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So, you know, we've been uh talking about Peter this week. And I want to ask you a question, a question that I've been thinking about. Why does the church exist? Why does the church exist? If I walked around Alberta Beach this morning and asked that question, I think I would get lots of answers. I think some would say it's to worship. Others would say it's to disciple. You might say to build community. Others would say to care for the poor. Others would say to meet a spouse. No, I'm just kidding. For the young adults in the room. Others would say to help families. But can I tell you something? Every one of those answers are good. And I think they're very important. And every one of those things matter, but today I want to zoom out a little bigger than that. The church exists, I believe, because God has a mission. God has a mission. The church was never meant to be the destination. It was always meant to be a movement, an active body, a church that is not just stagnant, but moving together. It's the body of Christ. Think about the week that we've had together. On Monday, we talked about Peter. Peter was called. Jesus stepped into this ordinary fishing boat and invited an ordinary fisherman into this extraordinary life of purpose and calling. Peter left everything to follow Jesus. On Tuesday, we see Peter failed. He denied Jesus. He carried shame. He thought his story was over, but Jesus met him on a beach and said, Peter, it's not over, it's just beginning. Yesterday everything changed because Peter was in the upper room waiting. No, I've discovered waiting changes you. There's something that happens when we wait on God, and he was there. He was waiting, and the Holy Spirit came, and he became this fearful fisherman, became a fearful witness, fearless witness. But church, imagine if the story ended there. Imagine if Peter said, Wow, that was incredible. That service, that encounter in the upper room, that was amazing. You know, like Ezekiel, he had an encounter with God and said he like drooled for seven days and seven nights. It was amazing. It was incredible. But like Peter and like Ezekiel, Ezekiel, God said to him, Now get up and go. That there is a call to go out of the room. You know, imagine if the disciples built a monument to Pentecost right there. Imagine if they stayed in the upper room. We wouldn't have Acts 3, we wouldn't have Acts 8, we wouldn't have Acts 10, we wouldn't have churches planted, we wouldn't have gospel-reaching nations, we wouldn't have Christianity in Canada, and we would not have Alberta Beach today if he would have stayed in that room. Because Pentecost was never the destination. I believe it was the launch pad for what God wanted to do. And this morning I want to remind each of us what God does at a camp service, what God does by the power of the Holy Spirit, what God does every Sunday in your church is the launch pad for what he wants to do through your life every day. It is the starting point. It's what God does in us together as the church. Church isn't a building, church is a people. Amen? And I think one of the greatest misunderstandings that we can have in the church today, if I can say this, is sometimes we separate the power of God from the purposes of God. We seek the experience and without embracing the mission of God. We celebrate Pentecost, we're Pentecostals, without living Acts. I'm reminded that the book of Acts is not called the book of good thoughts, it's called the book of Acts. They were doing stuff. They were getting out there, they were being fruitful. There was stuff happening. Every miracle, every healing, every outpouring, every supernatural moment in the book of Acts led people to Jesus. That's the story of it. The Holy Spirit moves, people meet Jesus. The Holy Spirit moves, churches are planted. The Holy Spirit moves, and barriers are broken, and the gospel advances every single time. The book of Acts isn't primarily a book of miracles, it's a book about the mission of God moving forward. See, God's power is always connected to God's purpose. Every gift, every miracle points to Jesus. End of story. Period. And this morning I want to read in Acts chapter 1, verse 8. It says, You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. Do you notice something with me? It doesn't say you will receive power. He says, You will receive power, and you will be my witnesses. There is no period after power. Power always has purpose. The purpose of the power is the mission of God. The Holy Spirit was never meant to end on us, it was meant to flow through us. We are conduits, we are vessels of the Holy Spirit moving through us. See, the blessing was never just for us to enjoy, but for us to freely give away to those around us. If you're taking notes this morning, our first point this morning is God is ascending God. God is ascending God. Mission didn't begin with the church, mission began with the heart of God. Long before there were missionaries, there was ascending God. You know, if we think about the story of Scripture, the Father sends a son. For God so loved the world he sent. Jesus repeatedly said, the one who sent me. See, Jesus understood his ministry through the lens of being sent. He was a sent person to earth. And when Jesus ascends, does the mission stop? No, it doesn't. Jesus sends the Holy Spirit. And what does the Holy Spirit do? Holy Spirit sends the church. The Father sends, the Son sends, the Spirit sends, and the church goes. I think sometimes, you know, Jesus said, I'll build the church and the gates of hell will not prevail. I think sometimes we're like, Jesus, we're very good at building the church. We'll stay, you go. Because we're scared to go. It's hard to go across the street. It's hard to go to a neighbor. It's hard to cross. We're pretty good at church, but Jesus, you go. See, mission isn't something God occasionally does. Mission is who he is. Our God is a missionary God. He's ascending God. The church doesn't have a mission. God's mission has a church. And I think, you know, I grew up in a mindset where we had church and we had the mission's little budget. It's a line item. We give a little money to the missions. Oh, we care for the missionary. But I feel like sometimes we got that mixed up because it's we're all on mission. The whole church is on mission. The purpose of the church is we're on God's mission. And I think when we look through that mindset, it's not a line item, it's the main item. It's all that we do is for the mission of God. It's got a little quiet in here. Am I doing okay? Still love me? Okay, good. See, sometimes we think mission is one department of the church. Mission is the reason the church exists. Every ministry, every small group, every youth group, every worship team, every sermon, every camp ultimately serves one purpose that people would come to encounter Jesus. And if we've missed that, then we've missed the story of the gospel. As the Father has sent me, Jesus said, I am sending you. Think about that. Jesus entrusts his mission to us. Not famous people, ordinary people like you and me, fishermen, tax collectors, students, parents, business owners, retirees, young adults, teenagers. The same way he sent Peter, he sends you and he sends me. See, the church is never more like Jesus than when it goes. Point two, Pentecost was given for mission. Sometimes I think we stop reading Acts too early. We get to Acts chapter 2 and we're like, oh, Pentecost, tongues, that's what it's about. We stop at the wind and we stop at the fire, we stop at the tongues. And they're beautiful. It's amazing what God does. But they're gifts from God. They're not the destination, they're just the beginning. They're the launch pad. Ask yourself this question: why did God pour out his spirit? Was it simply so believers can experience something credible together? No. If we look in the Bible, Peter stood up because it cut straight to their heart, and 3,000 people said, What must we do to be saved? And 3,000 people were added to the kingdom that day. Acts 3, a lame man is healed. Why? There was another opportunity to preach Jesus. Acts 4, the disciples don't pray for safety, they pray for boldness. Acts 8, persecution comes. Instead of hiding, what do they do? The church scatters and the gospel spreads even more. Sometimes we fear the future and we're like, oh, what is happening to our Canada? Can I tell you, you know, my Nigerian friend reminded me, he goes, the gospel spreads in persecution. I don't like that. I like it safe, but if you look at scripture, what happens when times get hard? The gospel spreads even more. God has the final say. Peter crosses cultural barriers, the gospel reaches the Gentiles, Holy Spirit moves, the gospel advances. The power of God and the mission of God are inseparable. If you're taking notes today, write this down. The Holy Spirit empowers the church to participate in God's mission. I think sometimes we're like, God, why don't we see more of the miraculous, the signs and wonders? We read about that in Scripture. And here's what I sense on that. You know, it says signs and wonders follow those or follow those that believe. You can't follow something that's not moving. And I think a lot of times we're not moving, we're not doing stuff. And in the Bible, they're preaching, they're praying, they're going, they're stepping into hard places. They keep taking risks, and every time they take the risk, stuff happens. Here's what I found every time I step out out of my comfort zone, God shows up. Stuff happens. Crazy things that I never thought could happen. And I'm like, how, God, how is this gonna work? And yet you step into the unknown, you talk to a neighbor, you talk to someone at I was at uh the Edmonton Airport, I landed, there was a guy in an Euler's hat, and I just had this nudge. Should I go talk to him? Should I go talk to him? So I did a fleece. I said, if he walks in front of me, I will talk to him. He walked right in front of me. I was like, oh, what am I gonna say? I had nothing to say. I just said, hey man, I I just am practicing here in God, and I just feel like God wants to tell you he loves you, wants to encourage you. And all of a sudden, as I said that, out of my mouth came, um, you've been had some hardship. I feel like you've got cut from a team, and God wants to tell you that he cares about you. And he just like looked at me, he goes, How did you know? I go to the project on Sunday nights, I'm back from university, I'm I'm going to school in the States, I'm on a scholarship, and it's been a really hard year. And he shows me his knee and he goes, I have a knee brace, and it's been really tough. He texts, I got his number, he texts me a day later and goes, Man, I don't know who you are, but thank you. I needed to hear that. See, we never know. God used me. All I had to do is be obedient. We we never know what's on the other side of just stepping out. Point three, the gospel always crosses barriers. The gospel always crosses barriers in Acts 10. Peter had been following Jesus for years. He preached a Pentecost, he'd seen miracles, he watched thousands to come to Christ, and yet God still had work to do in Peter. Isn't that encouraging? Spiritual maturity doesn't mean God stops chasing you, it means you become more willing to let him. And Peter is praying on a rooftop, and God gives this vision. A sheet comes down from heaven filled with animals, the Jews consider you wouldn't eat those, the unclean animals. And God says, Get up, Peter, kill and eat. And Peter's like, Surely not, Lord. I don't do barbecue. And you know, Peter's quick to tell Jesus what he thinks, you know? No, no, no, no, no, no, no. That's not me. Pick someone else. And God replies, don't call anything impure that God has made clean. And Peter's like, God's talking about food, and I don't eat that food. But God's not talking about food, he was talking about people. And God isn't changing Peter's diet. What he was doing was changing Peter's heart in that moment and saying, think beside out of your box, think about the other side, the people that are least likely, the people you don't associate with. Think about those on the other side. For the Gentiles, the people on the other side were the people you don't associate with, you don't eat with, you certainly didn't preach to. Yet Peter's trying to understand his vision, and God gives a is already working in Cornelius' house. And here's what I love Peter thought he was gonna bring God somewhere, God was already there. Cornelius had been praying, and God had already had spoken to him. God had already prepared his heart. See, Peter wasn't bringing God, Peter was joining in with what God was already doing in Cornelius' situation. He was already there. Often we think we're taking God somewhere. Most of the time, God is inviting us to join him where he's already working. He's already at work all across the world. Where are we supposed to partner in with what he's doing? God's already working where he's sending you. That changes everything. Some of us think our workplace is too hard. Some of us think our neighborhood is impossible. That neighbor, that person, some of us think our family is too far gone. Can I declare and decree today God is already working and you don't even see it yet? God is working under the hood in people's hearts. You don't know the conversations, you don't know the thoughts, you don't know the seeds that have been planted, and all you have to do is come and water them. And you might even see the harvest too. You know, I was thinking this during worship. I have a friend who's an Alliance pastor, and I preached for him in Northern California at a Christian Missionary Alliance church. And we met because we were at a conference, and he said, um, he told me the story. He said in the 1900s, the early 1900s, his grandparents, Harold and Millie Edwardson, were on a dock in Norway. And they were on this dock in Norway and they walked by a Salvation Army band one day, and the guy had the French horn out, and he was playing on the side, and he put his French horn down. He says, Do you know Jesus? And Harold says, I do not know Jesus. Do you want to know Jesus? Nope. I don't want to know Jesus. Guy went back to playing his French horn. That was the end of the conversation. Harold went into his hotel room. He was about to get on a boat to come to Canada the very next day. In that room in Oslo, the Spirit of God fell on him, convicted him, and he gave his life to Jesus in that hotel room. That Salvation Army guy never knew that his words, that question, what happened to the result. Harold and Millie, they got on a boat, they came to Canada, they became Alliance workers in our nation of Canada. They came across to Edmonton, Alberta, and in 1929 started a ministry called Hope Mission. And today Hope Mission feeds as a $14 million aid agency, one of the biggest in Emmonton, I think even in Calgary as well. Why? Because a Salvation Army person on a dock just asked a question. And he probably went home that day and said, Oh, no one came to Jesus. No, nothing happened from my ministry. I don't know. But here, lives are being touched every day in the city of Edmonton because of the faithfulness of that Salvation Army guy playing his French horn. We never know what God is already doing, how God is already at work. God is already working where He's sending you. You know, we might plant a seed, but someone else may water it, and someone else might see the impact. That's okay. Here's the reality: I can't save someone, I can't heal someone, I can't deliver someone, neither can you. But we know one who can. His name is Jesus. Listen, we know what evangelism is. We we think evangelists, oh, we gotta be evangelists, evangelism is so hard, and all this. All we gotta do is be a pointer. I want everyone to put their pointer finger up. And I want you to just point at someone, point at your neighbor. You can all point, everybody can point, and all we need to do is point to Jesus. You you can't save someone, you can't heal. You just point and say, This is what Jesus did in me, this is what happened to my life, he can do it in your life. That's evangelism. End of story. It's so easy. The fourth point I have this morning is God confirms his mission. Throughout Acts, I noticed something. The miracles never became the focus. Jesus was the focus. But the miracles opened the door. The lame man walks, Peter immediately preaches, Ananias is healed, Peter turned to Jesus. Acts 10, the Holy Spirit falls, the gospel spreads throughout Acts. Signs and wonders serve the mission, but they never replace the mission of God. See, signs point beyond themselves to the Savior, Jesus. Sometimes we spend our lives, we can chase the miracle and miss the Savior. Follow Jesus, love people, go where God sends you, and signs will follow. See, I've seen more miracles while sharing Jesus than sitting around talking about miracles or talking about Jesus. I've seen more things happen when I actually step and do it. See, because throughout Acts, God confirms his mission. And my last point this morning is the church exists to go. The church doesn't exist for itself, the church exists for the world Jesus died to save. Healthy churches don't simply just gather people, healthy churches send people. Think about Peter. Jesus called him, Jesus restored him, Jesus filled him. But none of that was the finish line. It was prepared him to be sent. The church was never meant to be comfortable. It was meant to become courageous. The Holy Spirit was poured out not just to fill buildings, he was poured out to send people. Write this down. The church is more never more like Jesus than when it goes. Some of you, God may call you to cross the world. Some of you cross Canada. Some of you across the street. Some of you across your office, across your classroom, across your hockey team, across the dinner table. But every one of us has an other side. There's someone in our life, there's someone that is waiting for your obedience, for your courage. Peter's yes, reach Cornelius and Cornelius' household. We take, we look at Philip in Samaria, and Philip is seeing revival in Acts chapter 8, and then God calls him to leave all of that and go after the Ethiopian eunuch. That seems crazy. Why would you leave revival to go after the one? But God cares about the one and he goes and chases after the one. And God was already working in the Ethiopian eunuch's life, and he had these questions, and Peter answered them as he's running beside him. The Ethiopian eunuch goes and they say that's how the gospel got to Africa, because of the Ethiopian eunuch. Because, see, God had this heart on a continent. And all Philip had to do is be obedient to what God was calling him to do. Can I tell you this? You know, it's the pioneer spirit that built many of the churches that we're in. It's the pioneer spirit that built this camp. It's the pioneers that forged ahead. And I just felt as we moved into this last year and a half, the Lord put a word on my heart. I shared it with uh, we gathered a bunch of leaders up in a northern summit last April up in Hay River. And we had about 90 pastors and leaders from churches all across our province and area, and we had a heart for how do we reach the Northwest Territories and what God's doing. And as Pastor Gary had me share up there, I felt the Lord say, talk about the pioneer spirit. It's the pioneer spirit that God is raising up again. And I want to call it out of us this morning. Some of you have been dormant, some of you, but listen, as we look throughout Acts, there's Acts and there's the local church. Can I tell you the local church is key? The local church is the most important thing. I just believe in the power of the local church. Everything I do as an evangelist points to the local church. But I also believe as we look through Acts, we have the local church and we have the mission sending capacity of that church. As we get into Acts 10, Acts 11, we see the missionary movement. We need both. We need both. We need the missions and we need the local church, and they need to work together. And I just believe there's a fresh pioneer spirit that's coming upon the church in Canada to say, we're not just gonna always do what we've always done, but we got to think some new ideas, step out of the new box, do something we haven't done to see people come to Jesus we've not seen come before. God is doing something. New and I call forth the pioneers in this place to rise up and go, hey, how do we make this camp bigger than it's ever been? Because if if thousands are gonna come to Jesus, I'm sorry, but there's not enough room in here. There's not enough room in our churches. There's not enough room, there's not enough campuses that the church is represented in this room. How do we get more campuses? Uh, Kev, like, come on, we're just believing South Side. You're gonna have campuses. It's it's bigger than what you see. There's a big vision on your heart, and God's gonna bring it to pass. We just believe that over every church, every leader, every movement, everything that we're doing. Maybe your small group is at 12 people, but how do you multiply your small group? How do you go? What if everybody in your small group invited someone else, and all of a sudden now you gotta you gotta split the small group? Oh, well, we don't want to split the small group. We like each other. But we're on mission and we're gonna reach more people if we split the small group. Like it's bigger than us. You know, you know Jesus today because somebody went. We all are here because somebody went, somebody shared the good news of Jesus with us, somebody gave, somebody crossed the other side, somebody say said yes. And we're all in this room today because of that. As I close today, I want to talk a little bit about um my journey. And and um we have this ministry called Resurgence since 2013, and God's used me to go to camps. We've done a lot in Baffin Island, a lot in some of our First Nations communities where there was a suicide crisis, and went many times up north. We've gone to communities, and in November I was in uh Fort Resolution, and uh we went one night, there was nine people, drove two hours, nine people came, we worshiped a little bit, nobody knew any songs. I preached, and as I preached, uh I think three people gave their heart to Jesus for the very first time. And then I said, God also wants to heal people. We prayed for a lady, she goes, I feel nothing, nothing's happening. Well, that builds faith in the room. But we prayed, we prayed for everyone in the room. We're laying hands, Elijah's screaming, you know, it's a good time. Then they go, Can you come back tomorrow night? Uh and I said, Oh, we thought we couldn't come because they were bringing a body, a dead body, into the community that there's somebody had died and they were having the funeral and we couldn't get the we couldn't come. I said, Oh, the body's not gonna arrive for another day. Can you come tomorrow night? I said, you know, we're going to the Dene Reserve, but could we send we'll split our team? Some of us will come. So I sent three of my team members to go back. They got there and they said, You're not meeting at the church anymore, you're meeting at the community hall. Oh, why is that? Well, 22 people are waiting for you. How did they hear about it? And the lady that I prayed for that said, I don't feel anything, she got healed last night. She woke up and there was no pain, so she told everybody. Eleven more people gave their life to Jesus. Because we went, and so we've been doing this, we've been doing mission, and um, I serve on a committee. Pastor Dave Wells, who leads our fellowship, has asked me to help with evangelism and raising evangelists nationally in Canada for the Pentecostal assemblies. And so we've been meeting, and in 2019, he says, there's a movement that I need you to be a part of. It's called Empowered 21. And the Power 21 would be a big umbrella of all the spirit-empowered movements in the world. So it's the young Yi Cho's in Korea, it's it's the big churches all over, it's the Pentecostal movements, the assemblies of God in every nation. And go, here's the spirit-empowered movement, and they have a mission. By 2033, could everybody on planet earth hear the good news of Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit? That's not saying everybody's gonna respond, but could we tell everybody by 2033? At the same time, God spoke to Rick Warren and said, finish the Bible, finish the task by 2033. And so you have about a hundred groups now that have said, God spoke to us about 2033. Could we reach everyone by 2033? And there's movements all over the world working towards us. And so as we sat at tables in in Bogota, Columbia, all the evangelists got together from all over the world and they said, we need to do something collaborative to reach the world. How do we work together? Not apart, but could we bring all the key evangelists together? Could we do something that impacts nations? So in 2024, we went to the country of El Salvador. Jess and I went and we did a pastor's conference. I go, that's my sweet spot. We'll empower leaders. 5,500 pastors and leaders came to learn about evangelists, and we said, we're gonna reach everyone. From that moment, in eight months, 37% of El Salvador heard the gospel. And 220,000 people said yes to Jesus for the very first time. What is so cool about that is the church of El Salvador, it's not people from Canada. They are now going door to door. They have seen incredible. The stats in El Salvador went from 40% Christian to 60% Christian in two years. The government has said this. God is moving, but now they're sending people to all their bordering countries and going, okay, how do we reach everyone in Honduras? How do we reach everyone in Guatemala? How do we reach everyone in these countries? And so as we sat around the table, said, What's the next country we can all go together and work? And the country Thailand came to surface, only 2% Christian. Well, that's a different ball game. That's a hard country. And I was like, okay, we'll go and in a minute we'll play that. Can we just pause that video for a sec? Yeah, perfect. Um, and and um, so I was like, okay, we will we will pray about going to do the pastor's conference. One of the leaders said to me, Travis, I want to ask you to pray about going to a region. I said, go to a region? What does that mean? Well, go to a region and do like a crusade or a gospel festival. We don't call crusades anymore gospel festival. And to be honest, I'm like, I don't know if I'm from Canada. We're cynical of big events. Do they work? Is it of good use of money? I believe in missionaries. I know Cindy's here and Jaron, and they do an incredible work in Thailand. It's incarnational, it's go be among. It's a long-term approach. And that's, I'm thinking, okay, that's where we've seen fruit. I think that's my mindset of go, how do we support what's already God is doing? And I honor you, Cindy and Jaron, for your incredible work. I think 15 years in Thailand. And there's missionaries all over, and so I'm like, okay, but I just felt the Holy Spirit say, you gotta go and see what I'm doing. So we jumped on a plane two Februaries ago, myself and Donovan on my team. We got to we got to Thailand, and as soon as we got there, a pastor, Pastor Manunsack, trained at Horizon Bible College in Saskatoon. Uh, we launched the POC, has been key in launching the full gospel Thailand Fellowship through him. He's the he's the bishop, the head of it. And he goes, Oh, welcome. I know Pastor Dave Wells, and he greets me and he says, Oh, you're Travis from Resurgence. Oh, we're sending you to the hardest place in Thailand. That's what he said to me. And I'm like, I know there's a lot of hard places, but I'm like, hardest place? I don't even know if I'm going. We're just coming to hang out here. And I said, What do you mean by hard? He said, Well, there's 900,000 people, and there's only 1,500 believers, and there's maybe six to 12 churches. I said, Oh, but there's probably some big churches. He said, Yeah, there's some big ones. There are about 40 people. And I said, Is there a lot of demonic activity? He goes, Oh, yeah, they slither like snakes at times on the floor. I'm like, Oh dear lord. I text Jess, we're not going. So then he goes, Well, meet with the pastors. They're here. So I go meet with the pastors. They don't speak English. We're not going. Text Jess, we're not going. 14-hour time zone. She's getting these messages. We're not going. We're not going. We're not going. You know, I'm just like, what? All of a sudden I said, We need like a translator. Like the girl that picked us up from the airport, her name was Viva. She picked all the pastors. She could speak. She lives in Bangkok. The minute I said that, she walked through the door of this big church and I said, Viva, I was just talking about you. We need someone to translate. She goes, God spoke to me in a dream and said, I'm supposed to help the Canadians. What do you need? So she gets in there and she goes, God has a plan for Supan Buri. I'm like, I couldn't even say Supan Buri. And I'm like, so then I said, What is Supan Buri? It means a city of gold. And right there, I'm like, God has a plan. He wants to mine the gold out of there's people that are lost. I said, Let's help you. How can we serve you? My heart was to serve why? Because God's already at work in Supan Buri. I'm not coming with the answer. I'm just coming to serve the local church and the pastor. And I said, could we work together? How can we serve? Could we do baseball or soccer camps? Could we do pot like what could we do? And they're like, We've done all that. They show me pictures. But God put on our heart to rent a stadium, the Supan Buri Stadium. And we're going to do that stadium. And we're going to invite people to come and they're going to hear the gospel. We've never gathered more than two or three hundred people. And we want to fill it. And I'm like, oh Lord, are you sure? I don't know that I believe in big events. Then all of a sudden the Baptist lady says, I don't want to work with the Pentecostal lady. And I'm like, oh dear, we're not going. The next day we get back, and the Baptist lady says, I'd like to share something. God spoke to me and said, I've been withholding the moving of the Holy Spirit from my people for 12 years, and I had a dream, and God said, I'm supposed to go into the deep. I don't know what it looks like. I may lose all my people, but we need to reach Supanbari and I'm in. She put her hands in the middle of the table. The moment I put my hands in the middle of the table, all the churches put their hands in the middle of the table, tears are streaming, and I said, We're in. And I called my wife, I said, We're in. She goes, What does that mean? I'm like, I have no idea. So for a year we journeyed with this committee. We prayed with them. We were on Zoom calls. I went there last December. We we went into a night market, held a gospel truck, stood on this truck, preached the gospel clear as clear as clear could be. And hands went up all over. And I'm like the skeptical Canadian, going, Really? Are they really coming to Jesus? So that night at the meal, a pastor goes, 152 people said yes to Jesus. And I said, 152 people? How do you know that? She goes, Well, we have the phone numbers for 152 people because they filled out cards and they want to be connected to a local church. Okay, I trust you. My skepticism went down. And so we met with pastors, we shared the vision. One pastor said, I have a church of 12. I don't believe this could happen. And so I prayed over him and he goes, Pastor, I confess I have a small mindset. I've just never seen this. I never knew that God could even bring an extra person to my church. I've just, I've believed that 12 is what I'll all be all my life. And so mindsets are broken. We took a team last March, just last March, 16 people, 16 young adults. We went to Supanbury and we went into the schools. Jess did a uh a thing with the schools, talked on Zacchaeus. I think 60 young kids gave their life to Jesus for the very first time. We went into the markets. We prayed for people. A 70-year-old man couldn't walk. All of a sudden, he starts walking and running. He gave his life to Jesus. Blind eyes start opening. I mean, I have a skeptical guy on my team who goes, I've never seen a miracle. And all of a sudden, this lady who couldn't move her shoulders is moving. He goes, This lady got healed. This lady got healed. I'm like, Yes, she did. And God moved. We did a two-night festival where 715 people gave their life to Jesus, connected to the local church. And we saw miracles. We saw God move. And here's what I discovered in a big event like that, God broke something over the region. We prayed and we worshiped in that square, and something broke. We went to the churches the next day, and they're like, something changed in Supan Bare. We believe again. And hearing the purports of how the church is continuing to grow and steward what God has done. You know what's cool? Is the people we took came back to Canada. Two days later, a lay Sikh lady in Subway gets saved. Why? Because Candace had a boldness to go, it happened in Thailand. I can share my faith in Canada. I think we came back more with more than what we took. I think we came back richer because that's what missions is about. And I want to honor the missionaries that are incarnational, but I believe it's both and it's proclamation, it's going to the other side. I never believed that God would use us in this way. And we stepped up, I got up on that stage, and I'm like, this is crazy. We're in this square, we have lights, we have video wall, we're we're doing the God, we're preaching the gospel in the least-reached people, and people are coming to Jesus. That's what it's all about. I want to share a two-minute video and we'll close today. But this is a two-minute video of what God did throughout the whole project in Thailand.

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Jesus at times would focus on one individual, he would unlock their potential, and thousands would be reached.

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This vision sparked the mission to reach everyone in Thailand with the gospel of Jesus Christ. In the last two years, through the unity of churches and ministries around the Great Commission, both locally and globally, and through the power of the Holy Spirit, we have seen over 3,000 evangelists trained and sent out. Over 2,200 outreaches to schools bringing the good news into the new generation. Five gospel trucks impacting cities and villages all over Thailand. And many, many millions reached through social media and broadcast campaigns. Over 650,000 people attended events hosted by local churches and international ministries. With over 270,000 confirmed decisions for Christ. Across every region, from the mountains in the north to the coastlines in the south, the good news of Jesus Christ has reached over 20 million people in Thailand. The number changed. Heaven never counts in percentages. Heaven counts souls. Chai Yao Pa, who was healed. Sung Chai who said yes to Jesus. Proswe, who invited their neighbor, Sawat, who has received freedom. This is how a nation turns. Not by changing a number, but by reaching the one.

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And the Lord's at the moment is now. The harvest is ready. Are you ready, boy of Christ? The time is now. This is your power!

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In order to reach everyone, we need everyone. How are you going to be a part of it? For more information, visit everyone.earth.

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Now this morning as we close. I'm not asking if you would go to Thailand this morning. God may ask that of a few. That's not my question. My question is where is your other side? What has God been putting on your heart? Maybe it's a son, maybe it's a daughter, maybe it's a coworker, maybe it's a neighborhood, maybe it's a teammate, a nation, a people group. Some of you, the first step isn't getting on an airplane, it's walking across the street. I met a guy years ago at a conference, and he every day shares his faith with one person. He has a follow-up program on WhatsApp on his phone, and he sends them a text and he gives them a little church that they can go to. And every day he sees someone come to Jesus. And I said, How do you do it, Dave? He goes, I pray for Bob. Who's Bob? He goes, I pray for break my heart for what breaks yours, God. Open, give me an open door and give me boldness to go through it. And every day I pray that prayer, and every day I have an opportunity. I was at a conference in Florida. He disappeared from our missions room. Where's Bob? Where's Dave? Where'd he go? He's in the toy, he went to the washroom, and there's a hockey player in the washroom at the urinal, and he shares his testimony with him, and Chase gives his life to Jesus. He's playing for an AHL team and right there gives his life to Jesus. He comes back and he says, Yeah, I just led this guy to Jesus, and I'm connecting with the local church. I'm like, wow, you have a better follow-up program than most churches. But it's it's not that hard. And so I want to ask you who is on your other side today? Maybe it's to share your faith with someone. Maybe it's also to sew into a missionary. And I I highlight, you know, we did an amazing work in Thailand, but I I can't say this enough. Jaren and Cindy are in Thailand every day with people every day. Maybe you need to sew into their ministry or other missionaries that are in this room or the missions department of your church to go, I need to also give to that. Maybe God's putting that in your heart today. Maybe it's missions in your city, whatever that looks like. I'm just saying, I sense there's another side today. And so I just want us to close our eyes. We've gone long this morning, and I tell long stories, so I apologize. But I also don't want to miss this moment. Because I feel like God's putting on your heart the other side. And I want to do something really bold this morning. I've not done this all week, and you may go, we normally don't do this at Alberta Beach. But just for my sake, I want to ask you to do something bold. If God would put a name, a person, someone on the other side to you, then I want you just in boldness, no one looking around. I just want you to stand up where you are and say, I'm standing up for that person. You know, it takes courage to go talk to that person. It doesn't take courage to just stand in this place and go, I'm just gonna. So the first step is courage just to stand and say, I'm standing because I want to see that person come to Jesus. So that's you. Just stand. It's a neighbor, a son, a daughter, a family member. There's somebody in your life you think of, they need Jesus, and I want them to know Jesus. Help me, God, to take Jesus, take the story, to see what you're already doing in their life. But maybe I can be part of their salvation story in some way. So for all those standing all across this room, God, I just pray right now, I commission every person in this place to go with the power of the Holy Spirit. I pray for boldness right now. I pray for a moving of the Spirit of God, not just at the altar, but as we leave this place today, that you would empower us, you would give us the words, we break fear, we break anxiety, we break every attack of the enemy, we break those voices in the head of what are they gonna say? What if, what if, what if my coworker doesn't like it? What if all that fear, we just throw it out and we say, Father, would you open a door? Would you break our heart for the lost? Would you open a door and would you give boldness and the right words to say? Thank you right now by your spirit. You are ascending God, and you have sent your son, you've sent the Holy Spirit, but you're also sending us today. So send us. We receive that call today to go and be your hands and feet to Thailand, to Canada, to the nations of the world, to the neighborhoods in our cities, to our workplace, to the Starbucks down the road, to the Tim Hortons, wherever you may call us. Amen. Amen. Amen. So I commission you to go with the power of the Holy Spirit to the other side.