So tonight we have a guest speaker that is with us. He is a missionary to the country of Greece. Michael Quinlan is his name and so he's going to come up here in a moment and he's got a video and kind of he's going to do just kind of introductory about himself and his call to the country of Greece and so we're so excited to have brother Mike here so make him feel welcome as he comes this evening.
Yeah. Good evening. I am honored and humbled to be here tonight and tell you a little bit about myself and my family and the work God has called us to. You know, about 2,000 years ago from the town of Ephesus over there in western Turkey, the apostle Paul wrote his first letter to the Corinthians and in that letter he said that there is a great and effectual door that has been opened unto me and tonight I want to share with you a little bit of another great door that is open right now in the world for the gospel. This great door that's in Greece with all of these refugees that are coming in and I want to tell you about this unique opportunity that we have, this unknown window that we really don't know how long it will remain open and then the urgent call that God placed upon my life and my family. So in America we don't think about it a whole lot because you know God's blessed us so much here but there's a lot of countries around the world where the people that live there, I mean they live with war and violence as an everyday part of their life. They live with maybe not knowing if they're even going to have money to buy food or if there's even any food in their country to buy. You know that they live with maybe some very intense both religious and political oppression and persecution on them and because of these things at a certain point it gets so bad because there's no safety, no peace, they have no freedom and they're ready just to get out and find something better. They want a better life. They want a place where they can bring their family where it's safer and the Middle East and 1040 window is one of those places and so many of these people over the last 10 years have been picking up. They come from Iran, Pakistan, their Kurds, Iraqis, Afghanis, Arabs and they make their way across Turkey and they get to the western edge there and then they pay smugglers at night to put them in these rubber boats and they try to make this arduous journey across the Aegean and it's not always a very safe or an easy journey for them. They pack way more people than they should in those boats and some of them don't make it. Families often get separated. Friends can't find one another afterwards and it's a very very difficult ordeal for them to get from their country to Europe but they're willing to go through all of that because they see the shores of Greece, their gateway to get into Europe and they feel it's an opportunity for them to have that peace and safety they're looking for.
That opportunity to have a life of freedom, a better freedom, a better life. And when the refugee crisis started about 10 years ago veteran missionary George Demakos in Athens, Greece saw the need and saw the opportunity and Athens Baptist Church started a refugee outreach called Voice of Truth that began to reach out to these refugees and what they would do is they would provide meals and groceries for these refugees as they came in. They'd help them with things like toiletries, clothes when they had them and other stuff but all of it was a way for them to come in and they could share the gospel and introduce them to Jesus Christ. And over the 10 years that that has been going on there has been thousands of these former Muslim refugees that have said yes to Jesus and profess their faith in him now and God has just opened some incredible doors to see these Muslims come to know Christ.
And that's a unique opportunity in the world. I don't know how many of you realize but basically 25 percent of the world's population identifies as Muslim and if you look at the statistics of evangelical missionaries and ministries like directly and intentionally working with Muslims it's anywhere from three maybe seven or eight percent on some of them. So there's not a whole lot of people reaching out to them and we know the reason primarily is because we can't get into most of their countries. They don't want people in there preaching the gospel and sharing who Jesus is and that's why there's such a unique opportunity right now during this refugee crisis in Europe because they are coming to us.
They're coming to Europe. They're leaving their homeland because of all these other issues and we have an opportunity to show them the love of Jesus through helping them with things like food and other things but we also have an opportunity to let them know who Jesus really is. You know and it's not the Jesus they've heard about in the Quran. It's the Jesus of scripture who is the savior of the world and we have the opportunity for people coming looking for peace to introduce them to the prince of peace. People coming looking for a better life to share with them how they can know eternal life through Jesus. And so there's this unique opportunity and we don't know how long that door is going to be open.
There's an unknown window with how long Europe will continue to keep their doors open, how long Turkey will continue to let refugees come through there and that's why I'm here tonight. Back in the summer of 2021, my wife and I were serving on staff at our church. We'd been there for nine years and God began to really give us a burden for ministering to refugees. One of my jobs as associate pastor was taking care of our missions program and so I would take a lot of different groups to different countries and we went to see the ministry in Greece there. My wife and I would even on our vacations go visit missionaries and try to help in the ministry during our vacation and we went numerous times over to Athens to help the democoses and serve refugees and God just began giving us a burden to reach out to these needy people. And so we went to Greece and we ended up coming and talking to my pastor and God kind of sped things up from that point in many different ways.
In 2022, we spent about six months raising some initial funds to get over there quickly because the democoses, the missionaries over there and their kids who are helping them they needed to come back for a furlough in 2023. And so we went over there last year and spent the year helping in the ministry and holding down the fort when they came back for their furloughs. And my wife and I had the opportunity to really be involved in a daily hands-on way with, yes, the practical part of preparing the food and giving it out to the people who are in the ministry. But also being able to teach and preach, to disciple, to work with the refugees in a one-on-one basis and to see God reach down and change lives as they come to know Jesus. My wife had the opportunity to even begin a ESL English class for the refugees as a way to build some relationships and get some more refugees to come in and therefore also get to know Jesus.
And so we went and therefore also be there for the Bible studies. And so we have had an incredible past year ministry-wise working with these refugees and God has really given us a burden when we go back next year to replicate what they are doing in Athens up in Thessaloniki in the north. Thessaloniki is the second largest city in Greece, but it has about 12 refugee camps within an hour or two around it. And there's nobody reaching out to all of these refugees there. And each time we have gone through that city, bringing, sometimes people come over for trips and we take them up there to see some of the places where the apostle Paul has been. And each time I've been in that city, it's just broken my heart for the need of the refugees that are there. Another cool thing about that city and the need is also it's a big university town with a lot of young adult, college-age Greeks that live there. And so the harvest truly is open and white in that area of Greece. And our desire is to take the method that has been successful by brother George in Athens with planning a church and then starting a refugee outreach from that and being able to see God move and work in hearts and lives.
And so that is the call God has placed upon my wife and I's heart. We have a five-year-old boy Atlas that is on board with us. He already loves Greece. He's already been learning the language when we were there last year.
And he has a great time over there. But that is who we are and that is why we are going to Greece. I have kind of an interesting testimony on my journey getting there because my wife and I both are missionary kids.
Her parents were missionaries in Papua New Guinea and my parents and my grandparents were missionaries in the Philippine Islands. Unfortunately, when I was later in my teenage years, I kind of got angry at God and angry at being stuck in ministry and on the mission field. And when I came back to the States after I graduated from high school, I got away from God and out of church for many years. And I'm thankful that God is merciful and God is gracious. He's faithful and He never gives up on us. And I'm thankful He never gave up on me.
And when I came back to Him, His arms were open and wide, ready to forgive and bring me back. But the irony is there was still one thing I never wanted to do. I never wanted to be in ministry.
I never wanted to be a missionary. And when my wife and I were about 12 years ago, we were serving at our church. My wife had her career.
I had a growing construction company. And at a missions conference, God began working at our hearts about going into ministry. And I fought God for quite a little bit about it. I'm like, God, you know, I don't want to be in that. I don't want to do that.
I don't want to go down that road. Eventually, I'm like, okay, Lord, I'll do whatever you want me to do. And God opened the door then to come on staff at our church.
And I was associate pastor there. And then after nine years, God's like, now we're going to stretch it a little bit more. I want you to go out and do missions work now.
And the irony is at that point, I was excited about it. You know, God not only works in your heart and life, but He changes even the things that you might not want to do or want to do. And my wife and I are excited to see what God can do in Greece amongst Muslim refugees. And so our desire is that you guys would pray for us because we can't do it on our own.
And honestly, this open door, this unique opportunity, we can't take care of it without your help. And that's why I travel around to churches because it's a team effort with being able to get the gospel to Muslims who we have a unique opportunity to reach. And so as we think about that, I wanted to try to share a couple of points from God's word tonight to maybe encourage you along those lines. And I'm just going to read a few verses here from 1 Corinthians 3.
And you guys can stand with me if you'd like. 1 Corinthians 3. And we're just going to read a few verses. Verse 6 says, I have planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that planteth anything, neither he that watereth, but God that giveth the increase. Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one, and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labor. For we are laborers together with God.
Look at that phrase again. We are laborers together with God. Heavenly Father, I pray that you would use just these few minutes of truths from your word as we share about what we're doing in Greece and how each of us can be involved. God, I pray that your Holy Spirit would just take your word and work in each heart and life as you see fit. In Jesus' name. Amen.
You may be seated. As we think about reaching Muslim refugees, reaching a group of people that has been very difficult to reach over the last few decades, as we think just in general of God's global gospel getting out around the world, there's four things I just want you to maybe think about as we look at this small little passage here in 1 Corinthians. This is Paul from Ephesus writing his first letter to this fledgling church. And he's trying to get these believers in Corinthians to realize some things. And one of the things in this chapter that he wants them to realize is the importance of everyone being involved in God's global gospel. So the first thing I want you to see here, look at what he says there.
I have planted, Apollos watered. Here's what I want you to realize that Paul is trying to show us here. Every Christian has a role.
Every Christian has a role that God wants you to play in his global gospel. Some Christians plant. Some Christians don't. Some Christians plant.
Some water. Some Christians evangelize and some disciple and follow up. Some Christians give. Some Christians go. Some go across the street.
Some go across the sea. Some Christians encourage. Some Christians serve. Every Christian has a role. Paul had a role that God had for him. Apollos had a role God had for him. You start thinking through the different people we know of from the book of Acts and the New Testament, Priscilla and Aquila, they had a role God had for them. Stephen had a role.
Peter and John, they had a role. Every Christian has a role in God's global gospel. One of the verses we love to share with refugees when we're sharing with them the gospel message is Ephesians 2, 8, and 9. By grace are you saved through faith, that not of yourself. It's a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should both. That's the starting point for all of us, placing our faith and trust in Jesus Christ, saying yes to him as our Lord and Savior. But then what does the very next verse say? For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God has before ordained that we should walk in them. That is one of my wife and I's favorite verses. It has impacted our lives in so many different ways.
And here's why. You break down that verse, says we are his workmanship. We, the people who have placed their faith and trust in Jesus Christ from the previous couple of verses, we are his workmanship. The Greek word for that is poima.
If it sounds familiar, that's where we get our English word poem. And the thought of this Greek word is this handiwork, this work of art, this masterpiece. So think about what Paul is saying. It's like now that you have, by the grace of God, been redeemed and saved, you are his work of art, his masterpiece, his handiwork, created in Christ Jesus. Again, that word there is like formed and shaped for the good works that God has before ordained that we should walk in them.
So think about what that verse is saying. You and I are each uniquely God's masterpiece. We have been shaped, each of us, in a certain special way.
Every individual here is unique. All of us are shaped differently and God has shaped us. And it says then he has good works that he's ordained for us to do. God has a specific purpose for each Christian's life, a purpose that he has shaped them for. And when I look at that and see that each of us are God's masterpiece and God has good works that he wants us to do, we're not saved by our good works, those verses say before, but once we are saved, God has good works for us to do. And it's being part of God's global gospel.
Every Christian has a role. Let's go on and look at what it says. It says, but God giveth the increase. It says, so then neither is he that planteth anything, neither he that watereth, but God that giveth the increase. Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one. Think about what Paul is saying here.
This is the second point he's trying to make to us. Every role is significant and vital. Every role is significant and vital.
You know what that means? There are no minor roles. There are no minor roles in God's global gospel and the good works he has for us as his children. Every role is important. Every role is significant. That means you matter. Your role is important. Every role is vital. That means we can't do everything we need to do if everyone isn't involved.
Paul talks about this in 1 Corinthians 12 and in Romans 12, when he, both of those times, he gives us this illustration of the church as like a human body and he gives us like a human body. And he says, you can't say that, well, because I'm not a hand, I'm not important because I'm not a foot, I'm not important. No, every role is significant. And then he says, you can't say, well, you know, foot, I have no need of you or hand, I have no need of you. He's like, no, every role is vital.
We all need one another. And so Paul is reiterating in this passage to the Corinthians that you know what? Every role is vital and significant. There are no minor roles because we are all laborers together in God's global gospel.
There are no minor roles. Third thing we see as we look about that two times, it says, God giveth the increase. Here's what I want you to think about. Number three, when you fulfill your role, you bear fruit. God gives the increase. I can't bear any fruit on my own, but you know what? When I step into the role God has for me, I can bear fruit. God gives the increase.
I love the fact that God knows each of us and knows that honestly in us, in our own flesh, in ourselves, we're nothing. But he tells us that I have a role for you. That role is important.
That role is vital. I'm going to shape you and ordain good works for you to do. And all you have to do is step out by faith into the role God has for you and he takes care of the fruit. I don't have to worry about anything else but going, okay God, I'm going to step out into what you have asked me to do, the role you have called me to do in God's global gospel, the role you have called me to do in reaching Muslim refugees, letting them see the love of Jesus Christ, the hope that they have in the gospel. All I have to do is step out into the role and God does his amazing work of bearing fruit. So every Christian has a role.
Every role is significant and vital. And when you step into your role, God bears the increase and you bear fruit. And your greatest impact for God's kingdom will always be when you step into the role that he has shaped and ordained for you to do.
The last thing here to me is one of the most exciting ones. Look at the end of verse eight where it says, and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labor. Think about what Paul is saying here. He's saying, when you step into the role God has for you, you gain rewards.
Have you ever thought about the fact that God is not your communist? All of us simply by placing our faith and trust in Jesus have been given forgiveness of sin, salvation, and a home in heaven. But then God has good works for us to do. And if we read later on in 1 Corinthians chapter 1, verse 8, he says, God has good works for us to do.
In 1 Corinthians chapter 3, we see Paul painting this picture of everybody one day standing before the judgment seat of Christ. And it says, our life's work then goes through the fire. And the things that are wood, hay, and stubble, they go through the fire and they're burnt up.
The things that are gold and silver and precious stone, they go through that fire and they come out shining and purify. And Paul says, some people one day will stand before the Lord and they'll have these rewards. They'll hear that well done, good and faithful servant. And then some of us will stand before the Lord and we'll suffer loss, it says. Because we can gain eternal rewards when we fulfill the role God has for us.
Jesus himself told his disciples in the Sermon on the Mount, lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven. When we fit into the role God has for us, we gain rewards. I know that first and foremost, our focus should be on glorifying God. And that's why Jesus says in Matthew chapter 6, let your light so shine before men that they may see those good works you're doing and glorify your father in heaven. That is our ultimate goal for God to be glorified, for Jesus to be lifted up and people drawn to him. And we step into our role of fulfilling what God wants us to do in his global gospel. He bears fruit, people get saved, people grow and be conformed to the image of Christ.
People step out and surrender to go. And that's why Jesus says, let your light so shine before men that they may see those good works you're doing and glorify your father in heaven. But also part of that is we gain rewards. And I'm excited about that, that everyone here has the opportunity to gain rewards as we fit into the role God has for us.
William Carey is considered the father of modern missions. And he once said, I am not afraid of failure. I am afraid of succeeding at things in life that don't really matter. I'm not afraid of failure.
I'm afraid of succeeding at things in life that don't really matter. And that's why my challenge to you as I share this unique opportunity, as I share this unknown window for how long we'll see these Muslims coming in to Europe, as I share the urgent call God has placed on our lives, I want you to know tonight that we are all laborers together in God's global gospel. It has blessed my heart already in the time I was here. I had numerous people from your missions care team come up and talk to me. You guys don't realize how great of an opportunity that is to help with the gospel going out. By having people who are proactive about communicating and encouraging with your missionaries.
That's fantastic. I think there's a lot of people here that pray for missionaries. As I've talked to that mission care team, I saw the sheet back there of the different prayer requests for missionaries. Your role in God's global gospel, part of that may be praying.
And to really get on your knees and invest time and energy and prayer. God can do incredible things. I was sharing and presenting at a church in Texas. A church that God is really blessing. They're seeing people saved. They're planting other churches around them.
God is really moving. The goal of their pastor is one day that their church is going to give a million dollars a year in emissions. But as I'm sharing with them afterwards, I have these three sweet elderly ladies, they're all three in their seventies, come up to me and like, we're so excited about what God's doing at our church. And we just wish we were younger and we could do more. The only thing we really can do is we get together two or three times a week at a little coffee shop and we pray for an hour or two for all of our missionaries and for our pastor and for our staff and everything that's going on. And I just really wish we could do more.
And I told those ladies, you guys are on the front lines of what's happening. Without Bible believing, earnest prayer, God can't do incredible things here in Xenia and over in Greece. And those of you who are on your knees pleading with God for souls to be saved, for lives to be touched, you're stepping into your role and any fruit that happens, that's to your account.
You are laying up treasures in heaven. It is a vital, significant role that you play when you are praying for your missionaries. We all know when missionaries come around that, you know, missionaries always talk about, you know, well, we need funds to get over there.
You know, that's part of it. We have to have funds to feed refugees. We have to have funds for a church building.
We have to have funds for my family and I to go over there. And you know what? Some people have a role in giving. Obviously God wants all of us to be involved giving, but some people, God has given them a gift of generosity.
God has blessed them in a way, and that's part of their role in God's global gospel is giving. There's people that you go out and if your church has a missions trip, you're there. You're going to go. You're going to go down to Alabama or somewhere and help, you know, raise up a boy's camp and help build something. You're going to go to Honduras or a place like that and help your missionary. Your role is serving and getting involved. All of us have a role. We each know that our role in our sphere of influence is to share Jesus as life happens in our neighborhood, with the people we work with. But I also, every time I get a chance to talk to people, I'm always greatly burdened to share the fact that we still need more people to go. We still need more people to come over and help reach refugees in Greece. And I think most missionaries around the world would say we're in dire need of more people who are willing to say, okay, God, I'll do whatever you want me to do.
I'll go to a mission field. Isabelle Kuhn was a pioneer missionary. Her and her husband were in China many, many years ago when it was being open to the gospel. And she said this, I believe in each generation, God has called enough people to evangelize the known world. It's not God who isn't calling.
It's people who aren't responding. And I want you to know that if God has been working in your heart about maybe stepping out and being involved in a very personal, sacrificial way of I'm gonna step out and commit, because God wants me to take the gospel overseas somewhere. If that's the role God has for you, I tell you what, you're gonna find the greatest fulfillment, the greatest fruit, lay up the greatest treasures in heaven if you step into the role that God is calling you to do. I love missionary quotes, so you may hear two or three more from me before it's over. My wife and I both love reading missionary biographies. But Ian Keith Falconer was one of the first missionaries to go over to Egypt and Arabia. He actually taught at a college over there.
He actually died very young. But one of the things he would tell churches as he went around to them, he said, with vast continents still shrouded in darkness, and this is back in the 1800s, he says, and millions of souls still blinded by Islam and heathenism. He's like the burden of proof lies upon us to show that the circumstances God has placed us in were meant to keep us off the mission field. Hudson Taylor used to go around and say something to the effect of, you don't think you have a call to go to China? Well, you know what? There's a lot of verses in the Bible.
Jim Elliott used to say, you're waiting for a voice. There's a verse that says, go you into all the world and preach the gospel. Now, please don't get me wrong. I know God doesn't call everybody to go there.
That's not what I'm saying at all. I just want to encourage and challenge if God is working on someone's heart, that we need more people to go. We can't do it on our own. We need more people to go. And honestly, I feel like we probably have way more people that aren't saying yes to God than people who said yes and God didn't want them to go.
So I don't mind throwing that out there that, you know what? We would love to have someone help us. We live in a cool time in history, if you think about it, where you can do missions work in a lot of unique out of the box ways. There's a lot of people nowadays, especially since COVID that work remotely. You know, you could honestly just pick up and move somewhere else and move your family and work there and help a missionary out in the same way that you're serving at your church. Maybe a missionary to Columbia or somewhere in Africa that was here, you know, a few months back, God really started working in your heart about, hey, I wonder what I could do to help them.
Who knows? Maybe you're retired. You already have your income coming in. You enjoy golfing and doing a lot of fun stuff.
There's a lot of cool mission fields that have great golf courses. You can come retire, help a missionary and be involved. All I'm trying to say is there's a lot of ways that we can be involved. Let's all be yielded to go, God, what is the role you have for me? And that's what I want each of us to ask tonight because we want you to pray for us. We want you guys to come visit us if you want, come on a mission strip, come, I'll take you to see the journey of Paul. We want you guys to be involved in reaching Muslims with the gospel. But even more importantly, I want each of you to be involved in the role God has for you in his global gospel because I can guarantee you when you do that, as I said before, you'll find your greatest fulfillment.
You'll bear your greatest fruit and make the greatest impact in your life. And you'll lay up treasures in heaven one day, eternal rewards for stepping into the role that God has for you. There is an open door of Muslim refugees in Greece. And my challenge to you tonight is how does God want you to get involved in that?
How does God want you to get involved in his global gospel? A lot of people as I travel around, as we talk about reaching Muslim refugees, news stories I follow on Twitter, there's a lot of people that lament the fact that all of these Muslims are now flooding into Europe. And many of them worry, well, how is that gonna change European society? How is that gonna change the economics and the politics? What if they decide to incorporate Sharia law? What if they get so many of them that they outnumber and all these things and you know what? That may happen.
But here's another possibility that I always think about. What if as Christians, we stepped out and we met these Muslim refugees as they came over the border, came onto the shores, off those boats and through the love of Jesus, help them with some of the basic necessities they need at that desperate moment of their life. Share with them who Jesus really is, how much he loved them, how he died on the cross for them and rose again and wants to give them eternal life and spiritual life and life more abundant. And as they place their faith and trust in Jesus, if we disciple them, and as they move from Greece to other places in Europe and begin to get established, we got them hooked up with churches where they would grow and they would be able to then reach out to other Iranians and other Kurds and other Afghanis and they begin to get saved. Wouldn't it be ironic if the God of the universe would use these Muslim refugees coming into Europe to get saved and spread the gospel from there and that there would be a revival in post-Christian Europe through these former Muslims. God can do incredible things like that. And our desire is to see God do a mighty work among these refugees coming into Greece.
