Teaching Matters (Matthew 16:1-12)
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet virtually this week.
Transcript
Uh hello good morning my name is chet i'm one of the pastors here we're excited to get to see you this morning we are coming back to gathering and figuring out how to gather well as God's people in the midst of a pandemic some of what we have here is some chairs spread apart if you need to move a chair because you brought more people with you that's fine we do still have room in the balcony if you want to or need to spread out more as people come in we it's fluid.
So we're able to try to work around being able to gather well together while also social distancing as best as we can we gather as a Church on sundays we sing we praise the lord we study the Bible together we have a sunday school class that meets to study the Bible together we gather throughout the week in community groups and homes and we do all the things that we do because we believe that Jesus is better than everything else he's better than what our tvs are selling us he's better than what our politicians are telling us he's better than all the things that the world has to offer and in him the things the world.
Have to offer get redeemed become good become enjoyable as we enjoy them as people who worship and love the lord and so our hope as a Church is to be a Gospel-centered community on mission people who are in life with one another holding up as foundational for us that Jesus saved sinners is the primary hope that we have that that connects us better than any other connection we might have in the world and that we are sent as missionaries into our city into our jobs into our neighborhoods many of the great Christian leaders of this generation and of the next generation do not currently believe in.
Jesus many of the great pastors and Church planters many of the great uh people who are going to lead community groups who are going to be good missionaries sent overseas do not currently trust and follow and believe in Jesus but his by his spirit and by him empowering his Church they will come to hear the Gospel believe the Gospel and be sent out as good missionaries and we are participating in that as we follow him as missionaries so that more and more people might place their faith in him be changed and be sent out.
If you have not joined a community group we want you to we want you to be in life with people who are following Jesus we used to hand out little connect cards but from what we understand we might would be sharing more than just a connect card with you so we're not handing anybody anything at this point but you can use the qr code with your phone to be able to fill out the form online or afterwards you can swing by and talk with phoebe garcia who'll be right down the hall and would love to talk with you about how to serve how to get connected with a group how to join our Church family.
As we come together this morning i will pray and then we'll read psalm 150 as we start worship this morning father we thank you for your grace and your goodness towards us i pray that you would bless this morning that we might grow in our love for you and one another we pray this in Jesus name amen psalm 150 says praise the lord praise God in his sanctuary praise him in his mighty heavens praise him for his mighty deeds praise him according to his excellent greatness praise him with trumpet sound praise him with loot and harp praise him with tambourine and dance praise him with strings and pipe praise him with sounding symbols praise him.
With loud clashing symbols let everything that has breath praise the lord praise the lord you guys stand let's sing together this morning to God be the glory let's lift up our voices to God be the glory great things praise the lord praise the lord let the earth hear his voice praise the lord praise the lord let the people to the rejoice through Jesus oh perfect redemption the purchase of blood to every believer the who truly believes that moment from Jesus praise the.
Lord praise the lord let the earth hear his voice praise the lord praise the lord let the people through Jesus our rejoicing through when Jesus received praise the lord praise the lord let the earth hear his voice praise the lord praise the lord like the people rejoice through Jesus a reading from romans chapter 6 verses 1 through 6 please read the underlying portions with me what shall we say then are we to continue in sin that grace may abound by no means how can we who died to sin still live in it do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ.
Jesus were baptized into his death we were buried therefore with him by baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the father we too might walk in newness of life for if we have been united with him in a death like his we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his we know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing.
So that we would no longer be enslaved to sin let's continue to worship God together this morning is wash you your name is the fear that helps us is your name your name is your name is victory is your name me the two where soldiers watched borrowed for three days is God we praise you that that is what is true for us that by your spirit we are made alive you are our resurrected king and because of the good news of the Gospel we follow after you into resurrection life that has begun.
Now and lord as your Church we want to hear from you this morning we want to follow in obedience so would you speak to us by that same spirit in Jesus name amen you guys can be seated so good morning my name is spencer i'm one of the pastors here we're going to be in Matthew 15 and 16 today we got four stories that we're going to get through so we encourage you to open a Bible the uh text will also be on the screen you know what i'm going to miss this year i missed all this pandemic craziness football i just there's no guarantee we don't know exactly what's going to happen.
But i get the feeling that it's not going to go how we all want it to go for those of us that like football college football is in question nfl is going to be interesting uh football is my favorite sport i do my best not to have tons of football analogies because i realized that some people don't like football as much and that's okay every year about this time is exciting as football gears up i played football growing up and in august as it approached was a very exciting time.
Because football was coming back was also a very well preparing for that was a lot because august meant conditioning it meant lots of running it meant two days and three a days it meant doing drills over and over and over again we do the same drills we do form tackling drills which would teach you how the basics of tackling we would do pursuit drills which were pursuit angle drills on defense if you want to catch somebody running across the field you can't run at a straight line you have to run at an angle you need some geometry to cut them off and i played corner which meant those are 60 yard sprints all the way.
Across the field but you would do this over and over and over again because you would want to repeat these drills because what you uh in what you start repeating and doing you get better at that's how it works it's been really frustrating to watch the gamecocks the last decade because it's very apparent that they don't repeat the same drills because they don't know how to tackle and they don't know how to do pursuit angles they don't know how to do the basics which makes watching clemson play very frustrating.
Because they obviously know how to do the basics because they're very good at tackling and they're very good at doing the things that they practice all the time so if you practice these things you get better better at them it inevitably shows up on the field and that is true for pretty much any discipline uh take piano lindsay who plays piano for us as a doctor in piano and you can ask her there might be some talent involved but what makes you better at piano is you practice and you repeat and you practice and you do scales you do all the things it takes to get better at something right that's a common thing.
If you want to break a habit if you want to build a hab if you want to grow in something you continue to repeat it's almost as if that was built into humanity that God made this in a way that we would grow in something if we did the same thing over and over again if we were exposed the same thing over and over again and that becomes very true when you look at the life and ministry of Jesus because a lot of these stories are going to start to repeat themselves he's going to have some of the same teachings that show up over and over again he's going to perform some of the same.
Miracles that show up over and over again and we're going to walk through four stories they're going to feel very familiar they'll be miracles and teachings that he's already done and as we walk through these four stories we're going to see that the disciples are being exposed to this teaching being exposed to these miracles over and over again the first three stories are going to highlight three different truths that we see about God and the fourth story is a warning so we have three truths one warning as we walk through this.
Today and if we take a step back and look at this what we will see is that what you inevitably repeat you will become and the disciples needed to see Jesus truth and his ministry over and over and over again so that they could rehearse this truth and repeat this truth deep into their souls and i would argue it is the same for us that we are made to rehearse and repeat the truth of the Gospel deep into our soul so we're going to.
See it as we go out to these four stories let me pray and then we'll jump into the text father i thank you that you've given us these stories from the Gospel that they show us more of who you are got to pray that we would not simply gloss over these because they seem familiar but we would see the value and what it means to repeat and rehearse truth so i pray you would speak to us this morning in Jesus name amen all right.
So first story verse 29 chapter 15. here we go Jesus went on from there and walked beside the sea of galilee and he went up on the mountain and sat down there and great crowds came to him bringing with them the lame the blind the crippled the mute and many others and they put them at his feet and he healed them so that the crowd wondered when they saw the mute speaking the crippled healthy the lame walking in the blind seeing and they glorified the.
God of Israel the disciples have seen this play out over and over again and you can almost get used to it but the picture is miraculous there's a mute person who hasn't been able to speak possibly his entire life and he comes to Jesus and he can speak and there's a deaf person who's just been healed as well and he can hear and he can hear the mute person finally speaking these are miraculous events that are happening over and over and over again.
Let me just point out how this has happened and how much this has happened in Matthew you have Matthew chapter 4 verses 23-25 as a healing set of healing stories Matthew 8 1-17 Matthew 8 23-24 9 1 through 8 9 18-34 12 9 through 14 14 34-36 and these are just the stories that are recorded because there's many acts and many other teachings that we don't have they are seeing this happen over and over again that healing is a central part of his ministry that's the.
First truth that i want us to see today is that God heals God heals the disciples need to see this over and over and over again that God has a heart for the broken that he brings healing it is the reason uh that we have that a tradition has continued that flows into james 5 14 that is praying for physical healing james 5 14 says is anyone among you sick let them call for the elders of the Church and let them pray over him anointing him with oil and the name of the.
Lord and that's a tradition that we continue even today as pastors there's nothing magical about the oil it's olive oil or vegetable oil whatever oil you use there's nothing magical about the oil it is marking someone and saying that you are praying for them because we believe God can physically heal he works through the common grace of doctors but he also supernaturally heals a way that doctors cannot explain so he brings physical healing but also this points to a bigger spiritual reality that he also brings spiritual healing you.
See the physical healings the miracles that Jesus did were front and center in the life of Jesus but they were pointing forward to a couple of things to a eternal reality that spiritual healing is necessary to be a part of the kingdom of God and to the final new heavens and new earth where there will be no more pain no more sickness no more hurt and while it's front and center that the physical healings the miracles that Jesus did in the gospels the bulk of the rest of the new testament focuses on souls on spiritual healing on redemption on sanctification going to be more like Christ and that is why we in our Church care.
Deeply about people meeting Jesus and growing in him and finding spiritual healing in him one of the things that i oversee as a pastor is care and counseling we have three main avenues for for care and counseling the first avenue starts in groups that's why we say a lot pretty much every sunday we want you to be a part of a group it's not just a place where you can live out the gospels not just a place where you can eat a meal and and and talk about the sermon it's also a place that you can grow in being healed that you can grow and having people bear burdens with you that they can preach.
The Gospel to you that if you have brokenness if you have sin struggles if you have trauma if you have hurt groups are a safe place for you to come and work some of that out so we say get be walk in the light with your groups be open and honest and sometimes what you're walking through is a lot it actually needs some more conversation that needs to happen outside of group and we tell our group leaders that to recommend them talking to us.
Because the second layer of care that we have that brings spiritual healing is pastoral counseling so one of the things that we do and i don't ever see this so i have a few more counseling cases than some of our other pastors is i i typically say that soul work is slow work that healing takes time the reality is is that uh while we one of the things we focus on is is the heart the sin beneath the sin the struggle beneath the struggle the brokenness beneath the brokenness we try to get to the heart of the issue.
But the reality is is that it's it's complex because the heart has layers of stuff on top of it right you have your family upbringing which shapes a lot of people how you were raised things that happened you're a kid you have other experiences you have trauma on top of that that makes it hard to get to the heart there are physical realities at play right if you're an anxious person and you love coffee those don't mix they just don't it increases anxiety there's.
For people that struggle with depression not getting enough vitamin d there's some physical medical layers there's all type of layers on top of the heart that make it difficult to get to the heart and that is why it takes time and we as americans are in this culture this time we want everything to happen like this and soul work is slow work it takes time and what we also offer if someone needs some extra level of care we'll do uh we will refer out to licensed professional counselors.
So one of the things i've done the last year is i have met with and interviewed and vetted almost 10 different counselors across the city from different counseling centers because not every counselor is created equally there are some counselors in the city that you could go to uh that are not helpful they don't even have close to a biblical worldview they certainly also wouldn't give you good advice on how to live and shape your life so i've met with 10 different counselors i've interviewed them i've gotten to know their stories i got to know their beliefs about the Gospel i've got to know their philosophy of counseling and care that lines up more with how.
We view it as a Church and the thing we offer is if you want to meet with a counselor we have someone that can meet with you we can connect that if it comes to a place where you also need some some help paying for that we have that in our budget as a Church to pay for because we care about this we care that God brings healing and redemption that people can grow to be more like Christ but it takes work soul work is slow work and it takes repeatedly rehearsing the Gospel to ourselves repeatedly working through our brokenness and the hurt and the pain.
But the good news is our lord is a wonderful counselor he does bring healing we believe in this and it's an important truth that comes from the gospels that we see on the surface of this story right here so that's the first truth let's go to the second story verse 32. then Jesus called his disciples to him and said i have compassion on the crowd because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat and i'm willing to send them away hungry lest they faint on the way and the disciples said to him where are we to get enough bread in such a desolate place to feed.
So great a crowd and Jesus said to them how many loaves do you have they said seven and a few small fish and directing the crown to sit down on the ground he took seven loaves and the fish and having given thanks he broke them and gave them to the disciples and the disciples gave them to the crowds and they all ate and were satisfied and they took up the seven baskets full of broken pieces left over those who were those who ate were four thousand men plus women and children and after sending away the crowds he got into the boat and went to the region of magathon all right.
So this story should sound familiar right two chapters ago about a month ago chet walker's through this the feeding of the five thousand this is very similar story very similar layout and while there's uh deeper things that came out of the story that chet brought out there's some really cool parallels between this and the lord's supper there's one surface level truth that comes out of this that's very tangible and clear and that is that God provides that's the second truth that we.
See of this that God provides he provides tangible food for the people who are hungry and this is in line with his regular teaching on provisions he teaches them how to pray in the lord's prayer he says give us this day our daily bread he's teaching them that God provides for creation God provides for his people and that's easy for to forget it certainly seems so for the disciples because the disciples said they said where are we to get enough bread in such a desolate place to feed.
So great a crowd and it's like really i hope you're saying that sarcastically because two chapters ago he did just that but it reads fairly literally like they really were wondering what what are you going to do Jesus or how are we going to feed these people it's easy for to forget that God provides and that's something that we need to rehearse deep into our soul and never forget because the reality is is that we have a season upon us we are technically in an economic recession and there are fears of this firing possibly into a depression.
And when that happens i know that this is a the collective feeling is what are we going to do how are we going to pay our bills how are we going to pay our mortgage how are we going to provide food in the table how are you going to make it through this and it is easy in moments like that to forget that God provides i've seen that in my own life there were seasons where we didn't have a whole lot i.
Remember when we first got married i was paying my way through seminary and uh and we made a collective like thirty thousand dollars we were we were doing the best we could and then we'd have a medical bill that show up that's a thousand dollars not freak out and and how are we going to make it through this how are we going to get the other side of this how are we going to pay for this and time and time again.
God proves that he provides but if we go to the Scriptures it shows over and over again the focus shouldn't be on how are we going to get this how are we going to get that the focus should be on enjoying God and who he is primarily first that's what we see in the sermon on the mount he gives the illustration Jesus gives the illustration of of not worrying because he feeds the birds of the air the birds wake up every every day and they have food and the in the fields are clothed with lilies that the field have.
If the fields have clothes and the rest of creation like the birds are fed how much more do i care for you you who are made in the image of God that's why i say seek first the kingdom of God our focus should be there God will provide he provides daily bread you may not get all of the wants may not get the truck you won't you may not get some of the things that other people have he provides for our needs which is something to rehearse regularly.
For you one of the things i'm trying to do when saying a blessing before meals is not just make it like this ritual that you just do sometimes you just do it because you have to maybe you think your food is going to be poisoned if you don't but it's just it's a cultural thing a little bit that we we inherit it comes all the way back to where Jesus is giving thanks to the lord when he's breaking bread here and what i've tried to do in that moment is realize even in america we have an abundance of food we can you can eat a meal that's sourced from like seven different countries.
But it is a blessing that every meal that most people in america have access to food and every time i eat i'm trying to remember thank you God for food thank you God for duke's pad thai and the amazing red curry bowl that is the best dish here in colombia thank you lord for mcdonald's french fries which are good don't judge me all right there are to sit down and thank the lord for food another way you can practice this is maybe.
If you are the kind of person that gets anxious about bills when you go to the mailbox and you see the envelope and you're worried how much is this going to be so when you go to the mailbox and have a practice of when you get there remember got a sovereign he provides he is going to take care of us he will provide for my knees to rehearse that deep into your soul maybe every time you approach your budget before you start to crunch numbers and hustle and do all the things get out the the budget calculate whatever you do to pause.
Remember God provides he will take care of our needs i can trust in him i don't have to be anxious we need this truth repeated and rehearsed into our souls over and over again the disciples need to see over and over again that Jesus provides which brings us to our third truth in the third story starting off in verse 1 of chapter 16. and the pharisees and the sadducees came and to test them they asked him to show them a sign from heaven he answered them.
When it is evening you say it will be fair weather for the sky is red and in the morning it will be stormy today for the sky is red and threatening you know how to interpret the appearance of the sky but you cannot interpret the signs of the times an evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign but no sign will be given to it except the sign of jonah so he left them and departed now if you've been walking with us through the Gospel of Matthew this story should also sound familiar this is not the.
First time the religious leadership has come to Jesus demanding a sign and when we walked through this a couple of months ago we went deeper into seeing what that was the arrogance and the posture of the pharisees and the sadducees we walked deeper into that but if you back out a little bit to see a surface level truth here he responds an evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign but no sign will be given to it except the sign of jonah which is pretty much exactly what he said in chapter 12 that this truth has not changed you may can interpret the weather is what he says to the pharisees and sadducees which is.
Mildly impressive because people in colombia can't interpret the weather i mean that's they got something going for them you may interpret the weather but you can't see the signs that are happening right in front of you i'm only going to give you the sign of jonah and as we walk through chapter 12 in the story the sign of jonah is pointing forward to the cross and the resurrection this is jonah spent three days in the belly of a fish so also.
Jesus will spend three days in a tomb and will burst forth which highlights the third truth that we see here the heart of the Gospel remains the same the death and resurrection of Jesus is the heart of the Gospel it's the pinnacle of the Gospel story and it never changes it remains the same and it's the sign that we ultimately need and yet we can forget this we try to preach this we try to preach Gospel fluency to remember to apply his death and resurrection.
Remember the truth of the Gospel remember the implications of what we believe we try to rehearse this over and over again but the reality is is that sometimes when sin and suffering comes when loss comes when hurt comes when you get betrayed when you get whatever you face in those moments questions can rise up does God really love me does God really care about me does it really care about my situation we start to get challenged and when that happens we can run to other narratives right we can run to what i call shame uh what an author calls shame scripts or in a counseling book that you can have this shame script that you.
Run through over and over again instead of going back to the Gospel you can run to i'm messed up nobody loves me nobody cares about me i deserve this this can happen with self-condemnation you can forget the Gospel and start to condemn yourself over and over and over again this can happen when you start to believe lies about other Christians lies about yourself lies about who God is and we stop rehearsing the heart of the Gospel we stop remembering his death and resurrection and what it means hear this very clearly the evidence that.
God cares for you the evidence that God loves you ultimately the only sign that you need is the cross and resurrection it's the idea that the God of the universe created us and though we rebelled against him he says i want to redeem them so he steps into our timeline and goes all the way to the cross sin uh becoming sin on the cross for us so that we can have new life in Christ when he walks out of the tomb that is the only evidence that we need is his life poured out.
For us and that is why Jesus is pointing forward here he's pointing forward i mean he this is a story he's pointing forward to that a few more times he's going to pretty much explicitly say this is coming i'm going to be betrayed and handed off this is coming and this will be the centerpiece of our faith it'll be the anthem in which the Church hits over and over and over again it's the reason why when we're not a pandemic one of the things that we like to do every week or at least very regularly is to take part in the lord's supper it's it's a regular reminder that his body was broken.
For us that his blood was shed for us that the Gospel is the most in the heart of the Gospel is the message that guides us that shapes us that molds us into his image and we don't go past the Gospel you'll ever move past it we drive deeper into it so that we can grow into this so that when things come to make astray we are rooted in Christ which is where we're going to see this warning that comes next all right.
So three truths now we're in the warning verse five when the disciples reached the other side they have forgotten to bring any bread Jesus said to them watch and beware of the leaven of the pharisees in sadducees and they began discussing it amongst themselves saying we brought no bread which pause this story is a little bit humorous because he's trying to teach him something bigger and they're looking around like i don't know should we do am i bringing bread bartholomew did you bring bread no that's why no one's gonna.
Remember you like it's just he's like Jesus like no i'm not this is not about the bread there's a bigger point that's happening here verse 8 it says but Jesus aware of this said oh you have little faith why are you discussing amongst yourselves the fact that you have no bread do you not yet perceive do you not remember the five loves for the five thousand the baskets that you gathered or the seven loaves for the four thousand how many baskets were gathered how is it you fail to understand that i did not speak about the bread he's like y'all it's not about the bread the bread's a metaphor he says beware of the leaven.
Of the pharisees and sadducees oh light bulb then they understood that he did not tell him to be aware of the leaven of the bread but of the teaching of the pharisees and sadducees so it's a humorous exchange of the disciples being a little bit thick-headed not being able to follow but it's also very serious it brings up the warning that we need to see beware of false teachers that is a very important thing beware of false teachers in false teaching.
Jesus is pouring into them right he's teaching them all kinds of truths some of the stuff we talked about today God provides he heals he's helping them see the heart of the Gospel he is pouring into them so that they will be able to guide the Church and also defend the Church against false teaching because it is going to come false teaching is like he says it's like leaven meaning it starts small 11 is small you drop it in some flour and it starts to work its way through the flower and it transforms it into something that is completely different and that is what false teaching does it's like leaven it's ideas sometimes start very.
Small but then they get implanted into your soul and they start to change and they start to corrupt you the premise of inception the movie was that you can get into somebody's dreams and in their dream world you can start to incept and plant ideas in their head that would change them that's the whole premise of it that's exactly what false teaching does may seem innocent it may not seem like that big of a deal then you start to uh it starts to transform you start to follow it you start to follow to his logical end which is away from the.
Lord there's this story uh from in the 19th century from uh one of the his name is crawford toy he is he was one of the more popular professors at my alma mater at southern seminary and uh he was kind of a celebrity at that point he actually was engaged to lottie moon which if you know anything about southern baptist history is a big deal she's like a legend she's a missionary to china there's a whole offering that we do that is named after her he's engaged to her he's an up and coming teacher very bright.
And then he goes off to germany to study theology which germany in the 19th century was a very dangerous place to learn ideas it's where marxism came from the 19th centuries where the the beginnings of nazism came from the 19th century it's also where german higher criticism theology came from and it was a theology that actually destroyed the european Church which the reason is today and destroyed half the denominations that we have in our country today it was the understanding that the Bible is not truthful and he studied this and it started small and it came back to america.
And then it began to grow like leaven it began to completely take over until finally it was very clear he was not believing in the Gospel anymore and he was fired from southern seminary and there's this story one of his professors one of his mentors one of his friends took him to the train station and he put his hand his arm out and he said toy i would gladly cut off this arm if you just be where you were five years ago and stay there five years ago before the leaven was planted.
If you just get back to right there i've watched people over and over and over again people and i was in Bible studies with people that watched lead other people to Christ begin to delve into some of this false teaching they found a book they found a couple of authors they found a couple of preachers and they began to listen and then it slowly began to correct them there's something about humanity that we just can't focus on the Gospel that we get led astray by radical concepts and radical teachings.
Then we take the bait we swallow the hook and then we're completely changed the reality is you can go to any bookstore in the within the religion section and find tons of very horrible ideas you can go to Christian bookstores the ones that are actually still left and you can walk through it and some of the best selling authors some of the biggest most selling best-selling books are filled with false teachings that will absolutely lead you astray Jesus is pouring into them that they would stay rooted in the heart of the Gospel they stay rooted in the truth of the Gospel.
So we need to ask ourselves coming out of this and we need to examine ourselves and ask what are some of the false teachings that we're buying into one of the biggest ones in america is the prosperity Gospel the idea that God will give me money material things if i believe in him he's going to grow me my wealth and that mess is everywhere how much of that infuses the american dream has crept into our souls maybe it's the therapeutic false Gospel the idea that that.
God is for my happiness and how i define my happiness a lot of times you'll be working with somebody and you'll say that's what the Bible says and then they'll say no that that can't be that that won't make me happy it's like no no you're misunderstanding this it's a false Gospel it's the moralistic Gospel the idea that you can do enough good to earn God's favor there's all kinds of horrible bits of leaven that you can start to believe that are.
So deep in your soul and unless you address them unless you bring them into the light unless you see to seek to put them to death they will take over they will corrupt they will change you he gives us three truths and a warning because ultimately we need to be rooted in truth so that we would persevere so that we'd run the race victoriously to the finish and we would not fall away but that is going to take effort and work that's going to take knowing more of.
God that's going to take some focus so where is our focus malcolm gladwell has this whole 10 000 hours theory if you want to become an expert at something you have to have 10 000 hours built into it where are your 10 000 hours spent is it spent on politics it's election season and you can spend hours and hours and hours and hours consuming yourself with politics maybe you have a phd in self-condemnation that most of your thoughts consistently are condemning yourself over and over and over again maybe you've become an expert on how bad 2020 can get you've played out all the scenarios and your and anxiety builds and it builds and it builds.
And all you can think about is what possibly could go wrong the rest of this year where is our focus what are we rehearsing what are we repeating in our minds that is what we need to see as we close out today we need to understand that what you inevitably repeat you will become which is why we emphasize so much that reading the Bible is so good for your soul that's why we emphasize so much that we need to grow in prayer i also need to read the Bible collectively and not just individually i'm.
So absolutely a big proponent of quiet times and having time with the lord and journaling and all the all of it but it cannot just be i read the Bible in a bubble and i don't take the collective wisdom of other saints of other Christians and their wisdom that comes from the Holy Spirit collectively there's a reason why jehovah's witness and mormonism other religions have started it's because someone got a hold of a Bible solo and ran with it when you read the Bible collectively together reciting truth deep into our soul speaking the Gospel to one another growing in this.
Because what we repeat will ultimately become man's going to come up and as they come up i just want to take a moment for us to reflect these surface level truths that are so clear and beautiful that come out of these stories do you believe that God can heal maybe you're in a place where uh there's there's buried brokenness so deep inside and you don't want to expose it you don't want to go there you've given up hope that can actually you can actually find healing there i'm here to very clearly tell you we have a wonderful counselor we have the Holy Spirit you absolutely can find healing my encouragement.
For you is this week is to take a step forward to bring it out in the group maybe to contact one of us as pastors God heals he provides i don't know what your situation is this year if you're in a place where you're like i don't know how i'm going to make it i want you to clearly hear this he will provide for your needs and ultimately may we remember that the heart of the Gospel never changes that we so desperately need to come back to his death in his resurrection and rehearse the Gospel over and over and over again.
So that we can become more like Christ so that we can stand in the face of any false teaching any form of suffering and any trials that come let me pray father i thank you for these stories it would be so easy to read and said we've already read this we've already studied this but to actually sit in them and see you working see you teaching see you growing us and i pray that you would help us believe these truths recite these truths and recite them not to one another as.
Well God i pray that you would help us stay rooted in you that you would defend us against the evil one and his lies against the evil one and false teachers that you help us stay rooted in Christ gotta pray there's anyone here that has not actually fully believed in you i pray that you would appeal to their hearts right now and they would yes in Jesus name amen believing that to be true let's stand and sing together in Christ alone in Christ alone my hope is through the fiercest.
When fears you guys storm is there is foreign is Jesus is amen you guys can be seated uh as you're having a seat we're gonna transition the stage just a little bit chet's going to come up and he's going to spend some time talking with chris and danielle rocky chris and daniel rocky have been members of our Church for about two years now and they've been leading a community group in the west columbia area and uh God has been stirring in them something new and something exciting.
And so we've mentioned this uh over the last couple of weeks but chris chris and danielle and their family are going to be moving to honduras and they're going to talk a little bit about their timeline in a second but they're the first couple that we're officially sending out from our Church as international missionaries and so yeah we're gonna let them talk real quick and loudly uh i have a few quick announcements that i will forget if we do anything else.
First so we just have them up here to smile and nod like these are really good announcements um oh giving i was supposed to say it earlier but we don't pass a plate anymore because of communicable diseases um but you can drop things into the two gift boxes on the sides here or you can give online i i've been very proud of our Church family we have done well consistently continuing giving paying our bills during this whole thing also with that.
If you are struggling personally and do need some financial assistance because some people have lost jobs or had been laid off and that sort of thing do come talk to us because we do have the ability as a Church family to continue to help support and pay bills but just want to make that reminder also we've done a pretty good job so far of construction not impeding how we meet and gather on sundays so i hope you've enjoyed that because that is going to end um this next week.
When we come on sunday you should begin to see some of the things that are changing in this building back over here kind of if you come in this way if you come in that way everything's done you're good but if you come in this way things are going to begin to change and then two weeks from now that whole area will be blocked off because we will be doing asbestos abatement and so it'll all be blocked off we'll have to come around through the alley coming this way.
And so just a few things we'll be changing but there's progress so we're excited about it so i want to give those quick announcements now it's chris and daniel rocky chris came to us a while back saying he felt called to Church planting or missionary work he wanted to come in and see if he could receive some training some equipping we said sure come on we have a pastor in training process that we just brought him in on to begin walking with him to do some equipping.
For being a pastor and they were continually praying through where they were supposed to go and what they were supposed to do and they landed on honduras so why honduras what led you out of them um so yeah like like chet said um chris had been praying for a couple years um knowing God was calling him to full-time ministry not sure what that looked like he's even been going to school online to get his degree in biblical teaching and theology.
So um i went to ecuador a couple years ago he and i went to colombia last summer none of that felt right um and so the admin at northside Christian academy where i was working had decided this past school year um they were going to be doing mission teams and going to allow the kids to go and so i'm trying to figure out where to go um my assistant head of schools her best friend had done numerous trips to honduras.
So she contacted her tell me about this trip she's like oh this seems really good for us got in contact with brad and christy the missionaries down there they're like yeah we'd love for you guys to bring a group of your kids that'd be great so that kind of started that ball rolling um still didn't see it coming that that's where God was calling us brad and christy came in november to meet us and to meet the kids and answer questions and afterwards we get to spend some one-on-one time and brad invited chris in february to go to a um to come with them on a construction team some people kind of thought brad.
Christy live in honduras run yes they are the missionaries that we are going to partner with um when we get down there so we aren't going to start things from scratch we are going to join a missionary um family that's already there missionary couple um and so um brad invited chris on this construction team and some people were like wait so chris is going in february and then you're going back again in march that's kind of weird um obviously God knew what was happening.
God knew we would never take that trip in march because of everything happening for kovid so God knew that that was the trip that chris needed to take but he went in february and when we picked him up at the airport he looked me right in the eye and said that's it yeah so just seeing everything in person i was able to serve in all of the different aspects the ministry uses to build relationships so just seeing the desperate need for hope down there um honduras is one of the one of the poorest sorry one of the poorest countries in central america.
So the average per capita income is about 5 000 per family um so just imagine having to support your your family on that that little amount of money um so just seeing how desperate the people are for for hope and knowing where where they can find it um it just is really really touching for me and it just it just wanted me to to partner with that full-time and be someone that can show them that hope okay so the led to go to honduras planning to go to honduras in the very near future august.
If coronavirus will let you yes yes what will you be doing when you get there we will have two main roles our first role will be really a family role um one of the things that this that brad and christie have been doing is they've been um hosting mission teams and so churches youth groups Christian schools whatever anybody who wants to come and spend six days um they're hosting them and so they come and we're going to be in charge of that that's what our family is going to take on we are going to begin to lead those teams.
So we'll if Mill City decides that they want to send a team to honduras um y'all we'll meet you guys at the airport and we will bring you you will come stay at the mission house with us we'll all be living the same house together eating our meals together um doing Bible studies together and we will walk you through them we will go around and we'll walk you through the different avenues of ministry that we do and show you what we're all about.
And then really pour into you just missions whether it's globally or just right in your neighborhood i'm really pressing forth that we are all missionaries we're all called um to to give something and so um that is what we are going to do as a family and then chris has a thing yeah so i'll also be working in the communities to start a pastoral training program so i will meet with men one-on-one just to kind of train them in how to lead a group how to lead a gathering.
So basically taking the the Mill City framework for community groups and sort of modifying that a little bit to where these gatherings can function basically as a Church within these communities because you're going to be in kind of a urban area but there's a lot of little we will yeah we'll be in the city of el progreso but there's a lot of rural very poor communities that we'll be working in so they don't really have access to to churches so they really need Gospel centered gatherings right where they are.
So either helping start new ones or encouraging ones that are there correct okay um so my next question is about how we as a Church family can help support y'all we've done one small thing already until y'all leave in august we're gonna have the sanctuary as hot as it is in honduras to try to help you all be mentally and emotionally prepared thank you um that's just a little thing uh but my question is how can we if we're sitting here right.
Now saying hey how do we support how do we join with you how does our Church family help send you uh what can we do um the first the first way you can help is really just through prayer we need a lot of of prayer support um i could take an hour and share with you all the different ways you can pray for us but i won't um i'll just give you the the two big ones right now um one would be prayering as we praying as we prepare um that everything gets sold that needs to be sold um that it sells like it's supposed to sell and that we're able to to do that.
Um and pray for the borders to open um this kovit has really thrown a wrench in our lives it's kind of hard as you sit here and everybody's like okay so when you're going i don't know i don't know oh so exciting when do you leave i don't know so it would be we've heard that the borders may open um by august 15th um so we are preparing to be ready to leave by then um if they are not open we are prepared.
For that as well and so we've made arrangements and we've got things to do so God knows when the borders need to be opened he will open them when he is ready and not a second before and we believe that so um we will go and but just prayers that that will happen God will give us patience that we will not try to make things work in our time um we have a facebook page um the rockies are moving to honduras i made chris changed the name it was just the rockets are going i'm like no we're not going we're moving like we're not coming back.
So but that's our facebook page so so a lot of you have already liked it i've seen you guys following um our journey so thank you so much for that but if you haven't jump on there like our facebook page we'll be continuing to list prayer requests and prayer needs that we have and so that's just a really great way to keep up with what we're doing um and i will let chris talk about other stuff yeah so we've we've got a really amazing opportunity set before us in joining this ministry they've got a strong foundation and um just the the ability that we'll have to.
If you'll pull out that picture brandon family is like this i mean seeing people come from darkness to light seeing people in a hopeless situation where this is this is where they live this is where they raise their kids we can we can bring them hope um but we can't do that without the body of Christ without people coming behind us willing to support the vision willing to support what we're doing so right now we're about 30 of uh what we need.
For for monthly support um so if you would uh we need people to to give to sacrifice um whatever you can to uh to make a big difference in in these people's lives and um we're also doing part of how you can do that is we're having a yard sale this this saturday um out here in the Church parking lot um so if you guys can come and tell your friends buy some stuff if you want to help just let us know share it on your facebook page yeah share it on your facebook page um yeah whatever whatever you guys can do everybody can do something we have faith that God's going to provide.
But he does that through his people he does it through people who are obedient who are willing to to sacrifice who are who are willing to um live as if this world is not our home so one of the things we've said consistently is that we're all sent to be to be missionaries where we are and that ultimately as community groups and as believers here we're supposed to be doing what they're doing we're just doing it here they're going to honduras they're selling their house they're taking their children with them they're picking up they're moving to honduras.
Because they feel like the lord has sent them there and the hope would be that we would take our faith and our mission with the same amount of dead earnest seriousness that they are and that we would participate actively as missionaries where we are sent and where we are placed and that we would help participate in what God is doing with the with the rockies as well through prayer and financial support most of the people in this room will spend almost all of the money they make some of us all of the money you make next year will be spent some of that will terminate next year you'll enjoy the things you had that'll be.
It it will not roll into eternity some of the money some of the time some of the things that we spend our money on and our energy into will roll into eternity and this is an opportunity for us to participate in something where we are helping send our money on ahead so you can handle your finances well by by helping support them financially monthly our Church is going to at 300 a month so we give as a Church and we help participate we're going to 300 a month help support.
But we would love for individuals to also help support and you're spending your money well once you do that now the beautiful thing about that is if the rockies spend the money you send them poorly it's not on you that's on them you'll be held accountable for your money they'll be held accountable for theirs we don't think they're going to we know that we're joining in and sending them off to do good things and we are excited to be able to participate with missionaries our hope is that at some point all of our Church family gets to come up participate in helping baptize somebody or being baptized that you might would come up and we'd.
Pray over you and send you out as a group leader that you might come up and we would pray over you and send you out and never see you again this side of eternity because you went and lived on the other side of the world that's our prayer is that many people in our Church family many of you are sitting right here that at some point will get to do the same thing with you we're not praying over them today because we're not sending them out.
Today that we're going to see them on saturday when we come by their stuff that they've got to get rid of because they can't take it all with them to honduras and so thank you all so much and we appreciate y'all we will be praying for you all we will have you all up and send y'all out before you actually do leave just depending on how coronavirus cooperates as to how long we'll have you but thank you we're excited for y'all and appreciate you.
Okay we are finishing up today by praying over a couple just not the rockies we are going to send out the amadeo so if you don't mind just standing right here i'm going to stand over top of you and talk about you this is john and jesley amadeo they joined our Church family not too too long ago they have been members here they became leaders in training here and they are leaving so if you hadn't gotten the chance to meet this delightful couple you have failed miserably.
Because they're gone they're going to be leaving today we are praying for and sending them out so john was here studying at uh doing research at the university of south carolina he did an excellent job researching things and now he gets to go do research at duke university he's doing biomedical research program that is a six year program and he intends to finish it in five years he's going to do more research per year than they expect him to do but he's going to be a six-year research program they have been blessed in this process to receive some funding through duke they do believe they're going to be able to buy a house they've asked.
Specifically that we pray that them owning a home goes well and they don't burn things down was one of the things he sent me in his text jessie will continue to get her bachelor's degree through liberty online and she will uh she's gotten her hair stylist license renewed in north carolina and will be doing hair stylist work there some of the biggest prayers are that they would find a good Church home and that they would be good missionaries in the two fields that they are in which need good missionaries there's not a lot of Christians doing biomedical research and we are excited that we know of one and we're hoping that he goes as a.
Good missionary there someone who loves Jesus and loves people and does good research on behalf of God and his good world working and we're also very thankful for his wife who is cutting hair because that's a good thing to do it's helpful it keeps the world rolling and there's a lot of people who need to know Jesus who both cut hair and get their hair cut so we're thankful to get to send out two other missionaries who are going to go to uh the research triangle of north carolina and we pray that they would be blessed in that.
If you know them and are already around them if they're okay with this can people come up and be close to you okay so he does biomedical research and he thinks it's fine so uh if you know them and are already around them you can come up here and lay hands on them if not just pray for them where you are we're praying that we would send them out well and that they would be blessed in their going just as they have blessed us in their joining with us and we're thankful.
For them we're gonna pray uh for a second i'll let everybody just kind of pray where you are and then i'll pray loudly and we'll be dismissed you God we thank you for john and jessica we pray that you would bless them pray that you would bless and strengthen their marriage we pray that you would help them to find a Church home to love and to serve and to practice and rehearse their faith with believers in north carolina we pray that you would help them to be active missionaries where you have sent them that they might grow in their love.
For you and for each other and for your Church and for the lost we thank you for this time that we've gotten to know them we pray that you would bless them as you send them out and we thank you that we have hope beyond this life that we'll get to spend an eternity with all those that you've brought into our lives and all those that you've sent out that love and follow you we thank you in Jesus name amen.