God puts in us the message. The Holy Spirit gives grace and desire for a world falling apart. People do not know what is going on. They know not what they are doing, and they do not know anything. (John 1:1-5, 12-13; Philippians 2:13)

Speaker(s): Matti Sirvio
Sermon 12465
11:00 AM on 2/26/2023

P. Matti –

Hello. It will be such a
fearful thing to come to the pulpit without the Bible and actually very dangerous. So, I didn’t
have my Bible with me, so I got one from P. Roger and I don’t think I’m going to give it back to
him ever! It’s the most interesting looking Bible. I mean amazing all these notes and little pink
papers and yellow papers. It’s beautiful. Isn’t it amazing when a man of God loves his Bible? It’s
beautiful. Yeah.

I said in my prayer about this meeting to God, I said God, I have nothing sensational to say.
Nothing dramatic. Nothing impressive. And honestly, right away when I said that the Holy Spirit
just brought Bible verses and the Bible to my mind. This is what I was thinking with God and I
want to read here from John 1:1-5, 12-13.

We have a harvest celebration, missions celebration and the Word of God tells us that there are
actually people that are lost. Why are people lost? Because not every human being that is on
this planet is a child of God. This is a shocking fact, and most of the people in the world would
not agree with that. They would say, well, that’s not right. I mean what is right in this world? Look
around. That is not right! It’s not fair!

And millions and millions of people have the fear of death in their heart. They have the fear of
the last judgment. They have little hope that maybe on their own they would stand in the
presence of God and make it but it’s a very little hope. And the Bible makes it very clear that on
our own we cannot stand before God. We cannot come to him on our own. We need the Savior.
And this harvest is all about the Savior. Missions is all about the Savior. It is very dramatic
actually. Very sensational. Because mankind has been deceived to think that everything is okay
or that everything will be okay. That’s a deception.

There are three things that characterize people, mankind, today. And I just want to mention
them. Jesus mentioned them and then I’m going to talk about something that we have received
as an answer to those three things. The first thing – actually, I just traveled here from Dallas this
morning. You know, airports can be really challenging and especially if you cannot find your
glasses, your eye glasses, your reading glasses. And you’re like [squinting] an old man trying to-
– And then the boarding passes nowadays I don’t understand anything that is written there
especially because I cannot see it. So, then I’m there and I’m so lost.

There was a moment I was so lost, and there was an Indian man there who was also lost. We
were lost together but it didn’t help. But he was lost like he was holding his boarding pass, I was
holding my boarding pass and we were looking at one another. We had so much sympathy!
What? Anyways, so, this is happening in the world not just at the airports. People really don’t
know what’s going on. People don’t know what they want.

This is from Matthew 11. Jesus spoke about it saying what do I compare this generation with?
They were like children sitting at the market place and they said we sang songs to you and you
didn’t sing, dance or whatever it says. And then you didn’t mourn and so on. Whatever they did,
whatever we did, whatever God did, it was never good. It was not what people wanted.
And this is actually something that characterizes the human race. People don’t know what they
want including us. When you think about your sugar free diet. Oh, I thought you are reducing
your sugar? Oh, I am but I’m not so religious about it or something! Oh, you’re not religious
anymore about it. Okay. That pink donut looks very good. Yeah. I mean I am sometimes on a
sugar-free diet and sometimes I am not. You know what I am talking about. Yeah. What do I
want? Do I want to be on a sugar-free diet or not? I don’t know. The whole mankind, they don’t
know.

Second thing is that people don’t know what they are doing. It’s very dramatic when Jesus said
that on the cross. Father, forgive them, they don’t know what they are doing. It’s so obvious when you – airports are, some of us are spending a lot of time at the airports and they are kind
of interesting places to observe people and to see the whole mankind walks by and people are
people. We are very humbled by the fact that we are people, and we are so lost and so broken
and don’t really know what we want and then, we don’t know what we are doing.
During this so called covid time, you know the mask, and there are different flights where you
had to have the mask and other flights where you don’t have to have the mask. And I noticed
that on those flights where you had to have the mask, everybody was cheating. Everybody.
When the stewardess was not looking, and they became like policeman. All of a sudden there’s
like. Everybody is cheating. Yeah. Because people don’t know what they are doing.
And after that, after the flight when people came out from the planes, the masks were hanging
from here. They were like [hand expressions]. I said, wow. We are so lost. We are so lost as
people. We really need the Savior.

And the last thing is that people don’t know what they are talking about. It’s obvious. I mean now
everybody has become a specialist on every subject because we have a resource we can go to.
We all know that. I’m not going to mention that name because I already mentioned it so many
times and it sounds like I’m anti ___. I’m using it myself all the time. You sound like a great
specialist.

But the serious situation with Peter, the disciple who was instructing God what to do. Have you
ever been in that place? Yeah, because we know better. We know better than God what to do
with your life and what to do in this world and so on. Peter is telling Jesus not to go to
Jerusalem, and Jesus gives a very sharp answer. “Get thee behind me, Satan.” Peter, you don’t
know what you are talking about. You don’t know who is talking through you.

So, if you have one person who doesn’t know what he wants, and he doesn’t know what he’s
doing, and he doesn’t know what he’s talking about, that is still manageable if you are one
person. But if you have two people and they live together in the same house and they don’t
know what they want, they don’t know what they are doing, and they don’t know what they are
talking about, that’s like World War III in your living room. It’s a conflict. It’s a misunderstanding.
It’s a catastrophe.

That’s why and we say it very humbly but it is biblical truth that as born again believers because
of the Holy Spirit, we actually know what is going on. And this is what I want to talk about. I want
to talk about the ministry of the Holy Spirit, not just generally in the world but personally in our
lives.

And the first thing kind of against this idea that people don’t know what they want, God gives in
Philippians 2:13 it says God works in you to will and to act. God works in you to will and to act and it
says according to his purpose, right? But this is so amazing that the Holy Spirit actually gives us
desires. The Holy Spirit gives us things to look for and visions and dreams. The Holy Spirit gives
us. There are moments when we just need to ask.

Maybe I’m in a very confusing situation in my personal life and I ask God, God, speak to me.
And God speaks. Isn’t that amazing. God really speaks. Or we say I cannot do it. God you have
to, God, can you give me strength to do it? And God gives us strength to do it.
When I moved to Uzbekistan to Samarkand, we had a beautiful church there and beautiful
people. We had an amazing team there that moved with me, but it was so odd because their
society was post Soviet society. Everything was falling apart and nothing worked, and all of a
sudden in this upper area of Samarkand which was by the shade of the chemical factory there,
this group of foreigners moved in there. That’s us. It was like who are these people? Are they
spies? Why would the spies move to this kind of a place?

And in the beginning when I moved there, nothing worked. Altogether the infrastructure was
gone…personally, for me to be there, I couldn’t find a place to live. I couldn’t stand the smells. I
couldn’t stand the fact that everything was not straight. I come from Finland after all. And I was
just really troubled by that because I loved the people. People had invited me there. They came
all the way to Kazakhstan to get me there. They said, we want you to be our pastor. Come. And
I went. I stayed.

But then after I had stayed there for a couple of weeks, I understood I cannot live in this place.
There’s no way I could live here. And strangely, I mean out of all those buildings that were falling
apart, I couldn’t find one little place where I could rent as an apartment. I couldn’t find a place.
I had to stay in the living room of the family that was hosting the church. And in that living room,
everything happened. It was like a train station. The family, husband and wife and that time two
children, they stayed in one room and there was a little kitchen and then there’s this living room.
That was for the youth meeting, for the video night, for the Bible study, for the church service.
For everything. Sports activities. Everything. And I’m living there in the midst of all that. And I
couldn’t take it. I was desperately looking for a place and I couldn’t find a place.

Then I came to that point when I prayed to God and I said to God, I cannot live in this place. I
cannot be here. I cannot live here. It’s impossible. You either have to give me a very nice way to
excuse myself and leave so this precious people will not be offended or you give me grace to be
here. Yeah, you know what God did. Yeah. And it’s amazing because I remember exactly the
place where it happened. I could go there today and put a memorial to that place where it
happened. It was a certain place in front of one house. Nothing special about it, but for me very
special because in that spot, all of a sudden God gave me a desire to be there. It was amazing.
All of a sudden, I loved everything. I just loved to be there.

I could not want to be any where in the world but there. And it was God who did that. God gives us desires. And it’s God’s grace if we discern that. Cause maybe we are living a very dynamic life and maybe we are very busy
and maybe we are seemingly doing a lot, but then God brings us to the place where he’s giving
us something that the world cannot give. And it is those God’s desires.

Like we often speak about the heart of God and the plan of God and of course, God’s love is for
people. God would go all the way to the cross because of people. Why wouldn’t I climb to the
next mountain for people? Why wouldn’t I put my convenient lifestyle aside because of people.
Why wouldn’t I forget about my rights and my needs and my ideas for the people? But that’s
what missions is about. I give up something in order to receive the desire of God.

I like that word, desire. Something French. It’s a beautiful word. And God has a desire. God has
something he wants to pass on to us. God has a message and God gives us that message to
pass on.

In our life, we have choices. We have priorities. We actually end up doing the will of God. We
want to do the will of God. This is the will of God that you believe. This is the will of God that
you believe and you come and continue coming and continue believing.

And I love this thought that when people don’t know what they are talking about and people talk
a lot, then God gives us words to say. It happens when we travel often that we are in situations
when we don’t know somebody and then we meet them. God gives a word for us. And it’s not
our idea. It’s not something that the whole world is talking about but it’s something very special.
The Holy Spirit gives to us not just ideas and information, but desires and motivation and ability
to think with God.

I live in a beautiful area of the world. I’m really thankful for this country of Oman where I am
living at the moment and I’m really thankful to the people of Oman cause they’re very beautiful
people. So beautiful. And one thing that characterizes the Omani people is their humility. I want
to believe that it’s real because the Bible gives a promise that the humble shall hear.

I ask you just to pray for Oman. Pray for that nation. It’s a beautiful nation and God has a plan, a
plan of salvation for that nation. Whatever has been there or whatever is there doesn’t matter to
God, but what matters is that people are lost without Jesus Christ.

We have Eunice here from Oman. He’s a beautiful friend. I want you to know him. Get to know
him. Go and touch him. All these hundreds of people come and touch him. Because I want you
to meet him and continue praying for Oman because we are there. Why? Because God has
given us a desire to serve that nation. God has given us a desire to love that nation. God has
given us a desire to reach that nation. There’s no other reason for me and our Greater Grace
church to be there.

So thank you for your prayers. I’m looking forward to celebrating harvest – isn’t harvest like a
celebration also? Yeah. This has been celebration for me to be with you, and just to really – and
I come here because of P. Schaller’s, many because of P. Schaller’s role in my life as my
spiritual father and my covering. I really come as I would come to home. And I come home and
I’m thankful to God for that. Thank you for being my home. Amen.

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