The message of God at work in our world has been communicated to us. We have heard the stories and testimonies of Moses and Israel, of the Apostles, of Paul and his missionary adventures. Let’s live in the vision that these stories inspire in us. (Acts 14:19-26; Psalm 44:1; Deuteronomy 11:18-20)

Speaker(s): Pastor Thomas Schaller
Sermon 12050
11:00 AM on 2/28/2021

P. Gary.-

A spirit of worship propels us and gives us the boldness to go into all the world. This is a special missions night for
our entire church, all the churches worldwide. I pray people can view this service. Thank you
for your attendance tonight. Thank you for being here. If we think of our pastor and a
missionary, he pastors like a missionary and he believes it. It’s in his heart. He’s given that to
us. He’s one of the original missionaries from our church that went to Finland in the 70s. We
have P. Scibelli in the missions office. We are so thankful for both of you and how you lead us
in missions and in the Gospel and how you train us and believe in training us. I’m sure the
world because they visited so many places, they would say the same thing to these two
leaders. We have been. Where are we going? It’s a big question. I was thinking of Nehemiah, a
cup bearer to the king. He knew something was happening in Jerusalem that wasn’t good, like
gates and walls were falling down. He got that in his spiritual heart and it dropped his
countenance or put a big burden in his heart. He wasn’t going to let that go. He wasn’t going to
drop that. He wasn’t going to let that motivation leave him.

This is what we have received from the personal victory of the Gospel in our lives. We have tasted the Gospel personally in our lives. We’re not just a church that is going to enjoy our future together at Moravia Park Drive.
We have places to go and how we are going to get there we don’t know. His countenance
dropped and Artaxerxes saw it. This king gave him surprising favor to go back to Jerusalem.
And then you just imagine his great big heart swelling inside him. This is like a burden for the
lost. It’s not going to leave us. We believe when we go across the street or another country, the
Cross has power. It has the ability to convert a soul. That it has the ability to uproot a person
from the kingdom of darkness. Their mind can be contrary like Saul was to the Gospel. And he
can get kicked off his mule and go blind. God can do a conversion in someone’s heart. That’s
what God does in the Gospel. We believe that whosoever, in any region of the world, in any
country, against any philosophy, any religion, any culture, we believe the Gospel has that
power. We believe that this is what the foundation has to be for every man’s life.

That’s what we were created for, the gospel. We have an elders meeting tomorrow morning. I don’t know
what we will talk about, maybe going into all the world and how we are going to do it. P.
Schaller said a year ago let’s get maps and put them on the wall and pray for these countries.
Nehemiah didn’t tell anyone. He walked around that city and saw the crumbled gates. He saw
the need. He didn’t tell anyone. All of a sudden he opened his mouth and told people and there
were people willing to work with him. They built with a trowel in one hand and a sword in the
other. We heard today the way the Moravians left from Denmark. They needed a ship and
there wasn’t one so they built one. What is impossible with man is possible with God. We are
believing that tonight. I just think of the word “surrender.” How big a word that is to us.
Whatever barrier there is, surrender is one of the biggest words in the human vocabulary.
Surrender. Why won’t people receive a free gift? It’s surrender. Why won’t we go? It’s
surrender. Think of the Apostle Paul in 1 Timothy having this calling from God.

This sinner but amazing grace revealed to him. It rooted him out. This is what I want to say I am believing God
is going to do with our church. Maybe in unique ways. We believe in team life and going and
preaching. How is God going to do it and who is God going to use. Each of us can be a
Nehemiah with huge intense burning. I’m available. It’s big in our hearts. All of a sudden,
surrender becomes really small. Maybe I’m asking in my life. Maybe that’s what you are asking
in your life. Maybe that’s what makes the healthiest church in the future for Greater Grace
worldwide. That’s why we are not just here to celebrate what we have done. We sit in the
missions office and like can we go? Who can’t go. We are ready to go. We look at us, five or six
in the missions office. Look at our church and imagine the viewers on our churches worldwide
saying let’s go. Spin the globe around and see where we want to go. Tonight you’ll get an
introduction to summer harvest. You’ll see the places we are going. There’s four different
places. We’re not limited to that. Let’s corporately believe in this summer, this work God is
doing in our hearts to go. This is not our home.

That s our home. Let’s enjoy tonight. Let God work in your heart and just consider and consider in being available to God. Let’s pray.

Nathan (Brazil) –

Good evening. There’s so many people here. What am I going to say? I’m here
to talk about a vision we have for summer harvest 2021. Nu. 13:30, this is Israel in the
wilderness. They were close to the Promised Land. Moses decides to send out spies to see if they were able to take over the land. They spy the land and come back with a report. Ten of the
spies said we are not able to take the land. We cannot go. The people that live there are too
mighty, to strong. They are giants. They have corona in the land! It’s crazy there. But one man
stood up and said in Nu. 13:30. I was looking at the flags earlier today. I was looking at the
American flag. What a beautiful flag. It’s a beautiful place. But this is not where I belong. Then I
looked at the Brazilian flag. It’s also beautiful. But I don’t belong to Brazil. Then I looked at the
cross. I said yes, that’s where I belong. I belong to the kingdom of God. We only belong to that
kingdom. The cross is our flag. We not only belong to that kingdom but we have also received a
mission from the King of the kingdom. Go into all the world and preach the Gospel, Matthew 28:18.
Why do we have to go out and preach the Gospel to people? If you walk out of this building,
you’ll find all kinds of people dying in their sins, without hope.

They don’t know the message of eternal life in Christ. How can they know it if nobody is telling them? For men to be saved, there is only one way. It’s for men like Caleb to preach the only message that saves and that’s the
Gospel of Jesus Christ. That’s our vision for summer harvest. To stand up and say Christ saves.
We have a message for you. It’s not a vacation trip. We are going to preach the Gospel to
people because they need to hear the message. One last thing if I have time. If you look around
this room there are a lot of missionaries right here, and I respect that so much. These people
were in the 70s and 80s and 90s we now have 768 churches in more than 72 countries. These
people decided to take a step of faith and go out to the mission field. If you ask them, most of
them got their calling to go on the mission field in a summer harvest trip. It could be that God
wants you to go on a summer harvest trip because he wants to call you to go somewhere and
plant a church. That’s what I have in my heart, that planting 768 churches let’s go out and plant
768 more. We are more than able to do it.

That’s the message of Caleb. That’s the message of Jesus actually, but that’s what Caleb said. We are more than able to take the land. That’s the
vision for summer harvest. Thank you.

P. Muhib –

Good evening. We are on a mission. This is the offering. Thank you P. Schaller for
the message this morning. You want to help me with this message. He said three key words: I’m
going to say a word and you say it back. I see, I hide, I teach. What do we see? We see the
glory of the Lord. That was his answer why we do missions. What do we hide? We hide truth in
our hearts. We hide a good theme, Ps. 45:1. This good theme overflows out of our hearts. We
teach the little ones. We share with our neighbors. We share from the new heart this amazing
good theme. We also give to the local assembly. We give to missions. We give to the Grace
Hour. With these thoughts, let’s pray for this offering and say in our hearts, God we are on a
mission.

Gillian (Bangalore) –

It’s amazing to be up here. Just to build off of what Nathan said, let’s take
this land. How do we do that? I want to read this one verse. Jer 8:20, we’re talking about
missions and summer harvest and what does it mean. The summer has ended and we are not
saved. What is our mission, what is our calling? We are all called by God. Every person in this
room is a missionary. We are all put in a place uniquely by God to carry out the Great
Commission. It’s not about going to another place. It’s about preaching the Gospel where you
are. We are in one of the greatest places in the world like Nathan said. We are in Baltimore, in
home base. P. Renaldo is going to lead a team to Arkansas. That’s going to be amazing. But
besides the trips happening in America, we have teams going on like Roger Rogers is leading
a team to Izmir in June. We have P. Renaldo and P. Chris Arman who are going to Namibia.
We have P. Gary leading a team to Scotland. Besides what is happening here, we have
people like P. Dennis Hulett who is leading a team to Slovenia in August. We have P. Risto
who is leading a team to Latvia. P. Stan Collins who is leading a team to Paraguay from
Argentina.

The idea behind why we are talking about how do we do missions is because we
have a vision. God calls us. We’re stirred up in our hearts, but do we just stop with what
happens in the summer because we’re a worldwide church. We have believers across the
world doing exactly what we are doing but we don’t see them. Besides getting excited about
what our church is doing here, we want to extend our hand out because that’s what God does,
right? He reaches his arm out to us. We want people to be brought in. We want to encourage
the different churches across the world to also consider summer harvest, to also consider the mission field. What are our true riches? It’s not about what we gain in this life. It’s like what shall
it profit a man if he gains the entire world but he loses his soul, right? It’s amazing to have
things in this life but the value of a soul we can never really put into words or into earthly riches
the value that it has, right? So tonight, we’ve been praying at the missions office. We’ve been
saying consider the call to go. We are all called but do we consider it? If we just take a step of
faith. We have no idea if we are going to go to these places but at the same time, when have
we ever known if we could go.

How much are we going to really think about it? God just wants
us to take a step of faith like Nathan said. Just go. Pray. Praying is also going. Because in your
heart you are with the people you are praying for. Yeah, just being in the Bible college and
being in the missions office, we want to consider the harvest because it’s ripe and people want
to hear. We want to sow seeds. We want to water. We want to reap and we want to seek
because Christ said we are not just here to wander through this life, we want to seek and save
the people that are lost, that are dying and that are hurt. They’re broken. Amen.

P. Scibelli –

The verse I am thinking of is, “if I be lifted up, I will draw all men unto me.” (John.
12:32). If I be lifted up, I will draw all men. That’s the mission. Jesus is the mission (song). Just
as you sit down, if you are under 80, stand up. So you’re available. Amen! Jonathan Goforth
was still on the mission field when he was 80. He went when he was 70. There’s hope for all of
us. I was going to bring a spear tonight that I use to fend off certain animals in Africa. I was
going to use it to pop holes in balloons. All these things that are obstacles. I’m too old. I don’t
have any money. I’m not educated. I’m afraid of airplanes. So many excuses we can have when
it comes to missions. God says just come. Andrew, would you come up here for a minute. This
is one of the greatest missionaries I’ve ever known, P. Carl’s son. He’s got the same face. I’m so
thankful. His dad went home to be with the Lord, but the life he lived still speaks to us today.
Between his dad and Gillian’s dad, there is 150 churches in India. They are both here, the son
of P. Carl and the daughter of P. Brian. Isn’t it awesome to have him here with us.

That’s our Bible school. Amen. That’s our Bible school. If I be lifted up. I was thinking about the mission.
When it said Jesus was the lamb slain before the foundation of the world, that means the mind
of missions was forever. It didn’t just occur in Matthew 28 or Mark 16 or Luke 24 or John. 20:21, Acts 1:7-8.
The mind of missions is eternal. It was always a go. It was always a go. That’s incredible. When
we think of the temporal life and how easy it is to fall into that temporal life, and I thank God the
church is a church that has an eternal perspective. Dr. Stevens led this church 50 something
years ago from Maine and he had an eternal viewpoint on everything and he instilled in all of us
and especially the elders in the church and P. Schaller who is a person who was with him for
decades. He just kept speaking that and putting it into our hearts the importance of reaching lost
souls. That people are lost. Do you know that? I know you know that but people are lost. And
there are these vast multitudes of people. 1.3 billion people in China. 1.1 or 1.2 billion people in
India. Asia. It’s incredible.

Africa has 1.3 billion people in Africa. It’s incredible. And here we are
are and we can just take a look around and say how can we do this? We are doing this because
we have used the spear to pop those balloons. All those obstacles that seem to be there that
make us think that this cannot be done. I like what he said about Caleb. I like Caleb. Do you
know what Caleb’s name means? All heart. There’s two possibilities. I like the “All Heart” one.
The other one is “Attack Dog.” As they say either all heart or attack dog. I like to put them
together. If you have all heart, you will be like an attack dog when it comes to missions. And he
said like, you know, giants, walled cities, the sons of Anak. These are nothing. Let us go up at
once. We are well able to overcome. He was not in the majority. He was almost alone in all of it,
maybe Joshua and him. They go back to the congregation – by the way, it’s the multitude that
has the right opinion. Oh really? The ten were wrong and the two were right. It’s who God
chooses that prevails. Thinking about missions. I remember many years ago, maybe 40 years
ago. I got saved in 1976.

First thing I did was go on the street with a Bible and telling people
about Christ. I didn’t know what I was saying. I found the church I heard Dr. Stevens on the
radio on WACE, and I found the church that represented the radio program, that was
connected; and I remember being a part of that church in the early days. We had a place, first in
the Marriott Hotel and then Storedon Chapel as it began to grow. It began to grow rapidly
because of evangelism, vision, and missions. Then I heard a certain person. I wasn’t interested
in missions. I was interested in missions to people in the city. That’s definitely a mission. Don’t
take me wrong. I was definitely interested in evangelism in my local city especially in very difficult areas. I was raised in those areas. I think I stayed on a street corner my whole life since
I was 12 years old. I was always on a street corner doing something. I loved local missions. I
heard about somebody coming to preach in Springfield at the church. It was in West Springfield
at the time. I don’t know if you remember that?

P. Schaller was coming. He was involved in missions in Lenox. I thought to myself I have no interest in missions. I’m going to get so far away from him when he is preaching that nothing will ever touch me. I got up in the balcony
and sat with a chair behind a pillar way bigger than that. And he preached from Heb. 11 seeing
he who is invisible. I remember the message. Talk about [sound] you know! He spoke about
missions and I was really touched by God. His message was so motivating to me when it came
to missions. It’s not about where you are at. I didn’t want any part of that kind of a thing. I was
involved with the church. Being involved with the church, you are a part of that, a great part, so
don’t take that wrong either. I wanted nothing to do with taking the steps to foreign missions. I
went on a summer harvest with P. John Love. Remember that time? Remember we were on a
train from Milan all the way to Southern France. How many hours? I think it was 18 or 20 hours.
We had no place to sit. My wife was there. We stood for 18 hours. We had the craziest people
around us. You got to be kidding me.

That summer harvest, that trip alone from Milan to France opened my eyes to missions. I began to think about it, get involved in summer harvest. I did a few summer harvests. I went to Bulgaria and .Yugoslavia. They didn’t end up so well because I was put in prison in both places. Don’t take summer harvest that way. P. Gary! He’s going to
nice places. These places were not so Hot. They were not so open to the Gospel. What takes
place in our lives is our heart gets enlarged. I love that word and how it is used in 2 Corinthians 6:11-14,
Paul was talking about his relationship with Corinthians. Their heart was not enlarged for Paul.
Their heart was straightened. When it comes to missions, and it could be even in America, and
hopefully churches are growing out of this, but a heart of a church can be straightened. It’s
restricted. There is no room for missions. There’s no room for evangelism. There’s no room for
the Gospel. I know of a church with 750 people with five pieces of property. I saw when they
stopped evangelism and missions emphasis, the church doesn’t exist anymore. Something took
place. They got straightened. They got restricted.

There was no room inside of the person. They didn’t have what we call what kind of heart? An enlarged heart. This afternoon I had four phone calls and all of them were nothing but trouble. It’s part of the game. You got 268 churches in
Africa. I like the trouble anyway. I’m not saying it in a negative way. It was just problems. I
thought to myself as it got towards 5:30, I don’t know what am I going to say tonight. I spent
hours just dealing with situations. I’m thinking to myself, what a Sunday afternoon. Thank God
my wife was there I had some time with here at the dinner table, but we don’t have a lot of time.
But even for people with difficulty, is our heart enlarged? People with trials. People with trouble.
People that are lost. Is the heart enlarged? Is the heart of a young person enlarged for an older
person? Is the heart of an older person enlarged for a young person? Is the heart of somebody
educated enlarged for somebody illiterate? Is the heart of a rich person enlarged for a poor
person? Is the heart of a poor person enlarged for a rich person?

God is saying, be ye also enlarged. He wanted these Corinthians not to have restricted hearts. Hearts that were small and narrow and there was no room in their hearts for anything. No room for people. No room for lost
souls. No room for people from other places like China and Nepal and India and Asia and
Europe and Eastern Europe and Russia and South America and Africa. Is the heart enlarged?
This is what I desire so much in my life. I desire to have a heart to be enlarged. People ask me
all the time why I wear a rubber band? It happens that I don’t have it tonight. I like to stretch it
out. They get enlarged. Pull it out and snap in your eye. Just being enlarged. Young people
having an enlarged heart. We heard something about the Moravians today. Listen to this. I’m
not adding to the message. One of every 60 Moravians was a foreign missionary. Protestant
Christianity was one out of 5,000, but the Moravians was one out of 60. The Moravians planted
more churches in 20 years than Protestant Christianity planted altogether in 200 years. Here’s
one of the keys I think, I believe. I want to pray Friday at 8 pm.

Come for a prayer meeting here in the chapel. Can anyone say amen to that? A prayer meeting. They had a prayer meeting for one hundred years 24 hours a day. Hello? A hundred years 24 hours a day. Arms wide open.
That’s God’s arms wide open. These people are begging and praying and asking God to touch
people. “Ask of me and I will give you the nations for your inheritance.” Prayer opens the heart.
We pray for people. We pray for countries. We are before God and God will give us. When
people talk about missions, forget about money. Forget about visas. I can’t tell you how many places I went without visas, without passports that were even correct. People get so – I got to
do this. I got to do this. I got to do this. I got to do this. I got to do this. Get rid of that. I mean,
cannot God do it? Can God provide a table in the wilderness? I can’t hear you? Yes, he can.
The visa, the provision, the passport. I told my granddaughter get a passport this week. We’re
going some place. We’re on a mission. Let’s get on a mission. Imagine raising children and
giving them the idea that missions would be good for them.

I like to raise kids so they can have a good job and take care of you when they are old. .No! No! I’d rather have them be a meagerly supported missionary that gives me nothing when I’m old. It’s okay. I wonder how many schools
or Christian schools or Bible schools talk to young people about missions. Some of the greatest
missionaries started when they were 18 years old, 19 years old, 20 years old, 17 years old. It’s
incredible. We start putting those things. “If they go overseas, I’m going to miss them.” You’ll be
with them in heaven forever. Billions of years together, what is a few years down here. Hello? I
remember when we went to Africa the first time, my wife and I, we were coming down from this
house an there were like 150 people around the car that was taking us to New York to the
airport. Everyone was crying. I said oh boy. I appreciated their love for me but I’m thinking this is
not a good scene I wanted to leave with. I quickly got in the car and drove away. I didn’t say
goodbye. I’m not a “goodbye” person. See you later maybe or what not. Missions.

They asked me how can you do this? You’re the head of the Bible school, the head of the Christian school,
the assistant pastor. How can you go? With my feet! I’m going with my feet. God told me to go
and I’m going to go. The enlarged heart. Think about this church in Rome, what Paul says to
them. It’s incredible. Separated unto the gospel in Romans 1:1. Then he speaks to them later one.
He says you got a vision in 1:5 to all nations. Are you with me? All nations. Then in 1:8 he says
the whole world. In 1:9 he talks about all of Rome. He’s getting a vision, talking to people in
Rome. You think it’s tough here. All I hear is – let’s stop talking about what is going on. Who
gives a flying rip about what is going on? I know what is going on with God. What’s going on
with the pandemic, the educational system, the politics, the government. I’m getting sick and
tired – I get tired of the whole thing. Rome had 4 million people and ruled the world for 969 years
with an iron fist. Hello? Caesar worship, taxes. High ones.

You think things weren’t difficult then and Paul said we have a vision for all nations and the whole world and every person. Just read it. Read Romans 15. He uses the word “nations” ten times. He’s talking to them about nations.
Romans 15. He’s talking to them about nations, vision. Wait a minute. Don’t you know the
things we are going through? The difficulties we have? The problems in Rome? What’s taking
place? We’re a very small church in Rome, 115 or 125 people. What is he saying to them? Go.
All nations. All the world. Every person. Ten times in Rom 15 he uses the word nations, nations,
nations. Then he’s talking about beyond in Romans 16:19-26. He’s talking about mission and a
vision. That’s what we are doing. There’s going to be some people “we’re not staying in this
church.” I remember a couple of times in Africa. “What about feeding the poor?” I said to them,
– a group one time they came to me with that. They said we shouldn’t be doing missions. We
should be taking care of the poor. I said, the poor you will have with you always. Let’s go.

Let’s go. Let’s believe God. You know what is amazing too, out of 268 churches, I’m speaking about
Africa. I don’t know about much else there in other places precisely. There, we have almost all
of our leaders in 268 churches are African leaders. They have been trained. They watch classes
from here, sometimes two every semester. They’ve been trained and they’re on a mission.
They’re going with the message. We got the greatest message that there could ever be in the
history of the universe. We’ve got what’s called the Gospel. It’s good news. I have something to
tell somebody. Whether it’s in the Northeast Market or Dundalk flee market. A guy said to me,
who told you you could do this here? I said, God did. You got a problem? He goes, no.
Goodbye! I think it was the way I said it. I’m not advocating doing that. I’m just saying, God gave
me the authority. We got a message. O God, enlarge our what? God enlarge my heart.

Enlarge our hearts for all kinds of people, all kinds of situations, all kinds of races, all kinds of troubles,
all kinds of problems, drug addicts, alcoholics, people that are rejected, rebels, reactors, people
that nobody wants. I want an enlarged heart. And the Corinthians he said, don’t be straightened
in your heart. Have an enlarged heart. This enlarged heart will give us an enlarged vision. This
will give us enlarged steps. Psalm 18 my steps have been enlarged. We go forward. And if we
cannot, I love what Ezra chapter 1 says. They went. Who is there among you? God be with you.
Let them go up at once to Jerusalem and build the house of God. Those that couldn’t go he said help. Help how? Pray, giving, whatever it might be. Prayer. Giving. Help. We are doing that.
We are helping. I’m not so sure if I got the exact figure but somehow we’re spending 40,000 a
month on missions. Something like that. Overall with missionary support and everything. What
people give and what the church gives. We have so many people that give to missionaries that
are out there. It’s incredible. We could double that easily. An enlarged heart will give you an
enlarged pocket book. Give you an enlarged wallet I should say.

God, we want to lift you up. And as we lift you up, enlarge our hearts. Enlarge our vision. Enlarge our purpose. I was
thinking a lot today about P. Bill Cannon. I just came back from the D.R. One man goes with his
wife to the Dominican Republic. And maybe was told by people this is not a good idea. Am I
right P. Glen? And he goes. There’s 13 churches that are a result of him going. There’s 13
churches between Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Over 1,100 people coming to church
because somebody had an enlarged heart. Yes, we know what happened. It was heart breaking
for all of us. When you talk to these Haitians and leaders in the Dominican Republic and you
mention his name, there is a brokenness that comes across them. Why? Because P. Bill had an
enlarged heart. It didn’t make a difference what the conditions were, what the situations were.
He had an enlarged heart and he brought them into his heart because his heart was God’s heart
and God’s heart was his heart.

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