The Great Commission: Part 1 - Local Missions
Matthew 28:18-20 ; Acts 1:8
SERMON TRANSCRIPT
We are starting a new series today called The Great Commission, and we are excited about diving into missions. Pastor Chris gave a preview of this last week, but we are just going to dive into missions for three weeks. So let me go ahead and pray one more time. Sorry, I know we just prayed, but I need prayer right now, and then we'll start our sermon. Heavenly Father, again, thank you. Be with me right now. Give me the words to say. I just pray that this Sunday will continue to be an expression of worship to You in all ways: through the singing, through the hearing of Your Word, and also through the fellowship with each other. So we pray this in Your name. Amen.
One of the main tenets of church is to preach the gospel and to make disciples of Jesus. We have ours on the side: to see our community saturated with the glory of God through making disciples in the everyday stuff of life. And every church has some kind of mission or vision statement that pretty much says that. This comes from Jesus giving the explicit instruction to His disciples while He was with them. The disciples, the twelve, would be crucial in the early church and were tasked with continuing the work of Jesus, continuing to build His heavenly kingdom throughout all the earth. Matthew 28:18 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 of 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.' Make disciples of every nation. He's speaking this to a group of Jews, and He's reminding them to go beyond just their people group, their friends, the people that they know, that they grew up with. This is going to be for people beyond that group. And He says, baptize them, teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. Jesus is saying, bring them to a place where they're living in the will of God, walking in the way of God's wisdom, living a righteous life according to God's truth. And that instruction that Jesus gives His disciples is still true for us today. For every believer, every follower, everyone who considers themselves a disciple of Jesus, this Great Commission is for you.
If we flip over to Acts chapter 1, verse 8, we get Luke's retelling of Jesus' final moments. And what does He say? What does He prioritize telling the disciples? It's not about the hierarchy of the organization, which apostle is number one, number two, number three. It's not about the finances of the ministry. No, He says this: 'You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.' Dr. John Berry, a theologian, says the locations mentioned in this verse represent a geographical broadening in scope of the apostles' mission from Israel's capital to the land of Israel to the entire world. So Jesus reveals His plan, His hope, and His will for the church to spread the gospel, to spread the good news, starting with their immediate surroundings and working their way out. Today, to contextualize that, since we don't live in Jerusalem, we might say local to regional to international. Jesus' instructions for us today is to take His gospel to people in our area, in our region, and around the world.
Mission throughout the Bible is about God's will being fully realized in a specific location with a specific people. And in Scripture, God invited His people, the Israelites, to participate in that mission. Today, missions is about God's will being realized and lived out all around the world. And missions work is accepting God's gracious invitation to us to actively participate in that realization. So this morning, we're going to focus on the local aspect of this commissioning mandate and how it pertains to us here at Spring Valley Church. What is our local impact in our community, in our neighborhoods, in our cities? And our prayer is that our heart as a church would grow for fulfilling and carrying out the Great Commission, and to taking the gospel locally, regionally, and internationally.
And what I love about missions is that we as a church are all different, and some of us have a deep passion for different areas of missions. So some of us love local missions. We care about those in our neighborhoods and our cities, as Jesus would describe the widow and the orphan in our communities, and that is beautiful. And if that is you, if you have a heart for local missions, we need you at this church. Some of us have a heart for our region, maybe that's defined as California or Northern California, or maybe as broad as the West Coast, and we want people to know Jesus and we want people in that region to come to know and love God. And if that's you, then we need you at this church. Some of us have a heart for people around the world, and maybe that compassion comes from your own travels, seeing people around the world who are hurting, who are in despair, and seeing them live an unfulfilled life because they don't know God. Or maybe your heart for international missions comes from your own ethnicity and your family and your people who do not yet know God. And if that's you, that's so important, and we need you here at this church. We want people here at Spring Valley who have a heart for all of God's people all around the world, near and far.
And we formed this series to encourage a muscle in our church that hasn't been used in quite some time. As you know, COVID changed a lot of life, and it changed church life as well. This church, Spring Valley, has a rich history of missions, going on missions trips, supporting missionaries. And while a few of you are still familiar with some of those missionaries, we wanted to spend some time reconnecting with them, reestablishing our connection with missionaries around the world. In an ideal world, we would have flown them out. We would have had them right here in person, and they would be sharing their heart with you. We could not do that. And so we did the next best thing, which is each week, this week and the next two weeks, we're going to watch a video of the missionaries, interviewing them and finding out more about them and their heart for missions. So without further ado, let's turn our attention to the screens again.
Well, hey, Spring Valley Church, so excited. Pastor Chris here, and I would love to introduce you to who I would call a friend of mine, Tomas, who is doing some amazing work around the globe for Jesus and for the kingdom. And this is part of our mission series, and each week we're going to have an interview coming to you where we're going to kind of get you to get to know somebody who is doing real missions work around the world. And Tomas, you're going to be here. You're going to kick us off and welcome. Tell us maybe a little bit about you and the family, where you're serving at, and how long you've been there.
All right. Hey, guys. It's wonderful to be there. I wish I could be there in person. California was a place where I used to live, and that's my district. And I love people there and connecting with people. I am right now in the Czech Republic. My name is Tomas Moises, which actually means Moses in the Czech language. And I'm serving in the Czech Republic, actually the most atheist country in the world. And it is not easy. And we've been here for the last 15 years, I think, if I'm counting correctly.
That's awesome, man. Wow. That's some tough ministry, man, of working with. Oh, man. So kind of tell us a little bit, what are some things that are actively happening in your ministry, things that you're facing, maybe an area of physical, maybe spiritual, emotional, mental, like how are you connecting with people? How are you helping them? What's kind of going on with your work right now?
Wow. So I think I'd have to start in the beginning because for the last 15 years, the ministry has developed and changed. And I think we really have to be adaptable when we do ministry, where we go, being sensitive to the leading of the Spirit and just keep saying like, Lord, lead me. Lord, lead us. Lord, show us. Be in prayer and prayer in specifics and over people, knowing the people that you are reaching, connecting with the people you are reaching, because although they might be from the same nation, they are different people, just like Americans. And so when we came to Czech Republic, we started actually with the youth. I used to be a youth pastor in California, and I loved it. And I thought, I'm getting away from that. I'm starting to get gray a little bit. And the Lord said, no, you're going to be doing that. So we started with the youth because they are very open. A lot of them do speak English. So English was one of the tools we used to connect with people. We would go to local schools and have conversations in their English classes. And afterwards, we would invite them to English club, conversation club, and we would just talk with them, hang out with them. And it actually became a counseling session for some of them. So that was great.
From that, then from there, we started youth club. And basically, we would just meet with these students. They would come over, hang out, eat food, play video games, play games, do fun stuff, a lot like a youth group. And they don't have youth groups here, so they don't experience that. So we had a blast. And every single time we would talk about a topic like love, forgiveness, family, relationships, and we would always bring in the Bible, not really pressuring them because all of them were atheists, all of them. And we would have anywhere from 20 to up to maybe 70 people that would come and hang out with us. And it was great. We would talk about the Bible and the wisdom of God and what He says. And eventually they started catching on. They started regarding the Bible as an amazing source of wisdom. So you got these atheists that love the Bible. That was a great thing.
From there, God led us to start a Q&A club. Because for Czech people, really the discipleship and coming to Christ starts way ahead of the curve than maybe in the United States or other places because they don't believe there is God. They have no concept of God and history, whether it's the history of the church here in Europe or whether it's the Age of Enlightenment and communism, that really eradicated faith for most people. And so we're sort of coming back to it, sort of postmodern, post-church, post-communist country. And so we did this Q&A club where we used a lot of apologetics, you know, defending faith with science, defending faith with history, with philosophy and all these maybe ways of venues of really breaking down the barriers, because this is where the barriers are. Once you get through those barriers, Czech people are pretty open. So they're hard on the outside but very soft on the inside. So we did that for quite a while. We would have up to 30 students sitting in one room asking about God. They were all atheists, and we would talk for hours, and they loved it. And we did that for years. So over 10 years, we had about 700 students come through this ministry in a town of 14,000. So that's been pretty amazing.
So many of them accepted Christ, were baptized. Unfortunately, they like went into the world. So we only got to keep some of them. And actually, what's amazing about it, we planted a church and these high school students are now our elders in the church. So our elders are under 30 leading people in their 50s, 60s, you know, because we now have adult believers coming to Christ. And so the youngest people in our church are actually leading the church, and they're the most faithful ones. They're the ones that understand the word. They preach. We switch off in preaching. We switch off in teaching. They're the ones doing baptisms and stuff like that. So it's pretty amazing how God has moved these high school students to be the leaders of the church. And it's such a privilege. I feel so privileged to be part of something like that, you know, because I don't take it for granted, especially here in the most atheist country in the world.
That's crazy. Dude, that is so cool to hear the stories of the students you had that you brought them in and then you raised, God raised them up. You were there with them and now they're doing ministry. That's so cool. Amen. Is there a story or something of a recent ministry win or something you want to share with us that happened just really recently in your ministry?
Oh, there's so many wins and so many drawbacks that I could think of. And I don't want to say you win some, you lose some, but the reality is that you want to see people saved and you want to see people grow in Christ. It never happens as we want it to. It always happens as God allows it and leads people to. Prayer is so powerful. It's unimaginably powerful. I think underestimating prayer is the weakest thing we can do. So really, we need to focus on prayer. Amazing thing. We, for example, just recently, well, probably about a year ago, and this is something that I would want to encourage you maybe in doing. So we pray. We say, God, bring somebody today that needs you. Show us. Whenever we remember, whenever we can, we pray that prayer. And one time, my wife and I do Wednesday morning dates. We try to have a date once a week. If it works out with kids, it doesn't always work out. But we were in a coffee shop, and we were talking to each other. And I overheard these two ladies talking, and they used the word God, which nobody ever uses in their conversation in Czech Republic. Wow, okay. So I had to plug my computer in and the outlet was right next to them. Perfect, perfect excuse. I'm like, hey, I'm sorry, guys. Can I just plug my computer here? They said, fine. And I said, I wasn't trying to listen into your conversation, but I heard the word God. And they said, oh, yes. Do you believe? And come to find out, there were two very esoteric women, very open to the spiritual, but definitely not Jesus, definitely not God even naming him. And so we started talking and eventually one thing led to another and we ended up having a discovery Bible study at one of the ladies house. And she, she is a person that sort of helps people with traumas.
And so she invited all these people to her house to have this Bible study. And so we sat there in the most atheist country in the world, reading the Bible with these esoteric people. And they loved it so much. They said, when can we meet next. And this lady became what we know from the Bible as a person of peace. She's the person that opens the doors, that serves as the connection to her community. And it's been incredible because she has been growing by leaps and bounds and she has been leaving so many things behind. She still has some ways to go, but she says, I love Jesus. And I know this might be strange to some people, but when I came to her house, she's got this Buddha and she's got this, I don't know, like mandalas, and she's got all this stuff in her house. So we're doing a Bible study there. And, you know, after a couple of times, I came over, and she's got the big statue of Rio de Janeiro Jesus standing over all these idols. And she says, I bought Jesus the biggest because he's the best. That's awesome. So we're working out the kinks, you know, and she's still not completely there. But it was amazing. And she actually bought herself a ring. She said, I am married to Jesus now. I don't want anybody else. I don't want any other thing, any other person that is going to be more important. And she reads the Bible all the time, every day. So cool. She invites people to read with her even when I'm not there. So that has been, and this is just a recent thing. So unfortunately, that friend we met her with just separated from her and said, I'm basically just cut off the relationship because she's being grown in Christ. And the other friend cannot handle this new person she's becoming. So that's just one. There are so many stories like that. But that's just one of the stories that we experienced recently.
Oh, that's amazing, dude. I love to hear that. That is so cool. That is so awesome. Hallelujah. Well, I got a question I kind of want to ask everybody we interview. And that is if somebody in our church either wanted to look into what it means more to be a missionary, maybe God is calling them to the mission field or to a specific group of people. But then also, too, part of what we want our people to understand in the series is that God has calling all of us to be missionaries where we live, where we learn, where we work, where we play. And so what would be an encouragement for our people, for them to be a missionary where they are right now, where God has them where they are?
Absolutely. I think it is so important and sometimes underrated the fact that people need to be missionaries where they are. You know, in the early church, that was the case. I mean, we hear of Paul going out, but the fact was that he was one of the not so many people that were going out necessarily. More people were staying where they were and reaching out to their neighbors. And that's how the church really grew the most, according to my opinion, as I read the Bible. And so the mission field doesn't need to be complicated and complex. It's like it's all about just praying, God, bring me somebody or bring me to somebody. And it doesn't, another thing I would say, it doesn't necessarily mean that they will come to church. You know, they might not want to come to church. You will have to go to them and spend time with them over coffee or helping them out with stuff in life, listening to them. You know, I'm praying for them all along and it might take some time. It's a thing of patience and it's a thing of mercy and love. And that's how God works.
But I would definitely encourage you to do that first because I think sometimes we love the sense of adventure. We want to go out and we want to do all this ministry and go somewhere different than where we grew up and we want to reach people there. But the fact is that if we're not doing it at home, it's probably not going to be a good experience for us and for anybody else if we go out with that attitude. I've seen too many people go into a mission field and turn it into this glorified vacation where they come in and then eventually they just kind of burn out or they don't feel successful. So they just kind of sit it out or live it out in some form or fashion. But really the preparation starts at home. And I definitely don't want to discourage you from going to the mission field. It's an amazing thing. If you are called, you better answer that call because you're not going to be comfortable or happy anywhere else but where God is calling you. But that call might be to your neighbor. So it's really important not to get overtaken by emotions or by these ideas of grandeur, how we're going to go out and save the world somewhere else. The grind really starts at home, where you are reaching out to people around you, taking that time, and that will prepare you and shape you to be the person that God is calling into a different country, different place, different culture.
That's awesome, man. Well, thank you so much for the time today. I'd love to pray over you as we go. But what's something specific that our church can be praying about for you? And how can they get to know more about your ministry? What's going on and how can they support you?
I think right now, the biggest thing is we have a church with a lot of young families because all these young people that are now our leaders and elders, they got married and we have so many little kids. I mean, our church is just booming with little kids. And we really don't have the physical capacity within our church to meet there anymore. So we are praying for a place. We're looking for a place, but there's nothing coming up. It's really hard to find a place even to rent or to buy or anything like that. So we would say pray. Pray for us that God brings that, that God opens those doors and pray that God opens doors to people around us. You know, I think we've been we've proven to the people in our community that we are serious about being here. We are serious about, you know, shining the light of Christ and and helping them out in any way and in a form of fashion. And so pray that God would also open up the hearts of the people here and that he would send his workers because the harvest is ready. But we need workers here. We need people, especially working with these young people. As you see, I'm getting gray. I'm not as relevant as I used to be with them. So if you know a young person who wants to serve overseas and has been faithful in serving Jesus where they're at, we would love to talk with them, connect with them. Obviously, pray for us. If you want to support us, we were on the GP site, too. We'll give you more information about that. But like I said, you cannot underestimate prayer. And that is really, really, really, really important, especially in a place like this, where it's dry, where it's hard, and where we feel so alone sometimes.
I'd love to pray for you right now. Thank you. Heavenly Father, God, we just thank you for my brother Tomas. God, just his heart that he has for the place of the people that you've placed him at. God, to hear these incredible stories, God, of what you're doing with so many young people and young families in a small town. God, just how incredibly amazing that is, Jesus. You are moving in such powerful ways. And so, God, I pray that you would just continue to create opportunities for coffee shop conversations, for conversations to happen in the grocery store or with friends. I pray, God, for the people in the church, God, that they would just continue to have a boldness to speak the name of Jesus in such a place that is so pushed away from God and any thought of there being a creator and a savior out there for them, Jesus. And so, God, I pray that you would just continue to break down doors and break down barriers, God, that people would have an open heart to hear about you and to hear about the truth of the Bible and the gospel and just that they have a Savior who deeply loves them more than they could ever dream or imagine. And so, God, I pray, too, for opportunities with a facility, Jesus, that they would find a place to call home that would be able to have the capacity for these families and the little ones and the kids, God, that are continuing to come to you and finding you for the very first time.
And so, God, I pray for a blessing over their family. God, you would protect them, protect their marriage. God, keep them safe as they're out every single day, just saying, God, what do you have for me today? And that they would just stay attuned to the Holy Spirit every single step of the way with whatever they do. God, direct his path, direct his words. Jesus, continue to allow them to be a light in a dark place. Jesus says they go out and they sow seeds. God, may they be encouraged, Jesus, even today that you are moving it. And it may be something where they're not seeing any seeds take root, Jesus, but sometimes we don't see what's happening under the ground, God, even before it springs up. Jesus, just encourage them today. Jesus, bring the people that they need to continue the ministry, to continue to reach more and more people for you. Jesus, we thank you for their faithfulness. God, to shepherd these people. God, continue to just bless them with strength and endurance. God, to just bring them encouragement. I pray even this day, Jesus, we thank you for your calling on our lives. And we thank you for the truth and the reminder that you're with us every single step of the way. We don't have to do this alone. And so, Jesus, we thank you for that. God, give us the strength we need to face today. We love you, Jesus. Amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you so much. Thank you. Awesome. Thank you. Cool. And we pray that the Lord blesses Spring Valley. And we have a longstanding relationship. It's been a while, but we just pray that the Lord blesses you guys in every way and that he uses you where you guys are at. Cool. Thank you. Appreciate the time today. Thanks. Yeah, thank you. Thanks for the prayer and thanks for the time as well.
I really appreciate those words from Tomas, his insight about local mission. If you want to watch that again, we're going to send every Monday of this series, you're going to get a recap email with the video and also links on how to support them. So it'll include, if you want to sign up for their monthly newsletter, they will give out updates. They send those out. And then we'll also have information about if you would like to partner with him and give to him being there. I just heard from him this morning via email, and he's saying that they could use prayers. Their monthly donations have dropped significantly in the last six months. And so they are really praying that people would come and support them. So if God has impressed that upon your heart, we will give you all that information come tomorrow. So I just want to close with this. We should all have a heart to reach people for Jesus. I love that he said it. It doesn't necessarily mean bringing them to church. It may just mean having them over, having a conversation with them, inviting them out to coffee. And it can be a slow work. I think sometimes we do have visions of grandeur, say, I'm going to reach this person, and within a week, they're going to be a Christian, and their lives are changed. And God can do that. That is possible, but it also may be years in the making. He's been there for 15 years, chipping away, grinding away, presenting the gospel over and over. And so that's the encouragement for us. It takes intentionality. It means that we're going to be open to conversation and interactions with people around us that maybe God brought into our lives for a reason. It means taking a prayerful approach, praying like he does with his wife every day, hey, God, bring someone along. Use me today. Bring someone along that I can share an encouragement, your truth, your love to. And local missions means being open and willing to interact with people that maybe you wouldn't normally interact with. Now, whether that's volunteering at a local organization, Loaves and Fishes, a local food bank, a halfway house, all those are great options, but it may simply mean talking to a neighbor, like he said. It may just mean having a conversation with someone.
I don't want to spell it out too much for you of what local missions looks like for you, because I think I want to encourage all of you to have a conversation with God and say, God, what is it that you want me to do? How do you want me to be involved with what you're doing in my local area? Is there someone that I need to have a conversation with? Is it my neighbors? Is it my coworkers at work? Maybe it's the parents at school drop-off. Who needs to hear your truth, and who can I begin a relationship with? I will say, too, from a church standpoint, coming off these last amazing couple days of Camp Awesome, as a church, we're praying that Camp Awesome will be an annual local mission for us. That we would be, this year we did not really spread the word. It was just our church with a couple other people. But in the years to come, we want to let people know. We want to invite everyone from the community to join Camp Awesome. And so that could be an extension of local missions for us here. But we're taking it one step at a time, prayerfully, to help God's will be realized in our context and in our community and partnering with him to share the good news of salvation that only comes through Christ, that more might belong to the kingdom of God. I want to read these verses for you one more time. Acts 1:8, and this is for you. It says, but you, all of you here in this room, will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and all Judea and Samaria, or Rocklin, Roseville, California, America, and the world, and to all the ends of the earth. I want to read Matthew to you again. And Jesus came to you, and he says, And all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to all of you here at Spring Valley Church. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded all of you. And surely Jesus is with you until the very end of the age. Amen?
Let's pray. God, again, thank you for our time this morning. Thank you for all that you're doing through your spirit, the work that you are doing in the lives of kids, in the lives of us, and God, in the lives of those who are not yet in this room, who are not yet believers. But God, we know that you are working in their hearts, and God, we want to partner with you and the work that you are doing. And so, God, I pray that through your spirit, you would prompt us that we would be attuned to your spirit, that we would be ready to have conversations, even if they have nothing to do with church and faith yet, but we just start to build relationships with people, letting them know that we're there for them, that we love them, that they're cared for. And God, when the timing is just right, that we would mention you. And God, that you would be a part of our conversation with everyone around us. So God, give us what we need. Give us strength. Give us the words. Give us wisdom. And God, I pray that through Spring Valley Church and all of us here, that your kingdom would grow. We pray this in your name. Amen.