Unstoppable! | Calvary Missions Conference

I want to thank our missionaries for sharing with us their testimonies this morning and look forward to more as the week goes past. I've got to apologize for not being in a coat and tie today.

I had a little thumb procedure and I can't get a coat on over my splint, so that's a good excuse anyway for not being in a coat and tie. But I'm grateful to serve a church where not being in a coat and tie is not going to close someone's ears to the gospel. You know, there are some places that are that way, so I'm grateful to serve at a church that understands those things. You know, as our missionaries share their testimonies this morning, they reminded me that missions is an individual effort. One person communicating the gospel with another.

I think so many times in the West, we think that we all need to be Billy Grahams, but there's only one Billy Graham. We are called to share the gospel in the places where He has placed us, and for most of us, that's in our homes, in our neighborhoods, our workplace, in our social settings, all the different places where God calls us one-on-one, that's how we share the good news. And I want to thank our missionaries for reminding me of that this morning. Turn in your Bibles, if you would, to our theme passage for this year's missions conference. It's found in Philippians, the first chapter, verses 12 through 18, Philippians 1, verses 12 through 18. And as you turn there, let me share with you what an honor it is to serve a church whose heartbeat is the Word of God and missions. I am grateful for a senior pastor and elders who prioritize missions and allow us to have a week-long missions conference to celebrate what God is doing through missions around the world, and I'm grateful that each year we're allowed to bring in about a third, as Dr. Monroe mentioned, of our missionaries to come and share stories about how God is using them to do His work through your mission support.

So thank you very much, Calvary, for being a mission-minded church. Now, Philippians 1, verses 12 through 18. I want you to know, brothers, what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ.

Now, this is Paul talking or writing. Verse 14. And most of the brothers having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment are much more bold to speak the Word without fear. Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from goodwill. The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. The former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, but in the midst of not sincerely, but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment.

What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice. So Paul here is talking about the unstoppable gospel. Even in prison, the gospel is not stopped. So Paul begins this passage by saying, I want you to know what has happened to me. So what exactly has happened to Paul? First, it was Paul's desire to share the gospel. No, it was Paul's calling to share the gospel with the Gentile world. His call was to make sure that every Gentile in every nation and every people group would hear and know that God had sent them a Savior in Jesus Christ. So that's the first thing when Paul said, I want you to know what has happened to me.

He wants you to know that he had a calling to carry the gospel to the Gentile nations. Second, Paul was writing this letter to the church in Philippi from imprisonment in Rome. This letter and other, there are a few other letters that are called the prison epistles or letters. These were letters that Paul wrote from a prison cell when he was in Rome. Now, how did Paul get himself into prison? So let me give you the Reader's Digest version of how Paul got into prison. And I realize that for probably half of our congregation, you don't know what the Reader's Digest version is, right? I teach a group of young couples, young adults. It's the best adult life group in the church.

And if you're a newlywed or a nearlywed or a young couple, we want to invite you after worship to room 232 for the best adult life group in the church. And everyone in that class does not know what the Reader's Digest version is. That's a summary. That's the Reader's Digest condensed version.

So here's the summary. It's found in Acts 21 and this summary will better describe what happened to Paul. Some people started rumors that Paul had taken a Gentile into the holy part of the temple and Jerusalem was up in arms causing Paul to be beaten and almost killed. Now the authorities stepped in and arrested Paul and this really saved Paul's life. And he was taken to Caesarea where he was held in prison for two years there.

He was awaiting trial for those two years. He appeared before governors Festus and Felix and eventually before King Agrippa. And in every setting, Paul gave mesmerizing testimony about his faith in Jesus Christ. Because Paul being a Roman citizen, he appealed finally to have his case brought before Caesar. He was then sent to Rome. He was sent by ship. And all along the way, Paul had problems. Probably the worst was whenever he was in a terrible shipwreck and finally brought into chains to Rome where he was kept under house arrest for two years as he waited his trial before Caesar. Paul's desire, his call was to share the gospel with the Gentile world.

But how in the world could that ever happen if he was going to be held in a prison cell? Now I think that for many of us, there have been times in our lives where we felt God's call in our lives, but we have been placed in our own prison cell. We have been confined ourselves. Have you ever had a time in your life where you are discouraged? I think most of us have seen times in our lives where we've been discouraged. I know that there have been times in my life where there's been loss, where there's been conflict, where there's been discouragement. In the ministry, there's been discouragement. The place I'm serving, there may have been times of discouragement. And many times during the discouragements in our lives are times when we question God and we ask Him, how could you do this to me?

How can this happen to me? I have served You faithfully. Now here's Paul sitting in a Roman prison cell. He had been shipwrecked, imprisoned years before that. I'm sure that there were times in Paul's life where he was discouraged, where he felt like he was imprisoned. Now what does one do when he's in prison? Well, let's get to that in just a minute. Because in so many ways, I feel like the last two years have been kind of like the last two years have been kind of an imprisonment.

Don't you? I mean, we've been in prison with masks. We've been told what we can do and cannot do. I feel like for two years, we've just been stuck with restrictions, and it's been a kind of a prison for us. I know our missionaries have felt that way. Many of our missionaries have been stuck for two years in countries where it's not the country where they've been called to serve.

They couldn't return to the countries where they were serving. Some of our missionaries that are gathered with us here, for the last two years, they could only leave their apartments for two hours a week, and that was by permit to go and purchase food. Their children have been impacted.

Language development, trying to learn the culture has been made even more difficult because of what has taken place with COVID. There's been uncertainty in lives of our missionaries, even in lives here, as we've waited to see when all this would come down because of COVID. What about Calvary Church? God has blessed us richly at Calvary Church these last two years, but you know, at times, there seems like some things are still missing. The Calvary culture just hasn't been the same.

Does anybody miss Wednesday nights? They miss the fellowship of sitting with brothers and sisters, sharing a meal together. Gosh, I pray that's going to come very quickly, but just that social interaction that we've been able to have and that we need as a people, that we're called to live as a church, as a community, as a family of faith, and those things have been missing. Even in missions, our culture has changed some.

Did you know we've not had a go trip for two years? That's hard to believe for Calvary Church. We've not been able to serve in our jails or our prisons. We've not been able to have as many good news clubs as we were having two years ago, just limiting to maybe one that we've been able to work in recently. Our ministry to the homeless, our street ministry has been impacted. Our work with the Charlotte Rescue Mission, where we were able to serve and to lead Bible studies because of COVID, that's not been available to us. Our Be A Light emphasis, where we promote neighborhood evangelism, where we've still had some success. We've been training people to evangelize in their neighborhood.

It's been difficult to do so because you can't be with people. So even though we've seen some new and some creative opportunities to do missions, our regular missions outreaches have been hindered at Calvary Church. So where does that put us as a church? As individuals, as a church community, as missionaries?

Now that we're on the other side of COVID, it's time to start over. It's time for us to begin to reclaim our missions culture personally in our lives and at Calvary Church. Now, I doubt Paul ever thought a prison cell could be a platform to carry the gospel from Rome, the center of the Gentile world. But Paul gives us a key to reclaiming our missions culture individually and here at Calvary Church.

Look at verses 12 and 13. He said, I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ. And most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word without fear. So what did Paul do that made him so effective in this type of a culture?

He remembered his call. And as we are reclaiming our call here at Calvary Church, we've got to remember our call. And our call is the great commission as found in Matthew 28 verses 19 and 20. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations.

That's our call as individuals and as a church is to go and to make disciples. Paul used the word. He says, what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel.

And I love that word advance. What has happened has caused Paul to advance the gospel because Paul saw every opportunity as an opportunity to tell people about Jesus. Paul lived a life where the gospel was unstoppable, whether he was being defending himself about temple and bringing in a Gentile in, whether he was before Agrippa or Festus or Felix.

Every place Paul used those as opportunities to advance the gospel and proclaim the truth. Paul in every circumstance remembered that his call is to share Jesus and that's our call too. As individuals, we're supposed to engage our culture with the gospel.

Sharing the good news should be a part of our everyday focus. It should be our focus at home, at work, in our social settings, here at Calvary, even on our social media. Everything that we do should be used to share the good news that Jesus saves. Paul shared the gospel in prison and he had the imperial guard assigned to care for him, guards who were chained to him each and every moment of every day. And it's amazing that Paul turned this discouraging situation into an opportunity to share the gospel. Paul knew that his call was to share Jesus so much so that all the imperial guard knew his testimony. They knew of Jesus' saving faith in his life. You know, I'm so grateful here at Calvary Church that COVID has passed and we're able to move forward with the gospel. And we need to do so in unity. Look at verse 14. Paul said, and most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word without fear.

That sounds like unity, doesn't it? I can think of no more divisive thing that has happened to the church. Not our church.

They've been pretty good. But to the church in general, then COVID. But it's time for us to forget COVID and all of its consequences. To leave it behind and for us to join together in unity to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ to a lost and dying world who desperately needs Jesus.

Just look overseas. That's what's happening in the world today. Now let me tell you a few things that are upcoming at Calvary Church to help us reclaim our missions culture and to share the gospel. First off, we're going to have a renewed focus on praying for missions and missionaries at Calvary Church. Beginning in April, Lord willing, our missionary prayer newsletter will change. Instead of having a list of all of our missionaries, it'll be a calendar where each day you'll be praying for a specific two or three missionaries and the needs that they have.

So each day you'll have a mission focus for your family and ways to pray for our missionary and missions that are taking place at Calvary Church. We are also going to begin our go trips again. Next Sunday we'll be commissioning our first go trip in two years. It'll be our go Monterey team that'll be going to Monterey, Mexico the week after next to share the gospel and to care for orphans who are there. You're also going to hear of additional go trip opportunities.

There'll be a go trip information meeting next Sunday afternoon and we'll be talking about a go trip to Kenya where we'll go and continue our work with the Suba people and the people that are on Fangano Island. You'll also hear about a mission opportunity, a go trip that will take place in Central Asia where we'll travel to the countries of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, sharing the gospel, training churches and serving refugees from Afghanistan and most likely now through the Ukraine as well. To restore our mission culture at Calvary Church, we've got some special mission opportunities for our senior high students. We'll have three weeks of Johnny and Friends disability camps where students from Calvary Church can go and serve as short term missionaries caring for families who have been affected by disabilities.

Did you know that less than 10% of those families affected by disability know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior? We're providing opportunities for our students to go in and to care for those families affected by disability and tell them about Jesus. Another exciting opportunity for senior high students is called the Ethnos 360 Jungle Camp.

They also call it YUMI. And this camp is held in Pennsylvania in July. And as I mentioned, it's a jungle camp in a jungle setting led by missionaries who have served in that context. And these senior high students will be able to see what it's like to serve in missions. And we pray that God will, perhaps, call our next generation out of these mission experiences for senior high school students. I'm excited to share with you that our pastor and elders have set funds aside for these senior high missions opportunities so that every Calvary senior high student can go for free.

Isn't that amazing? This is part of Calvary's investment in the next generation. So what else are we doing to reclaim the missions culture at Calvary Church?

And I know my time is up. You've noted in past weeks information about the new Queen City Pregnancy Resource Center. And we have many who have volunteered for that, but we'll have volunteers from that organization with us next Sunday to share how, perhaps, you can volunteer to help us in the fight for lives, saving the lives of those who are not yet born. Good news clubs are returning. Schools are starting to open back up as the mask mandates have been dropped. And we're going to be able to see ministry back in our local schools again. And for us, that's ministry in a closed access country.

These are Charlotte Mecklenburg schools. Our Be A Light campaign. Thank goodness that COVID restrictions are gone because it will allow us to communicate with our neighbors face to face, to host them in our homes, and to encourage them to share the gospel. And you'll see more and more, more and more opportunities to reclaim the missions culture here at Calvary Church. I'm so thankful that Calvary Church is committed to missions. Now my goal this morning was to share God's word and a few opportunities that He has for us here at Calvary Church. To invite the Holy Spirit to begin speaking to your heart about responding to the call of the Great Commission. Personally, as a church, you'll hear from Pastor Sabu tonight more opportunities how you can engage in local missions. You'll hear from our missionaries through the week about other ways that you can be engaged in missions here and through Calvary Church. And then next Sunday, Dr. Monroe will give our final service where we're going to be looking for commitments.

Commitments from you and from me to take back up the Great Commission. To help us to restore, to reclaim the wonderful missions culture that we have at Calvary Church. I've been saying that the only thing that will stop the Gospel is a lack of response from you and from me.

But that's not true. The Gospel is unstoppable. With or without us, the Gospel will not be stopped.

But it's God's plan for you and for me to be with Him in this. To join arm in arm and arms as a church to answer God's call to serve Him, communicating the Gospel truth to our community and to our world. Paul concludes in verse 18 by saying, What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed and in that I rejoice. Let that be our mission as individuals and as a church to proclaim the Gospel, to proclaim the good news, the truth. Join me as we pray together. Father, we thank you so much for this time that we've shared in worship today. We thank you for your word, Father, for how it encourages us and reminds us that the task of missions is not left just to missionaries.

But, Father, you've tasked it to us that it's our call and it's our responsibility to take up that call no matter the circumstances and proclaim your truth. Father, we thank you for our missionaries that are gathered this week. We pray for them.

We realize that some are coming exhausted just from the conditions of the world. And we pray, Father, that this might be a time of refreshment and encouragement for them. And, Father, we pray for our church. We pray that as we focus on, not ourselves, but outward this week, Father, that we will hear your call and renew our commitment to that call and seek to serve you, Father, as your missionaries right here in Charlotte. For it's in Jesus' name we pray, amen.