Missions Sunday

The podcast is about CCI Fellowship and their mission to reach God, each other, and the community. The speaker talks about a funny and embarrassing friend named Christoph who would yell out a Bible verse in public. The verse, "I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord," is significant to the speaker because of Christoph. The verse is from Matthew and John 1.23 and is a quote from John the Baptist. The speaker then discusses the idea of having a life verse that speaks to you and moves you to take action. They explore Isaiah 43:5, which talks about preparing the way of the Lord. The speaker shares the story of Mary and Joseph's journey to Bethlehem and how paths were prepared for royalty. They connect this to John the Baptist's purpose and mission to prepare the way for the Lord. The speaker also shares a personal story about a pinky ring with footprints on it that reminded them of the verse about beautiful Welcome to CCI Fellowship's podcast. Thank you for joining us. At CCI Fellowship, we are reaching God, reaching each other, and reaching our community. We pray that this week's message challenges you in your walk with the Lord, causes you to grow in your faith, and encourages you in your love for the Word of God. I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord. Make straight his paths. Amen. We all have that one crazy friend in our life that goes against all social norms. Can you think of them in your life? That they do something funny in public, where they might stand up while walking through the city, jump up on a park bench or a table, and then start yelling this verse out. I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord. Make straight his paths. So, my special friend back home, his name was Christoph. And he was kind of funny and embarrassing at some points. But whenever I come across this Bible verse now, when I'm reading, it always jumps out to me. And I've always taken just a little bit more time to read a little bit more into it, because it's just a memorable verse now to me, because of him. It was mentioned here in Matthew. It was also mentioned in John 1.23, if you want to look it up. And it is a quote from John the Baptist. And can you picture him, can you picture John in the desert, wearing his camel hair, maybe just having a popped a locust in his mouth, screaming out and crying in the wilderness, prepare you the way of the Lord. Maybe John, maybe John was that one crazy friend that we had in the lives of his friends. Maybe that crazy friend is you. Maybe you're the crazy friend. But what does this have to do with anything about Missions Sunday? Do you guys have a life verse or something that maybe has spoken to you when reading the Bible? You're like, man, this really connects with me. It stirs me. It moves me. And because of it, you've actually gone into action and have done something. Does anybody have one of those that comes to mind? Go ahead and raise your hand if you have a life verse or something that has moved you. Okay, I'm seeing a couple of hands. Yes, some hands here. Is any brave enough to share what it might be? Anybody want to share what maybe that verse might be? Richard? Colossians 4.6. I'm going to let you speak this out here. Colossians 4.6 says that your words always be filled with grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everybody. Amen. All right. So, you guys get what I'm talking about. Just a verse or a couple of verses that have really spoken to you. A little bit extra special. They've jumped off the pages and moved you to do something. I am going to guess that these words that I just talked about, that were talked about through John the Baptist, I'm guessing that this was probably one of those verses that was something more of what he lived by. Okay? Because it comes from Isaiah. So, would you guys open up your Bibles with me to Isaiah 43-5. All right. And it reads, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord. Make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted and every mountain and hill brought low. The crooked places should be made straight and the rough places smooth. The glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together. From the mouth or for the mouth of the Lord has spoken. All right. So, to give you a little bit of context, as you know, travel from one place to another in Bible times was just a little bit more difficult than it is for you and I today. Right? Does anybody agree with me? Okay. Great. So, just to give you a little bit of a picture of what that might be, right now, if we were to plan the same distance trip as Mary and Joseph took from Nazareth to Bethlehem, that's about 65 miles or a hundred, a little bit over a hundred kilometers. So, that would be like, if we went from here to Gusegalpa to a little bit past Comayagua. Okay? How long would that take you and I right now, today, in our conditions, hopping in our car? One hour. Take us an hour to do that trip. Hop on the CA-5. Just go. Make sure you don't speed in that little part over there where they're tracking your speed, your velocity. Okay, but other than that, you should be there in about an hour. But for Mary and Joseph, it probably took them four to five days because they didn't have that CA-5. They were walking along the paths that were already cut out and all that, but they weren't as smooth and prepared as what we have today. So, whenever there was royalty or somebody that was important that was about to take a journey somewhere, a longer journey, guess what happened? Servants would be sent out or people that hearing that they were going to be coming or going, what would they do? They would go out and they'd make the path. They'd cut and forge the path so that it would be smoother for them, that it would be more inviting, a little bit easier. They'd kick the rocks to the side and say, hey, you know, walk on this rather than the rocky paths. Maybe they might plant a tree or some shrubbery somewhere, you know, just to make it a little more inviting. But the point is that when there was royalty, people would go out of their way to prepare the way so that they could go and have an easier path. So, maybe John the Baptist took this verse from Isaiah to heart and was trying to live it out with his own life, to make the path and prepare the way of the Lord Jesus, straight by lowering the mountains, raising up the valleys. And you all probably know why John the Baptist knew his purpose, his mission in life pretty well. It's because he was supernaturally given this purpose before he was even born. An angel showed up and we're going to read it right here in Luke. Okay, so go to Luke 1, 12 through 17. Zechariah, which is his dad, was shaken. Okay, this angel showed up and he was shaken and overwhelmed with fear when he saw him, the angel. But the angel said, don't be afraid, Zechariah. God has heard your prayer. Your wife, Elizabeth, will give you a son and you are to name him John. Next slide. Or was that it? No, there we go. You will have great joy and gladness and many will rejoice at his birth, for he will be great in the eyes of the Lord. He must never touch wine or other alcoholic drinks. He will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before his birth. Wouldn't that be awesome? If your child was filled with the Holy Spirit before birth, that's crazy. And he will turn many Israelites to the Lord, their God. He will be a man with the Spirit and the power of Elijah. Look it right here. He will prepare the people for the coming of the Lord. He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and he will cause those who are rebellious to accept the wisdom of the godly. Skipping down a little bit further in that chapter, here's Zechariah after he has given his speech back. And this is Zechariah right here. And he says, And you, my little son, will be called the prophet of the Most High, because you will prepare the way of the Lord. You will tell his people how to find salvation through forgiveness of their sins. So, knowing his purpose and his mission, John the Baptist. This verse in Isaiah probably just jumped and leaped out to him because he was told what his purpose, his mission is from birth. And so it became something that he formed his life around and went out and did. He put it into action. It moved him into action. So I also have had some verses that have jumped out to me and have moved me to doing stuff or to doing things from time to time in my life. It was about maybe a little bit over 19 years or so ago. I was back. It was the end of my college, my university experience. I was attending a college near Chicago. Okay. And I was about to graduate with an education slash physical education degree. And all of my friends who are graduating, they all had their jobs lined up. And I did not because I did not know where I wanted to go. I'm originally from Hawaii, for those of you that don't know. And I knew that if I went back home to Hawaii, I would probably plant my roots there and stay there for a long time. But God had laid in my heart to go on some sort of long-term missions at some point in my life. And so here is one of those moments like, ah, what do I do? I don't want to go back home. And Pete, I'm sorry, but I did not want to live in or near Chicago. I don't know why people who have a choice choose to live in or near Chicago. All right. You have a choice. And yet they don't leave those frigid areas. All right. But with that, I was visiting a church with one of my friends, and they had a rummage sale. And a rummage sale is kind of like a big yard sale where you have people in your congregation bring things in that might be of value that they sell and give the proceeds to the church. And so there was one of these events at a church that I was visiting with a friend, and there was something that jumped out to me. The thing that jumped out to me that I was like, huh, I think I want this. I think I need this. It's kind of weird for me to admit this. The thing that jumped out to me was this pinky ring that had footprints on it. And the ring had, it looked kind of like what you would imagine, like the footprints in the sand, those type of things, those type of footprints. But it wasn't that what it reminded me about. You see, when I was looking through the rummage sale, I had previously heard some sort of sermon or something that kind of stirred within the background of how beautiful the feet of those who bring good news. And this was like a couple days before or something. And then I'm right there in the middle of trying to figure out what I'm going to do with my life. And then this ring just kind of pops out and has footprints on it. And then that, you know, how beautiful the feet of those who bring good news. And then guess what? So I bought it, you know, flipped it on my pinky. I don't know if guys still do that these days, but I did. It's cool. Way cool. I know you did it, Pete. So was doing my devotions a couple days later. Guess what verse popped up? Let's read it together. It's in Romans, Romans 10, 14 through 15. But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them? And how will anybody go and tell them without being sent? That is why the scriptures say, how beautiful are the feet of messengers who bring good news. And that's what did it for me. That solidified. I was not like I knew I didn't want to go back home, but it was still an option, you know, but I was also considering going to the foreign field and going into education there, becoming a missionary full term, full time for a while. And that's what kind of pushed me to go and seek what options there were. And eventually, long story short, that led me to filling out the shortest application first for the school. And that was for Academia Los Pinares. And I had an interview and I accepted. And 19 years later, I'm still here and we have married and we have three kids. And God is amazing on how he uses verses to kind of push you to do things. Because I wanted, I wanted to be that messenger who brought who walked, you know, miles for a purpose to tell people about Christ. I wanted that verse to be about me and it stirred me and it moved me to do something. So what what is our mission? Today's Mission Sunday. What is our mission? What if we didn't have an angel who supernaturally showed up before our birth, telling our parents exactly what we're supposed to do? You know, some people think that our purpose was given early on in Genesis, where it reads in Genesis one, it says, Then God blessed them and said, Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth, govern it, rain over the fish and see the birds of the sky and animals that scurry along the ground. This is something we are to do. This is a something that God has given all of mankind to do. But I do not believe that this is the mission that God has given Christ followers to do. That is something all of creation is supposed to, all of man is supposed to do. But this is not our mission as Christians. What about doing good to others? Okay, that's a good thing. This is actually one of our core beliefs, one of our core verses right here in Galatians 6.10, which most of you should know by now. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially those who are of the household of faith. Is this our mission? What about seeking to grow in godliness and not walking in the flesh? Okay, Pastor John, just a couple of weeks ago, was talking about and distinguished between walking in the spirit and the fruit of the spirit versus the gifts of the spirit. Okay, so he made that distinguishment. It was one of those things, it was a light bulb that went off for him and then he expounded on that. So let's look at that verse in Galatians about the fruit of the spirit, Galatians 5.22-25. But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. And those who are Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the spirit, let us also walk in the spirit. But you know what? If even if you exuded these fruits, even if you exuded all of these fruits, is that what is going to get other people saved? If you exuded all of these, is that going to win somebody else to Christ? Will they model themselves and be like, wow, you have so much joy just coming out of you. I want to be just like you. And then they in turn become a person who's so joyful, you know, or wow, Jen, you are so patient. You know, you have all these boys and they have so much energy, but wow, I haven't seen you ever like flip out and start, you know, like yelling and across. You have so much patience. I want to be just like you. And so I become a person that's patient. person that's patient. You know, all of these, if someone were to mimic us and exude the things that we are coming through, would that save them? I know I see a lot of heads shaking no. And you're correct. So before we move on, I want to stop here and give you kind of like a little illustration. So pretend, pretend that you have just been given a diagnosis that you have cancer. Okay, I just a disclaimer, I was actually given a diagnosis just a disclaimer, I was actually given a diagnosis of some skin cancer just the other day, but this is not one of those terminal, terminal things. But you were just diagnosed and that, you know, you are in stage four of whatever this, this, this cancer is that is just eviscerating your body, you have only a certain amount of days to live. So picture that. What would you do? You know, you would probably gather around people who are important to you, your family, your friends. And you probably think about, man, I'm leaving, I'm, I'm, I'm not going to be on this earth any longer. It will give you some time of reflection to figure out what's important. And you are probably going to share those important things with the people that you love and have surrounded yourself with. Melody just had a grandma, grandmother that passed away recently. I know that Sergio last week as well. And we were given a warning. We knew that Melody's grandmother was going to pass away. And so she was put in hospice. And so we knew that it could be any time. And she lived for a lot longer than expected. But then the moment came where we got the phone call, we got the message, hey, it's not looking good. Do you want to speak to her? Now's your chance. You better take it or nothing else is going to come. So we did. We called. And her grandma's, her grandmother's last words were, I love you. I'll see you at the, was it the Southern Gate? The Southern Gates of Heaven. It's like, what does that mean? You know, like, it's so cool that her faith, you know, like she knows where she's going to see us and is making plans for us to meet her at the Southern Gate. And so I'm like, I'm guessing whenever we eventually read where she's getting this from, it's going to pop out and be like, oh, that's so cool. But you know what? Jesus had this. Jesus knew when he was about to be taken up into heaven. And so he gathered around his buddies, the 11 and said, you know what? I'm going to meet and said, you know what? I have some stuff to say. So let's look at it. So Matthew 28, 16 through 18. Then the 11 disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him, but some doubted. Then Jesus came to them and said, all authority on heaven and on earth has been given to me, which is one. It's like a wake up because this is not the way that I was living here on earth. I was, I'm God, I am the King, but I forsook that when it came down and became a servant. But you know what? I still have all the authority and the power. Listen up, because what I'm about to tell you is important. So what does he say? He says, therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father and of the son and of the Holy spirit, teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always to the very end of the age. But that's just like pastor John pointed out. That's not the only account of the last things that Jesus said to his disciples. So let's flip, flip over to Mark, Mark 16, 14. Later, Jesus appeared to the 11 as they were eating. He rebuked them for their lack of faith. Okay. So if you didn't catch it the last time, he was a little upset that some of them doubted that he had been raised. So he rebukes them that they were for their lack of faith and their stubborn refusal to believe those who had seen him after he had risen. And he said to them, go into the world and preach the gospel to all creation, whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will accompany those who believe in my name. They will drive out demons. They will speak in new tongues. They will pick up snakes with their hands and they will drink deadly poison and it will not hurt them at all. They will place their hands on sick people and they will get well after the Lord had spoken to them. He was taken up into heaven and he sat at the right hand of God, but there's more. Take a look at Luke, Luke 24, 48 to 53. And we've been reading this. Okay. So this, this should not be new to you guys. We've been studying this these last couple of weeks, if not months, Luke 24, 48, 43, you are witnesses of these things. I am going to send you what my father has promised, but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high. When he led them out of the vicinity of Bethany, he lifted up his hands and blessed them while he was blessing them. He left them and was taken up into heaven. Then they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy. And they stayed there or, and they stayed continually at the temple praising God, but that's not the last part of Luke's account. It's actually further on in acts because Luke also wrote acts. Let's see what it says in acts, acts one, four through five on one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command. Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for my gifts or for the gift. My father promised, which you have heard me speak about for John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy spirit, but you will receive power when the Holy spirit comes to you and you will be my witnesses and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all of Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth. And after, and after he said this, he was taken up before their eyes and a cloud hid them from their sight. I'm not going to get into this, but I've heard like pastor John, Pete, some others give homework. You guys have some homework this week. You guys are to look up what the word witness where it says, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem. I want you guys to look up what that means in Greek, what, what the connotation of witnesses in Greek means, what that is calling us to do. So you're going to cue the music here for mission impossible. Okay. What is our mission? Should you choose to accept as we just read, go and make disciples go into the world and preach the gospel, be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the end of the earth. So if you were to take the equivalent of that, of that last part, Jerusalem, okay. Pretend that that's like to go to Galpa Judea. That's the surrounding area. So maybe Francisco Morrison, Samaria. Oh, those are the people who are supposed to be like you, but they chose to intermingle with others, you know, and, and they aren't necessarily like following the same thing, but Oh, wow. Okay. So maybe that's a little further people that don't look like you. They don't talk like you. Maybe that might be back in, in the days of Honduras when there was Copan and the Mayans, maybe, maybe that would have been it, you know, like maybe there was some people that went over there that mixed, you know, with some Mayans and they were kind of practicing both. I don't know. Um, but then to the ends of the earth, what is our mission? Um, Oh, 10 minutes left. This is good. So again, nobody on this earth is going to receive Christ just because you are doing good. The only way they are going to receive him is if somebody tells them about him. Yes, we are supposed to be doing good things. Please don't throw, as they say in English, I don't know what the equivalent in Spanish would be. Don't throw the baby out with the bath water. As they say, I don't know, is there something equivalent to that? Okay. So yes, do those good things, but use those good things to tell others about Christ. Be a great teacher, be a great teacher, but use your teaching to teach about Christ. Use it as a venue, as a key, as a way in to talk about Christ. Be awesome at your job at the bank. Be awesome Okay. So that when they ask about your life, because it's different, then you will have that venue in to tell them about Christ. Don't just feed the poor, care for widows and orphans, but use that, we are called to do that, by the way, but use that as a venue to teach others about Christ. Okay. We're not just all about social justice. Use social justice to talk about and to teach others about Christ. Talk about and to teach others about Christ. Okay. So we're going to flip a little bit what we've just talked about, because today is Missions Sunday. All right. And we have a special offering that we're going to be taking. And I want to give you a quick testimony before I invite the worship team and Pastor Servio and Josela up here. So about, I don't know, I'm guessing here, maybe it was about 10 years ago, we were up in the auditorium, Auditorium 2 up there, for those of you that remember, we were up there and I was in charge of the youth group, either with Tim Price or with John Garrison. And we used to get messages that Pastor John was about to end his sermon, because we wanted to bring the youth out to the upper balcony and be involved with the praise and worship. So I got the message, and we sent, we all came out and I got to hear the very, very tail message of Pastor John's message, whatever it was, but he was talking about the upcoming time and opportunity for the 14th month or the missions offering. And at that time, I just had a little moment with God and I was like, God, what do you want? What do you want us to give? And at that point, I had this little conversation with God and I was like, God, if you want all of it, as in, so we get a 13th and 14th month pay, and we did that at the school and they gave us the whole month pay. And I was like, God, if you want all of it, it's yours. However, however, I want you to speak to my wife too. Whatever it is, whatever amount that you lay on her heart, are you okay with whatever we give? And he gave me that confirmation, yes. And so my wife and I had this conversation and it was way more. We didn't give all of it because my wife is smart. My wife has a plan and a detail of what we actually need to do. I'm like, hey, take all my money. I don't care. But my wife, she has things planned out and she was a lot more wise at times with our money. And so we gave above and beyond what we had normally done. But you know what? But God. But God showed up after that. My wife and I, we had been, uh, we had some college loans that we'd been paying off and it had been at least 10 years at that point. And we had projected how long it would take to pay off our loans. And it was going to be another number of years. And we were kind of like, okay, well, okay. And so we, we set one foot in front of the other long story short, my wife and I, we received a large donation out of the blue. And guess what? One of our college loans completely wiped out with that donation. That's not it. That's not all. That's not all. God likes to show off sometimes when you are obedient to him, when he talks to you and you follow what he's doing, what he's leading you to do. Later on, a couple months later after that, we got another surprise. We had gotten a huge above and beyond tax reimbursement that we were not expecting. And guess what? That other loan completely wiped out like now this testimony isn't to tell you that, Hey, whatever you give, you know, you're going to be rich after this. Just give all your money right now because God's going to like, my testimony here is to challenge you that if God is asking you to do something, do it because he is so much better and so much greater at working things in your life than you are. If you want to talk about other, other testimonies, we have plenty of testimonies. I know lots of people in this room have other testimonies of God showing up and doing things above and beyond what they could have ever imagined. So as we take, as the worship team comes forward, as we take this time right now to reflect on this, this opportunity that we have, I want you to, to be challenged, to seek the Lord and figure out what is he talking to you about? What is he challenging you to do and go for it, go for it. I'm not saying everything is going to be all sunshines and rainbows after that, you know, he's going to let you work through some struggles. Okay. If you read when the Bible or in the Bible, when the disciples went out, they didn't have like success at every single corner. They were met with opposition, but God showed up and he used them for his purposes. Thank you for listening to this week's podcast. If you are ever in the Tegucigalpa area and looking for an English speaking congregation, please join us on Sunday afternoon at 4pm in the main auditorium of Iglesia CCI in Colonial Trepichi, just off Boulevard Sollapa near Una. If you'd like prayer or more information about our church, contact us at fellowship.cci at gmail.com. That's fellowship.cci at gmail.com or follow us on social media. We hope to see you or hear from you soon.