Walter Clark

Unidentified: It's right here. All right, good evening,

Speaker 1: welcome to the Baptist Tabernacle, good to have you here with us tonight. Let's all stand. We're going to get started by singing page number one hundred and ninety four in your hymnals patient for one hundred ninety four. We'll get it up on the screen here in just a moment. Page 194 if you need it. When we all get to heaven,

Speaker 2: sing the wondrous love of Jesus. Sing his mercy and his grace and the mansion's bright and blessed. He'll prepare for us a place when we. I'll get to have and one day of rejoicing, that will be when we. See Jesus sing and shout the victory while we walk up new ground past rainclouds will overspread the sky. But when traveling days are over, not a shadow, not a sight when we hold. I'll get to heaven, what a day of rejoicing that will be when we. All see Jesus.

Unidentified: Let us then be true

Speaker 2: and faithful, trusting, serving every day, just one glimpse of him in glory. Well, the tools of life reaping when we. Get to heaven, what a day of rejoicing that will be when we. See Jesus sing and shout the victory,

Speaker 1: hey, man, good job, good to have you here with us. Let's go to law and order a prayer, ask his blessing on our time together here tonight. Only father, we thank for this day. Thank you for the folks that are here this evening or thank you for all the children that are in the back and the workers that are there with them. I just pray that you would bless our time here tonight. May bring honor and glory to your name. I mean, we leave here challenged and encouraged to serve you for having been here this evening. In Jesus name that I ask these things. Amen. All right. Thank you. May be seated. A couple of announcements for you. Some things coming up, and I want to make you aware of the first Friday at 10 o'clock, the senior adults will be leaving the church to go to the Shepherd's Cross Sheep Farm. And I believe Brother Arnie would like you to be here right around nine forty five. That way you can load up and have time to get in the van to head out that way. There's a five dollar donation which is recommended for anyone that attends to the farm there. And then afterwards they're going to be going to lunch at the Apple Barrel Cafe and that'll be around one o'clock. And so this outing does take the place of their normal monthly retreads meeting. And so please make note of that, that this coming Friday will be the senior adult activity for the month. And then next Tuesday, we are looking forward to hosting the Clarence and Miss Britney Nettles. And Brother Clarence is the man that we've been talking to for the last couple of weeks and months about coming to be our potential new youth pastor. And of course, brother Matt has done an excellent job in getting our youth ministry off the ground, getting a program established. But as we've said before, it was always the intention for him to didn't make the transition to adult ministry as soon as we were able to hire that third pastoral staff member. And so the clearances be coming next Tuesday night. He will be here on Wednesday night to do the teen service and get to know the teens. Then we're going to have a Saturday night activity for the teens to be able to kind of interact with him a little bit. Then he'll be doing Sunday school Sunday morning and preaching in the main service Sunday night to give everyone a chance to kind of get to know him and also for him to see a little bit more about our church. We will also have an opportunity during that visit for all of our teen parents to come ask questions, Brother Clarence, and just get to know him a little bit better. So please be in prayer for that. Pray that not only will God make it clear to us whether or not he and Miss Brittany are the right couple for the job, but also make it clear to the Nettle's whether or not this is where God would have them to serve. And so we want God's guidance on them. May 2nd, there will be a meeting for VBS volunteers after the morning service and they'll be right over here on the keyboard side and vacation Bible School will be here before you know it. And last year, VBS was just for mainly our church people, but this year we're excited to be advertising for it, inviting people and trying to get as many kids as possible to be here for vacation, Bible school, and that'll be June 7th through the 11th. So if you're interested in helping with VBS, please attend that meeting on May 2nd, May 8th. You'd want to make that announcement today, right? Sunday. Sunday, May 8th, there's going to be a mother daughter brunch, and this is one of the biggest ladies events we have of the year, and that'll be at 10:00 o'clock here at the church, there is a sign up sheet out in the foyer. We would really appreciate it if you would let us know if you're planning to attend. That way, we can make the necessary preparations. This is a great time for our ladies to get together and invite other ladies to come as well. And then May 9th is Mother's Day. We'll have a special gift in the morning service for all the mothers, but then we will not have an evening service that night, May 15th. Teens are going kayaking cost is twenty five dollars per person. It's an all day event from seven thirty to five o'clock. There'll be a meeting with Brother Matt this Sunday down here by the keyboard for any teens and parents who would like to go on this trip. So if you're planning on your teenager going, please be there for the meeting on this Sunday. We do have an opening if you are interested. We have a janitor position that is open and we are trying to get filled this with an adult. I know we've we've had several teenagers that were interested, but this is a rather large building. And the role that we're trying to fill now would require someone that would be able to handle all of that. And so if you're interested in that, please see Brother Jerry. Jerry, raise your hand and talk to him and let him know if you would be interested in doing that. And then last but not least, with vacation Bible school coming up, we are trying to collect toys, games, different items that could be used as prizes for our vacation Bible school store. Many of you have already made donations, but if you would like to donate more, you can leave those in the church office.

Unidentified: Oh, OK, we made it.

Speaker 1: All right, we're going to sing a well, it's not a new song, but it's going to be new to some of y'all. This is a really great song and we want to learn this because this is a song we're going to be singing a little bit more often. I asked where the man is and why haven't we sang? This is like I just forgot about it. And so some of you probably familiar with it, but let's all stand. We're going to sing.

Speaker 2: You are my all in all or sing both verses. You are mine now. I am weak. You are the treasure that I seek. You are my. All. All seeking you as a precious jewel Lloyd, to give up, I'd be a fool, you are my holding. Oh, Jesus, Lamb of God worthy is your name. Name Jesus, Lamb of God worthy is your name.

Speaker 1: How many of you it's been a while since you sang that song. I mean, you've never sang that song before. Oh, wow. OK, well, hey, I kind of messed up the beginning, so let's go back. We'll sing that first verse again, then we'll go into the second. This is a great song. I know you'll enjoy getting to know. Here we go.

Speaker 2: You were my strength when I am weak. You are the treasure that I seek. You are my holding all. Seeking you as a precious jewel lord to give up, I'd be a fool,

Unidentified: you are my Althing.

Speaker 2: Jesus, Lamb of God worthy is your name. Jesus, Lamb of God worthy is your name. I'm taking my sin, my cross, my shame rising again, I bless your name,

Unidentified: you are my all little.

Speaker 2: When I fall down, you pick me up, when I am dry, you fill my cup. You are my Althing. Jesus, Lamb of God worthy is your name. Jesus, Lamb of God worthy is your name.

Speaker 1: Hey, man, good job you guys picked that up quick. We're getting one last song before we have our offering time tonight. Open our eyes. We want to see Jesus. Here we go,

Speaker 2: open our eyes. Lord, we want to see Jesus. To reach out and touch him and say that we love. All Arias Lord

Unidentified: and help us to lay. And open our

Speaker 2: eyes, Lord. We want to see Cheesa in it.

Speaker 1: The them to come forward at this time and we'll receive our Tizen offerings tonight and trust. God bless you as your faithful to give and support the ministry here at the church. And Arnie Smith, would you mind praying and asking God's blessing on the offering this evening? Man, you may be seated. Hey, man, thank you for that. Well, this evening, it is our privilege to have one of our our missionaries here with us, one of our veteran missionaries, Walter and Miss Dalene Clark. And they are missionaries to the country of Germany. And right now, as was mentioned, they are in the children's ministry just giving the kids a little bit of an inside look into what goes on on the mission field and just kind of share with them their burden for the country of Germany. And so while we wait for them to get in here, we're going to show their video. It's about a five minute update, video that they've prepared. They just got back to the states a week ago, is that right, Mascheroni? And so they haven't been back for very long. They were in Germany throughout the whole entirety of the pandemic. And so definitely been through quite a bit this last term. And glad to have them back here in the States with us. They are sent out of the Central Baptist Church in Ponca City and one of our sister churches. And so it's a great privilege to have them with us tonight. And we'll be talking more about that in just a moment. But Brother Mechai, I want you hit the lights up here and go ahead and play that video for us this evening.

Speaker 3: Faces there, the first thing you notice about a person, these are the faces of our friends, our church. These are not just strange faces. They're familiar and dear to us. Faces can change the faces of our family. Sure changed since we began our missionary journey in 2000. Now, here we are, 21 years later, ministering to different faces. But still in the country of Germany, we are Walter and Darlene Clark. And this is Cameron and Queen. We are sent out from Central Baptist Church in Ponca City, Oklahoma, where John Wiley is the pastor.

Speaker 4: We begin our deputation in 2000 and moved to Luther Stauffenberg. We arrived there in 2002 and already the face of our family had changed. We ministered there for three years and diligently worked along the German language when we took our first furlough. Our families face a change once again. After our furlough, God led us to the town of Dresden in 2006, where we worked for five years longer. The face of our home were changed once more. For the past nine years, we had been living in the eastern part of Germany, working with German speaking churches. Then in 2011, he called us to the western part to pastor an international church. The neat thing about this area is that this is where God originally confirmed our calling to be missionaries to Germany. Back in 1997,

Speaker 3: the Rhine River Baptist Church was established over 30 years ago to minister to soldiers stationed in the area. The faces of this church have also changed quite a bit over the years. Now we have several different nationalities. Visiting our church services are in English, but German spoken quite a bit because our class is also growing and Courtney has begun teaching them.

Speaker 4: We have started doing our services on Facebook life, and this has been very effective, especially with our outreach. We've also been doing some meetings on Tuesday nights for Bible studies, and this has helped us reach into other people's homes that haven't been able to come to church on a regular basis. Along with this, we have been doing cookie visitations where Danny bakes cookies and we drop them off with people and have a time of prayer with them. And May things opened up enough that we could go to the park and have a prayer meeting, and that's where we started doing our church services through the whole summer. We only missed one Sunday service because of rain or bad weather.

Speaker 3: Cultural actions are somewhat different to here's some fun facts in a large stores, we have fresh meat, fish and cheese available bakeries are in abundance and it said there are over 300 different kinds of bread. Coffee is the number one drink. Most apartments don't have a kitchen. You bring your own bratwurst and pretzels are very popular and everything is closed on Sundays. We also have many festivals in Germany. The Christmas market is a popular place where we can get chestnuts roasting on an open fire, homemade French fries in shop for handmade crafts. We see many faces at these places. It's not always at festivals where we see strange faces. Sometimes they're just on the street as a curious sight.

Speaker 4: We are privileged, the guard has called us to the country of Germany as we look forward to the future. We are praying for a better place to hold our services. For two years, we were able to share the building from a German church. Because of the pandemic, we were forced to transition again. We found a beautiful spot with a playground and a historical restroom nearby. We bring our chairs and blankets and have a great time there. Several Tuesday evenings we even meet together for pizza before our Bible studies. Please pray that if it is God's will, he will direct us to a more permanent location. Also, pray that God will give us more faces at our church and that our church will grow for him.

Speaker 3: The face of our family is changing again. Keep praying for Katalina. She's determining the Lord's will as to when to return to Germany. Pray for Kimberly as she is finishing Bible college and getting married. We're gaining a son. Pray for Kendall as she's finishing her second year at the same college and pray for our family as we return to the field. This will be Cameron's last year, and so our faith will change once again. Please pray that God will continue to bless us and that we will continue to seek his face and as well. Thank you.

Speaker 1: Amen. I appreciate that update, the clerk and they have made it back. They survived the children's wing and so we're excited to have them here with us tonight. Yeah, come on. Right up here. Don't don't get comfortable. Burly clerk and clerks going to preach to us tonight and excited to have them with us and give us a little bit of an update. Of course, we saw about the the park, but just kind of share some of those things with us tonight. And then whatever God's light on your heart, we're excited to have your.

Speaker 5: Well, thank you so much for having us tonight, I know it was kind of short notice. I hope I'm on. I haven't had to operate one of these. For a long time, so just bear with me. I'm I'm a dyslexic, bilingual hillbilly, so that kind of puts me at a disadvantage. I get settled in in Germany and then I come back over here and I'm like, I don't fit in anymore. And this time especially, it seems like everything is different this time back. So you've put on a mask or do you not put on a mask? So we have the same problems over there. It's kind of funny when they shut down everything over there because we like to ride bicycles so much over there. Everybody just went out on their bicycle out of town where you could take off your mask and you could see people and interact. And there were more people on the bike paths after the pandemic started than I've ever seen in my life. And it was so easy to get into conversations with people about. Life and things that really mattered where before oftentimes the things that they would talk about our politics and things that don't really matter, but it seemed like in the last year or year and a half, people are starting to talk about. Death and it's a real thing, so that's you might say it's not a pandemic, it's it's not being good. But there are some things that have been good about it that have forced us to learn to do things different. And it's open up doors for me to talk to people. So and that's what I do best. That's that's my my ministry being dyslexic. My ministry is not to read the Bible too much to people. I just I try to memorize it and then quote it. That's just what I try to do. I have done a funeral in Germany and read some of the verses in German and some of the verses in the English. Boy, that was difficult as a dyslexic person trying to read. So those are some fun things, but. You guys have a great group of kids back there that was just so much fun. I just want to praise you, those of you that have the kids back there and those of you that are trying to just keep up with them and help with them, keep it up. I mean, that's the future here. I mean, that's just great to see. I'm so encouraged. So just keep it up. You're a blessing to us over there. That's one other thing I wanted to mention, too. We didn't know how things were going to go when the pandemic started. We didn't know how our support was going to continue. Whether John, our pastor up in Ponca City, he said, just hold on for a few months and let's just see what happens and. Almost none of our churches dropped anything in support, I think we had one, maybe two that just slowed up and said they couldn't make it and whatnot. But you guys have been great. And thank you so much for your faithfulness. That's what it takes in the last. How many of you believe we're in the last days? I mean, you know, it could be tonight and it could be 10 years from now. It could be one hundred years from now. But I guarantee you, we're closer to the last days now than we were yesterday. And what were we always told Interac Track? I don't know if you all if any of you ran track or not, but what do they keep telling us at the last of don't look around to see who's running. Don't look to see who's behind you. Press towards the mark. Right? Is that what we're not? What we were told is just push towards the mark. Don't be looking around, just press on. And that faithfulness is is something that we really need. And that's something I want to talk about a little bit tonight to let's grab our Bibles and turn to John Chapter 12, make sure I've got it up here. John, Chapter 12. This is one of my favorite passages, one of my favorite places to go to in the Bible. Once you've got it. Do you guys normally stand when you read, let's go ahead and stand? I'm never sure what to do there because in Germany we're doing our stuff online at home and so we don't stand to read our Bible. And it feels kind of odd sometimes. And I enjoy standing to to read the word of God. So, John, Chapter 12 verses one through eight is what we'll read says. Then Jesus, six days before the Passover came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, which had been dead, whom he raised from the dead there, they made him a supper and Martha served. But Lazarus was one of them that sat at the table with him. Then took that, then took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly and anointed the feet of Jesus with her hair and the house was filled with the odor of the ointment. Then said one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, which should betray him. Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence and given to the poor? This, he said, not that he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief and had to bag and bear what was put there in. Then said, Jesus, let her alone against the day of my bearing. Has she kept this for the poor? Always you have with you but me you have not always. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Dear Father, God, thank you so much for your word that you've given to us. Lord, I pray you would help us tonight as we look at this passage, just draw us to yourself. Lord, I pray you'd help us to see where we are, where you want us to be, and help us to be willing to do what we need to do to bring honor and glory to your name. Just have your will and win in everything that's said and done tonight. We love you and we praise your name in Jesus name we pray. Amen. You may be seated. Thank you so much. I love this passage because it's so simple when you see what happens here, I, I feel like one of those I always wanted to be somebody that was above average. And in some things I was above average when it came to getting into trouble in school, I was above average. When it came to playing basketball. I was a little bit, not much, but a little bit above average. I was about an inch, inch and a half, two inches taller than most of the other kids. And so I really worked at that. I loved being above average, but in just about everything else, I feel like I'm I'm average. I'm just an average person. Why would God use just an average person? But with Mary here, I see how God takes just an average person, just a person going about her everyday life and God uses her in a mighty way. And what he says, I think it's a mark. He tells us. He says what she's done. It will be remembered where wherever the gospels preached this what she's done will be told for a memorial of her. This was that an important gift that she gave? This was an important act that she did right here. And if we're going to try to do something for Christ and I think everyone in here, if you didn't want to do something for Christ, you probably wouldn't be here tonight. So hopefully this will help us. And doing what we need to do for Christ, so the first thing that I notice about this, it's kind of introduction, but we find she was part of a family and being part of that family made it possible for her to bring this gift that she brought. And if you're not part of the family, maybe you're a guest here tonight and you're not a part. Let me encourage you to get involved, become a part of the family. She was a part of a family. What was the first thing that we noticed about her family? Her brother had been dead and he was alive again. It wasn't anything that he had done special except die. I mean, have you ever had one of your siblings just tell you, I wish you would just die? You know, he did and then, you know, you just didn't stay there. But it made it possible for her because everybody wanted to come and see Lazarus, who was dead, and now he's alive again. And he's just sitting there and he's not doing anything more than just being alive. You realize sometimes serving God, that's all he asks us to do, is to be lively Christians just to be alive. Come and take part. I can't tell you the number of times that especially on the mission field around Christmas time for us, it's sometimes a little bit discouraging because in the church that we serve in, people start to travel to go see their families. And we don't have a church come Christmas time and nobody's there. I mean, nobody is there. It's just our family and that's about it. And we join in with the German churches and different things. But our church is traveling and it's so discouraging when we don't have our people there. And I know they need to travel. I'm not criticizing them. But it reminds me of the fact that if there's a possibility for you to be here, it's important not just for you, but it's important for everyone around you, for you to be here. And I'm so grateful and it's so neat to see so many of you here tonight. Do you realize that's an encouragement to me? It's an encouragement to your pastor, and it's probably an encouragement to most of the people around you. There might be a few people in here that see you come and see them again. But you're not like that here. You're not like that here. But Lazarus was alive then you have Martha now, Martha, what did she do? She was somebody that served. In a church like this or in any church, in any family, you've got to have somebody serving most of the time in the family. Who's the person that's serving its mom? I mean, what time do you wake up? Well, as soon as the first kid gets up, you're up and going and you're serving and watching moms work. I am so glad we're at the stage of life we're in because if we want to. We can sleep in and tell the kids to get up and do what they need to do. They don't do it, but if we can tell them, but we're kind of at a different stage in life, but. When the kids would get up, Dalene was up serving and she was taking care and we needed that in the house because the house wasn't going to get clean if it was up to me. I mean, anyways, we'll leave that one alone. I don't want to get into too much trouble here. But do you realize how how important it is to have someone serving alongside we remember a couple of chapters back, in fact. Well, I think it's about three chapters back. You had Martha coming to Jesus and saying Jesus. Make my sister come and serve with me, and Jesus said to her, said, Mary has chosen the better thing and it won't be taken away from her. It wasn't that Martha serving was not important. It just wasn't the most important thing. And I think she figured that out. She understood that. She realized that. And she learned the balance there. It appears to me, because here we find her serving. No questions asked. She's just doing what she's doing for her lord, and that's important and it was important so that Mary could do what she was doing. Now, before Mary got to the point where she could bring this gift, where had she been before? She had been at the feet of Jesus. She'd been listening. She'd been figuring out. What he expected from her listening to the teaching, but also figuring out who he was, just one chapter before in John Chapter 11, we find Jesus telling her I am the resurrection and the life he the believe with on me, though he were dead, yet shall he live? He is somebody special. And she was probably the only person in this whole crowd that figured it out. I really believe because what are the disciples still doing? They've heard it over and over and over. I'm going to die. They're going to bury me and I'm going to raise again. And they're saying, well, who's going to be the greatest in the kingdom? I mean, it sounds like. Our day and age, right? Yeah, who's going to be the greatest, really, does it matter? It doesn't matter if you're talking you're fighting about things that do not matter right now, OK? It just doesn't. And they didn't get it. But Mary got it, Mary understood this. Because you see down the first three, down the first three, that's we're going to spend a lot of time in verse three here. So let's let's look at it. It says this. Then took Mary a pound appointment of spikenard very costly. OK, this was something that was not cheap. It was costly. We find out a little bit later at about three hundred pence or a pence. From my research, what I've seen, it was a day's wage. So figure this up for yourself if it cost three hundred pence. It's a year's wage, how many of us would like to take a year's wage, what we get in a whole year and give it to the church or give it to the Lord, how many of us would like to do that? I mean, it sounds good for her to do it. But for us, you know, Pastor now just can't do that right now. Atai That's what God wants from us. Is that tithe OK, set before taxes or after? We won't get into that one tonight. OK, we'll just I'll leave that for your pastor to deal with, so. Do you have to decide on that stimulus check? Never mind. We won't even get into that one. But this is a costly gift. This is a a precious gift that she has here. It's a pricey gift, you might say. It's something that cost her some money. OK, it probably they didn't have just spice traders coming by. She couldn't just go to Wal-Mart and pick up a bottle of. What are they called essential oils to bring in and the feet of Jesus? I don't know if anybody is involved in that, but she couldn't do that. She couldn't just go and get a bottle of essential oils and say five bucks and anoint the feet of Jesus and we're good to go. This has been something that had been traded. It was a rare commodity. It was something that. Oftentimes was passed down from generation to generation. It could have been a family heirloom, it could have been that the box that it was in was a family heirloom. And she was willing to break it and discard of the family heirloom for Christ, it was probably something I, I imagine that was saved for her brother. And I'm just reading into it here. It makes sense to me. It might not be right. And if your pastor disagrees with me, he's right. OK, just he's right. I'm wrong. But this is the way I see it. I think Mary and Martha were a little bit upset with Jesus. Maybe I'm wrong, but I think they were because you read in Chapter 11, if you would have been here, he wouldn't have died. OK, you can read whatever tone you want into that. If you would have been there, he wouldn't have died. If you would have been here, he wouldn't have done whatever tone you want there, but I think they were a little bit upset and they held on to it because they wanted to take Jesus to see their dead brother. And so they held on to it. They didn't anoint his body on the first day or the second day when they should have. They waited through the third day and then Jesus comes on the fourth day. And what does Martha say when he says, roll back the stone? You can't do that. He thinks he's thinking, OK, it's rank in there. It. It's a barnyard, you might say it's not pleasant. And Jesus, he knows this, I mean, have we ever spoken to Jesus and told him things that he already knows? And how does he treat us? He treats us better than we treat our spouse, probably. I know that, honey. Anyways, Jesus is so polite, he says, just roll the back, I'm the resurrection and the life, and then the brother comes forth. So she had this gift that had been intended for her brother. Something that was price, it was a year's wage, she could have gotten a year's worth of food out of that, it might have been a family heirloom put up and she takes that pricey gift. Says then after that, then took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair. Does anybody else find that strange? OK, if my wife decided to wipe my feet with her hair, what do you think I would tell her? Don't you dare, OK? My feet stink. OK? It's not easy. It's just yuck. Don't don't do that. But Mary loved him so much. She was willing to get down on her hands and knees, she was willing to take the place of a servant. OK, back then. About two in every three people in the Roman world were slaves. We don't understand that in our day and age. We just don't get that look around if there are three people on Appu. Two of you would have been servants, slaves, you would have been owned by somebody, and then they would have the lowest ones come in and wash the feet of whoever was a guest in the house. That was just the culture back then. I'm not saying it was right. That's just the culture. She could have had a servant come in and wash the feet of Jesus. I think that would have been possible knowing that she had a years reserve. Set aside, they were wealthy people, they were not poor people, it appears to me she could have had somebody come in and do the job for her, but she didn't. Not only that, she got up close and personal with her hair. Did she forget to bring the rag to wipe his feet off? I don't know. Or did she just love him that much? When you love somebody so much, what are you willing to do for them? Those of you that are moms, what wouldn't you do for your kids? I mean, I remember what I mean. Danine and I, we've known each other for years now. We've been married for twenty six years now, going on twenty seven. I've known her over 40 years, I've known her over forty five years, I turned 50 this year. So that tells you how long I've known her. I've known her all my life. I don't remember a time I didn't know her, OK? And when she was a little girl, OK, I'm going to tell her when she was a little girl, she was about the precious little girl in school in New York. Don't touch that. Yeah. And here I am. Hey, you want to play that? That's just how we were, OK? I was the honorary one and she was the prissy one, OK? She was the teacher's pet. I was the teacher's. Whatever word you want to put there, they came up with some strange words for me, in fact, I had a teacher put sandpaper in one of my sandwiches one time. Yeah, right, right. I had a teacher put sandpaper in my sandwich one time. Long story, we won't get into that one. You would have to know. I'll just leave that as a teaser there. But but. When we had children, she had been this prissy. Young lady all her life, and then we had kids and there were things that babies do that they're not so pretty. You know, she jumped right in and she just took care of it. It's like, wow, I thought you didn't like. That I thought that would gross you out and she's like. That's my kid. This is fun. I'm doing OK. This is great, you know, but what wouldn't she do for our children? There's nothing, OK? Now, let's take this over to Mary. Mary might have been a prissy young lady, but she loved her savior, she loved her lord, she knew who he was and she loved him with all her heart. What wouldn't she do for him? OK, what would she do for him? She just wanted to get close to him and take care of him. She wanted to make it personal, I think, about this, too. Now, those of you that used to go on the hayrides and and and do the weenie roasts in October, so October, November, the ladies, when you would go on those as teenagers and young ladies. Now, I know it's a while back for some of you for Chrissy over here. And it wasn't that long ago. OK, I remember I helped them so but. When you go on these these rides, ladies now bear with me, ladies. That smoke smell, what happened with that? How long did that stay in your hair if you got the smoke got in your hair that night? How long did it stay in your hair? Anyone want to help me with that answer real quick, please, because I've never had that problem, honestly. I. Until you showered, thank you, how often did they shower back then? Uh, not very often. OK, so bear with me on this. She got up close and personal with this oduor this ointment. She wiped his feet with the hair of her head. How long do you think that smell stayed with her? What was getting ready to happen in a week, do you get where I'm going with this? When Christ was on the cross, she could smell him. I I firmly believe it when he was on the cross, she had no regrets. I did what I could. I did my best for him. How many of us want to say that, uh hmm, I did my best. She got up close and personal with him. How many of us are getting up close and personal with the gospel? OK. What else was it we find and the house was filled with the odor of the ointment. The house was filled with the order of the. How many people in the house smelled what was going on? There are some things that smell just. It makes something special or has a connection. We go to a place in Germany called Rothenburg, we have a retreat there, and this retreat is held in an older city, but it's a farming community. And we walk down the streets going down to the place where we have our meeting. And as I'm walking down the street, I'm smelling something. And it brings back good memories to me. And I asked my kids, I said, don't you like that smell, doesn't that smell smell good? And Courtney will say, Yuck, Dad, that smells like a barnyard. Yeah, that smells like money to me. Their cattle there. And and they have cattle and they it's a farming community. And I'm like, wow, what a smell. OK, now I say that to say this. Everyone there had been to a funeral before everyone else had smelled that smell before. What do you think happened when they started smelling that smell there up on the rooftop, eating there, whatever they eat? What's going on? Did somebody just die? And they would. And who would they find when they look to see what was going on, where the smell was, who would they find? They would find Jesus, OK, this was a not only was it a precious gift and a personal gift, but it was a potent gift. People would be walking along outside and they would look inside. Did someone die? And who would they find? It would find Jesus.

Unidentified: Now, I've I've I've.

Speaker 5: You guys don't have oh, there it is. There's the clock. Good, I'm right on time. I'm doing good. You don't know how tough this is because I've been preaching either in our living room or outside. Outside, we don't have any clocks. We just have the birds and they cause problems for us. So in fact, they try to hit people, OK, they stay high, but they try to hit people and they've cut a couple of people a few times. I won't name any names at all. Right, darling, I'm not going to name any names tonight. So they haven't gotten me, though. OK, but. We've got a gift here that Mary has given, it's a precious gift, it's a personal gift, it's a potent gift. But what else happens and this is dangerous here, OK? This is probably going to be the hardest part for me to get through right here, because this happens all the time. This gift was persecuted. Who persecuted this gift? It was a person that was supposed to be a follower of Jesus. It was a person that was supposed to be close to God. It was a person that was supposed to know. The book. And yet he was what was he doing? We could have sold that and given it to the poor. What is First Corinthians tell us. If I give all of my possessions. To the poor and have not what? Charity, I am nothing. OK, and that's what Judas was doing. We could have given it to the poor and we all see this because it says it in the text, he wasn't giving it to the poor. What was he doing with it? He could have put three hundred pence into the bag and nobody's going to notice. If you take about 30 pieces outright pasture, you're not going to notice if 30 pieces get missed. Right. And how much did he sell Christ for? Thirty pieces of silver. Has anyone else ever found that odd, that little. Twist there, and I think it's in, Matthew, when this account is given, where it says specifically that Judas went out from that point and sought to betray him. From that point, I think this was the. Cannot put the breaking point for Judas. He could not stand what just happened, for one, he didn't get his money. He wasn't paid off, OK, for to a girl showed him up. And I remember in basic training. We had to run two miles in basic training, and it was kind of odd because they put us together with girls running and they put the girls in front of the guys. I mean, what's that all about? Aren't we supposed to be equal? I mean, they were saying it back then and I kept yelling it, hey, we're all supposed to be equal. I should be up there in my drill. Sergeant said, shut up. And a few other words that I won't say, I can't say, but he said, go to the back and the girls started running and I'm like, I'm not going to be beat. I mean, I ran I ran the fastest two miles I had ever run. There was a track runner in the girls. I mean, she ran her two mile in about. Thirteen forty, I ran my two miles and 13, ten, I beat her and I had to catch her first before I could beat her. I mean, I wasn't going to be beat. And I think Judas is the same way. I'm not letting a girl beat me here. He's she's getting all the praise. And look at me. I carry the bag. Yeah. He got he got stuck holding the bag, didn't he will leave that one alone, but. He starts persecuting. Because she's done what she could because she's given something to her savior. Do you think anybody was fooled by what you said? Maybe somebody was somebody thought, oh, wow, that Judas Iscariot he's trying to give to the poor, he is a really good fellow. I guarantee you a week later, nobody thought that of him. I guarantee you a week later, his facade came down. And it wasn't just Judas either. He Judas might have started it, it might have been Peter that started I don't know, there were others involved in that. There's a lesson in that, too. Don't be the first one to start criticizing, OK, because. Here we have the What is Satan do? He is the accuser of the brother, and how many of us in here have ever felt like we're just being beat down by him is just accusation after accusation after accusation or one thing after another. And it just keeps on coming. And it's like, please. Just stop. I forget what it was a couple of days ago, maybe a few weeks ago now, and Courtney and I were talking about this and it's something to the effect of I said. Something had happened where she was criticized a little bit. She's like, it doesn't matter. And I said, it doesn't matter to you, but I'm your dad and it matters to me. And if it happens again, I mean, I remember what it was now, we were in a park. It and I remember I was looking for the person that criticized her, I wanted to go up and give him a piece of my mind in German. It's so fun to give people a piece of your mind in German. I German is a great language to give somebody a piece of your mind. I remember in Paris we had swindler's coming by and trying to steal from us. Some of you understand that a little bit about that. You get robbed in Paris. It's famous, but but the swindlers would come up and they would say, oh, you're American, you speak English. And they would try to get us involved in a conversation. And I'm standing back and I see what's getting ready to happen. And so I turn to him and I say, express a kind of English expression, Northridge quake. Now, did you understand what I said? Hey, I kind of lied. I don't speak a word of English. I only speak German. Go away. OK, but in German, it sounds cruel. Right? And so it's great. But but I remember in Dresden, this guy was criticizing my daughter. And they were doing the same exact thing, and I wanted to go up and give him a piece of my mind why? Because he had messed with my little girl. Now, let's bring that into the church. How many of us are God's little kids, his little children? And if you start to criticize one of the other ones of his little children, what do you think he wants to do to you? OK, maybe he's not quite like me, maybe he's a little bit more patient and I but I guarantee. God loves his little children, and when somebody is doing something with all their heart for him and they might not get it right. They might be like me, I mess up all the time, but I'm trying, I'm doing what I can and I'm a dyslexic, bilingual hillbilly, for Pete's sake, give me a break. And some people just don't want to do that like Judas. We could have given it to the poor. Really? What does Jesus do, he steps in and he says, let her alone down a verse seven, then said, Jesus let her alone against the day of my burying. Has she kept this for the poor? Always you have with you. But me, you have not always just a few things to pull out of there. I love the fact that Jesus says let her alone. Don't say another word against her. I want him to do that for me, because how often is Satan trying to attack me? He is the accuser of the brethren, and if I've done what I could, I am sure he's stepping in and say, hey, leave him alone. And if he's not stepping in, saying leave him alone, there's a reason I need it, OK? There's a reason I need it. So I'm just going to trust him on that one. But then he goes on to say, against the day of my burying, has she kept this? He reminded them all in the house what was getting ready to happen, what was getting ready to happen, the death, the burial and the resurrection of Christ. That is the key focus. That was the key focus of Christ. And it should be our key focus. All of this nonsense going on over. Whatever we need to be a little bit more charitable one to another and stay focused on what God has given us to do if he's told you, OK. I know I'm I'm I'm getting off the subject maybe a little bit, but if he's told you to wear a mask, then wear a mask. If he's told you don't wear a mask and don't wear a mask. How much more simple can it be? And if he's told you to wear a mask, but he's told me not to wear a mask. What are we supposed to do? Are you wrong and I'm right? No, because sometimes in Germany we have to do things that. OK, it's culture and. Let's not criticize one another crisis and stay focused, because the death, burial and resurrection is the thing. Against the day of my burying, has she kept this for the poor always you have with you but me you have not always. We don't always have a second opportunity. Let's break this down a little bit. Into maybe what we can take away from this. How can we bring a gift that is going to be honoring to Christ because we don't have long to do what we're going to do? I mean, being a parent, when you have little kids, I mean, I loved being back with those little kids. You have a short window of opportunity to to get something done and then you're done. Your hands are there and they're gone and you're done. And you just have a short time. So how do we get the most out of this? Well, we need to make sure that the gift that we're bringing is a precious gift. It's a precious gift, OK? It. David Sedin, let me make sure I've got this right. Now, I've gone past my notes on that one, David said, and 2nd Samuel, chapter twenty four, verse twenty four, he said this and this is the latter part of the verse. He says, Neither will I offer Bernt offering unto the Lord my God of that which death cost me nothing. He wasn't willing to take an offer up a burnt offering. From a gift that someone else had given, OK, he wanted it to cost him because it was an offering if we're going to give something. To God that he really wants from us, it should cost us something and for us right now, especially as Americans, most of us have more stuff than we know what to do with. So what is it that we need to give that really costs us? Bear with me here because I'm getting ready to step on some people's toes, OK? Just bear with me on this. I don't think it's more stuff. OK, I think it's something better than that, it's something more important than that. We need to give a precious gift, though, what's the most precious thing you've ever been given? What is the most precious thing you've ever been given? Some of you might say your wedding band, is that the most precious gift I've ever been given? It's close, I'd say it's number two on the on the list, what's number one? It's my salvation, somebody told me about Jesus. Brother Mike Craver was willing to teach the little kids in our Sunday school and he shared with me. Children obey your parents and Lord, for this is right, honor your father and mother. I knew I hadn't. And he said, if you have not, you've earned hell. I learned hell. So what do I do about it? He went on to explain, Jesus died for your sins. He was buried, he rose again. He'll make a trade with you. Sign me up. That was the day I got saved, Mother's Day nineteen eighty, OK? That's the most precious gift I've ever been given. I hope you've received that gift if you have. It's something you can give away again. OK, you can share it with someone else. What's the next gift? The next thing she made it personal. Are you making it personal when you give this gift away? Don't just ask your pastor to give it away. Don't just ask your missionaries to give it away. I love to. I do it gladly. Even if you weren't supporting us, I would still be giving it away. It's what I do. Dalene yesterday, she she has to stop me sometimes because she saw me yesterday, I was getting ready to approach somebody and she says, we're here with our daughter and. Please just focus on us right now. Really, that's a perfect up. Yeah, we did. We had that conversation in two words. Wait, OK, OK. But it's that's what I do, I find people, I talk to them. And. You might say, really, you can talk to people, I talk to anyone, Muslim, atheist, communist, Green Party, I love them all. It's so fun to share the gospel. I mean, find somebody that is different than you sometime and share the gospel with them. It's the funnest thing in the world to do last night. We were on our date. I found somebody that had been in prison before. And he was quoting Mein Kampf. I'm like, Really? Yeah, and I was able to share a bit of the gospel with him. It's so much fun, but you've got to make it personal and you might say. I just don't have the strength to make it. I'll just have Pastor go talk to. Let me just give you a personal testimony here from Jesus. OK. I'm going to try to tie this together. There are days in Germany that I am down, I am discouraged. I don't want to do anything usually about March or so for one, because it's gray and nasty and rainy. And I don't want to go outside for to March is that it's the month that comes after February and usually in March. Are our finances are not as much because some churches just didn't get their money in in time, and that's the hardest month that we have in the years, is March every year. It's been that way and we plan for it now. And we just we just accept it. And it's not a big deal, but it's still really. And I get discouraged and I go sit in my my couch, in my chair, and I know this one thing to be true, if I will get up and I will go out in the rain and if I will find somebody to talk to. As down as I am, by the time I'm done with the conversation, I will be on cloud nine. I don't care who the person is, what they've done. I will be on cloud nine because I've made it personal. I've made the gospel personal. Kourtney and I even had one person that we talked to, he was a priest of bail, OK, she was, what, four at the time, five, something like that. And she said to me, Daddy, that man is weird, OK? He was strange, a priest of bail, the bail that you find in the Old Testament, that was who he was serving like. That's strange, buddy, you realize you're not on the winning side here, you know, anyone want to pick a losing side? He did it. But make it personal. When's the last time you shared your faith with someone else? When's the last time you even tried to share your faith with someone else? And now you want me to take my family over to Germany? I'm glad to do it. I love to do it. It's a privilege to do. But you want me to go somewhere and share my faith? And you're not willing to go across the street, do you see a problem with that? I'm not trying to be critical here. I realize you have roughly you have busy lives. You're busy. But it doesn't take hardly anything if you'll just get out and start looking for it. The last thing. She made it potent. This was a potent gift, and this is one of the things that I want to close on here. How did she make it potent? Well, it was an odor, it was something like a prayer coming up. And in Revelation, chapter five, verse eight, it tells us this revelation, chapter five, verse eight, it says. And when he had taken the book. The four boys and the four and 20 elders fell down before the lamb, every one of them having harps and golden vials full of odors, which are the prayers of saints. Did you get that? The odors that go up before the Lord, they are the prayers of St.. Maybe there's nothing more that you can do. We had a lady in our church in Ponca City, she never came to church, she was in the nursing home. She couldn't come out. Her name was Jimmy. She never left the nursing home. And the day that she died, I felt it, she was a prayer. She was a prayer warrior. We all need that. We need people praying for us. If you're not praying for someone, start tonight, I mean, if you've got kids, you're praying for someone, right? That's just what happens. You just start praying. I wake up in the middle of the night and I'm like, OK, God, please take care of my girls on the road in Oklahoma City. Oh, my Lord, Lord, please help them. And you know, he does. And it just but that's the best thing that we can do for one another. That's the best thing that we can do for our lost friends and neighbors, our lost family members. But we've got to make it a precious gift, we all have the gospel, we've got to make it a personal gift. We can all share the gospel. We need to make it a potent gift. We can all pray for people about the gospel. Your gift will be persecuted. Somebody will say you're doing too much in the church, you're being too active. Stop it. But I guarantee you, our savior one day will stand up if you're giving this type of gift, he will stand up and he will say, well done, thou good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of your Lord, I hope that's what you want to hear tonight. I hope that's what you want tonight. Are you giving a precious gift, a personal gift, a potent gift? If you are, be assured it will be protected by your savior. Let's go ahead and stand with our heads bowed and our eyes closed. Your father, God, thank you so much for your word that you've given to us tonight. Lord, I pray that you would just do a work in our hearts. Lord, help us to be. More proactive with this wonderful gift that you've given to us. This gift of salvation, the gospel, the good news, or there's so much bad news in our world in this day and age, help us to be willing to give the good news. It's so wonderful what you've done for us, and yet we're so reluctant to give it to people. Please forgive us. Please give us the the gumption to just step out and do a little bit more than what we have been doing, most of us here today. We can most of us can say. We could do better. Lord, help us to do that. Help us to do better. For your honor and glory, you're worth it. You deserve it in Jesus name, we pray. Amen.

Speaker 1: Thank you for that challenge, Brother Clark. I don't think he even knew this, but our theme this year is grace to us and then grace through us and this idea that we have received a gift and that we share that gift with others. Sure do appreciate that tonight. And hope that's been a challenge to each one of you. Whenever we are missionaries come in, there's several things that we like to do, Brother Clark. We already support him at one hundred dollars, which is our highest amount right now. But I was talking to him before the service just to see what kind of projects that they are working on, anything that they're that God is doing that they're trying to raise money for. And as you may have noticed in the video, they are currently without a permanent meeting place. And so there was an opportunity a couple of months ago to purchase a building that did not work out. And so they are now looking for more options. And so we would like to do something we'd like to give towards that future permanent meeting place. And God has blessed our our missions giving. We've got over eighty thousand dollars in the missions account. And so we want to put it before the church tonight that we would designate seven hundred and fifty dollars to the clerks for for that future permanent meeting place that God will open the door for them at his timing. And if if there's a motion that we can do that tonight, the makhaya makes the motion already makes a second. All those in favor let it be known by a good strong amen. Amen. And so we'll get that made up for you guys. Before you all leave tonight, I want to go ahead and dismiss the clerks at this time. Let them go ahead and make their way out to the table and please go by their get to know them, talk to them. Probably many of you have been to Germany before, so talk to them about that. Pick up one of their prayer cards and pray for them like he challenged us tonight. And so we're very, very privileged to have them here with us this evening. Prayer prayer sheets are back on the back. Welcome take table. If you have an urgent need that you need to inform us of, then please come and tell me that and we'll make sure that that gets added. I do want to let you know that brother Jared Holly is in the hospital tonight. He was changing a light bulb ballast and it was still hot. And he said, I do it all the time. I wasn't really thinking he touched one of the hot wires and he was on a ladder and he fell off the ladder. He dislocated his knee and hit his head pretty hard. And so he is at Hillcrest tonight. They're holding him overnight just to keep an eye on him. But he said, I feel I feel all right and and everything, but they just want to be careful and make sure. So pray for brother Jared. And if you think about it, maybe sent him a text or. Oh, no, Jared really wants flowers or not. But I mean, just let him know you're thinking of him and pray for him tonight that there would be no complications. He'd be able to get to go home soon. All right. Let's pray and there will be dismissed. Thank you all so much for being here tonight and hope that you have a good rest of your week. And we'll look forward to being back together again on Sunday. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this day. Thank you for the good message. We've heard tonight, the challenge, Lord, to offer a gift. Back to you, Lord, how refreshing it is to to hear that, um, the gifts that that we give, it's not just money, Lord. And it's there's there's things that are even more precious, precious and powerful. And Lord, I pray that tonight as we leave here and we go about the rest of our week, we'd be looking for ways that we can share this gift with others. Lord, you've been so good to us. Uh, we recipients of Your Grace. And so I ask you to help us to show that grace to the people that we come into contact with Big Brother Jared tonight, Lord, as he's in the hospital, I should help him to recover quickly, that you help him with his pain, that he'd be able to go home hopefully tomorrow and all the other prayer requests that are mentioned in our prayer sheet. Lord, you know each need and we ask that you'd be at work and every situation. It's in Jesus name that I ask these things. Amen. Thank you. You're dismissed.

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