I’m going to turn it over to you, Brother

Sinclair, if you could please share your burden here today. Hello, young people. My name is Ben Sinclair. My family and I have been missionaries in Cameroon, West Africa for the past 14 years or And I’m very grateful for this opportunity to take part in this podcast today. I’d like to ask you to turn your Bible right away to 2 Timothy 2, verses 1-4. 2 Timothy 2, verses 1-4. The Bible says, I want to let you know, young people, that if you’re a child of God by faith in Jesus Christ, God wants you to be a good soldier for Jesus Christ. Today in this podcast, I have two parts. First, I want to tell you about a good soldier who gave his life for Christ just over a month ago in the country of Cameroon. And then I like to challenge you personally to get with the program that God is doing around the world, as we speak, even now, even right now. 44 years ago, on August 24, 1974, Charles Truman Wesko was born in Michigan. A little more than four years later, Charles was born again by placing his faith in Jesus Christ for salvation. He was the oldest of ten children, and his parents, Virgil and Rebecca, raised their children to be servants and soldiers of the Lord. Most parents today are trying to raise well-adjusted, fit-into-society successful children, rather than soldiers who will speak to the enemies in the gate, as Psalm 127.5 talks about. There’s nothing wrong with being a success or having successful children, as long as you seek the Bible’s definition of success. Young people, you may know that there’s only one verse in the whole Bible that mentions the word success, and it’s Joshua 1.8. In Joshua 1, verse 8, the Bible says, This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein. For then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success. That’s the only place you’ll find the word success in the entire Bible, and it’s directly, directly related to your relationship with the Word of God, the Bible. If you meditate and you obey the Word of God, the Bible says, God will make you a success. At age 8, Charles was called to ministry, and at age 15, he surrendered to go wherever the Lord of hosts commissioned him to serve in the global conflict. Something life-formative happened when Charles was 12 years old. His grandmother, Barbara, gave him a tuning hammer. And believe it or not, a blind piano tuner taught Charles how to tune pianos. Charles began working in his grandfather’s piano factory, building and tuning pianos at that very young age. Charles was brilliant and a good steward of the finances God entrusted to him. He became the youngest person to pass the registered piano technician’s exam here in the United States and started his own business, the Wesco Piano Service Company, while he was still a young man. His business and work in the piano factory were so prosperous that some people thought Charles was making too much money. Charles’ father testified at his son’s memorial service just a few weeks ago that when one of Charles’ younger sisters wanted to begin playing the harp, Charles researched and shopped around until he found and purchased a full-size harp for his sister. He paid $18,000 for this harp. When Charles was presented with an opportunity to buy a house for his family, he didn’t need to go through the typical mortgage process like most of us would have to do. He just went out and bought it. I believe that Charles could have easily been a millionaire by the time he retired. But Charles never saw himself as a businessman. Charles saw himself as a soldier. 2 Timothy 2 verse 4 in our text says, No man that woreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier. Are you a soldier for Jesus Christ? I heard Charles once say, Serving Christ always comes with a cost. And if you’re not ready for that, get your act together and go back to your prayer closet. This world is not our home. We are called sojourners and pilgrims and soldiers, not people who make big homesteads and focus on living in this world. End quote. He saw himself as a soldier. In his late 20s, Charles was burdened about the need for a helpmeet, aid him in his kingdom warfare. And he prayed and fasted, and God blessed him with a wife, Stephanie. And God blessed him with eight children. and a few years later they visited Cameroon and the Lord knit our hearts together and the Lord directed them to Cameroon, to the battlefield of Africa. Many people didn’t understand, Charles, you’re an assistant pastor in your church and you’ve got this great business going on. Why? Why would you want to go to Cameroon? Well, it’s because he saw himself as a soldier. While they were on deputation, civil war broke out in two of the ten regions or states in Cameroon. Most foreigners left our area, and some suggested that all non-essential personnel should leave the northwest and southwest regions. But as we sought counsel and prayed and sought the military manual, God’s word, we realized that we were essential personnel. Peace is only going to come to Cameroon through the gospel of peace, not bullets and diplomats and violence. Charles arrived with his family in Cameroon just a month and a half ago on October 18, 2018. We picked him up at the airport in Yaoundé and that first Sunday in Cameroon Charles wrote to his father and he said we do have a very caring and loving God to lean upon be it here or in the USA was beyond doubt in sovereign control of who falls and where and to what weapons, even down to the small sparrow. That’s what he wrote to his father the week before the tragic event that I’m about to tell you happened. Charles Wesco and his family moved to Cameroon to tell sinners how they could be saved and have a personal relationship with the creator God of the universe. Around midday of October 30th, as we drove through a major intersection between our home and Bumenda, Cameroon, one of those sinners fired his shotgun through my car, mortally wounding Charles Wesco and immediately promoting him to the rank of martyr in the King’s Army. I can’t tell you the rest of the story yet. I don’t know it. I don’t know what’s going to happen in the future. But I do know this. I do know the end. And in the end, Jesus wins. I do know that at least nine people from three different continents and four different states in the U.S. have trusted Christ as a direct result of this terrible testimony. Some have called Charles a hero, and some have called him a fool. But Charles would have called himself a soldier. soldier in the king’s army. I believe God is a missionary God, and I believe the local church is a missionary body, and I believe the Bible is a missionary book. And in the Bible, Ephesians 3.11, the Bible talks about an eternal purpose of God, the eternal purpose of God. When I was in Bible college in intro to missions class my freshman year, we had to memorize what our professor called The Eternal Purpose of God. And this is what he wrote down and what he had us memorize. He said, The eternal purpose of God is to call out from every kindred, tongue, people, and nation, a multitude redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, slain from the foundation of the world, over whom he will crown his Son, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, King of kings, and Lord of lords forever. This is the passion of the heart of God that cannot be quenched. the obsession of his mind that cannot be denied, the vision of his eyes from eternity past into eternity future that will not dim, and the destination to which he has committed, his omnipotent, immutable, eternal being, a destination that he will not abandon. Today, young people, I want to remind you, this is God’s mission. This is God’s eternal purpose. This is what he’s doing in the world today. God has a vision of red, yellow, black, and white, people from all over, all across the globe, in a perfect heaven and earth one day, praising, glorifying, and serving Him forever. What is that program? Well, it’s briefly summarized in Mark chapter 16, verse 15. Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. Go. Young people, if you’re not going with the gospel, you are not with the program. you are not with the program the bible says go ye it’s not go you singular it’s go ye plural he’s talking to all of us all of us who are children of god go ye into all the world not just the easy places young people but even the challenging places like the northwest and southwest regions of cameroon we are praying we are praying for 100 missionaries that god will raise up 100 missionaries for Cameroon. And I’m so thankful for this opportunity to make this plea to you. Would you pray the Lord of the harvest that he would send forward laborers into his harvest? And I want to beg you not to pray as a hypocrite. If you pray for somebody that God would provide something for them and you have the provision in your pocket or in your wallet or in your house and you’re asking God to provide something for somebody else, when you are the one that God intends to meet that need. That’s what I call hypocritical praying. But I want to ask you, young people, to pray for 100 missionaries to Cameroon and ask the Lord if you might be the answer to your prayer. 100 missionaries for Cameroon is our prayer. Go ye into all the world

and preach the gospel to every creature. Thank you for that testimony and that challenge, Brother Ben. You know, young people, as you’re listening to this, I know many of you, your heart is you want to be surrendered to the Lord Jesus Christ. And I know that many of you, you’ll go to the mission field if God calls you to. That’s your heart. That’s your desire. Well, guess what? Here’s your chance. You know, young people, some of you, you have surrendered, but you don’t know what he’s calling you to do. Well, I’d like to submit to you that perhaps you are one of those 100 missionaries that they are praying about. You know, Brother Wesco, I knew him personally. He’s a good man. His desire was to serve the Lord Jesus with his life and for his life to make an impact on the world. And I don’t think this is how anybody would have pictured for his life to make an impact. But if the death of Brother Wesco can result in you going to Cameroon and reaching people for Jesus Christ, I think we can all say it was a smashing success. You know, young people, I want to challenge you this week to sincerely seek the Lord on whether his calling for you is to go to Cameroon, West Africa, and preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. You know, that’s our heartbeat here at The Generation. And in fact, if that is something that you believe after prayer God would have you to do, can you do us a favor? I’d like to be able to inform this missionary team about what God is doing. If you believe that as a result of hearing this challenge today and hearing the life of Charles Wesko, if you believe God would have you serve in Cameroon, can you please send me an email? Just send an email to bobby, B-O-B-B-Y, at thegeneration.org, and just say, I believe I’m one of the 100 that God is calling to go to Cameroon one day and preach the gospel. I’d like to just forward any of those on to some of these missionaries so they can be encouraged at how God is answering their prayer. And you know what? It’s not enough just to talk about total surrender, friends. We need to actually totally surrender to the Lord Jesus Christ. And you might be thinking, wait a second, West Africa, that’s a long way away. Well, guess what? That’s why you can depend on Jesus to enable you to do what you never thought you could do in the strength of your flesh. And as we surrender and depend, we will turn the world upside down with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Thanks for listening.