Why are you here? Opening Hymn: 457 Responsive Reading: 808 Closing Hymn: 373 or 367 George Whitefield (December 16, 1714 - September 30, 1770) was born in the Bell Inn in Gloucester, England, where his father was an innkeeper. His father died when George was two. He was the youngest of seven children. His mother struggled to keep the family together. When he was about ten his mother remarried. When he was twelve he was sent to the St. Mary de Crypt Grammar School in Gloucester. Hidden in the back of his mind was a desire to preach. When he was 17 he entered Pembroke College at Oxford. His life gradually changed and after a year, he met John and Charles Wesley and joined the Holy Club. Charles Wesley loaned him a book, The Life of God in the Soul of Man. This book -- plus a severe sickness which resulted because of long and painful periods of spiritual struggle -- finally resulted in his conversion. This was in 1735. He said many years later: "I know the place...Whenever I go to Oxford, I cannot help running to the spot where Jesus Christ first revealed himself to me, and gave me the new birth." Because of poor health, he left school in May, 1735, and returned home to recuperate. Whitefield returned to Oxford in March of 1736 and on June 20, 1736, Bishop Benson ordained him. When he placed his hands upon Whitefield's head, George later declared, "My heart was melted down, and I offered my whole spirit, soul and body to the service of God's sanctuary." Whitefield preached his first sermon the following Sunday. It was at the ancient Church where he had been "baptized" and grown up as a boy. People, including his mother, flocked to hear him. He described it later: "...Some few mocked, but most for the present, seemed struck, and I have since heard that a complaint was made to the bishop, that I drove fifteen people mad, the first sermon." About that time, Howell Harris of Wales was preaching in the fields. Whitefield wondered if he ought to try it too. He concluded he was an outcast anyway, so why not try to reach people this "new" way? Just outside the city of Bristol was a coal mine district known as Kingswood Hill. Whitefield first preached here in the open on February 17, 1739. The first time about 200 came to hear him, but in a very short time he was preaching to 10,000 at once. Often they stood in the rain listening with the melodies of their singing being heard two miles away. Another favorite preaching place was just outside London, on a great open tract known as Moorfields. He had no designated time for his services, but whenever he began to preach, thousands came to hear -- whether it was 6 a.m. or 8 p.m. Not all were fans. He wrote: "I was honored with having stones, dirt, rotten eggs and pieces of dead cats thrown at me." In the morning some 20,000 listened to him, and in the evening some 35,000 gathered! Whitefield was only 25 years old. Crowds up to 80,000 at one time gathered there to hear him preach for an hour and a half. There seems to be nothing unusual in content about his printed sermons, but he could paint word pictures with such breathless vividness that crowds listening would stare through tear-filled eyes as he spoke. Once, while describing an old man trembling toward the edge of a precipice, Lord Chesterfield jumped to his feet and shouted as George walked the man unknowingly toward the edge -- "He is gone." Another time in Boston he described a storm at sea. There were many sailors in the crowd, and at the very height of the "tempest" which Whitefield had painted an old salt jumped to his feet and shouted, "To the lifeboats, men, to the lifeboats!" People usually were saved right during the progress of the service. The altar call as such was not utilized. On his way home from one of his trips to America, because of ill health, he visited the Bermudas. It was a pleasant trip. On the trip he preached regularly and saw many souls won to the Lord. It was in 1748 that he said, "Let the name of Whitefield die so that the cause of Christ may live." He was the most traveled preacher of the gospel up to his time, making 13 trips across the Atlantic Ocean. That meant he spent over two years of his life traveling on water. However, his diligence and sacrifice helped turn two nations back to God. Jonathan Edwards was stirring things up in New England, and John Wesley was doing the same in England. Whitefield completed the trio of men humanly responsible for the great awakening on both sides of the Atlantic. On September 29, he went from Portsmouth, New Hampshire, to Newburyport, Massachusetts. On the way, he preached in the open at Exeter, New Hampshire. Looking up he prayed, "Lord Jesus, I am weary in thy work, but not of thy work. If I have not yet finished my course, let me go and speak for thee once more in the fields, seal thy truth, and come home and die." He was given strength for this, his last sermon. The subject was Faith and Works. Although scarcely able to stand when he first came before the group, he preached for two hours to a crowd that no building then could have held. Arriving at the parsonage of the First Presbyterian Church in Newburyport -- which church he had helped to found -- he had supper with his friend, Rev. Jonathan Parsons. He intended to go at once to bed. However, having heard of his arrival, a great number of friends gathered at the parsonage and begged him for just a short message. He paused a moment on the stairs, candle in hand, and spoke to the people as they stood listening -- until the candle went out. At 2 a.m., painting to breathe, he told his traveling companion Richard Smith, "My asthma is returning; I must have two or three days' rest." His last words were, "I am dying," and at 6 a.m. on Sunday morning he died -- September 30, 1770. http://www.christianword.org/revival/whitefield.html Agnes Bojaxhiu was born on 26 August 1910, in the city of Skopje, Republic of Macedonia. Her parents were Albanians. Raised as a Roman Catholic by her parents, Agnes' father died when she was about eight years old. During her early years, Agnes was fascinated by stories of the lives of missionaries and their service and by the time she was twelve, she was convinced that she should commit herself to a religious life. She left her home at age 18 to join the Sisters of Loreto as a missionary. Agnes would never again set eyes on her mother or sister. Agnes initially went to the Loreto Abbey in Rathfarnham, Ireland in order to learn English, which was the language the Sisters of Loreto used when instructing schoolchildren in India. She arrived in India in 1929., When she took her first vows as a nun on 24 May 193, she chose the name Teresa after the patron saint of missionaries. Her work in India began as a teacher for the upper class at the Loreto convent school in eastern Calcutta. Although Teresa enjoyed teaching at the school she was increasingly disturbed by the poverty surrounding her in Calcutta. A famine in 1943 brought misery and death to the city; and the outbreak of Hindu/Muslim violence in August 1946 plunged the city into despair and horror. On September 10, 1946, Teresa experienced what she later described as "the call within the call" while traveling to the Loreto convent in Darjeeling for her annual retreat. "I was to leave the convent and help the poor while living among them. It was an order. To fail would have been to break the faith." She began her missionary work with the poor in 1948, replacing her long, traditional Loreto habit with a simple white cotton sari decorated with a blue border and then venturing out into the slums." Initially she started a school in Motijhil; shortly thereafter, she started tending to the needs of the destitute and starving. Teresa's first year was fraught with difficulties. She had no income and had to resort to begging for food and supplies. Teresa experienced doubt, loneliness and the temptation to return to the comfort of convent life during these early months. She persevered and established an order that became world wide, and appreciated for it's work for the destitute. In 1979, Mother Teresa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, "for work undertaken in the struggle to overcome poverty and distress, which also constitute a threat to peace." She refused the conventional ceremonial banquet given to laureates, and asked that the $192,000 funds be given to the poor in India, stating that earthly rewards were important only if they helped her help the world's needy. When Mother Teresa received the prize, she was asked, "What can we do to promote world peace?" Her answer was "Go home and love your family." Building upon this theme in her Nobel Lecture, she said: "Around the world, not only in the poor countries, but I found the poverty of the West so much more difficult to remove. When I pick up a person from the street, hungry, I give him a plate of rice, a piece of bread, I have satisfied. I have removed that hunger. "But a person that is shut out, that feels unwanted, unloved, terrified, the person that has been thrown out from society - that poverty is so hurtable [sic] and so much, and I find that very difficult." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother_Teresa http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1979/teresa-bi o.html The much abbreviated story of 2 lives, both of which I believe brought glory and honor to God. One a spirit filled powerful preacher for the cause of God. The other a young girl who listened to the call of God to serve the destitute. Each of them an evangelist in their own way. So what does that have to do with you? Perhaps some Bible texts are in order. The Christian has always taken the last few verses of Matthew as his marching orders. Matthew 28:18 And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 "teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Amen. Here we are instructed by our Master to go, make disciples, baptize, and teach. We are to do this with the assurance that He will to with us. Jesus demonstrated this in His preaching. Matthew 4:17 From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." Matthew 25:14 "For the kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling to a far country, who called his own servants and delivered his goods to them. 15 "And to one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, to each according to his own ability; and immediately he went on a journey. 16 "Then he who had received the five talents went and traded with them, and made another five talents. 17 "And likewise he who had received two gained two more also. 18 "But he who had received one went and dug in the ground, and hid his lord's money. 19 "After a long time the lord of those servants came and settled accounts with them. 20 "So he who had received five talents came and brought five other talents, saying, 'Lord, you delivered to me five talents; look, I have gained five more talents besides them.' 21 "His lord said to him, 'Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.' 22 "He also who had received two talents came and said, 'Lord, you delivered to me two talents; look, I have gained two more talents besides them.' 23 "His lord said to him, 'Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.' 24 "Then he who had received the one talent came and said, 'Lord, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you have not sown, and gathering where you have not scattered seed. 25 'And I was afraid, and went and hid your talent in the ground. Look, there you have what is yours.' 26 "But his lord answered and said to him, 'You wicked and lazy servant, you knew that I reap where I have not sown, and gather where I have not scattered seed. 27 'So you ought to have deposited my money with the bankers, and at my coming I would have received back my own with interest. 28 'Therefore take the talent from him, and give it to him who has ten talents. 29 'For to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away. 30 'And cast the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.' Yet Jesus' own words lead us on. The hiding of our talents, the preaching, making disciples, and all of that, leaves only a partial message. Matthew 10:7 "And as you go, preach, saying, 'The kingdom of heaven is at hand.' 8 "Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give. Here we have an expansion of Matthew 28. It's effect is to tell us HOW to make disciples. That HOW is concern for people. When Jesus spoke at the synagogue in Nazareth, He quoted Isaiah to describe His mission. Isaiah 61:1 "The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon Me, Because the LORD has anointed Me To preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives, And the opening of the prison to those who are bound; 2 To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, And the day of vengeance of our God; To comfort all who mourn, 3 To console those who mourn in Zion, To give them beauty for ashes, The oil of joy for mourning, The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; That they may be called trees of righteousness, The planting of the LORD, that He may be glorified." It isimportant to note that immediately after the parable of the talents, that He continues with the illustration of the sheep and goats. Matthew 25:31 "When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. 32 "All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. 33 "And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. 34 "Then the King will say to those on His right hand, 'Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: 35 'for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; 36 'I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.' 37 "Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? 38 'When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? 39 'Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?' 40 "And the King will answer and say to them, 'Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.' 41 "Then He will also say to those on the left hand, 'Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels: 42 'for I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink; 43 'I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.' 44 "Then they also will answer Him, saying, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?' 45 "Then He will answer them, saying, 'Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.' 46 "And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life." As our Lord would say, we are to do the one but not leave the other undone. The bottom line: How we relate to Jesus is seen in how we treat others. And evangelism pure and simple, is demonstrating to others what Jesus is like. When we teach doctrine, that teaching should be in the context of Jesus' love for people. EGW so often wrote of the "truth as it is in Jesus." That is the truth that we are called to proclaim. Proclaimation and compassion. The twins of evangelism. That is why we are here. That is what you are called to do. Rather that is who you are called to BE. Are you ready to answer that call? Many ways to do that. If you have no ideas, let's discuss possibilities. Let's get the work done. Let's get ready to go home, Amen?