Speaker 1: put on her tale of two kingdoms.
Speaker 2: Good morning.
Speaker 2: It's great to see you all.
Speaker 2: My name is Chad.
Speaker 2: I'm the missions pastor here at First Baptist and I love every opportunity I get to come and share God's word with you, and so I'm excited to get to stand before you this morning.
Speaker 2: As you know, we've had a lot happening in our church over the last several months and a lot happening in our community in the last few weeks.
Speaker 2: And real quick, just to begin our time together, I just want to thank all of you who have spent your time, your energy, probably some of your resources, to serve the victims of the flood over the last few weeks.
Speaker 2: As you know, it's not only captured the attention of those of us who live in this area, but it really has captured the attention of the entire nation and, in some ways, even the world, and so I just want to say thank you.
Speaker 2: Over the last few weeks, we've raised quite a bit of money within our church to help with the needs, but beyond that, we've had volunteers partnering with many agencies.
Speaker 2: Some have gone out with Samaritan's Purse, some have gone out with Operation Blessing and World Vision, some have gone out with Texans on Mission, and some of you have just gone to friends and family and neighbors that you know and have helped out in many different ways.
Speaker 2: Just this last week I've been to Hunt probably six times.
Speaker 2: We've helped the church this morning, the church, hunt Baptist Church, for the first time since the flood, is meeting this morning.
Speaker 2: Last weekend they met in that pavilion, but today they're meeting inside their church and they get to be a beacon of hope and light in a community that lost over 70 people.
Speaker 2: 70 residents of Hunt passed away in this event, and so pray for them.
Speaker 2: Pray for them today.
Speaker 2: I showed this other picture last week where their church was transformed into a marketplace.
Speaker 2: They said it was Hunt's first Walmart, but today it's a church again.
Speaker 2: We were out there yesterday cleaning up the last bit of it, getting everything emptied out.
Speaker 2: We got their children's rooms ready to go and pray that God would really begin to heal the hearts of those families who've lost so much.
Speaker 2: We have a lot of work that continues.
Speaker 2: There's going to be plenty of opportunities In the next few weeks.
Speaker 2: The big agencies are going to start moving out as the initial relief work comes to an end and then the long-term recovery really begins.
Speaker 2: And so for those of you who are wondering, how are we going to get involved.
Speaker 2: What's coming next?
Speaker 2: Just stay patient.
Speaker 2: There's lots of opportunities for you to volunteer, whether it's in sorting and preparing donations or whether it's going out and doing some of the work hands-on yourself.
Speaker 2: We continue to hear different stories and continue to hear different opportunities, but it's kind of slow in trying to understand all of it, so please continue to check the website.
Speaker 2: We're updating the opportunities daily, sometimes even quicker than that, and we want to continue to stay as responsive as we possibly can.
Speaker 2: Ultimately, I want you to know that you've done a great job and I know that everyone's hearts are burdened in this, and I've seen many of you cry and pray, and I ask that you would just continue to do that as we pray for the loss in this particular disaster.
Speaker 2: There really are few times, I think, in my whole ministry walk where something of this magnitude in such a small area, and so it's been such a difficult thing.
Speaker 2: So continue to pray for our community.
Speaker 2: Can you do that?
Speaker 2: Perfect, perfect.
Speaker 2: Well, I just want to thank you for that.
Speaker 2: This morning, we're taking a little break from Daniel and I want you to know why.
Speaker 2: You know as we go through this book.
Speaker 2: It's an incredible book.
Speaker 2: It has so much incredible narrative in those first five or six chapters and then it gets into this different kind of teaching.
Speaker 2: You've probably noticed right, we're not talking about stories from Daniel's life Now.
Speaker 2: We're talking about a few visions he has, and some of those visions are a little confusing.
Speaker 2: But today I want to tie you back to that initial thought when we first started talking about what it was like for Daniel and his friends to live in exile.
Speaker 2: Remember, they were taken from their homes brutally.
Speaker 2: In many ways they were taken as captives to the enemy city, babylon, and while they were there they had to live underneath this not only oppressive regime.
Speaker 2: But they're living in the enemy city, in this pagan rule, and trying to figure out how to remain faithful to the God of their ancestors and the God of their hearts, and you know it was a difficult thing.
Speaker 2: That's what those first several stories were about.
Speaker 2: Well, today we're going to take a look at what I would call an adjacent story.
Speaker 2: This adjacent story comes from a different prophet, the prophet Jeremiah, and so you know the story of Daniel, how he was taken, but you may not remember that in the same time frame, jeremiah stayed in Jerusalem.
Speaker 2: He was part of what we call the remnant, that was in a destroyed city, that stayed there.
Speaker 2: But in Jeremiah 29, he writes a letter.
Speaker 2: Jeremiah writes a letter to the exiles in Babylon, which would have included Daniel and his friends and all the other exiles that were living there, and he gives them some instructions.
Speaker 2: And so today we're going to take some time and look at that letter, and I've entitled the sermon today Lessons for Exiles, because in some ways we're going to find that we tie into this connection.
Speaker 2: We tie into a people who are not looking to make ourselves comfortable.
Speaker 2: We're looking for a home that isn't this one.
Speaker 2: Right, we live here, but this is not our home.
Speaker 2: Do you know that, like?
Speaker 2: That's a simple truth that Christians have had in common throughout all of Christian history is we realize that we engage in this world as sojourners, as foreigners.
Speaker 2: History is we realize that we engage in this world as sojourners, as foreigners, as immigrants, as people who are looking forward to a world yet to be displayed, and in some ways we live under this exile.
Speaker 2: You know, in my career as a missions pastor almost over 20 years now I've been to many countries and there's these times where you just kind of look around and you realize this is not my own place.
Speaker 2: I remember this time I was in the streets of Kachanaburi, thailand.
Speaker 2: Okay, I was with the army at the time and I was out there in the street with all these army guys and there was all these pressures, all this happening.
Speaker 2: If you've ever been to Thailand with the military, it's not like a mission trip, okay, and I'm standing in the street in the evening.
Speaker 2: I'm standing in the street in the evening.
Speaker 2: I'm looking at the colors and you see the smells and you got all the different noise from all the cars and the nightclubs and the music and the people and the language that I don't understand.
Speaker 2: I just looked around.
Speaker 2: I'm like this is not my home.
Speaker 2: Have you ever been in that place?
Speaker 2: You just look around like I don't even know what I'm doing here.
Speaker 2: I'm not comfortable in this place.
Speaker 2: It doesn't feel right doing here.
Speaker 2: I'm not comfortable in this place.
Speaker 2: It doesn't feel right.
Speaker 2: Well, I want to tell you that's what our sermon is about today.
Speaker 2: Is that?
Speaker 2: What is it like for us to live as exiles in this world?
Speaker 2: And I want to start by reading a section of verses out of Hebrews, chapter 13.
Speaker 2: It does this beautiful picture where he talks about what it's like for all who believe and realize that this is not our home.
Speaker 2: So look at Hebrews 11, starting in verse 13.
Speaker 2: It says all these people and he's talking about the heroes of faith.
Speaker 2: Right, it was the Abrahams and all these people.
Speaker 2: All these people were still living by faith when they died.
Speaker 2: Listen to this next line.
Speaker 2: They did not receive things that were promised.
Speaker 2: Have you read this before?
Speaker 2: Do you realize?
Speaker 2: These people were living by faith, but they didn't get to see the results of their faith.
Speaker 2: They were believing in something that was coming later.
Speaker 2: And so look at it.
Speaker 2: It continues.
Speaker 2: He says they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth.
Speaker 2: So they're talking about the Abrahams and the Isaacs and the Jacobs and all those old stories.
Speaker 2: If you read the entire chapter of Hebrews 11, that they were all looking forward to something that they didn't see in the days that they lived.
Speaker 2: They lived as foreigners and strangers.
Speaker 2: So people who say such things show that they're looking forward to a country that is not of their own.
Speaker 2: They're longing for a better country it continues, a heavenly one.
Speaker 2: Listen to this.
Speaker 2: Therefore, god is not ashamed to be called their God and he has prepared a city for them.
Speaker 2: Does your heart long for that day?
Speaker 2: Does your heart long for that city?
Speaker 2: Does it long for the moment when Christ will be fully revealed and we'll know him as if he's with us, face to face, and we'll see him in all that we say and all to face.
Speaker 2: And we'll see him and all that we say and all that we think and all that we pray for, all that we hope in and all that we believe will be fully revealed.
Speaker 2: I hope your heart burdens for that day, because those are the moments and those are the faith and the belief that gives you courage when you face difficult times, when you face things that you don't understand.
Speaker 2: It's in these moments that we realize that truth that this is the world in which we live, but it is not our home.
Speaker 2: We are just passing through.
Speaker 2: I heard someone whisper that.
Speaker 2: There's an old hymn that says something like that.
Speaker 2: Maybe you remember.
Speaker 2: We are exiles in this world, just like those who live the faithful that we see in Hebrews 11.
Speaker 2: And we're looking forward to a day when our true home is revealed.
Speaker 2: So let's look at this letter from Jeremiah.
Speaker 2: It's a beautiful letter.
Speaker 2: Some of the verses here are some of the most famous verses in the Old Testament, but I want to read this to you.
Speaker 2: We're going to start in Jeremiah 29, starting in verse 4.
Speaker 2: And then we're going to just kind of draw out a couple lessons and in a few minutes we have a special guest that's going to share.
Speaker 2: I'm going to get to interview her on the stage in a few minutes and we'll share about why that's important today.
Speaker 2: But look at this with me from verse 4.
Speaker 2: It says this is what the Lord, god Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon.
Speaker 2: Let me just tell you I'll read this and we'll come back.
Speaker 2: Okay, verse 5.
Speaker 2: Build houses and settle down, plant gardens and eat what they produce.
Speaker 2: Marry and have sons and daughters.
Speaker 2: Find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage that they too may have sons and daughters.
Speaker 2: How many generate?
Speaker 2: Come back, come back, sorry.
Speaker 2: Increase in number there, do not decrease.
Speaker 2: Also, seek the prosperity and the peace of the city to which I've carried you into exile.
Speaker 2: Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.
Speaker 2: Yes, this is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel says Do not let the prophets and diviners among you deceive you.
Speaker 2: Do not listen to the dreams you encourage them to have.
Speaker 2: They are prophesying lies to you in my name.
Speaker 2: I have not seen them, declares the Lord.
Speaker 2: We'll keep going.
Speaker 2: Verse 10.
Speaker 2: This is what the Lord says.
Speaker 2: When 70 years are complete for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my good promise and bring.
Speaker 2: This is what the Lord and I will bring you back from captivity.
Speaker 2: I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you, declared the Lord, and I will bring you back from the place from which I carried you into exile.
Speaker 2: Let's pray, father.
Speaker 2: We come before you looking at your word and we're so thankful for the way that you have called your people throughout history to seek you and God, how you've promised that you would be found by those who seek you.
Speaker 2: God, we pray that you would draw us nearer to you today, that, father, as we look at the world around us and see how foreign it is that God, our hearts will be encouraged by how near you are.
Speaker 2: We love you.
Speaker 2: Help us to hear your spirit today.
Speaker 2: In Jesus' name, amen, amen.
Speaker 2: So here's a couple things I think we can draw from this really clearly.
Speaker 2: The first lesson for exiles is to understand that it's God who has placed you in exile.
Speaker 2: Do you notice how many times in the scriptures, in those 14 verses, where it says I carried you from Jerusalem into Babylon?
Speaker 2: Do you know why the Israelites are in the pagan city?
Speaker 2: To begin with, because God took them there.
Speaker 2: They're not there on accident, they're not there by surprise.
Speaker 2: God knew that they were going to be there and he is the one who takes responsibility for carrying them into exile.
Speaker 2: So here's the thing If you feel like this world is foreign to you, the first thing to realize is that God has placed you in it for a purpose.
Speaker 2: It's not an accident.
Speaker 2: And so here's a couple things I think that are important.
Speaker 2: I'm going to give you three quick warnings.
Speaker 2: The first one is don't withdraw from the culture and the people to whom God has placed you.
Speaker 2: If he's put you here on purpose, then he has a reason for you to be here among them.
Speaker 2: If you think about the story of Daniel, how many different ways did God reveal himself to the Babylonians through the testimony and the life of Daniel and his friends?
Speaker 2: At least three different times.
Speaker 2: We see major edicts from major world leaders to call the people into worship of the Most High God, the God of Daniel or the God of Shadrach, meshach and Abednego.
Speaker 2: God is using his people to make himself known among the Babylonians.
Speaker 2: How much more so can he do that through you and I today, wherever he's placed you?
Speaker 2: So the first real important thing for you to realize is you're not in exile on accident.
Speaker 2: There's purpose.
Speaker 2: So don't withdraw.
Speaker 2: We're tempted to.
Speaker 2: We think we don't know this place, we don't understand this culture.
Speaker 2: Therefore, I'm going to separate myself, I'm going to guard everything I know to be holy and true and I'm going to try to do it all by myself.
Speaker 2: We call that monasticism.
Speaker 2: Right, you pull back and you become a monk, go hide in a cave somewhere and you pray and read scripture for the rest of your life.
Speaker 2: But that's not what God has called us to do.
Speaker 2: He says go and make disciples.
Speaker 2: That's not in a cave, right Of all the nations.
Speaker 2: You can't do that, isolated and segregated and set aside in this small place.
Speaker 2: So don't withdraw.
Speaker 2: Another warning is don't let the new environment cause you to reject God.
Speaker 2: Sometimes people get upset.
Speaker 2: They're so frustrated that God has placed them in this place that they're like.
Speaker 2: Either he's not real or he doesn't care.
Speaker 2: And all of us are faced daily with whether or not we're going to seek him or turn to him, especially when we go through hard times.
Speaker 2: Do you know?
Speaker 2: Every single family that has lost a loved one in the last two weeks in this valley, or lost property, are weighing those things.
Speaker 2: Can I believe that God is good in the midst of really difficult situations?
Speaker 2: And I can tell you that answer is not easy to come by and it sometimes takes people some years to wrestle through whether they really believe that or not.
Speaker 2: And, to be really honest, some people come down on the wrong side of that.
Speaker 2: They're like if God was good, he would not let this happen.
Speaker 2: How could he carry his own people into exile if he's a good God?
Speaker 2: Do you ever ask those questions?
Speaker 2: I hope so, because maybe you're honest enough to say I don't have these answers.
Speaker 2: And what's really wild is the Bible tells us that God either gives us the grace that's amazing and the faith.
Speaker 2: It's from him, it's a gift from him that allows us to believe in these things that might seem foolish to everyone outside.
Speaker 2: You know, for an atheist, someone who doesn't believe in god, we look like fools when we say we believe in a god.
Speaker 2: When something terrible happens, it's hard because if you don't have faith it doesn't make any sense at all.
Speaker 2: So pray that god would open the hearts of those who are going through hard times.
Speaker 2: And those of you who are going through those difficult times and you feel like exiles, know that you're not alone, that throughout human history, the faithful have had to walk through the difficult things in life and decide if they really believe that God is good or not.
Speaker 2: And it's a hard place that I think every single believer has to walk through during their walk with God.
Speaker 2: So one is don't withdraw from the culture.
Speaker 2: Two is don't let the new environment cause you to reject God.
Speaker 2: And lastly, I would say, don't conform to the culture in which God has placed you.
Speaker 2: Throughout the book of Daniel, we find these places where he consecrates himself and he does literally stay, I would say, extremely faithful.
Speaker 2: Remember the early stories where he wasn't eating the things they were putting in front of him, like, do you think God would have judged him if he ate something else?
Speaker 2: I don't know, but he decided that this is a special way that we're going to stay faithful, and God blessed their faithfulness, even in the things like their food.
Speaker 2: Right Later on, he was told not to pray.
Speaker 2: What did he do?
Speaker 2: He opened the doors and he prayed where everyone could see him, and it got him in a lot of trouble.
Speaker 2: And so he remained faithful, even in the midst of a culture that was pushing him the opposite direction.
Speaker 2: I love that.
Speaker 2: Jeremiah also recognizes that within the Jewish community there were teachers he calls them false teachers who were telling people that this is going to end real soon, and they were prophesying things that he says were not of God.
Speaker 2: And so there's also an element here where you have to consecrate yourself so that you can discern truth from lies, even within the culture that you trust.
Speaker 2: Do you know, if I stand up here and teach you bad things, I'll be held accountable for it, but if you believe those bad things, you'll be held accountable for it.
Speaker 2: Every believer has the responsibility to know and discern God's heart and to know when they're being fed lies and when they're being fed truth, and so obviously, our pastors, our staff, we do our very best to give you the best instruction we possibly can, but it's your responsibility to know and to test and to know if the things we're saying are the things of God or not.
Speaker 2: So don't be led astray.
Speaker 2: There are Christian leaders in our world today that are teaching things that are really hard to justify in the scriptures.
Speaker 2: I don't believe that's happening in our church, but you can see that if you watch some churches on TV, sometimes you see some things you're like I'm not sure that that's what that's supposed to say.
Speaker 2: You're supposed to know how to discern it.
Speaker 2: So three quick warnings Don't withdraw from the culture, don't seclude yourself, don't let the new environment cause you to reject God because of the ways and the circumstances of the world and, lastly, don't conform to the culture that God has placed you in.
Speaker 2: I've asked some of my friends to be here with us today, and they serve as missionary workers in different countries.
Speaker 2: They've been all over the world over the last several years.
Speaker 2: Because of the security that surrounds the place they live and work, I'm not going to use their last names, I'm going to try not to use the country that they live in and I would ask you, if you take pictures, even during the service or afterwards, that you don't post it online?
Speaker 2: We don't want to cause any more challenges for them than maybe is necessary, and so I want to introduce you to some friends of mine.
Speaker 2: They're the—I'm going to break my own rule from the very beginning.
Speaker 2: It's Andy and Natalie.
Speaker 2: Would you guys stand up in your family?
Speaker 2: And this is their kids Jenda is the oldest and Blaze there, he's the tallest, and Titus is the youngest.
Speaker 2: And so, guys, come on, let's give them a hand.
Speaker 2: I'm going to invite Natalie to join me on the stage.
Speaker 2: We have had so many different opportunities over the years to interview them on our trips, and so I've actually invited Andy to come back this fall and preach in November for our missions weekend, and since Andy is going to get a whole sermon, I thought it'd be nice for you guys to get to know Natalie just a little bit, and if I got them both up here, natalie may not get to say no, I'm kidding, andy's singing our choir.
Speaker 2: Did you guys enjoy that?
Speaker 2: We're so thankful that you guys are here, Natalie, and so I just want to just take a few minutes and ask you a few questions.
Speaker 2: First of all, where did you grow up and why did you choose to leave that place to go to the nations.
Speaker 1: Those are big questions.
Speaker 1: I grew up in South Texas in the McAllen area, Spent my life there at Calvary Baptist Church and I went to Texas A&M for university.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I knew I'd get some reaction from that one.
Speaker 1: We've got a lot of Aggies overseas too, so they're great in the mission field.
Speaker 1: So I went to.
Speaker 1: It wasn't until I got into college, at A&M, that the Lord was really doing something on that campus and we were seeing a lot of people come to Christ and for the first time I was understanding what it meant to be a Christian.
Speaker 1: I went to church, I went to Sunday school, I was baptized.
Speaker 1: I understood that Jesus saved me from my sins and that I had eternal life.
Speaker 1: But what I didn't quite get until I got to college was that's just the beginning of the story that God has a purpose and a plan not just for me but for the whole world.
Speaker 1: And there are people out there who have never heard of Jesus, and I grew up in a place where you could throw a rock and hit a church.
Speaker 1: You know there were churches on every corner, like a lot of places, and that's such a blessing to grow up in a place like that, but that is not the case in the rest of the world, and so we started learning not just that there are people out there who haven't heard, but this is actually God's purpose and plan for us as believers is to be the light of the gospel to those who don't know.
Speaker 1: And so I remember reading in Romans where Paul says well, how are they going to hear those who don't know Jesus unless we send them?
Speaker 1: And unless a preacher goes, how are they going to go unless they're sent?
Speaker 1: And so God started working on my heart, and even in Isaiah, from the very beginning, isaiah says you know, god says it's too small a thing for me to raise up the tribes of Israel, but I, my plan, is to be a light to the nation, so that my salvation reaches to the ends of the earth.
Speaker 1: And so, seeing that plan and God's desire and heart to see the whole world come to him and Jesus says it too when he prays for all of us at the end one of his last prayers, when he says I'm not only praying for those who are with me now, but for those who are going to hear and know me.
Speaker 1: Through them, I pray that they may be one as we are one.
Speaker 1: So the plan and the purpose has always been that we, as God's people, go and share the gospel with others so that they could have life too.
Speaker 1: So I jumped on a mission trip to the Middle East with my church and from that point on I saw God's heart for the world.
Speaker 1: I saw how he loved people.
Speaker 1: I met people who had never heard the name of Christ before and who, when they received Christ, just became different people.
Speaker 1: And it was through that and through seeing his spirit work that I knew he's real, this is right and this is his purpose and plan.
Speaker 1: So I was happy to get on board with that.
Speaker 2: Happy.
Speaker 2: How old were you when you went on your first mission?
Speaker 1: I just graduated from.
Speaker 1: Well, I went to Mexico a few times on mission trips.
Speaker 1: I'm sure a lot of you guys have been on, some of those being in South Texas, but my first big one for a year was right after I graduated from college.
Speaker 1: Okay, I've been overseas ever since.
Speaker 2: Amazing.
Speaker 2: Well, again, having known you for some time, you haven't just been in places that were maybe Christian countries or even Christian adjacent.
Speaker 2: You've been in, you've been serving in, countries for your entire career and that are that are all difficult places to live, where being a Christian is an illegal thing.
Speaker 2: If there's an idea of an exile, these guys were taken into exile by force, by Babylon, but some people move into exile voluntarily, and you're one of those.
Speaker 2: So why would you choose those places?
Speaker 1: Oh yeah.
Speaker 1: Well, those are the places that need the gospel.
Speaker 1: Those are the places where God has his people and they're waiting for him to hear.
Speaker 1: They're waiting for to hear the gospel.
Speaker 1: They're just and they don't have the opportunities.
Speaker 1: And so I remember thinking I have, I've grown up in a Christian nation, I've had everything given to me, what a responsibility I have.
Speaker 1: And so when the first trip came up, it was to the Middle East, and so I went on that one because it was to be able to share with Muslims.
Speaker 1: And so we went there for the first year, saw the Lord do amazing things.
Speaker 1: I was going back for the second year, but that's when 9-11 happened and it was just a volatile area to be in.
Speaker 1: So they actually pulled us out of that country and sent us to East Asia, and I saw God moving in East Asia too, and you see people without hope who come to Christ and hear hey, there is a God.
Speaker 1: The country that we spent most of our time in is a place where the government tells them it is illegal to believe in God.
Speaker 1: In fact, it's an atheist country.
Speaker 1: Believe in yourselves, believe in science, believe in this.
Speaker 1: It doesn't work.
Speaker 1: And so you have a country full of hopeless people and they're looking for something to fill that God-sized hole that they've been made with.
Speaker 1: And when you bring the gospel to them, it's life, it's hope.
Speaker 1: And so we were there and we were able to see God do amazing things and raise up that church in that country, to where now they're sending out missionaries from that place to other parts of the world, specifically to the Middle East and other places.
Speaker 1: So it's what Jesus said.
Speaker 1: He said I know my sheep.
Speaker 1: When he's talking about being the good shepherd, he says I have other sheep that are not of this fold and they're mine and they will come to me.
Speaker 1: And those are the people that still need to hear and they're waiting, and God has chosen and prepared them and we just get to be the messengers to let them know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I love that.
Speaker 2: I love that, and if I could tell you the names of the countries and you should ask later some of them you'd go what you live there why?
Speaker 2: But it wasn't just that you live there.
Speaker 2: You met Andy, you guys got married and then you've raised your family remaining there.
Speaker 2: Some people would think that's foolish.
Speaker 2: Why would you raise your family in a place like that, where it's illegal to follow Jesus, it's illegal to proselytize, to share your faith with others, and so why would you guys stay in that space?
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's good.
Speaker 1: It's not easy.
Speaker 1: It's not easy, especially as a mom, I think are my kids okay?
Speaker 1: I think every mom thinks that when they look at their kids, what am I doing?
Speaker 1: We chose, andy and I chose to do this, but our kids didn't make that choice.
Speaker 1: And then I think you know the calling that God has put on our lives.
Speaker 1: That includes them as well, and so it is a daily trusting of returning them into the Lord's hands.
Speaker 1: Saying Lord, what I want for my kids more than anything is to know and follow you.
Speaker 1: Whatever you need to do to make that happen, make that happen.
Speaker 1: And we've been in hard situations.
Speaker 1: We've been locked out of the place that we called home, that our kids knew was home, didn't get to go back or say goodbye.
Speaker 1: We moved to a different part.
Speaker 1: That's been hard.
Speaker 1: We recently had a lot of our friends kicked out of that country too, and we managed to go under the radar for that one.
Speaker 1: So our kids have lost a lot over the process, I think, but they've also gained more than they've lost.
Speaker 1: You know Jesus says you don't do anything, you don't give up anything for my sake, that I'm not going to return to you tenfold now and in the world to come, and we've seen that happen.
Speaker 1: So sometimes we do.
Speaker 1: We look and say, oh, our kids have missed out on some of the things that American kids get to do, or even the good things like the family side of things.
Speaker 1: But they've gained so much in knowing other believers in different places.
Speaker 1: It's normal for them to look at someone from these different countries and say you know, that person is my brother and sister, that person knows Jesus.
Speaker 1: So their view of the Lord and his work is big, just because they grew up that way.
Speaker 1: So there's no question in their mind that God loves the world or God loves the nations.
Speaker 1: He sees it Because they love the world.
Speaker 1: They love the nations.
Speaker 1: Those are their friends, those are their aunts and uncles there's different language terms for those and that's what we've seen.
Speaker 1: We've seen God gather people who love our kids around our kids every step of the way.
Speaker 2: Well, it has been.
Speaker 2: I've been walking kind of alongside you guys when I was at my previous church, calvary, and obviously now here at First Baptist, for almost 15 years, and I've watched your family grow, from your kids being really small and young to your sending Jenda off to college for the next couple weeks, and so I know you're facing a whole new world as you're thinking about it.
Speaker 2: Many of these people have faced that particular world, by the way, when they're sending their kids off to college.
Speaker 2: But, natalie, as you guys are thinking about what's next again, you've told me even this week about some of the instabilities surrounding the role and where you live and how you guys are thinking through that and praying about it.
Speaker 2: They had almost 30 leaders in their country working alongside them and all but them have been asked to leave the country, so now they're just down to three leaders, including the two of them, and it's been hard as they've watched.
Speaker 2: Their network, their relationships, their friendship groups have all changed dramatically in the last six months, and so, as you guys are thinking about what's next, how can we pray for you?
Speaker 2: Tell us a little about what you're expecting.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we appreciate your prayer so much.
Speaker 1: Just pray that we'd be faithful to what God has us do next, which we don't always know what that is.
Speaker 1: It's a volatile, we live in a volatile part of the world and everything that comes with that.
Speaker 1: I would just say that we would continue to be faithful with what the Lord puts before us.
Speaker 1: I think sometimes it's the case that for me especially I think Andy gets he's a little more excited about some things, but there are points where you know the only thing that keeps me going, things, but there are points where you know the only thing that keeps me going.
Speaker 1: I always think of when, after Jesus feeds the crowds and he starts talking about I am the true bread, I am the true blood, and he offends a lot of people or it's they said this is hard sayings, and they start walking away from him and the crowds start to leave and he looks at his disciples and he says are you guys, are you going to leave me too?
Speaker 1: And then Simon Peter looks at him and he's like where would we go?
Speaker 1: Where would we go?
Speaker 1: You have the words of life, and so a lot of the times, through some of these hard situations, that's what I hold on to.
Speaker 1: It's not easy, it's hard, it's really hard, but I don't want to walk away because there's no other place to go.
Speaker 1: He's the one with the words of life for everything he's shown us and taken us through.
Speaker 1: He is real, he is working, he has a plan and he's our good shepherd.
Speaker 1: And so our prayer is that we just stick with Him, we don't walk away, that we continue to say, even in the hard times, there's nowhere to place to go.
Speaker 1: He has the words of life.
Speaker 1: So that's our biggest prayer and, I think, living.
Speaker 1: I just wanted to say I loved hearing from you about living as exiles in the world, because we feel that all the time we feel uncomfortable.
Speaker 1: Most of the time, even coming back, We've missed so much that our peers have gone through, our families have gone through and we think, oh, we just feel out of it, we feel behind.
Speaker 1: But then there's also freedom to that too, because it is a reminder that we are aliens in this world, and that's what even Paul says.
Speaker 1: He says you're citizens of heaven.
Speaker 1: So there's a freedom to not having to make myself comfortable here.
Speaker 1: It's okay, you don't have to feel comfortable.
Speaker 1: You don't have to be comfortable Because we do have a place, we do have a heavenly city waiting for us, and so we have the freedom to be uncomfortable, we have the freedom to leave our homes and go to the other side of the world, we have the freedom to reach out to those neighbors and even like Paul said in one of his famous speeches he said you know, our God is the God of geography.
Speaker 1: He places us each in a specific place with people around us, so that we reach out and find God, because he's not far from each one of us, and so he's placed us across the world.
Speaker 1: He's placed you here in Bernie for the purpose of knowing him and letting other people know him as well.
Speaker 1: So there's also a freedom in being a citizen of a different place too.
Speaker 2: Well, thank you so much, Natalie.
Speaker 2: We're going to continue to pray for you.
Speaker 2: Can you guys give Natalie a hand?
Speaker 2: Thank you so much for coming and sharing it's been wonderful.
Speaker 2: Take it with you.
Speaker 2: I asked Natalie if I could ask her some questions about sending Jenda away and she said let's hold off on those for now.
Speaker 2: And I imagine you guys all know why.
Speaker 2: As we have as we interact with missionaries, as we interact with the world around you again, I hope you have that feeling that this just doesn't feel like home all the time, that there's something more.
Speaker 2: And when I ask Natalie and Andy why do you do these things?
Speaker 2: They come back with what else could we do?
Speaker 2: We're trying to be faithful to what God has called us to do.
Speaker 2: You could ask Daniel that same question.
Speaker 2: Why would you stay in this world?
Speaker 2: Why would you be working for the king?
Speaker 2: You say what else can I do?
Speaker 2: God put me in this place for a purpose like this.
Speaker 2: You might think of the words to Esther for such a time as this, god has placed you here on purpose and while you may not live in a dangerous country in the world and you may not do it on purpose, you may not go to those places and put yourself at risk.
Speaker 2: You still live as exiles and I would counsel you, don't get so comfortable that you believe this is why god made you to live in this place in this time, because while we live here, this is not our home.
Speaker 2: So there's two things I would tell you, encouragements for exiles.
Speaker 2: The first one is to remain faithful to the one who has called you.
Speaker 2: I think every Christian sermon ends up with these two points.
Speaker 2: By the way, hold on to your faith, right, those who stand firm to the end will be saved.
Speaker 2: Those type language, that kind of words that encourages your heart.
Speaker 2: The Hebrews 13 places this do not grow weary and lose heart.
Speaker 2: Those are the things, that kind of words that encourages your heart.
Speaker 2: The Hebrews 13 places it says do not grow weary and lose heart.
Speaker 2: Those are the things that cost you hope and, eventually, belief.
Speaker 2: Hold firm to what you have and secondly, be faithful to the work to which he's called each of us.
Speaker 2: Again, you may not live in the Muslim world.
Speaker 2: You may not live in an atheistic country, may not live in the Muslim world.
Speaker 2: You may not live in an atheistic country, but you have the opportunity to share the hope and love of Jesus with those around you.
Speaker 2: God has, for whatever reason, placed most of us in Bernie, texas, and here in Bernie we have an opportunity to love those who are hurting, to share the gospel with the lost and if we try a little bit, we can even engage some unreached people, groups that live among us.
Speaker 2: You know that there's Iranian people that live here in this country, I mean in this city.
Speaker 2: There's Afghani families that live about half an hour from us.
Speaker 2: There's lots of opportunity if you look for it, but even that is a little cross-cultural.
Speaker 2: It's a little challenging.
Speaker 2: It's hard to know how do you speak to people that speak different languages.
Speaker 2: But even within our context, you have opportunities day in and day out to love people in Jesus's name.
Speaker 2: This Wednesday, for the next four weeks, I'm starting what I'm calling the Evangelism Bootcamp and what we're planning to do is give you some basic tools on how to share your faith and then challenge you to do it Over.
Speaker 2: Give you some basic tools on how to share your faith and then challenge you to do it Over the next four weeks.
Speaker 2: Our goal is to give people practical opportunities and real next steps so that they can work through what's going to take to make the gospel known in this community and beyond.
Speaker 2: So for four weeks I'm going to teach you, train you, encourage you to go and try it.
Speaker 2: Then we'll do it together at least once or twice so we can have some feedback.
Speaker 2: Right there I lost most of you, by the way.
Speaker 2: You're like, oh wait, you're not just going to teach me, no, no, we're going to go and look for opportunities to share our faith.
Speaker 2: So if you want to learn how, you want to be encouraged, you want to have some practical steps, come and join us on Wednesday night.
Speaker 2: We'll go from 6 to 7.30 in the FLB library over here, and it's just for four weeks, so it'll finish up before the fall starts.
Speaker 2: If you're interested in that, that's what's going to be happening starting this Wednesday.
Speaker 2: And so here, as we finish up, as we come to a conclusion, I want you to think about a couple things.
Speaker 2: You've heard this verse Jeremiah 29, 11, probably many times.
Speaker 2: Mostly I hear it in graduation commencement speeches, where it says for I know the plans for you.
Speaker 2: I'm sorry, I don't want to quote it the wrong way.
Speaker 2: I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord.
Speaker 2: Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.
Speaker 2: Guys, think about the context of this verse.
Speaker 2: He's saying this to a group of people where he says when you get to Babylon, go ahead and settle down, get married, have kids and let your kids have kids.
Speaker 2: How long are they going to be there?
Speaker 2: Do you realize the people that read this letter for the first time?
Speaker 2: Almost all of them will die in Babylon.
Speaker 2: So how is God saying to them?
Speaker 2: I have good things for you, I'm going to bless you and prosper you.
Speaker 2: He's saying that it may not happen now, but it's going to happen.
Speaker 2: It's the same thing.
Speaker 2: He's drawing their faith.
Speaker 2: Believe in me, even when you're tempted to forget me or you're tempted to be mad at me, and when you're tempted to think that I'm not really there.
Speaker 2: Believe, believe.
Speaker 2: It's the same comment over and over and over.
Speaker 2: You're going to have the world blasting you with reasons to fall away from your faith and I'll tell you things like the last two weeks river flooding that cost 200 lives.
Speaker 2: Those are the kind of things that makes you go.
Speaker 2: What is going on?
Speaker 2: Do I really believe that god is good?
Speaker 2: Do I really believe that he has what's best in mind for me and I have to tell you only by the spirit of god can we answer that in a way that draws us closer to him.
Speaker 2: It's in those moments when, those verses, when you see Daniel's faithfulness, he's getting thrown into the lion's den.
Speaker 2: If there's any time in your walk with God where you think God has completely abandoned me, it's when you're in the lion's den.
Speaker 2: And yet what does God do?
Speaker 2: He preserves him, he does it miraculously, and through that, the King Darius literally tells the whole nation to worship the God of Daniel.
Speaker 2: Guys.
Speaker 2: This is where our faith becomes tangible.
Speaker 2: It's where it becomes something more than just a thought or an idea or a tradition or a value or something we do because American families do this.
Speaker 2: This is where your faith becomes something more.
Speaker 2: So I want to go back to that Hebrews 11 passage I started with.
Speaker 2: It says all these were living by faith when they died.
Speaker 2: They did not receive the things that were promised.
Speaker 2: They saw them and welcomed them from a distance.
Speaker 2: So I'm praying that you will have the vision to see beyond your life right now, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth.
Speaker 2: People who say such things show that they're looking for a country of their own.
Speaker 2: It's not this one.
Speaker 2: Instead, they're looking for a better country, a heavenly one.
Speaker 2: Therefore, god is not ashamed to be called their God.
Speaker 2: He has prepared a city for them, a city not made by human hands.
Speaker 2: We live in this world, but it is not our home.
Speaker 2: We reside here as foreigners, strangers, immigrants, wanderers and exiles, and, like Natalie said, exiles.
Speaker 2: They kind of have nothing to lose.
Speaker 2: Think about it.
Speaker 2: They don't own anything.
Speaker 2: They're not even real citizens.
Speaker 2: They live as an underclass.
Speaker 2: They're worried that the authorities are going to kick them out next week.
Speaker 2: Live as exiles.
Speaker 2: It gives you freedom, freedom.
Speaker 2: You can hold nothing back, just go for it.
Speaker 2: You can give your heart, soul, mind and strength all that you are, to the things that God has called you.
Speaker 2: Because we don't own this stuff, it's just stuff.
Speaker 2: We can chase after the things of God with complete abandon because we're not owned by the things that we think we own.
Speaker 2: And we can live by faith, not by sight, like Daniel who lived in Babylon, jeremiah who lived in the ruined Jerusalem, like our friends, our missionary partners all around the world.
Speaker 2: But today I introduced you to Natalie and Andy and their family, like Jenda, who's going to be in Los Angeles.
Speaker 2: That may be the most foreign environment of all of them.
Speaker 2: Like any one of us that live here in Bernie Texas, we live as wanderers, searching Bernie Texas.
Speaker 2: We live as wanderers, searching, waiting and longing for our true home.
Speaker 2: I hope it burdens your heart.
Speaker 2: Don't get so comfortable here that you forget why we're here.
Speaker 2: It's for a purpose.
Speaker 2: The God that has carried us into exile has a purpose for us here.
Speaker 2: We're going to pray in just a moment and, as we do, I'm going to ask you to just consider the things that you hold dear.
Speaker 2: What are the things that are the top of your I don't know priority list?
Speaker 2: And I want to ask you how much the top of your priority list is the things to which God has called you.
Speaker 2: Is that down there somewhere else?
Speaker 2: And the things that drive your heart and make you excited.
Speaker 2: How much of it is what God's called you to do?
Speaker 2: Because that's what really calls us to his purposes is when we know that he's got us here and it's not an accident.
Speaker 2: And so, as we close, as we finish, as we spend some time seeking God, as we sing this last song together, I ask you to pray and surrender all that you have to him.
Speaker 2: If this is the first time for you you've never asked God to be king of your life, please come down.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna stand right here and there's some people that will be praying on the sides.
Speaker 2: We'd love to talk to you and pray for you.
Speaker 2: If you want to ask Jesus to be the king of your life and start this relationship with him that reorients yourself to his purposes, I'd love to talk to you and, for those of you who've been believers, you know Jesus, you love him and you long for him then take these next few minutes, maybe re-consecrate yourself to his heart.
Speaker 2: Let's pray.
Speaker 2: Father, we come before you so thankful for your word.
Speaker 2: God.
Speaker 2: We're thankful for your example.
Speaker 2: Who could do more than your son to give all that he had for your purpose?
Speaker 2: For your will to literally put it all on the line and die a sinner's death to pay for all of our sins?
Speaker 2: God, we pray that you would help us to trust you, to put our hope in you, to put our full faith in your promises, that God, even though we may not see them the way that we want, that God will trust that you are good, that you have a purpose for your people.
Speaker 2: God, draw us to yourself in these moments, in Jesus' name amen.