Pastor Jesse Thompson: July 03, 2011 Going Beyond, Part X, “Beyond Success.” I’m glad to be here in a different capacity this morning. Actually, Pastor Jerry is off this weekend, and if you know Pastor Jerry, [you know that] for him to take a weekend off, it’s a rare thing. We’re glad he and Vicki have taken this time, and we’re praying that it’s helpful and refreshing to them. Pastor Jeff is at our Evansville campus this morning. He’s getting a chance to meet some of our brothers and sisters over there. We are going to continue this morning in our series of “Going Beyond.” Last week, we talked about “Going Beyond: Failure.” That was a very encouraging message to me, and I hope it was to you as well. We’re going to continue looking at the other side of that now and talk about going “Beyond Success.” If we weren’t sitting in church-because I know answers change sometimes when we’re sitting in church-and I asked you to think of or tell me who the five most successful people you know are, who would the people be-the names and faces-that go through your mind? Maybe you’re thinking of someone off of Forbes Magazine, the top 50 wealthiest people. Maybe it’s someone in Time Magazine. This year they came out with their 2011 most influential people. Maybe it’s an athlete; an actor or actress; somebody who has worked hard who seems to be at the top of their game; the best of the best. To many people, that means success, and it certainly doesn’t hurt that a lot of money comes along with that; so success is sometimes tied in with how our checkbook is doing. When I start thinking of those people, I want to ask you a question this morning: are they successful people? I guess that depends on how you define success, and that’s what we’re going to do this morning. Actually, the answer to that question-are those people successful-is I don’t know. As we look at this idea of success and what we learn from Scripture about what success means, it’s something that’s not so easily recognizable from the outside and the circumstances that one finds him or herself in. Let’s dig in this morning to the Book of 1 Thessalonians 2:1 (page 1169 of pew Bibles). We’re going to be picking up where Paul is writing to the church in Thessalonica. He starts out in Verse 1; he says, “You know, brothers, that our visit to you was not a failure.” Now why in the world would Paul go out of his way to make the statement that his time with church in Thessalonica was not a failure? Why do you think that might be? Well, apparently there were some circumstances about his trip that some might-and probably were-considering his time to be a failure, so he makes that bold statement. Why does he say that? Well, we need to understand some of the background about this trip he was on. This was Paul’s second missionary journey. Actually, it’s a really nice flow from last week because last week when we were talking about failure, we were looking at John Mark-or we know him as Mark, the author of the Gospel of Mark. We looked at a time in his life where he failed. Later, when Paul and Barnabas wanted to go back and visit the people and the churches they started, Barnabas wanted to take Mark with them. Paul said no, and they went different ways over that disagreement. Pastor Jeff did a great job of communicating to us that that was probably a very difficult split. Barnabas was somebody very key and very important in Paul’s spiritual life. So for his trip to start out on that note, with that disagreement and that parting of ways, I’m sure it was somewhat discouraging to Paul. We’ll read on somewhat in Acts 16; if you’d like to read further through the flow of events on your own later, feel free. Paul began that journey and traveled around with some initial success but also a lot of frustration. He wanted to go to a certain area, but doors seemed to close. He didn’t really understand why, but every time he would try to go, there was a closed door. He couldn’t go, and he was frustrated in his attempts. Finally, through a dream, God called him to Macedonia; so Paul set out with his new marching orders to Macedonia. The first major city he came to was the city of Philippi, and he began preaching there. Now we need to remember that Paul had met with quite a bit of response to the Gospel message on his first journey; so as he went to that area in Philippi, he began preaching just as he normally had [in the past]. The response this time seemed somewhat less. In fact, the Bible mentioned that only a few women actually responded to the Gospel message. After that potentially discouraging start, Paul and his team came across a slave girl who was actually possessed by a demon; and they cast out the demon. That sounds like a very good thing, right? Of course, from our perspective, we would say it was. Well, the slave girl’s owners were not so happy because one of the things that she was doing under the power of the demon was predicting the future; and they were making a lot of money off of her. Now with that ability gone, because she was actually healed of that possession, they were very upset. They gathered up a crowd of people. Paul and his team were seized and beaten. The Bible says they were severely flogged. Now being flogged, I can imagine, would be bad enough. To be severely flogged, it would just be that extra step; so they were in a bad way. They were put in jail without any real accusations, without knowing why; but they were put in jail. God tells us that through that experience, the jailer and his family actually did become believers; but again in the church in Philippi, we’re only told of a handful of women and the jailer and his family who responded to the Gospel message after which Paul was asked to leave town. This was not necessarily the grand victory that perhaps he had envisioned or was hoping for. From Philippi, he went on to Thessalonica. He arrived in Thessalonica, and Acts 16 tells us he preached for three weeks in the synagogues-as was his custom. That’s where he would begin to preach. He was met with some success-to the point that the Jewish leaders started becoming very jealous of the response that Paul was getting. Perhaps they realized their own influence and power were being threatened, so they gathered up another riot and crowd of people. Paul and his team basically had to sneak out of town in the middle of the night to avoid beatings and other bad things. The host family Paul stayed with was given the name of patriarch of that family, and his family came under bad circumstances as well because of hosting Paul. They were arrested and they had to post bond, so there was great financial cost to their family for being there. With this backdrop, with these apparent disappointments, these apparent failures, Paul writes to the church in Thessalonica that his trip and his time with them was not a failure. So often that’s the case, right? Someone feels called or led into a certain situation, and then things don’t go as planned. Oftentimes, our idea of success can be tied to the response that we get. I want to introduce to you this morning Phil and Phyllis Masters. They were missionaries to an area called Papua, Indonesia. This was back in 1963. I’ll just kinda give you a confession this morning. I’m also using our time together to really share with you a lot about the trip we took with Tychicus Ministries to Bali, so you’ll see pictures. The shirt that I’m wearing was one given to us by the World Team Organization in our time at the conference. I’m going to be sharing a lot of testimony, pictures, and different things from our time in Bali. I think it illustrates a lot of the points that we’re talking about very well. If you would, you can take a lot of pressure off of me this morning. Don’t consider this a sermon where this guy seems to be talking a lot about this mission trip he went on. Consider this morning a missions trip report that also happens to look into Scripture and have some meat to it. I would appreciate that. I really tried to find testimony, pictures, or videos that help give you guys a context and an understanding not only of our time in Bali, but the circumstances and the environment that the families there-the ones we went there to serve-are serving on a regular basis. This video does that because many of the missionaries that we spent time with are in tribes, villages, or areas very much like what you see in this video. This is Phil and Phyllis Masters, and Phyllis is the one speaking to us. In 1963 they were called to the Kimyal Tribe in Papua, Indonesia. You’ll hear that in the video, so let’s listen to Phyllis as she describes their short five years in this village. That’s a powerful statement. It didn’t seem to her that anything had been done. There were many who looked at Paul’s time in Thessalonica and the disappointment that they felt, the limited response that seemed to come while sneaking out of town, and they would say, “Failure. There wasn’t really anything that was done or accomplished.” We know that Paul didn’t see his time that way. Paul had a different perspective of what being successful was. He’s going to share that with us as we continue on in the Passage. Let’s pick up in Verse 2, “We had previously suffered and been insulted in Philippi, as you know, but with the help of our God we dared to tell you His Gospel in spite of strong opposition. For the appeal we make does not spring from error or impure motives, nor are we trying to trick you. On the contrary, we speak as men approved by God to be entrusted with the Gospel. We are not trying to please men but God, who tests our hearts. You know we never use flattery, nor did we put on a mask to cover up greed-God is our witness. We were not looking for praise from men, not from you or anyone else.” You see, Paul had learned that success was not the things that many people considered success to be. He knew that it was not a lack of hardship or opposition. He knew success was not in being well-liked by men. He also learned success did not mean getting rich based on your efforts. He learned to measure success by a different standard. He gauged success by his faithfulness to God, and that's our challenge as well-that we would gauge success by our faithfulness to God. Paul challenges us by saying we came as one approved y God to be entrusted with the Gospel. I think God has hard-wired into all of us a desire for approval. We’re supposed to find fulfillment in that desire by looking to God and seeking His desire. What so often happens at almost every stage of life-maybe not infancy-but as soon as you are walking around and aware of other people, we start to seek the approval of other people. Last night I watched the movie, “Diary of a Wimpy Kid.” I don’t know if you guys have seen that movie. It takes me back to a junior high time. The whole point of the movie is this kid trying to fit in. He’s trying to find approval by doing all these different things, so that’s something that’s hard-wired into us. That’s junior high, right? We all look at junior high and think, “Yeah, that happened in junior high,” but does it stay in junior high? No. High school; college; young adult, you’re working and seeing your coworker advance. You start to strive after the things that might get you ahead. It happens in every stage of life. Paul challenges us, he reminds us, that if you want to be successful, that’s good. Being successful is a good thing, but understand what being successful means. It means to be faithful to God, to be obedient to God. It reminds me of the Passage in Joshua 1 when Joshua was given leadership of the children of Israel. They were preparing to go into what God had given them as the Promise land. He gives this command over and over, and we’re going to pick it up in Verse 7 (page 208 of pew Bibles). He says, “Be strong and very courageous.” Why do you think God repeated that to Joshua over and over in this Passage? Joshua was a strong guy. He was a warrior. He was experienced in battle. It wasn’t because Joshua felt very strong and courageous. It was just the opposite. He felt afraid. He felt very intimidated by the task God was calling him into. “Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you. Do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go.” Success is determined by our faithfulness and our obedience to God. When we say yes to God and we step out in faith- obeying His Word, obeying His Spirit-when He leads us into specific ministry opportunities and life experiences, we’re successful. As our team was being put together to go to Bali under the direction of Peter and Janet Bales, the founders of Tychicus Ministry, and as they were recruiting people, we each had a specific goal, a specific task, that we were to focus on and that we were to really prepare for while there. One of the team members was Mike DeRosier, Janet’s son. He was given the task of being the “game guy.” He was going to be the guy to provide games and transition time and to also let the kids have some fun while we were there. Mike wrote this paragraph to me after the trip in response to some of the questions I’d been asking him. Mike said: “I joined Tychicus knowing that I would be in charge of the games. At first, I didn’t think much of it and thought it would be pretty easy. I’d just get to have fun with the kids. As the trip was near, I started to panic in my head, knowing that I would be in charge of two groups of kids-both about 15 each-and knowing I had the young ones for an hour and a half. That younger group was like 4 years old through 10 years old.” Like he said, there were about 15 of them, a little more than that. Have you ever been in charge of fifteen 4-10 year olds? If you lose their attention, that can be… I see some heads nodding out there. I think Mike’s panic was well-placed. I don’t think he was off track. He was scared as the reality of what he was called to do was approaching. It goes on to say, “The first day we were to watch the kids, I read my devotions which was Jacob preparing to meet Esau. If you know the story, Jacob is frantic about meeting Esau. I think I was probably freaking out just as much as Jacob was. Through the trip, I realized it was all going to be okay. Everything went very smooth. I fell in love with the kids and had a great time with them. Through it all, I ended up just trusting in the Lord and learned to stay calm.” Mike was willing to take a step past his fear. He didn’t let that hold him back. He trusted God; he understood he had a call to be there, and for that he was successful. I also just wanted to share a little bit about Janet. When I asked her the question, “Can you give me some examples from our trip or Tychicus Ministries, examples that to you really demonstrate God bringing success to our team, to our ministry, and to the things that happened,” Janet responded with the following comments. She said, “Having felt God had called Peter and me to do this,” was one example. “Quitting my job,” she said. Most of you know that Janet was the music and arts director here full-time before I came on. I tell you it’s nice to be employed full-time and to have that security, knowing that you’re provided that in something you enjoy doing. She quit; she resigned knowing that God was leading her into something else-not knowing what that something else was, but resigning was just the first step in that. The first thing she mentions after resigning, that first major event that happened after that, she says, “Then finding out I had cancer. Having the doctor come in the room and saying he felt it was a bump in the road and God had big things for us and the enemy was trying to stop us.” You don’t normally go to your doctor for spiritual advice, but in this case, I think she received some wonderful advice. She said, “Holding on to God during treatments and the tormenting thoughts of cancer,” and then getting the first email from Jasinda… Jasinda was our contact with World Team. She is the one on the World Team side that helped us coordinate details and logistics for our trip. We got to know Jasinda very well. You have to understand as I read this that Peter and Janet’s first idea of what Tychicus would be-serving those who serve, being an encouragement to missionaries in the field-was kind of a one-on-one or a couple going to visit missionaries in the field and spending time with them, worshipping with them, encouraging them-but more on a one-on-one basis. Now, she is going to describe how we got this email from this organization of World Team inviting us to come be a part of their first ever Asia area conference where all their missionaries are going to come. They wanted us to come and serve, encourage, and spend time with the kids. She said, “Getting that first email from Jasinda and feeling this was big, but it was what God wanted to do, even though it was such a big proposal.” Given the year Janet had with the cancer and some of those things, I think everybody would have understood and probably agreed with her that it was a good opportunity, but maybe this just wasn’t the right year. There were too many things going on. Maybe she wasn’t fully recovered in her health and other things. Maybe next year [would have been better], and that would have been fine except for one thing: Peter and Janet knew very clearly that God was leading them to say yes to that. In the midst of that, they said yes to planning for this team of 10 to travel halfway around the world to a place they had never been, trying to put logistics together for some place we hadn’t seen before or didn’t know was available, what we might have had to plan or prepare for. She goes on to share a response that one of the World Team leaders gave to her. She said, “The World Team leader came up to me the second day and said he’d been to a lot of conferences, but the worship here was truly something different and incredible. That was really helpful to me because I went into this with the enemy really whispering in my ear I had no business doing this. I told Peter over and over what the enemy kept saying, and I walked to the hotel room in such dread that first day.” She verbalizes, I think, what Joshua felt when God gave Joshua the call. I think if we’re honest, perhaps what we have felt at times when God calls us to do something, pretty soon our fears rise up. Pretty soon our insecurities rise up. We hear the enemy whispering to us, “Who do you think you are? What do you have to offer? How could you possibly think that you could be effective in this situation? This is way beyond you.” I think we can identify with those whispers that Janet shared. Just to remember and to think on that first day after arriving finally at the hotel, getting our bags, walking to the hotel room, the whole time Janet was terrified that she had nothing to offer; but she kept taking those steps forward. To me, that means that regardless of whatever would have happened on the trip, Peter and Janet were successful. They were faithful. They were obedient to the call that God had given them, and they took a step forward. That’s what Paul tells us faithfulness is. It’s walking forward. It’s saying yes to God even when we can think of all kinds of reasons why we should say no; but when God leads, we follow. That’s what being a success is. Why do we say yes to God? Because God is the one who knows the big picture, right? He’s the one that has the plan in place. We can’t always see how our decisions, our actions, or our events that He’s calling us to do all fit together in that big picture, but God does. There were so many details in our trip that were examples to us of how God understood, that God had the big picture in mind. A lot of them had to do with just logistics and traveling. In some ways, those were some of the most difficult aspects of the trip. It was 42 or 43 hours [of traveling] over there and 45 plus hours on the way back. That’s tough! We kind of felt like zombies at that point. Our travel route was Chicago to L.A. to Tokyo to Singapore to Bali, and we made that same track coming home. Some of those ways that God was keeping the big picture in mind and guiding and protecting us, we’ll probably never know. We probably weren’t even aware of the ways He intervened for us. Some of them we were. On the way back, some of the glitches or things that could have really been headaches, they all seemed to happen to Mike and Kristi Powers; so if you know them, you can talk to them and they can share in more detail. One I wanted to share because it really did affect all of us. Kristi was reflecting on things and wrote this to me, “One more God moment with flying: as we got on our plane in L.A., the last track to O’Hare after 42 hours of traveling-weary, tired, and ready to be home-I cannot tell you how true those words are. We just wanted to be home. Our flight was delayed for about 45 minutes. They said the computers were all down for United Airlines. As soon as they came back on, we were off. To us that seemed like kind of a minor glitch, but here was the God part: we were one of only four United flights that were able to fly that night. All other travelers-thousands of them-were stranded overnight.” I can’t imagine. I think I would have cried if that would have been us. She said, “Everywhere we turned, a mistake or a problem with our trip back was taken care of.” I agree with her words. Crying probably would have just been the beginning if we were stuck in the L.A. airport for another 12-16 plus hours. God has the big picture. He knows the plan He’s working out. So success means that we say yes to God. We faithfully step forward-even if we’re afraid, even if our weaknesses are well in our forefront-we step forward and we say yes because He’s called us to do that. How God uses our faithfulness or how He chooses to use our faithfulness, that’s up to Him. The results that come-those are up to God. Our success is not dependent on the response that we give. I want to come back to Phyllis Masters. Their time there was short-five years. It ended in the death of her husband. Then she left very discouraged, wondering if anything had been accomplished. We’re going to watch a video now that shows you some of the things that have been accomplished-the picture that God had in mind back in 1968 when Phil was martyred for his faith. This is that tribe. Again, you’ll see the celebration as God’s Word is presented to them in their language. It’s the last time you just called out in praise and thanksgiving to God that He’s given us His Word in our language. (To view most of this clip, click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evMyOQ-vle8) To me that’s very moving. That’s a challenge. I wanted to show you just one more clip that was off of this DVD because I think it kinda completes the story of Phyllis. We heard her share earlier about the discouragement and the mourning time she went through and wondering if anything had been accomplished. Just one more real quick clip, and you’ll see her present the first New Testament to their first convert who was the gentleman you just saw offer that prayer up to the Lord. There she was at one point in her life wondering if anything had been accomplished and then years later being able to be at that celebration and offer that Scripture to the tribe. What a joy that must have been for her. What about you? When you think about success, is it tied to how you’re received? Is success tied to the fact that you’re well-liked by those around you? Perhaps it’s tied to how much money you’ve been able to raise or accumulate? How about in your family, your ministry, or your work, your leisure, your hobbies-the things you do for fun? Is success tied to a winning record or do you ask, “Lord, what would You have me do in this circumstance, in this circle of influence, in my work, in my work place?” Do you read and study God’s Word and have a desire to be faithful to the commands of Scripture that He calls us to live as His children? Is your sense of success tied to that? I hope it’s that latter. Paul goes on to tell us that not only is success a means to be faithful to God and that’s it, but as we are successful-as we’re faithful to God-that will lead us into another area that we can examine if we’re being successful. We can also gauge our success by our treatment of others. He goes on to share, and I’m going to read through this section 6-12 (of 1 Thessalonians 2, page 1169). It says, “As Apostles of Christ, we could have been a burden to you, but we were gentle among you, like a mother caring for her little children. We loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the Gospel of God but our lives as well, because you had become so dear to us. Surely you remember, brothers, our toil and our hardship; we worked night and day in order not to be a burden to anyone while we preached the Gospel of God to you. You are witnesses, and so is God, of how holy, righteous and blameless we 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 glory.” You see, Paul knew that how we treat other people is a demonstration of whether or not we’re being obedient and faithful to God. What are the two great Commandments? Love the Lord, your God with all your heart, soul, and mind; and number two: love others. Being faithful to God means treating others, first of all, gently, as Paul talks about, like a mother to her little kids. I just wanted to share one testimony we got back from one of the families: Trevor and Teresa Johnson. They live and serve in an area very much like what you saw in the video. They’re in that type of environment. They had two kids with us at the conference: Alethea, who was four years old, and Noah, who was six years old. This is part of the letter that they shared about Noah and his time with us, “Being in a playgroup is more of a challenge for our six year old boy, Noah. Noah is growing up in a remote village here in Papua. Because of many transitions, he has become sort of shy and nervous in social situations among new people. Thanks so much for making Noah feel welcome and at ease. Thank you also for being patient with him and not pushing him. For example, he liked to see his friends do the skit but was afraid to do it himself. I guess his acting career may bloom later, but we appreciate that you let him decide for himself whether he would take part. I remember Noah being nervous before going to Camp Splash.” The hotel we stayed at had another property on which they had more areas of slides, swimming pools, and stuff like that-nothing like the smallest parks up at Wisconsin Dells, but just a little something different than our hotel. “But when he saw several of the teachers in his group, he relaxed and he went with them. Some mornings he was nervous to go to the playgroups, but when he rejoined us later, he told us how much fun he had. One night he asked me and Teresa, ‘Why do I get so nervous? I always end up having a lot of fun, but I’m still nervous before I get there.’ So God bless, and thank you so much. By blessing our children, you’ve blessed us.” I think that’s a great example of the power of gentleness, of the power of love. Paul said they could have come in great authority and laid down the law. They could have said, “Look, you new believers, this is what you’re doing wrong. Do this. Do that. Oh, by the way, as your church leaders, we also can demand that you take care of us financially,” but because of their love for them, they treated them gently. You know what? We have a desire like Noah did-to be taught in love and gentleness. We could have laid down the law with Noah that first day and said, “These are the rules. You fit in. This is what happens. You’re doing the skit,” and we probably never would have seen Noah again that week we were in Bali. His parents would have had a much different experience because they would have had little Noah in tow with them the whole week; so gentleness can be a very powerful thing. Treat others gently; treat others with love. Paul says to treat others rightly or in righteousness. Behave in a morally right way. Do what’s right. He talks about being a father. I think of a father a lot of times as a coach too. They’re there to encourage; they’re there to have compassion, but you know what? They’re always pushing you. They’re always getting you to take that next step, to learn what it is you can improve on and do and how you can grow in your faith. It’s easy when you’re with a group for a temporary time like we were in Bali. It’s really easy just to be a cheerleader and say, “Yeah! You’re wonderful! You’re great people! You’re doing everything just right!” But we had some things to offer, some training to give them, some teaching that God wanted us to do. Mike Powers did an awesome job of challenging and teaching those kids. You try to teach day after day to a group of 4 through 18 year olds. That’s a big range in age, and Mike did a great job of connecting with them in that way. The video that we saw as a countdown before service with singing, “You Never Let Go,” you saw that wasn’t just Janet and I going and singing and worshiping with them. We pulled in the people that came from the families that were there. I’m so grateful that Janet has this direction, that we used this as a time of training and instruction in them and how they can lead worship in their own churches, in their own house churches and environments. We received comments back from those who were involved that it really was a great time of learning and instruction as we spurred them on. When we think about success and about people, again, I always want to bring this back to you personally. How do you view people in this pursuit of success? Are people simply a way to get to your success, or has God worked in your heart to understand that your treatment of others, your love for others, actually is the best demonstration of a successful life as you love them out of your love for God? The third point that I really want to emphasize this morning is the importance of celebrating the successes that God brings. The emphasis there is on God. He is the one who brings the success. We simply obey, are faithful, and say, “Yes, God.” God brings the results He wants. The awesome thing is as His children, He gives us that promise that as we go forth, as we share His love, as we share His Word, He will bring success. He’ll bring fruit from that, so we want to celebrate those. As Christians, we shouldn’t be known as the people who tell everybody what not to do or what to do. Christians shouldn’t be like this. As Christians, we should be people who are characterized by a celebration of rejoicing in the joy and the grace that we have found in our relationship with God and the successes that He brings. Sometimes those celebrations can be big ways; they can be big parties. I’ve been involved in planning 25th wedding anniversaries or 50th wedding anniversaries. You get the tent; you get the food, the potato salad. Everybody comes, and you have a big party; and that’s a lot of fun. Sometimes celebrating can be in small ways. It can be a note of encouragement. It could be making a big deal about a small decision that one of your kids made or a friend made, but it was a step in faithfulness. It was a step in obeying the Lord, even when they came up against some opposition, so celebrate those things. Look for ways you can do that. This last week, my oldest daughter Linnea was at a camp for junior high kids, Timber-lee. It’s over by East Troy in Wisconsin here. She’d never been there before. In fact, she’d never been to a kids’ camp without my wife or myself being there. She’d never been to a kids’ camp that Jonanne and Kristi hadn’t put on here through the church. If you know anything about my daughter Linnea, she likes things to be familiar. She likes to understand her surroundings. She likes to know the schedule. She likes to know who she is going to see. Stepping into new situations is a big deal for her, but she decided this would be a good experience and she could learn a lot; so she decided to go. The one comfort she had was one of her friends from church here also agreed to go, so they went together. That might seem like a small thing, but that was something that my dad wanted to celebrate. The great thing that I love about our family is either in big or small ways, we find ways to bring joy, to bring humor, and to celebrate decisions; so he wrote my daughter a poem. I’m going to share that with you this morning. This is something he sent to her during the week. I’ll give you a heads up: this is not theologically deep. You are not going to be spiritually-challenged through this poem. This is not going to go down as great American literature, but I love the fact that my dad celebrates things like this. He’s taught us to do it as well. He said, “You’re off to camp at Timber-lee having lots of fun. I’m left at home a workin’, it seems it’s never done. I wish that I was in your shoes. Well, really that’s a fib. I’d have to fold my feet in half; they’re nearly twice as big,” (congregation laughing). I told you it wasn’t spiritually deep, but when Linnea received that letter at camp, she had that same reaction. She laughed. Her cabin buddies laughed, and it let Linnea know that my dad was thinking of her, that he was excited she made this decision. How about you guys? Do you find ways to celebrate good choices, good decisions that lead your kids, your friends, your coworkers closer in their relationship with the Lord? I hope so. Celebrating is so important. It provides us an opportunity to communicate to the people around us what is important. What’s worth celebrating? Is it only when you win the championship or the grand prize? We can celebrate that, but that’s not the only thing that’s worth celebrating. Saying yes to God, being faithful and obedient-we need to find ways to celebrate that as well. Celebrating allows us a chance to reflect and to meditate on the things that God has done, to remember the joy because we know that often those successes come through a time of struggle and a time of opposition, a time of difficulty. It lets us refocus and reenergize as we think about what God might have us do next or how we can improve the things that He calls us into. It allows us to fill our emotional and our spiritual tank so that we can reengage and then take the next step of faith that God calls us to do. If we don’t take time to celebrate, we will quickly get burned out, discouraged, and we’ll quit. That’s what our time together here needs to be. It needs to be a celebration of what God is doing in our lives, and I hope that you come each week with that perspective. We’re going to close out this service this morning with a video that Mike Powers put together for us: pictures of the trip, of the families, the kids that we met. Just enjoy seeing some of our interaction with them. As we do that, the ushers are going to come forward. We’re going to receive our normal offering during the video, and then I’ll have a few remarks and we’ll close out the service after. (clip of pictures from Bali trip can be found by first being a Facebook member and then by searching out Tychicus Ministries. They are on the wall of this page.) Our team really does thank you and appreciate all you guys did and how you partnered with us in prayer and support in raising (funds) and helping us go over there. I can say beyond a shadow of a doubt that the team was successful-not because of any specific results that came, but because as God called and led each of those on the team, they responded, “Yes, I’ll go. If you want me to go and watch toddlers for a week [I’ll do it]?” John was probably thinking [are You kidding me?], but he said yes. You know that picture where I mentioned, “Is John working hard?” he was holding little Aven, about 21 months old, on his shoulder sleeping nicely, and the music was just nice and mellow. That is not a picture that effectively represents Aven. Just a last quick story, Aven’s parents are new to the mission field. They’ve been there about five months. They come from Canada where they get like a 12-month maternity leave, so Aven had literally not been away from his mom ever. At this conference, she was determined to get some time just to be with God. She would come and bring Aven, and Aven would cry and cry and scream and cry. He was a good kid, but he missed his mom. John carried him around; have you ever carried around a screaming toddler hour after hour? John did. He walked around along with others-Mary, Dennis, and Debbie Roach-who all spent a lot of time up there. To be able to capture that moment where Aven was asleep… John still had a smile on his face. Boy, that is a picture of success, of obediently saying, “I’ll go. I’ll serve, God, wherever you call me to go. I’ll do it. Whatever task it is, whether it seems important or not, I’ll do it. Then we’ll leave the results in Your hands, and we’ll trust, God, that You’ll bring about the fruit that You desire for Your Kingdom.” Let’s pray this morning: God, we do thank You so much that You are the One who sees the big picture. Help us to pursue success, God, in Your eyes-the One who truly matters. Help us to treat and love people in such a way that they see the Gospel in us, that they hear it not just from our mouths but through our hearts and through our lives as well. We give You all honor and glory. We praise You and thank You this morning for Your goodness. In Your name, we pray. Amen.

07-03-11
Speaker: Young Adult Minister Jesse Thompson
Series: Going Beyond