Mountain View Church on Mission - June 28, 2026

It is my privilege to invite you to today's sermon podcast. I have made the

Apostle Paul's prayer request my own.

When he states in Ephesians 6, 19, pray also for me, that whenever I open my

mouth, the words may be given to me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel.

May today's sermon come alive to you and aid you in your understanding of God's plan for your life.

Well, praise the Lord. Yeah. Thank you, Terry.

We've had some different services here lately. Haven't really been in the book

of Hebrews for several weeks. We'll get there. Don't worry.

I was talking to Jason and Carrie last week about me not preaching for a few

weeks. And they said, well, Pastor, you don't have to give it to us all at once

when you do finally get to preach back in Hebrews.

I said, don't worry. We won't do that. But he also said, let him know when that

Sunday is. And he knows he's going to be sick that day.

So I love Jason. He's a good guy.

Hey, this morning, we're going to take a little pause again from Hebrews.

We'll get into it. Don't worry. The week after next, we'll be back there.

But it's a good reminder, especially with we've got these great mission teams

that have come back, ready to share, excited to share.

And so I thought it would be good just to remind us as the church about what

our mission is, what we're all about, and who we are to be.

No matter where we live, no matter where we go from or come from or go to,

there's some great things for us to remember.

And that is what our mission is all about.

And the challenge, of course, for any group of people when they get together

and are trying to go in the same direction is just that, to try to go in the same direction.

Because there's things off to the side that like to lure us away.

Bright, shiny things that need our attention, momentary crisis that call out for us.

And if we're not careful, pretty soon we get scattered going this way and that

way, forward and backward, and just not staying together.

And so this is one of those Sundays as a reminder, and also a great Sunday to

celebrate what God has done in these mission teams that we've sent out.

And so we're going to get into all that. And just a few moments,

So I'm going to ask some of the participants, those that wanted to share to come up.

I've got five chairs, but you can also stand. I thought I had six chairs,

but I learned I can't count today, apparently.

Someone took one of my chairs, maybe.

But I just want to remind you, first and foremost, what our mission is,

Mountview Church of the Nazarene.

And that is this, we exist to know Christ, to share his love,

and to make him known to others.

That simple. If you want it even simpler, you can read it like this.

In short, we're here to know, we're here to love, and we're here to share.

So know, love, and share. That's what our church is all about.

If you're our guest this morning, then I've just told you what our church is all about.

And hopefully we live up to that, because that's what we've expressed.

And where do we get these crazy ideas? Well.

These crazy ideas of knowing, of loving, and sharing, they come from the Scripture.

From a couple passages, and we're going to read one of them today,

but from Matthew 28, 19, and 20, and Matthew 22, 37, and 38,

we call that the great commandment, which is the earlier one in Matthew.

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength,

and love your neighbor as yourself. That's the great commandment that Jesus gave.

Pretty simple, right? Well, there's a lot in there. We won't unpack that today.

But that's what God has told us. That's part of our mission.

That's why when we say we exist to know Christ, we exist to share his love and

to make him known to others.

That's why in all of that, we seek to fulfill those commands.

To love God with all that we are and to love others as we love ourselves.

And it's the great commandment, the great commission that we're tasked with doing.

But it's not that we're supposed to do this in our own strength, in our own power.

You see, because just over in the book of Acts, it tells us where our power source comes from.

It's not in ourself, but in Acts 1-8, when I read this in just a minute,

we're powered by the very Spirit of God, the power of God to do these things.

So that's the cool thing. You're not on your own doing it, under your own strength

and your own power. There's a submission that has to happen.

You've got to lay down some things to God and let Him take over.

For those of you that don't like anyone else driving your car,

You've got to let God drive your car, or in a sense, drive your life.

Okay? And when you do that, you'll find out how amazing things happen.

And so this morning, I do want to read those scriptures, Matthew 28,

18 and 20, and then Acts 1, 8.

And I'll just invite you, if you're willing and able to stand to honor the reading of God's word.

And in Matthew 28, 18, and we're going to go down through the end there,

the scripture says, Then Jesus came to them and said, All authority in heaven

and on earth has been given to me.

Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name

of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey

everything I have commanded you.

And surely I am with you always to the very end of the age.

And then over in Acts 1, verse 8, the scripture says this,

Acts 1:8

but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you,

and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria,

and to the ends of the earth.

Let's pray together. Father, thank you for your word. Lord, we thank you for

the opportunity we have to hear it, to dwell on it. Lord, to think about it,

to meditate upon it, and Father, then to put it into practice.

May we do that, God, we ask in the powerful and the mighty name of Jesus. us. Amen.

Thank you for honoring God's Word. You can be seated.

There's three points I want to make, and in the midst of these points,

I'm going to ask those of you that we're going to share from the missions teams

to come on up, and you can have one of these seats behind me.

You can come now. Don't be shy.

So as they're coming, I just want to talk really quickly, three points.

The first one is the fact that God calls.

Did you know that? That God calls you.

You don't have to be afraid because the one who calls you, he wouldn't call

you if he didn't think you had something that you could do.

Yeah, you guys can just sit here.

You can hide behind me. Yeah. All right. Come on, Brother Newell.

These guys make me look better anyway. I should have you guys up here every Sunday. All right.

Did you know that God calls you? First and foremost, God called you out of darkness

into his glorious light.

He calls you to say, hey, come out, you dirty, rotten sinner.

I've got something better for you. And human beings, we don't like to do that because why?

All of us are dirty, rotten sinners. We know how ugly and how dirty and how

yucky we are. We don't want to step in the light for everybody else to see.

But God calls us to step into his glorious light.

And it's in His light, when He shines the light upon you, that there is no shame

in that, because God knows you already. He knows what you're like,

and He knows that He can clean you up. And so God calls us to that.

And then God calls you after you've accepted Him as your Savior, and He cleans you all up.

The next step in that calling is to follow Him, to take one step at a time,

following His way, following His will.

As He leads you, you follow that leading of the Holy Spirit into the fullness

of all that he has for you.

And that calling is awesome.

And as you continue to follow Jesus, he might call you to something else.

He might call you to serve him in a different way. For some of you,

you've experienced that calling because you're teaching Sunday school.

Whether you got drafted or railroaded or whatever, you're teaching.

Some of you got railroaded. I mean, you volunteered this morning to help set

up for family Sunday fun day.

And some of you will get, I mean, volunteer to help tear everything down when it's over.

I mean, there's these different levels of where God calls you and says,

hey, I need your help with this.

You've got skills and you've got talents. You've got gifts. And here's where I need you.

And when we think about this idea of mission, especially of missions,

we kind of separate ourselves from that.

But when the reality hits, it's that all of us are on mission in some form or some fashion.

We have a scripture up here that says, Jesus came to seek and save that which was lost.

That was the mission of Jesus. And it's the same mission he calls us to now.

Those of us who were lost and God's cleansed and he's forgiven our sin.

And he says, okay, now I want you to go out and do the same kind of thing.

I want you to go out and find the lost.

I want you to go out and seek and save them. Be my hands, be my feet,

go where the people are that need Jesus.

You see, when we talk about mission and specifically the call to be on mission,

to be about God's mission here, it begins with God's supernatural cosmic movement,

when he starts speaking to your heart.

Has anyone experienced that before where God has just spoken to your heart?

I hope all of you have because we cannot be saved without the conviction of

the Holy Spirit in our lives, showing us, hey, you're a sinner.

You need Jesus. And it is that conviction of God, that cosmic movement,

that supernatural prodding that leads us to the Savior,

that leads us to someone who will share with us about the Savior.

It's not our human planning.

It's not all of our fundraising, but it's what God is doing,

how God is working, and how God is moving.

And just so you know, the places you'll go to reach the lost.

Some of the places are great, some aren't so great, but we don't bring God to

those places because God is already working there.

God is already at work wooing those hearts to him, winning those hearts to him.

And so we've been on some adventures here recently. We've had Brother Newell

that went to Guatemala, praise the Lord, on a dental mission,

We have a group that just returned from Honduras, and I mean,

just returned, and saw some of y'all late night, Tuesday night,

or was it Monday night? I don't know, Monday night, that's when it was,

almost Tuesday night, Tuesday morning.

And then we had some that had just come back from the Philippines and from Thailand,

and then went on to Honduras.

And so, Doug and Dathan, so we've been over the spread of the world here.

I say we, I didn't go, but you guys were kind of our stand-ins to go, praise the Lord.

And so they've been on this journey. And I just want you to know,

as we think about this, the scripture here, that Jesus calls us all,

we've all been commissioned as believers in Jesus to go, go and make disciples.

It's not the geographic location that dictates your calling.

What dictates your calling is what Jesus has said.

Come unto me, all you who are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

But then he just doesn't say, okay, just chill at my place until you feel like

going. No, because we see Jesus says, then go.

He told the disciples to go. Go and make disciples. Come in,

get rested, get healed, and then you go out.

That's the idea of this kind of mission that we're on. And these guys have gone

on behalf of our church too.

They have gone. And so just to set them up, here's what I'd like you guys to

do, and I've got a microphone.

All right, Ellie. Okay, I'll go down to Dathan. She doesn't want ladies first,

so just hang that hang tight for a minute.

What I'll ask you all to do, if you're willing, if you're not,

that's cool, but why are you up here? No.

I just want them to say their name, because everybody doesn't know you all,

and say where you went, even if it was more than just one place,

and then I'll give you more instructions after that. Let's start there, huh? Hello?

My name is Dathan Anders. I went to the Philippines and Thailand and then to Honduras.

Hi, I'm Doug Anders, and I went to the same place as he did.

Good morning. I'm Newell Morgan, and I went to Guatemala. Melissa Lauchs and I went to Honduras.

Ellie Lauchs and I also went to Honduras. All right, just hang on to it for

a minute. Yeah, you're not first. No, you're not first. Tathan was first.

Hi. I'm just clarifying. Okay, it's fine.

So you heard where they went. Now what I want each of you to answer is just this question.

What did you expect God to do before you went on this trip? Before you got in

the plane and buckled in?

What did you expect God to do? So you have to go first, Allie.

And then I'll go. Okay. I'm ready. I just don't like to go first.

I had to write my stuff down because I have a lot of squirrels up there that

I would just get sidetracked.

So before planning to travel to Honduras, our daughters actually signed up,

two of our daughters and our future son-in-law and Ellie.

And so then they kind of guilt-tripped us and said, well, we want to make sure

that we're going to be safe. And we really just think it would be great to go as a family.

And so we had this opportunity.

So Lamont and I both went. And I vaguely remember Brian speaking to the church,

about the Cocal Gracias, and I knew that there was a,

children's center and that he was doing a trade school, and they had a lot of

problems at the first trade school.

There was some spiritual warfare. They ended up closing down,

restarting better than they were before.

So I expected that God would use me in both a practical and spiritual way.

I thought I would be able to make a tangible impact by the hands-on things such

as the building, the painting, the helping with projects that would benefit the mission.

Brooke did give us a fair warning that you need to have your testimony ready

or what God's put on your heart ready at all times.

So I expected that God would provide opportunities to share parts of my testimony

and speak about my faith with the people we met.

And I prayed that those opportunities, when they came, that God would use my

words and personal experiences to connect with someone and remind them of His

love, as well as encouraging them with the Scripture.

So overall i expected to do both physical and spiritual work there yeah yeah,

i just didn't want to go first.

Okay so i honestly i will not lie i did not have very many expectations going

into it because i was away at college and my mom called me and she's like hey

so i signed you up to go on a mission

and i was like okay like i was super excited and then i was gone when brooke

had all the meetings and we got to pack in all the information.

So I was like, well, I know I'm going to Honduras. I'm not really sure where

I'm not really sure when or what I'm doing, but I'm,

Brooke mentioned we had to be ready

to share testimony, and I kind of just expected to go and be used like,

physically, do some manual labor there, and then also just get an opportunity

to speak with the people that live there and share how God has worked in my

life and listen to how God has worked in their lives.

Awesome. I guess I would say that at 82 years of age, this is my third trip

to Guatemala with this group.

And so I pray for strength as I travel.

And then when I'm there to be able to carry out my task as an interpreter and

to have conversations that would be profitable, beneficial with the,

people there and with the college students and professionals that I work with.

I don't know about expectations. That's a tough one, a very specific question.

I expected it to be hot, and it was.

Outside of that, I don't really know if I had a lot of expectations.

You know that God's going to do something, and you just need to be available. That's good.

When we were talking about the trip for Philippines and Thailand,

We talked about, we don't know exactly what's going to happen.

We're going to get there and there's plans, but we don't really know them.

I had an expectation to do some level of assistance and teaching,

maybe give my testimony.

I was hoping maybe we could do some manual labor.

And I had a similar expectation for Honduras as well. I learned with my first

trip, you work on their schedule when you go on a trip.

And often their schedules are more in flux as LeMond called it, island time.

It's great guys, thank you,

The point I want to make here for all you all and everybody out here is this,

you know, the calling of God is not just for mission trip kind of people with

expectations or not sure or, hey, I know what we're getting into.

The calling of God is for every single believer in Jesus Christ.

The call to know God, to know others, to love God and to love others,

to share with God and to share with others.

That's the calling for every person that claims Jesus Christ as their Savior.

And so they had this special calling to go to another nation and to serve.

And it was a call that stemmed from that first call that they had to go and to follow Jesus.

And so the first point this morning, just simply like to reiterate,

is that God calls us. And whether you think about this in that missionary calling

or not, God calls you guys, and you answered that call with the expectations that you have.

And so I'll come back to you in just a minute, because the second thing that

God does is that God transforms us.

God transforms the work within us and the work through us.

And so you might be thinking, well, okay, God's calling me, but what good am

I going to do with God? I mean, come on, what's God going to do with me?

I have some skills or maybe zero skills, or maybe I think I have a lot of skills,

But what is God going to do through a person like me?

And I'm going to have these folks here kind of answer a little bit about what

God did through them on the trips that they've taken. Now, we're talking about

three different world areas, some right and close to each other,

Guatemala and Honduras.

But God is moving and God is doing something too. And he works with the people

that will answer, that will say yes, yes to God and answer his call.

So I'm going to ask you kind of three questions.

You don't got to answer all of them, but maybe you'll remember one in the list.

So here's the three questions that I kind of want you to hit on.

One, where did you see God already at work when you arrived?

Okay, so when you landed, you got to a place where you're going,

where was God already doing something?

A second question you might answer is, how did God stretch you or change you

personally in the trip that you were on through the time that you were there? And it may be ongoing.

Third, when did you feel most dependent upon the Holy Spirit during this time

that you were gone? So, Dathan, you got the microphone. I'll let you go first.

We're kind of like a typewriter, zing, zing, back and forth. Yeah.

We, our trip was mostly planned for Thailand. We stopped at Honduras to pick

up some people to come with us on the mission trip.

Or sorry, Philippines into the Thailand on the mission trip.

When we got to the Philippines, we show up at the church to go meet with these

people. And they're having a 200 kid VBS.

We get there and they're praising God. They're singing. It was wonderful.

And this church we went to was actually planted a long time ago by Pastor Bob.

And it had grown to the extent that now they were trying to help us go out.

When we went to Thailand with Jubilee, we met a lot of different people.

And every single one of them, as I'm talking in agreement, they all talked about

God in some way. Like, you know, thank God God here and everything is going

well. I'm so excited for what's going forward.

It was a good thing. And I know I'm not a very confident person,

but in each of these trips, I ended up having this experience where I'd meet somebody.

They'd have a question or a thought or something going on in their life that

was conveniently matching up with something that I had gone through or a thought

I had had or a word that was suddenly put in my heart and,

God would pressure me to speak out on these things and speak forward in his

name I know in the in Thailand I ended up teaching a whole lot to a class about,

literally just about how what it means to ask a question to think about these

biblical thoughts steeper. Awesome.

Can you repeat the questions? I can. No, I'm just, I'm kidding.

Hey, Doug, I get it, man. I get it.

The easiest way for me to talk about it is just in order of occurrence.

Yeah. Yeah, when we got to the Philippines, we didn't really know for sure.

We knew we were going and we were going to meet people, and we had specific agendas.

The most was to do with this Bible quizzing in Thailand.

I had no idea the part in the Philippines would be so meaningful.

Like like dathan said well there's a picture we showed up and yeah there's almost

200 little kids being led in the vbs by kids you wouldn't expect i mean kids that are,

17 18 19 20 they're leading it they're so excited about god and like he said

i mean i bob had always talked about going there but to go and see this place.

We're we're i mean it's affecting the community that i can't even explain how

disgusting it is where they live.

You know, I mean, I thought the people in Africa were poor, which technically

they are poorer, but at least they have land. At least they can go to bathroom somewhere and hide it.

These people, it's running down the street. You know, when it rains,

it comes into the church. Literally the sewer floods into the church.

They have to step over it to get into the church. You know, these 200 people

are in a room that's basically 30 by 12 and they spill out into the street.

Motorcycles are coming through that street during service, during VBS.

You know, it was pretty crazy. But this place wouldn't exist,

honestly, without Bob. I know he doesn't want us to say that.

And they're spread now. You know, they're branching out now into other areas.

It's amazing the work they're doing there.

And yeah, when we got to Thailand, I honestly didn't, uh, put a whole lot in

the, why are we going to help these people do Bible quizzing?

This doesn't even make sense to me. Can't we do this over the internet?

You know, it was just like, you know, we want to do other things,

which they did have us do other things.

We got to go to the refugee camps and see stuff, some stuff we weren't even

allowed to film because, you know, Thailand doesn't want people to know about

it. Myanmar doesn't want people to know about it. It's just, it's kind of awful, but.

I was amazed at how much they did need help with this Bible quizzing.

It was kind of interesting because their culture is so different.

They're beat down to not ask questions. They're in trouble for asking questions.

And so I literally watched Dathan teach them how to ask questions.

I mean, just something we would just take for granted, their brain.

And this one guy was a doctor, but his brain didn't work really that way.

Now, he had at least gotten more education, so he was better than the average person there.

But they could just take a group of, you know, a sentence and pull out words.

And, oh, there's a question. Let me put that word back. Let me pull out another

word. And there's a question.

They actually had to be taught that.

It was kind of a strange thing to see. And another unexpected thing was what

Dathan said, how powerful he was working in young people there.

I mean, Jubilee was there.

Other than Jubilee, everyone we dealt with was young. I mean,

there were at least 40 and under, but a whole lot of in their mid-20s that are

pushing the gospel there.

And it was Dathan and this guy, Jared and Joshua, who you guys don't know,

the young people that went with us just had such a huge influence and gave their

young people, I guess, confidence and support.

And it was amazing to watch the interaction between them.

They still communicate and they still have dathan still helping one of them teach over the internet.

Doing classes what's it what do you call that i don't know it's just zoom yeah

just two days ago yes and anyway it's it's very it was very meaningful.

Going to honduras i didn't know really what to think because i knew it was going

to be a lot different than the other places we had been and it was they were

they were honestly a lot more organized in what they had us do he had a very,

I mean, he says island time.

Yeah, stuff's changed, but they had a pretty good schedule. It was pretty good.

But the thing that caught me off guard there was how open everybody was with

their testimonies that went with our group.

I think people are willing to say things they would never say here.

They would never do here. It just wouldn't happen, but they'll say it there.

I'm not sure why, but, you know, everybody gave very personal testimonies.

Everybody, you know, borderline preached in some way.

And the other thing that's very unexpected about all the places I've been going

back to Africa is that they serve us more than we serve them.

It's mind blowing. They want to give you everything. They just.

It's hard to understand because I feel like we give and do nothing compared

to what they do, these Christians, and how much they're willing to give to the people around them.

And in most cases, most of us probably have a car on our property somewhere

that has more stuff in it than these people own, period.

It's amazing just to see their love for God with nothing, no legs,

no eyes, and they're just praising Jesus. Amen.

Guys, when you finish this, you could flip to mine and my PowerPoint,

and we'll spin through that one. Okay.

My job as I go is I'm an interpreter, one of several.

And so my business on this dental trip is to talk to people.

I talk with students. I talked with the professionals.

Sometimes it's witnessing. Sometimes it's just casual conversation.

In our clinic, we would go through this trip. We served 460-some patients.

In four days of clinic in Guatemala.

This is an outlying, a small town, about the size of, what, 20,000 people.

And we had a group that would be nearly 70 people.

Most of these would be professionals and also students from the dental school

at USC and also college students, including from Northwest Nazarene,

who will be going into dental school.

We had one man who this year he's new. He built dental prosthetics for us, plates.

And you can see how this lady was transformed.

We would help these people in any way that we could.

And you can see the dentists working here, working with students.

In some cases beside them.

And then we'd have old people who needed help. We had children who would be in the chairs.

And as a great-grandfather, I could identify with these little kids who would

be there for an extraction and would be screaming.

These people would arrive at 6 o'clock in the morning sometimes and wait for

two to three hours before we would open the clinic, which was in a large municipal building.

Here you see the people waiting.

We had a local pastor, which is one of the surprises this year,

a local pastor who would work with us.

Now, many of the things that you people sent are represented here on this table

of little kids who are playing with face paints.

They're playing with little toys.

They're waiting for their time of pain.

But I would sit there sometimes. I remember one time sitting with a patient

for nearly two hours holding that young lady's hand because it took that long to do the job.

She had four fillings that were done, and students were working on her,

and it takes time for those students to work with it.

But the conversations, the time of devotions that we had in the morning,

we would start with a brief time of devotions and prayer.

And then in the evening, we would close with a time of devotions and prayer

and then business of how our day had gone. And.

For me, it's different than a building situation.

This last one here, we had another lady and I had opportunity to talk to the

young girl there by the staircase.

She's an assistant in her church, and she needed a little bit of propping up in her calling.

So Tara and I talked to her. I was the interpreter and also shared on how God had called us to serve.

And that's it's special at my

age to be able to do that thank you for allowing me to represent you amen,

okay so i started with the question of where did god or where did you see god

already at work when you arrived that was a little confirmation there uh it was very apparent.

Is that something i'm doing no okay,

God was already at work long before our team ever arrived.

Through the ministry, they had already established the Timothy Center.

When we got there the first night, we went to a program that they had worked on for quite some time.

They put on this special event, and they just had joy and excitement,

and the love of God was evident.

They even made their little signs in English so that we could follow along.

At the MLV, which is the, they call it the Kasona, the big house,

where the trade school students meet before going to their classes,

Brian and his team pray for the students prior to their arrival.

Throughout the day, they have time that is intentionally set aside for worship and scripture.

It was inspiring to see the students learning job skills while also growing

in their relationship with Christ, or at least being introduced to the Word.

They still have the choice.

Cocoa Gracia's commitment to developing both their practical abilities and their

faith showed me that God is at the center of their ministry.

One of the most powerful moments of the trip for me was visiting the village of Las Flores.

There we saw firsthand how God has transformed lives through the faithful ministry of Pastor Juan.

Hearing stories of changed lives, restored hope, and seeing the impact his dedication

has had on the community was a reminder that God has been faithfully working there for years.

It became very clear that we weren't bringing God to Honduras.

He was already there changing hearts and working through the people he had called.

We were simply blessed to witness his work and to be a small part of what he

is continuing to do. We saw some.

Miracles that had happened. And I know we're on a time crunch,

so find somebody that went on the trip and ask them about those miracles,

how God stretched or changed me personally.

While God does work through us, He is also at work within us,

shaping our character, deepening our faith, and teaching us humility,

patience, compassion, and a greater dependence on Him.

Before this trip, I was more focused on how God might use me to serve others,

and looking back, I realized that He was using the experience to transform me.

The trip stretched me in ways that I hadn't anticipated, working in the heat and humidity,

and on our trip to Las Flores, you have to ask somebody that was in the second

truck about our journey, our truck broke down.

And so we got to walk this path that Pastor Juan had walked for years.

He walked, I think it's three miles, back and forth to this village, saving people.

And somebody had made a joke the night before, hey, we should walk it just for

old time's sake. Oh, it's three hours.

So, and it's uphill both ways.

I guarantee that. But somebody had made the jump. We should try that.

And little did we know, we got to experience maybe, I say it was at least three

quarters of a mile, uphill, straight uphill, packing a table.

And we had some of Brian's kids were also in the truck with us.

And he has a three-year-old that fell down the hill. And so then Lexi packed him part of the way.

And it was just really, it was a physical stretch. Yeah.

Also, we did have a lot of hurry up and wait, and that required patience and flexibility.

I'm kind of uptight, and I kind of like to stick to, if this is the plan, this is our plan.

So, it was a mind shift from not my will, but your will.

They became opportunities to slow down, reflect on what God was doing around me.

And it also became an opportunity to spend time in conversation with others

on our team and from the ministry.

And the next part of the question was, how did you feel most dependent on the Holy Spirit?

And so this question is the continuation of the stretched for me.

When I think of being stretched, I think of being uncomfortable.

For me, I was most reliant on the Holy Spirit when praying aloud.

This is a very vulnerable thing.

I think that it's easy, like in your home and, you know, for your kids.

And my daughter Lexi even gave a talk on this praying aloud for other people.

That is a tough one for me. When somebody says, well, would you pray for us?

I kind of get the deer in the headlights. Like, you're kidding.

Like, I'm not, that's not me. I'm not the person to pray aloud.

But I found in those situations that we were given opportunity to pray for others.

And I've been going to this church for a long time.

I know that prayer is the key to power. I know that two or more are gathered.

I know all of the things, but when it's me speaking in a group,

praying, it's very uncomfortable.

So...

Um, so I had to use a lot of extra prayer, praying that the Holy Spirit would

guide what I said so that my prayers would encourage others and reflect God's heart.

And those moments reminded me that prayer is not just about saying the perfect

words, but about trusting the Holy Spirit to work through us.

As I stepped out in faith, I experienced a greater confidence that God hears

our prayers and faithfully works through our willingness to be obedient.

And I think that that was that was my most stretch so if you're feeling that

too I guess we just have to keep practicing,

for me for the first question of where did you see God already at work when

we arrived it was very evident like she said that we did not bring God to the

people like he was there and very active,

it was really cool the testimonies we got to hear and at the ministry,

like, just the way not only Brian just poured into the kids, like,

and the students, because there was, the kids were older than me,

so not kids, but students.

And we got to go into this village and.

We just got to listen to like their testimonies and just hear how God has worked in their lives.

And that was just really special for me. And then for how did God stretch or

change you personally? It was kind of the same. Like I get a little nervous

to speak in front of people sometimes. I don't really know why.

But when we were going to share a testimony, I was kind of thinking like,

what can I say to these people?

Like I'm going to say, oh, my life was so hard.

And I like went through these things and then, but what is my hardship look

like compared to theirs?

Like we're in this place where these people, their power just goes off like

randomly and I'm over here chilling in my AC all the time.

Like my shower doesn't shock me when I try to change the temperature,

like all these things. And I'm like, what am I going to say to these people

that they're going to relate to me?

And so I definitely felt stretched. And that's also the next question,

how I felt like God used me is I just definitely was like, okay,

God, you just tell me what these people need to hear. And I'm.

Yeah, it was just really special, like getting to listen how God was already there.

And I think one thing that I learned the most on this trip was like,

such as I'm such, and this is so bad, like circumstantial praise.

Like I praise God when things are good.

And when things are bad, I'm kind of just like, oh, and then I wait for it to

get good again. And then I'm like, oh, thank you, God. Like that was so good.

And there they praise God all the time. And like the joy is so evident they

don't even have things like we met all the kids and we just brought bubbles

and like frisbees things that you

wouldn't even think twice about like not being able to have that or like.

Just silly little things where they're so excited all the time about things

and they're so evident like oh praise god that we get to do this and like,

i don't know it's just super cool to see in my eyes yeah awesome thank you all

stay here because i got one 30 second question for each of you.

I say 30 seconds because it's getting close time to lunch, because I could sit here all day.

And I hope that you do this. I hope you find these people while we're chilling

out at the Sunday fun day here, eating our tri-tip and our burgers and our hot dogs.

And even if they're speaking with their mouth full, ask them questions about

this experience. You see, first thing we said was that God calls.

And what Jesus said to all of us was to go into all the world and make disciples.

The second thing was that as God transforms us, he does so by his Holy Spirit,

Acts 1, 8, the first part, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you.

And hearing your guys' testimonies, man, how God came upon you guys.

God was working, yeah, but in order for you to pray out loud,

in order for you to recognize what the real needs were.

The Holy Spirit was there working in you and through you. And man,

Doug, you said people were just preaching.

That's the power of the Holy Spirit doing that. And so...

That's what God does, you know, when you encounter him, when you have the Holy

Spirit of God and you deeply surrender to him. For you guys to get out of your

comfort zone and go do what you did, shocking showers and everything,

I mean, that's powerful.

It takes a deep surrender to say, yes, Lord, I'm going to go.

I'm going to sacrificially give and go, and I'm going to give of my time of

myself, and I'm going to go.

Anytime you do that, a deeper surrender to God always, always puts you in an

outward alignment with his heart.

Instead of looking at me, poor me, I don't have AC, I don't have a shower that

won't try to kill me. You know, I have food that's weird.

Instead of saying me, me, me, you're looking out to others and saying you,

you, you, God, you love these people.

And that's what the Holy Spirit does. He takes the focus from inside you to

outside of you, to recognizing the needs of other people, both physically and spiritually.

And that's what being with the Holy Spirit does. He transforms you when you

say, yes, Lord, I'm going to surrender to you.

You really get in line with his heart for the world.

A third this morning is that God sends us, the other part of Acts 1-8,

and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, and all of Samaria and to the ends of the earth.

And you guys, this group up here really went to the ends of the earth from one

end to the other and back around. So when we consider that, how God sends us.

The one question that I want you to conclude with is this.

In 30 seconds, give or take, those are preacher seconds, by the way,

how has this trip permanently altered the way you look at your life,

your routine, your neighbors back home?

Make it simpler. How has this changed the way you see your life back here?

So take it away. Okay, kind of like how I just said, like what the circumstances,

like I've just looked back and been like, I could have praised God,

and I can praise God for everything.

Like, oh, I woke up. Praise God. Like, oh, my car started. Praise God. Like, all the things.

I shouldn't allow my circumstance to affect my attitude or my praise.

And I also just think the mission doesn't stop. Like, you don't have to go somewhere

else to be mission-driven. Like, you can serve a mission here.

Like you can do things and reach out to people and continue to like share what

God has done in your life Like you don't have to go other places,

Try to keep it short. That's good.

So while returning home, I was reminded that God invites us to participate in His work.

He's the one who accomplishes the Lasting Vets Formation.

My role is to simply be faithful, available, and willing to trust Him.

I returned home with a deeper faith, a greater appreciation for His timing,

and renewed understanding that God is always working.

The trip also gave me a new insight on missionaries that live there full-time,

seeing their daily commitment, sacrifice, and perseverance.

It helped to open my eyes in a deeper way of what it means to live life fully

devoted to God's calling.

They've given up many of the comforts and possessions of this world in order

to invest in something eternal.

So as I come home, I would share with you that if you financially can support

these missions, or if you can just pray for them every day, they are really doing God's work.

Their willingness to live simply and serve faithfully and remain committed to

the people God has placed in their care challenged my own perspective on what

it means to follow Christ.

It reminded me that a true wealth is not found in material things.

One of the biggest things that I brought home was that I had traveled to another

country and around Honduras by plane, boat, horse-drawn carriage,

walking, riding in the back of a pickup.

It was just crazy, the means that we used to travel around in Honduras.

But I was able to connect with them despite the language barriers,

the cultural differences, different life experiences.

How much more can God use me with people I encounter every day who might have

similar circumstances as I do?

And to be more willing for me to allow Him to work here.

I think when you're on a mission trip, you know that's your mission.

And it is easier to share your faith because that's what they expect you to

do. And I think that it's crazy that we traveled all the way there and I had

never even heard Ellie's testimony. I'm related to her. I'm her aunt.

I had not heard Doug's testimony. I didn't really know Tim.

Like, I thought, that is really amazing that I traveled all the way there to

listen to people in our own church's testimonies and to see how much in common we actually have.

So the piece of advice that Brooke shared before we went on the trip has continued

to resonate with me I think that it's always have your testimony ready or what

God is placing on your heart,

and maybe walk up to somebody or have coffee with somebody that's right here in the congregation and,

we can really relate on a on a personal level and I think that like Ellie said

the mission field is like literally right here.

I'd like to answer that I'd like to answer that question two ways both as a young couple,

Charlene and I worked summers out of the country several times,

and our reaction was much like your reaction, the things that we saw and felt and all that.

And now reacting to it as an old person, as an old couple, we find that we're never to stop serving.

Even when we're our age there are opportunities and God will call us and provide those for us Amen,

I mean, see, one of the obvious takeaways is, of course, first-world problems are a joke.

But getting a little deeper is a first-world problem we have that's more serious

is our selfishness of our time.

That's what I touched on earlier is all of the Christian people I've seen in

these communities and these other places, it's not about how we treat a Christian

life as a whole or most of us do in America.

Is we go to church, we have more Bible studies. Oh, I'm more of a Christian.

I went to another Bible study. I went to everything this week.

We need to take our church to the community. I mean, that's what they're doing

in these countries. We need to do that here.

That's the biggest thing God's convicted me of on these trips is that we all

have a lot more time than we think we do. We have a lot more money than we think

we do. We have a lot more to offer than we think we do.

And we just kind of all hide in our shells and we don't give of ourselves like we should.

I mean, I'm not saying that from high, mighty place. I'm saying that from a

convicted, worthless human being's place. Okay?

It's we need to step out of our comfort zone. We need to bring the gospel to

our community and not just be comfortable in our little lives,

in our church, doing our thing. Amen.

These trips have made me realize my own cowardice because when you when you

go on a trip you know why you're there you kind of have a job,

and the holy spirit because you're aligning your thoughts with what you should

be doing in god he rises up in you and gives you the strength to save what you

need to do what you need but then we come back home,

your mind disaligns with what you should be doing and you're kind of,

well, you know, I feel a prodding. I feel that still small voice.

You know, you should go talk to that person. And then, well,

you know, I could go to Taco Bell, have lunch somewhere.

I could go home. I could go to sleep. I don't need to speak to this person or

I don't need to go out and do this. The, the cowardice that fills my own heart,

is vast. And I know I feel God calling me more and more every day coming back.

I feel his word stronger. When I read the word, I'm realizing,

with a little bit more intimacy, the nature of these stories you hear about

the apostles, about people like David.

And I've developed this prayer that with every trip I've gone and grow stronger,

whenever I'm in front of people or speaking, I just kind of in my head,

I'm saying, may it not be my words, God, might it be yours. May it not be my

words, God, might it be yours. May it not be my will, might it be your will, God.

Amen. Thank you. See, the third point is just simply this.

Yeah, God calls us, God transforms us, but then God sends us.

And you guys, in one way or another, said that.

God sends us out, Doug, especially you. We've got to get the church out of here

and into our communities.

We don't leave God here when we leave, do we?

No, he's with us, and we go with him.

And so what these guys experience in Honduras and Guatemala and the Philippines

and Thailand is not reserved just for those coordinates on a map.

But you can experience that in your life every single day. You really can.

Your workplace is a mission field. When school starts up, school is a mission field.

Wherever you go and you recreate, you have fun, you play, that's a mission field.

Going down to Albertsons can be a mission field, depending on who you bump into.

I mean, we've got to have those kind of eyes if we really believe that God calls

us, that God transforms us, and that God sends us.

You see, what this church is here, it's not supposed to be a holding tank,

all right? It's supposed to be a base of sending.

This is the base where you come in, you get recharged, you go out,

and you continue to be the people just that you are in here, but out there as well.

You know what happens with holding tanks, right?

They're not properly treated. They get to get stinky, and they turn green and maybe brown.

We don't want our church to be like that. And I'm not talking about the color

of the paint on the wall, but I'm talking about stagnancy of the people within.

And we've got to let God's life and His Spirit flow through us so we don't become stagnant like that.

Hey, what I'd love for you to do is just to praise the Lord with a clap offering

on behalf of these folks that went.

Thank you all for having the courage to come up and to share.

And like I said, find them out there.

We're at the Family Sunday Funday and just talk to them a little bit more.

So you guys can go sit down. You get off the hot seats now.

Thank you all very much. Thank you, Brother Newell. Doug, thank you. Jason, you too, buddy.

Hey, there were several things that I could unpack for the next three hours,

but I hear stomachs are growling.

That would not be a very kind. So I want to give you two invitations.

The first invitation is find somewhere locally to serve, whether that's in our own church.

Hey, there's plenty of places where we need folks. If you can only count on

your fingers, we've got a spot for you.

If you can only do certain things, if all you can do is pray,

there's a ministry for you.

But even outside of our congregation, we are blessed at where we live.

We have several global missions organizations right in our backyard.

Aren't. I mean, we've got the Hope House tour coming up later in July.

You can go check that out. Maybe that's somewhere that God might call you.

Love, Inc., Lifeline Pregnancy Center, Mission Aviation Fellowship.

I mean, I can go down the list that's in our bulletin, and you can see places

that one, need your prayers, but two, might need your service.

So find somewhere locally. But second, don't discount yourself that you could

ever go somewhere else outside of the United States.

And maybe through this, God has spoken to you and you'd like to go with me and

Les and Eldon and whoever else is going, Melanie, to go to Honduras next time

around at Thanksgiving time.

And let's show them what a Thanksgiving can be and do some other fun stuff in ministry.

I don't know what we're doing. I'm just saying that because we've got room for you.

If God would call you to something like that, guess what? There'll be other

missions trips and those might be highlights for you, but they should also be

energizing to you to take the next step.

Okay, God, what can I do at home? What can I do there?

As we wrap this up, I just wonder if God is just speaking to you and God is calling you.

Maybe God's calling you to salvation. You've never accepted Christ as your Savior.

And this is the day. Hey, we can show you how to be saved.

Show you how your sins could be wiped away. If that's the case, let us do that.

Maybe in all this you heard, hey, I need to take another step of faith.

Some of these guys, they're not missionaries, but they went on this missionary-type

trip, and they did missionary-type stuff.

Maybe I just need to see God bolster my faith and lift me up a little bit more.

Or maybe it's a specific calling for you that you've been putting off.

Kind of like Dathan was saying, hey, I want you to go across the street,

and I want you to talk to this person.

Or, hey, you know this guy, he needs Jesus. Yeah, you could go to Taco Bell,

or you could go home in your air conditioning, but I really need you to be uncomfortable

and go talk to that person maybe it's something like that and maybe because

of that talk they come to Jesus come to faith in Jesus.

Man, would you be open to that? Open to God doing that. Whatever it is and all

that, that's what I want.

Answer God's calling, let him transform you, and then let him send you.

It's a simple formula, folks.

But are you in that cycle? And where are you at in that?

Let me pray for you, and then we'll come up and have our last song together.

And then we will pray and go eat some food together.

But in all that, if you'd like to know Jesus today, I invite you to come as we sing this last song.

If God is calling you for something, come forward to it and let's pray together.

Would you stand with me as we pray and then we'll sing and then we'll have our benediction.

Heavenly Father, thank you for a beautiful day that you have given us.

Thank you for these testimonies. The scripture says we will be witnesses.

That means we're going to go out and we're going to testify,

God, to what you've done.

But it also means we are going to testify to what you are already doing in other

parts of the world. like these folks did today.

God, we thank you for this time we've had together. Bless our continued time

as we go out and as we have some fun fellowshipping and eating and playing some games together.

God, we just want you to be uplifted and glorified.

And if there's someone here this morning that does not know Jesus,

they don't have that relationship, God, may they not leave today without having

that conversation and Lord, without surrendering their heart to you.

God, we ask this in the mighty and the powerful name of Jesus, amen.

I want to thank you for joining today's sermon podcast. You can find a copy

of today's sermon, as well as other sermons, and the sermon outline from today

on our church's website.

Www.mvcnaz.org.

It is my prayer also that you will seek out a church home that recognizes the authority of the Bible.