Another young family goes to the mission field!

More and more young people at the prime of their life are not going to Wall Street, not going to the workforce, not building a huge career. They're going to the mission field.

How can this be? So I've got one of those right here. I want to call him brother in Christ because I don't want to use his name. And I want to also not specifically mention where he's going, but we're going to be general.

We're going to say Asia. And so brother in Christ, man, good to see you. I've known you a long time. And thank you so much for having me, student. It's a blessing to be here.

Really grateful. Well, and you spoke, you gave a great word this morning at the new Kansas, how you spoke to the men at the River Birch Lodge in Winston-Salem. This is a national group of men that gets together and to encourage each other, sharpen each other, and be a support to the churches. And you gave a testimony. What was it like speaking to all those guys? It was a huge blessing. Honestly, just seeing so many people gathering together that have a heart. I have a heart for Jesus and have a heart for discipleship. It was a huge encouragement and blessing to me. So brother, tell us a little bit about your testimony.

You shared your story a little bit to those guys this morning. I've seen you grow up. I've seen you hit the jump shot and play some great basketball. I've known your family, love your family. And just neat to hear you.

I never thought a little guy running around the gym would be going to making such a big impact on the mission field. But talk about your testimony, kind of how God took you from early on to where you are today. For us to have parents who shared about Jesus with me when I was just a young child and I was about four or five years old, I made that decision.

I believed that God loved me, that Jesus died for me and then rose from the dead so that I could be saved. And I trusted in that, but there was plenty of things I wrestled with growing up, particularly one thing real just real low point in my life was in college, I started dating started dating a girl and that relationship became really the most central and most important thing in my life. When that girl broke up with me, I was utterly devastated, depressed, and so mad at God. But in those moments, I started praying a lot more. And I started to learn a lot more of what happens when something other than Jesus becomes the center of my life, and the pain and the brokenness that I felt with that. But as I prayed, and started to confess some of that sin, some of the selfishness in my heart that I had never seen before, I started to feel a real sense of peace. And that was a piece that surpasses understanding because it was in the lowest part of my life and the Lord and his kindness ended up restoring that relationship.

I married that girl. And now when I look at my wife and my kids, I see a gift from God, something that I didn't deserve. I see the gospel in that. And in that moment, when the Lord was working in my heart, I started to change how I saw other people is I had faith in Jesus. But for a long time, it was something that I felt like I might keep to myself, or keep within the church or keep within the Bible study group where I was having where we were discussing things. And the Lord started to work in my heart and show me that the gospel is for all people. And I found this newfound desire to share my faith with other people to bring people into discipleship and see the gospel spread. People may be befuddled because there's an old kind of thinking that kids that grew up in the church, that kind of always had it around them, they don't always turn out so good.

It's not a foregone conclusion. You grew up in a Christian home, grow up in a home around ministry, go to a Christian school, and check all the right boxes. What do you say to so many that maybe have done that, but it doesn't always turn out like on your way to the mission field like you did? It's hard as you get older. And when you learn about Jesus when you're young, sometimes I had questions and thought, well, I've been taught all these things my whole life. Other people are taught different things in different parts of the world. How do I know that they're true that I think in just in searching and in prayer, and also just realizing I was not happy with the things of the world. I've been in jobs where I've tried to be successful, tried to make money, and even finding that sometimes was not an answer to me. So I would just encourage anyone in that just to see, like, are you really fulfilled without Jesus?

I don't think anything is going to fill you up other than that. And I'm praying and just asking that more people maybe who have heard about Jesus when they're young and taken steps and maybe stepped farther away from that and praying that they will come back to Him and somebody will share the gospel with them. Yeah, no one needs Jesus more than someone that's grown up around Jesus all the time. Imagine all the folks that walked with Christ for three years, you know, that is crucifixion, they disappeared, right? But then they became some of the greatest anchors and really rocks there in the early church and in Pentecost. Brother in the Lord, you're on your way to the mission field. Tell us how you went from being going to a prestigious college, getting a nice job, working in careers that took you all over the country, being successful as an entrepreneur. Now all of a sudden, you show up and speak to these men this morning about how you're going to Asia to the middle of nowhere 20,000 miles away.

What happened? It wasn't something I thought was going to happen either, but it really was scripture. So I was taking some classes learning and I knew that God wanted more from me, but I didn't know what that was. And I knew that I wanted more of God. And so as I started reading scripture, things just started to jump off the page, particularly about God's heart for the nations that has always been God's plan for all of history.

The people from every nation would worship him. That is his will. And so I asked the question, what is God's will?

That's it. It's for people to worship him and for his name to be glorified. And as I started to see that in scripture, I started to feel really convicted because not only had I not shared that or there are people around the world that haven't heard that. There were people sitting next to me at work, coworkers and friends that I had known for years that I had never shared the gospel with. And so the Lord first started to convict me to share with them and then over time began to open doors to share with people from different cultures too. Wow. And part of the process, you talked about this, this really encouraged me, is in your training, you actually changed your whole housing situation, I guess.

Talk about that a little bit. So as the Lord was putting that on our hearts, a group of about eight of us moved into an apartment complex living in Charlotte, North Carolina, and the goal was to be in a diverse community of people from different religious backgrounds and to live our life there, love our neighbors and share the gospel with them and share Jesus with them. And it was really good because it prepared me in a lot of ways for the job that we were going to do overseas. The concept of practice and training has been really helpful in my life and the Lord used that to really just affirm that that was where he was leading us and just cultivate more desire to see the nations reached. Yeah, my dad used to tease me big stew. I was trying to go to a trip overseas in China on a missions trip and he said, Junior, you haven't even gone over to the local China buffet and witnessed those people over there, but there can be a disconnect sometimes.

Talk about that, brother. Yeah, I think being a missionary, like we can think of it sometimes as this special calling, but the reality is the call to make disciples is available to everyone. Some people may do that vocationally, but what I've learned the past few years while working in business is that call is everywhere and the Lord is faithful. He grew a heart for the nations and then showed me what it looks like to live that out locally.

I think that work there is of the utmost important. The people who are going to be most receptive to that gospel are the people that are already in your life and so sharing that news with them has just been a really joyful experience for me. Wow, so you're going from here to overseas to a place far away where there are less than maybe 2% Christians in some places. Talk about that process of that, how we can be praying for you and kind of what you'll be doing. Wife, small kids, I mean this is a big step here, man.

Most people think he's going to a huge career, he just got promoted to the bank. Well, you're going to a different kind of bank where there's a whole bunch of folks that have never heard about Jesus. The people that are unreached in those areas that are 98% or more non-Christian, it's really heartbreaking because people will live and die most of the time without ever hearing the gospel. In terms of what to pray for, Jesus tells us in scripture that the harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few. Pray earnestly for more laborers to go into the harvest and so what you could join me in praying for is the Lord would raise up more local laborers in Asia to share the gospel and make disciples. And there are people there who call Jesus the Lord and so our heart is to go and serve those believers who are there, provide simple training that is biblical that they can take to raise up more churches, more laborers to reach their country. You may never have met this guy, you may not even know who he is, but the Lord knows who he is and I want you to take a minute tonight, maybe with your children or grandchildren before bed and pray for our brother in the Lord on his way to reach souls in Asia. And he maybe doesn't know where he's going to live yet, all the details and particulars of what he's going to drive around, he's got to educate the kids and all that, but God's got a plan for all that and it's a way to reach people who have never heard the gospel. This morning when you spoke to our men at the New Canean Society, brother you said there's 3.6 billion estimated who've never heard the gospel of Jesus Christ. How does that hit your heart? It's heartbreaking and I pray that God continues to break my heart for it because I know that Jesus has compassion for the lost.

They are sheep without a shepherd and they need to hear, so please join me in praying for them. Amen, and you took a course called Perspective that really was a blessing. My buddy Matt Willis, who's my missions pastor where I go to church at Calvary, he's really encouraged a lot of people to take that course. That helped give you a perspective, everyone should take courses like that, be around missiologists, be around people that are doing something to reach outreach, right? 100%, maybe the Lord will send you overseas through that, maybe not, but either way it'll just grow your heart for the nations and for the people around you, highly recommend it. Be careful, a decade ago you had no idea you'd be sitting here talking on a national radio show podcast about going over somewhere in the middle of nowhere, huh? And sometimes the Lord surprises you, right?

He's faithful through it all. What would you challenge people? A lot of folks listening, including myself, we're comfortable, we like our America, we like our air conditioning, we like our comforts, we really don't have a lot to complain about. You and I had breakfast earlier, I carried my Bible in, we talked about Jesus out loud. I told them the radio station for the name of my order, we met other Christians and we had some rich fellowship, but this isn't the case in the whole world. What would you say to challenge everyone as we get out of here, brother, about how they can be capping into God's heart for the world, global missions, and then even right here at home? Some folks may not even have a passport, but what can they do right now to share the truth? I'd say start with prayer, praying for those people who are unreached, but also the people in your life who are close to you but far from God and praying over them every single day.

I, for years, was afraid to share with people around me. I was worried that they may not like me, worried about what they would think, but I found through prayer, God started to grow my heart for them. And I would just say, take a step of faith and have a conversation and say, can I share something really important to you? And the gospel is the best news anyone could ever hear and it's worth sharing, so I would encourage people to do that.

Well, thanks for what we're doing. We're grateful for you and we're going to be praying for and supporting you, and I encourage everyone to do something to support these missionaries because they're doing a great work. And you are a missionary if you're a believer. You're either a mission field or a missionary, like my good buddy Pastor JD says. So, if you're a mission field, we want you to trust Christ right now. Call upon the name of the Lord and be saved. If you are a believer, you're a missionary, go and reach someone with the gospel because the King's returning and we've got a little bit of time left, right bro?

Amen. What's your favorite Bible verse as we get out of here? What's a verse that you hang your hat on that God's really maybe burned in your heart and soul in this season of your life? There's one I really like in Hebrews that I've been reading recently. It says, let us encourage one another, how to stir one another up towards loving good deeds. Not neglecting to meet together is the habit of some, but encouraging one another all the more as the day is drawing near. It reminds me that the day is drawing near, but following Jesus also needs to be done in community, encouragement, and prayer.