Welcome. It's so glad to see everyone. Like this is an amazing audience. We have a full packed church today and it's Father's Day.
So happy Father's Day everyone. Just out of curiosity. How many fathers do we have in the house? Put up your hand if you're a father.
Wow. Tons of fathers. That's awesome. I want to speak to you today about a lot of things.
And I have a dilemma. I have so much to tell you in so little time. And I was really wrestling with preparing for this message. Because I was of many different minds, and I wanted to be very focused.
Because it's Father's Day, I really wanted to share with you a message on Father's Day. But because I just got back from Zambia, I wanted to share with you my experience in Zambia. And I'm actually in the middle of a series on the book of Romans. So I'm torn.
I'm supposed to be going through Romans 4 right now. But it's Father's Day. But I just got back from Zambia. And so I have this challenge of trying to capture this time and have a meaningful message to all of us today.
So having said that, I was actually going to do a little bit of a mixture, a medley, if you will, of sermons. And then I thought there's still not enough time for that. So I'm going to speak to you today about leadership, which is a great need, and specifically in relation to fathers. And then secondly, I'm going to share with you a little of my experience in Zambia.
And I'm going to show you some slides. We're going to leave Romans 4 for the next time that I speak. So I want to speak to you about leadership. And we think about how many fathers that are here today.
Just this past week, the leaders of this church, we had a board meeting. And we were actually praying about leadership. And we have a burden and a heart for this assembly and the future of it and the need for raising up leaders. And if you're a father here today, you're a leader.
And you have the privilege and honor and responsibility of leading your home. God has given you that. And so we're going to look a little bit about what the scripture says about leadership. And then we're going to roll right into Zambia.
All right. So I have a number of scriptures that I really would like to share with you today. And the first one is in Genesis chapter 18. So if you want to just turn in your Bible to Genesis chapter 18.
And it says in verse 19, God said this about Abraham. He said, I know him. I know him. God knew Abraham through and through.
And he knows me. And he knows you. And he knows our weaknesses. And he knows our strength.
This is the divine commentary that God said about Abraham. I know him that he will command his children and his household after him that they will keep the way of the Lord to do righteousness and justice, that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he has spoken of to him. I know him. What an amazing divine commentary that God said about Abraham.
I wonder this. What would God say about my life? About my 53 years that I have lived on this earth and how I've raised my children. And how I've used my time and my days.
And what I've built in my life. What would God say about your life if he was writing it down? Would God have confidence in the way that you are leading your household to be able to say, I know him. And I know that he will command and direct his children and his household after the ways of God.
And Abraham had this amazing commentary from God. It's almost like God had confidence in Abraham. That is an amazing commendation. And I'm challenged by that because I would really like to have the same.
I want to refer also to 1 John, chapter 2. And John the Apostle writes to mature children of God. And he says to them in 1 John chapter 2 and verse 13, I write unto you fathers because you have known him. That is from the beginning.
And I write unto you young men because you have overcome the wicked one. And I write unto you little children because you have known the father. And so I'm speaking specifically to fathers, Christians, leaders of households. And God has a divine purpose in your life and in mine.
And all that we have comes from this book and knowing God. Peter also wrote something very interesting in 2 Peter, chapter 1 and verse 3. And I have it right up here. Peter said, his divine power has given unto us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of him, through the knowledge of the Lord Jesus.
We have exceeding precious promises. We are partakers of the divine nature having escaped the corruption that is in this world through lust. And so God has a message today for fathers. And here is the message, walk with the Lord Jesus Christ.
No God be with him and emulate who God is in directing your household. God's message to fathers today is to guard the home. And we need that right now, like never before. The world is changing quickly.
The government is changing quickly. Society is changing quickly. And if we are not focused on biblical values, we will lose what God has purpose us to do in this life. And so I say to fathers, God has a message for you.
Guard your home against spiritual error, against corruption that is in the world through lust. Guard your home. Guide your home. God has given us a tremendous opportunity and privilege to be leaders in our household.
Just like God said Abraham, I know him. He will command his children in his household after God to follow righteousness and justice. Guard your home, guide your home. You know as fathers, one of the things that we are responsible for is growth.
Spiritual, physical, emotional growth of our children. Growth of our household. And we have this tremendous opportunity and privilege as leaders in our household to really develop growth in our home. We also need a lot of grace.
And that's something that I think as fathers, we may struggle with a little bit. God wants us to show grace, just like he has shown grace to us, just like God recognizes our brokenness and our failures. And he shows mercy and he shows grace to us. Yes, have a standard.
Hold your family accountable, but show them love and show them grace. And be a leader. Step up and guard and guide your home and protect it from the spiritual darkness that is in the world. What a message to fathers.
We have a great need, a great need in our world today for leadership. And I feel this more keenly than I've ever felt before. Whether you are leading a household or whether you're leading a corporation or whether you are a leader in your community or a leader in the church, leadership is a critical need. Likely one of the greatest needs that exists in our world today is leadership, men of God.
And so I'm really focused on this today because it's Father's Day. So I've got five or six headings here that I wanna share with you and I've got a lot of scripture. And I'm gonna go through this quickly. And those of you who know the scripture, this will come to your mind readily because you are aware of these scriptures already.
And so I wanna start by saying, fathers, we have an opportunity to lead and to guide and to influence our home. One word, leadership in one word is influence. You are influencing people daily. So what kind of influence are you having on your children?
What kind of influence are you having in your home, in your place of work? What type of influence are you having in your church? Well, I wanna remind you a number of scriptures. We already read Genesis 18 and 19.
If you were to turn to Psalm 127 and verse three, that Psalm says this, except the Lord build the house. They labor in vain that build it. And so is God central in your house? Is God recognized in his authority in your house?
It should be, except the Lord build the house. They labor in vain that build it. Children are a heritage from the Lord. Blessed is a man whose quiver is full.
And you know what that is likened unto an arrow. Like arrows in the hand of a mighty warrior, are children in the household. Okay, arrows can be extremely effective, but they need to be sharp. They need to be guided.
They need to be pointed in the right direction. And eventually they need to be released. What a metaphor of our children. They are arrows.
And so we have an amazing opportunity as fathers. I'm a father of four and I've raised my children. My oldest is 30. My youngest is 22.
And for the most part, I've already released them. And I hope that I have built into their hearts the right values. I hope that I have scared them in the right direction. I will continue to influence them, but for the most part, they have been released.
Now let me say this. Fathers, you have a very short window of influence of your children. Likely from the age of two or three to about age 15. After that, those kids are more influenced by their peers, by social media, by whatever else is out there.
You have a short window of opportunity to sew into their hearts the right scriptural values. And I say this to fathers. Don't squander your leadership opportunity. Don't squander your influence.
It's a short period of time. Try not to be absentee as a father. And I know, I'm speaking from experience. I have wrestled with all these things.
Well, you got a mortgage to pay. You got a business to run. You're traveling. You've got so many pressing obligations and distractions.
And you come home exhausted. Don't squander your one opportunity. Your biggest investment in this life is your children. You have that one opportunity.
And the scripture says this. Psalm, Art Proverbs, chapter 22 and verse six. It's a fundamental principle. Train up a child in the way he should go.
And when he is old, it will not depart from him. It's an incredible privilege and opportunity to be a leader in your home. Don't squander it. How about a leader in the church?
What is the responsibility of overseers and guides in the church? Well, first Peter 5 and verse 1 says, I exhort you elders, shepherd the flock of God. What does a leader in the church do? He teaches truth.
He cares for people. He reaches out to them. He connects. He builds a relationship and he influences the direction of that church for God under the great shepherd.
Leadership in the church is vital. Peter says exercise overseership as God would have you do. You know, we thought of that beautiful passage in John chapter 10. I love it.
Jesus said, I give unto my sheep eternal life and they will never perish. And then he said, my sheep hear my voice. And I know them. And they follow me.
That's a principle of shepherding. You know, if you're a father, you are a shepherd to your children. If you're a leader in the church, you're a shepherd to the flock. They need to hear your voice.
They need to feel like you know them and that you have their best interest at heart and you're caring for them. Everybody communicates. Few people connect. Connecting with somebody is vital in order to influence them.
And we have an opportunity as fathers, leaders in the church, leaders in the community. Does it matter how we live outside of church? Absolutely it matters. You know, Paul said to Titus, he said, when you go to Crete, Titus chapter one and verse seven, seek out men of good report, blameless.
Seems like a pretty high standard. It doesn't mean sinless, but it means of good reputation. And in our business dealings, and in our connection with community and in our neighborhood, we as leaders should be men that are of good reputation, that are honest, that have integrity. And this is challenging for all of us.
But it is the truth of the word of God. Leadership is influence. You get one bite of the cherry. Don't mess it up.
Don't squander it. Leadership is spiritual character. And I think that we really need to develop this. And as a young man, I mean, it's great in this church to see so many young people starting families and raising children and growing.
And our church is growing and that is just incredible. And we are thrilled about that. But spiritual character needs to be developed. How do I develop that?
Well, I believe that we develop spiritual character by walking with Jesus. Jesus gave the example in John chapter 13 and verse 15. And he said, I have given you an example that you should do as I have done to you. You know that the apostle John picked up on that.
And he wrote first John chapter two and he said this, the one who says he abides with him, ought also to walk even as he walked. That's a challenge for all of us to be like Jesus. Philippians two and five, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. This is the development of spiritual character, unity.
Unity in the church, unity in the home, unity, humility, being willing to serve. Spiritual character and leadership is really being willing to serve. We're gonna talk about that in a second. Let this mind be in you, a mind of humility, a mind of humility, a mind to be willing to serve, serve your family, serve your wife, serve your children, serve your church, serve your community, spiritual character.
You know, Paul wrote his last letter to Timothy in second Timothy chapter two and verse one, and he said this, he said, be strong, strong in what? Judgment? No, strong in grace, strong in grace, endure hardships, suffer, suffer for the name of Christ. That is spiritual character that is developed.
You know, in second Timothy chapter three, when he was talking about the qualifications of deacons and elders in the church, he said, here's one of the standards. A leader in the church should be a good leader of his own household. How can he take care of the church if he doesn't know how to manage his own household? And so this is a challenge for all of us, and please don't think that I stand up here as an example, I'm preaching to myself.
This is the standard of the word of God, and it says that we as leaders should organize our household and our family after spiritual values so that we can be effective in our leadership in the church. Leadership is sacrifice. You know, a lot of people get a wrong sense of leadership. Leadership starts in a home.
If we were to go to Ephesians five and verse 22 to 29, it says, husbands, love your wives. To what standard? Even as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. And then it says, so are men to love their wives, even as their own body.
You know what happens to us men? We're selfish. We have a sinful fallen nature. It's our default.
I don't know if you see it in you, but I see it in me. My wife could testify. You know, it's so easy to be selfish. But leaders, men of God, are those that are willing to sacrifice.
And this is a concept of servant leadership emulated by the Lord Jesus Christ himself. You remember that that night he laid aside his outer garments. He stooped down and the disciples are there and they're saying, where's the maid? Who's gonna wash our feet?
Where's the, how come there's all maid here? Our feet are dirty and dusty. That was their custom. The lowest menial servant task in the household was the one that would stoop down and wash the feet.
And the Lord of glory, Jesus himself, stoops down, takes a towel and he washes the disciples' feet. What a picture of servant leadership. I am deeply challenged by that image because God wants us as men, fathers in our household to serve our lives, to serve our children, to be effective in leadership is to have servant character. And it is emulated from the Lord Jesus Christ, your family.
You know, a lot of husbands will say, what are you talking about? I work hard all day, every day. I pay for the food, I pay for the mortgage, I pay all the bills, I come home, I've done everything. No.
How about the amazing challenge of being responsible for the spiritual, emotional needs of the household, the family? That is the role of fathers. Is it a tall order? It absolutely is.
Lead your children. Connect with your children. Develop your children. How are you gonna do that?
Sit down with them, one-on-one, connect with them. Read the scriptures, teach them truth from the word of God. Turn off the TV. Get away from social media and all the garbage that we are bombarded with.
Speak truth. Read the scriptures at your table when you have a meal. Your children need to hear you pray. Fathers, they need to feel your heart before God.
They need to hear you pray. That's spiritual character and development in serving and connecting with your families. Leadership is spiritual maturity. It is having discernment.
And fathers, you're gonna need this every single day of your life. You are faced with decisions that you have to make every day. Are we gonna do this? Are we gonna go here?
Can we buy this? Should we not buy this? Should we do this? What are we gonna do?
You have a privilege and an opportunity to lead your household, have discernment with what you're doing. Spiritual maturity is critical. I believe that leadership is not a title. It's not a position.
And people that are in leadership roles that feel that their position is because they have a name on their door or on their business card or whatever, that they feel that they have a title and they have a position and so everybody should listen to them. I'm gonna tell you something. Leadership is influence. If people are not following you, you're not leading.
They are disengaged. You're taking a walk. If you think that you're leading and no one's following you. So leadership is influence, it is spiritual maturity.
And the scripture says in first Timothy chapter three and six that a leader in the church is not an all of us. It is not one recently come to the faith. This is somebody who has been tested. And brother, sister, life will test you.
Life tests us all, raising our children, dealing with the pressures, the issues of life. And sometimes we fail and that's okay. We can learn from our failure. We can confess our sin.
We can repent and we can pick up and go on. But leadership is spiritual maturity. Scripture says do not lay hands suddenly on a man. He's gotta be tested.
That's important. And the issues of life will test you. So what happens when somebody fails in the church? Do you go beat them over the head and judge them and slam them and tell them how could you possibly do this?
No, no. There's a great verse in Galatians six and one. And it says this, brethren, if any man be overtaken in a fault, you which are spiritual, restore such a one in the spirit of meekness, considering yourself also, because you could have done exactly the very same thing. Have grace and mercy and discernment and spiritual character.
And it's needed in leadership today. You which are spiritual restore such a one. You know, it's interesting when conflict arises in a church. Well, when conflict arises in a church, it's a crisis.
And how you come out of that conflict largely depends on the leadership, how you manage and handle that situation. You know what? It's the same in a family. It's the same in a marriage.
It's the same in an organization. An organization, a church, a family will never rise higher than its leadership. And if we are men of God, men of character, men by the book that are focused on biblical principles, we can come out of this in a positive way. And so leadership is critical.
It's mentoring others. It's passing the torch. This is one thing that we talked about in the boardroom the other night. Those that are older will not always be here in this role.
And young men need to be raised up. They need to be developed. They need to be encouraged. And the older generation needs to pass the torch to them.
And they need to be equipped to be able to do that. Leadership is mentoring others. It's a havision teaching instruction. I love the words of Paul in Acts, chapter 20, when he met with the Ephesian elders on the beach in my lead us just before he sailed.
He said, you will never see my face again. And he said, I want to remind you how I've lived my life. And remember this, after my departure, the previous wolves will set in. They will not spare the flock.
He said, I exhort you men of God to teach truth. To remember what truth is and to emulate it. And that is our responsibility as leaders passing that on to the next generation. I don't have any more time to spend on that.
And so I'm going to shift gears. And I'm going to talk to you about, for the next 18 minutes, until our time has gone, about Zambia. Three weeks ago, I got home from Zambia. I got this nice shirt in Zambia.
You probably wondered, why am I wearing this shirt? Well, it wasn't my plan. I was in a marketplace in Coloma. And the people that I was with said, you have to get one of these.
And so this guy came on a bicycle. And he measured me all up and outfitted me. And the next day, showed up. And actually, I didn't wear the pants, but I have pants as well.
So what I was told in Zambia is, when you go to Zambia, you've got to be like Africans. And so here I am. So this is where I visited in Zambia. All of my time was really in Lusaka, the capital, and the Southern Province.
And I went to Coloma in Zimba. I'm not even trying to pronounce these names, because I don't know what they are. But it was remote rural villages, two of them. And I had an amazing experience that I'm going to share with you.
And then I also spent some time in Livingston. When I try to summarize my trip to Zambia, I would say it's about two things. Reaching souls and teaching saints. Reaching souls and teaching saints.
Somebody asked me when I got back, what impressed you the most about Zambia? And this is what I came up with. I actually had a deep sense of compassion. Because when I saw the way they lived, and how difficult some of their lives are, I didn't even realize how easy this life is.
We talk about first world problems. You know what? I came back and I said, we have no problems. In comparison, there's very, very little issues here.
I mean, I know we have issues, but they're completely different. Our day is ruined when we drive through Tim Hortons, and they get our coffee wrong. Oh, that's ruined. Oh my goodness, they put sugar in this.
My day is ruined for the rest of today. Relatively speaking, it's completely different. I had a sense of compassion for their challenges. Lack of resources.
Hunger for the word. Open hearts. When we went out on the streets to preach the gospel, it was like nothing I've ever seen in my life. They listened.
Nobody heckled. Nobody threw beer bottles at you. They didn't spin on you. They actually wanted to hear the word of God.
And it was amazing. I'm going to show you a couple slides a second. I went to quite a number of churches, a number of assemblies, and I saw a deep, deep hunger for the word and a great need for teaching. And one of the greatest things that they asked me to speak about was leadership.
They needed a teaching leadership. And we need that as much in Canada as anywhere. Spiritual darkness. It was overwhelming.
I saw, I saw demon possession. And I saw it in a way that I could never have imagined right in front of me. And it was real. And so I experienced things that maybe to a lot of you here, when I show you some of these slides, you're going to feel right at home.
Well, to me, it felt really strange. It felt really strange that I was in this country and experienced so many different things. I thought of two verses that really stirred my heart when I was in Zambia. Mark chapter 6 and 34, when Jesus saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion as they were sheep without a shepherd.
And in Matthew chapter 9, the harvest truly is plenteous and the laborers are few. And I felt that as a burden in my soul when I went to Zambia. This is street preaching in Lusaka. Check this out, Warren.
This is a little different than Spring Garden Road. The people just literally came out of nowhere and gathered around and sat down in front of me, listening to the word of God. And it was amazing. In my suitcase, I brought a whole bunch of these tracks.
Do you know him? Are you forgiven? Are you saved? And I thought this was going to do me a while.
One afternoon, I gave out all my tracks and they were completely gone. And everybody wanted them. And people were like sitting down, reading, and asking, tell me about this. What does the Bible say?
How can I be forgiven? I have sins that I want to be forgiven for. And it was completely amazing. We were in the Shanty town where they called them the compounds where people were living.
And you know, like, I just went there and I just started preaching the gospel. And amazing experience happened. Then we went to this little village, Sinai Zonggawi. I don't know how you say that.
But I'll show you where it was. See down here? We traveled for quite a number of hours to get to this place. And the roads, oh my goodness.
The roads, they had potholes and craters that were like three feet deep. And I don't know how you got through that in the rainy season. But it was crazy. And you know, like there was cows all over the road and there was steers.
And we were supposed to be at this village to start at 12 noon. And by the time we got there, it was 4.30. And I said to the brother that was our guide, my brother, this is crazy. Oh, no, no, no.
He said, don't worry. Time means nothing in Africa. And I'm like, what? Little did I know.
So we got there at 4.30. Do you know that there was people that walked 45 kilometers to get to that meeting, walked. And we had an overnight stay and the next day. And it was three days of meetings teaching the word of God.
And these people were so excited to see us. This right here was the welcome that we got when we rolled into the village. And they were singing and dancing and the music and the passion. You know, honestly, part of that, I thought I was right in Northbrook.
I get it. I just, I don't have it, but I wish I had it. You guys have it. It was awesome.
So we get here and all of these people are gathered around here in chairs and they have a little table there. And they said, OK, brother, get up and teach you where. Where do I start? I don't know these people.
What do I do? I went to John chapter three. And I preached the gospel from John chapter three. And I was finished.
And they said, no, no, keep going, keep going. Well, no, I'm finished. No, no, no, we might have more. So I go more.
After that meeting, we had a sit down meal. I'll show you in a second. And people were just so engaged asking questions about the scripture, about critical things in life. And it was truly an amazing experience.
I'll show you another slide. So this is Outdoor Church. And these people, they love the Word of God. They want truth.
And we had an interpreter that was amazing. He was fluent in English. He was fluent in Tonga. They're native tongue.
And everything that I said, he just was right there. And we connected with probably more than 50% of the people knew English. But as I'm here, preaching, he goes, now, when you pray in Africa, everybody raises their hands. OK?
So we all raised our hands to pray. And I thought that was different, but I enjoyed it. This right here is their church. Look at this.
It's made of mud walls. And it's got a tarp over it. And this is where they gather on a Lord's Day morning to break bread, to celebrate the Lord's Supper, to sing, and to preach. And half of it is open and half of it's enclosed.
This is two little boys that live in this house. And they were absolutely thrilled to see me. There was people in this village that had literally never seen a white man before. And some of them actually wanted to touch your skin to see, are you the same?
Yeah, we're the same. This right here was a breakfast that they cook over an open fire. And I found that in these villages, they cook everything's outside. But this right here is something I want to tell you about.
This broke my heart. This Bible. There's 450 people in this village and one Bible. One Bible in their native language.
And this Bible in the language of Tonga was given to them by a missionary in 1979. And it is well worn. And while I'm preaching, I'm quoting a lot of verses. And everybody's writing down these verses.
And I said, if you have no Bible, why are you writing down these verses? And they said, no, no, we pass it around. He gets it on Monday. He gets it on Tuesday.
He gets it on Wednesday. And he gets it on Thursday. And they can't wait until Thursday comes when they can actually read the Bible. This is completely unthinkable for us.
I met pastors that had overseen churches. And they only had portions of the Bible. And some of them literally had no Bible in their native tongue. And they had no resources.
And we were so far away that some of these people had literally never been to town. They had never experienced electricity or a warm shower. Mind you, they boil the water. And they have this little place where you go.
And you wash yourself. And they give it to you. It was quite interesting. But this was an amazing experience.
What impressed me the most about this village was the hunger for the Word of God. That night, they had gathered with all the villagers around. And they set up underneath the open sky with a generator, a projector screen. And they showed the Jesus film.
Now, I don't know if you guys know the Jesus film or not. It was new to me. I guess the Billy Graham Evangelism organization does a lot of this in Africa. And they have this in their native language.
And so they gathered all these people. Some of them had really never heard the gospel. And by the time we started and we finished, there was over 500 people sitting there in the open air watching this Jesus film. And they stopped it right after the cross before the resurrection.
And they said to me, OK, John, now get up and preach the gospel to these people. And I had an opportunity under the open sky to stand up and preach the gospel of Jesus to 500 people. Some of them had never heard the gospel before in their life. And there was a man that was interpreting.
And people were moved. Like they literally came up afterwards. They wanted you to pray for them. And there was people there that were possessed with demons.
And they were breathing on the ground. And I had never seen anything like this in my life. All kinds of noises were coming out. And I was completely out of my element.
I was shocked. I had never seen anything like this in my life. And there was people that were genuinely longing for repentance and deliverance. It was one lady that was, I think she was about in her mid 30s.
She was weeping. And she said to me, can you talk to me about Jesus? And through an interpreter, I went through John's gospel chapter three and talked about repentance and forgiveness of sins. And what it means to believe in Jesus.
And at the end of that night, she trusted a Christ as her Savior. And she was delivered from demons. And she was rejoicing. And it was an amazing, amazing experience.
It really was. And I was thankful to be able to see that firsthand. So the brother that was traveling with us, he has no resources. And I was shocked when I was driving down the road to see a lot of these man's.
So apparently, this is public transport in Africa, in Zambia. And I said to the guy, I said, what about all these people? They have all their earthly belongings. He said, yeah, he said, they'll ride like that for four hours.
I said, what? They're on top of each other. Yeah, that's the way they roll. And so they get to these potholes and the guy had a flat tire.
Everybody's off the bus and they stand there. Well, they jack up the tire and fix this thing. And everybody gets back on. And the brother that has labored, I got a picture of him in a second, in full-time ministry in Zambia, for years, he has never, ever had a vehicle.
He's never owned a vehicle. He lives in the shanty town in a compound, they call it. And he travels by this means of travel to go to churches to share the word of God. And when I saw that, I was broken and humbled by it.
We went to Zimba. So this was a crazy experience for me. I got to tell you this. So we get there.
I don't know what to expect. OK, I have come with all my organized messages that I'm going to preach. And first of all, I was supposed to start at 9 o'clock. And I said, so we had a lady.
He said, no, no, no. No one will be there at 9. He said, come at 10. I said, well, you announced 9.
He said, no, it doesn't matter. Come at 10. So I roll up there at 930. And there's nobody there.
Well, didn't we announce it was coming at 9 o'clock? Oh, yeah. They say that, but they mean 10. OK.
So they said, go to the village and come back. So we went to the village. We came back at 1030. And it wasn't a car on the parking lot.
I thought, this is meaning. It's not happening today. And I walk in. And there's like 200 people in the church.
But no cars. He said, no, everybody walks. Everybody walks. Yeah, because they have no vehicles.
So I go in there. And I'm sitting up there. And the brother says to me, he says, no, I don't know what you're going to preach today. But he said, whatever you have prepared, he said, just totally disregard it.
He goes, this is what the need is in this church. And I'm like, really? He said, yeah. He said, you need to start with the gospel.
He said, get up and preach the gospel. So I got up, and I totally disregarded my sermon, and I started preaching the gospel. And people came alive. And then the next session, he said, there's an issue in this assembly about understanding forgiveness.
Could you preach to us on forgiveness? But I had prepared. Doesn't matter what you have prepared. Can you preach to us on forgiveness?
OK. He said, why don't you take up Matthew 18 and just do an exposition of this chapter? OK. So I got up, totally unprepared, and I preached Matthew 18.
How often should I forgive my brother until 70 times 7? Until seven times? So we went through this. And then I thought I was done.
And the brother gets up and he says, now, we're going to have four more sessions today. And I'm like, it wasn't clear to me what was going on. So then he says, there's a great need for leadership. Can you preach about leadership?
So I preached about leadership. That was my outline. He said, can you preach about marriage and family relationships? And we had a crusade booked for that night.
And this meeting was supposed to be over at 3. And at 6 PM, we're still going. And I'm exhausted. And they said, it's OK, bro.
Just keep going. Keep going. These people need to hear this. And I'm like, wow.
So then that night, we went out and they gathered in the center of the town. And they had an open-air gospel message. And at the end of the day, I was totally exhausted and blown away, but thoroughly impressed with the hunger for the word. This was the evening preaching the gospel.
And there were so many young people there, tons of young people. And you know one thing that I noticed? It almost seemed to me that every 14, 16, 17-year-old girl had a baby on their back. I didn't see husbands.
I didn't see fathers. And I saw something that was heartbreaking. I also saw a group of young people that were completely possessed by Satan and longing for deliverance. And that night, there were several hundred people there.
I preached first John that the son of God has come to destroy the works of Satan. And I don't know if I should have preached that or not, but I felt the demons were coming out that night. And it was crazy. These people were exhibiting behavior that I had never seen in my life before.
And genuinely struggling. Because of abject poverty and challenges that they have in their life. They're going to witch doctors. And they have these things that call charms.
And they put these things on their body. And they put them in their hair. And they're calling to the works of darkness to help them. Meanwhile, their lives are being ruined.
And we're preaching the gospel and preaching truth. And people are convicted. And they're genuinely calling out for repentance and salvation. And it was an amazing experience to me.
Here's another picture. So they have this flatbed truck. They roll this truck into a field. And they have music and a Christian band that's singing.
And all these people gather. They put the sides down. And then they roll up. And they have a platform.
And they say, OK, John, preach the gospel. And here you are. And there's several hundred people there. And you're sharing the gospel.
And people are interested. They're listening. They're engaged. Which was amazing to me.
Every day we had something I think called in Shema. They had it for every meal. It's like corn maze. It's like a white corn.
And they have it. And they put it in this pot. And they boil it. And they stir it.
And this right here was outside of the church. Outside of the church. On the back, people are inside. And what we know is we're making in Shema.
And this is what it looks like. It was goat meat, cabbage, and in Shema. And I got into a cultural thing that I wasn't ready for. So in the middle of the meetings, I'm sitting in the front.
And they pass this food around. This lady comes. And she's got this pot. And she wants to wash her hands.
OK, so I wash my hands. And then they come with the food. And there's no cutlery. And everybody's eating with their hands.
And I'm kind of a little bit uncomfortable. And fortunately, I had a knife and fork in my backpack. So I pulled out a knife and fork. And I started eating this goat meat with cabbage.
And the brother says, brother, what are you doing? I said, what do you mean? I'm eating. He said, no, no.
You're breaking culture. He says, you got to eat with your hands. So these people are taking this and they're rolling up into a ball. And then they're eating it like an apple.
And I'm extremely uncomfortable with this. And I couldn't get my head around it. But anyways, I went in Rome, went in Zambia. I'm doing this in Zambia.
So that's what I did. So we had in Shema. And that's how they cooked it. This is a chicken house.
This was completely foreign to me. But apparently chickens and eggs are a big thing in Zambia. And a lot of churches, there's no government support there. They have no, what do you call that?
Employment Insurance, Social Services. They don't have any of that. And so they have people that are in their churches that literally have no kind of income. And in these churches, a lot of these assemblies will have a chicken house.
And they'll have chickens. And they'll go to the market. And they'll sell the chickens. And they'll sell the eggs.
And they'll make money off it. And they will feed their people from that. And it was amazing to me. But this is some of their houses.
And they store some things in there as well. This brother I want to share with you is called David Hobe. David Hobe was my full-time interpreter. He traveled everywhere with me in Zambia, fluent in English, fluent in the scripture, and fluent in Tonka.
And he has been in full-time ministry for many, many years. And he preaches and teaches in 37 churches. And he has no resources. And I said to him, I said, I was so moved by my experience.
I said, I'm going to do what I can to help you raise some resources. And so the reason I put him up here is I just would like us to pray for this man. He's a godly brother. That's his family.