Notice Urgent Message Inside Series

Sunday Morning January 20, 2001 Bel Aire Baptist Church, Hobbs, NM

Series: Kingdom Business [#3]

NOTICE: URGENT MESSAGE INSIDE

Isaiah 55:1-13

Introduction:

1. Have you ever seen the message, “Notice: Urgent message inside” on your mail? Now most of us realize that usually this is a “scam”, but I want to share with you this morning letters that are urgent and do have messages in it that will change your life. These letters are found inside the cover of this Book we call the Bible. This is not just any book, but letters sent to us from God with love.

2. With the help of our Gideon, we will identify the search, the source, and the satisfaction of God’s Word.

[Gideon Speaker]

MY GIDEON MESSAGE

“So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth:

it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish

that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing

whereto I send it.” (Isaiah 55:11)

The exciting thing about being a witness for Christ is that He does it! All we have to do is be available and full of the Holy Spirit. We are not able to save anyone, but through the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives, God can use us as His vessels to reach another for Christ.

Today you have allowed me to be a vessel for Christ, allowing me to come to your church in an effort to reach out to a dying and lost world. But at the same time, it gives you the chance to be used as a vessel and also be a part in the Gideon’s International goal. I thank your pastor, Shawn Drake, and this congregation for allowing me to be here for the glory of God, and to challenge you.

The Gideon’s International is an association of Christian businessmen and men from professional ranks, banded together in 175 countries for fellowship and service. We are an extension of the local church, such as yours, and cannot be successful without your help. Our purpose is to promote the gospel of Christ to all people, to the end that they might come to know the Lord Jesus Christ as their personal Savior.

Last year 230,000 Gideons and Auxiliary members were able to place 57.5 Million Bibles and Testaments in 80 languages. This year we hope to place 58.5 million copies in hotels, motels, hospitals, penal institutions, attorney offices, battered-women and children homes, give them to members of the armed forces, to school students, to those in the nursing fields, firemen and policemen, and to college students.

2001 HIGHLIGHTS

SCRIPTURE DISTRIBUTION

Hospital ………………….67 Service …………………117

Motel ……………………198 College …………………1922

Attorneys ………………..23 Auxiliary ……………….684

Military ………………….225 Spanish T ……………….440

PWT ……………………..494 Jail ………………………100

Spanish-Eng ……………..12 Youth ……………………1280

(red &orange)

TOTAL SCRIPTURES ………………………………..5562

On September 10, 2001, a great moment in Gideon’s International history took place; the one-billionth (1,000,000,000) copy of God’s Word was ordered and sent out to a U.S.A. camp. Give God the Glory!

Search

People are looking for answers to the problems in their lives. There are Bibles all over this world and yet there are many who do not know the truths found in the Bible. They have no idea that the solutions they are looking for are in the Bible. They need hope.

[Play commercial: Hope]

Let’s read Isaiah 55.

[Gideon Speaker]:

MOTEL LETTER: HOPE

Dear Gideons,

I thank God for your organization. I was addicted to crack cocaine for eight years. My two-year old daughter and I were living in a house owned by a crack dealer when I finally became weary, sick, and tired of my life of drugs. I had lost faith and hope in the human race due to all the ugly things I had experienced. I took my daughter and spent four days and nights in a motel, and found your Gideon Bible. As I read that Bible, I gained strength to say no to the drugs and make changes in my life. By the grace of God, I have become a Christian and a witness for God. I have quit using drugs, and God has blessed my life so much since I turned it over to Him. Thank you for making God’s Word available to people when they need it most.

Sandra K. Stoddard, South Carolina

Isn’t that a great testimony to what God’s Word can do? Could that Bible have been one that you had helped to place in the past?

FOREIGN HOSPITAL TESTAMENT:

NEED FOR GOD’S WORD

A group of Gideons was doing a hospital distribution in the country of Ukraine. A Gideon entered a room where the patient apparently was sleeping. As not to disturb the lady, he laid a Bible on the stand by her bed and turned to walk away. “Sir, what do you need?” He turned back and told her that he was a Gideon and had laid a copy of the Bible on the stand for her. “Oh, thank you, thank you. I have been praying all my life to be able to hold a copy of God’s Word. My prayers have been answered!” He smiled and handed her the Bible.