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.
You see, to most of us here in this room, the Bible is part of our daily life, just taken for granted, like apple pie, Mom, and baseball. But in some places, it is a treasure to be had.
Did you place that Bible?
Source
Why would this woman wait a lifetime to just hold a Bible? People try many sources for the answers to their life’s questions, while all the time they fail to use God’s Word.
2 Timothy 3:15-17
1. The Bible shows us how to be saved.
2. The Bible teaches us.
3. The Bible rebukes us.
4. The Bible corrects us.
5. The Bible trains us in righteousness.
See this is not just any book.
You want to know how to raise your kids? It’s there.
You want to know how you should handle your boss at work? It’s there.
God’s Word is no joke.
Isaiah 55:11
This source changes lives.
[Gideon Speaker]
TESTIMONY OF POLICE OFFICER AND SON
I want to share with you an example of the witness that one of these small testaments can have.
Larry Davidson was 35 years old before he read the Word of God. His father was an alcoholic, and their weekends were characterized by drinking and fighting. But sadly, Larry’s father was his hero because he wasn’t afraid of anything, except maybe the policeman behind him when he was drinking and driving.
Larry decided he would be a policeman so he wouldn’t have to be afraid of anyone. Later during a drug raid, his best friend was shot and killed. As a result, Larry began to drink even more and withdrew himself into his work. Their family suffered even more as a result. As family life worsened, his nine-year-old son Jim told Larry that he was praying that Larry would find another job.
Two weeks later Larry had a new job offer.
Two new men Larry worked with talked a lot about Jesus, so Larry started asking them questions. When he wanted to read the Bible they talked about, he borrowed his son’s Gideon Youth Testament that Jim had received in a sidewalk ministry. Larry read it from the front to the back, and God began to deal with him. One day at home, Larry got onto his knees and received Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior. Larry was soon called to preach, and his family moved with him to seminary so he could get more education.
When Larry’s son Jim was sixteen, Jim was killed in a car accident. A few weeks later, one of Jim’s friends told Larry about a pact that his group of friends had made at school years earlier: a pact to read God’s Word until they died. Larry knew that his son had kept his word, for on the back seat of the wrecked car, next to where Jim had died, was Jim’s Gideon Bible. Jim is in Heaven, and Larry is a minister of the Gospel. Thank God for the Word of God and work of the Holy Spirit.
Satisfaction
God brings joy and peace to our lives. Even in the midst of trying times.
Isaiah 55:11-13
Not only does God bring us joy and peace but also He offers us eternal life.
[Gideon Speaker]
HOSPITAL TESTAMENT: TIME OF FEAR
Priscilla Wolfe was in a hospital facing major surgery. Fear gripped her, and she would wake up at night and would cry out to God, “Please don’t let me die.” She knew in her heart that if she died, she would go to hell.
The night before her surgery, she remembered seeing a Bible that had been placed by the Gideon’s International work. It was on her nightstand. She opened it to Psalm 41 and read verses 1-4. Verse 2 said, “The Lord will preserve him, and keep him alive; and he shall be blessed upon the earth: and thou wilt not deliver him unto his enemies.” She had found her answer! Convicted in her heart, Priscilla prayed, “Lord, be merciful to me and heal my soul, for I have sinned against You.” At that moment she gave her life to God and felt the forgiveness and peace that only He can give when we surrender our all to Jesus. Priscilla went through her surgery just fine, and to this day is so very thankful she was able to find that Gideon-placed Bible at her bedside.
Could you have placed that Bible?
Conclusion:
[Gideon Speaker]
CONCLUSION
Now, importantly, how can you help in a ministry like the one I just spoke of? First of all, we ask for your prayers that the Holy Spirit lead this work of the Gideon’s International, for without God’s leadership, it will fail. Secondly, if you are a businessman, ask God if He might use you as a Gideon. Or, if you are a professional man, if you might be called to serve as a Gideon. We have a dire need for Gideons in our Camp. Like church members, we sometimes move away, become ill, just quit, or even grow old. The men in our camp tell me that I am one of the youngsters, so as you can see, we are hurting for more members! Finally, ask God what He might have you to do financially in purchase of Bibles at $5.00 each, or Testaments at $1.30 each.
A wonderful plan that you might like to be a part of is the Gideon’s Memorial Bible Plan, which enables you to dedicate Bibles in memory, or in honor of a loved one or a friend. These Bibles are placed in areas served by the Gideons such as hospitals and motels. One Bible placed in a motel room has the potential of reaching 2300 readers during its 6-year life expectancy.
Just complete the In Memory card, or the Thinking of You card, or In Honor card, or the In Recognition card, and send it to the family of the loved one, or to the friend. Complete the other envelope and mail it with a check to the Gideons. Every penny of your giving will go to buy Bibles and Testaments. The Gideons use none of it for our administration. We are self-supporting.
Again, I wish to thank you for allowing me to share with you about the Gideon’s International mission, my mission, and your mission.
1. You have heard how God can use you to spread His Word.
2. If you are here this morning without Christ as your personal Savior, you are searching, but your search can end today.
3. For you that are Christians, there are many ways you can be good stewards of God’s Word. One of those ways is that you read and study God’s Word. Another is to share God’s Word with others.
4. You will have the opportunity to financially support this ministry today. You also have the opportunity to become a part of this ministry.
5. What is God asking you to do?
Prayer
Invitation
[Gideon Speaker]
PERSONAL TESTAMENT TESTIMONY
Near to end of the 5th-grade school year of 1953, a young boy received a small New Testament from a Gideon after a day at school. He looked at it and took it home. Over the next 2 years the Testament made it to Sunday School many times. It was counted as bringing your Bible on the report form, which was of importance to the boy. He accepted Christ as his personal Savior during an Easter Service because of the witness of a 7th grade friend. That afternoon, his Sunday School teacher went through the plan of salvation with him in his home, just to check on the decision. They used the little Testament from the Gideons to look at verses. As years passed, the young man went off to college.
In 1967 after graduating, he went into the US Army. The little Testament was packed in his gear. After training, he left his new bride while going off to Viet Nam. His assignment was with 3/18 artillery near Chu Lai. After a few weeks they had a mortar/rocket and ground attack, where VC soldiers were left hanging in the concentina wire, he realized that war had to be a sort of Hell.
Early the following Sunday, he heard that a Catholic priest was to hold a protestant service for the men. He grabbed up a little Testament, the gift of the Gideon during the 5th-Grade. Sloshing through the mud and a hard downpour, he made it to the bunker for the services. While sitting, listening, and reading the Word of God from the New Testament, he promised God that if he got out of Viet Nam safely, he would serve Him.
After 14 month, he returned home to the joyful arms of his wife. In a few years they got into Church and began to teach. With time, he became a Deacon and Sunday School director. They raised their two boys to be in church when the doors opened. One is teaching a college Bible class and leading in a praise band at church. The other is a minister of the gospel. The man and his wife have added a Bible study service at a retirement center to their service for God. Now they have become part of the Gideon’s International ministry.
All this because of a foxhole promise made while having the witness of one small, maroon-colored Testament. This one in my hand is that very Testament, presented to me through the Gideon ministry in May 1953.
[Power Point is available.]
