Care for the Congregation

Good morning.

Good morning.

It's an honor and a privilege for me to be here this morning.

And I please ask that you bear with me as English is not my first language.

I speak Espanyol.

So just please bear with me on this.

It's an honor and a privilege to be here this morning in Missiode North.

And just the partnership that we have with Missiode has been great in the past few years.

And look forward to what God is doing with us and through us in Tijuana and in Cincinnati, Ohio.

So it's really good to be here with you all this morning.

But nobody knows me like that.

Everybody knows me like Turi Nunez, just because there's too many Daniels in the family, including my grandpa, my dad, my cousin, his kids, my kids.

So you know, so it's it's it's just easier to call me Turi.

Maybe not for you, right?

But yeah, I my my I have my family.

I've been married for almost eight years.

And I have my my wife Nayeli, my son Leo, who Leonardo, who's four, and Maximiliano, who is uh to my wife wanted to name our kid Max so bad, and I said we gotta make it Mexican, so uh I'm gonna make sure it's Maximiliano, and we call him Max all the time, but that that's that's my my little family there.

Uh we serve together in Tijuana, Mexico, and I'm pretty sure you've heard a lot about Tijuana uh and the border trying to get shut down and the immigrants coming to Tijuana, and so we ask you dearly to pray for for our city.

Uh we are a city that it's known for receiving everyone.

If you're coming to work, if you're coming to be somebody, you can come to Tijuana and make it happen.

And and there's the people that are from Tijuana, born and raised in Tijuana, we are the minority in Tijuana because we get people from South America, Central America, and all of Mexico.

So uh we love it when you guys come too and serve alongside with us in in Tijuana, Mexico.

And there in Tijuana, the east part of Tijuana, it's the church of uh Comunidad Cristiana El Niño, where I've been serving at that church for the past uh 16 years, and uh now as the lead pastor for four, four years.

And so that's uh that's the church.

That's the next uh slide.

Um, a little bit of how the church looks like.

And what I can tell you about Tijuana right now is uh we got the best tacos in the world.

I just had to put it out there.

Uh, we got the best tacos in the world, and so uh that's when I'm gonna be having dinner tonight, tacos.

Um, so it's just so good, so good to be here.

And uh thank you, Pastor Justin, for trusting uh us and trusting God and and what he's doing.

And so we're gonna go into First Timothy uh chapter five, and uh we have the scripture up in the screen.

Uh I'm I'm gonna read it.

Um it says 1 Timothy 5, 1, 2, 3, um do not rebuke an older man harshly, but exhort him as if he were your father.

Three treat younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, and younger women as sisters with absolute purity.

Give proper recognition to those widows, widows who are really in need.

And so it when when we got this message, uh uh, the scripture that uh the pastors wanted us to share about this this uh weekend up here with you guys, um a lot came to our mind in what we do in Mexico, and I'm sure what you do up here in Ohio too.

But uh just talking about pastoral care and just talking about how a leader should treat uh the people that he's serving.

Because we usually think of leaders as people that are leading and in the front, and but we're really called to be servants of the Lord and servants of one another.

And so for me, when I think of a leader, I think of someone that serves.

And the the main the main example and the best example we have is our our Christ Jesus, right?

Um, who came to serve us, who came to lay down his life for you and for me, uh, and resurrected like we celebrated last week all over the world.

Uh and and so it's it's so awesome to know that in Cincinnati, Ohio, uh the the the word of the Lord and the word of the resurrection of our Lord is being proclaimed as the same as is in Tijuana.

So we're that that's awesome, and and and it's it's just an honor to be here.

But when I when I think about this, when I uh uh read about it, I I see I see a family.

If if you see Paul is talking to Timothy in a in a way that is saying, talk to talk to older, experienced men like uh like your father, like you will talk to your father.

Younger men as your brother, older women as your mother.

If you see, he's he he's he's having a picture of a family.

Like you would not disrespect your family.

And and at least for us in Mexico, family is what keeps all together.

Uh, we do everything together, we do life together.

It's so hard not to see each other during the week and do something together, plan something together.

And when talking about leadership, Paul is talking to Timothy and saying, when you have to talk to someone, talk to someone like like part of your family.

He's your sister, he's your brother, your father, your mother.

And so for me, when I when I say this, and now it's so amazing to to know that I have a church family in in Ohio, in Cincinnati, and to know that I have my pastor in Cincinnati, Pastor Justin, and I have my pastor, uh Pastor Matt and Pastor Kirk from Missio Day, and and some other friends that we know here, and for you guys to know that we are church family, even though we are thousands of miles away in Tijuana.

And when you come to Tijuana, we hope you consider us your pastors too.

But just talking a little bit about uh serving others and loving others and caring for others, uh, the best example, like I said, is is is Christ and how in his death but resurrection he adopted us into his own family, and that's what Ephesians 1:5 says.

Ephesians 1:5

It says, uh, God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ.

So we're we're just a big family, right?

We're just a big family, and we hope we can serve together and love one another as a family.

Hebrews 2, 10 to 11 uh talks about it too in in bringing many sons and daughters to glory.

It was feeling that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the pioneer of the sort of their salvation perfect through what he suffered.

Both the one who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family.

So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters.

And it's it's this is so so so cool because in Mexico we call each other hermano, hermana, brother, sister, and it's just in our language so much, because we we truly want to become a family, and we truly wanna so we have hermana Lola, we have hermana Sara, we have hermano Pablo, we have hermano Ricardo, and you will always call it like that out of respect, but also because we truly believe that God has united us as a family.

But what what what is a family do?

And and uh Christ gives us uh one of the most amazing commands, uh and is to love one another.

Can you say that with me?

Love one another.

Is this just amazing to see, and uh John 13, 35 talks about this.

By this, everyone will know that you are my disciples if you love one another.

And I think if you're here this morning, and I think if you're uh a follower of Jesus, you're a disciple of Jesus, and the world would know we're his disciples if what if we love one another.

And you you cannot say I love you, you cannot say I and then be disrespectful or be sinful against someone.

And and John 15, 12 uh says this, Jesus says, My command is this love each other as I have loved you.

And and even through this past couple of days, we have felt uh cared for uh in just the few days that we've been here in Cincinnati, Ohio.

We get here, they feed us really well, like Pastor said, uh amazing food that I can say.

We went to Skyline, of course, right?

You cannot come to Cincinnati and not have Skyline.

Um so we we had, but what I'm trying to say is uh Christ says, love, love each other as I have loved you, and the way he loved us is he gave his life for you and for me.

And what does that mean for us as a church family?

What does it mean for the pastor here, Pastor Justin, and and and the pastors at this church to care for the congregation?

And sometimes we only see it, and and I understand it this way too.

Sometimes what it means to lay uh our lives or to give our lives for someone doesn't really mean I have to die for him.

But what about this week where Pastor Justin, Pastor Kurt, Pastor Matt have dedicated their few days for us, and they gave their life for a day to spend it with us.

They gave their life for some uh hours to go with us to a Reds game, to walk in the rain.

They didn't have to do any of that.

They didn't have to come and pick us up at the airport, they didn't have to feed us, they didn't have to do any of that.

But out of their love and their care for us, they're giving up their life and their time for that moment.

And I'm pretty sure Pastor Justin is willing and have done it for you and for the congregation too.

We have to do it as a family.

And when I think about it in First Timothy, is how do we give up our life for the people that really need it?

And when someone is uh doing something it's not supposed to do, and how do you come in a loving way?

And I can tell you, as a pastor, it's it's it's sometimes not that easy to come and have the words that you need and to have the the the express yourself the way you have because you want to help everybody, but out of that help, uh you have to show love, and in loving, sometimes you gotta point some stuff out that we really don't don't like.

And it says, do not rebuke an older man harshly, but exhort him as if he were your father.

Three treat younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, and younger women as sisters with absolute purity.

And that can only be done if you love one another.

If you don't love somebody, you're not gonna come in a in a in a in a loving way, you're gonna come in a harsh and and and not good way.

So we we gotta love each other.

Um we gotta care for each other.

How many say amen?

We gotta care for each other, and and uh we have many stories about about people in in Mexico, and I'll get to that in a little bit, but Galici Galatians 6, 1 and 2 says, brothers and sisters, again, you know that that family concept, brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the spirit should restore that person gently, but watch yourselves as or you may also be tempted, carry each other burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ, which was love one another as He has loved us, right?

But brothers and sisters, I don't know in in Cincinnati, Ohio, but in Mexico, we're so prompted to call out and say, Hey, you're doing something wrong, hey, you're not supposed to be doing that, and I don't know if that happens here, if that's only happened in Mexico, but that's not caring for one another.

Uh, the Bible is calling us, and Paul is telling Timothy as a leader, you have to care for your people, you have to care for your family.

And pointing sometimes things that are not going well, it's harsh, but it's out of out of love.

Ephesians 4, uh 32 says, be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other just as Christ God forgave you.

Sometimes we we don't care enough to forgive somebody.

And we're we're okay with getting the forgiveness from God to us, but we're not sometimes okay with giving that forgiveness this way.

And in caring for one another is just carrying each other's burdens.

And what does that mean?

I'm gonna pray for you, I'm gonna be standing with you, I'm gonna give my life so you can be a better, a better person, a better believer, a better disciple of God, and you can also make more disciples.

And as a family, I I I heard this uh some time ago, and one of the ways for you to be and feel part of a family is to serve together.

When you serve together as a family, you you you feel part of the family, you feel and you fulfill the purpose that God has for your life, and so serving one another, uh Galatians 6, 9 says, Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap our harvest if we do not keep up.

Galatians 5, 13 and 14 says, You my brothers and sisters were called to be free, but do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh.

Rather, serve one another humbly in love, for the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command.

Love your neighbor as yourself, yourself.

And so serving together shows the compassion and shows the care.

And I know I know you have heard all of this before.

Um, and I know this is probably not something new that that it's coming, but we get to live it day by day.

We get to make a choice day by day, to love one another, to care for one another, and to serve one another.

And at the end, that that is uh fulfilling the law and the command from Jesus Christ to love your neighbor as yourself, or to love your neighbor as Christ have loved you.

First Peter 4 10 talks about it.

Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others as faithful stewards of God's grace in its various forms.

So anything and everything that you have in your hands can be used to serve others and to love others.

And so in our ministry, Ministerios Transformación in Mexico with church planting movement, this is what we want to live.

This is what we try to accomplish every day in what we do.

And in that process, we find the widows, and in the process, we find the orphans, and in the process, we find the people that are really in need in our communities.

And so we want to be a church that empire inspires followers of Jesus to transform the world.

And with each church plant that we do, we want to make an impact in that community.

It's so hard for people in Tijuana and for kids in Mexico to stay in school.

And so, you know, if you want to break that cycle of poverty, and if you want to break that cycle of I can't do things, which I was talking with some of the pastors, is a big stronghold in our city.

Is that I don't have enough money, I'm not gonna be able to make it, and then hope is is lost.

And that's really sad when you live in a city that uh is like that, so close to the United States, but yet so far away in the way we we live.

And so when my dad, and and I'm gonna tell this story because it's when when my dad was growing up, uh he was a little kid, and my grandma was uh cooking breakfast, and they didn't have a lot of money, they didn't have a lot of resources, and my grandma was was cooking, and she was cooking uh uh a couple of hot dogs for the whole family, and so she cut them in half and gave each one a half.

They had four kids.

And when my grandma threw the plate at my dad, my dad thought that the other half had fallen to the ground or something.

So he started looking for the other half of the hot dog, and it was not there because they didn't have enough food.

And now for him, that's that's hilarious, and that's now for him, but that inspired him to say, if that's something, if if if something I want to do in a community where a church has planned, is to have food for the kids that cannot afford to have a meal every day.

And so we started doing that about 15 years ago in the church in El Niño, and now through this 15 years, we have uh the breakfast program that we call it, uh the lunch program, and we have about a hundred kids that come every day after school or before school to have to get a hot meal at the church.

Out of that, we've even had people that come years later and say, Thank you, because in my darkest moment, when my wife left me and I didn't have anything in my house, I could come to church and fed my kids.

That's loving one another.

That's caring for one another.

That's uh being able to serve one another and Lola.

And you you I talk about Lola a lot because she she has the best food in the world.

But she she's a lady that cooks, and she's for the uh last 15 years been in charge of the breakfast program.

It has seen so many kids come and so many families get connected to church just because we are able to serve.

Um we also uh live in a community that is very, very poor to the point where there was a big hill uh really close to where we live.

It's all hills, really.

It's it's it's it's different coming here, not seeing a mountain anywhere near, uh, because that's what we have in Mexico, in Tijuana at least.

Uh but there there was uh a squatter community.

So all of a sudden, in a night, they took over that piece of land, and you had a hundred families living there.

In a week, you had 250 families living there, and it became for us as a church uh a great opportunity to serve and to share the gospel.

And so we started doing home builds at this community called Fuentes del Valle.

And and here you have Federico and Elizabeth there who got their house a few months ago.

But one of the things we do is as a church and partnering with the American church is we do we do home builds for families that are in need, especially families that have little kids, because something that we want to make sure is that the families, they the kids keep in school and the kids see a future and a hope for their life.

And whenever they say, Who built that house for you?

we say, God built that house for you.

And so in the past five, six years, we have built over 500 homes in the Tijuana area, and that's the way we love our city, and we love um our people.

I have another picture of another family that was just getting their brand new home.

Uh but that was not enough because we're about sharing the gospel, right?

That's that's our command as disciples of Christ.

Love one another and share the gospel around the world.

And so we started with with our city, and uh, like Pastor Justin was saying, about 15 years ago, uh my dad was pastoring the church in El Niño, where I'm pastoring right now, and he he he got this vision from God to plant 50 churches in the Tijuana area.

And at the beginning was like, how are we gonna build 50 churches?

How are we gonna raise 50 leaders?

How are we gonna how are we gonna do this?

And God has provided through the past 15 years for us to be able to plant, and like Pastor Justin was saying, in the fall, we'll be building church number 40 with the 40 pastors being being there, with uh being an impact to the community, not just by the home builds, not just by the breakfast programs, but by bringing a transformation that only Christ can bring.

In everything that we do is uh we want to be able to build a relationship.

And that's uh we have our nonprofit organization that is registered in the States, and it's all about building relationships and changing lives.

And even for some of you that have come to Mexico with us, uh, and then you come back and and you see the same faces and you see the same people and you become friends and uh you become inspired not only to go to Mexico, but then go somewhere else in the world because of the relationship that you can form, not only with us in Mexico, but even with the team that's coming around you.

I found this quote from from Rick Warren that says, whenever you serve others in any way, you're actually serving God.

And so as a family, and kind of what Paul's talking to Timothy in in 1 Timothy 5 is a family, we are to love one another, care for one another, and serve with one another.

How many say amen to that?

And we don't do it, and and I'm gonna be really honest, in Mexico, we don't do it because we like to do it.

We don't do it because it's fun, we don't do it, we do it because God sent his own son to live in this earth to give up his life, and that teaches us a lot of what we are supposed to be doing in this world, at least in our city.

And so John 3, 16, 17, I'm pretty sure you know it, but for God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but to have eternal life.

For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

And that's the message that we preach every weekend.

If you believe, you can be saved and your life will be transformed.

Not your problems are not gonna go away, but God is gonna come and we be with you through all the circumstances, through all what you're going through.

And so for me this morning, uh, if if there's something that I would like for you to take home or for you to uh hear from from me from a pastor in Tijuana, is uh I I hope that you can love your city and your community the way we love our city and our communities.

Uh with a servant's heart, with a loving heart, and with a caring heart.

Will you pray with me?

Dear God, thank you for this amazing opportunity that we get to hear your word.

Um that this may be a reminder that we can all pray for each other and that we can use our gifts to serve one another, to care for one another, and to love one another as you have loved us.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.