Scripture referenced 6 passages
The passage this message was preached from, in full, with every other passage it reached for.
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Isaiah 43:19 God saying He will do something new, already happening, making rivers in the desert, used to introduce the concept of God doing new things and speaking to those who listen
19 Behold, I will do a new thing. It springs out now. Don’t you know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.
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Keep this verse
John 1:1-3
In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God and was God, all things made by Him
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2 The same was in the beginning with God.
3 All things were made through him. Without him was not anything made that has been made.
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John 1:14
The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, used to anchor the incarnational ministry theme
14 The Word became flesh, and lived among us. We saw his glory, such glory as of the one and only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth.
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1 Corinthians 11:13-16
Whether it is proper for a woman to pray with head uncovered, and whether long hair is disgraceful for men, used to illustrate how missionaries imposed cultural standards on native people
13 Judge for yourselves. Is it appropriate that a woman pray to God unveiled?
14 Doesn’t even nature itself teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a dishonor to him?
15 But if a woman has long hair, it is a glory to her, for her hair is given to her for a covering.
16 But if any man seems to be contentious, we have no such custom, neither do God’s assemblies.
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John 14:5-11
Thomas asking how they can know the way, Jesus answering I am the way the truth and the life, Philip asking to show them the Father, Jesus saying if you have seen me you have seen the Father, used as the central text for incarnational ministry
5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going. How can we know the way?”
6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father, except through me.
7 If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on, you know him, and have seen him.”
8 Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us.”
9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you such a long time, and do you not know me, Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father. How do you say, ‘Show us the Father?’
10 Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? The words that I tell you, I speak not from myself; but the Father who lives in me does his works.
11 Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me; or else believe me for the very works’ sake.
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Colossians 2:20-23
If you have died with Christ to the world's ways why let others tell you how to live, rules about don't handle taste or touch, self-imposed worship having no value for holding back corrupt desires
20 If you died with Christ from the elements of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to ordinances,
21 “Don’t handle, nor taste, nor touch”
22 (all of which perish with use), according to the precepts and doctrines of men?
23 Which things indeed appear like wisdom in self-imposed worship, and humility, and severity to the body; but aren’t of any value against the indulgence of the flesh.
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Recap
The message in order, in a few minutes of reading.
Dwayne Bristow, a missionary with the Navajo Brethren in Christ Mission in New Mexico, brought the morning message. Drawing on seventeen years of living and working among the Navajo people, he asked whether the way Christians carry the gospel to others is truly incarnational or whether it quietly becomes something else: the imposition of one culture's habits onto another. The whole message turned on a single question he put to himself and to the congregation.
What was said
Dwayne opened by describing how moving onto the reservation changed his relationship with time. The Navajo are event-oriented, not clock-oriented, and learning to live that way loosened something in him. He said he had begun to think of the rest of us as "slaves to time," and that realization became the doorway into the morning's real subject.
He read Isaiah 43:19, noting the unusual tension in just the first two lines: "I'm going to do something new. It's already happening." Future and present at the same time. He said God is always doing new things that people fail to notice because they are too busy, and that when God wants to do something new He speaks to whoever is listening and tells them to get out of the box.
From there he asked the congregation to imagine the moment in eternity when the Father turned to the Son and said, in effect, it is time to leave your comfort zone. He used John 1:1-14, reading it in the God's Word version, to press on the phrase "the Word became human and lived among us." He kept returning to that sentence: Jesus left His own culture, took on ours completely, spoke the language, wore the clothes, and moved into the neighborhood.
He then talked honestly about the damage done by five centuries of missionary work that got this backwards. He read from 1 Corinthians 11, the passage about hair length and head coverings, and said that too often the message carried to native people was: cut your hair, put down the drums, stop using the feathers. In other words, stop being Navajo before you can become a Christian. He pointed out that Paul himself, in verse 16 of that same chapter, says the churches have no such custom, yet the church made it one anyway.
He set that against what Jesus actually did. When Thomas asked how the disciples could know the way, Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life." When Philip asked Jesus to show them the Father, Jesus answered, "Have I been with you this long and you haven't seen the Father? If you've seen me, you've seen the Father." Dwayne called that the definition of incarnational ministry: revealing the Father through presence and action rather than demanding conformity.
He drew the contrast with a word he called "impositional." He read Colossians 2:20-23, which warns against letting others dictate rules about what to handle, taste, or touch, and says those rules have no value for holding back the corrupt nature. The only thing that can do that, he said, is allowing the incarnate Word of God to have control.
He closed by putting the question plainly to everyone in the room: if someone asks you to show them the Father, can you say without hesitation, "If you've seen me, you've seen the Father"? If you can, your message is incarnational. That, he said, is what it should be.
Doing a Bible study?
Here is a guide we have prepared for you: the passages in order, questions for the group, and room to write.
- Dwayne described how he had to adjust from being 'on time, on time' oriented to being event oriented when he moved to the Navajo reservation. Where in your own life has a comfort zone or a habit turned out to be less important than you thought, and what did that cost you to let go of?
- Dwayne said that God spoke in Isaiah 43 that He was going to do something new, and then added 'it's already happening,' and asked 'don't you recognize it?' Where do you think God might be doing something new right now that people around you are not recognizing?
and 3 more questions in the guide
Read the full transcript 8,754 words
0:00
Matter is gonna be this year but if you would stand and we'll gather em in. We'll sing them in, bring them in from the vestibule out there. If you'll stand and sing the first hymn is holy, holy, holy. Hymn number three.
0:19
Holy, holy, holy, Lord God almighty early in the morning our song shall rise to thee holy holy holy merciful and mighty God in three persons blessed trinity holy holy holy all the saints adore thee casting down their golden crowns around the glassy sea cherubim and cherubim falling down before the which word and heart and evermore shall be holy holy holy though the darkness hide thee, though the eye of sinful man, thy glory may not see. Only thou art holy there is none beside thee perfect in power in love and purity holy holy holy Lord God almighty all thy works shall praise thy name in earth and sky and sea holy holy holy merciful, and mighty, God in three persons, blessed
2:35
Amen. Do y'all know this one? The love of God, hymn number 157. If you want to find your part, I think it's a beautiful, beautiful hymn, the love of God.
2:51
The love of God is greater far than tongue or pin can ever tell it goes beyond the highest star and reaches to the lowest hell the guilty pair bowed down with care God gave his son to win his herring child he reconcile and pardon from his sin oh love of God how rich and pure how measureless and strong it shall forevermore endure the saints and angels on when years of time shall pass away and earthly thrones and kingdoms fall when men who hear refuse to pray on rocks and hills and mountains call God's love so sure shall still endure all measureless and strong in redeeming grace to Adam's race the saints and angels song oh love of God how rich and pure how measureless and strong it shall forevermore endure the saints and angels song could we within the ocean fill and were the skies of parchment made were every stalk on earth a quill and every man a scribe by trade to write the love of God above would drain the ocean dry nor could the scroll contain the whole gold stretch from sky to sky oh love of God how rich and pure how measureless and strong it shall forevermore endure the saints and angels song amen.
5:40
Y'all can have a seat. I've got a few announcements this morning. One of em, I don't know if y'all know this guy, Mike Neal, Conway, Twitty. He goes by around town, Conway. This morning, he comes here and he sits in the first service in this chair and he's been doing that since I've been here ever since I started coming here six years ago to this church.
6:01
He sits right there every Sunday morning. He gets here about forty five minutes early and he loves Jesus and he calls me twice a day every day to tell me he loves me. Yep. He's one of the most encouraging people that I know and he's asked me to go to the playhouse over and over and they they finished up last Saturday night but that's him and he asked me if I put that picture up and so I did. There it is.
6:26
Sweet, sweet guy. So, Awana happens on Monday nights. It happens at 06:00 right here in this room. We gather and then they spread out all over most of the church and we talk to the kids about scripture and they memorize scripture and it gets from their heads into their hearts and praise God for Awana and for all the volunteers. It's a great great ministry of this church and it has been for a long long time.
6:48
It's I don't know exactly how long but a long time. For our student ministry, middle school, and high school, middle school youth group meets Thursdays at 06:30 and it's kind of like that. They meet in the fellowship hall and then they spread out all over this church at 06:30, Thursday evenings. There's a high school breakfast which is pretty much contained for to the fellowship hall for the most part. High schoolers come in and eat breakfast with Renzy 07:45 on Friday mornings.
7:13
If you know any high schoolers, send them this way. It's a blessing before the weekend. The the guys study and the girls study happens on Sunday morning during the nine during the 09:30 to 10:30, the guys meet in Rinsey's office. That's eighth to twelfth grade. We did not have a girl study today.
7:31
That typically meets at 10:00 in between services. Peak Children's Church happens every Sunday during the 09:00 service and Monday nights at First B is on and going strong. Carl is preaching from the book of Luke and he's up to Luke five. So, 06:00, Monday evenings down in the Fellowship Hall. I think we have one announcement from Nancy.
7:55
Would you come up? You can take this mic. The red one and she's going to talk about the ladies retreat that's coming up. Hi,
8:03
guys. I'm Nancy Baxter and I was wondering today, gotta put my glasses on, if you ever think about heaven. Do you ever wonder about heaven? What are your thoughts, normal thoughts about heaven? Sometimes we think about clouds and harps and boring.
8:28
It's kind of the message that's out there in our world and it comes straight from Satan. What about death? Do you know what's gonna happen to you when you die? Do you fear death? We you know, a lot of people when they have these questions, what they do is they run down to the bookstore to buy a book.
8:51
Or we have to go to Amazon to buy a book. And to find out more about heaven, they wanna hear a witness from heaven. And I just want you to know that at the women's retreat in a couple of weeks, we are going to talk about heaven and we are gonna get our information from the true witness, Jesus Christ, who has lived there. And we're going to look at the truth of heaven from God's word. And I think I can almost 100% guarantee that it will change your life in this lifetime and forever by knowing these truths.
9:34
So, we want everyone to come. It's going to be a time, and I love these times, when you can just leave the world behind for a while. And we'll have fun, we'll have fellowship, there'll be probably chocolate, and and all those things. But the main thing is worshiping the Lord together, our God and our savior. Back in the back corner, there's a place to get papers to sign up for the retreat.
10:09
You can come for the whole thing or you can come for just Saturday. But we would love to see lots of women come and enjoy this time together.
10:21
Thank you. Thank you very much. And oh, I'm supposed to check my text. That's literal. This morning, somebody missed the bulletin, the wire on getting things in the bulletin.
10:35
So, this this is from Karen Geek. Y'all know Karen Geek, Steven Karen. So, Karen says, we've had a missionary last week come. We have, we're having missionaries today and we're having some mission missionaries come in next week and it's Peter and Anna Lukaccio from Romania and Karen says, if there is anyone who is curious about Peter and Anna and what they do with Rim Ministries and they've been on or they want to be on, they have been on, or they want to be on a mission to Romania or they might want to go or they just want to hear about it or if they want to check and see if there's any dust under my couches, please bring a potluck dish next Friday at six in the evening. That's from Karen Geek.
11:12
They live down in Alpine. If you want to know or you want to go down there, let me know and I'll get you all the address and directions and I think that's all of the announcements. If you check your bulletin, I'm sure that there's something else in there but hang, take it home with you, check that, and see what else is going on. Would you mind standing up and greet one another warmly and we'll bring you back together with a song. In
11:36
moments like these I sing out a song I sing out a love song to Jesus in moments like these I lift up my hands I lift up my hands to the Lord singing I love you lord singing Sing that again if you would. Moments like these, I sing out a song, I sing out a love song to Jesus in moments like these I lift up my hands I lift up my hands to the Lord singing I love you lord singing I love you lord singing I love you Amen.
13:17
We got a couple of courses in a row this Sunday. Father God, hymn number 141 and we'll sing this one twice too. It's pretty short.
13:32
Father God give all thanks and praise to thee father God my hands I humbly raise to thee for thy mighty power and love amaze me amaze me and I stand in awe and worship father Sing it again. Father God, I give all thanks and praise to thee father God my hands I humbly raise to thee for thy mighty power and love amaze me amaze me and I stand in awe and worship father
14:45
Amen. Y'all can have a seat. Renzi, you can take the S's off of amazes. It adds a syllable in there every time we do that. Thank you.
14:57
No no help. I sat in the back during the first service at that and you get the glares like y'all wouldn't believe. You're sitting back there. You're the man in charge. My goodness.
15:06
Not really. So, we have Dwayne and Diane Bristow here with us today and they are missionaries to the Navajo people, Navajo Brethren in Christ Mission and down the desert and he is going to be speaking today and so, I I say this each time we have missionaries come in. Four times a year, we do a double offering. It's not because you didn't put enough in the plate the first time. It's just because we do one for the general fund and we do one for the missionaries.
15:32
So, this one is going to be for the general fund of the church and then the next one will be for Dwayne and Diane's down there with the Navajo Brethren in Christ. They'll tell you more about that in a bit but I just wanted you to know before we pray, that's what you can expect. If you brought just one check and you you can hold on to it and put it in the plate when it passes for them, okay? God, thank you for all that you have given. I thank you that you are continuing to reach into this world, this lost and sinful world.
16:04
Lord, the perverse generation, I think. I've I've been hearing. I thank you that you continue to do your ministry and you do it through your willing, obedient servants, lord. Incarnational ministry. God, I thank you for what you've done in the lives of those who have assembled in your name this morning.
16:24
Lord, lord, for those who put their faith, their trust in you. They believe you. God, I thank you that you saved them and I also thank you that we have the opportunity lord to give back some of what you've given to us. The financial resources that you've given lord. We give back a portion so that what has saved us will go forward that this good gospel that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, anointed, and only one that there's no other name given under heaven whereby we can be saved.
16:57
So, lord, would you take your gospel forward? Use these tithes and offerings to take it to the ends of the earth. In Jesus name, we ask you to bless and multiply these gifts. Amen. Not
17:11
to be outdone on announcements. Yeah. Thank you so much, Judy. As Diane is going to be describing to you, the Christmas love gift offering, we were a little late in getting the announcement in the bulletin and so if you haven't had chance to get anything for the love gift, you still have time if you can get it in by tomorrow evening. So that's enough of that.
17:42
We're so happy to have Duane and Diane with us. We got to know them about the time that they were appointed directors of the Brethren in Christ Navajo Mission. And it's been just so wonderful to see. Now they took the mission, was just on the verge of folding, and transformed it truly into a beacon of light for the Navajo people in their area. So here they are, Dwayne and Diane Bristow.
18:18
Thank you, Al. We have anticipated with a lot of excitement being with you guys. Man, it's been four years. It seemed like time goes by awfully quickly lately but we have just been looking forward to being out here. The country is just beautiful.
18:33
It's always that. We enjoy coming up to this area. We get to go up to Yellowstone with our own personal tour guides and that sort of thing. That's always a special thing. I'm going to show you a seven minute film in in in in just a minute.
18:47
It it will give you a brief overview of the things that go into mission. I think most of you are probably pretty much aware of the things that we do there. There are some changes in making and and I think they're very good changes. I'll share a little bit of that with you in a few minutes but I won't be able to share this with you. You can kind of see in a really brief display some of the things that are taking place at the mission and so if you would go ahead and start that video, then, we'll get started with the rest and I'll come and take some more of your time out in just a minute.
25:34
That's a brief overview of all of the things that take place out there. Of course, there's a whole lot more that goes on that you don't see behind the scenes but nonetheless, there are mission teams that come out that do work projects and do VBS or day camps. You saw some things of the the Nagione Academy. So many different things there that take place during that time. We depend heavily on the mission teams that come out and we're looking forward to seeing First Baptist Jackson out there pretty soon, pretty quickly.
26:04
It's been a while since you've been out but when Diane and I actually took the mission in 2003, it was just she and I and that was it and we knew pretty quickly, we're going to need a lot of help here. We've got 300 acres, 14 buildings including a gymnasium and a laundromat and public showers, public water because there are a lot of people out there that don't have running water or electricity and so they depend on the mission to come do their laundry, take their showers, and and things like that and so there's always a lot of work that needs to be done, a lot of upkeep upkeep that needs to be taken care of. So, we really look forward to that. Four years ago, when we were here, Diane, I believe, was still using a cane and for those of you that don't know in 2009, she became paralyzed from the neck down, stayed in the hospital for seven months. Thanks to the so many prayers of people literally all over the world.
26:59
You guys included. We got through that. She came out of the hospital in a wheelchair. Graduated from that to braces on her legs and a walker and from the last time you saw her in a cane and and come on up here dear. And now, just gets better all the time.
27:19
Thank you so much for your prayers. We really appreciate that. She's gonna share a little bit with you about the Christmas love gifts which is right on top of us and thank you so much for your involvement in that. We really appreciate it. Thank
27:34
you again for my heart for the prayers that you that you prayed for Dwayne and I, for the mission, for the ministry, and God bless those prayers and the mission stayed open and the ministry continued. I'm still there. Took me two years to get back in the office but I'm still there. So thank you again. It really touched our hearts and it also touched the hearts of people in our community as they saw the healing power and the love that God's grace has for each and every one of us.
28:04
Our ministry is relational. I always say that word wrong. It is relational. We like to build relationships with our community, with our Navajo friends, and our neighbors. They're like brothers and sisters to us and one of the ways we do that during the holidays is through the Christmas love gifts.
28:24
We fill Christmas bags, gift bags, the tall kind of broad at the bottom, sturdy ones with items and we go into the boarding school not too far from us and we'll just call it DZ for now. And we take them gifts. And these are children that are from first grade through twelfth grade. They live in the dorm. They come in on Monday.
28:47
They go home on Friday. And a lot of these children when they go home on Friday and they come back on Monday, they still have the same clothes on. They may not have had a shower or had a good meal to eat because of the lack of electricity or warmth in their houses in the winter. So we wanna make their Christmas a little extra special. Oops.
29:13
Well, you said I had to hurry. So so by doing this, we do give them Christmas love gifts. We go into the dorm and all the kids in the dorm get hats and gloves. They get scarves as far as we have scarves, warm socks, toiletries, fun stuff like school supplies. But we also give them, books and toys for the younger ones, coloring book, crayons, art supplies, and the list goes on and on.
29:41
We do this because these are the kids that we see not just at Christmas, but we see these kids all year round. They're the ones that we pick up and bring to Bible school. These are the kids that when the door has opened for us to go into the dorm after school and have like a VBS curriculum. We can take Jesus to the dorm. We can't over evangelize as they put it, but we can take it and we can take in the music and the stories and the art and the games.
30:11
So, these kids, when we have a team that can come out and do that, they see us then. They see us in the summer for Bible school. These are the same kids that come to our mission for showers. They come with their families to get water in huge huge tanks to for their livestock and for their family use. So we really like to interact with all these kids and the staff at the school.
30:35
The Love Gifts also go to a program called FACE, Family and Children Education Services. And these are families from kids with zero to three, mostly single parents, and they have campus based and they have home based programming where they go in and work with the families. So we give to these folks. So from babies up to these toddlers. When I have sizes for clothes and clothes come in, I try to give them clothes a size or two bigger than they are in at that time just to help these families out.
31:09
We give baby clothes and formula and all the stuff that goes with that, but we also give them toys. We also take care of the families in a sense in that when their kids are enrolled in face, the parent can come to the school and take classes by computer through the college in Farmington to get their GED. Once they complete the GED, if they want to continue their education through San Juan College. They go over to the school and they can do their class by computer. So we really want to encourage these parents, especially these single moms, and we remember them at Christmas with the Christmas love gift with things that she can use in her home and some personal items also.
31:57
And while we're still in the community, we like to help out the senior centers with hats and gloves and scarves. We also travel over to Arizona, to Ganada, to a home where elderly people live. They're not quite nursing home, but these are folks that can't live at home alone. So we take them the bags and they are they're so much fun. We've had these little older ladies love their nail polish.
32:21
So we make sure they get nail polish and nice smelling lotions and powder and and things that will make their life a little bit more comfortable there at that home. So we thank you for anything and everything that you do. The least little thing is very important to us and to the people in the community. You're the people that put smiles on faces at Christmas because these are the only gifts that most of our folks get. If you have time after service, stop by the table, pick up some information, or I'll answer questions, and and you can see some of the artwork of the people.
32:56
And again, thank you so much for having us. Got
33:05
all kinds of gadgets up here including mine. It's a different world, isn't it? I'm finding because I have my Bible. In fact, you know, excuse me. Had the other thing on this morning.
33:21
I find that I have like 50 different translations of a Bible on here and I, you know, I like that because when we moved out there, we discovered the people that their first language is not English and so when you throw in a little Elizabethan English, it doesn't doesn't work very well. So, I began to search different versions and try to find ones that spoke well to the people. Just know that's where DZ. Can everybody say DZ? DZ.
33:54
Now, everybody say, snow diddly. Okay. It means mountain that turns. It's right across the way from us. Those of you have been out there who've seen that but she brings that up.
34:06
She's one of the wonderful places we get to see. This morning, I packed in a forty five minute message into fifteen minutes and I'm going to try to do the same thing today. Oh, I've got twenty minutes. Wait a minute. I I got up this morning and realized because I came from standard churches just like just like this and we get up on Sunday mornings.
34:28
We're in hurry to get to church because it gotta be there 10:00. Gotta be there on time. Gotta do everything. Gotta get out right on time. That sort of thing.
34:35
Since we moved out to the reservations, totally different story. Those people are not time oriented. They are event oriented. They're not going to church at 10:00. They're going to church.
34:47
Whenever they get there, it's fine. You know, so we get and we had to get used to that because that was, I'm always that on time, on time kind of guy. So, now, I'm pretty relaxed. I'm not worried about time. If I want to preach fifteen minutes, I can do that.
35:00
If I want to preach forty five minutes or an hour, hour and a half, I can do that. People are just, they're there. They're there for the event. They're not there so that they can hurry up and go home at 12:00. They're just there and this, it's kind of grown on me and I I really enjoy it and I don't usually take a lot of time but I can but but it's I I realized this morning that we become slaves to time.
35:26
I never thought about it until this morning. We actually become slaves to time. I'm going to work on a message this and I think I've even worked on it a little bit more in the past twenty or thirty minutes. I'm going to call it trapped in time because I think that's what we actually get trapped in time but this morning, I'm going to talk to you about something else of a few years back. Now, you you've gotten to see briefly some of the things that have taken place.
35:49
Now, I said, like I said, I think most of you are pretty much familiar with the things that are happening there. We are making doing a little restructuring because we've discovered as Diane mentioned the school, we get our kids in and a lot of our kids came from special ed classes. They didn't take the time to learn how to teach these kids. You have to teach native children differently than you do white children or other children. They think circular, we think linear, whole another story and so these kids would get regulated or They would get put in the special ed class and so, when we got them, we would work with them as though they actually were and we would discover that this is not this is not working.
36:36
It's not a problem and so we, the the AC curriculum works very well and pretty soon we noticed that these kids were coming up to grade level and doing extremely well and graduating and all all of our graduates have gone on to college. Every single one. Now, we're very small school but how many graduates have we had? I think probably about 12 to 15 graduates we've had there and they've all gone on to college which speaks remarkably well of the education they're getting. Plus, they're getting scripture every day.
37:10
They're memorizing scripture. They're being introduced to Christ. They're being one to Christ and that's very important in their lives. So, we're reaching those. Now, as many of you know, we also have a drug and alcohol program on the campus there.
37:25
For men who have succumbed to the ravages of addiction, whether drugs or alcohol or anything like that and we work with them and try to teach them how to to resist the temptation of drugs or alcohol, how to away from relapse and that sort of thing but we notice we're missing something from the time they leave school till the time they wind up in the program. We want to we want to fill in that gap where they leave school. We want to reach them then. We want to stay with them. So, we're putting together more of an educational structure that will reach the entire family from the time they come to school, from the time they leave school, to parenting, to those kinds of things, how to be women of honor, men of integrity, things like that and so we're working toward that now.
38:12
We're beginning to get the space. We're beginning to get the staff to be able to do that. So, we're really excited about that. That's all encapsulated in the newsletter that's out on the table. Please pick it up and read about it.
38:25
We're working on something called Simply the Story. Our people don't read. They can read but they come from a background of oral tradition where they pass things down orally. They didn't have a written language until the 1950s and so, they're just not into the habit of reading. They don't like to read and every Sunday, I'm telling you, you gotta be a student of the word.
38:46
You gotta be a disciple. You gotta get in there and read. You gotta know the word and it's just like, you know, they they didn't didn't didn't sink in. So, I discovered something called Simply the Story and it's Simply the Story. ORG if you want to look it up and we're going to begin to implement that.
39:01
It's it's it uses storytelling but very very interesting. Now, a few years ago, now, we got fifteen minutes. A few years ago, the our bishop called us. We are from a very small denomination called Brethren in Christ, BIC. The natives thought it meant big ice cream for who knows how long because everybody bring ice cream in for the kids and so anyway, we're very small.
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So, we have begun to reach out such as with you guys to so many different denominations and bringing them in and and having them or giving them the opportunity to share their precious time with the people out there of our community and so anyway, the bishop called me up and I talked to Diane about this one day and I said to Diane, I said, bishop Perry Coleman. I said, they're going to have the Midwest Conference here on the Mission Grounds and he's going to do it around this theme of BIC and he said, one pastor is going to preach on the B which is bickers. They call us bickers, BICers. Bickers are are biblical and he said and and and another one is going to do the eye which is incarnational and the third one is going to do the C which is countercultural and I said, he said, since we've been hands on in the the what did
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I
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say? Incarnation. Boy, I didn't take my smart pills this morning. Since we've been hands on in the incarnational area, he said to me, he said, I want you to do something on incarnation of mission. I'm telling Diane this and so Diane says that, that's just wonderful.
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What does that mean? I said, I don't know. I said, biggest word I know is mayonnaise. So, I began to look these things up and find out about something about incarnational ministry. Now, how many of you know that we know things?
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You're not real sure about that, are you? How many of know that sometimes somebody starts talking about something and you say, oh, I know that. You you know what I mean? You just, you knew it but you didn't know you knew it and then somebody mentions it and all of a sudden, you know it. You know what I'm talking about.
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Well, that's kind of the way I was with incarnational ministry. I know it and I know it and and I want to share it with you this morning because I I it's such an important part of our outreach to people because we do it in so many different ways but unless we're incarnational in our ministry, I don't believe we're that effective and I and I want to I want to see if I can bring that to you this morning. It's possible that those of us who find ourselves on frontline ministry. Now, when I say frontline ministry, I mean apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers, five fold ministry, and those who are willing to go out and share their time with other people and and witness about the love of Christ in their lives. So, it's possible that those of us who find ourselves on the front lines may at sometimes in our outreach to other people hear the voice of God speaking to them saying, get out of the box.
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You know what I mean? You have heard that, right? I know that you have heard it here at Jackson First Baptist. I know you've heard it because you are pretty much out of the box. You you, that's why we really enjoy coming here but that's that's that's something that happens.
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He's saying to us, leave our comfort zone. When he says that to us. When he says, get out of the box. He's saying to us, leave our comfort zone. I want to read you a verse out of Isaiah 43 and verse 19.
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He says, I'm going to do something new. It's already happening. I wish I had time to share that just this verse because it it is really an amazing verse. Just that first two two sentences there. I'm going to do, I'm going to, that's future.
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I'm going to do something new. It's already happening. That's present. There's a whole message in there. I don't have time to share with you.
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Then, he says, don't you recognize it all? God's doing a lot of things that people don't recognize. It's just going right by They're sitting there wondering what's happening but God is doing a lot of things that people don't recognize and here he's saying, I'm going to do something new. It's already happening. Don't you recognize it?
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I will clear away in the wilderness and I will make rivers in the desert. Now, that verse became very important to us when we moved out into the desert, out into the wilderness and this it just really became real to us. So, you can be certain that if God decides to do a new thing, he's going to speak to someone who is listening. It's unfortunate sometimes that God speaks and we're not listening because we're so busy doing our day to day activities. He spoke to a couple of religious guys one time because there was this guy laying on the ground and they saw him laying on the ground and they went around him because they were busy doing their religious duties.
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How many of you remember that one? So, sometimes, he he if God is going to speak to us to do something new, he's going to speak to people who are listening and he's going to say to them, get out of your box. Now, we like our boxes, don't we? We really we like the comfort. We like the warmth.
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We like the familiarity of our boxes. We just feel comfortable in our boxes. So, it really is a difficult thing for us to get out of the box but that really is what God wants us to do. So, when he says, get out. We're going, what do you mean?
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Get out of the box. I like it here and we don't really want to do that. Now, I want to hopefully paint you a picture and I want you to go to this scenario with me where God one day in heaven, I I can't imagine. We can imagine heaven, streets of gold, gates of pearl. I think God had to speak to us in terms that we recognize in this Earth because I think it's far beyond streets of gold and gates of pearl but that's about as best as he could do with our small minds but here he is in that glory.
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God the father, God the son, God the Holy Spirit. They're in that that environment and God turns father, the God the father turns to the son and he says, you know that plan that we had from the very beginning? You know, that plan I'm talking about? Jesus, yes, sir. It's time.
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Jesus, it's time for you to get out of your box. It's time for you to leave your comfort zone. Can you imagine that? Now, I think this is this is where we're getting down to the incarnational part and what I want to talk about to you this morning. John chapter one verse one says this, in the beginning, was the word and the word was with God and the word was God.
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The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him. All things were made by the word and without him, the word was not anything made that was made and we skip down to verse 14 and the word was made flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory. The glory as of the only begotten of the father, full of grace and truth. Now, I like that but I want to read it to you out of a version called God's word version right quickly because of what I told you a while ago.
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John one, in the beginning, the word already existed. The word was with God and the word was God. He, the word, was already with God in the beginning. Everything came into existence through him, the word. Not one thing that exist was made without him, the word.
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Now, I'm I'm adding in that phrase, the word because it's important. The word became human and lived among us. I like the way that's put. The word became human and lived among us. We saw his glory.
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It was the glory of the father that the father shares with his only son, a glory full of kindness and truth. The word became human and lived among us. We know him as Jesus, don't we? That word, that living word became human and became to live among us. We see in verse 14 that Jesus, the word, left his comfort zone or his culture.
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Now, that's important thing to remember. This was his culture. We think of Jesus as Jewish, right? And and he was, at least he came to the Jewish culture but really he came from something far greater than that, far more than you and I can understand but we see him as Jewish but he left his culture and came to our culture, left his comfort zone, came to reveal himself as creator of all creation and creator of all mankind. That's what he came to do.
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He also came to reveal the father, didn't he? That's something sometimes we some we want to know who God really is. We need to understand who Jesus is because he came to do that. Now, I I'm emphasizing this this phrase, the word for a reason because we only had before excuse me, we only had the word in written form or spoken form. Jesus brought us the word in human form and and that to me is is just a supernatural act beyond comprehension.
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That God, the creator of the universe, the creator of everything would himself would take on the form of a man and enter this sin stained environment to commune with his creation and and that's the picture I want us to see in our minds. What took place here? The word became human and lived among us. Why? To bring us the good news.
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We know what the good news is, don't we? We know what or at least we we sometimes think we do. The good news is Jesus came to reveal the father, came to die for us, came to reveal the kingdom to us, those kinds of things and so we want to share that good news with other people. Let me share with you some of the good news that we brought to our native people. Now, don't misunderstand me here.
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I'm going to focus on the negative for a few minutes if I can. We brought a lot of positive five hundred years ago when the when the missionaries began coming in, not dying now personally. We're not quite that old yet but nonetheless, missionaries went in with pure heart wanting to reach people for Christ. Unfortunately, all too often their message went something like this and this is out of first Corinthians by the way and it's in first Corinthians chapter 11 verse 13, judge your own situation. Is it proper for a woman to pray to God with her head uncovered?
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Doesn't nature itself teach you that it is disgraceful for a man to have long hair? How many have been thinking about that for a little? Doesn't it teach you that it is a woman's pride to wear her hair long? Her hair is given to her in place of a covering. If anyone but what what wait a minute.
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Let me stop right there because that was kind of a portion of our message, wasn't it? What we tell the native people, you gotta cut your hair off, you gotta quit wearing those clothes, you gotta quit beating on those drums, you gotta quit using those feathers, you gotta quit doing all these things. In other words, you gotta quit being an Indian or native to if you want to become a Christian. So, as we read this, it doesn't even nature itself teaches for disgraceful for men to have long hair and then he goes on in verse 16 and says this, if anyone wants to argue about this, they can't because we don't have any custom like this nor do any of the churches of God but yet we made it a custom, didn't we? We made it a part of our habit to teach people to do this because we read that portion of it and didn't read the rest of it but nonetheless, this or something else similar has been our message.
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We can't do this. We've gotta do that. So, what was Jesus's message? Was it that I have come from a land far far away? Where where we dress in white robes and we stand around God's throne and we sing holy, holy, holy throughout eternity.
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Our musical instruments, our harps, and our songs, our songs, our language is holy. Well, that's pretty true statement. That wasn't his message, was it? No, no. That was pretty much our message.
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Our message was something like this where we come from. We dress like this. No, not like this but you know, you know what I mean. We dress like this. We sing these songs.
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We use these musical instruments and we speak this language and if you want to be a Christian, you must do as we do and so that's really what we kind of taught them. Now, if Jesus had focused on the outward appearance of man which unfortunately, we do that all too often. If Jesus had focused on the outward appearance of man, his his his dress, his hair, or lack of it, his music, his musical instruments, his language, or his skin color. It really would have taken away from the power of his message, wouldn't it? It would have taken away from that very powerful message.
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Instead, he came from his sin free culture to our sin stained culture and even took on all of the cultural aspects. I think we don't think about that much. Remember I talked about him leaving his culture? Coming to this culture and taking on all of the aspects. He spoke their language.
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He wore their clothes. He sang their songs. He enjoyed their musical instruments which by the way, at one time or another in their history were was used to either worship God or worship Baal and so, he took on all of that and so somewhere along the line, I think maybe we missed something or at least I missed something. Didn't he come to impose his culture on the Jewish people or may or maybe on all of mankind. Didn't he come to impose his culture on men?
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I think that maybe something that we kind of did back in the past. Didn't he say here's how we do it? No. John fourteen five. Thomas said to him, Lord, we don't know where you're going.
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So, how can we know the way? And there are people all over the world nowadays asking, what is the way? What are we telling them? Is our message incarnational or and I'll get to that in just a minute. We don't know where you're going.
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So, how can we know the way? Jesus answered him and said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one goes to the father except through me. If you have known me, you will also know my father. From now on, you know him through me and have seen him in me.
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People want to know the father. How are they going to get to see? Jesus not here anymore, remember? He went back. He seated at the right hand of the father right now.
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So, how are people going to get to know this father? Philip said to Jesus, lord, show us the father and that will satisfy us. Couldn't we all say that? God, if we could just see the father, wouldn't that satisfy us? There are people out there everywhere today suffering in life in some form or fashion saying, if I could just see God, if I could just see the father, that would satisfy me.
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Jesus had this tendency, I think, to kind of bear with his disciples because they could ask some questions sometime that just kind of caused him to, you know, and he and he did this here. Lord, when you going to show us the father? What did Jesus say? He rolled back. He's, oh, have I been with you this long?
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And you haven't seen the father? If you've seen me, you've seen the father. That is incarnational ministry. So, how can you say show us the father? Don't you believe that I am in the father and the father is in me?
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What I'm telling you doesn't come from me. The father who lives in me does what he wants. Believe me when I say that I am in the father and the father is in me. Otherwise, believe me because of the things that I do. His message was incarnational.
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I see him as the living word revealing the written word in this sense and then and that's where I come to the point where I have to ask myself and I think we should all ask ourselves, is our message? Is my message incarnational? Or is it impositional? Now, we're going to do it one way or the other. We're either going to reveal the father through our actions or we're going to impose our religious standards on somebody else.
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You understand what I'm saying? You know, what I'm talking about because we often do that. We try to impose our religious standards on other people instead of revealing the father. They're saying, show me the father. Show me the father.
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We're saying, cut your hair. Cut your hair. You know, because we're trying to show, we're trying to impose. So, our message is going to be either incarnational or or impositional and and I look this word up because we all know what impose means, right? It's kind of like everything else but sometimes we need to hear it.
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Impose means to force something unwelcome or unfamiliar to be accepted or put into place. Does this relate with maybe native people? I think probably it does. It also means to take advantage of someone by demanding their attention or commitment. Let me take this just a little bit further with Colossians two verse 20 and this was just an eye opener.
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Colossians two twenty says, if you have died with Christ to the world's way of doing things, why do you let others tell you how to live? It's as though you were still under the world's influence. People will tell you, don't handle this. Don't taste or touch that. All of these things deal with objects that are only used up anyway.
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These things look like wisdom with their self imposed worship, false humility, and harsh treatment of the body but they have no value, no value, no value for holding back the constant desires of your corrupt nature. Folks, the only thing, the only thing that can keep back the constant desires of our corrupt nature is allowing the incarnate word of God to have control of our lives. So, really, after all is said and done and everything is is done and someone asked me to show them the father. Can I say without hesitation, if you've seen me, you've seen the father? If I can do that, if you can do that, then indeed our message is incarnational and that's really is the way it should be.
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Amen? Father, we're grateful today for your word. I thank you father that you have given us this wonderful privilege father of revealing you to the world. Unfortunately, father, we're weak in this flesh and we often fail. Remind us, father.
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You've given us the power through your Holy Spirit to live that holy life that we might reveal your nature, that we might reveal the very essence of the father to those who say to us, show us the father. Thank you for that, lord. Let it be made so real to each one of us, father, that it goes with us every day and I'm asking you now, father, to seal your word up within each of our hearts that it might produce in our lives what you desire it to produce. In Jesus name. Amen.
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Amen. Thank you, Dwayne.
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Thank you, brother. Appreciate it.
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So, I'm going to invite the frontline team to come forward right now. Thank you for what you're doing, what y'all have been doing down there for seventeen years. Yep. So, we're gonna do the last song that we're gonna do is take the name of Jesus with you. We're sitting down as much easier for doing the offering.
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So, y'all sit down, okay? But when the plates pass you, would you stand up and join me and then we'll do a benediction on our way out. So, pray with me. God, I thank you for the work that you're doing through Dwayne and Diane that you're living your life out in front of so many of the Navajo through Dwayne and Diane. I pray that this church would be a blessing to them lord and I pray that they would be a blessing to those people.
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In Jesus name, lord, I ask you to bless these offerings to do your work, your way, right there among that Navajo. Amen.
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Take the name of Jesus with you child of sorrow and of woe it will joy and comfort give you take it then wherever you go precious name oh how sweet hope of earth and joy of heaven precious name oh how sweet hope of earth and joy of heaven take the name of Jesus as a shield from every snare if temptations round you gather breathe that holy name in prayer precious name oh how sweet hope of earth and joy of heaven precious name oh how sweet hope of earth and joy of oh the precious name of Jesus how it thrills our souls with joy when his loving arms receive us and his songs our tongues employ precious name oh how sweet hope of earth and joy of him precious name oh how sweet hope of earth and joy of him nonetheless at the name of Jesus bowing falling prostrate at his feet king of kings in heaven will crown him when our journey is complete precious name oh how sweet hope of earth and joy of heaven precious name oh how sweet hope of earth and joy of Amen.
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Now, may the Lord bless and keep you and make his face to shine upon you. May that face reflect off of you onto others. In Jesus name and for his sake, amen.
Topics
Comfort ZoneIncarnational MinistryMissionary WorkNative American OutreachShowing God To Others
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