life. You can be the one to show them Jesus in your life and to tell them about Jesus and the great need they have can be met as you reach out to them. So go now. You go. I want to use you in their lives. Who are the hurting people that you know? Maybe some of them you don't know yet. You know, God has an unusual way of bringing hurting people into our lives and saying, okay, it's time for you to get off the bank. We could go Friday night. I was at home. It was late. And I got a phone call. Second time this guy called me. The first time you'd called me, we both had a commitment and couldn't connect. And I made him promise he would call me again. So he calls me that Friday night. I've never met this guy. I want to give you his full name. His name is Stanley. He lives out in the northern part of Virginia. And he said, I got your name from Richard Layman. You remember Richard Layman? Oh, yeah. Remember Richard? Richard was a farmer in our church in Indiana. And Richard had connected with Stanley in some co-op meetings that they attend. Nationwide meetings. And he became aware of some of the needs in Stanley's life. And some of the questions Stanley had. And he said, let me give you the name of someone I think maybe you ought to call. So Stanley ends up calling me. I've never met the guy. I don't know. All I know is he's 75 years old. And he begins to spill out his story. Through most of his adult life, he's been a cynic. He has questioned everything about the Word of God. He's questioned much of what he's seen in Christian's lives. But three months ago his wife died. And now he's asking some tough questions. What happened to her? Where is she? What's going to happen to me when I die? And every time I would begin to talk with him about his need for Christ and the gospel, he would begin to turn to some other objection he had in the Bible. Capital punishment was a big deal for him. You know, that's injustice. He says, why would God do something like that? He couldn't understand creation. No, no, no, it went one question after another. We talked for about an hour. Towards the end of that conversation, when I just thought I was just getting somewhere and he was beginning to really open up about his own need, all of a sudden he abruptly cut in and said, I know you can tell I've been getting upset. I don't want to say anymore. Goodbye. Now hang up the phone. Thankfully, I've got his phone number. And I'm going to call him back. I'm going to send him some material. We're going to talk more. I've never met the guy. I don't know who he is, but God somehow put that burning bush in my life. That night and said, look, look, take note. This is not just a happenstance thing. This was divinely arranged. Now I want to use you to reach this guy and I want to reach that guy. Now what I'm saying is it may be someone you don't even know, but it may well be your neighbor or your coworker or someone else in your life that you know very well. God hears the cry of their heart. God sees the despair of their lives just like he did. God sees the slavery that they are under in sin, not knowing how to break the chains of sin. God sees all of that and God is saying to you, just like he said to Moses. So now go. I am sending you. Now I know if you're like me, you're probably thinking, and if you're like Moses, you're thinking me, I don't know how to explain to someone to get saved. I don't know a whole lot about the Bible. I'm afraid they'll ask me a question I can't answer. And on and on the excuses go, right? You know what? God will no longer, no better listen to your excuses than he did Moses. He will not listen to your excuses because he has already said, you are to be my witnesses all over this world. And I am sending you into this world just like I sent my son Jesus into this world. So no excuses, no excuses. Okay, so what if something does happen? They ask a question you can't answer. I don't know the answer to that, but I'll look for it and get back to you. You know, there are lots of ways to overcome those objections, but God will not let any objections stand in the way. You are not off the hook. You are on the bank and there's somebody dying out there. And God is saying, so you, you, now you, and you, and you, and you, and you, go and speak to you, not Pharaoh, but Marsha, Frank, Janet, Bill, whoever it may be in your life. God is saying, so now go. I am sending you to that person. And God does want to use you, regardless of how small you may feel, regardless of how unusable you may feel. There's no one on planet earth who felt more unusable than Moses. He had failed miserably when he thought he could be the great leader of Israel and he had spent 40 years out in the desert trying to get over that and trying to forget it. And now God is saying, you, Moses, you go down. I'm sending you. I want to use you. He wants to use you and he wants to use you and he wants to use you and he wants to use me. As small as we may say, God wants to use us to go to people who are hurting and dying without Jesus Christ and get them the gospel. Now in this series of messages in the next few weeks hopefully will help you see the how to do this, you know, the how to go about this. But the first question all of us has to answer is not the how question, it's the who question. And the who question is just like it was with Moses. God's doing something to get your attention on this normal days, gotten your attention, maybe this morning in this service, he's gotten your attention, maybe something that happened this week, he's got your attention and you're saying, here am I. And God is saying to you, okay, all right, so you now, you now go, I'm sending you to Jeff, I'm sending you to Martha, I'm sending you and he's got a place for you to go and a person for you to go to. Do you hear his voice? Do you hear him saying that? It's clear in his word. That's what he wants us to do. So now you go, I am sending you to you feel in the blank. We haven't said much about it since the first Sunday of the year, but our theme for this year, which we'll say a lot about in this series is each one, reach one. And what I'm hoping that we will all do, including myself this day, is to say, I want in my mind the think of that person that God is saying to me, I'm sending you to who is that person. Is it a neighbor? Is it a friend? Is it a coworker? Is it a family member? I am sending you to be praying about that person, be thinking about that person. Look for opportunities that God opens up for you to go to that person. You share with them the gospel of the Lord Jesus. Do you hear his voice? So now go. I am sending you to do you pray with me, please? Father, thank you that you've entrusted to us the great privilege opportunity and responsibility to take your message of salvation to other people. Lord, I pray that in the ordinariness of life, in the very busyness of life, that we will not just rush by the burning bushes that you send to catch our attention, to get ahold of us, to help us realize what you want us to do. Help us to turn aside and take note, to examine, to let you speak to us. And Lord, when we do, we will hear your voice saying, our name, and sending us to someone who needs the gospel. Father, help us to be willing to be the ones who will go. Now, just before we sing, while your heads are still bad, your eyes are closed. I want to ask you a question this morning. And I don't want this to be just everyone saying, I'm going to do this because I think I'm supposed to, and everybody else is going to raise their hand. But I'm asking if God's really spoken to your heart this morning about you being one of those people who will say, yes, I will listen to the voice of God. I will go. If I don't have someone in mind right now, I'm going to have someone in mind this day or tomorrow. I'm going to be thinking and praying about the people that God wants me to go to. But I'm going to answer the who question this morning. I am going to go. Here I am, Lord. If you're willing to make that commitment today, would you lift your hand? Right where you are, yes. Many hands over the auditorium. Thank you. You can take them down. Others, as God speaks to you, say, yes, I will be the one who says, here I am. And I will go. I will go. Father, help us each to search our hearts and make the commitment to go. Every day of our lives to be willing to see who we can reach with the gospel. Pray in Jesus' name. Amen.