1 Corinthians 1:26

For you see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise... that no flesh should glory in his presence. But of him are you in Christ Jesus, who of God has made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption... And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom... for I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ and him crucified.

A mid-year survey of what God is doing through a weak and willing people who have been called to arise and go.

Arise and Go: This Is No Place to Rest

We're going to do something a little different this morning. Being at the middle of the year, I wanted to take a service to share some of the things happening in the church. At the beginning of the year, I shared from Micah 2:10, where the prophet says, "Arise and go, for this is no place to rest." I really believe that is one of the things the Lord has called us to as a church for this year.

This world is not our inheritance and not our rest. At the end of this life, we won't merely inherit a nice earth—we'll inherit the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords. Our inheritance is being with God in His presence eternally. While we can become focused upon retirement or fortune in this life, we are told to arise and go. At whatever age we are, we have a calling from God to serve and follow Him.

God Chooses the Foolish Things

One of the greatest strengths of Calvary Chapel is its openness to allow the body of Christ to be the body of Christ—to serve and do the work of the ministry. I started attending Calvary Chapel of Escondido at age 11, and being given opportunities to serve as a high schooler was always a privilege.

God has chosen the foolish things of this world to confound the wise, the weak things to bring to nothing the things that are. He has chosen us to serve Him, to be His disciples. We want to give opportunity for the body here to be equipped for the work of the ministry, which is why we go through the Word and disciple people through our School of Discipleship and School of Ministry. There are abundant opportunities to serve—Vacation Bible School, the kids' club Ken and Theresa Pilbin are running up in Fallbrook, and more.

Win, Disciple, and Send to the Uttermost Parts

The idea of arising and going—bringing the Word of God wherever we go, from our own county to the uttermost parts—has been on my heart, and I hope it's being impressed upon yours as we go through the book of Acts. This year we've sent teams to the Philippines, Russia, Peru, and Belize. Please keep our Belize team in your prayers as they travel back through Belize City amid a tropical storm. We have teams headed to Mozambique, Brazil in September, and Oaxaca, Mexico.

This church is a gathering of followers of Jesus Christ who desire to make Him known. We've boiled our mission statement down to three words: win, disciple, and send. We want to give forth the gospel, raise believers to maturity, and send them out—whether to the uttermost parts or right within our own community and church.

A Building God Provided—and a Worldwide Media Reach

In 1994 the Lord blessed us with this facility. This building wasn't here yet; this was supposed to be an In-N-Out Burger. The register probably would have been right about here. But the city told them they couldn't put up their sign, so In-N-Out declined to build, the developer went under, and we were given the opportunity to purchase the property at a bargain rate. When last appraised, it had increased tenfold in equity. In 1998 we built this facility and the offices across the way.

Around 1997, Tim Tompkins, who had his own video production company, asked Pastor Pat if we could put the messages on public access TV. Pat said, "I don't know, can we?" Tim said, "Yeah." For the last 13 years we've been on public access in San Diego County, now reaching over a million homes a week. People stumble upon it on Channel 18, and many of you came to Calvary because you saw us on TV.

About a year and a half ago we began pushing all the messages onto the internet and onto iTunes as a podcast. A message given on a Sunday morning can be downloaded anywhere in the world by that afternoon. In a year and a half we've had 30,000 downloads—Australia, Italy, Hungary, India, Nepal, Mexico, Japan, Malawi, Russia, Israel, the Philippines, Singapore, Guatemala, and many more. It's mind-boggling.

Reaching the World Online

At the beginning of the year we shared an opportunity to be involved in missions through Global Media Outreach, which reaches people searching for the Lord on Google with the gospel. Last night at 11 o'clock, their site had already received over half a million visits that day. Over 50,000 made a decision for the Lord, and 8,000 of those requested follow-up. We've presented the opportunity for you to be one of the people who answers those questions, and a number of you have stepped up.

We also now have secure online giving on the website—I'll be honest, it feels a little funny to share that, but it was requested. And the Lord opened the door for an online school.

The Calvary Online School

To explain the Calvary Online School, I can't do it justice, so I had our administrator, Jared Beck, share. He pointed us to the Great Commission in Matthew 28:18-20—"All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations..."—reminding us that 2,000 years later, believers from the first disciples to St. Patrick to Jim Elliott have stepped out in faith to fulfill it, and now the internet has opened a new arena.

The school currently enrolls grades 9-12, with plans to expand into K-8 and adult discipleship. Everything is online and interactive—live virtual meetings, projects, teacher meetings—not just video PowerPoints mailed in. It overcomes geographical barriers for students in rural areas, families needing flexibility, and especially missionary families who otherwise might leave the field over how to educate their children.

Jared shared an illustration of a quasi-secret hot springs hike near his hometown: the trail is so winding and pitch-black that you'd never find the place without a guide. Faith is like that. We want to see the goal and trust our own ability, but what matters is who is guiding us. Jesus is our guide—He has all authority in heaven and on earth, and He promises, "Lo, I am with you always." You can learn more at calvaryonlineschool.com.

This is a real blessing. Many in our fellowship homeschool, but secondary education can be difficult, and this offers another path. I shared about it at the pastors' conference, and many pastors and missionaries told me it meets a real need.

Salt and Light: The Perspectives Course

Open to Matthew 5. Jesus tells His disciples:

You are the salt of the earth... You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid... Let your light, therefore, shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

God has called each of us to be salt and light. We are ambassadors of Christ, that people would see and know the Lord as a result of seeing and knowing us.

Five years ago, flying to Germany, I prayed the Lord would seat me next to someone I could share with. The man beside me had what looked like a Bible—it was his journal—and he turned out to be David Bardet, head of the Perspectives in the World Christian Movement course here in San Diego, on his way to speak at a missions conference. I lost his information in Germany, but a year ago he emailed me out of the blue. Now we're offering Perspectives this fall, beginning at the end of August.

Ron Hendricks, one of our coordinators, shared more. The class runs 15 weeks—we're adding a 16th for a celebration dinner—and you can audit it, take it for a certificate, or take it for college credit, with 15 different speakers. As Ron put it, God's providence reaches back before time itself: He arranged that airplane seat. Ron's heart was that we'd conform our wills to God's will by understanding His plan, and that through this class people would discover their part in it—whether through prayer, supporting and sending missionaries, or going short- or long-term themselves.

The course costs $195, but everyone I've talked to says it transformed the way they think. The emphasis isn't that we'd all become missionaries, but that we'd have the right, biblical perspective. We've asked our men's and women's ministries to pause through the fall so the whole church can focus on this. Don Richardson, author of Peace Child and Eternity in Their Hearts, will share with us on a Sunday morning before he speaks in the class.

The Cycle of the Social Gospel

As I've studied church history over the last couple of years, I've seen something interesting. In Ecclesiastes, Solomon says there's nothing new under the sun. About five or six years ago, a friend in a Lutheran seminary kept using the phrase "social justice" in her missions course. I researched it and found that social justice—egalitarianism, social and economic equality, a political philosophy—is not new, but it is permeating the church, even at the seminary and training levels.

The result is a social gospel, where the gospel is reshaped to focus primarily on man's needs here and now—making man happier, easing pain, suffering, hunger, and poverty, dealing with AIDS in Africa. All good things, but not the primary focus of the gospel. The primary focus of the gospel is the redemption of man's soul. The Scriptures reveal that all of us are lost, dead in trespasses and sins; we've all turned to our own way. But God made provision in the death and resurrection of His Son that we could be saved.

Now, as a result of the gospel going forth, God does transform people and societies—social change follows where the gospel goes. But many missions organizations have made aid their primary focus, even becoming NGOs that seek government money and water down the gospel.

A Famine of the Word—Then a Great Move of God

There's a cycle here. In the early 20th century, the progressive movement entered the church, especially in the United Kingdom, and the focus shifted to a social gospel. People reasoned, "If it's just about political things, we might as well get involved in politics," and they left the church. Over a hundred years later, the churches there are largely empty—turned into pubs, mosques, and museums. The same push came again in post-war America in the late 1940s and early 1950s.

Now we're approaching that peak again in the 21st century. And as the church departs from preaching the gospel, there comes what the prophet Amos foretold: a famine of hearing the Word of God. When that famine comes, people begin to hunger and thirst for God's Word—and on the flip side comes a great move of God. After the social gospel push of the 1940s and 50s came the Jesus Movement of the 1960s, when one simple man in a simple church in Costa Mesa began to simply teach the Word of God, and people came in droves.

So as we move into this renewed emphasis on a social gospel, I believe the tail end of it will be a great move of God. We, as the body of Christ here, need to be ready—which is why we are so dedicated to equipping the body for what God is doing.

Praying Over a Piece of Property

Pastor Richard and I meet at least once a week to think about where we're going. As we've looked at this somewhat landlocked property, we've prayed about that little park-and-ride next door. I'm not telling you we've secured it—we haven't—but we started to pray. It's owned by two parties: the City of Escondido (whose entrance is actually too close to the intersection to be up to code) and Caltrans.

Everyone said getting Caltrans to sell would be impossible, but Pastor Richard met with the head of Caltrans properties in San Diego County, who said they're open to the idea pending sign-off from Sacramento. If we obtained it, we'd likely build a three-story structure for offices, classrooms, and the youth ministry, freeing the current building for our growing children's ministry and dedicating space to nursery and toddler rooms—we have a lot of babies being born around here. Please pray that God would move the paperwork through the proper channels and that they'd negotiate a good price, if it's His will.

A Chaplaincy for the Hurting

Our desire to be firmly planted in Escondido does not mean we ignore social needs in the community. We want to develop a chaplaincy for Escondido and the surrounding area. Pastor Eric and I are chaplains with the fire department; Pastor Pat served the police department for years.

Working with the fire department, I've observed that when paramedics can't revive someone, they leave when the sheriff arrives, and the distraught family member is left with their loved one on the floor amid all the equipment. The sheriff calls the county medical examiner, and if no investigation is needed, the family is simply handed a card with a number and left alone. There used to be a contracted group to help them through the next steps, but budget cuts removed it. There's a vacuum, and I desire that we would fill it—not by standing there giving a Bible study, but by lovingly carrying that person through the first steps of grief: "How can I help you? Is there anyone I can call?"

Hope Keepers

Along these lines, we've started a new ministry called Hope Keepers, meeting the third Friday of every month, ministering to people who are chronically ill or grieving.

Jim Johnston shared how this ministry touched his heart. He and his wife Candy learned in 1970 that their toddler daughter Ashley had cystic fibrosis and might live only five years. They weren't saved at the time. But God had other plans—don't let anyone tell you your life expectancy, for only One knows the number of our days. Ashley lived 32 years. In high school she came to the Lord and became instrumental in her whole family receiving Christ; they were all baptized the same day by Pastor Pat in 1987. Through 32 years as caregivers, God was preparing Jim's heart to comfort others who suffer.

Jim described visiting a Hope Keepers meeting and being blown away: "They're not whiners. They're not cursing God. They are praising the Lord from wheelchairs." He pointed to Pat Kearns, a saint with multiple sclerosis who loves the Lord with all her heart and helps lead the group. Hope Keepers is simple—worship, study, sharing a word the Lord has given, and prayer—and it exists to comfort those who need it. Jim's request: if you enjoy the blessing of physical health, remember in prayer those who don't, who love the Lord just as we do but face challenges they don't complain about—they even glorify God in them.

Closing

This is different than a normal Sunday morning, but we wanted to share at the middle of the year some of what has happened and what is coming, so you'd know how you might be involved in what the Lord is doing. God has called every one of us to serve Him. If you don't feel equipped, we want to equip you. Please keep these things in prayer.

Closing Prayer

Father, we thank You that we take our cue from You. Lord, we look to You and pray for Your wisdom and Your direction. We ask that You would be the one who leads us daily. I pray for my brothers and sisters here as we prepare to go into our mission field, into this world that You called us to. Lord, help us to shine brightly as lights. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen.