Abraham’s servant was on a mission for his master. We also are on a mission for our Master. We consider the weightier matters of our purpose to serve the Son and His Bride. (Genesis 24; Proverbs 25:19)

Speaker(s): Thomas Schaller, Matti Sirvio, Michel Texier
Sermon 12196
7:00 PM on 11/10/2021

P. Schaller –

This is a special night because we have two special guests here with us from abroad, and so their presence kind
of makes Convention! It doesn’t take a lot for us to feel like we are at Convention! That does not
discredit them. We had a lunch rap today and these two brothers who had been in the ministry
for decades and have been very faithful in many different situations. I think our message tonight
has to do with this subject.

Before we start, we want to just say that there is no reason for any of us to be here except
Jesus Christ. It’s his blood that has made us clean, that has justified us and made us children of
the living God. What an honor! It is Christ the living God that has turned our lives around and
delivered us. We know him. We know God. This is an incredible thing to be able to say that we
know God.

This is Jeremiah 9:23. We do not boast in our wealth or our might, but in this that you know me and
understand me. What an honor that is! These two brothers, P. Texier, the Greater Grace pastor
of the church in Paris, France and his story that I want to use a text tonight and talk a little bit
about it. And then P. Matti who is in the Middle East and also from early in life found how real
Jesus Christ is.

I want to have you turn to Proverbs 25:19 in the beginning just for a brief word. What’s a broken
tooth like? What? It depends on how it breaks, right? But if it breaks and the way that the pain
bothers you all the time and you have confidence in an unfaithful man.

The unfaithful man part reminds me of a story about a woman sending her husband to the store
and she made a list of five things. You know the story? She wanted yogurt, a bottle of aspirin,
bananas, apples, and paper towels. So, in the list she had them listed, so the man brought
home one yogurt, two bottles of aspirin, three bananas, four apples and five bundles of paper
towels!

Have you men ever gone to the store and forgot what you went there for? Have any of you sent
someone on an errand and just they were unfaithful? They visited their cousin and didn’t do
what you asked them to do. This is like people, like us, but not like these two guys which I’m
really drawing a lot of attention to them. I want to use Genesis 24 for that.

Turn to Genesis 24:2. The oldest servant in his house. You know, to be a servant, it’s something that
happens to you as a Christian. You become a servant of somebody else’s house. Not your
house, but somebody else’s house. Abraham’s house. This chapter parallels our lives in many
ways because you and I are servants of another house, God’s house. And this servant has to go
find a wife for Isaac.

That’s a picture of how God has us in this world on a mission. We are here on a mission.
There’s something that our master wants. Not something I want or you want. Not something I
can easily forget to do. But something that burns in your heart or is clear to you in your mind.
Something that you can’t explain but my master has a need and he’s sending me.
When I met P. Matti in Finland years ago when he was a teenager, virtually. He can tell the
story, but already God had been working in his heart about the meaning of life and what’s
important and who is God.

He was a believer, but then as he was listening to God and God was
leading him, that amazing gift of being a servant happens to you and me. You start thinking I
want to be a servant. I want to see my master’s house, my master’s desire, my master’s need. I
feel that way. You could be a car mechanic, a doctor, a teacher, a factory worker, a mother of
five. It’s the same. It’s the same. You become a servant of God, and this servant is sent on a
mission. It happened with P. Texier in France with P. Demeo down in the south of France. P. Texier
heard, believed, and it worked in his spirit, in his heart. We all know this because we have the same story, the same thing. It’s hard to explain it to people but it’s awesome when you get
connected to something bigger than you.

You listen to your master and the master says I need to send you away and find a relative, a distant relative, a cousin or somebody from our family to marry my son. And he’s on a big mission. It’s hundreds of miles away where he has to go. He has ten camels all packed up and he has one thing on his mind. How can I find a wife for my
master’s son?

Doesn’t it sound familiar? God has a son and we are servants in this world to find what he
needs, what he wants, right? What does God want? It’s fun to be about our master’s business.
It’s great to be in fellowship with God who has sent us.

So some couple years after Bible school had started and P. Matti was in it, he came to me and
said that God had put it on his heart to go to that part of the Soviet Union where there are all
these different kinds of people groups in Central Asia. This is 1979 and Communism was not
failing. It was strong. The Soviet Union was solid, a world power. We didn’t know how this could
work, but it happened and he got a team of people and they started to visit Moscow, St.
Petersburg.

They did many different things to reach people inside the Soviet Union.
This is the thing that I love about it. When you have a focus, when the Holy Spirit wants you to
be like seeking or focused on my master’s business. What does my master want? Then it
seems in this story there was nothing that could stop that servant. And even when he met
Rebekah and she brought him home, he said I will not eat anything until this business is settled.
I am focused on it. I love that focus. Maybe you might say, pastor, my only focus is to go to bed
tonight. Or my focus is – fill in the blank. I say, I know. I’m a human being also.

But never forget you are more of a person than you realize. You have more on your plate. You have something
to do. You have a mission. Never forget that God has sent you into this world. As the Father has
sent me, so I send you. I don’t mean to be a missionary in that sense of going abroad. That can
happen and should happen in some degree to some people.
But I love it that we are in this world with the understanding that our life is short. Our life is not
an accident, that our Father speaks to us and he sends us. We have something in our heart and
mind that people need. They need it. They need a love, a smile. They need care. They need to
be understood.

Here’s a good word. They need a friend, don’t they? What is a friend? Sticks close. Carries our
burdens. Takes time. Listens to us. And of course, if they respond to Christ, then we are
brothers and the Spirit of God between us gives us fellowship and understanding and we
become Body members, members of the Body of Christ.

So in closing, read Genesis 24 with me. I want to skip ahead here. vs. 12. Isn’t that beautiful? Like
send me, Lord, and show your kindness to do what my master wants done. My master wants
people out of this world to be saved. My master sent the Holy Spirit to convict people of sin. My
master sent the Gospel. My master sent his Son to the cross. My master sent you and I into this
world and it’s on our heart. It’s on our mind. Oh, God, do what you want to do in this world. It’s
beautiful.

So P. Matti worked in the Soviet Union area and had to leave. P. Texier was in the south and he
was led by God to go to Paris. That would be a challenge, and just to go by faith but to keep my
focus. Keep my focus. God gives me the focus. God show me I need to do this. I’m going to do
this. I want this to happen. Lord, I need this to happen. You got to do this.

This is what I pray for in our country now. We want people to turn to Jesus Christ and go to
church and get trained and grow up and mature and get established in the faith and be a
disciple and train others. It’s the best way to live. It’s the answer. We are focused on it.
This is what Abraham is saying in his prayer. Then he meets Rebekah. It’s interesting because
he said the same thing that Jesus said to the woman at the well in John. 4. Give me water. And he

says the same thing to the woman. vs. 17-18. She’s the one. She is the one. He is not sure but
it seems it is all coming together. She’s the one. But still, he has to talk to her father. He has to
kind of settle the business, so it goes he talks to him and then we have here in chapter 24 he
tells about Abraham in vs. 34-35. That’s how we should talk, too. The Lord has blessed my master greatly. He has become great.

We could say in our parallel message, I could say to someone that doesn’t know the Lord, the
Lord is great. vs. 35. It means my master is a great man, and when you come if you marry his
son, you’re going to inherit this. If you come with me, if that’s for you to decide, but I like this vs.
49. This is where he gets down to business. If you are game, if you are into this, if you will
come, tell me. But if not, tell me that, too. vs. 49. cause I’m doing this. There is somebody that is
to marry Isaac. There is somebody. If it’s you, tell me. If it isn’t you, tell me. I like that.

You know what I see in this story is that the Holy Spirit is with you and I to keep us on point. To
keep us in what he has for us. We are a soul-winning ministry that are looking for people that
are lost and to lead them and say like this, our master is great. If you come to Christ, you will be
an heir. You will inherit. You will be forgiven. Your name will go in the book of life. God will be
your Father and you need him.

With P. Matti, I’ve seen this where he could go to a country, live and work in a country and then
go to somebody. A real person. A real person with a name and a family and an apartment. Go
to that place and basically are you coming or not? Are you coming? I believe God is calling you.
I don’t know if you remember Yacoub in Baku. He was kind of an art guy and he had it in his
heart, you know. I just saw P. Matti do it like an opera singer. A taxi driver. A father. Somebody
from the mountains. God has sent us to keep our focus and the joy of it and meeting each other
along the way. We know these brothers who are in the field who are bringing the message and
seeing the work. When we meet each other, we know each other very well.

We know each other just like you folks are knowing each other and learning to know each other very well. I trust you.
I trust you. I believe. I believe that we have something where we can convince people, persuade
people, lead people that their lives will be changed. It will happen.

1989 and P. Matti came here. He was in Baltimore and we have been together for years. He had
it in his heart. He said in the summer Communism was ending, and we went to Dunkin’ Donuts
with a group of people and he said we could go. Let’s go. Let’s move to eastern Europe. So we
had a – I said we’ll think about it, pray about it. After my second cup of coffee, yeah! Yeah! Let’s
go!!

So we made a team. He went to Hungary on his way back home to Finland. And he gave us a
thumbs up. A team landed there in February 1990. We moved there in 1990. He was there a
couple of years. Then he was led to go to Baku, Azerbaijan which he had in his heart many
years ago. And then after years there, he moved on to Uzbekistan. There are many stories,
many things that happened during that period of time. Then moved on to Kazakhstan. Then
after Kazakhstan and planting a church there with P. Dema’s work, and that work going on and
then moving to Turkey for six years or so and then moving to another country in the Middle
East.

Whatever the story is, however you want to look at it, it’s not a big program. It’s like this story.
My master is important to me. My master sent me, and I got to get this done. It’s there in the text.
I will not eat or drink until I get an answer cause I am in business about what my master wants.
Isn’t that beautiful. I would like these two brothers to talk to us from their hearts something about
this story tonight for our service after the offering and the song. Is that good? Okay.

P. Matti –

Thank you. Thank you. Wonderful to be here, really. I think we are all kind of
Convention hungry, aren’t we? It’s really a privilege to be part of this ministry. It’s a great
privilege. It’s really awesome. It’s really amazing. I wouldn’t change that life for any other call.
As a missionary/pastor, I sometimes feel like I’m a soldier coming from the jungle and still fighting the second world war and then coming to the civilization and looking at everybody.
What’s going on? Everybody is saying the war is over. The war is over and it’s business as
usual. Everybody is just going on with their lives.

And you say in your heart, the war is not over. You just know because you know where you are
coming from. You know what you have seen. It’s not over.
Jesus spoke about the weightier matters in Matthew 23. And he was kind of rebuking the Pharisees
and scribes. He said you are interested in the mint and the anise and the cumin and the tithes
and you know, but you forget about justice and mercy and faith. The weightier matters. He said
those are also good, but there are weightier matters that you should not neglect.

Missions is a weightier matter, very much so. We were recalling a story from Samarkand on our
way here. We had an amazing team there, an international team from Greater Grace. We lived
in a suburb area and some people are from that area. They can testify that we really were there,
and one day I was coming home. I saw a man by the road sitting in the ditch there and crying
and I went closer and I saw that he was drunk and he was crying. Not a very attractive looking
creature. Then I saw that he was holding his leg, and the leg was really swollen and it had
worms coming out of it. He was, like, at the end of his life, so I started talking to him. His name
was Volodya.

I understood he could not go anywhere. I had to take him with me, so I took him
with me and Umid my assistant helped me to take him to the hospital.
They got his leg off and then we took him to my house. He stayed in my house. We had a farm
in Samarkand. There was a house in the farm, so we built a little room for him there. We
ministered and served him and loved him.

But he had a very horrible personality. Everything was, like, in a fairy tale except this part. He
was cursing. He was unthankful. He was very picky. He was picky about what he would eat and
how it was prepared. I just wanted to throw him back in that ditch! Get back there! What do you
think we are here for, people like you?

But there was a weightier matter and it was the salvation of his soul. That’s what mattered
really. We loved him and continued caring for him. Then he died. We had a big team so we
organized his funeral and we walked through the village to the cemetery carrying his coffin. And
the village they spoke like this. This man was alone all of his life, but the whole world, God sent
the whole world to see him off. And he had beautiful dignity in his death because it’s a weightier
matter, one soul.

You know, I thought about two stories. The prodigal son story and the way how Jesus spoke
about a shepherd who leaves the 99 and goes after the one. If I’m among the 99, I really have to
guard my heart because why is the shepherd so involved with that one? Can’t he see that we
are here, the 99?

This is the way how God is operating in the world today. We cannot let that older brother’s
attitude into our hearts and say I’ve been faithfully serving and he’s been ruining his life and
other lives also and coming home and you treat him like a king. Then the father said that he was
lost. That’s the weightier matter. Don’t you see he was lost? That’s the weightier matter.
And Jesus, I mean he was a child and they were in Jerusalem for the celebration with his
parents and they are traveling back home and the parents assumed that everything is normal as
it is supposed to be. Jesus with the crowd somewhere there traveling with everybody else and
then all of a sudden, they see that they cannot find him.

You remember from Luke 2 that story, and then they go and look for him everywhere. And then they found him in the temple. Then they are kind of ready to rebuke him. They said, child, don’t you know that we were worried and
then Jesus says those famous words in vs. 49 that didn’t you know, don’t you know, didn’t you
know that I have to be about my father’s business?

Then the next verse says that they didn’t understand that statement. I think anyone who has
been involved with missions work experiences that. How do you explain to your relatives that
you have become a missionary? But praise God that we have opportunities to go after these
weightier matters and not to be distracted from our call. Yeah.

Thank you for giving me this opportunity to be here with you. I have a couple more days. It’s a
real privilege and a real honor and privilege to be with P. Schaller. Thank you.

P. Texier –

Good evening all. It’s always good to see P. Mark. Here we are on the stage. We
haven’t seen each other yet. We’ve know each other since 1987. He had come to France then
and I had just gotten saved. We’ve had a good way together.

I just wanted to share a little story. A little while ago there was mentioned of the early days of
my Christianity and I used to do a bus ministry with a certain person. Cause we are speaking
about faithfulness tonight. I’m thinking of Cheryl Bogardes whose name was Cheryl Bodak at
the time. She was on our team in France. And I remember a few words, thoughts she had
spoken that would have an impact regarding choices I would make. She doesn’t know it. She’s
learning this now tonight.

I was touched by P. Schaller’s message tonight. We can ask the question how to be as faithful
as that servant. The standard is so high. What we see in this chapter is that this man had a
relationship with God. Not only with Abraham. And when he found himself alone faced with the
mission that was his, we see that he knew how to address God.

And in this story, the servant can also be a type of the Holy Spirit. We have Abraham the father,
Isaac the son. And the servant who has no name who is discreet. Like the Holy Spirit in our
lives. He’s sent. And here he is sent to earth and he is sent in us. It is for that reason that it is
possible to be faithful because we have received the Holy Spirit. For that reason, we need to
listen to him. We see that the servant addresses God and says show me this woman to whom
you sent me.

We in the same way must learn to listen to the voice of the Spirit to be faithful. Because how
can we be faithful one to another while we are not perfect? I’m not faithful. You are not always
faithful. And that often causes disappointment, bitterness and division.
When we have heard the voice of the Holy Spirit, we know we have no excuse even if
sometimes there are difficulties because it’s not a human story.

P. Schaller was speaking of our history during all these years, what we have lived through, but
I’d like to share a little anecdote just to encourage us in this.
When I got saved, I lived in a city that was about 40 kilometers from the church. And I took the
train twice a week to go to church. This period of time helped me to learn to listen to the voice of
God even though I hardly knew anyone in the church.
After a year and a half, I moved closer to the church, but in the beginning I had no Body life. But
I had God with me. And even though I knew nothing about the evangelical world, even the
Protestant world I didn’t know. For me, Protestants were people who protested. That was my
level of biblical culture.

However, after let’s say four or five weeks of my conversion, the Holy Spirit clearly in
Montpellier, – there’s like arches. There are these famous arches in Montpellier. The Holy Spirit
said to me, do you want to serve me full time? And I didn’t know what that meant. And I said, no.
That was my second experience where I grieved the Holy Spirit. I realized that I had a
relationship with the living God and God was offering to me a life that I didn’t know.
And after three or four days, I don’t remember exactly, I said yes. There was a peace. When I
received this kind of word, this rhema, when you know that God is calling you into a certain kind of church, when he shows you the gifts you can have in the Body of Christ, when you see this,
it’s easier to be faithful one to another.

We can always disobey, but we know when we disobey God. It doesn’t matter what men and
women do. So the gauge of our faithfulness to God is the – the first fruits of the Spirit that we’ve
received. And as P. Schaller was saying a little while ago, it doesn’t necessary mean leaving on a
mission. That God would speak to us about the place that we have in the Body of Christ. That
God would show us the gifts that we can offer to others. You know certain people need to be
supported. That’s why Jesus said if you help a prophet you will get the prophet’s reward. God is
just. It’s not what we do that counts. It’s the goal that we want to aim towards. Seeking the bride
and doing it as a team. It’s the team that wins. And each person on the team receives from God
a portion.

And really we can thank God for his faithfulness to speak to us. I know that to ascend the
elevator as we say in France. P. Schaller is someone who listens to the Spirit. We need to be
together with those who hear the voice of God. May God bless you.

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