Trevor's Spanish vocabulary, to my knowledge, extends basically
to one word, guacamole.
Which, if you happen to know Trevor, he
has a particular obsession with it.
But he has told me he's pledged to
actually be fluent in all things Spanish by
the opening service on October 18th.
And I do hope you have a priest
who doesn't lie to you.
Let's pray.
Father in heaven, we're now here seeking the
power of the Holy Spirit.
We can do nothing without Him.
Nothing without Jesus and His resurrection power.
Lord, the peril is out there.
There are wolves among the sheep.
And we ask now, Lord, that You would
come near to us as You have promised.
Come near by the Word of God.
Come near by the Holy Spirit.
Come near by Your Holy Church.
Come near to Bonnie.
Come near to Trevor.
Come near to City of Light.
Come near to Rez.
We ask all this in Jesus' name.
Amen.
You may be seated.
Several months ago, you all sent me, and
actually the diocese sent me and Madeline and
you all sent Pastor Matt Woodley on a
mission trip to Cambodia where another man, Gregory,
was ordained here as priest and then sent
out a little bit farther than Aurora to
Phnom Penh in Cambodia.
And when we were there, we had an
afternoon where we were able to actually go
and visit the royal palace.
Cambodia is a monarchy, a monarchy system.
It still has a living royalty member that
is the head of state, although the prime
minister runs the country.
The palace is very hard to get into,
but we happened to hit just the day
at just the time when we could get
in.
It's an unbelievable and majestic structure, a kind
of stunning Buddhist Far Eastern architecture.
We walked into the gates and immediately you
are absolutely clear that you are somewhere utterly
unlike our beloved Wheaton, Illinois.
My daughter, because it was 105 degrees, was
wearing a modest but sleeveless dress.
And immediately, as we walked to the grounds
of the palace, an official came up to
her and said very politely, you cannot wear
that in the palace.
You have to buy a t-shirt.
So of course we did and she covered
her arms because it's understood that this is
a place where the king resides.
He doesn't even reside there any longer, but
this is a place that captures and symbolizes
the kingdom of Cambodia.
And when the king and the palace and
the royalty realities are near, it changes how
you think, it changes how you act, it
changes even what it is that you might
wear in this case out of honor, out
of a sense that there is a nearness
to the kingdom and the king in Cambodia.
And this morning when the kingdom of God
is described for us, when Jesus begins to
launch and vision for the first time ever
the idea of a kingdom of God, not
a kingdom of this earth, not a kingdom
of this world, but a kingdom of God,
He describes it as that which has come
near to us.
I'm preaching trifocal this morning.
I'm preaching to Trev and Bonnie, I'm preaching
to the City of Light launch team here,
and I'm preaching to all of you gathered
this morning.
We're going one, two, three.
So I'm saying it to them, I'm saying
it to you guys, and I'm saying it
to all of us.
That to be a Christian is to be
a man or a woman of nearness.
To be one who lives near to the
kingdom of God is to come near to
you.
Near to the Word of God.
Near to the Holy Spirit.
Near to the heart of Jesus Christ.
You want to understand the kingdom of God?
Don't think about it remotely.
Don't think about it in a detached way.
I understand that it has come near, right
up against us, in the person and the
flesh and blood of Jesus Christ, which is
now being ministered and given to the world
through the church.
The flesh and blood, the body of Christ.
The church, Holy Communion, right now, right here.
So to be a Christian is to be
a man or a woman of nearness.
And to be a priest is to be
called to be a man of nearness.
You're pushing up near to the kingdom of
God, Trevor, as the kingdom of God pushes
up near to you.
You're putting it in the hands of the
people of God who are called to do
the work of God.
All they need in the Holy Spirit.
All they need from the Bible.
All they need in understanding our culture today.
The culture of Aurora and bringing the gospel
into that culture.
So you're coming near to Aurora, amen?
We're coming near to Wheaton, amen?
The kingdom of God is now near to
you, so we press up nearer.
The kingdom of God is pressed up nearer
to us, and we live lives of nearness.
Now, Jesus is giving a sending sermon.
It's a remarkable piece of preaching here in
Luke 10.
Go there in your bulletin with me if
you would.
It's a sending sermon.
He's sending out 72.
We literally almost have that number approximately of
men, women, youth, and children on the Aurora
launch team.
It's kind of wonderful that way.
And it's actually fascinating in church planting how
that tends to be a key number to
help get things moving and inaugurate new works
depending on the model that you're using.
And Jesus in his teaching on mission, his
teaching on the kingdom of God, talks about
nearness in two ways.
When you come near to the kingdom of
God, you actually come near to peril.
When you come near to the kingdom of
God, you come near to peril.
There are wolves, and they desire to devour
the sheep.
And you come near to power.
The power to heal.
The power to take that which has been
rent asunder, that which has been torn, that
which has been broken, that which has been
obliterated seemingly, and trust in the God who
takes nothing and makes it something.
Who takes that which has been fractured and
divided and irreconciled and heals it.
You're near to peril.
You're near to healing.
Jesus says very clearly, right in the beginning
of his sermon, go your way.
Behold.
Behold this.
Listen closely to me right now.
Hear me, 72.
I'm sending you out as lambs in the
midst of wolves.
When the Civil War began, the citizens of
Washington, D.C. actually found it a bit
of a curiosity.
It wasn't known what kind of a long,
horrific war was ahead of them.
And they would actually, because they were close
to the fronts there in Virginia, would actually
pack up picnic lunches on Sunday afternoons to
go out and watch the battle from afar.
This was a pleasant undertaking until someone in
that picnic discovered that their brother had been
killed on that field that day.
Or until one time when the Confederates broke
the Union ranks and began to rush toward
the very hill that they were all parasol
and picnic basketing.
And they fled in terror, realizing that they
were far closer to peril than they ever
imagined.
Man, I feel like so many of us
are that way.
With the peril that's there, the spiritual warfare
that exists, that's going on.
We might have heard about it.
We might even have some interest or curiosity
in it.
But we're setting up picnics.
And there is this high-stake, life-and
-death battle going on that Jesus talks about
as the fact that there is a wolf.
He's also described as the enemy.
He's described as the devil.
He's described as Satan.
And he drives the steel to kill and
destroy.
He is on battle.
He is on point.
And he has a very specific purpose.
He wants to take people who are far
from God and push them farther from God.
He wants to take marriages that are struggling
and divide them and break them up.
He wants to take communities that are apportioned
by ethnic difference and language and divide them
further.
He wants to take artists and confuse them
so their art can't be used.
He wants to take businessmen and businesswomen and
make them think that their work doesn't matter
at all for the kingdom of God and
put them over in a corner.
He wants to confuse scientists.
He wants to confuse people who are about
doing the arts and the crafts and all
kinds of critical work.
There's an absolute battle.
We're pressed up right near the front.
We're pressed up against the walls.
So it's important that you understand the calling
of nearness.
To understand there's a nearness to peril.
Can I say two things at one time?
It's really joyful to do this work, isn't
it?
And it's a joy that we have as
Christians on mission.
If you're not there, you can't even imagine
it.
But can I also say this at the
exact same time?
This work is really hard.
This battle is really hard.
And I deal with more disappointment in my
ministry than I do victory.
I see folks that are coming so close
to the kingdom of God and then something
lures them away and they walk away.
I operate half the time in some kind
of a fog in my own head.
A sense of kind of obscure pressure that
never seems to go away.
We're near to peril.
Because we're about freeing captives.
Healing the broken.
Leading the blind to sight.
And it matters so much.
And the kingdom of God has come so
near that there's one who seeks to thwart
that.
That's how Jesus starts out His sending message.
Trevor and Bonnie, you'll be fine in the
peril if you stay close to the Word
of God.
What else can I give you but this?
This is your way through.
This is your lamp to your path when
the fog rolls in and it's dark and
it feels like dawn's never going to break.
Go here again and again and again and
again.
The Word will not disappoint you.
And then go to your laborers.
Go to your co-workers.
Stay close to the Word and stay close
to the laborers.
Stay close to the people of God who
are doing the work with you.
Jesus says, before He says that there are
wolves among the lambs, He says, but laborers
are being raised up.
As a pastor, we find our strength among
our brothers and sisters that we're working with.
So stay deeply connected and stay connected to
Him.
You're never going to know how much He
needs you.
He's not going to be able to find
a way to say it and He'll forget
to say it.
And we're embarrassed to say how much we
need help.
It just happens.
Stay close to Him.
Stay close to Bonnie.
Your support, your prayers, your email of encouragement,
the Scripture came to you and you send
it on.
Bond together so you can bond with the
work in Aurora and serve those who are
harassed and helpless.
But near to peril is not the last
word Jesus gives.
Amen?
He gives the word that we're near to
the power of God.
When Jesus says healing, He's saying power.
When Jesus' ministry is described, He's described as
preaching, He's described as teaching, He's described as
healing.
Healing is not some niche concern of Christians.
Healing is the work of the Kingdom of
God come near.
The salvation of a soul is a healing.
The enlightenment of a new way of understanding
God is a healing.
The healing of a broken bone miraculously is
a healing.
The freedom from a pattern of thought that
is obsessive or compulsive or stuck in a
temptation of sin constantly, the freedom that happens
there is a healing.
The release of an unclean spirit from a
heart or a mind is a healing.
The work of healing is the Kingdom of
God come near.
You are empowered with that.
May you be laying hands on people throughout
City of Light and way beyond in Aurora
and beyond, trusting in the healing power of
God.
May you be ready in season and out
of season to give a reason for the
hope that is within you.
Do not be surprised in these next intensive
months as you all launch that there'll be
peril, but there'll be more power.
Be ready.
Moments that you thought were simply a mundane
moment may become a moment where you're called
to pray for somebody for the healing of
their heart, mind, or body.
Try focaling.
Rest.
Be ready.
I once had a tour of Washington, D
.C. It's a Washington, D.C. sermon.
And we actually ended up through kind of
these hallways somewhat accidentally in the office of
the whip of the majority at that time.
That's the third-ranking leader of Congress.
And we walked into these offices and the
ceilings were 24 feet high.
There were columns in the office itself.
The whip happened to be there and he
was actually at that point leaning against his
desk like this.
And there were three people on one side
and two people on the other just waiting
for whatever needed to happen.
We walked in and he was very warm.
He greeted us.
And everything about that setup in that moment
said power.
But it said remote power.
It said distance power.
It said I have a power that you
do not have.
That's not the power of the kingdom of
God.
It's the power that you give away.
I began to realize that Trevor and Bonnie
were suited for the ministry of the gospel
in a very specific circumstance that occurred in
our work life together several years ago.
I want you to know the kind of
priest and priest's wife, worship pastor that's being
set apart.
We were in a budget planning time at
Rez and Trevor was working part-time at
that point and we had every hope to
bring him on full-time.
We wanted to get his gifts and his
exercise and his talents and full-time work.
And we felt that was really an important
next step.
They were putting things together with one child
and income challenges.
And we just hoped to put this all
together.
And the last moment, the kind of last
iteration of the budget, it was just an
impossibility.
We just couldn't put the numbers together.
We couldn't get the health insurance as part
of a full-time benefit.
We couldn't get the salary.
We just couldn't do it.
And I was heartbroken for myself because I
wanted Trevor full-time on the team.
I was heartbroken for them.
It's a really hard conversation.
I had to sit down with Trevor and
say we thought we could put it together,
Trevor.
I'm sorry.
We can't.
We can't make this happen.
I said, if you need to leave, I
totally understand.
You need to provide for your family.
You need health insurance.
I totally get it.
It must take 24 hours to come back
and just tell me what you and Bonnie
are comfortable with.
And Trevor came back 24 hours later and
he said, it doesn't matter to us.
It doesn't matter to us.
We know we're called the minister of the
kingdom of God.
We know we're called the minister of the
kingdom of God no matter what risk we're
taking.
We're able to secure some level of health
insurance.
We'll take that risk.
We'll take the risk of the fact that
we're working part-time.
We're trying to raise a family.
So we just want to do the ministry
of Jesus.
See, that kind of behavior, that kingdom of
God come near behavior.
That's when you understand that there is a
peril and there is a battle, but there
is a greater power.
So I charge you, Trevor and Bonnie, minister
the power of Jesus' resurrection.
We're sending you from the resurrection to take
the resurrection of Jesus Christ into your new
family, into your new community in Aurora.
Praise the Lord.
In the name of the Father and the
Son and the Holy Spirit.
Amen.