Missions: Are We Doing It Wrong?
Over the past two weeks, we look at the birth of the Church and our new birth – what it is to be “born again”. This week, we’ll look at Biblical Missions as done by the guidance and power of the Holy Spirit working through the Church. Do we approach missions the same way today?
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Missions: Are We Doing It Wrong?Sun, Sep 24, 2023 10AM • 57:23SUMMARY KEYWORDSpeople, church, Paul, missions, Jesus, Greek, mission trip, Antioch, Barnabas, holy spirit, called, believers, talk, pray, apostles, lord, gentiles, heard, town, work
Good morning. Welcome. If you're new here among us, my name is Jean I serve here at C three church as your pastor. Let's start with the story. That's what we do. So I heard a story about another church kind of like our church, where you begin asking the why questions? Why do we do things the way we do them? Has anyone ever thought of this? Right? So what did we do years ago started going to the word, this is the way we should do it. So they started going through all their programs and all their things and trying to get them as aligned as they could with the Bible. And so finally, they get to missions. And they looked at what we're going to be seeing today. And they said, we really don't do missions like that, you know, we just kind of put a clipboard out, nobody really prays about it, we go to some place. And sometimes we've been there over and over again, sometimes doing the same projects, again, seeing the same people is this mission. So they decided, You know what, let's just do what they did in the Bible. And we're going to fast and pray. And we're going to ask a question. So we're all going to fast and pray. We're going to go do our own thing for a while. And we're going to see what we hear from the Lord. Fast. They pray, they asked, Where? Where do you want us to go, Lord, they all come back together, and they all come up with the same answer. The Middle East. So now they're going to go and pray and ask another question. Who? And that's where, you know, if they're being honest with you, they're praying, not me. Not me. Not me. Not me. Right. So we don't want to go on that mission trip, right? So they're, they're praying, and nobody hears anything. Except, wait. Okay, we'll wait a couple weeks later, new guy comes in a church. After the service, where are you from? Well, he's like, locked down from out of state, but I'm originally from the Middle East. I felt called dimensions. But the Lord sent me here to this church. We know why prayer answered. So they train them up, and they send them but they have a different strategy, he's not going to start a church dangerous over there, he's going to do something a little bit different. He's going to get a job, right? So it's not a big expense for him to get a job at somewhere where he has a lot of exposure to people, you can talk about Jesus. So he decides, I'm going to get a job as a server in a restaurant. Perfect, right? I've talked to a lot of people and just serve them the best server ever, and then talk about Jesus. And it works. About a year later, this guy could run for mayor and when it's amazing. He knows everybody, but the government doesn't like it. And he's spreading Jesus that's not popular there. So they really want to kill him. For the kid, he's really popular and so are sort of right, like they're worried about in the Bible. What do we do? So the government officials have a meeting and one of them says, You know what, let's hire him. Yeah, let's hire the guy. And then we can do is give him an office job in the basement somewhere. Just hide him away. Like if you're familiar with George Costanza, him wrestling in that office, one person guy, okay, good. Funny show, but it's where I get a lot of my what is the deal with missions anyway. So it's a good habit to put away so like, you know, this is, this is a reason why you're not going to ever see me the same way again. But this is a really good idea. So go to the restaurants and one of the guys in offer him like they find out he's making about 25,000 year offer him 50,000 a year. I got a sounds like I don't even get paid that much. But okay, so he goes, you have a conversation. He says, hey, you know what? I can get you. You don't have to wait tables all day. I can get you a nice desk job and Air Conditioning for 50,000. What do you think about that? And this missionary waiter says, No. refuses it. Okay, so he goes back, and now they're kind of angry, really. But his supervisor says, You know what? Offer him $100,000 He can't refuse. That's crazy. Four times as much. Once you get me under them, anyway, so he goes to the restaurant and tells the waiter look, my boss said $100,000 No, one. Now he's mad. He's like, Listen, are you crazy? I don't even make that much. He's insulted. He's like, you're just nuts. What's wrong with you? Is it not enough money is the pay not big enough for you? And he says, It's not the pay. It's not big enough. It's the job. That's not big enough. So today, we're going to talk about and there's no joke that was the Seinfeld thing was the joke. It's not always funny. So anyway, I don't need a joke today. I don't think it's going to be that hard, right? I don't have to break the ice too much. So today we're going to be looking at the big job of missions and really thinking about it, we're going to grab it from the text, we're going to start in the text. That's what we do here at sea, three church, if you're new, everything comes from this. So, you know, we do have kind of like a verse of the day problem and Christianity, right, so people just read that verse and randomly another verse somewhere else, and randomly another verse somewhere else. And that's why they don't understand the Bible at all, right? Because they're just hopping around from one sentence to another, you want to read larger portions of the text, and then zoom in when you get the point when you notice about. So today, we're going to be doing X 12 through 14, but not all of it. And we're just not going to have the time. So I will paraphrase some stuff for you. And point some things out like your tour guide on the whale, stop the bus point something out for you, and we're going to keep moving. But this is not to kind of dismiss the text. I encourage everyone here, read, go read it for yourself, don't believe me, or anyone else, just believe that. Alright, so I'll overview as best as I can for you. And then we'll kind of get submissions here, and we'll take a look at that. So we ended at x 11. And we saw the church at Antioch, they're getting a collection together for Jerusalem where there's going to be a famine, this is where their first called Christians for the first time. And so what you have an axe Luke is just Well, of course, Holy Spirit driven, right. But a brilliant writer, you know, man working with God like that MC Escher hand in hand things. So Luke is going to insert some of themselves in here, he's just a great writer, smart guy, a doctor uses big words really, really hard to read in Greek. But he does these cutscenes. So he's going to be here and then cutaway scene to here so now we're going to cut to Herrod Agrippa and we're going to see that the church gets persecuted. So we're going to go back and forth to Antioch and then Herod the stuff about Harrods in between. So you're going to see James is killed. This is James of James and John's killed by the store. Now it's really funny. We're going to get to James, we're going to insert James in this series. When you begin reading Greek, one of the things that you notice when you get better at it is that it doesn't say James, it says, Jacob, that's his name. So you have my permission, you can cross out James and write Jacob. So anytime that that name appears in the New Testament, it's Jacob in Greek, so he's killed things to note on the tour this morning. There's no violence. Remember? Martyr, right? The origin for that word as witness in Greek. If you're reading it in Greek, you'll notice it looks a lot like martyr. Yes. Because that's where the word comes from. Again, a nonviolent movement here, Peter, he's put in prison. So King Herod thinks, ah, that made people happy to just I'm going to kill him after the Passover festival. So he has these guards like 16 guards, guarding him. And what's happening is again, you got to notice this, what did they do? They take him, he's going to get killed. He's thinking he's going to die, right? He started an army. They got their two swords. Then they started an army and to break them out. No, it specifically says they prayed. They're praying, and it works. So an angel bust him out of prison. By prayer. It's amazing. So bright light, and everything is like Peter, get your clothes. Let's go. It's him on the side. And he leads them out. The chains just off and there's two guards one on either side of him Janesville off them. He passes by the first guard tower, second guard tower to the city gate, it opens for him. He thinks it's like a dream or something. He has no idea and he realizes the Lord just broke me out of jail. So he goes to John Mark's house and his mother many Mary's Mary did that many Mary's goes to John Mark says we have a scene that's kind of like Jesus's resurrection scene when you think about it as a John Mark author of the gospel of Mark Rhoda goes to answer the door here's Peters voice his mom's name is Mary. Here's Peters voice it's so excited because he like leaves them out there goes to tell everybody Peters kind of like
just broke out of jail people like let me in. Right so she is telling them and it's a scene, right? Like, like the resurrection. The woman believes but the man inside out they don't believe like no must be an angel or as ghost right? So said the same thing about Jesus. He's a ghost. He's like, no, no, I'm not check it up. Since I've seen the finally they go get them inside. He explains what happens. And then he says just says he goes to another place. Then cut scene back to Herod Agrippa. Again responsible for all this. He has the guards killed. That was what would happen to Roman guards. So interrogated. He has been put to death if you lose your prisoner, so not very good. We'll see that kind of almost happened again later. On not today, but later. So he caps off what happens to Herod basically he's angry with the evil tyrant side and I believe he's angry with those people and send a delegation try to make peace and then they talk this guy Blastus was his assistant King Herod and they make the peace and he gives a speech And they're like, oh, it's like the voice of God they begin to kind of worship him. He accepts this worship and so God strikes him dead because he gets ill and then dies and then worms eat him so it's like the end of Isaiah right because you could very worms are going to eat you. I believe it's a Josephus who also wrote a story about this story is that he had a horrible like stomach illness and die. So that's what happens the king a grip of so you see, well, we're going to see a contrast between what happens to him and accepting to worship and Peter for Paul actually, for example, so cutscene back to Saul and Barnabas, x 1224. Meanwhile, the word of God continue to spread. And there were many new believers when BBs and solid finished their mission literally in Greek, the service to Jerusalem, Jerusalem, they returned taking John Mark with them. We're going to see that later. So now we're going to go back to Antioch here, x 13, one among the prophets and teachers of the church at Antioch of Syria where Barnabas Simeon called the black man who is called Niger, and literally is what it says, Lucia is from Cyrene. Manean, in the childhood companion of King Herod, enter, pass, and salt. One day, as these men were worshipping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, a point Barnabas and Saul for the special work to which I've called them. So after more fasting and prayer, the men laid their hands on them and sent them on their way. So Barnabas and Saul were sent out by the Holy Spirit. Then they went down to the seaboard of Selucia. And then they sell it for the island of Cyprus. There in the town of Salinas. They met when they went to the Jewish synagogues and preached the word of God, John Mark went with them of his time as their assistant. So now, they're going to keep traveling across the entire island, they finally reached a place called payphones or Paphos, where they met a Jewish sorcerer, Bard, Jesus or LMS. So he's attached himself to the governor there Sergius Paulus. And what happens is he's convincing elements is like, if you're Greek you like elixir, so you can pay like a sorcerer. Basically, it says it means sorcerer, but you can attach it to that. So anyway, he's convincing the governor don't listen to these gods. He's a false prophet. And so Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit. And here's where it says Saul, also known as Paul. So this is where you get that now you're, it's like the big reveal is, if you didn't know before, maybe you didn't. You're like, oh, this is Paul, this is amazing. It's filled with the Holy Spirit. He calls him a son of the devil, which is really funny because Bart, Jesus means son of Jesus. So there's like this contrast, probably why Paul is saying that, you know, son of Jesus, your son of the devil and God's hand, the Lord's hand of punishment is going to come upon you. And you're not going to be able to see for a long time. And so this is what happened to Paul. So Paul basically inflicts what happened to him on this guy by the power of the Lord and he's blind. He's groping around. And so Sergius Paulus, the governor there sees this and he becomes a believer, he's amazed. So big transformation there. And we see that Paul preaches and Antioch of Pysidia and this is where John Mark leaves them. This will be important later, but John Mark leaves them. And so he's sailing by ship for Pan valium on the Sabbath is what they do they go in. So on the Sabbath, they go to the synagogue, so there's no like church, per se. Yeah, there's still worshipping in the temple, from home to home, in the synagogue. So that's their habit. They go there, and they get asked to speak when they're there. If you have any encouragement. Let's hear it. So now Paul gives a sermon and it's like a mash up of what you heard from Stephen, what you heard from Peter. So he's going to go through some of the history of the Old Testament, build the Jesus, you killed Jesus, right? But he's the Messiah. Now this is going out to salvation. So as Paul and Barnabas left the synagogue that day, the people beg them to speak about these things. Again, the next week, many Jews and devout converts to Judaism follow Paul and Barnabas. And the two men urged him to continue to rely on the grace of God. So the following week, it doesn't go as well. Because they start getting jealous they get haters, right. So they get jealous because they're attracting all these crowds. So Paul says, you've rejected the salvation you've judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, and we'll offer it to the Gentiles. For the Lord gave us His command when he said, I've made you a light to the Gentiles to bring salvation to the farthest corners of the earth. So that was really like the theme we were looking at. So this is going out to the Gentiles to that breakdown. So the Gentiles are like, yes, you know, so they were very excited, the Jews not happy. So it's like last week we have all these Gentiles coming to the Lord, but x 1350. And then the Jews stirred up the influential religious women and leaders of this city and they incited a mob against Paul and Barnabas and ran them out of town. So they shook the dust from their feet as a sign of rejection went to the town of I conium. And the believers were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit. So this is just like what Jesus says right to his apostles when he sent them the first time. If they reject you, she Tell us from your feet is like we do this today, right? I'm out. So that's what they did. We are chapter break. And that's why like the chapters just in case you didn't know they weren't added until about 1200 ad and chat and all the numbers in your Bible, they weren't there. Neither were the headings. So this is a really good example of a very strange chapter break. Because x 14 one starts with the same thing happened and I conium so if you just start on 14, you'd be like what thing? So it doesn't make sense anyway, just try to put it together. Same thing happened and I conium Paul and Barnabas went into the Jewish synagogue and preach with such power that a great number of both Jews and Greeks became believers. Some Jews, however, spurn God's message and poison the minds of the Gentiles against Paul and Barnabas. But the Apostle stayed there a long time preaching boldly about the grace of the Lord. And Lord proved their message was true, by giving them power to do miraculous signs and wonders. But the people the town were divided in their opinion about them society to the Jews, and some of the apostles, then a mob of Gentiles and Jews, along with their leaders decided to attack and stone them, throw rocks at them until they die. When the apostles learned they fled. Notice that again, what did they do? They threw rocks back at them. Nope, doesn't say that. They fled to the region of like Konya to the towns of Lissandra and Derby, and the surrounding area. And there they preached the good news, so no, missions can be dangerous, it could get you killed. And still today, there's certain places it could get you killed. So note, though, right, so we don't go do missions, the Middle East, what do we bring with us an AK 47? Right. So we don't, you're not going to get on the plane with that. But we don't do that today. It's understood that that's not how we're supposed to spread the gospel yet, some would say otherwise. So while they're listening, there's a man who's got an interesting thing is hard to understand if you don't know any Greek mythology, but I'll just kind of explain it the best I know how. So while they're there, there's a man who's never walked, he's got crippled feet. And so pa seeing that he has faith to be healed to stand up and the guy pops right up, and he's jumping for joy. He's happy he's walking and so at the people there decide is that their gods, their Greek gods come in human form. And so they decide that Barnabas was Zeus. And Paul was like, because he's a good speaker, Hermes, like he's, he's chief speaker. And so the thing is, though, they have this temple to Zeus right outside the town. And so they think, Wow, this much must be the gods because they have these fake gods and actually do something. And it probably be rare that people would actually do something in a false religion. So this happens, and they're totally amazed. So when they do you know, to them, I think it's good. They get a bowl, and like with Rizal around it and stuff. They all just have to worship them with worship. And so you got to think like, imagine spending a lot of money on something, and someone rejecting that gift. So this is kind of what Paul does Paul and Barnabas do, right, so they tear their clothes. It's what you do in the ancient world. If you're upset, especially Jewish people, they tear their clothes sometimes throw dust on their head on set here, but tear their clothes with grief. And they're like, No, and Paul's very, very short statement sounds a lot like Romans chapter one, if you're really familiar with the Bible, right? And essentially, the idea here is you're worshiping the creation, not the creator, guys, you're getting it wrong. This is that. So they reject their gift, they put down their gift. And so now, some Jews arrive and that want to kill them. And they're like, Haha, they take advantage of it. And so it goes really, really bad. So crowds, they're trying to they stone, Paul, the crowds come the stone, Paul, they drag him out of town, and you think he's dead. So something really interesting happened. The believers gathered around him, he gets up and goes back into the town. Are
you serious? If someone like just stone me to death? I'm not going back there. But he does. What a faithful servant. So now, Paul and Barnabas are going to return so it's the story of the return. X 1421. After preaching the good news in Derby, and making many disciples Paul and Barnabas returned to Lister I conium and Antioch of the city so as to Antiox, right one of Syria, one of the cities sorry, I didn't mention that before. Where they strengthen the believers, they encourage them to continue in the faith, reminding them that we must suffer many hardships to enter the kingdom of God. I haven't heard that come up as the verse of the day I'm Paul and Barnabas also appointed elders in every church with prayer and fasting. Notice that comes up a lot. They turn the elders over to the care of the Lord and whom they had put their trust. Then they traveled back through passivity into pedophilia. They preached the Word and Perga then went down to Italia. Finally they returned by ship to Antioch of Syria, where their journey had begun. The believers there had entrusted them to the grace of God to the work they have now completed. Upon arriving in Antioch. They called the church together and reporting everything God had done through them and how he had opened the door of faiths to the Gentiles to and these stayed there the believers for a long time. So we see Paul's first mission trip his first missional journey, we see some of the themes that we saw last week, returning and reaching the Gentiles suffering for Jesus, we also see the operation of the church. So this is where we get a really good glimpse of that. How does the church operate? How do they appoint their missionaries? How do they appoint their leaders notes, if you read that longer section, right, if we just did one chapter, you might not have caught that. But you caught it, prayer and fasting, and both getting the same formula that keep using to appoint these leaders, these elders in that case, or these missionaries. So what I'm going to do today is let's look more closely at what missions looks like biblically like, and how we fit it into our culture, how we can get it there. Now, I am going to talk about the disclaimer. So if you stop the message, in the middle, you don't watch if you're watching online, you might think, by some of the things I'm saying or if you're not attentive, you might think these saying we shouldn't do missions. Absolutely not, is not whether we should do missions or not. We clearly should. It's how we do missions or hear that, how we do missions. I'm not saying no, right? So I'm not the Grinch of missions, just so you get that. And yes, that time of year is coming up again. Really, that's crazy, or to the store is just over down our throat anyway, not going to digress too much. So let's look at some verses that people typically use for missions. So this is a big one. If you've been a Christian your whole life, you've heard a missionary use it. So remember, Jesus has risen from the dead, he's about to ascend in the heavens and in the Gospel of Matthew, Matthew 2016. Then the 11 disciples left for Galleon, well, as I'm reading this, I want you to pay attention. think in your head, like remember reading comprehension in school? Who, what, when, where, why, right, the 11 disciples left for Galilee, going to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshipped him, but some doubted. Jesus came and told his disciples, I haven't given all authority in heaven on earth, Therefore go and make disciples of all nations. And I've explained this to you, ethnically think ethnicities go to all the different peoples everywhere, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son. And the Holy Spirit, teaches new disciples to obey all the commands I've given you and be sure of this. I am with you always, even to the end of the age now. Who 11 Judas is dead, hanging the 11 disciples, right? Up apostles. So let me explain something to you. And this is really, really funny because exegesis and hermeneutics and you want to know who, what, when, where, why, and make it simple. If you did that, to this text, the same way you do it to any other text, you'd come away with something like, Well, Jesus was giving specifically his 11, leftover apostles instructions, right? To go and make more disciples of all different peoples. And if you know Greek, it looks more like in Greek, you know, just different nationalities, different ethnicities. Alright, maybe nations, that's fine. Whatever, right? So this this is true is right. But everybody, I don't think so you wouldn't get that takeaway if you're reading it correctly. And if you kept reading all the way to x, you get this x one. Luke is writing in my first book, I told you at the office, about everything Jesus began to do and teach until the day he was taken up to heaven after giving who his chosen apostles, further instructions through the Holy Spirit. So explain something to you don't know Greek. If you know Greek, it's totally obvious because up Bustillo means I send apostle means sent one, one who is sent, that's just what it means. It's simple. But here's the thing, if you keep reading your Bible, which I highly recommend, you'll get to First Corinthians, and you're going to see something kind of interesting. Alright, so lots of problems in chorus, just like the church today, are we any different, but one of the problems is like they have these gifts of the Holy Spirit, and some of them are getting puffed up with pride about it, right? Like, you know, I'm an apostle or whatever it is, I am a prophet or I speak in tongues and you don't. And so, Paul's going to get to First Corinthians 12. And that's the context here, right? So he's talking about the body of Christ, he does something funny, which if you don't know Greek, you might not understand he's making like the hand or like the foot talk to the hand, right? Or the E or talk to him. If I'm not and I am not a part of the body. This is called Prosecco, PC and Greek. Paul uses it a couple times Roman seven, and here and sick. It's in Greek. It's called to make a face. So it's a puppet show. He's kind of doing for these people, making these silly kind of illustration but here Here's the point. First Corinthians 1227. All of you together are Christ's body. And each of you is a part of it. Here are some of the parts God is appointed for the church, first, apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then those who do miracles, those who have the gift of healing, those who can help others, those have the gift of leadership, those who speak in unknown languages or tongues literally. Are we all Basel's? Are we all prophets? Are we all teachers? Do we all have the power to do miracles? Do we all have the gift of healing? We all have the ability to speak in tongues or on the languages, if you don't have the ability to interpret, which he says later is very important. Of course, not good translation. Because what's happening in the Greek is it's No, it's rhetoric, no. So you should earnestly desire the most helpful gifts. But now let me show you a way of life that is best of all, and if you've ever been to a wedding, that's what you heard there. Right? First Corinthians 13. Love. So what's the point? Oh, great. You know what I mean? Like you may have that gift you may have that gives you if you don't have love what you're like a noisy instrument. Love is more important than all this stuff. So there you go. But here's the point. We are not all apostles. And it can mean sent when it's not just used as like capital A and low lowercase A apostles, right? Pafford itis and Philippians is called an apostle. But he's not one of those original apostles. But what does it mean? He was sent to Paul Paul's in prison. So he's an apostle, he's a sent one. So not all are sent ones not all even speak in tongues. A lot of denominations are like, not all speak in tongues. But here's the thing. We all have the base obligation to witness Jesus, but we're not all apostles, or there's no word for missionary in the Bible is not there. It's apostle. That's what it is. You're an apostle, if you're missionaries, the church does what fast prays lays hands on you and sends you. Not everybody are do you see what happened in the church? Right? That all those people in there who were chosen to, that's it? Holy Spirit says go. So that's the thing. So not everybody's what we would think of as a missionary. So here's the next thing. That's the first thing. We're not all called to missions. It's not our job. Just not everyone's called to teach. Clearly not everyone's called the same. So okay, good. Hey, how was good? Not you. You're good. You may be by yourself in the car in the shower or someplace like that. Here. That's why we turn up real loud. Anyway. I had to read have a say it's okay. All right. So the next thing about missions is it so now that we understand that from what not pass your genes opinion from the Word of God? That's who said it, not me, right. So now that we understand that, we have to make a distinction. And another problem that the church has, we have to make the distinction between missions. And visiting somebody, you see how they went back through, and they visited people, missions and visit, not every like visit to a foreign country is a mission, especially if you've been there 15,000 times you know, or they know Jesus, it's not a mission. You're visiting someone. So Paul makes this distinction of note in Second Corinthians 10. But it's a different context. In Romans when he writes to the Romans Turkey is his penance for him helping him out. He writes to a church he's never been to before. So he's talking understand that he's never been there. And so as he nears the end of the letter, he's going to write he writes this Romans 1520. My ambition has always been to preach the Good News where the name of Christ has never been heard, rather than where a church has already been started by someone else.
Check this out. I've been following the plan spoken of in the Scriptures where it says those who have never been told about him will see, and those who have never heard of him will understand. Paul's following the scriptures, imagine that. So of note, he's quoting the Greek Old Testament, not the Hebrew. In fact, my visit to you has been delayed so long, because I've been preaching in these places. But now I have finished my work in these regions. And after all these long years of waiting, I'm eager to, is it you? I am planning to go to Spain, I mentioned and when I do, I will stop off in Rome. And after I've enjoyed your fellowship for a little while you can provide for my journey. So here's the interesting thing. And this is why I put the disclaimer again, I'm not saying we shouldn't do missions. Most missions today that the church does our visits, and vacations, spiritual tourism that has been called, that's most missions today. They're going to a place where people already know Jesus and there are more and more articles about this coming up, because it is a $2 billion Every year industry, spiritual tourism called missions. But here's the thing. If you call it missions, it's hard for people to say no, isn't it? You're not going to support me, I thought you were a Christian, you're not going to support my mission trip. So they're, they're getting people to pay for their own Christian spiritual tourism, their own experiences. And that's what people say, when faced with this most pastor. Well, it's good for the believer, you know, it's edifying. And they learn what it's like, you know, outside of Naples, right? We're in a bubble. So, so you know, you go another country, that's great. If it's for your spiritual edification go, I'm not paying for it, and neither is the church. It should be on your dime, right? So that's the difference. $2 billion to go places we've all already been. So we need to stop calling them missions and start calling them field trips. That's what we need to start doing. Let's be honest. Right. So the other thing here is, and this is a really big one, it used to annoy us a lot, because we had a thrift store for a while. And they always wanted to show where the money was going. You're like, no, no, we need and we had like, all these mission organizations that we gave money to, right, which was just a waste, because they figured more, you know, because you're giving each one of them 100 bucks or something where you could just give one all the money and do some good? No, we're going to spread it out. Because more is better, right? And they needed a poster all the time to show everyone what we're doing it I was like, do supporting the church? Like what has become wrong with that, like, I don't understand it. So what do we see today, just look at the word of God, forget what you know, if you've been a Christian for a long time, try. Biblical missions are always through the church. They're always done through the church. First and foremost, the church is a mission organization, which spreads the gospel locally, and online out to other people, and sends or supports missionaries who are trained, appointed and anointed to do that work. And how do we do it? We pray we fast we asked the Lord to send the right people in or provide us with the right people. That's how it's done. So this is the function of the church. It's exactly what we saw on today's account. And it keeps happening throughout the Word of God. So you end up with to two problems already talked about, like field tripping on the church has done not cool, you know, just not cool. There's a lot of like, work that needs to be done. But you also have what a lot of pastors will call because we know about it. The parish church is called the parish church. And so this falls under the category mission some mission organizations kind of are some ministries kind of are. And so what happens is their organization started and I'll explain to you how these leaders are appointed and started outside the church. Right? Wrong. Everything's birth through just because it has that anointing, the accountability, the structure, the biblical structure. So they are ministries or Christian organizations without the biblical structure. How do you think that's going to work out? Uh huh. You know, it's not good. It doesn't it lacks the structure required by the word of God. You're not biblical. And so what happens is time and time again. And we've had happen in the churches, just you can get aggravating when just check it out. If you're in my position. And if you ever been in church leadership, you know, this not works. You know, if you're doing it right, and we're trying to do it right here. So I'm fasting, I'm praying, I'm asking the other leadership, and we have a rule here of the church. If even one person thinks it's a bad idea, I scrap it, even if like I really wanted it. Nope. It has to be just like the word of God says one mind. unanimous agreement. I think we are all trained to just let it go. We're like, no, okay, good. Let's move on, done. One minute. Plessy unanimous agreement. That's, that's what we need here. That's what we're looking for. So we go back, we got to fasten Craig, and we have to go and pray again. And just That's it. And we come together and bam. It's always unanimous when it's right. So one month, we're doing these things, and we go through this whole process. And then some other missionary comes in, where's your church? I don't have a church. You're not attached to any of that. Not a pastor, not any of that stuff and comes in and starts telling us like where we have to spend our money. You just came in here and you know, it's and you're telling a leadership that is fast and prayed and made this this? Think about it for a second, it would be annoying. Think about working your job. You like when people tell you how to do your job. It's like that. And it's also very insulting because it's like yeah, I don't think you heard from Holy Spirit, right? What? No, no, you know, so we've gotten better and better, like just really saying go I mean, like, like, stop it. That's like stray cat syndromes people come through. And here's the problem. And you have to be very cautious just for you. So for leave you like was a half of there with me? Well, what it has to do with you is this, you have to be very careful. Because these people will come through and it's like a routine and just could be individual, some individuals will come through ministries will come through some mission organizations will come through the talk to us first, usually, and then we say, No, sometimes yes, if it's like we prayed about it's the guy than the illustration will come in, that's literally happened. I'm like, Whoa, but that's what we're waiting for. Right? So but not that guy comes in asking for a bunch of money or like, sometimes it could be an individual. And we've given them money, we always do that. It's not money, we give like gift cards, some food, you'll see afterwards, I'll tell you how you can get a free meal if that's what you need. Right. So we feed them, we do everything we can help. Right, and then they come again. And then they come again. And they and then we start working. I work with a lot of other organizations, David Lauren center, collet, colleague or county Homeless Coalition, a lot of different people like that. And I start connecting them doing my case management. So I'm working on this. I know very few people come in here, I don't know everything about you. And you're always like don't say. So anyway, I know what you're going through. I know what you need, and I know what you don't need. And sometimes, like I've given you piles of fish, and now you need to go fish, right? We've been through it. But then when I say no, they go at someone else in the church for money. Wrong. And so if you do that, you could be enabling someone. Right? So you'd be very careful if anyone on the church just if you decided to come here, or to come here for a long time. No one should ask you for money. No one. Tell them to see jeans, go seating, asking. Like now it's because they already did. And I said no. No one, no one should ask you for money, especially if they're a ministry or mission organization, no individual. Ask them for their solicitation permit. That's what Heather does. She's really good at that. And people don't like you're supposed to have one of those anyway, they do the tech. I don't even deal with money.
I have no idea. I'm like, oh, go see the board. Go see Ed see Heather. Right. So that's the thing. And here's a note like When have I ever had felt like Samuel now if you know me, whenever I ever asked any of you for money for me, right? Like, doesn't the church take care of that? It's called double dipping. You're not supposed to do that. Here's the thing. Missions are supposed to be done in ministries, by appointed people. That's what we see in these accounts. Right. So what did it say Paul and Barnabas also appointed elders in every church with prayer and fasting, they turn the elders over to the care of the Lord and whom they put their trust. The right way on take you to Titus, because this is really what Titus is about three chapter book, Paul is writing to Titus who he's appointed, anointed, left him in Crete to appoint more elders or overseers it can be interchangeable, sometimes sends him to that island to do it. I just want you to pay attention to something when we're thinking about people who've gone outside the church realms. I don't want any of that. I'm going to do my own thing. Not appointed by anybody. Titus, one, five, Paul's writing, I left you on the island of Crete. So you could complete our work there and appoint elders look at that it keeps coming up in each town as I instructed you, an elder must live a blameless life, he must be faithful to his wife, one woman man in the Greek, and his children must be believers who don't have a reputation for being wildly rebellious, or church leader overseer, in this case he switched is a manager of God's household, so he must live a blameless life, he must not be arrogant or quick temper, he must not be a heavy drinker drunk with wine literally violent or dishonest with money. Rather, he must enjoy having guests in his home, it just says hospitable because that applies to the church to right, then he must love what is good, he must live wisely and be just he must live a devout and disciplined life. You must have a strong believer in the trustworthy message he was taught, then you will be able to encourage others with wholesome teaching and to show those who oppose it or they're wrong. So here's what happens. And I've had this happen. I've had people come in and say, How long does it take the pastor? I'm like, my buzzer. Wrong question. Right? There's a calling not a career. We asked you into it. Like, right, you know, what are the call, you know, you hit him with the qualifications and they're like, devout and discipline like, Are you kidding? I got to give up like, chocolate. Like, whatever your thing is, right? You got to give it up. You don't like it takes too long. How long did five years working one on one with my Paul? Five years, he's able to open up my phone, look under my bed had an interview with my wife every week. That's true. And they're like, Nope, it's much easier to go and start a 501 C three nonprofit organization takes about a year and then just do whatever you want. Go around saying Lord told you Lord told you and ask everybody have money. And that's exactly what happens. Now, I'm not saying they're all bad again, what was my disclaimer in the beginning, right? So okay, but it should always be attached to a church with that accountability over it in the proper process if it does not have that. It's not biblical. It's not by the word of God. Those who are qualified Did you notice it sounds a lot like the fruit of the Spirit. Because it is we should be filled with the fruit of Spirit teaching being qualification First Timothy three, it's also there must be able to teach, articulate the gospel. Where are you are these leaders fast PRAY, WAIT for confirmation, they do it the right way. Because biblical missions and ministries are guided by the Holy Spirit's right? Not a clipboards, not like a map and a dark. Like, no, they're guided by the Holy Spirit, He will tell us what to do and what not to do. If we jump ahead real quick, and peek and act 16, we see something interesting. Acts 16, six. Next, Paul and Silas traveled through the area of Phrygia, and Galatia. Because the Holy Spirit had prevented them from preaching the word of the word of the province of Asia at that time. And then again, then coming to the brothers of my Sia, they headed sorry, borders on my Sia, they headed north for the province of Affinia. But again, the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them to go there. He has a plan, imagine that. So instead, they went on through my car to the sea port of trust. The Holy Spirit should be guiding missions, not people. That's important. And so just to be real with you guys, I just want to share a couple of experiences with you that we've had really experiences at this church that we've had. We have developed this culture of like, clipboard ministry. So I always said, like, when we were doing it, and it was wrong, I always wanted to put a clipboard up and said, like, you know, I rack zero signed up, you know, someone would sign Paul up, you know, sign Paula, he'll go on a Deaf goes back to the same time. So you know, you know, but it's just, I've seen it as a great way to turn a hobby into a nonprofit. This happens a lot. And I'll tell you a couple cases. And if you're local, you may know what I'm talking about. I won't say him by name. But this really happened. This is a real, there's a real story. So we, we supported this mission organization, and here they go. And they wanted to do a mission trip to Costa Rica. And I thought that sounds nice. You don't have a vacation. Right? So you know, but I didn't get it yet. You know, whatever. I was just I think it was not a bad thing. I wasn't a pastor to train properly. I was on the worship team, I think at the time. And so fine, you're going to go to coach right. And there was this like urgent need, there was something having to do with baby formulas and things they were running out of, or whatever. So the church spent lots of money we put together tons of money, hundreds, if not 1000s, dollars, all kinds of money on these vital supplies to send them with their went on a mission trip. And they forgot the supplies. You know, they remembered their surfboards. And that is a true story. Hmm. Really, then, like a couple years later in this, I became a pastor. And a few years later, they announced that this big thing and if I had known really thought about this, I wasn't the lead pastor at the time, I wouldn't even let it happen. That they got up and said that they were going to do a mission trip to Rio, Brazil. If you don't know me. I spent a large portion of my life with Brazilians than living with literally living with me. I had to become a Brazilian and integrate into that culture to gain that trust because of Brazilian Jujitsu, right? Because I was a gringo. So it was difficult when you look like me, they don't like you. So in their culture at that time, I guess. So. Anyway, look, I've met a lot of resilience. I'm still very close. Really great friends with a lot of Brazilian people. They're all Christians. They're all Christians, Rio de Janeiro. the Jesus statue. That's where you're going to go. Like, I almost laughed, and then I kind of got a little angry. I was like, I want to go. There's enough. They didn't say we're going to the Amazon and even then, I know, I know pastors there. They would say stop. We go to the Amazon, let us do that. Just send us the money, please. You're going to spend, I think but what do they want to do? The search is very good there. That's why real you think the Holy Spirit told him to go to Rio? I don't think so. You know what I mean? It's just, and when you look at these things, and so it's so ingrained in our Christian culture, right? That like how dare you Pastor Jean, right? We talked about that if I was here to please people, I wouldn't be a servant of Christ. So anyway, no code. tendency, but people don't like it right? Because it's just a part of the college. It's just what we do. What are you saying you don't support missions? I don't support Christian field trips. I don't support spiritual tourism, you do that. And my wife and I, we've had this joke for years, because we saw how did we come from the business world initially, right? So, you know, we see things like for what they are, and we just call it out or like, doesn't look that stupid, you know, whatever, right? So we made a joke. Like, we've just been going to Disney for years and dropped the politics or whatever. It's not about that. We just been going there for years. This is what we do. It's we've been through as we were dating. And so we're like, you know what? There are people literally from all over the world here right now. It's kind of like Jerusalem and X. Everybody, this is shooting fish in a barrel, right? So you know, what if we get Jesus T shirts, and then we promise to talk about Jesus in the parks, and everywhere we go with the church pay for our mission trip? We didn't. But if I asked you to do that, you're going to laugh? But why aren't you laughing at the people who are trying to get you to pay for their surfing trips? Or bicycle riding trips? Or whatever it is? Why are you laughing at that? It is as ridiculous as it looks. It's ridiculous. Their visits, and there's nothing wrong with that. If you want to go visit your friends and I don't surf, but you know what I mean? Like, that's, but I'm not going to ask you to like, I really miss my friends in Brazil. I'm going to go preach there. Can you guys pay for that? No, don't, I'm not going to ask. It's ridiculous. Jesus there, that's not the mission. Stop it. It's a visit. And again, there's nothing here me. There's nothing wrong with visiting, there's once great, but don't ask the church to pay for it. It's not what that's for. Right?
So again, it's a great way to get people to pay for your health. And if any of you do this today, you will get reviewed from the stage. How do you start a five? That's the question. Look at all this stuff. I tell somebody's going to come up to me. And they're going to say, how do you start a 501? C three. Right? So that's No, right. But to a lot of people, it's a great way to get the church to pay for their hobbies. That's what it is. It's really hard to say no to missions, isn't it? You look like the bad guy. That's called manipulation. That's what that's called. Now, you may be sitting there saying, I don't care. Right? Like, who cares? Well, guard yourself. But here's the thing, we may not all be missionaries. But we're all on mission, to love our neighbor, to spread the gospel in that way to the people just around us by loving people. But here's the thing, if we look at the process for missions, and here's your personal application, before we close, we can apply these things for our everyday lives. So it's not just the church, the church is like a picture of what your life should look like as you're living it. So you can apply these principles to your life. So what do they do? And this is really interesting, and you guys are not going to like this, but it's okay. Fasting. Think about it. Think about all the junk we put in our bodies and if you ever have if you ever don't like a fast or you just even start to and I'm not going to give like a health speech or anything. It's not what this is about. Just being real. Right? So if you start eating clean, right, you stop like drinking stuff with tons of sugar and drugs. It's drugs. Kevin's a drug you know, it's like cocaine you know, you stop doing coke. You stop doing that you stop putting all the poison your body you'll notice something clarity, clarity you sleep better. You wake up better you think faster and no caffeine in me right now this is the Holy Spirit by the way that's going to get done on like four right so he's using me tiring but anyway so there's that but I'm just let's talk about the practical right so you do Holy Spirit can be working in you but if you poison yourself he's not obligated to on poison you stop you know so clarity, clarity help you make these decisions think clearly understand the word you won't be so foggy. I quit some of the stuff a long time. Caffeine makes me vomit. Like I'm going to have a heart attack now like I can't even have any of it. Like certain shoulders like I'll shake you know, you don't realize what it's doing to you. And I don't know if anyone here has been a smoker is a smoker. Like I was a smoker for many years. And like your first cigarette I was really young way too young. But anyway, purchasing I felt like going to die. Like I'm dying. My oxygen is gone. What's happening? Like, then I don't know why Oh, drugs nicotine. You do it again. Right and do it again until you can tolerate it. It's not that the cigarettes doing any less damage. It's just that you're used to killing yourself now. That's what's happening. See Same thing with all the poison we put in our body. So again, I'm not getting on like healthcare. But listen, Ted, this is a temple of God, you're obligated to take care of. So that's the thing. The other thing to prayer you are what you eat, is that, well, you also become what you digest with your eyes and your ears. And now I'm not going to get legalistic about secular movies, I watch them secular music, it's fine. Once you get strong enough in the Lord, you can just be like, whatever I can. That's not what I'm talking about, but, but the amount the quantity of poison that people are putting in their eyes and their ears, in facts, your mind. So just be careful about if you're strong and alert, to start thinking about the quantity of this garbage that you're digesting into your brain. Don't limit it, cutting up, turn it off, pray, read the Word of God, listen to him, you can't hear him. When all these noises around your kids, you need to pray. So it's about just stop. I want to think clearly hear you clearly Lord, like, just develop that relationship. Then we can let the Holy Spirit guide our lives. That's what we're supposed to be doing. We're supposed to be led. And sometimes we don't even know why. I do all the time. Like, Oh, I feel like I got to go there. And all of a sudden, something crazy happens when I go there. I'm like, Huh? That's really weird. I call them God, incidences. Now. It's, there's no coincidence. It's unbelievable. But the more I'm listening to him, the more of them I get. It's insane. But only by listening. And then when I'm not I can tell because you don't happen. So it's important. We come up with a lot of ideas on our own, but they're not always good ones. The other thing just for some encouragement today, expect resistance. Tried to stone Paul, express the Gospels offensive. There is no doubt we shouldn't be like, we should be leading with love, but you don't like it. Also, here's what people don't like self improvement. When someone doesn't want to improve. They do not. It's like me as a dad talking to her older brother. This is practical advice. When someone does not want to improve themselves. And you do you talk. You talk to them. Even if you don't say a word you say your point you begin pointing out their faults without even thinking it's not your fault, but you do. So using my wife story sober nine years. That's it. So over nine years miraculous, but you don't drink. So when someone has a problem with drinking, you can always tell they hate her. They hate her. There are a lot of people that hate my wife. She's really pretty. So I mean, that's the first thing. Check as a kid, but she is beautiful woman. She's gorgeous, really beautiful woman, the luckiest guy in the world. But she doesn't drink. And I'm the luckiest guy know how to deal with that. Right? But a lot of people can't do that. They can't not drink. A lot of people have a big problem with it. And it's affecting their readiness to everything. So they hate her. But she knows how to deal with it. Yeah, thicker yours to do. They hate it. They just hate her. And so be ready. When you come out. And you're like, I love Jesus that annoys people. But then when you're filled with the drain, like these things aren't bothering you as much because you're filled with the fruit of the Spirit. And just like love joy, peace, patience, don't do it like that. But anyway, because that's annoying, but you know, just but when you're just radiating that it will, it will radiate from you. It will come out you won't be able to help it. You're going to get hate. Get ready for the haters, it's going to happen, right? So get ready. So that's why what they're sent out how to buy to partnership. Make good friends who will encourage you build you up. Don't hang around this. Like I was talking my daughter don't hang around those losers anymore. I don't know if you can say that in sermon. I just did. So anyway, but get new friends get church friends. And that's why the church is where you find the good people. Because clearly by now you should be obvious to that I'm really good at chasing the wrong people out. So they're not going to be here for very long. We're a family. We're like a family without the drama.
And so it's great. I do not have you know everyone like that here. I don't tolerate drama, no drama, you know? No, no name calling no gossip, let me know back by hand for sounds like to me, right? No, no, we are all part of the body of Christ. We love one another and that's it. love joy peace patience, one mind. That's it. Don't care where you came from, how much money you make, what color you are. Doesn't matter. You are my brother and sister. I love you. Right? That's it. Love you all. And so you don't have the drama so that will just lead to me closing here. I'm going to tell you how you can connect with us if you want to be a part of this crazy family. Anyway, but you know, I'll tell you how you can. That's my encouragement for you. Okay, so I hope it was encouraging. It's a bit about missions, but it's important that you understand right how the function of the church works, how missions work, most of all, how you can get connected with us, we want to partner with you, and we want you to be a part of the family. We want you to just do life with us. We don't want you doing life alone. We're not called as Christians to do. Alright, so I hope that was encouraging for you this morning. Thank you for coming. Let me pray for you, Lord, I thank you for this time and for everyone who came in today and that you sent them in here there's no coincidence. It's a god incidents this morning. And so I just believe that I was just praying to a bunch of miracles all these people are just you're living miracles. And Lord, I love them so much. I know that you love him and I love him because you do. And so I just pray you fill them with the Spirit. You encourage those who need to be encouraged so that we may be better vehicles for your grace, your mercy, your hope, your peace and your love. As we go out this week, I ask these things in Jesus's name