Mission Sunday

Message Transcription

Well, good morning. It's good to see all of you here. My first time, I guess my not my first time to be in the building, but my first time to actually share in a worship service together with you. And I really appreciate that. I. My name is Shawn Tyler. My wife Linda is sitting right over here. And we had the privilege, I say, of serving as a missionary on the mission field from 1981 until 2012. We spent 13 years in Kitale, Kenya, in the western part of Kenya, and then moved across the border on the other side of an extinct volcano and worked in Mbala, Uganda for 18 years. There, during our time, we had a chance to be able to see a lot of work that's done a lot of things. We got the front row seat to is when we get into the mission work and I've had people say, Wow, 31 years, you ought to write a book on missions. And I keep telling them I can write a book on how not to do mission work. I'm really good at being able to screw up and hit potholes and stuff like that. And so it's really, really good for me to be able to say, Nope, that's not for me to do that. I've known Tim and Rebecca Talley We have. We actually met them before we went to the field in 1981, and we visited them in Malindi and also had a chance to work with Jim Beck and Phyllis.

They were he was my coworker there at LCU for at least ten years. So we've got a lot of connections here. And I just want to tell Jeremy Smith, not happy about the fact that he took Leah Price from Quaker Avenue Church of Christ and brought her this way. So but we'll be all right with that. I'm thrilled to be invited to speak to you. Missions, I want to say is my heart language. It's true that being a missionary is what a few people do over there. However, being missional is an intentional mindset that all of us need to have every day, wherever we are. We're all called to be missional and we're all called to engage in missions, in our conversations and in our daily actions, interactions with other people and our prayers and our worship and with our finances. For those who can go and teach and preach in places where we can't go. I'm reminded of a saying that says that the strength of a church is not measured by its seating capacity, but by its sending capacity. I'm going to say that again, not by its seating capacity, but by its sending capacity that measures the strength of a church. And I'm encouraged. And I want to encourage you to focus more keenly on innovative ways. That we can be missional right here in Lubbock, Texas, and to be generous in our support of missions both here and also very far away.

But before I get to the exhortation part of this lesson, let me share with you a couple of stories. One of them happened to me. The other one happened to a very, very dear friend of mine. I believe I was a participant in the shortest worship service that ever happened in East Africa. Now, the reason for the service being so short rests upon three things an avocado tree. A very long, orange headed lizard. And my intern, Kevin. Now, let me give you a little bit of background to make sense of what happened to us on the day that we went to Nabi Kolo Church. First, Kevin was a very young 21 year old intern visiting us for the summer. He was from Texas starting his senior year in a university in the fall, and he would raise money for the summer internship. And he was very enthusiastic about experiencing as much as possible during his time in Kenya. However, I need to mention also that Kevin was easily startled. His siblings and his grandfather discovered this during his childhood with just the slightest scare from someone, Kevin would involuntarily yell out in a high pitched voice. Who? My grandfather, who was known to him as Papa, was especially intrigued by Kevin's ability to be frightened so easily. And so Papa would on every occasion try to figure out a way to scare Kevin to elicit this high pitched woo.

It happened so often that Kevin eventually changed his yell to Papa. Oh, Papa. That was his go to scream. Even if Papa wasn't even around and or even instigating the fright any time he got excited or whatever. Kevin would yell out, Ooh, papa. Well, I knew this from just the short period of time that Kevin was with us in Kenya. I just thought it was odd and I never considered how it might affect our Kenyan brethren. Second. Avocado trees are commonly cultivated in the grounds around the many African homes there. And with 60in of rain a year. All you guys, 60in of rain combined with the warm sunshine never freezing. Wow. These African trees produce avocados the size of grapefruits, and they are big and they are heavy and they are as hard as a rock before they ripen. In fact, they become so heavy that it's not uncommon for them to actually break off of the tree and come down to the earth with a loud thud onto the ground. In fact, it's common wisdom in East Africa not to sit under an avocado tree right before harvest time when the trees are so heavily laden. Bad place to sit. Well, then. Third. All of East Africa is home to a beautiful lizard variety of more than a foot long. It has a bright blue body with an orange head, and for some reason it's almost it's almost luminescent in its orange head.

It loves to climb up the walls of mud, houses run along the wall plates, and also, without hesitation, run up the poles that hold up the tin roofs of many of the buildings. In fact, they are so common and are often found in houses, they are so common that everyone is accustomed to watching them run around inside the houses and inside the church buildings. They stop, they run up, they stop, they look around. And for some reason in a curious fashion, they do push ups. These these orange like they're trying to impress somebody. They do. They do push ups. Well, Kevin and I drove out to nab Colo. On Sunday morning. It was a beautiful, bright morning. Clear sky. Avocado season. Attendance because we were there as a missionary coming and we had a visitor coming. Our attendance was unusually large. In fact, the little small building that we were in was crammed from one side to the other. The building was made of mud. It had a covered with a tin roof, had narrow wooden doors, one in the back, one on the side, and about four windows each one about 24in high and wide. Inside the floor was raised a little bit of mud up in the front for the speaker and the rest of the room was filled with wooden benches, no cushions, no backs, and placed close enough together just so that you can sit down without putting your knees into the back of the person in front of you.

I just want you to say with a room full, we were stuffed in there like sardines. And this is important for you to remember. Well, during our visitation, before we actually got into the building, many people would come up to Kevin and greet him in Swahili and they'd say, Jambo, Baraka, Namangani, Zima. And he of course, he wouldn't know what they were saying. And he just kind of kind of politely looked around and then they would kind of chuckle and they would say, How are you today? And he would greet them in English. And it became obvious that everybody there understood that Kevin was the visitor and that he didn't know any Swahili. It was obvious. Well, as we settled down into the building, I noticed several large lizards running around the wall plates scampering. They're doing push ups, running up the poles. I'd become so used to it myself that I'd forgotten about it and I didn't pay any attention to them. And. I forgot to point them out to Kevin. I learned later that he hadn't seen any of them. Well, it was time to start our worship service. So one of Nebiolo's leaders stood up in the front and raised his hands to gain everyone's attention in the room.

And as everyone became quiet, he said in a solemn tone, Let us pray to begin our worship. Now you know where I'm going with this. You think you know where I'm going with this? You think you know where I'm going with this? But just hang on. At the very moment that everybody was bowing their heads, several things happened in a microsecond. First huge avocado broke off of a tree just outside of the lamb, fell down and hit our tin roof right above us. Bam. Well, it just so happens that the avocado hit right at the spot where there was a lizard sitting on the pole right above us. And the loud bang caused him to jump off of the pole to fall to the ground. Now, what the lizard didn't know was that Kevin was right below him and with a bowed head and an open shirt collar. The lizard hit Kevin at the nape of his neck, slid down into his shirt, grabbing a hold with his little tiny claws into Kevin's back. Well, Kevin reacted, as you might expect. Without thought of where he was. Kevin jumped up from his wooden bench and started dancing around, quickly flailing his arms and hands and and in a high pitched scream yelled out, Ooh, Papa. Papa. Papa. As he tried to figure out some way to rid the creature that was attacking him inside his shirt. Now, what Kevin didn't know was, is that Uppapa sounds very much like the Swahili word.

Upopo. You, Peppa. Peppa. Peppa. Peppa. Well, Upopo means demons or evil spirits. As soon as Kevin let out the yell. Oh, Papa. The prayer stopped. All eyes focused on Kevin, and everyone heard Kevin who knew No Swahili, shouting in evil spirits. And it looked as though that Kevin was being attacked by something. And so within within an instant, the entire church stood up. And started to run. Little kids jumped out of the windows. Benches were knocked over and somehow the entire building emptied out in ten seconds. And I want to tell you, those fine church members were not ones to stand around outside. They hit the trails and ran for home, leaving me and Kevin in the building by ourselves. Well, the lizard fell out of the shirt. He had an open shirt on and it fell out on the ground and scampered up on the wall. And it looked scared. Kevin calmed down as I pointed to the lizard and I explained to him what had happened. Well, we waited for about 30 minutes for people to come back. They didn't. It seemed like everyone was not interested in returning to the place where people were evil spirits. And so our worship service ended before the opening prayer had finished. We made it home much earlier than we had expected. And I want to tell you, it took a number of months before they ever invited me back to church.

And when they did, they sheepishly looked at me and said, Don't bring Kevin with you. Well being missional. Wherever you are. Can sometimes. I promise you we'll have awkward moments. And we may fail spectacularly in what we try to do. We may embarrass ourselves in our efforts to be missional, and we may feel like we're really not doing very much at all and having very little impact. But the truth is, we cannot accurately measure the success of the seeds that we plant. Someone once said that anyone can count the seeds in an apple, but only God can count the number of apples in a seed. Think about that. Do not faint. Do not give up because we don't see immediately some kind of success. This is true also of our missional efforts. Here and abroad. Back in the 1970s, Bill Gothard used to hold seminars, some of you old enough to remember those. He used a wonderful illustration that I have remembered and continue to remember up to this day about how we should respond in difficult times. He said our faith, when tied to Jesus, is like a kite that flies highest and the winds of adversity. Well, I want to share my second story then about adversity, about a man, a friend of mine who experienced a horrible tragedy but ended up flying high. And perhaps his story will encourage you.

Emmett Baxter Low was born in rural Texas in Haskell County on December 28th, 1924. He was the first born child of Stephen and Ellie Low. And as things were back in those days, his birth certificate simply said, baby boy. A nondescript beginning to life. The lows were poor farmers. Baxter went to elementary school in Weinert but later moved to Wellman, Texas, where Baxter graduated from high school in 1942. During Baxter's teenage years, the Lowe family attended church at Seagraves. It was during those days in Seagraves that Baxter met and eventually fell in love with and married Reuben L Ketcherside. After high school, Baxter helped his dad on the farm for a couple of years before joining the Navy in 1944, serving there until March of 16th, 1946. After being released from service, Baxter went back to Wellman, married Ruby Neal in September of 1946. Baxter tried his hand in farming and then worked for a while with a petroleum company and Hobbs and New Mexico and then in Brownfield and Sulphur Springs. During this time, Bax began to feel a call to preaching. He first preached in Brownwood in 61 to 66 and then in Odessa. Eventually, Baxter and his family moved to Amarillo in 1969, and it was there that his life would take a dramatic turn of events. In Baxter's. Baxter's own letters, he writes a stark appraisal of himself in his early days of ministry.

He said, I seem to be headed for a mediocre, lackluster career. It was good, but not exciting. I'd never accomplished anything noteworthy. Besides, I'd been raised by a poor dirt farmer at the last house on the road. The catalyst for change came in the form of an invitation from a village preacher, a correspondence acquaintance of his in Bombay, India. Often in his letters, the Indian preacher would invite Baxter to visit Bombay. But Baxter said my stock answer was, Sorry, I would like to come. But I'm a poor man. Then one day the tone of the Indian preacher's letter changed drastically. Please come over and help me. I can't even bury my dead. Baxter said the change startled him, and with such, upon reflection and serious reflection, he took this as a call, as a mandate, even from God. And so he raised the necessary funds to take a trip over and see this preacher. In May of 1971, Baxter Low traveled to India to meet his friend and to conduct several preaching teaching meetings in Hyderabad. Baxter writes. The Indian church leaders converged from all over the state of Andhra Pradesh. To the capital city of Hyderabad. No expensive facility was rented or utilized. Instead, Baxter says, we had a colorful tent set up in the hot Indian sun. It was May 21st, 1971, when Baxter met for the first time. John Abraham, a slender Indian preacher of the gospel.

He wore thick, black rimmed glasses and had a piercing gaze that accurately reflected his determination to follow Jesus. I want you to stop for a minute and look at those eyes. Those are eyes of determination. Baxter could not know on that day that John Abraham would change his life. During the course of the meeting, John Abraham and about five others asked Baxter for some financial help, and they described the harsh conditions in which they lived, the difficulty in feeding their families while at the same time attempting to preach the gospel. They were very hungry and they pleaded for Baxter's assistance. Baxter was told by the host preacher that John Abraham and his friends had come to the meeting and slept in the yard there by the tent and not eaten anything, anything during the week. Baxter's naive, thoughtful response to him was, Man, what awful planning is that? To Baxter's American way of thinking and his lack of cultural understanding, Baxter could not see what was very obvious to all of those people around him. What Baxter did not know was that in 1971, there was a severe famine in the Deccan Plateau and John Abraham would not give up preaching. To find a job somewhere else. Tribal believers were themselves literally starving to death. To his untrained eye, Baxter just thought Indians were ultra thin. Baxter admitted later that pretty much he pretty much dismissed John Abraham and the other preachers from his mind.

After all, he as he reached back home, he rationalized that I had a kid in college and a half a salary from a little bitty church where I was preaching. I couldn't afford to take on anybody else to raise. Baxter remembers the only aid that he gave John Abraham and the others was a little bit of money, enough for their passage to get back home about 125 miles away and assistance for a few meals. Well, the meetings ended in bachelorhood, traveled back to Texas and he resumed his preaching duties, got all consumed with all of his life in America, and he reported on teaching and preaching. But John Abraham and his request for financial help faded from Baxter's mind, and it remained forgotten. Until October. Baxter writes, I received a postcard from a fellow Indian preacher dated October 15th, 1971. Though I put the card away. The words are forever etched in my memory. I regret to inform you that brother John Abraham has slept in the Lord. He has waited for four months for his support to come, but it never came. Without his support, he went away to the God of heaven. We are all very sorry about him. He was a good, hard working preacher. Signed. Kayla John. Baxter wrote how this letter impacted him. He said, This hit me in the pit of my stomach. Instinctively for I did NOtrillionEMEMBER his name.

I sensed in my heart what I had allowed to happen. Subsequent letters and visits verified my worst suspension. To think I let one of God's preachers starve to death. It was devastating. He said, If ever I have felt grief and a sense of failure combined in my heart, I DON'trillionEMEMBER It. Baxter's heart was deeply troubled. What do you do when you fail so greatly and when your inaction and neglect causes another human soul to lose their life? Bachelor could have claimed that it wasn't within his ability to help. He could have claimed ignorance of the culture. Bachelor could have swept it under the rug, I mean, so to speak. After all, it was a single postcard. No one else needed to know. He could successfully hide it and none of his family or friends would ever even know about it. But Baxter could not ignore it. He wrote, I could have forgotten it, but I asked God daily not to let me forget. I needed the drive that provided so that I would not slack off in God's work. John Abraham left behind five orphaned children. Baxter felt responsible for them. And he wrote in his journal. Now I felt like I had the work of two ministers and two families to feed. How hopeless I felt. What could I, a poor preacher, do? The answer that came to him was simple. He wrote, What I could do is ask every friend of mine.

To help to give.

Baxter decided he would start by helping John Abraham's children. He established a non-profit organization called the John Abraham Memorial Relief Fund in 1972. And as it turned out, only the youngest boy needed assistance. Baxter began to ask for sponsors and finance financial assistance to help the young man. Though Baxter's travels and requests enough through those, he raised enough money to help John Abraham's son. The funds paid for food and clothes for a good end, for a good education. In fact, the young man went all the way through school to complete an MBA that he completed in 1983. But Baxter did not and would not stop there. He wrote, God used my greatest perceived failure to build a work greater than anything that I could have ever imagined. For after that one boy, there were four orphaned girls that I learned about. They were being cared for by a widow who had three children of her own and they eked out an existence by crocheting tablecloths for sale. The four girls were followed by 20 more children. Than a hundred than more than 600 at a time in 14 different homes. In 1976, the John Abraham Memorial Relief Fund expanded out of India and into Africa and in 1983, into Central America. Baxter reflected on that first call to come and visit by his Indian friend. And it was not an easy decision to make to go over there. You know, that was during the time of the Vietnam War.

It was raging in south East Asia, and the thought of traveling anywhere near there was frightening to him. But Baxter decided and this is important for all of us, so listen closely to what I'm about to say. He decided that he had to die before he went. Meaning that he would obey the call to go to India even if it cost him his life. It is to this surrender of his own life that Baxter would later attribute the Lord's. Bestowing such a marvelous grace and blessing upon him and the succeeding years. In 1992, the board of the John Abraham Memorial Relief Fund decided to shorten its name. Not wanting to forget John Abraham or the original impetus of the organization, the board felt a shorter name would make it more recognizable and easy to remember. And so the new name Christian Relief Fund. Was selected. Today, there are more than 30 projects in 20 countries, including two well drilling projects, a dozen schools, two clinics, several children's homes. And currently there are over 8000 orphans, fully funded, 3000 more orphans, partially funded through special feeding projects, not counting the thousands of orphans who have come in and out of the the system that have been helped since 1972. I believe, you know, Milton Jones up in the corner. And my guess is that some of you here. Have been sponsoring kids through CRF for the last few years.

You are part of Baxter's story. You're part of the blessing.

You may think that this is an application, a wonderful story, but there's a personal application that I want to press upon each of us today. I think we can all learn from Baxter's nightmare failure.

And his response.

You see, no matter how useless we may feel like we.

Are in the kingdom.

No matter how.

Badly we feel that we've messed up in life, no matter how horribly.

That we think that we have.

Failed. There is always a way to redeem life, redeem our circumstances.

And the.

Trajectory of our life. As backed put it, God used my greatest perceived failure to build a work greater than anything I could ever have imagined. We have to die to self. And to give ourselves to Christ. Releasing all to him obediently.

Submitting to His will. And this will enable God.

To work in powerful ways in.

And through us.

Baxter turned to God.

During his nightmare. And found a redeeming.

Light of direction.

And missional.

Purpose. What? What wonderful results came from a broken man who gave himself to God.

You know, it says in Philippians 413, Paul said, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. And he wrote that while he was chained to a prison wall in Rome. What? What an amazing statement to make. You too, can overcome any tragedy or obstacle. If you will clothe yourself with Christ and submit your life to Him, your life.

Your talents, your time, your energies, your creativity and your resources. In God's hands, all things are possible. I just want to.

Remind you that it.

Was just a little boy with two.

Two fish and a few loaves of bread. That God used to feed thousands.

Corporately, I can use.

The same verse in Philippians and say that Broadway.

Church of Christ can do all things through Christ.

Who strengthens you.

Well, Broadway has.

A long history, a distinguished history of missional service, both here and abroad. In fact, your mission statement reflects this missional emphasis and storied service. It says that.

Broadway seeks to glorify God by supporting.

Strengthening and multiplying and the multiplying of Christian ministries and churches around the world. Thank you for not navel gazing. Thank you for thinking beyond your own community.

Thank you for.

Reaching out.

Beyond here and helping people that you may never see in this lifetime. But I guarantee you, you will see. On the day that Jesus comes back.

I know that Broadway supports the Trevinos in Peru.

30 years.

13 churches, school of preaching. It's amazing. You support the Jason and Kathy in Tabacundo in Ecuador? Building a church building right now on a property they've already purchased. It needs there's a building needs to be there.

And they're putting in a great place right in.

The center of seven different.

Communities.

What a great strategic place to put it.

Broadway provides work funds for Brad and.

Clara in Greece.

I believe that refugees is a key place. Those people have uprooted, been uprooted. They're away from everything that they've ever established themselves. All the obstacles are gone. And now they are most open to good news. What a great group of.

People to be ministering to. You have.

Partnered with.

Uzima Christian Training Center in Malindi and ever since 1989, I know that Tim and Jim went out there and put in the ground and said, We're going to.

Build it right here.

I had the privilege of worshiping in that church building last summer, and Lord willing, we'll be there this summer. My wife, Linda, I don't know if you know this or not, but.

Uzima is actually hosting.

The Women's National meeting June 20th 9th.

To July 2nd. Linda is one of the speakers for it.

You're participating in a national thing there. You're helping. Well, you help Brian and Elizabeth Harrison with pioneer Bible translators. What did they say? Ten different countries, 45 different languages that they're working with and helping. And of course, Randy and Jennifer.

Porter, who work at.

Are great at counseling and helping others and missionary care with pioneer Bible translators right here in Lubbock.

I have had the privilege of being able to listen to Eddie Harris talk about.

His prison ministry. Do you know.

The number of people that he baptizes on a regular basis? And he just had a job fair recently? And he told me that.

Numerous I think over 20 something inmates who were soon to be released got jobs. 11 of them walked out with a job.

Already in hand. Powerful ministry.

And of course, Jeremy Smith and the much more talented Leah.

Leah.

I'm going to say that out loud. No, I'm just kidding. Jeremy. Jeremy and all working with the international students and the Atlas Campus Fellowship. And I want to say good job on raising the funds to renovate that building. It is amazing the way it looks on the inside now and CRF.

Who you help.

Individually. There are a lot of other things. I'm sure there are a lot of other things that I have forgotten. And I don't know. God knows. But here's the challenge for you this morning. All of these mission efforts are significantly aided by your special missions contributions that are going.

To be collected today.

And next Sunday.

Now Broadway has a missional.

Goal of $130,000.

I. Have heard the history of this church. And I know that this is a generous church.

And I know that it is a missional.

Church.

And I believe that you can not only reach this goal, but.

You can.

Exceed it. Now is the time to commit.

To pray.

To give and to contribute your missional impact.

For your missional impact here and beyond. So this is what I'm going to say to you.

Whatever you were thinking about giving.

Add to it.

And if you have not even thought about giving yet. Now is the time. Don't hesitate.

Pull out the cash. Pull out the checkbook. Pull out your.

Phone.

And take a step for participating.

In the missions of this church.

Now I go to church over at Quaker.

Avenue and I tithe over there and I give money over there.

And so what I'm going to do here.

Is I'm not going to hurt any of my giving over there, but I'm going to be African here.

In just a minute. And in Africa, we do harambee, which is everybody gets up and they all give. And so I want you to.

Know and I'm I embarrass myself, but I'm going to I pulled out.

$100.

And I'm going to put it in one of your.

Boxes around here because I want to be a part. I figured.

That if I do this, I'm going to be sending several dollars.

To all of these different parts. I want to be a part of your missions efforts. Do you? That's the question.

I'm going to go back and say.

Yeah, I support work over in Greece.

And in Peru and and in Ecuador. I give not a.

Lot to fishes. Few loaves of bread, but I believe that God can take.

This and multiply.

It. Will I be the only one today?

I hope not.

I don't believe so. Give generously. Let's pray.

Father, thank you for this day, for your blessings. Thank you for this fellowship for the years and years of.

Service, the.

Wise leadership.

The talented people.

Who serve in so many.

Different capacities.

I thank you for their vision of reaching out around the world. And I pray that you would.

Take their offerings, multiply it.

And make.

May it make powerful waves within.

The kingdom of God.

That you would increase.

And make it stronger.

More powerful that you would lift up all of these different.

Missionaries.

Working in various places.

Including the hundreds, a couple hundred people in Pioneer Bible who are translations, who.

Are working on.

The languages in Africa alone.

We ask that you lift them up, give all of these people wisdom. Bless them, bless their health.

Bless their actions. Let them be like the person in Psalm one that.

Whatever they put their hand to do, that they will prosper. All for your glory and honor. And majesty.

And I pray this in Jesus name.

Amen. God bless you, Church.