Disclaimer: These daily blogs are based on journal entries during my two and a half week trip broken into seven installments. Over the next week, you will learn more and more. The idea behind doing it this way is so you can go through the process of experiencing a portion of my experiences in the same progression of events that I did. The goal is that by the end of the seventh blog, you will have the context to understand why and how I intend to continue serving these people.
My First Sermon: Day 11 -- August 14, 2013
It has been a few days since I have written in my journal; we have been busy with the Gypsies and have not had as much free time as usual, in fact hardly any at all. I finished Radical by David Platt this evening after program; I have been trying to squeeze in pages every chance I could. The book really went along with the activities and my attitude swings throughout the journey. Nevertheless, I will not be able to catch you up on everything because so many things still have me at a loss of words, but here are some highlights from the past four days that have shaped the second half of this journey.
The Hope for Orphans staff learned early on that I am starting school to become a pastor upon returning home and have used me for extra-ministerial purposes. Aside from leading a devotional on 2 Kings 13:11-20a on perseverance, I was asked to do eight baby dedications in the Gypsy village, pray over twelve specific families, play Jesus in a powerful drama about our new identity in Christ (a topic I hope to focus on in ministry), and preach the closing message to the entire village.
My devotional was on 2 Kings 13:14-20a, and it was about perseverance; to finish the mission with the same enthusiasm and strength that we came into the mission with. Steven Furtick, one of my ministry influences preached on this passage of scripture, and my devotional was based on his message. I highly recommend that you watch that 30-minute sermon. And if you do not have a half-hour, at least watch the 4-minute sermon preview at that link.
“Now Elisha was suffering from the illness from which he died. Jehoash king of Israel went down to see him and wept over him. ‘My father! My father!’ he cried. ‘The chariots and horsemen of Israel!’ Elisha said, ‘Get a bow and some arrows,’ and he did so. ‘Take the bow in your hands,’ he said to the king of Israel. When he had taken it, Elisha put his hands on the king’s hands. ‘Open the east window,’ he said, and he opened it. ‘Shoot!’ Elisha said, and he shot. ‘The Lord’s arrow of victory, the arrow of victory over Aram!’ Elisha declared. ‘You will completely destroy the Arameans at Aphek.’ Then he said, ‘Take the arrows,’ and the king took them. Elisha told him, ‘Strike the ground.’ He struck it three times and stopped. The man of God was angry with him and said, ‘You should have struck the ground five or six times; then you would have defeated Aram and completely destroyed it. But now you will defeat it only three times.’ Elisha died and was buried.”
II Kings 13:14-20a (NIV)
The national host invited me to the front of the sage during night service to perform a couple baby dedications; not infant baptism like my denomination performs, but a scripture reading and a prayer over each child. The next day’s night adult-service, there were six more babies whose parents wanted a “blessing from the people God sent to [them].” Some of the scriptures I read are below.
“Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted what the Lord is good.”
I Peter 2:1-3 (NIV)
“People were also bringing babies to Jesus to have him touch them. When the disciples saw this, they rebuked them. But Jesus called the children to him and said, ‘Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs o such as these. I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.’”
Luke 18:15-17 (NIV)
“Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you!”
Isaiah 49:15 (NIV)
“Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted what the Lord is good.”
I Peter 2:1-3 (NIV)
“People were also bringing babies to Jesus to have him touch them. When the disciples saw this, they rebuked them. But Jesus called the children to him and said, ‘Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs o such as these. I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.’”
Luke 18:15-17 (NIV)
“Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you!”
Isaiah 49:15 (NIV)
Throughout our time here in the village, I have been visiting individual families learning their needs, desires, dreams, life stories and prayer requests. From these conversations, translated of course, I learned about the lives of twelve families and prayed with them. We prayed for peace with some, physical pain relief for others, opportunities to work for some and some personal things that I will not share for others. The requests were fundamentally similar to the things people I disciple back in California need: peace/comfort, emotional pain relief, job opportunities/career/finances, and some other more personal things. Although materialistic circumstances differ, the hearts of people, found and lost, are the same on both sides of the globe.
Tonight, our last night in the Gypsy village, I preached the closing message. This was the first sermon I have ever preached, and it took so much emotional energy out of me doing what I could to make sure I seized the opportunity to invite the Gypsy People to come to Christ, while also making sure what I was saying was Biblical, and effective even through the natural struggles of using a translator. The picture to the left displays the age range in this village: five generations!
I preached on I Peter 1:3-9, which was totally a God decision.
I preached on I Peter 1:3-9, which was totally a God decision.
I always envisioned my first sermon to be on Ephesians 4:29, the story of the fiery furnace faith, part of the life of my favorite prophet Elisha, the providential story of Esther, Romans 8:1-2, or one of the other stories that have shaped the kind of ministry I hope to do after completion of seminary—well, during seminary too! However, to think that my first sermon was on I Peter 1:3-9 seems so out of the blue now that I think about it. I stumbled upon the passage upon accidentally turning to the wrong passage after misusing my Bible’s concordance and thought, “this would be a good passage to preach at Easter” and four hours later the national host asked me if I would like to preach the Gospel that very night—talk about providence!
“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you, who trough faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”
I Peter 1:3-9 (NIV)
I Peter 1:3-9 (NIV)
I ended the 15-minute message with an invitation to accept Christ, and while none of the Gypsy adults indicated they had accepted Christ immediately after the message, I felt at peace. Immediately after preaching, I felt discouraged; I did not expect half the room to get on their knees and accept Christ, especially considering the fact that many of the adults in attendance claim to be Christians after being reached by the CRC and Baptist churches in the years prior, but I was hoping that at least one would. Later that night when we got home, I finished reading Radical by David Platt and in the closing remarks of the book, he told the story of Jim and Elizabeth Elliott. Jim Elliott and a team of men went to a cannibalistic tribe unreached by the Gospel.
When Jim and his team died at the hands of the tribe, Elizabeth, his wife, went to do the same mission, and when the tribe recognized that her message was the same message that her husband brought before his death, they chose to listen and because of that, they became believers and left their cannibalistic ways. Minus the cannibalism and martyrdom, I felt like Jim Elliott in that I presented the Gospel, and in the future when I, or other missionaries come and preach the same message to these same people, I have hope that the foundation has been set and when I realized that hope, it brought me peace. I look forward to seeing what God does in this community in the future and definitely feel that my work with this village is not complete.
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