God makes His habitation in those who tremble are His Word. And in places where the Church is rare and hidden the Word and Spirit and prayer fuel the growth and spread of the Gospel. (Isaiah 66:1-2)

Speaker(s): Thomas Schaller
Sermon 12303
6:30 PM on 5/15/2022

P. Schaller –

That was fun, wasn’t it? That was just awesome. Wow! That’s just great. That’s amazing. I love it. Isn’t it
awesome? Worshiping God with song. I will wait for you. I will wait for you. Wow.
Is. 66 is our introduction for tonight. Isaiah 66:1-2, three parts to our night tonight. This part
introduction. P. Love is going to give us a report from the youth rally this past weekend which
was a great success. Then, we’ll do the offering. P. Steve will do that with any announcements
he has. After the offering, I’ll speak again about India and play that video again and we’ll do
part 2 of that. Then the third part of the night is Federal Hill church is doing a water baptism. P.
Justin and the folks are going to do that tonight at the end of our night.

What is common with the youth who went to Pennsylvania, a group of us went to India and
Federal Hill that is doing a water baptism? The Holy Spirit. Amen. Read the verse with me. Isaiah
66:1, Lord, isn’t it in Jerusalem? Where is the house that we build unto you? Isn’t it the temple
in Jerusalem? How about do you have a temple in India? Do you have a house in Geneva,
Switzerland? Do you have the pope, the Vatican, and the house there? Or some other house,
some temple somewhere? Where is the house? What is he saying here? I have the whole
universe is mine. What little house have you made for me for I fill all of heaven and earth and
every part of it. But I am looking for a place to rest. Vs. 1. Where is the place of my rest? What
do you think the answer is? Vs. 2.

Meaning the whole universe. All the rivers and the mountains, the buildings and the bricks, stone. Everything. I’ve made it. vs. 2. What? A man. We could say the Messiah. That’s the one I’m looking for. I’m looking for a
man. Vs. 2. In the last few days, I’ve been thinking of that phrase, “trembles at my Word.”
Really respects my Word. Is submitted to my Word. That’s all. That’s what changes us. That’s
what we have by our new birth. Christ is in us and we are submitted to God. God is saying that’s
my house. That’s the place of my rest. That’s where people agree with me. That’s where the
anointing. That’s where I send my Spirit. Do you think that was happening in Pennsylvania with
these young people listening to God’s Word? And maybe they are having a lot of fun.

There’s a campfire perhaps. We’ll hear about it. Do you think a young man or a young woman this past
weekend heard something and it was planted in their heart? Do you think in India where we
were that there are Indians that have heard and God is saying that’s the place of my rest in the
heart of that man that is respecting my Word and hearing my Word and I am dwelling there.
We have been bought with a price. Christ paid a price for us. We are his habitation. We are his
people. We are his church. Do you think the people in Federal Hill have been hearing God’s
Word and it’s been affecting their lives and changing them? That some of them say I want to go
forward with God and I want to be water baptized cause it is written in the Bible. I want to
follow God by faith. All these expressions of God’s grace that happens to us in the ministry
through the years is just a result of God’s Word and people with a contrite spirit saying let it be
according to your Word. I believe you.

Okay. The map. What a beautiful group there singing. Wow. That was awesome. Thank you.
Thank you. That was awesome. Let’s try to do the map again. We tried this morning and it was
– okay. We did the map. There it is. How about the folks that went with me on the trip. Would
you stand up? Okay. Jonathan, Zsonbur, Evan. Evan I think is maybe in Frederick. Audrey from
France came. P. Ellis and Andrew Silva. There was six of us. We flew to Mumbai. Here’s the city
Mumbai.

Years ago, and by the way I’m sorry I don’t mention everybody that was involved in our history
of missions in India. I know P. Suhaas and Anna. Scotty Dubay’s brother Ronnie. Rebekah Post’s
dad. There was a brother Steve years ago. Many people have worked and lived by faith and
made the effort. It’s a subcontinent area with a billion people largely Hindu. Very different in its
way. It's way of thinking. The people are very precious. Somebody asked me, what’s the best
thing about India? I go, the people. The people I just enjoyed very much and we started going in
1983.

God did – to make a long story short – the Word of God, the Word of God taken to India. P.
Cannon lived in India many years. That’s an example of me overlooking somebody. These are
mighty men and women that have gone to India to preach and teach and I just want to give a
report on it and glorify God. What we are teaching in our Bible college and what the Holy Spirit
is doing in our churches is exactly what the Bible says. Lifting up Christ. Preaching Christ. We are
not ashamed of the gospel. It is the power of God unto salvation. It really has an impact.
So, P. Carl started in Mumbai, the church with the Bible school. Brian Coelho here in Bangalore
started the same with a Bible college to train people. People would come. They would do Bible
studies and outreaches, preach and there is no shortage of people. People are everywhere.
People are walking in the streets. People are everywhere with their motor scooters and cars
and by all means they are all hours of the day out and about.

These two works were growing. Somebody would come from Gujerat to go to Bible school and
then they would go back to Gujerat state. B.R. state. Sikkim here. This one. Assam. Orissa,
Andhra Pradesh this area. Chennai. Kerala. Coimbatore here. Punjab. A Bible study in Punjab.
Rajasthan. This area. And in some cases, five churches, ten churches, twenty churches. Village
people. Persecution sometimes. The workers sometimes get beaten up by Hindu radicals. They
might go to jail for a couple days and then get released. They might go back again to the jail.
They see demonic activity. We mentioned this morning. Young boy levitating. A woman walking
up the wall of the building supernaturally by demonic activity. One thing you can see in this
video that I want to show you tonight is the joy that was in that room with people that were
from many of these different states. I think there’s 150 churches in India. I might be wrong on
that number. 150 different churches in India with many pastors that are learning and growing
and are not afraid.

By the way, a number of pastors said to me we are following and nobody follows our ministry
like these people. These people tell you what the lunch rap was about yesterday. They tell you
what the morning devotional is. They tell you about the services. Nobody in all the world that
follows the ministry like these people do. They watch everything. They’re learning everything.
They love the Bible. Why is that? I think because they are a ministry and they live by every
Word of God. I mean they are serious.

Another thing, they have a lot of respect for their elders. They respect Dr. Stevens. They respect
P. Carl, P. Brian, myself, P. Scibelli. They love to hear the Word and they apply it. They listen to
it. They apply it. They have a lot of respect for what God has given them. So, when we go there
it’s like wow. Really? It’s beautiful. It’s love. It’s faith. And it’s vision. So, this morning, I brought
out four things about church life and I’ll run through them right away just quickly.

#1. Preaching and teaching. If your church is not preaching and teaching, then probably it’s a
false church. What is a false church? Just like a false apostle. A false premise. What will happen
if there is no Word of God? Remember God said here is my house? I am in the stars and the
heavens on the earth. Where is my house that you built for me? I don’t care about a building. I
care about the heart of a man, the heart of a woman that trembles at my Word. They respect
me and they are submitted to my Word. There you go. That’s the beginning of church life.
That’s what changed our lives. Many of us, we started to listen to Dr. Stevens and he made it
very clear to us. We found ourselves before God listening to God and trusting in him and God
gives grace to the humble. Amazing. Music can’t do it. Good intentions. Comedy hour. No.
Programs, No. Nothing can replace God’s Word. Nothing can do it. “How will a young man
cleanse his way? by taking heed unto his Word.” That’s the key to a good church, a healthy
church.

#2. A church is filled with worship. We are worshipping when we are listening, trembling at his
Word. We are worshipping when we sing the songs with all our hearts like the songs tonight.
That was such a joy. Worship. To assemble and be before God.

#3. We are nurtured in a church. Wisdom is in the assembly and it nurtures us. We are – a lot of
people have compassion. They care. They do not judge. They are not walking around like a
policeman protecting the church. They are nurturing the people. They are caring about the
growth of the people. The growth and the faith.

#4. Evangelism. A healthy church, a church with God in it, with God in the center will end up
opening our mouth. We’ll end up knocking on a door. Talking at work. We’ll end up sharing our
faith. We’ll end up inviting someone to the church. We’ll end up evangelizing.
Two more I want to add to that list. I’ll share them after the video. Could we play the video. Let
me preface the video. During one of the sessions, P. Fred Ellis was –

I preached a message and I told them I’m going to do a video and walk down the aisle and you can wave to the camera if you want. They didn’t know what I would do with the video. I didn’t know either. I sent it to my
wife. That was my first thought. Then I thought, I want to share it with the church. I ask P. Binnu
this morning by a text message if I could do it. He said I could, so these people are from many
different states in India. They came to this convention. It’s like our convention at the end of
June. It’s like Eurocon but it’s in India. And we just had an absolute fantastic time. So, let’s play
the video.

You know what’s amazing is probably P. Glen knows a lot of those people and P. Suhaas you
know people. It’s amazing we are in the same Body believing the same thing. The same grace
that is here amongst us and a dark time in a way in our culture where people are turning away
from God. That’s okay cause that gives us the opportunity to say some profound things. And to
minister the gospel to people. When they hear and they are born again, then they need a
church. They need to be taken care of. P. Carl and P. Ryan in the south, they are in this area
here. P. Benny is now the pastor. P. Carl and Susie did their work here. Now P. Binnu and
Sheeta his wife, they are pastoring there.

There are many other pastors. I just love learning who they are and what their names are. If
you know their name, this shining big smile. It’s like, wow! It’s beautiful. They have in their Bible
schools they have classes from Dr. Stevens. They get classes here from MBC&S. Many times,
they can’t get visas to come here to visit or to go to Bible school. God can make a way and that
can happen. We look forward to that. We actually want to build a dormitory on our property
for international students to come here. That’s in our vision. We’re praying for that and how to
proceed and how it’s going to happen and how much money we need. More than the money,
it’s the vision. What’s in our hearts. What is a good church? A good church is like this one. Not
perfect but if God is present, we are so honored.

Ephesians 4 says – and these are the two added ones, points I want to make is gifts. In that video
there are gifts. There is a pastor that has more than a hundred people now in his church.
Another pastor has about 30 churches under him. Another pastor about 2 churches. Young man
learning and growing and seeing God work. Gifts. Jesus descended and then he ascended and
he gave gifts unto men. What gifts did he give unto men? Apostles, prophets, evangelists,
pastor teachers. We don’t believe in the apostle gift as was with the twelve, but we do believe
that God sends men and he sends them with authority. He sends them to bear fruit and they
can actually plant a church by preaching and teaching. Gifts of mercy. Gifts of faith. Gifts of
miracles. Gifts that we read about in our New Testament.

Then the sixth thing I want to mention is in a church is prayer. They told me they started
praying for two months for this conference you just saw. P. Binnu came to Eurocon. We had a
talk. I said yeah, we can come. We can come to India in May. He went back to India and things
started to come together. They found a place. He said we were just praying all the time, every week. We were saturating the conference with prayer. We had to get people on trains from
Nepal. That’s this country right here. And 72 people came from Nepal. There was a two-day
train trip. They just packed the trains. They just came by faith. Some came from this area here,
Bhutan. This country right here. They came from the area here, nearby and so on.
That’s all I want to share tonight.

Wow. We come back and we just say there’s no way that could ever happen that this work has happened by the Holy Spirit. We are so hungry to hear
stories. Tell us a story. Anybody have a story about a miracle, about a salvation, about casting
out demons. Anybody tell a story about somebody taking up the cross and being a disciple and
forsaking their mother and their father and their home and their future and everything. We
heard all kinds of stories. We go away saying there’s no way unless the Word of God is
preached with the Spirit of God that goes into the heart and somebody says I want to follow
Jesus. When they do that and we come together and we have the same spirit, same mind, same
heart, same God and we rejoice in that. That’s what’s happening in India.

But you know it’s amazing. It’s happening in China. It’s happening in the Philippines. It’s
happening in Africa. It’s happening in Europe. It’s happening in Latin America. It's been
happening here in Baltimore and other places in the world. For us who have found Christ in the
local assembly, it’s a great treasure for us. We say this is my life. This is how I want to live. I
want to think with God. I want godly friends. I want a godly direction. I want to be delivered
from temptation. I want to be encouraged. I want to be edified. I want to be enlightened. I
want to finish my course with joy. Not with a lot of money. Maybe that could happen. I don’t
care about it cause the Bible says finish your course with joy. Not with a big family. That might
happen. That’s not my target. Not with a lot of houses. Not with a lot of kids or grandkids. Not
with a lot of money. Not with a great reputation. I just want to finish my course with joy. That’s
what Jesus says.

Isn’t that a good word? How can it happen? Be in a good church and be faithful to a good
church. Be committed to God and find yourself in the assembly and God will take care of us.
You might find yourself in India one day or Nepal. God is going to take care of you. In China or
Burma or Cambodia. God will take care of us I believe. Won’t he? Mark 10:30. Now, we’ll have
the water baptism from Federal Hill and we’ll move the chairs. Before we do that, have a prayer
with me for a salvation call.

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