Followed By Mercy

A Tribute to Missionary John Paton, a discussion of the Key to the Missionary Problem and fulfilling your calling

• W. Austin Gardner • Season 1 • Episode 10

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Embark on a transformative voyage with me, Austin Gardner, as we explore the ancient roots of world evangelism and unveil the sacred duty bestowed upon God's followers. Discover insights that illuminate your purpose as a 'kingdom of priests' from Exodus 19:6, and grasp the profound significance of this role in our contemporary missionary endeavors. I also share the delicate art of time management for those laboring on the mission field, weaving personal anecdotes with practical strategies to maximize your impact without sacrificing your well-being.

This episode also celebrates the pivotal influence of church leadership in igniting a passion for global evangelism, while offering a heartfelt tribute to the inspiring legacy of John Paton. You'll find a treasure trove of wisdom in the church's mission to share Christ's love worldwide, along with a resourceful checklist to gauge your readiness for missionary work. Finally, I extend an invitation to affirm your faith and salvation, challenging you to take definitive steps toward the mission field and engage with our community on social media to advance the cause of world evangelism.

Thanks for listening. Find us on YouTube, Substack, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.

W. Austin Gardner:

Well, this is W Austin Gardner, welcoming you back to the World Evangelism Podcast, and this is episode number eight and I'm excited to be with you today and thank you so much for listening and I hope that if this is a blessing, you'll help. I'm really working at making it better every time, so please comment, let me know if things are working. Let me take you first to our verse of the day. I want to challenge you to use this verse as you deal with people and share with people that the bible teaches us about world evangelism, because if you understand that and you share that, you help people grow in their understanding that god wants the world evangelized.

W. Austin Gardner:

The Bible says in Exodus, chapter 19 and verse 6, and you shall be unto me a kingdom of priests and that's an interesting term a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak of the children of Israel. So all the way back in Exodus, he says that he is designating Israel as mediators between him and the nations. God is already entrusting Israel with the responsibility of representing God, him with his holiness, his truth and his mercy to the world. He gives Israel a leadership role in guiding others towards God, in teaching his ways, in interceding on behalf of people, god is doing world evangelism, the priestly people, the priest which is what the nation of Israel is a kingdom of priests. They will go beyond Israel's borders and they will have a mission of taking the light of God and salvation to all nations. You understand, god is recognizing them as spiritual leaders. God is sending them to take a call and to take it seriously, to intercede for others. They're a kingdom of priests to pray for their salvation, for their healing and their spiritual growth. They are to be continually seeking spiritual growth and maturity. They're working at getting the gospel around to other people. So keep in mind that what we do and what Israel did has eternal significance as priestly ambassadors for God, living with a sense of purpose and a mission to advance his kingdom. So if you would just think with me one more time through the verse and you shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and I think, maybe you think that this is it can be that some people anyway would think that world evangelism is a thing that comes along in the New Testament and when he's starting the church, but that wasn't the point at all. The nation of Israel was a kingdom of priests and we started in Genesis, and we're eight episodes in, probably only five of those where we've shared a verse. There's plenty of verses about God wanting the gospel to go to the world. So I'd like to talk to you just a moment. Those of you who are actively serving as missionaries. You know that's the purpose here.

W. Austin Gardner:

This is the World Evangelism Podcast, and I want to be a blessing to you. I want to help you and I want to add value to you, and so I want to challenge you on using your time wisely. Now, you know, somebody said you manage your time, but you know you can't control time. It just marches on, no matter what. You really can't manage time, but you can manage your usage of time. So just I want to challenge you to work at setting your priorities and avoiding time wasters.

W. Austin Gardner:

I have to work at making sure I focus on accomplishing what I believe God has for me to do that day. So I have to make a plan and then I have to work. Then I have to look ahead and see where I'm going to need to be in the future, and I have to use my early mornings or my late evenings and I have to find a way to get things done. Even though Betty and I live alone now, I still have to take advantage of the quiet times, times I won't have interruptions. But, man, when I was raising children, betty and I had all four kids in the house. It was a lot harder to do that. So you know, I would just want to challenge each missionary Use the best hours of the day to accomplish whatever it is that you feel like you're to do that day, because there are certain hours when we tend to get lazy Now.

W. Austin Gardner:

So when I was working with the young Peruvians, I would teach them from 8 o'clock until about 2 o'clock. They'd meet in my office and we didn't have a Bible college yet, and I would just teach them, and then Betty would have lunch ready and we'd step out and there were five of them, and then there were six of us and Juana, and so that's what 12 of us would eat lunch around the table, and then I knew they were tired, having sat and studied all morning and haven't eaten and having their bellies full. So we would then go out and pass out gospel tracts. So you have to kind of program your day based on your energy usage. I know. You know that. I know you know everything I could tell you, but always be careful to use your time wisely. Make your time count. You know I don't get in my vehicle without having a podcast to listen to or a book to listen to, because I want to use my time wisely.

W. Austin Gardner:

Now, something I didn't do, and I suggest that you do, is that you learn to sleep on purpose. You know, go to bed at a certain time and get up at a certain time, unless an emergency or something happens, so that you can be fit and physically and emotionally able. When you're tired, you don't think as well. When you're tired, you're irritable. When you're tired, it's harder to to spend time alone with God, and praying is almost impossible when you're too tired.

W. Austin Gardner:

I would like to say also that worry and stress can eat you alive, and sometimes a young missionary maybe. You look and it's in. I haven't got a church started, I haven't learned my language, I've got so much I've got to accomplish. I don't feel like I'm getting there, and what you've done is you've fallen into this spiral pit where you're going down, down, down, worrying about are you going to be able to get things accomplished, and that's just not what you want to be doing. It'll just make things worse. So what you got to do is focus on whatever you have to do right now. Focus on that, make a priority list, focus on what you have right in front of you and work on that and let that be your job for the day Now.

W. Austin Gardner:

Each day I've tried, or each week I've tried, to bring you the country of the week, and we're now down to the country of Nigeria. Now, when I say down, I'm talking about world population. Obviously, it is one of the largest countries in the world, with 229,152,217 people living there, and every one of those are important people to the Lord, our God. Beautiful thing is that most everybody speaks English. So when I was there, I will admit that sometimes it's a little bit hard for me to understand their English, but I think we could adapt to it. The problem in the country is they speak, like according to Operation Whirl, 521 languages. That is an enormous amount of languages.

W. Austin Gardner:

Now the country is a 51% Christian and 30% of them are evangelical, but there's a lot of false doctrine and not teaching that salvation is by grace, through faith, and not of yourselves. It's a gift of God. So there's a tremendously great need in Nigeria. The country is considered to be 21% unevangelized and on the persecution ranking it ranks number six out of 50. And if you watch the news, if you get emails and you know I get blogs and emails and it's always something going on in Nigeria. They need our prayer. We have friends there. Some of the most wonderful people I know in the world are serving in the country of Nigeria and we should pray for them.

W. Austin Gardner:

And the persecution of Christians just continues to increase, especially in the north. So we want to pray for the persecution and the Christians would have strength to stand against that. We want to realize that there are extreme Muslim groups in the country. They're literally killing thousands of people and destroying millions of dollars worth of property. It's just a pretty rough place. The persecution will drive people away from the church, but it will also drive people to the Lord. So many people have suffered loss. People, girls, ladies have been raped. We need to pray that God would give wisdom.

W. Austin Gardner:

You say where'd you get all this to pray for? Well, again, I refer you to operationworldorg. I challenge you to go there. They suggest that we pray for forgiveness, yes and that we pray that believers will be able to respond in a Christlike way against those who are doing such terrible and horrible things. Would you pray with us for Nigeria that God would open the doors the missionaries are preaching and that new churches would be able to be started? And you that are listening, maybe you're a young person. You're wondering what you can do with your life. And you that are listening, maybe you're a young person. You're wondering what you can do with your life. Over 229 million people, what a country to consider that you could possibly go to. And God has a plan for you. And God wants to do a work in your life and I want to challenge you to consider what God might do with you.

W. Austin Gardner:

Now that brings us to the book of the week. And oh, my goodness, what a book. And I can't show you the book because I have it in electronic format, which is how I have most of my books, um, but I just want to share with you some wonderful things out of this book. I want to. It'll be in the notes, but you must get a copy of the Key to the Missionary Problem by Andrew Murray. You must get a copy of Key to the Missionary Problem by Andrew Murray. Of all of the books that I recommend. This is one of the very top books Every believer ought to listen to it, ought to read it or listen to it.

W. Austin Gardner:

On page two he said there's no more spiritual and mysterious truth than that. Christ, our head, is actually and entirely dependent upon the members of his body for carrying out the plans which he, as head, has formed. In other words, he starts the book off by saying you realize that God wants to accomplish something, but he has allowed us to have such a great part in it that he is dependent on us to be involved in doing our part. He talks about what the pastor ought to say and do and he says a missionary bishop, a pastor with a missionary heart, counts the whole world to be his fold, and the pastor of the smallest church has the power to make his influence felt all around the world. No pastor, he says, is worthy of his office who does not put himself into sympathy with the magnificent breadth of the Great Commission. If you won't think about the Great Commission, if you won't think about world evangelism, he doesn't think you ought to be in the ministry.

W. Austin Gardner:

I challenge you to take that to heart, pastors. To the pastor belongs a privilege and responsibility of solving the foreign missionary problem. He really brings it home. I call the pastor, the captain of world evangelism. As pastor, you have the most important role of all. It's you that will raise up young people to go to the mission field. It's you that will help motivate a church to be a giving church. It's you that will help encourage missionaries. You are the captain of world evangelism.

W. Austin Gardner:

He says the problem that the divinity schools, what we would call seminaries or Bible colleges, he says the problem that they have is not how to train an occasional man to go to the mission field. So often the Bible schools only worry about. Well, one day maybe somebody will go, he said. But they ought to kindle the missionary passion in every man that passes through. I mean, these are great truths. See, you got to get this book. I'm giving you just a few tidbits from the book that'll honestly revolutionize your life and ministry.

W. Austin Gardner:

It is one thing for a minister to be an advocate and supporter of missions. It's another thing for him to understand that the chief end of the church, the chief end of his congregation, for which it exists, is world evangelism. How we're going to get the gospel message of Jesus Christ around the world he makes mention by the way, I'm just on page 27 and I'm going to stop Because I hope I have whet your appetite but he says that the early church did nothing that we don't and can't do today. We have everything they had. So what's hindering us to evangelize the world in our generation? See, the church exists only for the extending of the kingdom and taking every member that must be trained to become a part of it. I love that. So let the pastor learn and teach that all failure in caring and giving and praying and living for missions is owed to a feeble, superficial spiritual life. The reason our churches aren't full of vibrant missionary desires is a feeble, superficial spiritual life on the part of the pastor and on part of the church. What a book. The Key to the Missionary Problem.

W. Austin Gardner:

I hope you'll get a hold of that book, hope you'll make it a part of who you are. I hope you'll read it and reread it. I have read it many times and I will read it again. It is a tremendously important book. Now I'd like to come back to you again today with a little gift, are you called? And I can only give away five of these, and it has to be done within a week, within seven days, of when the podcast comes out.

W. Austin Gardner:

I'm in Peru currently. Well, actually, I'm not in Peru, I'm in my office, but I'm getting these all prepared because I will be so busy. I'll be teaching for 24 hours in the Bible College on the finances and economy of the local church and a theology of money and how to handle money for our pastors, lord willing, and then I will teach and preach in churches all over the city. But I want to offer you this free book. I will send it to you. It's just a little booklet, just a handful of pages, but it is a powerful checklist that will help you know if you're prepared I'm talking to you, young person, by the way. I'm talking to you, pastor. You can use this to help the people in your church, to help them know if God's dealing with them, if they're prepared and if they're on their way, and so this is actually something that I would use. I do use and I have used for a long time, and I'd like to challenge you with that.

W. Austin Gardner:

I'm so thankful that many young men are listening right now and you are wondering where God wants you involved and you're wondering if you can fit in Well, if you will start praying for the country of the week and if you'll start reading the Bible and looking for these verses, if you'll continue listening to this podcast and share it and like it, if you'll learn more and more about the books. And then I want to talk to you about the person of the week. Oh, my goodness, oh my goodness, what a person of the week I want to share with you today. I just love this man to death. I'm going to give you some of his quotes and then we'll tell you some things about his life. And you know I'm preparing these ahead of time so that when I come in I just got the notes ready to share with you, because I want to add value, I want to see things change in life, and John Paton wrote this Now he died in 1907.

W. Austin Gardner:

So I mean, we're talking about a long time ago. But he said as I lay down my pen let me record my immovable conviction that this is the noblest service in which any human being can spend or be spent, and that if God gave me back my life to be lived over again, I would, without quiver of hesitation, let on the altar to Christ that he might use it as before in similar ministries of love, especially among those who have never heard the name of Jesus Christ. He was a missionary to the New Herbie Islands, to pagan cannibalistic Indians We'll talk about that a little bit more and he said if I had it to do over, I'd do it again. This is a guy you ought to read after. And he comes out of the Reformed Church of Scotland. What is really neat and what's exciting for all you parents who are listening to this his mama was a praying woman and when she would pray they would tremble before they'd enter in the room, and three of her children went into the ministry.

W. Austin Gardner:

For you, young people, as you're preparing for ministry, as John Paton got older and wanted to do something, he spent 10 years working as a city missionary in the neglected area of Glasgow. He's Scottish, scotland, and he's working in the city there. And while he's doing that, he gets the invitation they're looking for volunteers from his church, the Reformed Presbyterian Church, to go to the New Herbis Islands in the South Seas, and so he decides that he will offer himself and he will go. So when he's 33 years old, he gets licensed to preach, gets married to Mary Ann and heads out to the island of Tanna and go there as a missionary. When he got there, they were the first white residents go there as a missionary. When he got there, they were the first white residents.

W. Austin Gardner:

It was an island full of naked, painted wild men, cannibals, and they had no regard for human life at all, no sense of mutual kindness or obligation. But in the middle of all that, john Paton said nothing. So clears the vision and lifts up the life as a decision to move forward in what you know to be entirely the will of God. That's what I want you to find is entirely the will of God for your life and what he'd have you to do. Now, these people that he went to were so deep into this terrible lifestyle, prisoners to Satan, this terrible lifestyle, prisoners to Satan, and they were terrified of demons and ghosts and evil spirits. They were always fighting among themselves and Paton and his wife wanted to take the gospel to them. Now I'll just be honest. These men that we look at and that's something funny to say, because you ought to always be honest, but these people we look at were a class above most of us that ever dreamed of being.

W. Austin Gardner:

They had only been there a little while and his child was born and a few days later both his wife and his baby died. Both his wife and his baby died. Did he quit? No, he did not quit, he stayed. And within a year or so, a couple of years, they killed a Canadian missionary and his wife on another island, and that really stirred everybody up to want to even get to him. He lived in continual danger of losing his life and they came to his house ready to kill him. One of the cannibals entered the house and the only thing he knew to do was he raised an empty pistol and the guy in cowardice fled. He lived in constant danger. Betty and I know what it's like to have tragedy strike our family. We know what it's like to be robbed or attempted to be robbed 55 times in our first three years. But these guys were a cut above. Here's a quote this strength, this peace to feel and entering on every day that all its duties and trials have been committed to the lord jesus, that, come what may, he, god, will use us for his own glory and our real good. Wow, what a statement. Well, Paton got married again and it's a lady named Margaret and she had literary ability and he goes on to have two daughters and three sons with her, and two of their sons will become missionaries in the same islands and another daughter will marry a missionary.

W. Austin Gardner:

And he lived such a crazy life. I want you to get some of the books to study about him. Just look him up on Google. Go to Amazon and get some of the books to study about him. Just look him up on Google, go to Amazon and buy some of those books and learn about him living in conditions and ways that most of us would never, ever dream.

W. Austin Gardner:

He was always in danger, always trusting God, always going forward, always believing that God had a plan for him, always going forward, always believing that God had a plan for him. Here's a quote At the moment I put the bread and wine into those dark hands, once stained with the blood of cannibalism, now stretched out to receive and partake of the emblems and seals of the Redeemer's love. I had a foretaste of the joy of glory that will now broke my heart to pieces. I shall never taste a deeper bliss till I gaze on the glorified face of Jesus himself. He saw these horribly wicked pagans trust Christ, be saved, baptized, and now they're taking the Lord's Supper together saved, baptized, and now they're taking the Lord's Supper together. As he was dying, one of the kings came to him and he said I want God's change my life. And he said he said, men of Fortin, when you return, tell your people how we of Anua have been changed. As heathens we quarreled and killed and ate each other. We had no peace, no joy in heart or house or land. Now Jehovah has changed all our black hearts and we live as brethren in peace and happiness.

W. Austin Gardner:

John Paton will die at the age of 83 in Australia. God is using people from all over the world, sometimes North Americans, united States citizens. We tend to think we're the only people, but God's using people from everywhere. I was just talking to my friend the other day and he was talking about how there was a German who knew German and English and spoke a tribal language and spoke pidgin and he said I never met a smarter person serving as a missionary in Papua New Guinea. Before he died, john Paton said if I die here in Glasgow, I shall be eaten by worms. If I can but live and die serving the Lord Jesus, it will make no difference to me whether I'm eaten by cannibals or by worms. If I can but live and die serving the Lord Jesus, it will make no difference to me whether I'm eaten by cannibals or by worms, for the great day, my resurrection body will rise as fair as yours, in the likeness of our Redeemer. And what a man.

W. Austin Gardner:

I just want to challenge you to get a hold of his material and look into that. Now. I want to give you briefly and I want to help you. I want to be a blessing to you and so quickly. I would like to talk to those of you that are senders. Your moms and dads are going to raise children to serve Jesus. Your Sunday school teachers and pastors, you are disciplers, and I just want to challenge you on how to be a better sender, how to be a better yoke fellow, how to be in the ministry. Now ministries are having a time of their life If they really love Jesus. You can listen to Paton and you can see he had a blast and you can see that he was enjoying it a blast and you can see that he was enjoying it, and so I just want to challenge you to take this idea of you helping people.

W. Austin Gardner:

I love this verse 1 Corinthians 16, 15. I beseech you, brethren, you know the house of Stephanas, that is the first fruits of Achaia, that they have addicted themselves, addicted themselves to the ministry of the saints. What a verse. What a family. And he said submit yourselves to them and to everyone that helps with us and labors. And so this family is staying in place, but they're helping and they're laboring. And he says you know what they're meeting needs. He says in verse 17 that they are providing that which was lacking. They've supplied. And he says they have refreshed my spirit.

W. Austin Gardner:

So I just want to leave that part of the verse with you today, and I want to say to you that you have the privilege of being a part of world evangelism and a part of the ministry, and so I want to challenge you with that. I want to challenge you to help, I want to challenge you to labor, I want to challenge you to refresh. So spend some time with me, charities, find out exactly what you can do and how you can do it, and let God help you with that. Now I come to the place maybe most close to my heart. I want to talk to the young people listening and I hope you've been paying attention all the way through this, but I want to talk to you about how do you get from where you are right now to where God wants you to be and where God's leading you to go, and I'm going to walk you through over this week and a couple of more weeks, some basic steps towards world evangelism. Some steps towards world evangelism.

W. Austin Gardner:

Now, the first thing I want to say to you is you got to be absolutely sure of your salvation. You've got to understand this doctrine. It is the key doctrine, it's the most important thing. Now I know you've been going to church, but many are just cultural Christians. You've not really trusted Christ. You're not really sure that you're saved. You couldn't explain what salvation is. With some it's an emotional thing. It's like I cried and I prayed, but you haven't just trusted. That's all it is is trust, it's just accepting the free gift of God.

W. Austin Gardner:

Some missionaries have gone to the field and fallen into sin because I'm afraid maybe they weren't saved, weren't born again. Other missionaries have gotten saved while they're on the mission field and I've known them that totally quit on God. I've known young people that go to Bible college and work all the way through Bible college and voted the number one student and quit. So I just want to leave you with this. Today is step number one towards the mission field. Bible says in 2 Peter 1, 10,. Give diligence to make your calling and election sure, for if you do these things you shall never fall. So you want to take the time to make sure of your walk with God. In 2 Corinthians 13, 5, it says examine yourselves whether you be in the faith and prove your own selves, know your own selves and know that Christ is in you. So that's the goal and I want to challenge you with that. I want to challenge you to take steps towards the mission field, and the first one is definitely going to be knowing that you are born again.

W. Austin Gardner:

Now let me remind you and maybe I haven't explained it clearly I want you to go to social media Facebook, linkedin, instagram or Twitter, and I'm on all of those. I'm not on TikTok, but those are the ones I am on. And if you'll just give a shout-out to this little booklet, excuse me. Give the shout-out to the podcast. And if you'll just give a shout out to this little booklet, excuse me. Give the shout out to the podcast. Give a shout out to the podcast. Maybe share the title of it, the feed. They can get on it on Apple or they can get on this podcast with Spotify.

W. Austin Gardner:

Those are the two major ones, but we've put it on everything, and so I want to help you and if you'll do that the first five that do it then tag me that I see I will send you a free booklet. I'll pay for the booklet, I'll pay for the shipping, I'll sign it Not sure that's worth much and I'll send you this little booklet. Are you called? And it's a checklist. So I just really want to thank you for being with me and thank you for helping me. I want to raise awareness of world evangelism. We need to get people excited about taking the gospel message. Would you help me with that? Would you help me with promoting world evangelism? That's what I'm asking you to do For Jesus' sake, not my sake. God bless you all.

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