The way of the Church in its edification can free us from discouragement and distress. The Lord fills us with His Spirit and we become people of refreshment. God had made us for more than beauty. Eternity is in our hearts. (Ecclesiastes 3:10-11; Song of Solomon 3:1-4)

Speaker(s): Pastor Thomas Schaller, Pastor Jon Post
Sermon 12031
6:30 PM on 1/24/2021

Schaller –

Alright. Bible college is tomorrow night. Praise the Lord! Very good. Very good. Turn to Ecclesiastes 2. Pastor Jon Post
is going to – he and Diane. Is Diane here? There’s Diane. Everyone knows P. Jon and Diane,
right? Right? We all know them. They live in Nepal in the mountains in Kathmandu and minister
and they are very precious to us. We are amazed at their faith, their love, their ministry. It’s so
remarkable. They are a very special people to us, aren’t they? Yeah, they are. I think I changed.
We’ll do this in a minute. Could you pray for a few minutes here? Let’s think about during this
covid time, how many people are not edified. How many people are discouraged. How many
people are stuck. Maybe they are just stuck somewhere, and they are not cheered on. They are
not encouraged. We want to pray for them. We want to reach out to them, Lord. (prayer).
Would you turn to your neighbor and ask them can you identify with people that are stuck?
What is another word for “stuck?” You can talk back to me.

Trapped, hindered, unwilling to change, paralyzed, discouraged, lack motivation. I don’t have anything going on in my heart. I kind of turn inward and I get stuck. There’s a lot of areas in life where we can say this is where I
am. This morning, we preached a message on edification. It’s extraordinary what it is in the
deepest meaning in our Scripture. That’s how the church is. The church is edified. That will be
part 2 tonight. P. Jon Post will share with us tonight too. What an edifying brother he is. After
we get done hearing him, I think we will be unstuck. Yippee! I came to church to get unstuck!
Ecclesiastes 2, we read in this chapter how much the wise men did by way of money, building,
architecture, fountains, buildings, singing groups, poetry, music, fruit trees, agriculture, women.
He did it all. He had a lot of fun doing it. vs. 12, 15. As it happens to the fool, it happens to me.
He is looking at life and analyzing here and there and he is finding that actually he can’t figure it
out. He’s stuck. Life has a habit of doing that to us. We get stuck and in his case trying to find
more meaning in life than just – let’s say he has a pile of money. He really refers to it this way, but what is it if it goes to my son and he blows the money? What is money? He looks at life
many different ways and finds it frustrating, not satisfying.

That’s maybe the key word. Vexation or frustration. When we read this book of Ecclesiastes and we see what is saying, then it’s very much fitting for our culture today where people are doing a lot of things. Going a lot of
places. Spending a lot of money. Doing a lot of different things but it leaves them with a hunger
for the eternal. Ecclesiastes 3:10 I have seen life. God has given life to us and we are exercised in life
asking the questions, looking for satisfaction, for peace, contentment. Vs. 11. In the Hebrew I
understand that word means “eternity.” He has set eternity in their heart. He has made
everything beautiful in his time and the beautiful things deteriorate. They are beautiful and we
lose the beauty. It’s not enough. Have you ever looked at the Swiss Alps and been amazed?
They are beautiful for a few seconds. It’s almost like huge, wow, beauty, God, beautiful and
then it goes way. You go back to the Swiss Alps for the same experience and as you go back, it’s
not there. It’s beautiful I know but it doesn’t affect me the same.

I want that feeling back but it’s not there. He has set everything beautiful in his time and put eternity in our hearts, so the
Swiss Alps are not enough for you. There is an emptiness. Relationships. How many people get
married and they are so excited about the marriage and they are made for each other. They
have a happy beautiful marriage for a couple years and then the very things I loved about her are the very things that irritate me. I loved how neat and clean she was and now I say, why is
she so neat and clean? What happened? God put eternity in your heart and that actually
eternity, God is the meaning of life. Now fast forward to Song of Solomon and this is the closing of this part.
Song of Solomon 3:1, who? The one that I love. Draw me and we will run after you. What is it about? It’s a
love poem between a man and woman and an analogy of the relationship between the believer
and God. And by night I was seeking him on my bed. Vs. 1. I sought him but I found him not.
Isn’t it interesting that we could be so much after God but not find him. What do you mean? I
mean satisfaction.

I mean the filling of the Spirit. I mean peace and contentment. I mean
motivation in my heart, my heart moving. I want him. I want edification. I need to be loved. I
want God to love me and I want to love him. I sought him but could not find him, but he is
there. That’s what we are designed for. The tragedy of our world today in our country is that
people are pursuing so many things but not God. They are pursuing many things that are not
satisfying. Actually, they get frustrated. They get frustrated. They struggle. They are not
satisfied. They are not contented. They cannot sit in a room quietly by themselves without the
cell phone or social media or a movie or entertainment or without going somewhere. They are
so restless, so struggling and it all goes empty all the time. It goes empty all the time. There’s no
edification. Edification is not only about words like “I love you” or “I care about you” but they
are words coming from God. They are words of truth.

They are words that correct me. They are words that challenge me in my heart. God says, do you really want me? Then how much will you pay for me? Will you move for me? Will you obey me? Will you trust me? Will you come to
me? No, I want you, but I am like I don’t know about that. What is the borderline there is faith.
When we come to God laying on our bed desiring him and I cannot find him or he doesn’t not
come to me, now it’s a calling of faith. It’s an issue of faith. I know God will answer me. I know
God is near me. I know God will satisfy me. God is saying, do you? Do you believe me? Then
what are you going to do about it? vs. 1. What do you mean? I will get unstuck. How did you get
unstuck? Him. I want him. I want him. I want him. I will rise now. Out of your bed? Come on.
You’re comfortable. You have the electric blanket on. You are cozy. You will rise now. Why? Isaiah
God better, more greater, satisfying than comfort? Yes. I will lose my life to find him. Proverbs
23:23, buy the truth and sell it not.

Once you get it, it’s not for sale. I got it. It’s not for sale. No, I don’t want to sell it. I bought it. How expensive was it? it was my life. God wanted my life. God wanted my heart. God wanted my faith. God wanted me to move by faith. He wanted to stir me up by faith. Vs. 2. How far will you go? I’ll go through the streets but it’s night time. Yeah, but I
will go. I will seek him. Cause I sat under the apple tree and his love was my delight. He drew
me into the chamber. There he gave me his kisses. His name was as ointment poured forth. Kiss
me with your kisses because your love is better than wine, right? Chapter 1:2. I love to see this
happening to us in our hearts. I believe it is. It grows. As you make decisions, it does grow. It
happens. It affects you. I know we can move through the streets for many reasons. I know you
can get in your car and go and do many things. We all can. This is different. There is only one
thing I am after, Psalm 27:4. One thing have I desired. One thing I seek after. To dwell in his
house for two reasons. To behold his beauty and to inquire. Ask questions. Why do you want to
be in God’s house? Because there I can see the beauty and I can ask the questions that he has put in my heart regarding life, reality, my problems, my way of thinking.

He’s my counselor, my teacher. The one that helps me understand. The one that fills my soul and satisfies. Let’s go to
the last part, verse 3. There’s a lot of people out there that are wondering about you. What did
you do this weekend? I went to church. What did you do after that? I went to church again.
What did you do on Friday night? I was at church. What did you do Saturday? I was at church.
The watchmen that go about the city, they found me, and they said, or I asked them, saw ye
him that my soul loves? Have you found him? Have you found him that my soul loves? I hope
everybody has found him. When you found him, you hope that the whole world would find
him, but they don’t. vs. 4. That verse if you have been under this pulpit for many years and
many of you have been, you know that is one of my common verses that I think about often. It
was a little that I passed from them. You know, I went away from them a little bit. I asked them
and they didn’t have an answer.

Have you seen them? They don’t know what to say. I pass a little bit from them and then I find them. Vs. 4. That’s what is so edifying. We talked about edification because I feel this is the great blessing of being a Christian is to be edified. After the morning service, I had some people come and talked to me. I heard a couple stories. They said
during this time I made some bad decisions, but I believe what you said today is what I was
missing. I was missing edification, so without the edification I went off and made some bad
decisions. I regret them. I know what I really need is edification. I need God to visit me in my
heart. I need God to speak to me and build me up. I need to realize in a fresh way that God is
for me. I believe that the whole point of assembling is for edification. We get it different ways.
Sometimes it’s our recklessness. Do you remember 2 Kings 7. There were four hungry lepers
and there was a famine and the Syrian army was there. They just reasoned. Hey, we’re going to
die anyway. Let’s just go to the Syrian came and see if we can get any food. They went there
but the camp was empty.

All the provisions were there. They were shocked. They were reckless
in a way, but it was so edifying because they found that when they got to the place of death,
that’s where they made a good decision and they ended up living. It’s a cool principle.
Sometimes people are so careful not to die that they never live. Others are like a soldier. It
might be if he walks along the line and he’s very close to death, that might be the answer to
living. It might be running the risk. When we are called to God that’s some decision that you
make in your heart. My life is not as important as God. We are made in his image. We are made
to glorify him, and the real way of satisfaction is to have eternity in my heart and that the
eternal God would dwell in my heart. I would find him. I would not let him go. I would say you
are my satisfaction. Have you ever been with people who go from event to event to event but
there is a lot of chatter and talking and you are exhausted? Or maybe a lot of desires and a lot
of regret, emptiness, fears. Yes? That is very common. If you pass a little bit from them you may
find them. You pass a little bit from the natural man and you find faith. That’s where God has
great pleasure in our faith. For without faith it is impossible to please him.

Let’s now welcome P. Jon Post because he has been a man that has passed a little beyond them and has found him
and been edified. He has traveled with his family to Kaliningrad, Russia; Kyrgyzstan, lived there
and did a great work there with the team and moved to Nepal and served and Christ is edifying him, using him and God is using him to communicate to those precious people how to live.
Amen.

P. Jon Post –

Someone is home somewhere. They were in the back room, but they were home.
We are incredible blessed by the message we heard. Many of us went many, many years before
hearing this message. Maybe it’s a little like what Pastor said about the Swiss Alps. For us, we
know what the difference is, and we love what we have. Sometimes I fear a little bit for some of
the people growing up in the ministry if they don’t get the chance to see and recognize how
lovely this is. They may not recognize the beauty. We are in Nepal where the vast majority of
Christians are first generation Christians. Their Christianity was illegal. It was a closed country. It
was a Hindu kingdom. Nepal is trapped between Tibet, China, and India. It’s a small country. It’s
the size of New York state which is 1/5 the size of Texas but has about the same population as
Texas, 29 million. Many, many of them are in villages. We have many of them in Kathmandu, but
we don’t have a lot of big towns, so there’s a lot of village life out there in Nepal. What we see
in Nepal is what P. Schaller said this morning from John. 4:22.

They worship but they don’t know what. They worship demons and in their temples – there are millions of Gods in Hinduism, millions upon millions. Cows are gods. Dogs are gods. Crows are gods. Big trees are gods and
they bring their offering there and such. But they don’t worship a God that loves them. They
worship a God they are trying to buy favors from and safety from. I give you a banana on a leaf
on a flower. You stay away from me. You leave me alone today. Every day I’ll bring you some
rice and flowers. You leave me alone okay. Even in their temples, you see pictures of demon
like creatures ripping open human bodies. One of their main gods, Shiva, there is a white side to
Shiva and there is a black side to Shiva. The black side of Shiva has a belt made out of skulls and
is standing on a corpse with a severed head in his hand. You worship that God because you
don’t want him to pay you a visit. They worship but they don’t know what. They don’t know
there is beauty, there is incredible beauty in the one that made them and loves them. We are
fallen creatures right and we recognize that.

I think the human kind recognizes that, but you have to educate it to think you are not a sinner. They believe that after thousands of lives of being good maybe eventually they will escape existing and not have to worry about all the
trouble in the world over and over and over again. They are in great darkness and Nepal is 85-
88% Hindu and the rest are Muslim and then animism and then somewhere in the bottom you
get the Christian. P. Rajan, he’s our head pastor in Nepal, he was a Hindu who hated Christians,
but one day he saw the power of God that had affected a classmate of his. He healed this man’s
mind. One day he asked this guy, what happened to you? The guy simply handed him a New
Testament. He paid a price. He was from a high caste family and Hinduism has the different
castes. That influence is still in Nepal even though technically it’s not legal, but it is still in
darkness. It’s very present. If you are born high caste you can only marry high caste, you can
only work high caste; and if you are born low caste you are there for your past lives that were
bad and you can never get out until the next life if you are good as a low person in this life.
That’s the truth. That’s their doctrine.

Ephesians 2 tells us we were all dead in our trespasses and sins, and this is true the world over. It is true in America too. Then we hear about in vs. 8-9 how we are saved by grace. I wanted to look a little further in Ephesians 2:12. It tells us how, it gives a description of the natural man without God. That’s what it says basically. That is massively true
in Nepal. I’m afraid it’s also massively true in America. We are in a nation that needs God. When
P. Rajan got saved, he got discouraged and then there was a man named P. Carl Silva and he
had a vision for helping the people in Nepal bringing the light to Nepal. They started sending
people up to Nepal to work and one of them met P. Rajan who by this time was a very
discouraged Christian because he hadn’t heard anything about grace. He became alive. God
used that, the ministry of the finished work and the grace of God to set this man on fire. He had
a vision to start a ministry in all 75 of Nepal’s districts and many of those districts don’t even
have a single road in them. We are talking about some isolated mountainous country. One of
our pastors, P. Bean, I think earlier I shared with you that he spent five years in jail because they
framed him. They didn’t like the fact that he was preaching.

When he was in jail, he led over 60 men to Christ in prison. So he started a church there while his 16 year old son was taking care of the church or churches that he left when he was arrested. What he does he preaches in his
town and hikes down the mountain and up the next mountain to get to another village which is
8 hours a way by walking and that’s the only way to get there. Then he preaches there. Then
the next day he hikes down that mountain and up a third mountain. This is Friday, Saturday,
and Sunday he is walking 8 hours each day just to preach the Gospel. I mean these people
humble us. They are amazing. We have P. Bean. You don’t know but it is illegal to convert
anyone in Nepal. Five years in prison and a fine. But P. Rajan says don’t worry about it because
only God can convert a heart. You just preach the gospel and let God get in trouble. What faith
these guys have. It’s amazing! Here we are in a country that has passed a religious – what do
they call it? Religious freedom law where they make it illegal to preach. Bhadra was one of our
Bible school students. He had 30 years in the military. He gets out of Bible school and he goes
down to the army base where he knows the commandant, calls all the men together and
preaches to 250 army guys.

Today, he is still keeping in touch with about 100 army guys every week. Yeah, so, you know. It humbled me. God is using these guys and giving them great boldness. P. Rajan is very wise. He wants to get the message everywhere he can every way he can. It doesn’t matter what church. Every one is welcome to come to Bible school. Bible school
is free so far. So when we first got there, he had somehow arranged to get 2,000 copies of an
audio commentary by Warren Wiersbe translated into Nepali because the Nepalis don’t have
any hardly any reference tools. When we got there, I found out that a bunch of the village
pastors were gathering together, and I went to a Bible store there that is tucked back on the
back street with no sign on it. They had a Nepali concordance and I showed these men a Nepali
concordance that they could look up every place in the Bible where baptism is mentioned, or
sacrifice or cross is mentioned. It was like Christmas! You got to be kidding! This is amazing!
How did they ever come us with this? Then I called him this morning and he is on his way back
from 20 days of travel going around Nepal. We have churches from the east side of Nepal to the
west side of Nepal. P. Carl Silva wrote a foundational Christian truths book, volume one. He has
given out 750 of these throughout the country of Nepal to the churches.

That’s his vision and his heart. He will do whatever it takes. We have a radio program – I don’t know why they haven’t taken us off yet! We have a radio program that goes throughout Nepal and the
surrounding countries in Nepali. We’ve had over 3,500 people respond and ask for
correspondence courses. When I talked to him this morning, he said in the last couple months
we’ve had calls every day. It’s on once a week for half an hour on the government station! He
said 6 people have received Christ on the phone in the last two months. Yes. We have great
debt to a church in Utah that supported that ministry for many years and helped them build a
training center. That support is no longer coming in. You can pray for all the details. Another
thing we have is an orphanage. We have about 22 orphans. Some of those guys are going to be
amazing preachers. Raise them up and send them out. Send them out. There is such need for
the people to learn who the Savior is. It’s like the Samaritan woman at the well. Then she would
go and tell the town, come, and see the man that told me everything. Come and see the man
that can give us true freedom, true peace, true life eternal. I encourage you to pray for us. I’ll
put in a little plug.

I have a newsletter and if you send me an email address, I’ll end you all kinds
of pictures that you were going to see nothing except my laptop didn’t cooperate. God bless
you and thank you for your prayers for Nepal.

P. Schaller –

P. Jon mentioned the ministry in Nepal and explained it to us. He mentioned P.
Carl. P. Carl and Suzi’s son is here. Right there in the back. Is that Andrew right there? There he
is. P. Scibelli talked with Andrew the other day and said I just thought I was talking to P. Carl.
He’s an answer to his mom and dad’s prayers. It’s great to have him here for Bible college.
There is another Indian there too. Is it Mary? Akansha. Is she here? Okay. There she is. Have
you read that story about P. Rajan in our magazine, our yearly magazine? How many have read
that story? It’s an amazing story about what happened when he became a believer. He was
homeless. His family disowned him. His wife and he were in a park. It’s an incredible story. They
were – Jesus came to them. I mean, Jesus became real to them and they just couldn’t deny it, so
they end up in a lot of trouble. But they found him. They found Jesus. Jesus found them and
they were so edified. When we are filled with the Spirit, we are edified. When the Spirit speaks
to us, like Proverbs 25:25, good new from a far country is like cold water.

Cold water. Big good glass of cold water to a thirsty soul is like good news from a far country. God has a lot of good news for us, but we have to hear it. It takes faith. There are many decisions we make by faith. That’s
how we live. We go from faith to faith. There’s a story about a fire. I think it was in the 19 th
century. Houses were on fire and there were people and fireman went up there. One of them
went up a ladder and was saving 16 people one after another and then he saw one more off to
the side. The fireman did what they could. They went up and the guy was going through flames
with a blanket, and he snatched the person, a child I think, and brought him down. He was in
smoke and fire. The fire chief said, cheer him on. Cheer him on to all the fireman and crowd
that was watching. They started cheering and the fireman who was struggling came alive and
saved the child. He got help by encouragement. When I think of P. Jon Post and his family and
when I think of faith, I mean they will tell you we don’t know what we are doing but we are
living by faith and God is with us. We see God in a conversation. It’s such a joy when we find a
conversation and it’s real food.

This conversation. It happened to Jesus. I didn’t even think of it until just now. John 4. I have meat to eat that you don’t know of. The disciples said you must be hungry. It’s noon time and you must be hungry. I have meat to eat that you don’t know about. Do you have it? Do you have something behind your life like your family doesn’t know it or your
family would think you’re crazy if you were actually talking about what you are seeing and
believing. It’s a little that I passed from my family when I found him and when I found him I
could bring him to my family. And later in the book in S.S. 5 they beat her. The men in the city,
the watchmen in the city beat her and they take the veil away. The veil means like your mask
maybe, the veil means I’m covered, and I have something personal and intimate. It’s like a
woman dressed well. If you ripped the mask off, like you’re violating her. That’s not what God
does. But the world does that to you and I. They mock, ridicule, attack, persecute. They make
fun of us and so on. Let that be. That’s fine because Jesus said if happened to me, it will happen
to you. If they hated me, they would hate you. If they don’t understand me, they won’t
understand you.

So the Post family goes to Nepal. They didn’t know back earlier Rajan is in a
park homeless. But P. Carl in Mumbai wakes up one day and says God has put it on my heart.
We need to go to Nepal, so they flew to Nepal and they met this man in a park. He started
sending P. Steven’s tapes to him. He started to learn English. He started to devour the tapes
and P. Carl’s messages. Now I think how many churches are? 42 churches in that country that
are learning these things we are talking about tonight and turning people. Nobody could
manage any of this work around the world. Nobody could. There’s nobody in this world that
could do what we are doing because it’s not us. God. The Shepherd. The Head of the church,
the Body is satisfying the soul and edifying them. They are learning and believing with a big
heart and smiles. Is it tough? Undoubtedly. There are times for all of us but don’t get stuck.
That’s all. Don’t get stuck. Stay light on your spiritual feet. Hinds feet on high places. Stay light
in your disposition and thankfulness. Stay light with your song and your purpose. Stay light with
your friends. Don’t get tough and hard and critical with each other but give a lot of grace. Give a
lot of grace to people.

Enjoy this amazing life God has called us to. It’s very edifying. Amen. I’ll
close with one more little story. Watchmen Nee had tuberculosis. He was a very bright student
in school. One of his professors met him on the street and made fun of him cause look at you
life. You’re nothing. You have become nothing. You gave up on your education. You’re such a
good student. You could have been anybody. And he was very discouraged. Then he got
tuberculosis and that even accentuated the problem. He was lying in bed and thinking he might
die, and God gave him three verses. One of them was stand up on your feet. So he was sick and
as he stood up he could feel the healing.

Then Jesus said as you have received me, walk in me, so he went to the stairs. As he went to the stairs, he could actually do it. If you continue in my word you are my disciple. He went down the stairs and by the time he got down the stairs, he was healed. My stuckness maybe something – it’s just I start a little bit in faith and whatever
God is saying let’s follow him and God will minister to you and me. He will help me in my life.
Follow him. Hear him. Follow him and obey him.

Please enjoy these sermon notes from the messages preached at Greater Grace Church in Baltimore. These notes are provided to aid in your study and understanding of the Word. Note that these notes do not represent complete, word-for-word transcriptions. Also, they may contain omissions as well as some errors in spelling and structure, etc., as we attempt to provide them as soon as possible. Our hope is that these notes serve as a way to help you search and connect with messages on related subjects and passages. Thank you for your interest in the ministry of Greater Grace.