Lord send me! – Ministers’ Conference 2025

ALL POWER HAS BEEN GIVEN TO ME
The first words I have written down were the last words Jesus left with His disciples, “All power has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.”

„Mir ist alle Gewalt gegeben im Himmel und auf Erden. Deshalb geht hin und macht zu Jüngern alle Nationen.“

How will we fulfil the task which the Lord entrusted to His disciples? We must always remember - Are we busy with His work, His task, His commission, not just our friends? I trust that in you have come with a longing heart for the cause of Jesus Christ. It is not just my church, my people – we have a commission, a calling. The whole world is our mission. “To the ends of the earth.” How can we fulfil such a heavenly calling?

We will listen to an excerpt from a 1998 sermon of the founder of this work.

Rev Erlo Stegen – The Macedonian call Acts 16:6-11
And a vision appeared to Paul in the night. A man of Macedonia stood and pleaded with him, saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.”

Paul was on his second missionary trip crossing various lands with the gospel. On his first trip he travelled mostly by ship. On his second trip, mostly by foot and other means. Paul and the people with him went to a bay called Troas. At night Paul had a vision where he saw a man from Macedonia. Macedonia was on the other side of the sea and the man said, “Come and help us here!” When Paul shared the vision with his team, they said, “So God wants us on the other side of the sea.” The heart of the matter is this: The Macedonian man called him to come and help them. Come to Macedonia.

Have you ever heard and seen the Macedonian calling you to come and help? Have you not seen that man who says, “Come and help us!” If not, there is something radically wrong in your life. You cannot have Jesus in your heart and not have seen this man and heard his calling.

I have often said that I am ageing so others should go while I stay. But this morning I said to myself that I will have to continue preaching until I breathe my last breath. How can one sit down and do nothing while hearing that piteous, desperate cry, “Come, help us!” It is doubtful to me to go to NW Africa to preach but I hear the voice of that man saying, “Come over and help us.”

Have you heard that man’s call, “Come and help us!” Maybe you do not know that there is such a thing. You may have accepted the Lord, you attend services, you have stopped drinking, smoking and your immorality but you have not even gone halfway. That Macedonian man might be your neighbour who is desperate for help, he is dying in his sins, he does not know where he is going. Have you helped him? Have you told him about Jesus? He might be your enemy. Perhaps he is your enemy because he needs your help. It might be a person of another nation, maybe your boss, your worker, your child, your parent. Your Macedonia is a reality. Do you hear the piteous cry of people on their way to hell, “Come, please, we need your help!”

Today our world is like Sodom and Gomorrah. What are you doing? What steps have you taken? Who is willing to raise his voice and help and enlighten people? People are being destroyed by drinking, drugs, immorality and stealing. What steps have you taken? Are you busy with your business or making money for yourself? Your god is your stomach. You have not done the real work yet. That person is crying but you do not care about dying people. You do not help them. Woe to the person who does not have an ear to hear what God is calling him to do but rather he runs away. Instead, he heeds the voice of the things God has not called him to. That is what he rushes after.

The Macedonian may be someone in hospital or jail. Have you helped him? Are you obedient when God tells you to help him. You only have half of the gospel. It is good to come to Jesus but bad if you stop there. You obey His Word when He says, “Come to Me!” – you come to Him. But when He says, “Go!” - you disobey. Where will you end? You started well, but you stop with disobedience. Possibly God sent you to help him but you do not, instead you smoke and sin with him. Your hell will be worse than his. Are you able to help others? Have you gone to the Macedonian man and helped him like Paul? He helped women near the sea, people in jail. Paul went all over and helped people. How many people have you helped?

On New Year’s Eve I said to the congregation that if God should spare us, you should come forward and show whom you have won to the Lord. But why wait for New Year? Next Sunday or when I return from overseas, show us the person you have won to the Lord. I do not want you to be barren. I do not want you to say how nice it is to have come to Christ but you fail to win others. You do not hear the people who are on their way to hell. Do you not you hear their cry? Does the rich man in hell have more feeling than you? He asked Abraham to send someone to help his five brothers lest they also come to hell. Countless people are crying for help and who heeds the call?

Indian people, are there no Indians who are crying? Maybe it is a white man or a Zulu or a Mozambiquan. Do you heed his call? You say that you have come to Jesus, you know the saving grace of Christ, you have a wonderful testimony. But when Jesus sends you, you don’t go. You might say that a person does not want to be saved because he is fighting and cursing but possibly that is his cry for help.

Mr Detlef Stegen
Are we fit to hear the call of God or are our ears closed to it? We love to attend conferences which is the sweetness of meeting together as Christians. We often make resolutions at conferences and are stirred to do the task that lies before us but the sickness amongst Christians is that they make good resolutions but have poor outcomes.

Saul’s conversion was so drastic and dramatic. He saw that his life had been spent persecuting Jesus. When Jesus appeared to him, he decided that his life would change and he would be obedient to the call of Jesus Christ. He was filled with the Holy Spirit and that Spirit was alive in him from then onwards even though it was revealed to Ananias that Paul would have to suffer, “…how much he will have to suffer for the Name of Jesus.” Nowadays we speak lightly about the Holy Spirit. But when Isaiah met with the holiness of God Almighty, His Spirit was thrice holy. When we meet with the holiness of God, we can only cry out for mercy because we see our sinful self.

Has your conversion been genuine? Are people converted to the very depths of their hearts through your preaching? Does it only need a sinner’s prayer for your converts to be truly converted and filled with God's Spirit and there is an end to the spirit of the world and the spirit of fanakalo Christianity? We don’t want fanakalo Christianity, we want true Christianity that is effective, that has the power of God, that has the Holy Spirit who leads and guides into His truth - which Jesus instructed His disciples and Saul experienced. Jesus said, “Go into all the world, teach them to keep all that I have commanded you.”

Have you been keeping that which God has commanded you? Have you taught others what God has taught you? Your converts can never live a higher Christian life than yours. It is just a miracle if that happens.

Luther describes a dream he had when he entered a church and heard amazing preaching. As he went closer to find out who was preaching, he saw that it was the devil himself. Afterwards he asked the devil, “Mr Satan, how can you expound the Word of God so wonderfully?” Satan replied, “Mr Luther, don’t you know that preaching without the Spirit of God only hardens the hearts of the listeners?”

The disciples of Jesus were so determined to be true witnesses of all that they had seen and heard from Jesus Himself.

Rev Stegen had such an urge that he said, “If these lips of mine do not speak the truth anymore, let them turn to dust.” He wanted God to be present and work. He said, “Even if I eat mud as long as God can be in our midst.”
Rev Stegen was at a university during the time our country went through a political struggle. A student said to him, “Reverend, you speak very well, but I do not know you. Can I come and live with you to see whether what you are preaching is true?” Thank God Rev Stegen said, “You are welcome. I have nothing to hide. God changed my life. Jesus transformed me and I have no grudges or hatred. Even if you are from a different race, I see you as a brother and will treat you as such.”

You know the story he related of a preacher who preached so well that the papers flew. The audience was hushed, one could hear a needle drop. On that day, Mrs Preacher accompanied her husband and was surrounded by the prayer ladies in that meeting. When the preacher said Amen, the ladies escorted Mrs Preacher out of the meeting. Nobody dared to speak after such an impressive sermon. Eventually someone gathered her courage and said, “Mrs Preacher, isn't it wonderful to have a husband like yours?” She replied, “You don’t know what he is like at home.”

Jesus instructed His disciples to start in Jerusalem - a difficult place where they suffered and were persecuted. Jesus did not say, “Start in Korea or Alaska, but at home. We thank God for this revival that starts with a man, with the husband and the wife. If they do not live right, what message do they have for their children? “Yes, Lord, I will go to the far east but my children are impossible.” Start where the concrete is very hard. Start where it is tough, hard and difficult. If things come right at home, you can be respected and go to your neighbours.

When Rev Stegen started preaching in some rural areas, the people said, “Pastor, go and convert that white shop keeper, that white farmer and then we will get converted.”

Sometimes it is wonderful to work among people who are not so intellectual and are not Doctors of Divinity but ordinary people who tell you the truth which you can follow.

Rev Stegen once said, “Don’t go to Christians that they give a verdict about your life. Go to the non-Christians and they will tell you whether you are truly converted or not.”

Take the small stones, put them in your shepherd’s bag and face Goliath. Maybe you will be victorious over Goliath if you take small stones.

When we meet with the holiness of God, we can only cry out and say, “Woe to me. Woe to me. I am a man of unclean lips.” Isaiah started with himself and then he said, “I live among a people with unclean lips.” I have been influenced by such people. When the Holy Spirit starts working, He will show you your own sin. Do not be quick to preach at others and point at them. What do the fingers say? Here is a man who is three times worse and God is the witness that you are three times worse than the one you are pointing at.

Dr Kurt Koch, a Germany theologian, was an expert in counselling and helping people out of occult bondage. He was always touched when he heard about revivals and he visited every place where revival was taking place. He said that there was one mark of true Holy Spirit revivals - a deep conviction of sin. People wept about their sin and could not be consoled. They could scarcely believe that there was forgiveness. Baba Dube can also testify to that. At Maphumulo men wept saying, “We are sinners,” and they were told that Jesus could forgive their sins. They would respond with, “Mfundisi, you don’t know how bad my sins are.”

It is wonderful if God's Spirit is at work and God calls a person to a place where he can say, “I am a man of blood. My hands are stained with blood.” God tells them, “Go to that place and pour out your burden.” How wonderful if your cry touches the heart of Jesus and the wall of separation crumbles and God is very close to you. You pray and you know that God hears your prayer. You can pray and ask the Lord whether there is anything in your life that displeases Him. Is there anything you have against your brother or sister? I did not get an opportunity to pray because she prayed so long. Why must he always talk, what about me? I am more educated and have more degrees than him. Then you start with a grudge in your heart. Can you see the evil of your sin?

God instructs one of the seraphim who cry out, “Holy, holy, holy is God Almighty,” to place a burning coal on your lips to cleanse them. We cannot pray and just have our sins forgiven. It needs God’s cleansing power to cleanse your heart, mind, lips, eyes and ears so that your guilt is taken away and you are free. If sin is not dealt with, it clings to a person as he ages. Before he dies, he realises that he cannot enter the gates with the burden. “Pastor,” he will call, “come that I can confess my sins.” Those tongs and the coal resemble the holy blood of “the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world.”

After God had justified Isaiah, God said, “Your guilt is taken away,” then he heard the voice of God saying, “Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?” Do we hear that voice? We hear wonderful things if our hearts are cleansed. Brother, sister, son, daughter, father, mother, I urge you today to see that your heart is pure, then you will see and hear God. Isaiah invited the people, “Come. Even if your sins are as red as scarlet, they shall be whiter than snow.”

Servant of God, prophet, intercessor, have you been approved by God? Can He count on you to be true, faithful and obedient? We are about God’s business. If I work for a boss, it is his business, I just work for a salary. If I want to resign and look for a better job, the choice is mine. But here we have the choice of eternal life or damnation. Our life hangs on a thread and thank God that your thread has not been cut if things are not in order in your life.

Look into God’s mirror. See yourself as God sees you. Are you just like women who make themselves up from the toes, everything is made-up. Do not be a make-up Christian.

Some years ago, media people came and spoke about their wives and their make-up. I do not know make-up because my mother did not use it and neither did my wife. I always thought that it was probably the husband who said, “Wife, put on some make-up!” But those men said, “If we reprimand our wives about their make-up, we get beaten!” I was shocked. I thought the men forced their wives to wear it. But if the men try and stop them, they might even get beaten. Let us not be make-up Christians. Paul says, “Be imitators of Christ,” but not through your spiritual make-up. It is commanded, “Be imitators of God.” That is written in your Bibles, dear preachers, not only in mine.

Do not say that you are so happy to see someone but in your heart you are upset and questions arise such as, “What is she doing here? She always disturbs me. I am tired now.” Your mouth smiles but when your Christian sister visits or asks you things, you get fed-up. You call her a sister, “Sister, I'm so glad to see you,” but your heart says, “Get away! I have had enough of you.”

When Samuel came to Jesse’s house to anoint the next king after Saul’s unfaithfulness… (that is another sermon about the disobedience of the one who had been chosen to lead God’s people. God had changed his heart. I can weep over that and say, “Is it possible that God can change my heart? Change my heart, Lord and if needs be, let it be changed every day.”) When Samuel was sent to Jesse’s house, he looked at the firstborn son and thought he would surely be the one to anoint instead of Saul but God rebuked him and said, “Don’t look at the man outwardly for I look at the inward parts of the man.” That is the difference, we have to do with a God who sees our hearts and reads our inward motives. How terrible if on the last day God will say, “You are fake. You are not true. You pleased man, not Me, God, your Saviour, Jesus. I gave My life for you but you served men. You wanted their approval, not heaven’s approval.”

Do we hear the piteous cry of men on their way to hell? What steps do you take? Equip yourself during these days. Let God prepare your heart so that you will have an ear to hear what God is calling you to do.

Let us pray. O God, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, come and be among us, speak to every heart. The world is perishing. Our sons and daughters are perishing. They seek for the life which You have prepared for them. Work in us that we will be faithful and true messengers of Jesus Christ. That as You command us we will be faithful and true to You Who saved us and revealed to us the mystery of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Amen

Conclusion Mr Michael Ngubane
The challenge is that people are crying in their misery. Do we have hearts to help them? Someone might say that we are blessed by everything we have heard but Jesus will say, “No, but blessed is the one who hears My words and having heard, will go and do.”