Good afternoon. Let me ask you to turn in your Bibles to Acts 17. Acts chapter 17, I'll read from verse 22. This is Paul before the philosophers at Athens. Then Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious, for as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription to the unknown God.

Therefore, the one whom you worship without knowing, him I proclaim to you, God who made the world and everything in it, since he is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands, nor is he worshiped with man's hands, as though he needed anything, since he gives to all life, breath, and all things, and he has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their pre-appointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, so that they should seek the Lord in the hope that they might grope for him and find him, though he's not far from each one of us. For in him we live and move and have our being as also some of your own poets have said, for we are also his offspring." I come from a very small country in southern Africa, Malawi. It's a country of about 16 million people, landlocked. And in my country, one of the things we've enjoyed is actually peace. And so because of that, we also have one country which is Mozambique just above southwest and it's a country that's for a long time has had a civil war going on.

It's been on and off and beginning this year we actually had that civil war started again in Mozambique and a lot of people started, you know, coming into Malawi because they know that it's peaceful there. And apart from that, on the other hand, we've had, I think for the last four years, about 600 families each year from China coming into Malawi to do businesses. It's a peaceful country and so it provides a lot of opportunities to invest and do businesses. And so, lots of countries, people from lots of countries coming in to do business or running away from some war going on in their country. And so our country for the last couple years has been dealing with a sort of immigration crisis.

And this is pretty much what happens and what is happening in most of the countries in southern Africa. In South Africa, some of you, you might be familiar with South Africa. It's well developed, it's one of the, it's probably the biggest economy on the continent of Africa. And so because of that, a lot of people also find it a better place to go and invest or just to seek a way to improve their lives. And beginning this year again, we saw the South African people trying to deal with this crisis that's going on in their country, immigration crisis, and what they did was to either let's try to beat them out of our country or just kill them.

And so it was all over the news, foreigners being beaten in the streets, some of them bent in their streets, And the government was for some time, for some weeks, just looking. And then eventually when the international community started making noise, eventually the government intervened. And if you look at Africa, you will notice that immigration crisis is something that's going on and has been going on for some years now. And I have been keeping up with what's happening in the world today and it's, you probably will know about this that every single country, literally every single country in the world today is having some form of an immigration crisis. But what has been, What has been, I think, burning in my heart is that some of these things that we are having to deal with when people are migrating into our countries, yes, we are having to deal with issues of security and all those things, but one of the things that I'm noticing as I talk to Christians and pastors and ministry leaders is that there seem to be a confusion in understanding what is happening in the world today.

And Brother Paul touched on this and what's exactly burning in my heart. And I was thinking, is that burning in his heart also? Praise the Lord that there is someone who is experiencing the same thing in his heart. And I do believe there are some also who feel the same way. So as I was talking to ministry leaders and pastors, one of the things that I've noticed is that there seem to be a confusion in understanding what's going on with these changes that are taking place in the world.

I'll give you an example. This issue, for a lot of people out there has become an issue of space, security, and resources. But if you look at Acts 17, for God, it's an issue of his glory. If you spend time looking at Acts 17, It's an issue of the Gospel. It's an issue of the salvation of souls.

It's not an issue of space. It's not an issue of security, even though those things are real and true. It's not an issue of resources. It's an issue of life and death. And I'm also so concerned for the church that this is supposed to be for us an issue of worship as we see the sovereign Lord waking in the wild today.

There are countries like Syria, there are countries like Libya, Somalia, Jordan and all these countries that for years and decades we have said that these are closed countries. No one could go there to preach the gospel. God is saying, I'm opening up those countries, not just opening them up for you to go in, but I'm sending them to you. And all the church can do is worry about space. It says something about our hearts, about our greedy hearts.

It says something about our lack of love and passion for God and the gospel. At least for me that's what's been happening. I'm just an hour away from Mozambique. So the first city that experiences a rise in crime is actually my city. That's the first thing I'm thinking.

These guys when they're coming in, they bring guns. And so I'm thinking about my family and I'm thinking about my house. This is supposed to be for us as a church an issue of worship as we see God work. It's also an issue to a certain level I think we should be rebuked in the sense that for a long time the Great Commission has been sort of been has been looked at as an issue that we are sort of helping God to reach out the nations and God is saying I'm opening closed nations so that the gospel can go in. If you've seen what's happening, these are war-torn areas where people literally enter your border with your backpack and their children in their hands.

There's no time to jump into the car. There's no time to grab your stuff. And God is sending them to us, running, so we can reach out to them, so we can preach the gospel to them. Immigration crisis, and I know this is a political issue in your country, it's also a political issue on my continent in Africa, but for us as a church, immigration crisis is a problem of the church immigration crisis is an issue of the glory of God it's an issue of gospel preaching it's an issue of worship In our church we sat down and we said, you know, we're in a country with three small reformed churches. Just reformed churches, no Baptist or Presbyterian, just reformed churches.

Three of them. Ours is the biggest with less than 50 members, it's the biggest. It's a country of 16 million people And so we sit down and we're always learning from others. We want to learn what others are doing out there in terms of reaching out to others, reaching out to people who are migrating into our country. So you know we're going online and start researching, looking at church and ministry websites, talking to our friends, emailing, things like those.

And one of the things we noticed was that almost all the programs, Maybe 95, and I hope I'm not exaggerating that, 95 percent of the programs we're seeing that churches are running are geared to reaching out to people in the next church next door. So little programs in these churches and ministries that are focusing on reaching out even to people who have never heard of Jesus or have never heard the gospel clearly presented to them. Clearly presented to them. And we sat down and started asking ourselves, how does it help or how do we benefit the church or how does it help us or help me if I had one dollar bill, you call it a bill here, a one dollar bill in my pocket, in my left pocket, and if I moved it and put it in my right hand pocket. I haven't added anything to my finances.

But The church, I think talking to people here and in my country, the church is so satisfied to have people move from one church to our church and our churches are growing and we are satisfied with that. But God is sending us thousands of people. God is sending us millions of people. God is sending us families, students. God is sending us all kinds of people near people near us.

And my prayer is that the church will not make this an issue of space, resources, security. God will take care of those. Amen.