Live Your Purpose: Go Beyond! | Jim Whelchel | July 26, 2026

0:00 So, are you looking for purpose and direction in life? If you're not sure what your purpose is, this is the message for you. We will be sharing in today's message about how to know God's purpose and how to live that purpose for his glory. We welcome you. We hope that you can enjoy this great message. So, welcome to our final session of missions month. Have you enjoyed it? >> Well, it's been really exciting for us and I hope that it's been exciting for you. But it's also been challenging, right? So, we have been telling you that you need to live your purpose and go beyond. That has been our theme. And if

0:47 you think back on the last u few weeks, we've been challenged in different ways. Now, before I go further, I realize I have to greet somebody. You know who I need to greet? All of those people that are watching us online right now. So, can we all say happy missions month to all the people online? One, two, three. Happy missions month. So, we're glad that you're joining us online as well as everyone that is here in the auditorium. It's been a great month and I hope that we will have a good finale. Now I want to just review some of the things that we have looked at over the last couple of weeks. You may remember that so far this month the first message was given by pastor Peter and his message was live

1:33 your purpose have compassion. You remember the story of Jonah and Jonah was told by God he's supposed to go to the Ninevites but what was the problem? He had no compassion for the Ninevites. But praise God, God had compassion. In fact, he even had compassion on Jonah. So, we too need to have compassion for people that don't know him. The other the next uh message was Pastor Ryan. Pastor Ryan Escobar is our ICP director uh now for the whole world. And he shared that we should live our purpose and share like Jesus. And the story he used was was the story of the Samaritan woman. Remember Jesus intentionally went

2:20 to Samaria which is not something that the Jews normally did just so that he could have that appointment. He crossed cultural barriers um crossed gender barriers. He went out of his way to be able to share who he was to this woman who was quite sinful. And the result was she came to know God personally and then she shared with the entire village what God had done in her life. The third message was live your purpose. Take bold steps of faith. And the one that shared that was Pastor Neil Smith. Pastor Neil is a great guy and I know that God spoke through him to you. But he said we need to take bold steps of faith. You remember the story was this uh this

3:08 attack was happening against uh Samaria and there were four lepers and they didn't know what to do because there was a famine and there was this siege and they were going to die. So you remember there were four options. They could die or they could die or they could maybe live or they could die. Does that ring a bell with you? And they decided they would take a risk and they would go to the enemy camp. And what did they find when they got there? Nobody was there. Everybody had left. They had abandoned post and they left all of their stuff. And so they had all of this good stuff. And they realized this was a day of good news that they couldn't keep to themselves. They had to go back to the

3:55 city. Even though these people didn't like them and had cast them out, they went back and they told them the good news of the salvation that God had given. So today I was thinking I need to have a good like closing message with a really impactful title, something that would really move you. But the problem is I'm an engineer and I'm not very creative. So this is what I came up with. Live your purpose. go beyond. Well, that's kind of the theme of the whole series, right? But it is also what I think we need to learn today. And so, I want to commit this time to the Lord that God would use this to help us realize that yes, we need to live our

4:43 purpose and go beyond. Let's pray together. Father, we thank you that you have spoken to us over the last few weeks about our need to have compassion, to be able to share the gospel with those around us, to take the risk and take bold steps of faith. Father, I pray today as we talk even further about our mission, our purpose. Lord, would you speak to our hearts? Father, would you help us to know what our purpose is and help us to respond? Father, would you use the words not that I say but your word to us this afternoon? Lord, speak to us in Jesus name. Amen. So, first thing I want to just ask you is what is

5:31 your purpose? Have you ever asked that question of yourself? Why am I here on earth? What am I doing here? Why did God create me? What am I supposed to be and to do? I think almost all of us at one time or another have asked this question and the world tells us all kinds of interesting answers. Not necessarily helpful but these are the things that we are told are our purpose in life. One of the things that we are told is that we are to grow as people. We are supposed to be the best version of oursel. Have you heard that expression be the best version of yourself? You know, I used to think, do I have multiple versions? You know, this is volume one, two, three.

6:16 Well, of course not. But what it means is that we should try to h to grow and develop to be the best we can be, whatever it is that is. Is that a good thing? I think so. It's good for us to seek to be the best that we can be. But what is it that we are supposed to become? That's not a given. Another thing that we are told is we should make a difference in the world. You know, one thing I really appreciate about Gen Z. By the way, I'm not Gen Z. I know you may think I'm Gen Z, but I'm a little bit older than that. But I hear about Gen Z's. They say we want to make a difference in the world. And I think that's a great ambition. The question is

7:02 a difference in what way? And how will we do it? And honestly, sometimes there's not really clarity about what it is that we want to change the world to be like. And sometimes it gets a little muddled. And even Gen Z's will admit many times we don't know how how could we make a difference. Maybe more common for people today is another thing that we are told we should be popular. That is our purpose. Do you know that the number one vocational aspiration of Gen Z is to become an influencer? Now, when I was growing up, we didn't even have influencers. We didn't have social media. We didn't do all of this stuff. But today, there was a survey

7:48 that it was that was done asking young people what do they aspire to do? And it was just to be popular. You know, click like. If we get lots of followers, then somehow we're successful. This is our goal in life is to be popular. But for what? And if you do become po popular, what does it actually get you? Okay, maybe you can monetize it. Maybe you can get rich from it. So actually, you want to just be successful. And I think when I was growing up, that was what we wanted to do. If you were a student, you wanted to get top honors. If you wanted to go into sports, you wanted to be the MVP. Maybe your aspiration is to be like Alex Ayala and

8:34 you want to be a great tennis play player. You know, we don't want to be mediocre. We want to be successful. Is that something that many of us feel is our purpose in life? Have you ever thought that? I think most of us at one time or another have. Or maybe more mundane is we think that our purpose is just to get rich. I want to ask you this afternoon, how many of you would like to be rich? Okay. Well, you guys are more honest than the morning group. Okay. The morning it's like, is this a trick question? Should I put my hand up or not? Maybe it's not very spiritual if I put my hand up here. But the the reality is if we all had the option of either

9:22 being poor or being rich, which one would you choose? Of course, we would rather be rich. But then we also know the other stories. How many people that won the lottery? And then you hear the the after story. What happens friend that was able to get the lottery and they start asking for money and eventually you have broken relationships divorce. So did it turn out right? Did it turn out well? By the way, you're probably scared to death that this American is speaking Tagalogen. I'm actually warming up because it's a three o'clock

10:08 service. So, but what is it that we are what were we talking about? You know, we know that there are many people that actually achieve being rich, becoming rich, and it doesn't go well. It turns out that that was not what they wanted to be because it ruined their life. So being rich may not be the purpose that we should have or for some of us maybe it is to find that one person right you know you're looking for God's best or you're looking for your soulmate how many of us have heard that that is our real purpose in life you know I praise God that I have a

10:55 wonderful wife Louie is right now dressed up as an Indian princess okay so my wonderful lovely ly wife. But yes, you can clap for her. She's worth clapping for. But you know, if my only purpose was somehow to find her, there is no way I will ever completely fulfill her, nor will she ever completely fulfill me. Because that's a burden nobody should have to bear to be the the sole source of fulfillment of another person. It's not possible because that's not how God has created us. So those of you who are still single, wonderful if you can find a partner, but beware of thinking that that person is going to be the

11:41 fulfillment of your life ambition or life dream because no one can do that. So what is our purpose? Well, let me take a look at a picture. Do you know what this is? This is not a trick question. This is really easy. Okay, it is a screwdriver. Okay. Now, what does a screwdriver do? It drives screws. Awesome. I heard that answer. You guys are really good. Okay. That is its purpose. The purpose of a screwdriver, the reason that it was made was to screw screws. Either to put them in or to take them out. I remember when I was young, I was really into electronic stuff and we used to take

12:27 apart old electronic equipment so we could cannibalize the parts and use it to build things. I know I'm a nerd. Please forgive me. But when we did it, we were using these like old uh surplus equipment and sometimes it's hard to get them open. It's very difficult. And what do we need to be able to open something that is stuck? Well, we need something to pry it open. Right now, my dad had a screwdriver, which was kind of his pride and joy. It was a craftsman screwdriver, and they have like a lifetime guarantee. You can't break it. So, at least that's what I thought. But then I remember we're trying to get the lid off of this piece

13:13 of electronic equipment that was really stuck up. So, I go and get my dad's Craftsman screwdriver and I stick it, wedge it in, and then put all of my strength on it to to open the top. And guess what happened? It broke. And I was in trouble because this is my father's favorite screwdriver. So, this is what happened. It breaks. Now, why did the screwdriver break? because it was being used for a purpose it was not intended for. I want you to think about that. You know, there are people all around the world today and maybe some of you who are broken,

13:59 who are maybe depressed, having mental health issues, or maybe you're anxious, maybe there are other things going in your life because you are not using your life according to the purpose you were intended for. When we don't align with God's purpose for our life, we can be broken. So the message today is that we need to align ourselves with God's purpose. Now what are some of the purposes of God for all of us? You know, when you think about it, there are many, but I just want to point out a few. Number one, and I think the most important for all of us is that his desire is that we would all be reconciled to him. The reason that he

14:47 sent Jesus to come and to die on the cross for the sins of all people was so that you and I could have a personal relationship with him. So that we could be reconciled back to God. That is the first purpose. And if you don't get that one right, you're going to have a hard time in your life because that is essential. If you don't have that right relationship with God, you're not going to experience God's purpose. Now, some of the other things that he wants, first of all, he wants us to glorify him. You know, one of the things that we do when we sing is we are bringing honor and worship and bringing glory back to him. But that's not the only way. Just fulfilling what God has told us to do

15:35 also brings honor and glory to God. So he wants us to live to glorify him. We're also told that we are supposed to love God and love others. We know the great commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, your your soul, your mind, your strength. And the second is like it that we are to love our neighbor as oursel. That is what we have been designed to do. When we do that, we experience God's favor. We experience fulfillment. When we choose to act in a selfish way, we tend not to experience the goodness of God. We are also told that we are to become more like Jesus. After you come to know Christ, guess what? He doesn't want to

16:22 leave you the way that you have come to him. He wants you to become more and more conformed to the image of Christ. And one of the problems with that is that we're also supposed to suffer for our faith. Meaning that sometimes following Jesus can be hard because God wants us to become more and more like Jesus. Many times he brings problems and trials into our life to conform us to be more like Christ. So if you think that the problems that you're having are something that you want to escape, think again. Maybe the reason that you have problems and challenges is because he is molding you to become more like Jesus. The last one I really want to mention

17:09 because we will talk more about this later is to make disciples of Christ. Um now I got to give this pitch. I forgot to do this in the morning service. If you are not yet in a Dgroup, you know the thing that will help you more than anything else to get launched into your walk with God after you receive Jesus is to be with a small group of other people that you can journey together with. Now I know some of you are shy. Some of you don't like to open up. There are many reasons why we give, why we don't want to be a part of a small group. But I can guarantee you that is God's intention for all of us because he wants us to make disciples. But first you have to be a disciple and the best place to do that

17:57 is within a small group. So later today there is a welcome center outside for those of you that are watching online you can sign up for e disciplehip uh connect with ccf.net and be a part of a small group there. But I encourage you take that step because it's very important and we will talk more about the scope of making disciples later in the message. Now the question that many of us really ask those are general things that all of us need to be aware of. This is purpose that God has for all of us. But what about each of us individually? Does God have a specific per purpose for each person? Actually, that question really should be

18:42 phrased like this. Does God have a specific purpose for me? Do you think God has a specific purpose for you? I think God has given each of us a particular role within the kingdom of God. And we will be most fulfilled in our lives when we find that role and we pursue it. Let me give you a couple of things just to bring that home. In Psalm 139:16, the Psalmist says, "Your eyes have seen my unformed substance, and in your book were all written the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of them." What does that mean? The psalmist is saying, "When I was

19:28 still in my mother's womb, before I was even born, you already saw me. You knew me. You knew what I was like. In fact, you already knew how many days I would live on this earth. You knew how long my life would be. God is the one that formed us. So, it makes sense that he is the one that gave us the purpose for our individual lives. You want to know the purpose for your life? Get to know the one that created you. He is the one that g give you that insight. Now, one of the verses that we love, especially for those of us that have come to know Christ personally, in Ephesians 2:8 and 9, it says, "For by

20:13 grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not as a result of works, so that no one may boast." We love that because we learn from this that we don't have to work hard to be able to be saved. It's not because of what we do. It's not because we are better than other people. It's because of what Jesus has done for us. And we simply need to accept that gift of grace by faith by receiving Christ into our lives so that we can know him personally. So, praise God for that. The problem with that is that sometimes we don't finish the passage because in verse 10 it says, "For we are his workmanship created in

21:02 Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them." What's that saying? You are saved completely by grace through faith alone. Not because of what you do, but God after you are saved has something for you to do. In fact, he prepared certain things that he wants you to do for his kingdom. If we are truly followers of Jesus, we will want to be able to do what he has called us to do. Right? You want to follow Jesus and obey him and do what he wants you to do. Yes. Only two of you. Can I ask that one again? Do you want to

21:48 follow Jesus and accomplish what he wants you to do? >> I think all of us deep down know that that is where we are going to be most fulfilled when we are not just believers but we are truly followers who are accomplishing his will in our lives. So it's not just that we are saved but he saves us so that we can accomplish what he desires. I remember last year we had a speaker uh Dr. Beay Shanko during missions month. He was the one that had the crazy testimony about growing up in a village in Ethiopia, how his dad had come to know the Lord. And you should look at his testimony online. It is amazing. But this is the verse that he used. He said,

22:35 'For David after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation fell asleep and was laid among his fathers and underwent decay. Now, I'm not going to talk about the decay part. Okay, that's a little morbid, but what does it say? It says after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, then that was the time that God took him home. In other words, God took this shepherd boy, this nobody. By the way, he was the eighth child in the line of his father. And when his father was uh was talked to by Samuel, who was looking for the person that God was going to anoint for king, and he brought all of

23:22 the brothers, and the father brought seven. He forgot that he had eight children. Can you imagine? Wouldn't it be wonderful? Your father brings all of the other brothers as a potential king to Samuel and he doesn't even remember that you are one of the kids. He is nothing. He is a shepherd, which is a very low position. But God had a purpose for him, and that was to become the king of Israel. Now we know a lot about David but let me just point out that by the end of his life it says here he had fulfilled the purpose of God for his generation. And one of the most important things that he did was he

24:09 became the picture of what the Messiah was going to be. He became part of the lineage of Jesus and he was going to be the king that Israel was looking for for eternity. That was the picture that David gave of what the Messiah was going to be. Can you imagine a shepherd boy being plucked out of that situation? The eighth in a line of eight. And yet he had the purpose of God to be the one to point people to the Messiah, to Jesus. God does have a purpose for each of us. And that's why we are saying you need to live your purpose. But to do that, you need to go beyond. Now, I'd like to take

24:55 the rest of the message to talk about somebody that I believe is a great example of a person that was challenged by God to live his purpose. And that person is Abraham. So, I want to go back to the passage that was um was read earlier in Genesis 12:es 1:3. It says, 'Now the Lord said to Abram, by the way, we will learn later Abram becomes Abraham. So don't get confused. Same guy. The Lord said to Abram, go forth from your country and from your relatives and from your father's house to the land which I will show you, and I will make you a great nation. And I will bless you and make your name great, and

25:41 you shall be a blessing, and I will bless those who bless you. And the one who curses you, I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth will be blessed. Amazing promise. Scholars call this the Abrahamic covenant. This is a promise of God that to the descendants of Abraham, he was going to provide something amazing. What was it? First, a land. He was going to bring him to the land of Canaan, which became the land of Israel. So God was going to give the land to Abraham and his descendants. He also promised that he would become a great nation. There would be multitudes of people that would come from him that would be living in

26:28 that land. And finally, he was going to be a seed of blessing not just to the people in that place, but to all the nations. Now, that's pretty amazing. Amazing promise that God gave to Abraham. But what did he tell him he needed to do? He needed to leave where he was and obey. Okay. Uh the verse verses four and five it says, "So Abraham went forth as the Lord had spoken to him and Lot went with him. Now Abram was 75 years old when he departed from Heron." I want you to think about this. Okay, how many of you men are married? How many husbands do we have here? Okay, see

27:16 all of those husbands? Some of you are not willing to admit it. Okay, I don't know. Husbands, imagine this. You're at work one day and sometime maybe during lunchtime you are approached by God and God says, "Bro, maybe you're Jose or whatever your name is. Jose, I have a purpose for you. I am going to bring you from this place to a land that you don't know and I'm going to make you a great nation and you're going to be a blessing to all nations. So, I want you to pack everything up and I want you to put it all in the van and I want you to gather

28:03 your whole family together and then you're going to go to some place that I haven't told you yet. Okay. Crazy, right? You're supposed to pack up all of your possessions, leave your job, just give up everything. But I think the most important thing here is you're going to have to go tell your wife that this is what God told you. Can you imagine husbands going home telling your wife, "Honey, you know, God spoke to me. So this afternoon, I quit my job. I want you to get up, get all the kids together, get all of our stuff. We're going to pack up. we're closing out the house and we're going to go. And she says, "Where?" And you go, "But I

28:49 don't know." How is that going to go with your wife? Probably not so well, right? She's probably going to have a few questions. It's like, "Have you lost your mind? There is no way I'm going to do this. How do you know that God has spoken to you?" I mean, so many questions. But the amazing thing here is it says, "So he did. He went forth exactly as God said. No questions. He didn't know where he was going to go. He didn't know the end of this journey. He just knew that God had spoke to him and said, "This is what I want you to do." That is amazing faith. In fact, Hebrews

29:38 11:8, that act was described this way. By faith, Abraham when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance. And he went out not knowing where he was going. You know, sometimes God calls us to take steps of faith and he doesn't tell you what's going to happen at the end. You just need to believe and trust God and obey. Have you ever had to take a step of faith, but you don't know what the end is going to be? For some of us, that step of faith, the first step was deciding that we're going to receive Jesus into our life and become followers of him. And probably there were people

30:24 around you that were saying, "Oh, you become a born again. you know, you're leaving the old religion or you're you're you're becoming a religious person. You know, you can't be the barcata that always went, you know, doing the things that barcadas do. And you probably got some push back from people. You didn't know how it was going to work out, but you knew that God was calling you into a relationship with himself, and you made that step of faith, and now you're living it. Is that true for some of us? You didn't know the end, but you had to take that step of faith. Now, for some of us, even after we've come to know Christ, he asked us to take steps of faith that we

31:10 don't know. We don't know what's going to happen. It's not always easy. But let's follow the example of Abraham. He just went without knowing the end, without even knowing the destination. He obeyed because he knew his God. because God has spoken to him. He knew it was God that had called him to go. So what do we need to do when God speaks to us? We need to believe and obey all of us. But it goes on in verses 10 and 11. It says, "Now there was a famine in the land. So Abram went down to Egypt to sojurnn there, for the famine was severe in the land." Now wait a minute. What

31:58 did he just do? He left everything in Heron, which is 600 700 kilometers away. He took the camel caravan, all of his stuff, all of his family, and he's 75 years old. This is not an easy thing to bring everyone to this new place. And what did he find when he got there? There was a famine. And you got to be thinking, God, did you know that there was going to be a famine when I was going? I mean, are you sure that this is what you want me to do? Have you ever had those experiences where you believe God wanted you to do something and then it didn't turn out nearly as easy as you thought it would be?

32:44 Has that happened to you? Maybe there are trials in your life. Perhaps some of you, you came to know Christ. you were struggling and you thought if I just come into relationship with Jesus he will fix everything in my life and then after you came to know him all of the problems didn't go away you know I think we are sometimes misled by people that tell us that life is going to be a bed of roses if you just receive Jesus and the reality is sometimes that is true because God is a gracious God but sometimes times he has a greater purpose for us and that may involve going through challenges and trials. In this case, Abram had to face

33:31 a famine immediately after he had moved into this land that God had promised to him. He faced a lot of things. First, there was the famine. Then, there was a fight with Lot about who was going to get what land. Then, there were people that attacked the place where Lot was living. He had to go in and rescue the whole family that had been kidnapped and taken all of their their possessions. And then of course there was the destruction of Sodom. But the biggest one was he had no heir. And remember what the promise was that God gave to him. God said, "I'm going to give you land. I am going to make you a great nation. And through your seed, the

34:17 whole world is going to be blessed. That sounds great, but what if you don't have any children? Isn't that a problem? So, it's like, God, you know, this sounds really good, but I mean, realistic, I don't have any kids. How are you going to fulfill this? On chapter 17, God speaks to him again. It says, "As for me, behold, my covenant, which is an unconditional promise, is with you, and you will be the father of a multitude of nations. No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be called Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations."

35:03 He says, "I have made you the father of a multitude of nations." That is done. past tense, but he doesn't even have a child. So, isn't there a disconnect here? You know, sometimes when God has decreed something to happen, it's going to happen. We may not see it yet, but in in heaven, it's already done. God has already said, "You are going to have children, and all my promises are going to happen." Just because you don't see it yet, doesn't mean it's not going to happen. And for all of us, it's a good reminder that no matter what the challenges or difficult difficulties are that we face,

35:50 God hasn't given up. God is still there. God is still going to bring you through those things because God is God. He will make it happen. So, we see Abraham's response, which I think is kind of funny. says, "Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed." Okay? He says, "God, you got to be kidding. You're telling me you're going to do all of this stuff? I don't even have a kid." He said, "Will a child be born to a man a hundred years old? And will Sarah, who is 90 years old, bear a child?" To all Abraham could do was laugh. It's like, "There is no way this is going to

36:36 happen. Have you ever thought maybe sometimes the things that God is doing in your life, it's like all you could just do is laugh. It's like it just seems impossible. Well, God has a sense of humor. Because in Genesis 21:es 5-7, it says, "Now Abraham was 100 years old when his son Isaac was born to him. Sarah said, "God has made laughter for me. Everyone who hears will laugh with me." And she said, "Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age." They went through the trials. They

37:22 continued to persevere. And at the end, God blessed them with a child. That child was Isaac. You know, we are told in scripture that we need to persevere. We may not see the end result, but we know that we need to continue to trust God. And that's what Abraham did. Abraham and Sarah, even at a hundred years old and 90 years old, were blessed with the child that was the child of the promise of God because they persevered. Well, it goes on in the story and I'm skipping some things, but in Genesis chapter 22, it says, "Now it came about after these things that God tested Abraham." By the way, this is quite a

38:08 number of years later. So, by this time, Isaac is probably a teenager, maybe young adult. So, it's been at least, you know, 15 to 25 years. So that's after these things that God tested Abraham and said to him,"Abraham," and he said, "Here I am." He said, "Take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Mariah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you." God has fulfilled his promise. He has given him a s a son only one Isaac. And now he tells Abraham, Abraham, I want

38:53 you to take this boy, go up on the mountain in Mariah, and I want you to sacrifice him to me there. Whoa. It took 25 years to fulfill the promise. Now the promise is fulfilled. The boy is growing up. And you want me to what? Lord, did I get that right? You know, I I I think I'm having a hard time hearing what you're saying, you know, because surely you didn't really mean that you want me to to go up on the mountain with him and sacrifice him. That wasn't what you meant, right? And God says, "No, I want you to take your son, the son that you love, your only son, and take him up

39:39 to the mountain and sacrifice him there." So, what happened? Well, we'll skip the whole story, but he took his son. They brought wood. They brought fire. They brought a knife. And I think somewhere along the way, Isaac probably looked at his dad and said, "Uh, Dad, aren't we forgetting something? Aren't we supposed to have a sheep or something here? Uh, where's the sacrifice?" And Abraham said, "God will provide." And then they get up there as he is about to put the knife into Isaac as he's on the altar ready for the sacrifice. It says, "But the angel of

40:25 the Lord called to him from heaven and said,"Abraham, Abraham." And he said, "Here I am." He said,"Do not stretch out your hand against the lad and do nothing to him. For now I know that you fear God since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me." And it goes on and it says, "Then Abraham raised his eyes and looked and behold behind him a ram caught in the thicket by his horns and Abraham went and took the ram and offered him up for a burnt offering in the place of his son." This is a picture of what God was going to do for all of us by sending his son Jesus as the sacrifice that we need for us to be

41:12 saved. When the Bible told Abraham, you are going to be the one that will bless all nations, what he meant was that your seed, who is Jesus, is going to be sacrificed for the sins of all people so that all nations will be blessed because of him. And here's the perfect picture that God is the one that provides the sacrifice. We don't have to sacrifice ourselves. We don't have to be separated from God. We will be sacrificed for by God. That's the picture. And by the way, it's very interesting that Mariah Mariah is a mountain where the temple was built, where they offered sacrifices

41:59 maybe a thousand years later. God prepared this perfectly in his design to show that he is the one that provides the perfect sacrifices. So what are we supposed to do? We need to surrender. Even the most precious thing in Abraham's life, he needed to be willing to surrender to God because if he didn't, we would not be able to experience the salvation for the whole world. That was the seed that God was going to provide to bless the entire world. In Galatians 3 6 and to8 it says even so Abraham believed God and it was reckoned

42:44 to him as righteousness. Therefore be sure that it is those who are of faith who are sons of Abraham. The scripture foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham saying all the nations will be blessed in you. And in verse 29 it says, "And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's descendants, heirs according to his promise." God's purpose for Abraham was to pro provide the seed so that everyone in the world could have a relationship with him. That's why we need to live our purpose and go beyond. Why go beyond? Because

43:30 Abraham was not supposed to only bless the people in his clan, the people in his place, but to bless the whole world. God is concerned with everyone. You know, our favorite verse in CCF is Matthew 28:1 19 and 20. It says, "Go therefore make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Now, Pastor Peter shared this a few weeks ago, so I'm going to give you a pop quiz. Are you ready for a pop quiz? Okay, I've already given away the answer, but I'm still going to answer this or ask this. What is the main verb

44:19 in this verse? Is it go? Is it make disciples? Or is it baptizing? or is it teaching? So, you can only an answer once. Okay. So, I'm going to say how many of you say it is go? Ah, you were already brainwashed. Very good. How many say it was make disciples? Very good. I can tell Pastor Peter that you have passed the test. Okay, good job. You can clap for yourselves. So this verse reminds us that all of us are supposed to make disciples. And again, like I said, the first step is get into a droup so that you can learn

45:05 what it means to be a disciple so that you can also make disciples because that is God's purpose for you. However, just because make disciples is the main verb, we need to make it very clear that the only way that you can fulfill this is by making disciples of all the nations. Not just the Philippines, not just America, not just the existing Christian countries around the world, but of all nations. Acts 1:8 says it this way. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you shall be my witnesses both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and even to the remotest part of the earth. We don't do

45:52 this sequentially. Oh, once my family is saved and the people in Manila are saved, then I will think about going to Judea and Samaria. No, it's both. And we are responsible as children of God, as the church of Jesus Christ, to make sure that the gospel goes to the ends of the earth, not merely to the people that are close and dear to us. Of course, we need to do that for them. But we also need to be concerned about the rest of the world. And that's the purpose of CCF Beyond. CCF Beyond is basically the missions arm of CCF. It is everything CCF does outside of the Philippines. So CCF Beyond helps CCF fulfill our mandate

46:41 to make disciples of all the nations. So I am the director of CCF Beyond. We have wonderful staff that are doing great things. How do we do it? Well, the first is through our international church planting. These are Filipino for the most part churches that are being planted all over the world. We have around 60 satellites in I think around 35 different countries. God is doing amazing things. We were just in Canada a few weeks ago and these are the leaders in Canada where we met together with Pastor Peter. These are just leaders, okay? Only either D-group leaders or satellite leaders. This isn't all of the people in Canada. We literally have

47:28 thousands of people there as well as in other parts of the world. And these are our regional coordinators. They're the ones that give leadership to ICP starting with Pastor Ryan Escobar who spoke a couple weeks ago. We also have e discipleship. We have just relaunched this uh we mobilize people to make disciples online wherever they are globally. Uh this blurred out picture was our third batch of e disciplehip training and we now have hundreds of people that are trained to make disciples online around the world. Then we have global disciplehip partnerships starting CCF home fellowships and satellites among locals of other countries. We're starting this in one Southeast Asian country just getting

48:15 started. So I'll give you more updates as that progresses. But then we also are partnering together with international care ministries. Remember when pastor Peter spoke a guy by the name of Dave Sutherland shared his testimony and about our partnership how we are helping to equip pastors in the Visayas and Mindanao that work with the poorest of the poor in Mindanao and and Visayas. Amazing ministry. And then international missionary partnerships. This is where we go to places where it is very difficult to share the gospel. This is in South uh Asia. This is in northwest or northeast

49:01 uh Africa. We conduct training to help national leaders to reach out to their own people. These are in places that are predominantly um Buddhist, Muslim, Hindu, atheist, places where it is very difficult to bring the gospel. And that's part of our heart is to be able to bring the gospel to those places. So what is God doing through beyond? Well, through international church uh planning, we've seen more than 4,000 drgroups established all over the world. God is doing amazing things. Praise God. We just started with e disciplehip. So we've got about 170 groups right now.

49:47 ICM has helped plant 12,000 new churches through the training that we have provided to them in Visayas and Mindanao. It's okay. You can clap. God is honored. But the last one is what is closest to my heart because these are people that may never hear the gospel. People that unless somebody were to cross boundaries, borders to be able to bring the gospel to them, they may never come to know Christ. And we have already seen more than 45,000 house churches and small groups in some of these places by God's grace. I'd like to share a video testimony of

50:33 just one. By the way, it is not him. He's just a good-looking guy. So, I thought we would put a picture of him. But this is the area that he is ministering in. So, let's hear the testimony now. My name is Pastor James and our home is high in the mountains of South Asia where few have heard of Jesus and his gospel. But God has been changing that in recent years. Shortly after the pandemic, I connected with one of CCF Beyond's missionary partners. They trained me with the Go Viral training process that is being used in many mission fields. When I returned home, the Lord began to

51:18 move mightily and the number of believers started to multiply as I applied what I had learned. There was a man in our village named Kan who was possessed by an evil spirit. He would suddenly become weak and lose consciousness. When he was taken to the hospital, doctors could not find any physical illness. We prayed for Ken, shared the gospel with him and encouraged him to trust in Jesus. As we ministered to him, his condition improved and he was healed. Seeing God's power and love, Kan and his family accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior. Kan's younger brother, Moan, witnessed this change and also put his

52:04 trust in Jesus. So moved by God's grace, he donated land for a church. Their father, a well-known witch doctor, opposed Christianity and encouraged others to do the same. But one day, while traveling to another village, he became ill and was left partially paralyzed. When Kan and Moan heard the news, they carried him home and prayed for him. They then carried him on a 3-day journey to the nearest hospital. By God's grace, he recovered. The love and care shown by his children softened his heart. And a few months later, he also accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior.

52:50 People saw that the love of Christ was stronger than hatred. Now almost the whole village, more than 90 families are following Jesus. God also touched the life of another feared witch doctor named Chai. Through believers in our disciplem network, he heard the gospel, received prayer, and was delivered from his illness. He then surrendered his life to Christ. This led to six other witch doctors turning away from witchcraft, which also impacted their village. Over 150 families have come to Christ, representing nearly 500 people. The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. There are still many people

53:36 without the gospel, not only in the surrounding areas, but in even higher mountain villages. Yet, these places are not too high for our God. Please pray for us as we go further up the mountain that the gospel would reach every village and every soul would be one for Jesus. So praise God. This is historical. One of the villages is now almost 100% Christian. The first Christian village in that part of the world. It's amazing what God is doing. But let me also give you a little bit of background what's happening in Northeast Africa. So we go to some very remote

54:22 places. Uh this is the airplane that we went in. No, it's really not. I'm just kidding. But this airplane is actually the first thing you see when you land at the landing strip in the place that we go to because it didn't make it out. And it just reminds us we also may not make it out if we go there. But by God's grace, we do training among people in that area where they are taught how to be able to pray, care, share, to be able to find people of peace, start small groups, grow those into house churches, and eventually raise up leaders that will multiply. And we were starting in one of the camps. This is in a war torn area. So there's literally two or three

55:08 million um refugees internally and externally displaced. This particular refugee camp, there were about 40 or 50,000 when we started working there and almost all from the majority religion of that place, not Christian background. We started doing the training and we saw many people come to know Christ, many groups that were formed. That that refugee camp is now up to 80 to 100,000 people because of the influx of more people that have had to flee the war. And while we were visiting there was a pair of researchers that came to that refugee camp and they said we have heard

55:54 that God is doing something significant here and they do research about movements of God especially among the majority people. And they said, "We interviewed the camp leadership. We interviewed other community leaders. We interviewed people at the grassroots leader level." And they said, "We believe based on all of the research that we have done that more than half of the people in the refugee camp are now followers of Jesus." That's more than maybe 40 or 50,000 people that have come to know Christ. Now, this is not just from our ministry. There's others that are doing amazing

56:40 things there. But we believe that God used this as a catalyst to be able to help people reach out, share the gospel, start groups, start house churches, and it is now spreading to other places. Let me just tell you one other story. So, there is one place that one of our graduates went to. They started the training in a new area up in the mountains near this refugee camp in another refugee camp again with another 40,000 people that are displaced. So they started doing our go vital viral process. And one of the things that we teach them to do is to go two by two and to go to people's homes. You can't really call them houses because they're just makeshift tents, but you go to the person's home and then you offer to pray

57:27 for them. And most of the time people are are open. No matter what your religious background, if you've got problems and you ask them, can we pray for you? Most of the time they're willing. But they came to this one home and the the owner or the master of the house said, "Go away. We don't want anything to do with you Christians. You are not welcome here. We are from another religion. So just leave." And he was very rude and he was very confrontational. One of his neighbors because all of these they get the houses. One of his neighbors saw what happened and said that's not nice. That wasn't that's not accommodating. So he said friend you can

58:12 come to my house. So bring your your other friend and come to my house and if you want to pray for us you can pray for us. And then he said let me go invite some of my other neighbors. So he brought two other families to his home and he said, "Tell us whatever it is that you want to tell us. You know, we're we're open. Please tell us whatever you wanted to to tell us." So they share the gospel with him. And all three families came to know Jesus that day. Praise God for that. But the man before they left asked them a question. He said, "Why do you only visit other Christians?"

58:58 He said, 'We've noticed you've been here for a long time. We know that there's Christians in the camp, but it seems like you only go and visit other Christians. Why? Why don't you come to us? We've been waiting. And that story was then passed on to another refugee camp where we're doing the same thing. And in that refugee camp, honestly, the people were very hesitant. They thought there was great opposition. They thought people wouldn't be open to the gospel. But when they heard that it could happen there, they also began to develop boldness to be able to share with others. And they too realized it's wrong for us to keep this to ourselves. You know, if I think about it in a way,

59:45 we must care for the people around us, those that are near and dear to us. We must share the gospel with them. We must give them the opportunity to know Christ. But we can't stop there. The reality is there are three billion people in the world who do not know who Jesus is. I remember telling the story a couple years ago. I was in a South Asian country and I met this young man probably 23, 24 years old, college graduate, excellent English, very articulate, very I mean sharp guy and I wanted to share the gospel with him and I asked him, "Do you know who Jesus is?" And he looked at me kind of quizzical and he said, "Does he live around here?"

1:00:34 Literally, he did not know who Jesus was. Here's a guy that knows English, well educated, trained in university. How much more the people in the villages will not know who Jesus is? 2.2 billion people do not even know a Christian who could share the gospel with them. Can you imagine living in a place where even if you wanted to know who Jesus is, you don't even know anybody that could tell you. And yet only 3% of missionaries are working with unreached people. And that's why we in CCF beyond need to change that. We need to be part of the 3% or more that is actually going and

1:01:24 helping equip local believers to reach their people and go beyond. That's what we do. And that's why we say live your purpose. go beyond. So, I'd like to ask you today, where are you at in your journey in living your purpose? Perhaps like Abraham, you're at a stage where you need to believe and obey. Some of you are here and maybe for the first time you realize, you know, I'm not really sure that I even have a relationship with Jesus. You've been talking about Jesus being sacrificed for me. I want to experience that. Maybe you need to place your faith in Jesus to be

1:02:10 saved. That may be the step that you take. Or maybe some of you, you are going through trials and difficulties in your life. And some of you may feel like giving up because it just seems too hard. Just remember Abraham, no children, but promised that he was going to be the father of a great nation. Is there anything too difficult for God? So don't give up because you don't know when God is going to come through. He is faithful. But maybe you need to surrender. Maybe just like Abraham, there is something that is holding you back. Or maybe there is something that that God is calling you to do and you just haven't been willing

1:02:55 to take that step yet. Maybe today is the day that you need to tell the Lord, "I surrender." Now, today when you came in, you are given an envelope. By the way, for those of you that are online and don't see the envelope, um you can go through the same process by using this uh QR code. And if you would prefer a QR code instead of the envelope, that's okay. inside this envelope. First of all, I want you to take out the envelope. So, get it out. Show me the envelope. Everybody got one? If you don't have one, we've got volunteers that are here that are um going to distribute to you. Inside the envelope, you don't want to miss this

1:03:41 because we have a refrigerator magnet just for you. You always like refrigerator magnets, right? This will remind you unless you don't have a refrigerator then kowaka. So sorry but if you have a refrigerator we want you to put this on your refrigerator to remind you to pray for CCF beyond. Is that fair? Will you do that? >> Okay. But we also would like you to to take a moment to fill out this as a response sheet. So, if you can get out a pen or a a pencil, we would like you to choose how you want to respond and be involved in what God is doing through CCF Beyond.

1:04:27 First of all, you can pray. We have a number of prayer communities where you can participate. You know, we have about a thousand people in two different communities. And a couple of times in the past year, we have had people that we are working together with that were arrested and we found out that they were arrested. And so we did a blitz of uh prayer requests on our prayer communities. And you know, God blessed us and those people were released as a result of our prayers. Prayer matters. You may not be able to go to one of these countries, but through your prayers, you can go. Second, you may want to serve. Perhaps you would like to

1:05:12 help people that are friends or relatives that are living abroad get connected to our international satellites. So, if you want to connect your friends to satellites, just indicate that. And then perhaps you would like to go on a short-term mission trip to see with your own eyes and to be involved personally in what God is doing in some of some of these places. Or perhaps you would like to volunteer. We need volunteers like during this time handing out these uh these forms and collecting them and many other things that are our volunteers do to help with beyond. Finally, some of you may be led to give. Now, we don't talk about money a lot in CCF because we don't want you

1:05:58 to feel pressured. So, please don't feel any pressure. But God may have blessed you in a special way this year. And you have been moved to see what God is doing outside of the Philippines and you want to be a part. All of the activities that Beyond does in all of these countries is supported by people just like you who believe that God wants them to share their resources. If you would like to do that, please check that and then fill it out and at at the end drop it in the dropboxes with all of our volunteers. They will collect them when you get out in the back. So, I'd like you just to take a moment to fill those out and ask God what he would have you to do.

1:06:57 Now, as we close, I just want to leave you with this thought. This is what John Wesley said. And in his time, his organization sent missionaries all over the world. This is what he said. He said, "I want the whole Christ for my savior, the whole Bible for my book, the whole church for my fellowship, and the whole world for my mission field." Let's close together in prayer. Father, we thank you for the life of Abraham and the lessons that we have learned from him. Lord, I pray for people that may be here that after hearing this message are not sure that they themselves are saved.

1:07:42 Perhaps they need to take the step of believing, of trusting Jesus to be their Lord and Savior. And if you want to do that right now, I'm just going to say a brief prayer. Just follow along with me and Jesus will save you. Lord Jesus, thank you for dying on the cross for my sins. Right now, I receive you as my savior and my lord. Thank you for forgiving me of my sins. I pray that you would come into my life and you would change me to be the person that you want me to be.

1:08:28 Amen. And if you have done this, you can be sure that Jesus has come into your life and now he is your Lord and Master. But for the rest of us, I pray Lord, if there are those that are struggling, if there are those that are facing challenges, give them the will and the power and the anointing to persevere. And for those that you are speaking to that you want them to surrender some area of their life or maybe their life ambition. Maybe you're calling them to be directly involved in reaching out to people around the world. Father we ask that you would give them the boldness to take a step of faith and say Lord I surrender to you. Lord we thank you. We

1:09:14 pray this all in Jesus' name. Amen. God bless. Happy missions month CCF family. Welcome to Sunday FastTrack where you ask real life questions and we give you biblical truths. I'm Mark Anthony Caffra serving as a regional coordinator for CCF Europe. And I'm absolutely delighted to be with our wonderful speaker, Pastor Jim Welch, director of CCF Beyond to answer some of your questions. Good day, Pastor Jim. Good day. >> Good day. Happy missions month. Thank you for the powerful and inspiring message to close our missions month. Ready to answer our questions? >> Uh, we'll give it a shot. >> So, first off, many people believe that

1:10:01 success, money, and achievements will give their lives meaning. Why do these things often leave us wanting for more? >> Yeah, I think you know the point that I was trying to make in the message is that God has a purpose for us. uh whenever we try to live a purpose that is not aligned with his purpose, we're going to end up not being satisfied. We're going to end up having problems, challenges. I think we just will be disappointed with life. And I believe that as we look around uh the world today, many people are experiencing depression, anxiety, many of the mental health issues. And for the most part, I believe that is because people have not aligned themselves with God's purpose. So my advice is align yourself. You know, find out what God has called you to be and to do and put your whole heart

1:10:49 into it. >> Absolutely. Thank you, Pastor Jim. For our second question, life's challenges can be tough. How can we respond to them in a way that allows us to grow regardless of the reasons behind them? >> Yeah. You know, coming to know Christ does not ensure that there will be no problems. In fact, uh actually Jesus promises persecution for those that are going to follow him. I think a lot of us are surprised because we have been taught by maybe well-meaning pastors or preachers that God wants you to be healthy, wealthy, and all of those things. The reality is God wants us to be like Jesus. And many times the problems and the challenges that we go through really the purpose is for us to be conformed to the image of Christ. So my advice to you is that if you're

1:11:34 having difficulties, welcome that as an opportunity to grow. I think James chapter 1 says we should rejoice when we have problems because we know that the testing of our faith produces endurance. It changes us so that we could be more like Christ. >> Thank you, Pastor Jim. And finally, our last question. If someone feels lost, stuck or unsure about their purpose, what would you want them to know? >> You know, I think many of us come to plateaus. Sometimes we even go kind of dips in our our relationship with God. That's not unusual. And don't feel like you're the only person that has ever experienced that. I remember Elijah, we talked about him earlier. Uh he had this great victory over the prophets of Baal. You know, there was an amazing

1:12:20 outpouring of God's spirit. They won this this battle, but he was so exhausted. He ran up to this mountain and then he was so tired and so burned out that he actually asked God, "Lord, just take my life." What was the problem? He just needed to recharge. He needed to be drawn into the presence of God to allow God to be able to recharge him. So I think usually when we're having difficulties, the place to go for that revitalization, that renewal is Jesus himself. We need to spend time with him, spend more time in prayer, spend time with his people, be involved in what he loves, which is his people, and sharing the gospel with others. And let God be the one to revitalize your relationship with him. Wonderful Pastor

1:13:06 Jim, thank you for answering our questions. And that's a wrap for CCF Sunday Fastrack. As we celebrate this final Sunday of Missions Month, may it remind us to live out our purpose and go beyond. Have a blessed Sunday, everyone. >> Amen.