From Here to Everywhere

*The sermon series I preached in Panama when we first sensed God’s calling to go! And the same sermon series I got to re-preach at Rockpoint when God confirmed His calling for us to go!*

As we mentioned in our last newsletter, it is hard to imagine that the finish line is quickly approaching for our time on staff with Rockpoint Church. This has been such an incredible place for our family and where we have grown so much over the last nine years! We are so grateful and honored for this to be our sending church, and that this will continue to be our ‘home’ church when we come back for visits.

One of the things that really drew our hearts to Rockpoint nine years ago was their commitment to global missions in being faithful to the Great Commission (Matt. 28:18-20) to go and make disciples among all nations; and to live out the witnesses Jesus calls us to be in our Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, AND to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8).

We now can look back over our whole lives and see how God has been preparing us to go on this mission to Panama (that is a longer conversation we are happy to share anytime!—and have also shared in previous updates). But specifically over the last nine years, God has been doing a work in our hearts as part of the bigger Story He is telling.

We called this series ‘From Here to Everywhere’, and it is Jesus’ plan to change the world through the love of His followers! I first got to preach these messages down in Panama a year-and-a-half ago, during the time when we first sensed God’s calling on our lives to become missionaries!

And then we got to come back to Rockpoint and share the same messages, during our application process with Word of Life, which was confirming God’s calling on our lives to go as a family on this mission. You can find those messages here.

But this wasn’t just then, but over eight years ago when we were in our first year at Rockpoint, and Marcela and I got the opportunity to go on a study tour to Israel with a bunch of youth pastors and their spouses. And it was powerful!!!

It was there that this message got planted in my heart, and it has been growing deep roots and bearing fruit ever since.

In the Gospel of John in the Bible, chapters 13-17, are five chapters that capture one continuous moment of the last night of Jesus’ life on earth with His friends. It’s amazing that we have this in our Bibles!

It starts in the upper room where Jesus has the famous last supper with the disciples. Then there is movement through the streets of Jerusalem as Jesus and the disciples had to go for a walk at night in order to get to the Garden of Gethsemane. And then the beautiful prayer of Jesus in John 17. All this happened the night before He gets arrested and begins His movement towards the cross to provide salvation for those who trust in Him.

These were some of the final words Jesus shared with his friends, the most important things He wanted them to remember. And He reminded them again of His plan to change the world, was through the love of His followers, ‘From Here… to EVERYWHERE!’

And here we are, over 2,000 years later, and on the other side of the planet from these events, and Jesus’ words are still true, and it is still happening!

Why Global missions? Because Jesus is still bringing His Gospel to the ends of the earth through the love of His followers! It’s as we are faithful to being His witnesses within our relational spheres of influences and living out a disciplemaking way of life in Jesus that brings the Gospel to the hearts and lives of those He orchestrates into our lives—in our ‘Jerusalems, Judeas, Samarias, AND to the ends of the earth!’

Our final Sunday and commissioning moment at Rockpoint Reaching will be on June 22nd. If you are able to physically join us for this special Sunday please do! Otherwise, you can find the livestream link at https://rockpoint.church/.

The Long Goodbye