Let's turn now to Luke chapter 19. I'm going to use a couple of verses here that I have referred to a while back in another message. Just in passing, but it's been quite a long time since I've used this as a main theme. And it is a very important one that we need to think about a while together tonight.

In Luke 19:12-13, we find these words: "And he said therefore, A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom, and to return. And he called his ten servants, and delivered them ten pounds, and said unto them, Occupy till I come.'"

Now, let us go ahead and read the rest of that story. "But his citizens hated him, and sent a message after him, saying, We will not have this man to reign over us. And it came to pass, that when he was returned, having received the kingdom, then he commanded these servants to be called unto him, to whom he had given the money, that he might know how much every man had gained by trading. Then came the first, saying, Lord, thy pound hath gained ten pounds. And he said unto him, Well, thou good servant: because thou hast been faithful in a very little, have thou authority over ten cities. And the second came saying, Lord, thy pound hath gained five pounds. And he said likewise to him, Be thou also over five cities. And another came saying, Lord, behold, here is thy pound, which I have kept laid up in a napkin: For I feared thee because thou art an austere man: thou takest up that thou layedst no down, and reapest that thou didst not sow. And he saith unto him, Out of thine own mouth will I judge thee, thou wicked servant. Thou knewest that I was an austere man, taking up that I laid not down and reaping that I did not sow: Wherefore then gavest not thou my money into the bank, that at my coming I might have required mine own with usury? And he said unto them that stood by, Take from him the pound, and give it to him that hath ten pounds. (And they said unto him, Lord, he hath ten pounds.) For I say unto you, That unto every one which hath shall be given; and from him that hath not, even that he hath shall be taken away from him. But those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them before me."

As we begin to think about this, our particular emphasis will be on the thirteenth verse where he says, "Occupy till I come."

You may think of the word occupy in several different ways. If someone told you to occupy their house, that would mean a slightly different thing from what it would mean if some good friend of yours had a large business operation or a large estate somewhere and they turned it over to you and said, "Occupy till I come." That would mean a different thing entirely, wouldn't it? In the case of just a house, about all it would mean for you to occupy till he came again would be just to stay there in his house or to live in his house and take reasonable care of it.

But in the case of the large estate or in the case of a large business operation that some special friend turned over to you to operate or to take care of and said, "Occupy till I come," it would mean a completely different thing, wouldn't it? It would mean a lot more than just sitting there taking care of the business and seeing that no one carried it off. It would mean a lot more than just staying there!

Well, that's what we need to recognize about this business of "occupy till I come," in the work of the Lord. It means a lot more than just sit here (as we used to say, "on the stool of do nothing") until He comes. It means a more than just sit here and be faithful to His Word until He comes. It means, go out and reproduce, go out and grow, go out and do something about it, doesn't it? Just as we saw in the parable that He gave here of the ten pounds.

As we begin to think a little further about this, this termminology "occupy" could bring to mind also an army of occupation, could it not? One could think about an army occupying. And as we think of it from this viewpoint, we'd have to admit that when Christ went away to heaven, He had already occupied a great deal of territory, hadn't He? He had already conquered a great deal of "territory". The gospel had already been spread in many areas. And shortly after He went away, it was spread all over the known world! Within a hundred years or less, from the time of the birth of Christ, the gospel had been spread into all of the civilized world. And a lot of it wasn't too civilized, either. A lot of it wasn't what we would call civilized and yet, the gospel had even been spread in many of those "uncivilized" places as well. Very much territory had already been conquered by the time that He stood on the Mount of Olives just before His ascension.

And the question that the apostles had to ask of Him there was this, "Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?" You may remember that was one of the questions that they asked Him. In fact, that was the principle question they asked Him, wasn't it? "Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?"

This question, of course, was a ready built occasion for Him to give them an answer and to tell them what they should do and therefore what we should do until He comes again. And this parable here of the ten pounds is a good exposition of His answer, isn't it? "Occupy till I come." Yes, "Occupy till I come."

So the answer He gave them went something like this. "Ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in Judea, and in Samaria and unto the uttermost part of the earth." That's from Acts 1:8. You may remember that was the answer that He gave to them when they asked this question.

And what happened when He gave them this answer to their question? The early church joyfully accepted this answer and this commission or this command He gave them, this answer to their question that He gave in Acts 1:8. And they were witnesses, weren't they? They weren't at all bashful about being witnesses! They were not the least bit backward about it. They witnessed! And within a hundred years, as we've already said, they had witnessed in all of the then known civilized world and a lot of it not too civilized.

They became personal witnesses to the power and the glory of Jesus Christ. And that's the only kind of witnessing that really works! It only works if many of His children become personal witnesses to His power and His glory, witnessing of Jesus, the Savior of the world. They witnessed, giving their personal testimonies. If you read in the Scripture, you'll notice that they repeatedly gave their personal testimonies, didn't they? Almost everywhere that you read one of these men preaching a sermon or a message given by one of these men as recorded in Scripture, you find that they gave a personal testimony along with their Scriptures that they used in their messages. So they witnessed giving their personal testimonies as to Christ's death, burial, resurrection and His future coming again in power and great glory. They testified that He is now living, even after He had gone away from them and gone into heaven. They testified that He is living and that He is coming again to reign. And we need to do this every day of our lives as well. They were commanded to witness to the uttermost part of the earth. And they did it! They did it! And so must we!

This witnessing assignment is a very urgent assignment. It's not something that we can think, "Well, if I don't do it, Brother Jack will." Or, "If I don't do it, Brother Tom will." Or, "If I don't do it, Brother Dearmore will." That just isn't the way it works, is it? It is an urgent thing! So that every person needs to do it on every possible occasion and to make special arrangements in addition to do it, to witness.

Here in Luke again, in 12:42, we see an illustration of the urgency of this witnessing assignment. Where it says this: "And the Lord said, ‘Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his lord shall make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of meat in due season? Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing. Of a truth I say unto you, that he will make him ruler over all that he hath. But and if that servant say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming; and shall begin to beat the menservants and maidens, and to eat and drink, and to be drunken; The lord of that servant will come in a day when he looketh not for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in sunder, and will appoint him his portion with the unbelievers. And that servant, which knew his lord's will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more.'"

And the key passage is the middle part of verse 48, where it says, "Unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required." Now notice that. Has God given you anything? You say, "Well, He hasn't given me much, I'm struggling just to make it." Now that's just not true, is it? That's just not true!

What has God given us? He's given us that peace in our heart, that ninety-nine percent of the world doesn't have and would give anything in the world to have, hasn't He? He's given us that joy in knowing that He's our Savior and that we have a home in heaven which He is preparing for us.

So even though we may think we're having a hard time now and that He hasn't given us very much, in reality He's given us everything of any great importance, hasn't He? He's given us our family. He's given us our wives, our children. He's given us this peace and happiness and joy in knowing Christ. And that's a lot that He's given us, not just a little!

And remember it says, "Unto whomsoever much is given," --- there is much that He has given us! He's given us eternal life! He's given us forgiveness of sin! And there's no other source of forgiveness of sin, is there? No other place --- No other means by which men can be forgiven sins, have their sins covered, except by the blood of Jesus.

Our responsibility to occupy is awesome. It is a tremendous responsibility. And it is a responsibility which we cannot possibly escape. There is no way we can escape from this urgent responsibility. We're going to have to give an account to our Lord for how we fulfill this command to occupy until He comes.

And another thing that we should keep in mind also when we think about this command to, "occupy till I come," is that the eternal destiny of hundreds of fellow human beings is at stake. Did you know that? By your own witnessing, the destiny of hundreds of human beings, may depend on your occupying till He comes.

You say, "Oh, but I might work all my life and only win three or four." Okay. That's not really probable that we would only win three or four if we really witnessed every opportunity and have occupied properly all of our life until He comes. But say that's true. Let's just take it as if that were a fact, that only three or four would be won if you worked and witnessed every opportunity and occupied properly till He comes. Okay!

What about those three or four? One of them may be a great missionary or a great preacher boy. He may win five hundred. But if you don't win him, what about that? Yes, if you don't win him, what about that? One of them may be a preacher's wife. One of those little girls that you might witness to and win. And if you don't win her, what about that? By her godly living and her helping her husband in years to come, they might win hundreds or thousands. And if you don't win her, what about that? "Occupy till I come." "Occupy till I come." Your witness goes on. The influence of every time that we witness goes on until the Lord comes.

Man gives up some things in order to truly follow Jesus. There's no need in pretending that he doesn't. A man, in order to truly follow Jesus, has to give up some things. But he gains much more than he gives up. We had a mention of this in one of our visits recently, Brother Tom and I. A person brought up this idea of giving up this and giving up that to become a Christian. But that's not really what you think about when you truly become a Christian. You think about all the wonderful things that you've gained by being a Christian. Not the unimportant things that you gave up by becoming a Christian and serving the Lord as one should.

The Scripture says however that one must be willing to forsake father and mother, houses and lands and everything else in order to properly serve and follow the Lord. Or in other words, to occupy till He comes. You find that in Matthew 19:29 and in Matthew 10:37. But think of what one gains. Oh, just think of what one gains!

We find that one gains this joy and peace of mind with God and with our fellow men that one can never secure in any other way, except by occupying till He comes. Think of the infinite rewards, the things that one gains, the countless blessings in this life. Some people seem to take the attitude that, "Oh, in this life being a Christian doesn't pay but you get all your payment afterwards." Let me tell you, it pays in this life as well!

You don't find sincere, truly born again, dedicated, God-fearing, God-serving Christians out here going nuts like you do the rest of the world, do you? You don't find them out here going crazy like the rest of the world. You don't find them out here committing suicide. You don't find them out here chasing the rainbow, or chasing the pot at the end of the rainbow and never finding it, which is what a lot of the world is doing.

This confidence and assurance that we gain about the future is one of the great rewards of truly being a Christian, isn't it? Yes, it's true that one does give up many things in becoming a Christian. And some of the things I've mentioned to you before in different sermons. One of the things that one misses by becoming a Christian is they miss hell! You give up hell to become a Christian, don't you? That's one of the things that you miss by being a Christian.

Do not misunderstan d --- the danger to those who obey the Lord's command to, "Occupy till I come," is real. Some people think, "Well, now you become a Christian and then that's it. No more problems from then on, forever." Well, that's not really true! The devil just piles up problems everywhere he can for the Christian who is really serving the Lord.

If you notice here in our key passage from Luke 19, this noble man had enemies, didn't he? He had enemies. What does it say there in verse 12? He certainly had enemies. Just read verse 14: "But his citizens hated him." He had enemies. And if you're a real Christian serving the Lord as you should be, you're going to have some enemies. There's no need of pretending you're not. You will. If you're a Christian and you don't have any enemies, then you're not serving the Lord rightly. If you did, you'd have some enemies. This noble man here in verse 14 had enemies.

And the witnessing that we must do is always opposed by evil forces. The devil will bring up every kind of opposition and interference that he can when we start witnessing for Christ. You just watch it, if you're visiting in a home and you get down to serious talk about salvation with one of the parents, what's the first thing the devil does? He gets into one of the kids, doesn't he? And one of the kids starts screaming. In fact, if he can, he'll get into two or three of them and they'll start a big fight or something. Just about the time you get down to serious talk with the mother or dad about salvation. I've seen that happen many times. And if you do very much witnessing, you'll see the same type of thing happen as well. Evil forces are always opposing us when we witness effectively.

Now witnessing is for a purpose, isn't it? Witnessing is not just so this will be brought up against them in the judgment day. That's not the purpose of witnessing, is it? Although that is one of the results, I should say, of witnessing. It will be brought up against them in the judgment day.

There was that day when Tom Kitching told you about the Lord and you wouldn't even talk to him about it. And every person that you've witnessed to Tom, that has rejected, refused to listen, and goes to hell, when they stand before the judgment seat, it'll be on their record there. July, the twenty-fifth, Tom Kitching witnessed to you. In fact, on July, the twenty-fourth, he tried to get you to plan to go to church with him on Sunday, the twenty-fifth, and you wouldn't go. You just wouldn't go. It will all be written down. It will be recorded. But that's not really the purpose of witnessing, is it?

What is the purpose of witnessing? It's to bear fruit! To change men from the downward road to the heavenward road. That's the purpose of witnessing.

Evil men, with their father, the devil, do not want men changed, Because they profit from evil. They don't want men changed. Evil men, servants of the Devil, profit from evil. These breweries, these night clubs, and all kinds of evil enterprises. They don't want men changed because they profit from the evil of men.

Therefore, Christians sometimes suffer from the opposition of the devil and evil men. Because when you start getting into a man's pocketbook, you have just kicked a sacred cow, haven't you? And he gets excited pretty fast when you start changing men where it hurts his pocketbook. He gets pretty angry. And the devil then does everything he can to oppose us.

There's an interesting passage in Colossians 1:24, that fits in with our discussion of this idea, "occupy till I come." And with the fact that we sometimes have to suffer because of the opposition of the devil and evil men. This reference speaks of adding our sufferings to the sufferings of Christ. Adding our sufferings to the sufferings of Christ. Colossians 1:24 says, "Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body's sake, which is the church."

You say, "Well, does that mean that Christ didn't suffer enough?" No, it doesn't mean that at all. He did suffer, plenty. You say, "Well, if He didn't suffer enough, does it mean He didn't stay on the cross long enough? Were the nails not long enough and rough enough as they drove them into His hands and His feet? Was the spear that was thrust into His side not painful enough? Or was the crown of thorns too tender as they drove it down onto His brow?" And, of course, the answer is no, a thousand times no. His suffering was sufficient. His suffering was in no way insufficient. And yet, Paul here speaks of, "Fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ," doesn't he?

Remember though that the suffering of Christ, His death, was a full and free and final sacrifice and payment for our sins. His suffering was not insufficient. Nothing else than His blood shed could possibly forgive or be sufficient for the remission of our sins. So then, what did Paul mean when he said, "That which is behind of the sufferings of Christ"?

He was referring to the fact that we as Christians are going to have to suffer to carry out this command to, "occupy till I come." To witness for Him until He comes. We're going to have to supplement, as he speaks of here, the sufferings of Christ, through the spreading of the news of His full and free redemption offered to all mankind. And we're going to have to suffer and do this at any cost!

Hebrews 11 is a good chapter to read about this. If you look there in verse 32, "And what shall I more say? For the time would fail me to tell of Gedeon, and of Barak, and of Samson, and of Jephthae; of David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets: Who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. Women received their dead raised to life again: and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection: And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment: They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented; (Of whom the world was not worthy;) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth."

And he goes through there giving some of the sufferings of these, explaining what Luke was speaking of or what was included in this statement that was recorded in Luke, "occupy till I come." Referring, of course, to what Paul was saying in Colossians 1:24.

Pardon that's procured at such cost to the Savior by His agony on the cross must be announced to all the world, mustn't it? We must tell it, tell it, tell it! As we preached to you a while back about the old, old story. Tell it, tell it, tell it! We must tell it at any cost!

Some are going to suffer doing so. Some are even going to die. Paul already knew about this, didn't he? Paul was shipwrecked three times, beaten with thirty-nine stripes several different times, stoned and left for dead outside Lystra. Paul knew what he was talking about, didn't he? When he spoke of the suffering, in supplementing the sufferings of Christ there in Colossians 1:24, he knew what he was talking about!

Christ's sufferings procured our salvation but our suffering is that of proclaiming this salvation to a race of unreceptive and rebellious men. That's a major part of our suffering! That's our part of the suffering. Paul, nearing the end of his period of occupying, said this, "I have fought a good fight. I have finished my course. I have kept the faith." And then he went ahead and with joy in his voice and said, "Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me in that day: And not to me only, but to all them that love his appearing." That's in II Timothy 4, beginning with verse 7.

Christians must never forget why we're here. Why are we here? God didn't save us and leave us here just to be happy, did He? Oh, He wants us to be happy, don't misunderstand. In the proper sense of the word. But that's not why He left us here, is it? We could be happy in heaven. He could save us and take us on to heaven and that'd be the end of it. We'd never be unhappy again, would we? But why does He leave us here? We must never forget why we're here. We're here to occupy until He comes. To be His faithful witnesses. That's our only reason and our only need to be on earth after we're saved, is to occupy till He comes, to be His witnesses.

We read to you already from Hebrews 11, and if you go back a little earlier in that same chapter and read beginning with verse 8, you'll find it speaks of the fact that Abraham by faith did thus and so. And if you go through that, you'll see a good picture of what a Christian is to do here on earth. Christians are here to fight God's battles, just as did Abraham. And if our hearts are truly aglow with faith, then our hearts are always willing to go on daring missions for the King. Did you know that? If your heart's really stirred up about somebody, you don't mind going and witnessing to them. You rejoice at the privilege of doing so if your heart is really stirred up about it. But if you're just going in the energy of the flesh, then you've got to just sort of whip yourself into doing it. And it doesn't really do much good to do it that way, does it?

Of course, sometimes when you whip yourself into doing it, then the Lord gets hold of you anyway, on the road. And you do a proper job of witnessing even though you didn't start out that way.

The end time toward which all history is moving is something that we must remember as we think about this, "occupy till I come." The reference in I Corinthians 15:17 is a good one to read now. "And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins." Then in verses 19 and 20 of that same chapter, "If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept."

Now, the fact that Christ did become the firstfruits of them that slept, the fact that He is risen from the grave proves that His death dealt efficiently with sin! Because if His death had not dealt efficiently with sin, then He could not have been resurrected from the grave. But He overcame death by His sinless perfection, His dying in our place.

So, as we said, if Christ had not risen from the grave, then we would not have proof that His death had dealt efficiently with sin. Since the fruit of sin is death, and Christ did arise from the grave, it proved that He had conquered our last enemy, didn't it? His resurrection was absolute proof, and His death, without His resurrection would be incomplete. But His death with His resurrection proves it's all finished, as we read there in I Corinthians 15!

His resurrection, in other words, we could say, confirmed the power of His death. It confirmed the power of His blood to wash away sin. It confirmed the power of His forgiveness to those who accept His offering of Himself for sin. The result is new life, changed men --- that's the result of His death for sin! New life and changed men for all those who will accept Him.

Just as His death would be incomplete without His resurrection, in the same manner it would be completely illogical if there were not end times toward which history is moving. It would be illogical! There is a great and notable day of the Lord coming, as it tells us in Acts 2:20. And it is the solution to the puzzle of life. This is the thing that so many people are going bonkers (crazy) about today. They are living without Christ, and it doesn't take a very smart person to realize that life without Christ is pointless. It's without purpose. There's no real meaning in it. Anyone who really stops and thinks about it for a while will realize that life without Christ is life without meaning, life without purpose.

And this solution to the puzzle of life is that it does have a purpose. But it only has a purpose to a Christian. It doesn't have a deep and stablde purpose to an unsaved man.

This purpose runs through all the Scriptures. Every place in Scripture, if you look through a passage, you can see this purpose that we're talking about, this purpose in living, in life. It shows that God had a purpose when He made man. It proves that He wasn't just playing mud pies when He made man. That's not it at all, is it? He mader man for a purpose. He created the race for a specific reason. This specific purpose was and always has been to glorify His name, to rejoice in His goodness, and enjoy fellowship with Him.

And so, when we do properly occupy till He comes, we are fulfilling this purpose! The purpose for which man was created. We're glorifying His name if we occupy till He comes, and we are rejoicing in His goodness, as we witness for Him and share His goodness with others.

Now the last thought. Investing in God's business is the only way to have eternal rewards! It's the only way. Oh, I know that some of these rich fellows act like they think they can take it with them. But they can't, I can tell you. There's never been one yet that took it with him. There never will be one that takes it with him.

This word that's translated here occupy is a word of action. It's not just a passive word. I brought that out to you in the introduction a while ago that if someone says, "Occupy my house until I come," just a residence, then that could be almost passive, couldn't it? But if they say, "Occupy my business," and they've got a big, active business of some sort, a business operation that you have to look after and take care of and promote and operate while they're away, there is no way that could possibly be a passive thing. And this "occupy" as it's used here is an active thing, not passive.

The Thayer Greek/English Dictionary or lexicon says this about that word occupy. (Thayer is one of our old standard Greek/English lexicons). He says, "It means to be occupied in anything, to carry on a business, to carry on the business of a banker or trader." That is what Thayer says about the word that's translated here, occupy. So that's certainly an active thing! It's not just sitting there waiting till He comes back.

The word used makes occupying an intensely personal command. "You, look after my business until I come back. You do it." It's a serious responsibility and it's a responsibility which each and every Christian should exercise in the Church of Jesus Christ.

The primary responsibility is witnessing. But it also shows that man's entire spectrum of activity must reflect the objective of witnessing as being his primary concern. Now you think about that for a minute. Oh, I know we get all excited about, "Well, we've got to fix up the building. And we've got to do this. And we've got to do something else." And all those things are good; there's nothing wrong with any of those things. But we need to remember that the primary concern of all our activities, whatever they may be, the whole spectrum of our life, the primary concern and prime objective should be that of witnessing.

We should be motivated by what Jesus said in Mark 8:36. "For what shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul." Is it logical or good business for we who have found peace and forgiveness to neglect to witness to others about their salvation? No, it's not logical and it is not good business! No, a thousand times we could say to that.

Jesus speaks of profit, loss and gain here, in this reference I read to you in Mark 8:36. Profit, loss and gain. Thatis clearly a business operation! An active business operation. Profit, loss and gain. The dividends from serving Him go on forever. From knowing and serving Him, we have peace and joy in our heart here on earth.

What we invest in His kingdom now will determine our position in the Millennial Kingdom when Jesus comes back. Did you know that? If you want to be more than just a little messenger boy in the Millennial Kingdom --- oh, that'll be a wonderful position, even just a little messenger boy --- but if you'd like to be more than that, then the thing to do is serve the Lord properly now. Because our position there is determined by what we do now.

The fruits of our efforts for Christ will go on, as we brought out earlier in the introduction, as long as time shall be. That's the reason there can't be a final judgment until after the Millennium. The final judgment of the wicked can't happen until after the Millennium because the results of their evil is going to keep on and keep on growing, as we've brought out in other messages previously. But the fruit of our good works as well carry on as long as time shall be. After our life on earth ends, we shall still reap. After you're gone to heaven, if you die and go to heaven before the Lord comes. The seed that you've planted here is still going to be bearing fruit. It will keep on bearing fruit.

And so, the answer is this, let us live recklessly. Let us not worry about what society thinks of us but let us really sell out to Jesus. It doesn't matter what people think about us! They all think we're nuts anyway. And we know they are, so what difference does it make? Let's live with reckless abandon, not worry about what society thinks, but what God thinks. But let us be as Paul says in II Timothy 2:4: "No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier."

I told this story once before in a different sermon. I'll tell it to you again now, it's a good illustration of this thought that we're thinking about in closing.

Judson was a great early day missionary. He went into a place where he suffered terrible persecutions. And lived in terrible circumstances. And died early because of it. And yet, more than a hundred years after he was dead there were other missionaries in the area.There was an old established missionary in the area who was having a service one day and they had a bunch of professions. And the new missionary that had just come out said, "Oh, my. You've really got a lot of converts here that you made for the Lord, haven't you?" The old missionary answered, "No, these are not my converts." He said, "These are Judson's converts." A hundred years after he was dead --- they were people who had already been influenced so much by the converts that Judson had won while he was there, that now many were coming to the Lord a hundred years after Judson was gone. They were Judson's converts.

Let us occupy till He comes. Let us really sell out to Jesus. Let us build a work here. Let us win souls. Let us build the Church. Every day, let us make our PRIME PURPOSE IN LIVING TO GLORIFY CHRIST AND TO WITNESS TO OTHERS ABOUT JESUS!