← ArchiveSunday, May 21, 2017DateMay 21, 2017Speaker—TextPsalms 133Passages in this sermonPsalms 1337:45Leviticus 813:182 Timothy 1:718:29TranscriptClick any line to jump there.0:00I am Eli and Aaron's grandfather, and I bring you greetings from Oak Grove Baptist Church in Prairieville, Louisiana, where August 11th, it began to rain. It was the storm with no name. Every other storm that we have that goes through our community has some kind of name on it, like Katrina or Andrew or Betsy.0:28This was a storm with no name. On August 11th, it began to rain two to three inches per hour for 48 or more hours. Our community, right where I live, only got 15 inches, if 15 and only go together. But other communities around us got 25 inches in those days.0:57Volunteers began to help because the water had nowhere to go but up. People who had never flooded before, flooded. And it wasn't just ankle deep. It was 28 to 4 feet to 8 feet, depending on where you were. We had what we called the Cajun Navy that organized itself, which was a bunch of fishermen with boats.1:26People from my church that had boats would go out. They'd start out at daylight. They'd get in at 2 or 3 in the morning. They'd start again at daylight again, trying to get people out of their homes. Because the water came up so fast that people were not prepared for it. They didn't know what they could take.1:53They just got out with their lives. They just got out with the clothes on their back. And the Cajun Navy, mostly volunteers, mostly not Christian, went out and saved people's lives over and over and over again for those early days. The water had nowhere, as I said, to go but up. There was a disaster that no one could expect.2:24They call it a thousand-year flood. Hope we don't have another one in my lifetime. But five churches there in Ascension Parish, there's three parishes that were really hurt by this rain. The five churches in Ascension Parish, where our church is, went together to try to figure out some way to minister to the community. And some of us did some things, housed, some of us fed, some of us sent people out to try and help,2:49just as y'all sent people to help our church and other people around in our community. And my church committed to housing people and feeding people. We housed 15 to 16 mission teams that came by, some as few as five members, some as many as 45 people.3:12We housed them, we fed them, we sent them out each day to the community with jobs to do, work to do, places to make a difference in people's lives. Bethel Baptist came seven times to our community. They were there, you were there within the first two weeks of our trouble.3:41And your teams worked on five different houses over the trips and one church that had been flooded. But they picked one house that they were going to commit to and see through to the very end. Faye Cowan, a widow in our church in her mid-70s.4:08No way to fix her own house. And y'all came in and continually came in over those many trips. And you deconstructed every wall in her house, as you saw, leaving just the studs. Came back, you put up insulation. You put up drywall. You tore out and you installed a new bathroom. You provided flooring for that house.4:39You did the crown molding, the window frames, the floor molding, the shoe molding, all in just three-day trips, six or seven trips, coming down there to work in Faye's house. And it's completed and she's moved downstairs and there's stuff still on the carport, as Kim's letter said. But if it weren't for y'all, she wouldn't be in her house at this point.5:06Nine months later. Nine months later. And it's not finished in our community. Nine months later. In August and in September, we will have a team that is going to come and spend two months living in our church and ministering to our community still because people still have homes that are not finished. Nine months later. Some hardly even started.5:36People fell into two kinds of groups. One was the people with insurance and they were at the mercy of the contractors who overbooked themselves. Then there was those without insurance and they were at the mercy of the volunteer teams that would come in and make a difference in their lives. And incredibly, people that used volunteer help or had to use volunteer help got their houses finished quicker than those that did with contractors6:03because people who came and volunteered, came in with a work ethic to stay on a job, to do a job, and to get it completed over time. The judge has asked me to speak on missions today, and that's a little intimidating to me. I feel like I'm talking to the first century church of Antioch, the mother of missions,6:28teaching how missions is to go out. Out in your foyer today, there's, I counted, 13 different tables, 13 different ministries. You've been, and Louisiana wasn't one of those tables, so you've been to, you've been involved in 13 at least different ministries. You've worked in our community.6:57You've worked in your community with Operation Change. You've gone to the Dominican. You've gone to Zambia. You go in just a month to Zambia again. My son, John Carl, will join you in that trip to Zambia. You go to Talladega. You have a food pantry. You have the backpack kid situation, the Christmas ministry. What do you say to a church that does that? Well, I've chosen a passage that's an unusual passage.7:28It's a passage that was used as the pilgrims would come from all over the world to Jerusalem for Passover, for Pentecost, for some of the other festivals. Psalm 133. As they got to Jericho, those that came from the north, they would take a road up from Jericho to Jerusalem, 20 miles long. And instead of complaining about it being an uphill road all the way,7:56they would sing songs all the way up there. They're called the Ascent Songs. And this is one of them. It's just a short song. Psalm 133. Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. It is like the precious oil upon the head, running down on the beard, the beard of Aaron, running down on the edge of his garments.8:23It's like the dew of Hermon, descending upon the mountain's design. For there the Lord commanded the blessing, life forevermore. They would send this and about five other songs as they traveled up from Jericho to Jerusalem. And this song begins with a concept of unity. Do you feel a sense of unity when you come to a church?8:52Or do you come and find your pew and sit here and enjoy the singing and enjoy the preaching and wonder who all the rest of the people are within this building? We are made to be united as believers in God. We are made to be united as people who have given our lives to Christ.9:17We are united under God's message, under God's vision. And as I saw the team from Bethel come with different people almost every time, 35 to 40 different people that came down to Louisiana over the five or six months that y'all came, I saw unity marveled at it every time.9:46I saw teams come in and split up and begin to work. Some people not knowing what they had ever, you know, some of the work that had ever been done before, but finding a place of service, finding a place to work together to make Faye's house better. And I didn't see any complaining, and I didn't see people get tired, and I didn't see people want to get off early.10:15I saw unity in vision and in mission coming to help a little old lady in Louisiana. It's easy to have unity in a team. Unity, though, needs to go beyond the team that goes out, the team that is involved in any particular ministry that goes out from this church.10:41the team that is involved in any particular ministry that goes out from this church.10:53And we know that the church at Antioch set aside a time for prayer. And God spoke to them and said, send Paul and Barnabas out. These were the leaders of their church. Going out on a mission that ended up being a year and a half long. They took the best and brightest of their church and sent them out.11:18They risked their church so that the world might know the gospel. What a united congregation the church of Antioch must have been to take that risk. Ministry missions begins with unity within the body.11:47These pilgrims, as they went up to Jerusalem, sang about the wondrous concept of coming together under God and worshiping together and knowing what it was to have that kind of fellowship. Ministry begins by being united in prayer for work that should be done. Ministry begins by giving resources for what needs to be done.12:17Ministry begins by being united in going and looking for the vision of going to the world, both near and far. It continues in prayer by going out for the close trips, for the halfway around the world trips, to be united in the concept that we are meant to go.12:45The second part of Psalm 133 is a part that sort of gives me the willies. You have oil being poured on the head. It runs down through the beard. It runs down all of his clothes, all the way down to his toes. The psalmist is singing about the setting aside of Aaron and his family for service.13:12It doesn't quite go that way in Leviticus 8, 12, where Aaron is set aside. It just mentions the pouring of oil upon the head. But the word picture there is a picture of being set aside totally for service to God. That the oil that separates people out for service as it did Aaron13:37would be poured upon the head in such amount, in such a quantity that it would flow down and go through your face, through your beard, to your clothes, to the tip of your garments. That you were totally set apart to serve God. It was just a few back then that were set aside to do this kind of service.14:01Heirs in his family, the Levites, were set aside. They were set aside by oil. But you and I are set aside by something different. We're set aside by Jesus Christ, who said, Go ye, make disciples, baptize them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.14:23Teach them everything that I have commanded you. And lo, I will be with you always, even to the end of the earth. You and I don't have to go through this word picture that is in Psalms 133 of having oil poured down on our head so that it covers our entire body and flows down and touches even the14:49hymns of our garments, and I'm glad for that. And you're glad for that. But we need to realize that we are set aside by Jesus Christ himself. To go ye to the uttermost ends of the earth. And as he gave the command to his disciples before he rose into heaven,15:17go ye to Jerusalem, to Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost ends of the earth. We have that command still today. By chapter 8 of Acts, with Philip witnessing to the Ethiopian, that command had been fulfilled. They had gone to Jerusalem.15:46They had gone to Judea. They had gone to Samaria. And they had witnessed to the uttermost ends of the earth, Ethiopia, by chapter 8. But none of that was done by a plan from the church. Rome spread that. By trying to destroy the church, Rome sent out the church, and by chapter 8, accomplished the will of God by reaching Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost ends of the earth.16:09But it was in Antioch where the church caught the vision of praying and sending out people to do the ministry. It is in Antioch that they realized that we are set aside to be special people and to go out to the world. And we need to send people to do that.16:38And in Antioch, they did that. Oil made Aaron special and his family set aside for God. Jesus makes you and I set aside for God by his command and by his provision, the spirit within our lives to lead us and to guide us. And yet, we sit with all sorts of kinds of excuses about why I can't go. I can't go because I have family.17:09I can't go because I have a job. I can't go because I'm afraid of flying. I can't go because I don't want to eat strange food in a strange land. I can't go, and the list goes on and on and on. And you find yourself with fear of going or fear of ministry in good company. Because in the 18th chapter of Acts, Paul is visited by the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit says to him,17:35Do not have fear. Stay here in Corinth and give my message to you. Paul seemed to have fear and was ready to move on from Corinth. He'd been beaten in Thessalonica. He'd been beaten in Berea. He'd gone on to Greece. Now he's in Corinth, and it looked like he was going to be undergoing some kind of tribulation.18:02Doesn't yet. And Jesus taught, shake off your shoes, the dust off your feet, and move on to somebody that'll listen. But the Spirit told Paul, stay and teach. Do not fear, Paul. Paul would later write to Timothy in 2 Timothy 1.7,18:29For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. Most fear comes from not thinking out things, from an unsound mind. Most fear is irrational. But it's a fear nonetheless. Even an irrational fear is a fear nonetheless. But Paul, having learned at Corinth that fear is not something that God gives us,18:57wrote Timothy, and said, God has not given us a spirit of fear, but God has given us a sense of power, a sense of love, and a sound mind to go out to the world. And by the power of God, by the love of God, we are sent out to give the world the message of Christ.19:19The third part of this short song talks about Mount Hermon and the dew that is on it. And as those pilgrims climbed up that uphill road to Jerusalem from Jericho, they could see Mount Hermon off in the distance.19:46It was the highest of the mountains around Jerusalem. And the dew was so heavy on it each day that it glistened in the sun as the sun came up. And it was so heavy that the dew that was there would flow down from that mountain and water the pastures, the hillsides of the hills around Jerusalem. What a beautiful, beautiful thing to see as they climbed up the mountain towards Jerusalem.20:11A beautiful thing to see, but a much more beautiful thing to understand that provision comes from on high. That God is our provider. When the rains came and we knew that we were in for a long time of service within our community,20:37I asked our church to shelter people, to feed them, that it would come out of the budget or it would come out of something that we would do this. Because we did not have to spend a penny of Oak Grove money to house or to feed people that came our way.21:00People from as far away as Arizona and Washington, Mississippi, other places, sent money to our church. And at the end, when we had quit housing and quit feeding, we split up money between people that had experienced loss and gave it to them. God provided in such a way.21:30The picture of Mount Hermon's dew flowing down and watering the mountains is the spiritual picture that we are sustained by God and by God alone. God is the provider of every mission effort. And he takes away the excuses. He takes away the fears so that we can be sustained by him doing what he would have us do.21:51God's strength, his love, and his power flow down to you and to me and then to a world that desperately needs him. If God can sustain the pastures and the hillsides around Jerusalem by dew that flows down from a mountain,22:15he can sustain you and I in whatever service he calls us to do, whatever place he calls us to do. I looked out at the tables out there and I'm a numbers kind of person. I like to count, count, and count.22:45It looks to me like maybe 150 or so people are involved in the different ministries that are out in those 13 tables out there. And yet that's not all that are in this body of believers. What we need to understand is it's not coming to salvation that is the end of our walk. But we are to go ye, make disciples, baptize them, and teach them all things that I've commanded you,23:14and that he is with us even to the end of the age. And so we need to understand that we are the ones that are sent, that we are the ones that are touching the world. It's my privilege to serve as a trustee at the Louisiana Baptist Children's Home.23:40It's a home that is set up to accept children whose parents give them up, who don't want them. But more now today, it's for children who the courts take away their children from them. And they come and they live in this place from anywhere from a year and a half to two or three years to eight or ten years and graduate high school and then go on into the world.24:06Three weeks ago, we had the annual honor banquet. Every child in that children's home was honored in one way or another. And the speaker for that service was Bruce Marciano, who played Jesus in the video of Matthew, the book of Matthew.24:35He played Jesus. He was sharing with us some of the things that happened while they were filming the Gospel of Matthew as it was portrayed. And he was talking about how they were in Morocco. They had hired some local people as extras to come. And one of them was hired to be a blind man. He was actually blind. And Mr. Marciano said that this was probably the filthiest man that he'd ever come in contact with.25:01And the man took, was to take his hands and put it on his face. And he said that as he understood that part, as he studied for that part, he was not prepared to be touched by someone that had not bathed in weeks or months.25:22But that when it happened, he had a fresh sense of who Jesus was. A lot of times we like to think Jesus is sort of off and away and not able to be touched. The disciples like to think that. Go away, children.25:52We don't need to bother Jesus with children. They sort of protected him. And we sort of think of him like that. But as he was sharing that story, I began to have a fresh understanding that I am the face. I am the hands of Jesus to the world that we live in. That Jesus was touched by the cleanest and the filthiest of his world.26:18And that I need to be touched by the cleanest and filthiest of my world, too. Missions starts with unity. It goes on to understanding that we are set aside for service, not by oil, but by the word of Christ.26:42And that as we step out in that, that we will be sustained wherever we go. On mission trips, I've been to seven or eight different nations. I've taught in an underground seminary in China.27:11I've attended four underground churches in China. I've preached in four different countries in South America. God has sustained me in every one of those adventures. And that's what missions is. It is an adventure. An adventure with God. To go with him wherever he might lead.27:41And know that he is with you. Even to the end of the age. It is not the end of the age yet. Even though we think it might be close. And God is still with us. And God is still sending us. And what it takes on our part is a commitment to believe that there is more to this life than being saved.28:04That there is more to this life than being forgiven. That there is more to this life than the hope, the sure hope of eternal life. That we are called to be committed to Christ. That we are called to be committed to Christ and to go. As we have given our lives to Christ. He has given us to go.28:32Joshua is going to come in just a few minutes and share with you the kinds of commitments that you can make. But missions takes commitments. A prayer. Of giving. Of going. And you can find yourself at any one of those stages. But I think each one of you needs to commit to go sometime in your life. To somewhere close or somewhere far away. I personally think every believer ought to have a passport.29:02So that you can go wherever God calls you. At the spur of a moment. Or even planning on ahead. Commit. Commit. To missions. To doing it. To being it. To being the face and the hands of Jesus. Of willing to be touched by the cleanest and the dirtiest of the world.29:31And in doing that, take the message of Christ to them. You have so many opportunities in this church. Probably more than any I've ever seen in a church before to go out. And you each need to commit. To go out. In the different ministries that you have available to you.29:59Joshua is going to come and share with you some ways of commitment. Take your life. Take your life. Take your life. Let it be his. Let it be united with him. Let yourself be set aside. Let yourself be sustained by God himself. In all that you do for him. And you will be blessed beyond measure. Beyond comprehension.30:29Beyond comprehension. And you want to do it again. Commit today to do these things.More sermons on Psalms →
