Proximity - 2024 Missions & Outreach Sunday

[00:00:00] Thank you for listening to the Calvary Monterey Podcast.

[00:00:08] Please visit calvary.com to learn more about our church.

[00:00:12] And visit nateholderge.com for additional Bible teaching from our lead pastor, Nate

[00:00:16] Holdridge.

[00:00:17] For Justin Thomas, he is the current president of Calvary Chapel Bible College, a school

[00:00:23] that I am pastor Nate and several represent Calvary Chapel Bible College. And like the old hair club for men commercials, I'm not just the president, I'm also an alum.

[00:01:42] I was a student there as was Nate and Manny.

[00:01:45] One of our students is teaching trajectory back to this school. This is a place where God meets our students, where he refines their callings and he prepares them for life.

[00:03:02] In fact, that's our heart. Our heart is to be a school that

[00:03:05] provides a biblical foundation for every calling. Open your Bibles up to first Thessalonians. This is one of Paul's letters in the New Testament. It's helpful to know that all of the New Testament letters that begin with T are right next to each other. The Thessalonians, the Timothy's, and Titus are all right there. And so if you're in a Bible book that begins with T, just go back to the first one,

[00:04:21] which is our book this morning.

[00:04:22] First Thessalonica. Now here's the context that were among you who believed. For you know that we dealt with each of you as a father deals with his own children, encouraging, comforting, and urging you to live lives worthy of God who calls you into his kingdom and his glory.

[00:07:03] Would you join me in prayer?

[00:07:06] Father, just as Paul speaks of this church And he begins by comparing himself to a nursing mom, and he ends by comparing himself to a father with his own children. And halfway along the way, he refers to them as what, his brothers and sisters. The approach that Paul took in the city of Thessalonica is not just happenstance.

[00:08:22] He's not just saying, what happened in Thessalonica was so sweet, it was like I found a new family. to respond, shouting from heaven, no by walking in the garden to address them right where they are when Israel has gone wayward and chosen not to believe God's promises and are now wandering the wilderness for 40 years in judgment. Where is God? In the pillar of fire, in the cloud of smoke right there in the midst.

[00:09:42] In fact, that very difficult to understand book you. Verse three, he says, this is the message we proclaim. I have to say that because he opens up with a bunch of modifiers and he kind of buries the lead. But I want you to notice how he describes the message.

[00:11:02] First John chapter one, verse one,

[00:11:04] that which was from the beginning, here's the mission, here's the missionary endeavor, we claim to you the eternal life which was with the Father and has appeared to us in the notice this verse 3. We proclaim to you so what we have seen

[00:12:21] and heard so that you also proclaim the gospel on social media,

[00:13:41] but you can't make disciples.

[00:13:43] That's what we mean when we say proximity. the image that Paul opens with is an image of nearness. In fact, we would call it an image of intimacy. He says, just as a mother with her nursing child, this is such an intimate act. It makes us uncomfortable when it's done in public. And that is how Paul identifies

[00:15:01] the way that he views his relationship with the people I'll just put it really simply, ladies and gentlemen, you cannot make disciples unless you make relationships. That's to start. But again, we have to recognize in the world that we live in, we have a broad human culture orientation towards distance.

[00:17:24] that they're one of them, and that gets us to the pronouns. You can never, ever carry the gospel of Jesus Christ to them.

[00:17:32] It's impossible.

[00:17:34] Ministry always requires for us moving from the third person pronoun, them to the second

[00:17:40] person pronoun, you.

[00:17:44] Just think about pronouns.

[00:17:45] There's me, concern, and apply them not just to our needs but the needs of our neighborhood.

[00:19:00] I'll give you a great illustration of this, one of my favorites.

[00:19:04] Many of you know the name St. Patrick. general, even his name sounds evil. Corrosius and his armies had invaded Ireland, killed and captured Irish people, including Christians. And remember, this is Rome, like Roman Empire, Rome, like Christian Rome, Rome. And so he writes this letter both to the army of Croatia as well as to a watching world.

[00:20:25] And there's just one word in it feel validated or even out of necessity to pursue that route and all of them begin with the language of them. But the only way mission work works

[00:21:41] is when there becomes here and they become you.

[00:21:46] And then as you do that, as you will discover, problem to the gospel. It's an obstacle to the mission that we've been given. It's exacerbated, again, by all of these distance bridging technologies that actually create a deeper divide between you and your neighbors. But if we're going to follow Paul's methodology that draws directly from the method that God

[00:23:01] used to save human beings through Jesus Christ, then we have to get close enough to care. this not a need, but Paul opted out of that. And the reason is because in the ancient world, here comes the cultural context. The reason is because in the ancient world, there was itinerant preachers everywhere who would tell you their gospel for only 995. And Paul knew that it was very difficult to convey the free gift of the gospel and charge admission.

[00:24:24] And so he chose to do with my time. But if you're going to engage in the mission that God has given the church, you're going to have to create margin. You're gonna have to make room for it, and that means you're going to have to say no to things, even good things for a greater yes. That's the cost. And again, it's not going to work to say,

[00:25:42] yeah, there's a distance between people and Jesus,

[00:25:44] they need to pay the cost.

[00:25:46] We're right here, if they wanna hear about Jesus, Jesus knew this in terms of the cost of his reputation. If he was going to eat with sinners and tax collectors, he would be known as that guy who eats with sinners and tax collectors. There is always a cost. Listen, when we think about the prophets in the Old Testament, we think of them as being people of courage and boldness

[00:27:00] and power, but to be a prophet is a very vulnerable thing.

[00:27:04] Just ask Jeremiah at the pain of watching them walk it out.

[00:28:24] But again, this comes directly from the message we proclaim.

[00:29:21] We embody it. Like Paul, he says, I bear in my arms the stigmata.

[00:29:26] That's the Latin of that passage in Galatians.

[00:29:28] Those of you who have watched exorcism films know what I'm talking about.

[00:29:32] He says, I have scars like the ones they put in Jesus' arms because I've followed Jesus.

[00:29:40] And we could do this all day, right?

[00:29:43] As they treated the Master, so they will treat the servant.

[00:29:46] There's so many of these aspects. to bear the cost and you also have to be close enough to model. Look again, 1 Thessalonians chapter 2, picking up in verse 10. You, our witnesses and so is God of how holy, righteous, and blameless we me tell you, from living in a neighborhood that did not want us, Capitol Hill did not have a sign outside that said, Christians, welcome here. In fact, right before I got there, about a year before we planted our church, they had literally run a church out of the neighborhood.

[00:32:21] They were meeting in a music hall, a venue,

[00:32:24] and a writer from our lives and say, okay, if I were to choose to follow Jesus, these are the changes I would have to make. And let me remind you, Jesus was big on count the cost. He was big on helping

[00:33:42] people to understand the implications and the changes required in their life if they And I'm going to speak on behalf of Pastor Nate knowing he's not here this morning. I'm going to boldly tell you what he wants. He wants to make a commitment to you that if you bring your neighbors into this sanctuary, he will proclaim the gospel to them. He wants them here. Yes, that neighbor.

[00:35:02] He wants them here so that they can hear the gospel, but it's not just Pastor Nate that Whoa is me, for I am a man of unclean lips from a people of unclean lips. But how does he get in the temple? He's summoned by the Holy God. And what happens next? That holy God sends an angel with a coal from the altar that cleanses those lips. Holiness is about distance. It's about dedication. And you know this to be true, because when you're reading in

[00:36:23] the Old Testament, it talks about a holy spoon fact that the church suffers God uses in this way, a holiness way. Many of you probably know in 1 Peter, he says that we should always be ready to give a defense for the hope that lies within us. We should always be ready for someone to go, why do you live the way you live?

[00:37:40] But do you know the context of that passage?

[00:37:43] You know what Peter has just said? Introduce them around. The mission of Christ is a community mission. It's something we do together. Let's look at the last one here. So we have to be close enough to care, close enough for the cost. We have to be close enough to model.

[00:39:02] And then finally we need to be close enough to influence.

[00:39:04] Look at the last two verses here, verse 11 and 12.

[00:40:04] The rule maker, this is the father as the child maker. It's the formational role of the father that's in view here.

[00:40:08] But it's also showing an implication, which I called influence.

[00:40:17] You need to get near enough to change stuff.

[00:40:22] That's what's happening here.

[00:40:24] Just like a father makes a difference in a. And as long as it's in your house, you're fine. You actually have to get it right up in there in the corruption. That's how salt works by contact. Jesus is not saying you are the light of the earth, so just go away.

[00:41:40] Listen, the stars that you see in the night sky are just mission through proximity. Now I wanna give you some good news. The great commission, you know this commandment that Jesus gives us to go into all the world and make disciples. The entire burden of that is not on your shoulders.

[00:43:02] You as an individual do not need to reach the whole world,

[00:43:07] but you do need not the whole world. And maybe, maybe even today on mission Sunday, God wants to stir in your heart and say, that place over there, I want it to become your here, maybe. But for most of us, he just wants you to be here here.

[00:44:26] But are you familiar with the Dunbar number? It's a statistical idea that basically of Jesus' command to love your neighbors is because we pick our friends but God picks our neighbors. You see, what we're talking about is calling. What we're talking about is vocation. And when we use both of those words, we tend to overly limit what we mean. And so with calling, we talk about missionaries and pastors, and with vocation, because that's how God works. And I will encourage you that if you do these two things, if you create margin, and if you prayerfully ask God to discern where it is that He has placed you and who it is He's calling you, the people that you need to turn from them's

[00:47:02] or that guy at the end of the cubicles to you,

[00:47:06] that that is the place reason for that trust. But you're going to have to get near. Because that's where God is at work.